33 Apocalypse Ave, Tuesday Afternoon

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It was October, even if the weather didn't match Tumblr's expectations of the month, and Kathy was getting into the spooky spirit. She'd decorated the living room with some window decals and a small stuffed bat for the cats to play with, there were a chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven and a bowl of ganache cooling on the counter for chocolate monster cookies, and two gallons of apple cider sat in the fridge, waiting to be mulled or spiked with cinnamon-flavored booze.

Now she was sprawled on the couch, playing through her repertoire of songs she'd learned on the guitar, and trying to figure out if she could learn to play Bad Moon Rising before it ceased being relevant. Hmm, maybe she should try to play something off of the Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads instead.

Comments

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"So you looked at me at the picnic and were like, 'She'd be a fun missionary bang'?" Kathy asked, picking up the first cookie. Still a little warm, but it would just help the ganache settle nicely.

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"No, but you were running around in a bathing suit at the time," Dante reminded her.

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"And then the next time--what, I was pinning you to your bed while you told me that you liked it rough?" Kathy asked with a small smile. "I don't think you had a moment of ever not knowing better."

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"True, but I inspire people," Dante said, cheerfully striking another dark chord.

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"I was thinking 'instigate' myself, but po-tay-to, po-tah-to, I guess," Kathy said. "Now teach me some NIN while I make adorable monster cookies, you."

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"Fine, fine," Dante said, snickering, shifting the acoustic into a song more suited for it - 'Hurt'.

Maybe with a little of the instrumentals from Something I Could Never Have worked in.

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"This is a good song," Kathy said, singing along a bit. "Though I'll lean into my nerd cred and say I love the Cash version more. This one is good but his is just...stripped down and raw."

It had been on fairly heavy rotation in her music lists not all that long ago.

"Try to kill it all away but I remember everything..."

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"Cash is old guy full of regrets," Dante said, trying a few chords from that version.

Switched back to the old one soon enough. "Trent's colder. Younger. Hasn't decided quite yet."

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"Decided...?" Kathy asked, placing a row of marshmallow teeth on the ganache between the top and bottom cookies. Though her attention was clearly on the task at hand, she still sounded interested by what he was saying.

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"What way he's gonna go, I guess?" Dante said. "When you're old, you've pretty much zeroed in on what you're unhappy about. When you're young, you just know everything's shit."

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"Some people don't even get that far," Kathy said, thinking of her dad and his constant dissatisfaction with life, unless it all conformed perfectly to his requirements. "I always thought Trent was more--railing at it, you know? Angry. He's hurting and it's not fucking fair. Cash was just...resigned. It hurts because that's what it is."

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"Don't think he's railing at it," Dante said, after a pause. "Frustrated, yeah. But he's not screaming it in anybody's face."

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Kathy nodded. "Oh, definitely not yelling!" she said with a laugh. "Maybe more balking? He's just not as accepting of it in the same way Cash is. It's more...personal."

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"Like I said, Cash is old," Dante said. "Easy to accept shit if your story's ending anyway."

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"And I think that's why I liked Cash's version better, back when I was listening to it a lot," Kathy said. "Trent's felt too real."

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"I like real," Dante said, picking his way through the delicate clusters of notes that made up the louder portion of Reznor's take. "No point in getting all wrapped up in regret when you still have time."

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Kathy's smile was self-conscious. "Harder to remember it when you're drowning in 'em," she said lightly, adding a bit of ganache to the top cookie to anchor the candy googly-eyes she'd gotten from the store. "Though I don't think you bothered much with regret even back when you thought you didn't have much time remaining."

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"Funny thing about being young and thinking you can die anytime," Dante said. "You stop sweating things so much."

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Kathy dropped the finished monster cookie in front of him and then moved back to start working on a second one. "I'll take 'Life lessons I never learned' for 100, Dante," she snarked.

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"Okay, fine, but you could sweat a bake sale run by puppies."

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"I just wanna make sure they're not being exploited!" Kathy protested, laughing. "And what if they burned their tiny paws? And did anyone check to make sure everything was up to code?"

She was going to have to share this ridiculous image with Anders. They'd both get a good laugh out of it.

She could protest that she was trying, but hey. He knew that.

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Dante snickered. "Just go grab your guitar already, smartass."

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"I'm making cookies!" Kathy reminded, but she'd already set aside the ganache and was pushing away from the table. A second later, she was back, guitar in hand and getting into a comfortable position to play. "I am here, O Wise Teacher."

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"Yeah, you were real busy just now," Dante said, smirking at her merrily. "So let's do the intro bit to Hurt."

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"Well, you can hand over your monster cookie and I'll eat it," she mock-grumbled, her hands copying Dante's on the strings.