33 Apocalypse Ave, Tuesday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

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

[rebelseekspizza]

"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."

[rebelseekspizza]

"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.

[rebelseekspizza]

"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.

[rebelseekspizza]

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."

[rebelseekspizza]

"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.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nope, not how this works," Dante said. "Now stop bitching already."

He plucked a few strings in sequence.

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She followed suit, more slowly but she got them all correct. "Did I ever ask you how you learned guitar?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Starsmore taught me," Dante said, after a long pause.

His fingers repeated the string of notes again.

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Kathy was confused by the pause, but repeated the notes, this time playing them a little faster. "You must've really wanted to learn," she said.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Didn't, really, at first," Dante said, fingers sliding over the strings. "But he convinced me."

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"Was it him?" Kathy teased. "Or that sweet red and black electric guitar you're playing?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged one shoulder vaguely. "Eh," he said, and struck a chord in line with the more rhythmic part of the song.

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Kathy waited a moment to see if he was going to say anything more--or, at all--and when he didn't, just followed his lead on the guitar.

[rebelseekspizza]

It had been a weird time in his life, with conflicting ideas. Dante wasn't going to blackball her on purpose, but she'd given him an organic out out of thinking about it too much.

"One point for the Cash version," he said, "Way more guitar."

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He hadn't even given her enough to be able to tell if he was dancing around the topic or if he just thought it was boring. So she shrugged and let the change of conversation come as it would.

"And it sounds less weird on acoustic," she said with an amused snort.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Because he put a few more chords in it," Dante said sagely. "Shortcut."

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Kathy couldn't help giving him an admiring smile. Hell, she didn't even realize she was doing it. "You've learned a lot about music," she said.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I work at a music shop," Dante said. "And I dig music. Seemed to make sense at the time, figuring it out."

He wasn't sure what to make of that smile.