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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"Will I not get my Babymetal merit badge if I don't?" Kathy asked, dimples quite prominent.

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"Don't be a dick."

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"Okay okay, sorry," she said, holding up her hands in surrender. "I'm sorry I made fun of their names."

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"Good, you should be," Dante sighed. "'Cause you're the girl like, coughing up Spencer's Best Country Hits now."

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"Hey now, it's classic and southern rock right now," Kathy protested. "A girl's gotta have some standards."

...She and Eliot totally listened to country together. He'd even brought her back some autographed pictures from the CMAs once. But what Dante didn't know wouldn't get her made fun of.

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"Please. That's like lame southern nostalgia shit," Dante said.

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"He is from Oklahoma," Kathy said, laughing again. "And totally wants to be a cowboy when he grows up. It's like the worst-kept secret in the world."

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"Yeah, well, doesn't mean you have to be just as bad," Dante said. "That's what I'm here to prevent."

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"Hey now, I met a Korean cowboy once!" Kathy protested with a laugh. "He seemed really nice, if pretty confused! Which made sense, what with--"

Oh. Right. He'd been dead. Which was how they'd met, walking away from the stone.

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"What with...?" Dante said, tilting his head.

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"Him being dead," Kathy said quietly. "He showed up in January with me."

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"Oh," Dante said. "Sorry."

He reached out to nudge her with a foot.

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Kathy nudged him back. "No, I am," she said with a shake of her head. "I'm pretty sure January was harder for you than it was for me."

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"Not sure we can play favorites. Play worses?" Dante said. He sighed. "How about-- you wanna learn how to play Everlong?"

Better topic.

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Much better.

"Hell yeah I do," Kathy said, grabbing her guitar again. "Gotta earn that Babymetal merit badge somehow."

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Dante rolled his eyes at her. "Give Babymetal a few more years," he said, before demonstrating his grip on the first chord.

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"Tell that to Rob Zombie and Judas Priest," Kathy said, copying his fingering.

Look, she'd downloaded their first album about a month after it debuted. She liked Babymetal.

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Dante rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything else. He was busy, demonstrating how the first part of the song relied on striking just the last three strings in a particular rhythm.

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Which meant that Kathy was too busy following along to keep snarking. This was music, she was going to take it as seriously as Dante did. You didn't disrespect something someone else loved.