33 Apocalypse Ave, Saturday Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

For a moment after her alarm went off, Kathy had no idea why she'd even set it. It was the weekend, she had neither work nor class today, she could sleep late if she wanted to. And, slapping blearily at her beeping phone, Kathy very much wanted to. She was warm, lying in a tangle of bodies, still more than a little tired from the night before, which had included a much better resolution that last year's prom.

Oh. Right. Prom. The wheels in her brain started to slowly turn as she put two and two together. Alarm. Unlocked front door. Day after prom. Yes.

"Get up," she said, poking at whoever was closest. "Kids are probably coming. C'mon, get up."

She wanted to be dressed and making breakfast by the time the inevitable horde descended on the house, dammit. But she wasn't going to be doing it alone.

"Get up or I swear I will send the first kid who shows up to come and wake you up proper."

Kathy that was just mean.

[Open to boyfriends, housemates, AU children of all varieties, and guests!]

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[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was keeping an eye out for small children this morning, even while making pancakes for the never-full stomachs of the people already here. She was already heading over to greet the little girl when she realized who she was looking at.

Janie. She didn't think she'd ever met her, but she'd gotten a video from her a few years back. Right as everything had gone to hell. Kathy had watched it so many times those last few, nightmarish days, committing every millimeter of their tiny faces to memory, including the face of the little girl who sent it.

It was the last video she'd watched before she'd sent the last video of her own.

She wanted to kneel down and hug Janie, but she saw how wary she was around so many new people, wasn't even sure if the girl knew who she was, beyond a name in a phone. So instead she just smiled and said, "Hi. Janie, right? I'm making strawberry pancakes if you're hungry, and there's a spot next to your dad where you can sit."

[janiesgotguns]

"I'm Janie," Janie confirmed, looking up at Kathy with big, shrewd, analyzing eyes. "And you're Kathy."

Context clues, and all that.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I am," Kathy said, meeting Janie's eyes squarely. Funny, she wouldn't have been able to do that last year, she didn't think. "And I owe you ice cream this weekend. If you're interested."

[janiesgotguns]

Janie's eyes darted towards Dante, who flashed her a grin.

"If you want to give me ice cream, I'm not gonna stop you," she said.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah, I didn't think you would," Kathy said with a grin. "It seemed a decent motivation in the video you sent me."

She kept her voice down. She didn't know if Dante had ever discovered that video or who she had sent it to, but she wasn't going to rat her out now.

...Maybe later, once the kids had gone home.

[janiesgotguns]

"Everyone said you weren't coming back," Janie said.

Or, well, not to her face. But they pretended way too hard.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I nearly didn't," Kathy admitted frankly. Somehow she got the feeling that feeding this kid bullshit would only backfire. "I wouldn't have, if your dad and some other folks hadn't come to get me. And used some really powerful magic to make me okay again."

She was just going to elide over how 'make me okay again' really meant 'bring me back to life from feral zombiehood.'

[janiesgotguns]

"Trust dad to always find people who are trouble," Janie said. She didn't sound like she thought that was necessarily a bad thing - but it was a fact of life. "Who's the other kids?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"The two younger ones are the your half-siblings," Kathy said. "Tristan and Imogene, they're mine with Dante and Anders. The older boy is Aidan, he's min with Raven. I don't think Carys is here this year, so you've got island seniority on all of them," she added with a small, slightly wistful smile.

[janiesgotguns]

"Probably going to be the last time I'm here too," Janie said wistfully. "See tiny mom again."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You think so?" Kathy asked, biting down on a 'how does that make you feel?' at the last minute. No child of Dante's and Ada's would look favorably on that question. "Because it's your dad's last year?"

Why did she seem so wistful over tiny Ada?

[janiesgotguns]

Nothing she'd say anything about.

"He seems happy like this," she said. "So yeah."

She didn't mind. She had her own dad.

[spin_kick_snap]

"He's happy having you here, too," she pointed out with a smile. "Doesn't matter how happy he is like this; if the island brings you back, there will always be room for you."

That was a promise Kathy felt okay about making on Dante's behalf.

[janiesgotguns]

"Sure," said Janie, but she didn't sound like that meant much to her.

She only had her dad, for the most part, back home. And he gave her all the room he had. It made all of this... different.

"Who else's here?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy would get that, though.

"You mean besides the kids?" Kathy asked, since she'd already told Janie about them. "Anders, who you probably know? And that's Raven," she said, pointing. "She's my best friend and old roommate. I don't think you've met her. She was out in LA with me."

Beat.

"Thanks for sending me that video," she said finally. "Sounds like you heard enough to know I'd want it."

[janiesgotguns]

Janie shrugged one shoulder. "Nobody should be that alone."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You're a damn insightful person, you know that?" Kathy asked.

She didn't mean for a kid. She meant in general.

[janiesgotguns]

"Yeah, I know," Janie said brightly, with the confidence of a small child. "But thanks, I guess."

Could she have more pancakes now?

[spin_kick_snap]

It always came down to food.

"Glad to see you're aware," Kathy said, coincidentally finishing up another stack of strawberry pancakes. Look, what she knew of kids mostly involved feeding them. "Want these? There's syrup and whipped cream on the table."

[janiesgotguns]

"Yes please," Janie said, her eyes lighting up as her small hands scrambled for the plate.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy filled the plate with far more pancakes than one little girl should be able to eat--except she knew who Janie's dad was. Even if Janie couldn't fit them all, she figured Dante would hoover the rest.

"There are always more where these came from," Kathy said, because she'd heard Dante's threat, thank you. "So if you want 'em, just ask and I'll make more."

Assuming she could stop the twins from stealing the rest of the strawberries.

[janiesgotguns]

Janie pulled the plate towards herself, grabbing a big chunk of the pancakes with the other hand - scaled fingers visible for a few stray moments before she popped the bite into her mouth.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nearly said something about washing her hands before eating, but she remembered the way Janie had looked coming in, fists clenched beneath her sleeves, keeping her hands from view. And what she'd glimpsed hadn't looked like dirt, exactly; the light had caught it, which was what had drawn Kathy's notice in the first place.

So Kathy did what anyone would do--fetched the syrup and the whipped cream and set them in front of the girl. "There's plenty of syrup and I can make more whipped cream, so help yourself," she said cheerfully, paying no attention to the girl's hands, not even surreptitiously.

...Look, she knew that no child of Dante's and Ada's would appreciate some stranger prying into her secrets. Better to let it go for now and see if it became obvious later. And if it didn't?

Well, a girl had to have some secrets, didn't she?

[janiesgotguns]

"Thanks," Janie said. She shoved more pancake into her mouth. "'s my second."

Because of course Dante had gotten her some, too.

[spin_kick_snap]

Good. Kathy was all in favor of kids getting plenty to eat, even if it was just pancakes. At least there was fruit?

"If you finish off the whipped cream, wanna help me make more?" she offered. "That comes with spoon-licking privileges."