75 Godiva Street, Late Sunday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was humming and prepping for dinner, which wasn't all that rare, but for once, it wasn't in her kitchen. She'd come over to Godiva to make dinner for Eliot; the question of how she referred to him aside, he was still her dad enough to do something to mark the day with.

Hardison had called her as soon as Eliot had set out to walk Val and Kathy had run over, full speed, carrying her guitar and several bags of groceries. She was making a blend of Korean cuisine and Southern cooking--and calling it Seoul food, snickering at her own cleverness. Her first thought had been to surprise him with a meal ready and waiting when he got home; that's what her father would have preferred, after all. But years of knowing Eliot had made her change her mind and decide to surprise him with the prep instead.

Her father liked having dinner ready for him, set out like tribute. Eliot valued the time they got to spend together experimenting in the kitchen even more than he would the finished product.

The radio was set to country, the fry oil was heating in the pan, and Kathy was washing daikon radishes and turnip greens. Happy Father's Day, Eliot.

[For him named and SP!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot was still new enough to the dad thing -- and still carefully avoiding thinking about his own dad too much -- to have realized the significance of the day until he walked back into the house, heard the music, and smelled the oil. Val let out an excited "yip!" and bolted forward to greet Kathy excitedly, and Eliot trailed behind, a slow grin growing on his face.

"Well," he said. "Would you look at all this."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Val!" Kathy cried, setting aside the veggies to kneel down and give the dog a hug. Lachland and Blondie were great, but Kathy had to admit to a marked preference for dogs. They were so good. She laughed at Val gave her kisses, carefully keeping her mouth away from Val's eager tongue. "Hi, Eliot," she said, finally greeting him. "I've come to invade your kitchen."

[vdistinctive]

"You have," Eliot agreed. "Even more glad now we got the kitchen all put back together. What're you making?"

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"Seoul food," Kathy said, once again snickering as she gave Val a final pat and stood back up. "I figured we'd try our hands at some Korean/soul fusion."

It seemed appropriate on this Father's Day, for some reason.

"...What happened to the kitchen?"

[vdistinctive]

"Seoul food," Eliot repeated. "That's terrible. Who's supposed to be the dad here?" He came over to look over her shoulder at her prep work. "Parker stole it."

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"You're just jealous you didn't get a chance to come up with it first," Kathy declared, turning to give him a warm hug of his own. A kiss to his cheek, too, but slightly more decorous than Val's. "Wait. Parker stole it?"

She puzzled over that for a second. "When we were kids, Mr. Team Enthusiasm?"

[vdistinctive]

"Yyyyyup," Eliot said, giving her a kiss and a hug in return. "Hell, 'least I was nice to you. I was a dick to everyone else."

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"I appealed to your chivalrous instincts," Kathy said with a wry smile. She'd heard radio, even if she hadn't understood much of it when she was small. "Tiny, nervous girl-child who clearly needed some encouragement."

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"Chivalry. Great." Eliot sighed and shook his head, shoving aside the memory of just how much he'd messed up with the not-Kathy people. "More like 'tiny nervous girl-child clearly wasn't a threat.'"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy picked up the daikon and continued to slice it. It wasn't like he was wrong. To this day, she was hardly a threat.

"You still didn't have to be kind," she pointed out softly. "You chose to. Might not make up for everything else, but it's still something."

[vdistinctive]

"That's how it usually works, though, darlin'," Eliot said. "Folks are nice right up until they ain't." He shook his head and picked up a knife to start chopping an onion. "But we've all done a bit of growin' up since then, huh? For the better."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Kathy shook her head. "I don't think so," she said, though not in answer to his question. "A lot of people are indifferent right up until they aren't. You could have just ignored me, I wasn't your problem after all. But you didn't. You went out of your way to reassure me. And that's not something a lot of other people would do."

It wasn't something a lot of people had done.

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, well. Neither was punching Hardison repeatedly in the face."

They really should change the subject.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy just leaned over and wrapped her arms around him again. She...didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to fix that; hell, she barely knew how to stay afloat during her own little relationship dramas.

But she knew how to hug. How to look directly across at Eliot with all the emotions she felt. "I love you," she said. "And I'm sorry you feel awful about this." Which he should, sure, but she could still feel bad. "Wish I knew what advice to give to make this all work out."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot set the knife aside so he could hang onto her in return with both arms. "Somethings don't get fixed, darlin'. You just learn and move on." He let out a half-choked laugh. "Just a little extra hard to do that when the island keeps throwin' you back into the deep end."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy thought about how the island had turned her into a zombie last year and could only nod fervently in agreement. "This place, I swear," she muttered. "It gives you the highest highs and the lowest lows, sometimes in the same fucking week."

She was still holding on to him.

[vdistinctive]

"It's what brought you into my life," Eliot said. "So I really can't hate it too much."

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"Oh, Eliot," Kathy said, her voice a little thick and she clung to him even harder. "I love you so much!"

Look, she was getting all soppy again.

"You taught me that dads aren't people you're supposed to be afraid of. So whenever your brain tells you otherwise, remember that."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot huffed. "Well, not all of 'em, anyway."

Emerson had been pretty scary himself, in a sad, pathetic sort of way.

"Thank you, darlin'." He pressed his face into her hair for a moment, closing his eyes. "I will."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Not the good ones," Kathy agreed, pressing a kiss into his cheek. "And you're one of the best. How many dads march into hell to bring their kids home--after they've already gone zombie, huh?"

[vdistinctive]

"I will march through anything I have to, no matter what shape you're in. You're stuck with me now, darlin'. No going back."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, here's hoping all your marching days for this kid are over," Kathy said wryly not hearing the evil cackle of the narration, "but I know you'll be there in a heartbeat if they're not."

But please please please let them be over.

"You know I'd do the same for you, right?"

[vdistinctive]

"Of course," Eliot said. "And I know that when you do, you'll do it smart."

He was less certain of that last part than he sounded, but he wasn't the current Leverage team's best grifter for nothing. And he really wanted to be sure of it.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'll keep an avenue of escape open," Kathy said quietly. "And I'll use it before it becomes impossible not to. Even if--" She stumbled over the words. "Even if that means failing."

[vdistinctive]

"As long as you make it home, there's always hope you can succeed later."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy didn't like it. Kathy very clearly didn't like it. Kathy was entirely the kind of person who would die on a mountaintop trying to bring a body home.

But Kathy had promised Dante that if he ever told her to run, she'd run. And so she was making a similar promise to Eliot. Even though it went against every fiber of her being, the people who loved her hadn't come to get her just so she could throw her life away being an idiot one more time.

"So, what's your favorite dish of Southern cooking that we can fuse with Korean?" she asked, rather than going into all that. "I've already got some ideas, but I wanna hear yours."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot's grin was just a little bit wicked, as he remembered Kathy's first reaction a particular southern delicacy. "How about a Korean-style chicken-fried steak?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You're doing this specifically to hurt my feelings," Kathy announced. "I'm taking back all the nice things I just said about you."

At least she wasn't going to have to eat any of it.

[vdistinctive]

"You ain't even tried it yet," Eliot protested. "I ain't talking about frying up, like, a porterhouse or something. It's more like . . . a deep fried hamburger."

Did that make anything better?

[spin_kick_snap]

It really did not.

Kathy was still making a face. "See, a regular porterhouse sometimes almost tempts me into trying meat again," she said. "This is like the exact opposite of that."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shook his finger at her, nodding. "Point. Alright. Korean-fried okra?"

It wasn't as fun if he couldn't share it with his kid.

[spin_kick_snap]

"That, I'm willing to try," Kathy said, grinning again. "And Southern-fried turnip greens! Just to see the difference."

[vdistinctive]

"And a kimchi coleslaw," Eliot said. "Or maybe a kimchi versus coleslaw competition?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oooh, but kimchi coleslaw would be so good!" Kathy said, eyes wide. "Much better than regular coleslaw. That's just cabbage and mayo and shredded carrots."

She was teasing. Mostly.

[vdistinctive]

"'Just', she says." Were you ready for a food lecture, Kathy? You were about to get a food lecture. "It's made of cabbage and carrot and mayo 'cause it's meant to complement the texture and flavor of the rest of the food, not be eaten all by itself. Just 'cause something ain't a show stopper doesn't mean it isn't good, solid food."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I dunno..." Kathy said, thoughtfully tapping her finger against her cheek. "Kimchi manages to be both a complementary side dish and delicious at the same time. Maybe coleslaw needs to just, like, try harder."

[vdistinctive]

"You really gonna stand there and pretend that Korean cuisine wasn't built around kimchi? It ain't complementary, the other food's there to complement it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hey now," Kathy said, prepared to lecture right back--and enjoying herself hugely as she did, "it's still a side dish, not a main one. It's a multi-functional dish that heightens the food around it, cutting through thick flavors or greasy foods and providing a bit of spice or tartness for bland foods. But it's still just a side dish, never the centerpiece of the meal."