Los Angeles, Tuesday

[spin_kick_snap]

After a week of pollen and then finding out that Minako was Sailor V and Mara Jade was some kind of...knife-wielding badass, Kathy had decided that spending a week with her classmates on a ship was not in the cards. She needed a little time and space to put her confused thoughts into order, to figure out how she felt about who and what, if anything, she wanted to do about it.

Rather than hang around an empty (and frigid) island while everyone else was enjoying Mexico (so much that no one had returned any of her handwavy texts!), Kathy had decided to head back to LA. Rather than going back to her parents' apartment for the week, Kathy'd rented a tiny motel room where she wouldn't have to worry about rules, curfew, or her family finding out about her late night hobbies. During the day, she could work on her homework and brood be pensive and at night she could be Banzai, too busy leaping over rooftops and chasing down criminals to live inside her own head.

You relax your way, she'd relax hers, all right?

Not that tonight was anything like relaxing. LA was so much bigger than Baltimore, with more crime and, specifically, more violent crime. She'd just finished taking down a mugger when she'd heard gunshots coming from the north. Giving the mugger's collar one last shake, she let him go and ran off as fast as she could towards the guns.

It might be kinda sick, but she loved this.

[And the link to the thread that begins after LJ breaks the page]

Comments

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy chuckled at that. Nick had a point. "If this whole scenario doesn't count as absurdist humor, I don't know what does. But I trust him. And I won't let anything else happen to you, okay? Dragon said that if it came down to it and we had to rush you to the hospital, he'd stand there the whole time to make sure that no one touched your goggles. Because his job is to keep people safe--the civilians you could unknowingly affect, yes, but you, too."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"Maybe I'll believe that when I meet 'im too," Nick mumbled, and then kind of nodded toward the water. "Can I... I dunno. Would you mind?"

More, Nick. Just ask for more. Say please. It was all the rage these days.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Hey, he'd said 'thanks' earlier. That was a lot of manners all at once.

"I don't mind," she said, with a gentle smile. "Making sure you drink is pretty up there on my list of priorities."

Sentences she hadn't expected ever to say for $100, Alex?

"He's pretty imposing," she added. "Maybe it's just because you don't expect a guy to come swooping down out of the sky wearing a dragon mask. At least, I generally don't. Which is pretty dumb, considering our line of work, I guess."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"I've been doing this longer than you have," Nick pointed out, pursing his lips a little. "I can safely say that's not something that I've ever seen before, either."

Pretty sure, anyway. He figured it was something he'd remember.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"By a couple of months," Kathy scoffed, even as she beamed down at him. He sounded like he was coming back to himself a little more. "And, besides, I'm still on the island. Talk about places where that should be normal..."

She'd gone on a date with a guy who called himself the Human Torch for completely legitimate reasons. The island was all kinds of weird.

"You're sounding a little more with it."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"Little more," Nick agreed. "Still feel like I was hit by a fuckin' truck. Could sleep for a month. Not goin' anywhere any time soon."

He pulled in a slow breath, and then exhaled it all at once in a soft, bitter chuckle.

"Fucking Fernando. I'm gonna shoot him in the fucking foot next time I see him with a gun."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was so very disappointed in Fernando, she absolutely was.

She was also not going to ask Nick where he was gonna get the gun from. Sometimes you just had to vent. Especially when you'd just been ventilated.

"I'd still like you to try to eat something," she said. "And I don't know if lying in a soaked mattress is going to help you feel any better." She could feel it squelching beneath her when she shifted. "I know you just said that you don't wanna go anywhere, but I think with the proper incentive, you can move, say, just down the hall a little?"

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

Nick would use Fernando's. He'd pull the ol' Gorgon on him, and then take the weapon from his hand, and shoot Fernando with his own fucking gun.

"... That'll have to be some kind of crazy incentive," Nick noted, quirking an eyebrow a little. Machismo had him wanting to say yes. The way his head felt screamed otherwise.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"Take another hit," Kathy urged. "You're a little more lucid now, a little more in control. And if you take a hit, you'll be more inclined to eat, which you need to do, drink more, which you need to do, maybe even take a shower."

Which he ought to do, because he was still covered in blood, sweat, and road dirt.

"All the sponge baths in the world aren't gonna do much to get the blood out of your hair," she pointed out. "And...and I'd just feel better, knowing you were stronger. I'm still worried. You're not out of the woods yet, Nick."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

Nikolai sighed a little, frowning deeply at that. Yeah, he knew she was right. No, he didn't want to get carried away, and didn't completely trust himself not to, yet.

"Dunno. Might have to work my way up to it. I mean. I'm too fucking exhausted right now to even want to wrap my head around another hit. And you're not just a hit, you're like... I don't know. Like dropping fucking acid when all you're used to is pot."

Yeah. Because she was totally the kind of girl who would get a statement like that.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

AHAHAHA YEAH NO.

"Umm...thank you?" She had no idea if that was a compliment or not. Hmm, maybe it wasn't. "I mean, sorry? Or whichever?"

She tipped his head back up so she could give him more water. "Whichever one's appropriate, that one."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"Just means you're a bit much to take all at once," Nick replied, sadly too out of it to really be aware of any unfortunate double-entendre he'd just unintentionally made.

"Probably the powers thing. You've got more energy stored up in there than most people have any business to."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy didn't. She flushed but didn't let her hands or her voice waver. "Yeah, well, all of that energy is right here for you if you need it. Just let me know, all right? It's here for the taking."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"Noted," he replied with a tired nod. "I'm not going to hold you up for it right now, though. You're probably halfway to crawling out of your fucking skin by now yourself. Look at you..."

He was thankful that none of that mess was from her, but damn, it was horrifying to look at all the same.

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"Sorry," Kathy said again, imagining how ghoulish she must look; how horrible it must be for him to see just how much blood he'd lost. "I snagged clean clothes from the CVS while I was there. I kinda had to guess at your size, but hopefully everything fits. I just thought you'd want something clean to change into when you were feeling up to it."

She had her own clothes in her room that she could change into, but that would require leaving him to fetch and she wasn't quite ready to do that, yet.

"Does this bother you?" she asked, gesturing at herself. Her hands and forearms were clean, at least, scoured for the stitching.

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"There are a lot of things botherin' me right now, baby. It'd be a lie to say that wasn't on the list."

He closed his eyes again.

"Tell you what... you clean up first, lay down... some bags or something when you sit down on the bed, and I'll take the damn hit you keep asking me to take and I'll clean up, myself. You might as well do what you can while you're still conscious. God knows how long you'll be out otherwise."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"Gimme...gimme like a minute and a half?" Kathy asked, calculating how long it would take her to run to her room and get everything she needed. That was only a fraction of the time that she'd been gone before, but she was still worried. "My room's just down the way. I've got clean clothes there."

Because what was the point of showering and then putting her gi back on?

"I'll be back before you know it, okay?"

She slid out from under him as gently as she could, using every bit of flexibility she had in order to move without jostling him. And then she dashed to her room, grabbing clean clothes, yes, but also all the blankets and pillowed and towels she had before running back.

"Still good?" she asked, dumping her haul onto the floor, then picking her change of clothing up again.

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"Still conscious, haven't been shot a second time," Nick reported. "I'm gonna say that's about as good as it gets right now."

Sooo yes.

"I'll be okay for a bit longer, I think. Painkillers have kicked in. Everything's a slightly more pleasant shade of fuzzy."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy snerked at that. "You're funny when you're dopey from pain, bloodloss, and prescription drugs," she told him, before escaping into the bathroom.

The water was miserably cold in the shower; hopefully Nick was too far gone to notice her yelp when the water turned on in a spray of cold. She shivered as she soaped herself up, the hot water only kicking in when she started shampooing her hair. And it turned back to cold before she was done rinsing the conditioner out.

The towels were also short and kind of scratchy and Kathy limited herself to one so that Nick would have several for his shower. That left her still rather damp and shivering when she went back out into the main room, tank top and pjs clinging to her in spots.

"I was thinking that we could maybe abandon the bed," Kathy said, setting up all the bedding she'd brought back from her room. "The floor's not the most comfortable, but it's also not wet. I'll put all the pillows down first, cover them with some sheets, then you can crash there? There's still a blanket for you to sleep under."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"God, the bed's a fuckin' write-off," Nick muttered, shifting his weight slightly and regretting it pretty instantly. Fuck, ow. Ow. Ow. "But then, this hotel's shitty enough, I wouldn't put it past 'em to have plastic under the sheets."

So, maybe just the blankets were a write-off? He could dream big. Otherwise he'd be paying through the ass not only to replace the mattress, but to get them to not call the cops over all the blood. This wasn't the greatest hotel in Los Angeles, but there was generally a limit to how thoroughly blood-soaked the sheets could be before somebody freaked out.

"Floor'll do."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"After your shower, one of us can put the blankets and sheets into the tub filled with cold water. S'what I did with my gi back in my room. Plus there's enough peroxide here to clean a lot of it. Maybe it'll be okay." She tripped over the words, the cold combining with bone-deep exhaustion to thicken her tongue.

"I'm still gonna hold you to our bargain. You said you'd take the hit once I was cleaned up. And look at me." She held her hands out to the side. "Squeaky clean."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"So you are," Nick observed, sighing. God, he didn't want to do this. He didn't trust himself to stop, not really, once he started. "Okay, fine. Gimme a minute to sit up, and you lay yourself down. You're gonna hit the floor like a sack of bricks if you don't."

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"G-Good," Kathy said, laying down on the nest she'd made and pulling a comforter up to her chin. "Cause you still look pretty terrible." She gave him a half-smile, to show that she was teasing--regardless of how true that it might be. "Warning? The w-water heater sucks. Be prepared for a pretty cold shower."

Re: Back at the motel

[gunslingerpose]

"Just what I wanted," Nick snorted, shaking his head a bit as he tried... rolling over. Okay. Weight on that shoulder, and fuck that hurts, and slowly try to sit maybe without fainting. Good plan, gold star, Nikolai. "To feel colder'n I already do."

At least it would probably wake him up?

... Maybe?

Re: Back at the motel

[spin_kick_snap]

"You'll be cold, but you'll feel better when you're clean," Kathy assured him, propping herself up on her elbow. "Especially tomorrow. I don't know how long until Dragon finds his friend, but you're not going to want to spend the upwards of eighteen hours sticky from blood and sweat and grime."

She looked up at him with soft eyes. "I know you everything feels like an almost-insurmountable obstacle for you right now. And you're being amazing about it, you really are. Only a few more things to do and then you can rest. And, I swear, after you've eaten and taken a shower, I won't nag you about a damn thing until Dragon shows up with his friend. Hero's honor and all that."