33 Apocalypse Ave (and eventually to Limbo City), Friday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Last week, Kathy had been an utter lump, eating ice cream and playing sad music and watching a lot of TV while she got used to life without the guys. This week wasn't actually much easier, but Kathy's tolerance for her own moping had run out and left her needing to do something that wasn't just dwell.

Fortunately, it wasn't like she was lacking in options. With the guys gone and Raven spending most of her time out in the woods, the house was just too big and full of memories. So she was moving back to the apartment above Luke's - along with Raven, at least nominally - and this week she'd really gotten her ass in gear when it came to packing. Most of the upstairs was packed, even if those boxes were still mostly stacked downstairs, and now she was just cleaning out their old rooms of the detritus the always seemed to accumulate under furniture and in corners.

Like this old credit card bill of Dante's from...April of 2017. Kathy snorted and rolled her eyes, preparing to toss it into the bin that was half-full of junk when she noticed that one of the items on there was in Hangul. Wait. Had Dante been learning stuff in Korean?

Wait. 김치 크림 파이. Was that a-- Kathy grabbed her phone and did a quick search and yep. It was pretty much exactly the kind of website she'd been expecting with a name like that. Definitely didn't have to do with desserts, that was for damn sure.

"Oh." She wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, especially since that was back when everything had still been really...rough...between them. They'd been friends, in a tentative kind of manner, but no more. So then why...?

"Hi, Portalocity? I've got a portal scheduled to Limbo City for later on this evening, but I was wondering, could I bump it up to earlier than that? Something this afternoon would be good, yeah."

[Open for calls, texts, and visitors before she goes, and LC folks afterwards!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"And maybe we'll even find the cheese place," Dante said optimistically.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Or maybe I'll just do the easy thing and insist Luke's make it for me instead," Kathy said, moving a bit closer. "What's the point of living above a diner if you can't order really random things at all hours?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"So you're really moving in now, huh?" Dante said, kissing her cheek.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah," Kathy said with a happy sigh. "The old place is just too big for one person. It echoes when I walk. And I keep expecting to turn around and see you guys."

Even if Raven stayed out in the woods, the apartment was smaller. Kathy fit into it better.

"This past week, I got the upstairs packed up. I figure next week I'll get the downstairs done and I'll be all moved in by the weekend."

[rebelseekspizza]

"You keepin' our sofa?" Dante asked.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You mean the sofa that started out as mine in the first place?" Kathy teased. "I had a fully furnished apartment while you two were still living the dorm life!" She laughed. "Yeah, it's making the move. I just have to find someone super-strong to carry it for me."

Were those eyelashes being batted in his general direction? Why yes, yes they were.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante groaned. "There better be pizza for this moving thing."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Dante, I promise," Kathy said, laughing, "I would never try to cajole you into doing something without the offer of pizza on the table. I know my audience."

Well, mostly. But sometimes she was completely at a loss for what he was thinking and why he did the things he did.

"I've got a couple of boxes of your stuff, too," she added slowly. "Things I find while cleaning and stuff. Some books, a couple of shirts, that kind of thing."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I can come pick that up while we're at it," said Dante, who suspected nothing.

And frequently didn't know why he did the things he did.

[spin_kick_snap]

Which Kathy didn't understand at all. Who didn't sit down and ruthlessly (and somewhat obsessively) interrogate themselves and their actions and their motivations, sometimes to the point of incapacity?

Hell, she'd had an interior monologue going since she'd sat down on the couch about whether she had any right to bring this up at all and if the proper thing to do would be to just leave well enough alone.

"You should come move my couch for free in exchange for all the packing and cleaning I've done for you guys since you left," she said, poking him. "For Christmas, you're just getting a broom and a wastebasket and so there."

For a moment, she considered leaving it there, she really did.

"Found something interesting, though."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante. Dante did not. Dante just did things.

"Okay," he said, blinking. "Like what?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Sounds fake but okay.

"An old bill for, umm, Kimchi Creampies?" Kathy said, digging out the old bill and handing it over. "This isn't, like, a confrontation," she added quickly, as one part of her brain lit up with anxiety that Dante would think she was accusing him of something. "I'm just curious? And you said I could ask you about stuff I was curious about..."

[rebelseekspizza]

Another blink as he took the bill, and...

"Oh, right," Dante said, tilting his head. "Yeah, I had that for like, two months. Totally forgot about that."

Why would she have questions? He looked curious.

[spin_kick_snap]

Because it was a Korean porn site? Back from when things were...rough...between them? If he'd had it now, she'd completely understand.

"I guess I'm not sure why?" Kathy said. "Or, rather, I have a handful of possible reasons and I'm not sure which one is right. If any of them are. So I figured I'd ask."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Okay," Dante said.

After a long pause, in which he tried to figure out what to say to that.

"It felt like a good idea at the time," he offered. "I dunno. Anders and me had gone almost exclusive back then, I think?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy pillowed her head in his lap, looking up at his face. She was so glad she hadn't tried to talk about this over text or a call. Being with him grounded her a bit, letting her calm jangled nerves and hyperactive anxieties with his body language.

"Right," she said. "I was his exception, but we were still kind of figuring out where we were. Definitely hadn't started hooking up again yet."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's fingers were stroking idly through her hair. He wasn't upset or anything, just puzzled.

"I saw an ad, I was like, 'Korean girls are hot'," he said, pondering aloud.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh," Kathy said, feeling distinctly embarrassed.

And here she'd been thinking it had something to do with her. Way to be both narcissistic and weird conspiracy theorist at the same time, Kath.

"So you figured you'd sign up and check it out?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. "I guess," he said, his fingers not letting up. "I cancelled pretty quick, though. It felt... weird."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Because of me?" she asked, sounding apologetic.

She hadn't meant to ruin your porn, Dante.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I guess," Dante said thoughtfully. "You ever look at somebody and be like, 'You're almost that person, but not really'?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded. "And you were still having a hard time thinking of me like that," she said quietly. "And that made it hard to watch them, too? Because they were close enough to trigger that 'not into it' reflex?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I still got hard," Dante said, after a pause. "Just. Yeah. Weird."

About as confused as that entire period had been, really.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hard but not really interested?" Kathy asked. "Body willing but the mind elsewhere?"

Her brow furrowed as something new occurred to her. "Did it help at all? With me, I mean? Made it easier to think of me like that?"

[rebelseekspizza]

That long pause was mostly there because Dante needed to think about something he'd never thought about before.

"... Yeah," he said.