spin_kick_snap | The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

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The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

The last time anyone from Fandom had been in Kathy's LA, the heroes had been living inside the walls that surrounded Paramount Studios, with the exes and the South Seventeens laying claim to everything else. Since then, they'd expanded; the Big Wall pushing the borders out almost a mile in all four directions. In some spots, it was hard to tell that there had ever been a zombocalypse; the streets were clean, the buildings repaired, the blood all scrubbed away. There was a proper school, lots of farms and gardens, several churches, and even a small library. The studio was still the heart of the community, but people had started to spread out and settle. It was still a tight fit, several thousand people into one square mile, but honestly not much worse than Los Angeles used to be, back before the world died and reanimated again.

Life had fallen back into a rhythm again. People got up, got ready for the day. Kids were sent off to school, adults took themselves to various jobs, though there were fewer sales people, baristas, and aspiring actors and a lot more guards, scavengers, and farmers these days. There was a brewery down on Larchmont and a still over on Monroe. Burns Park let people enjoy a bit of nature where the kids could run around and burn off steam and a Gold's Gym practically against the Big Wall. That was where the Unbreakables spent most of their free time, with curious gawkers watching them put more and more weight onto the machines.

It was a bustling little community of survivors, as safe as a place could be, surrounded on all sides by millions of undead waiting to find a way inside to devour them all.

[For them that are there! NFB, and ~~please wait for the~~ OCD is up! Previous entry Next Entry]

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"So anything that's in your pockets," Dante guessed.

"That's all that would fit," Kathy said. "Maybe a dryer sheet that had gotten stuck in the other one." She sighed. "I run around without underwear more often than not back home, but I showed up here and felt naked."

"So we have to find you a weapon you can keep in your pockets all the time," Dante mused, "Without stabbing yourself..."

There had to be some ways they could make her feel safer when they got back.

"You're assuming I have pockets all the time," Kathy said with a small smile. "Most of those cute skirts you like so much don't."

Not that Kathy thought she'd be wearing anything flirty or sexy or cute for awhile after she got home. Comfort and layers and things she could almost hide in were going to be the order of the day.

"Huh," Dante said. He let his hand slide over hers. "Guess we'll have to get someone to make you some skirt pockets, huh?"

"I bet Sparks would take that as a commission," Kathy mused. "Up to you to find me a good weapon though. You know them better than me."

Or maybe she'd just start carrying her weapons everywhere, not just when she felt unsafe. Or, hmm, materia jewelry?

His shoulder was nice to rest on and his arms were warm. Kathy had missed both so very much.

"I'll think of something," Dante promised quietly. "Okay?"

Kathy looked up at him, surprised. She'd half-thought they were just shooting the shit. But no. Dante didn't look like he was joking.

"You're serious about this, aren't you."

"I am," Dante said. "I wanna make sure you feel safe."

"Right now, I don't even know where safe lives," Kathy admitted.

Not the island, where she could be snatched away with impunity. Fuck, if she'd gone and done the drinks run alone, who knew when someone would have realized she was gone?

Not Limbo City, where demons prowled schools and churches and streets, enough that Dante could earn a living fighting them off.

Certainly not her LA. So where did that leave her?

Dante tightened his grip on her again, for a second.

"We'll find you something."

"I'm gonna end up the only Korean housefrau in Minnesota or something," Kathy laughed and surprised herself when it ended up being a half-sob.

Because, really, where did she belong? Anywhere?

"Kathy," Dante whispered, wishing there was a way for him to hold her tighter, better, something.

"I j-just don't have a place!" she gasped out, burying her face in her hands. "Either I make you miserable or I am and I don't have a place!"

All she had ever wanted to do was belong. And now she felt like she had no roots at all.

Tear his heart out, why don't you, Kathy?

"I'm-- I'm sorry," Dante mumbled, his blanket reassurances all drowned out by the sound of guilt.

"Not your fault," Kathy hiccuped. "You've got somewhere. I'm the difficult one. Again."

As per usual.

Edited 2018-10-03 06:39 (UTC)

"No, Kathy, c'mon," Dante said, a little desperate. "I can move back."

"You would hate it," Kathy said, shaking her head. "You'd start to hate me."

"And you hate this," Dante pointed out helplessly.

"I hate not feeling safe," Kathy murmured. "And I hate that I am so afraid that nothing does."

"I don't wanna be part of what makes you feel unsafe," Dante said.

His voice was awfully quiet.

"And I don't want to be why you want to crawl out of your skin."

So was hers.

Dante let out a deep sigh.

"There's gotta be a way to do this."

That wasn't strictly true. The universe made no provisions for the hearts of the young.

But Kathy didn't say that, because if she didn't believe that the three of them would make it, she'd have very little left to hold onto at all.

"And until we figure it out, we just...keep doing the best we can, I guess," she said, though she wasn't sure she had a best to give right now.

Still. Anything else sounded like she was giving up.

"Maybe we'll just have to get our beach house in Florida fifty years early, huh?"

It was a poor attempt at a joke, but he needed to give her something.

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