spin_kick_snap | 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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From:

rebelseekspizza

"It's not dumb," Dante said. He shrugged with one shoulder. "I offered, it's cool."

From:

spin_kick_snap

Kathy nodded, squeezing his hand in gratitude. "I won't even make you wash my hair," she said, trying for lightness as she led him towards the bathroom. "I'll be quick."

She didn't tend to linger.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Take all the time you need," Dante said, following her lead.

If he could help her feel safer at all, he'd take it.

From:

spin_kick_snap

They entered the small bathroom and Kathy quickly stripped, utilitarian with not even a hint of flirtation. "You okay?" she asked. "I mean, outside of being always okay."

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante leaned back against the bathroom door, hearing it click shut behind him.

"I'm fine," he said. "It's you I've been worried about."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I've been worried about me, too," Kathy said with a wry smile, another joke that wasn't really. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and frowned, seeing for the first time just how much a toll these past weeks had been on her and quickly ducked into the shower stall like that would keep Dante from noticing, too. "But also you guys. I mean, I just vanished. That would fuck with me if it happened to any of you."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"We're here now," Dante said simply.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I know I just - " Kathy voice broke for a moment and she stood under the water in silence. "I just have to apologize for awhile, I think. Feel guilty. Fuss."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"If it helps you," Dante said, watching her - more with quiet concern than anything else. "But I don't need it."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I...I talked with a therapist once," Kathy said. "Right after I got back. Stopped going when I realized I wouldn't be able to explain some of the major shit that was wrong with me."

She went quiet again for a second, her silhouette slumped.

"She said that self-blame was an attempt to gain control over a situation where you have no control. That every time I apologize, that I point out that it's my fault for something, I'm just trying not to feel so helpless. Cause I do. A lot. Here, anyway."

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante nodded.

"Then apologize all you want," he said softly.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I'm sorry you're here," Kathy said, words almost lost beneath the noise of the shower. "I'm sorry you had to come get me again. I'm sorry that it's always the same story of 'Kathy needs help and Dante's gotta be there to catch her.' I'm sorry that you hate LA but you have to be here anyway. I'm sorry you've been scared or upset or whatever for the past two weeks. I'm just--I'm sorry for everything, for how much trouble I am."

Kathy sank down to the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees.

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante let her talk until she was finished, no matter what instincts told him to tell her no, she had nothing to be sorry for.

"I love you," he said instead, once she fell silent.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I love you, too," she said, voice muffled by her legs.

"...I wanna go home."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"And we're gonna get you home as fast as possible," Dante promised her.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"It isn't fair that I called for help with Cairax still out there," Kathy said. "I should have waited."

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante shrugged.

"No," he said. "'Cause with us here, everyone's got a better chance of surviving around that asshole."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Or dying together."

Kathy wasn't really up on hope right now.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"We're not gonna die," Dante said. "I'm not gonna let that happen."

From:

spin_kick_snap

Kathy slid open the frosted shower door, looking up at him with solemn eyes. "Sometimes you don't get a choice. Sometimes shit just happens."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Sometimes," Dante agreed. "But not today. Or tomorrow."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"But you don't know that," Kathy said, frustrated not with him, but the whole stupid situation.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"I know me," Dante said. "And I know you."

He'd said it before.

It still held.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"And you know my track record with getting out of this place alive," Kathy said.

She nearly told him about the promise she'd - sort of - extracted from Eliot, but decided that it wouldn't do any good.

Instead she just stood up, shut off the water, and stepped out of the stall. "Towel?" she asked, pointing at the door behind him, where it was hanging on a hook.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"We were different back then," Dante said, and left it at that.

When next he spoke, it was just a "Here," as he handed her the towel.

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Confessions of an Ex-Hero

The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

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