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:

spin_kick_snap

"...Dante?" Kathy asked, leaning back to look at him.

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante tried to force himself to relax. It wasn't quite working.

"Verg's not coming back, Kat," he said. "Thought you knew that."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I know you told me he fell into Hell," Kathy said. "I'm not entirely sure how permanent that is."

Not if you weren't an angel with your own private jailer.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"One way ticket."

That had been the choice laid before Vergil: live in the human world with his brother, without power, or go to Hell forever.

Dante ran his thumb over the inside of his palm, then closed his fist.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I'm sorry," she said, leaning back in to give him a hug. "I wish...I wish he could see there was another way. And I wish he didn't hurt you every time with his choices."

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante shrugged. "It's the way it is," he said. "Whatever. Fuck him."

From:

spin_kick_snap

Kathy didn't believe that for one minute, but she was willing to back off. "If Vergil's really gone, then what splashback are you worried about?"

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Anything else?" Dante watched her for a moment, his body relaxing muscle by muscle. "I didn't see Vergil coming back coming, either."

From:

spin_kick_snap

Kathy straddled him, the movement being surprisingly non-sexual for, well, who they were as people, and ran her hands into his hair, nails light on his scalp and the back of his neck. "Aren't you the one who told me that I can't live my life worried about the bad shit that might happen?"

She let her forehead fall forward to press against his. "If you don't wanna keep trying with Ez, you don't have to. You don't have to come up with reasons to justify it. Not to me."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"I'm not," Dante said, looking up at her. "Okay?"

Fuck, her fingers felt nice.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Okay," Kathy said. "And I promise, any shit splashback that comes with you? You're more than worth wading through it. And anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't deserve you, not the other way around."

She leaned in and kissed him then, fingers still moving over his scalp.

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante sighed, and let himself relax into it; he wasn't sure if he believed what she was saying, but he needed the comfort of her right now.

He slid his arms around her.

From:

spin_kick_snap

If it helped, she believed it. There was nothing she was saying that wasn't absolutely sincere.

She broke the kiss before it went on too long, before it had a chance to become anything but sweet.

"Hey," she said with wry amusement. "Think of it this way. We're not sitting in a closet ringed around by exes and a Reaver Lord because of your shitty splashback. And unless you're all just here for what will be the worst breakup in history, then you're all thinking that I'm worth hanging in there for."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Always think so," Dante murmured, and kissed her cheek. Then her temple.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"And I'm not even, like, half as cool as you are," Kathy teased gently, eyes falling shut at his kisses. "And only, like, two-thirds as hot."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"You're definitely just as hot," Dante told her softly, kissing beneath her ear.

No lower, though.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Maybe as sexy, when you really get me going," Kathy mused, "but definitely not as hot. You're literally breath-taking sometime."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Aw, that's cute," Dante said, and swept her hair back behind her ear. "...Thanks."

Not for the compliment.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"Always," Kathy said.

Nor for the compliment.

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante's mouth quirked a little.

"So," he said, after a beat, "This is where you sleep? Nice digs."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"All the comforts of home," Kathy said, gesturing grandly. "Pillows, blankets, knives on the wall, and water at my feet. What more could a girl ask for?"

From:

rebelseekspizza

"I could think of a couple of things," Dante said, his fingers sliding along her cheek.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"It's got you now," Kathy said, angling her face towards his finger. "That makes it almost perfect."

And easily five hundred percent better than it had been.

"I'm interested in your suggestions, though."