The Apartment Above Luke's, Thursday Evening

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Kathy was still glowing from yesterday's museum trip with Anders and now tonight Dante was coming over for the evening, too. She appreciated the lengths they were going to make sure she didn't feel too lonely or lost while she was still adjusting to being back. She'd had a whole evening planned out as a thank you to Dante over it...

But then there had been puppies. She'd come in from her shower and decided to take a minute to refresh her Tumblr before drying off and getting dressed, and then she'd stumbled over a link for a pet adoption website that curated pictures of dogs that needed to be adopted from nearby shelters if you put in your zip code. Which Kathy, more fool her, had done.

And now was scrolling through picture after picture of adorable romping puppies and distinguished older dogs all looking for forever homes and who even knew what time it was anymore, there were puppies.

[For that guy]

Comments

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"You are more than welcome to try it for me and report back," Kathy sassed, washing her hands and getting out the cutting board. "If it earns the Dante seal of approval, I'll give it a shot."

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Dante sighed loudly. "You are the worst."

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"I wasn't the one just being all 'Give Beef A Chance' a second ago," Kathy retorted.

And yes, pleased with herself over how well that had worked. Two points for Kathy.

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All the loud sighs in the world were clearly not making Dante's point, so he abandoned the sofa and went wandering into the kitchen, where he wrapped his arms idly around Kathy's waist. "The woooorst."

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Kathy wasn't entirely sure that there wasn't something pathetic about how happy a simple thing like this could make her. About just how much she loved random, casual touches of affection, like it was too much to ask to be in the same room with someone and not touch them.

Of everyone, only Ezra had ever been about as tactile as Kathy was. But Dante seemed like he was trying to catch up, but even if he was only doing it because he knew it made her happy...well, he was doing it to make her happy.

"Am I now?" she asked, shifting into a stance that would let her lean against him and still chop peppers and onions and mushrooms.

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It just felt more natural these days: an easy way to show his affection, without anything else getting in the way of it.

"Only the world's most terrible person would chop onions like that," Dante agreed.

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"Are you passing judgment on my technique?" Kathy asked. "Or the fact that I'm chopping onions and not just paying complete attention to you?"

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"Why can't it be both?" Dante said. "Oh, the peppers suck, too."

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"Because you've never given a single fuck about the way onions are cut in your whole life," Kathy told him, laughing. "Didn't you have a whole rant about how it was bullshit when people would lose points on cooking shows over their chopping skills?"

But she took his meaning and set the knife down, turning around in his arms to smile up at him. "You were the one who said I had to give you dinner before there'd be any kind of special kissing."

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"I mean, you should," Dante said. "Doesn't mean you shouldn't be giving me some non-special kissing in the process, fuck, Kathy, how cruel are you?"

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"You came into my house, sassed me, then tickled me, and I'm still making you dinner," Kathy said, leaning up on her toes to kiss him soundly. "I'm in the running for best girlfriend on the planet, actually."

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"I'm sure you believe that," Dante told her, and kissed her again, smiling.

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"I, in fact, do have a habit of believing things that are factual," Kathy quipped, washing the onion off her hands again and turning back to Dante before he could get all whiny again.

...Not that she hadn't loved it, shut your whole face.

"I love that you're here," she murmured, not entirely meaning to. "I just...is it soppy to tell you how much I just love hanging out with you?"

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"A little soppy," Dante said, smiling, "But I like it and I won't tell anyone, so..."

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"You have been very gracious towards my tendency towards sop recently," Kathy told him. "I promise to appreciate it for as long as it lasts."

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Dante kissed the tip of her nose.

"I'm just glad me being here helps," he said. "Like, it feels like the lowest-hanging fruit too. Oh no, I gotta mildly inconvenience myself in a portal for an hour so I can spend time with my kickass girlfriend."

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"And bitch about the way she cuts up veggies and tickle her to death just because I'm mean," Kathy added, breaking out her stellar Limbo City accent.

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Dante poked her again. "You like it," he said, really playing up the Limbo City in his own accent.

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"Yeah, but we already established that I'm, like, a total masochist," Kathy said, doing a sudden about face and playing up a valley girl accent instead.

She was pretty sure she could make Dante cringe with it.

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"Ew, oh god," Dante said, laughing. "Don't fucking do that."

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"I should," Kathy said, hip cocked to the side. "Every time you start tickling me, I'll go full on Valley Girl. That'll learn you."

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"I'm not tickling you now," Dante said. "You can take it down like, fifty notches, all right?"

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"You were thinking about it," Kathy said, though she dropped the accent. "I could tell."

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"Oh, you're a mindreader now as well as a superball, huh?" Dante said, dropping a kiss on top of her head.

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"More like the Asshole Whisperer," Kathy snorted.

And then cracked up, wrinkling her nose and making grossed out noises. "Ew ew ew! I could have worded that better, ugh! But you know what I meant!"