The Apartment Above Luke's, Saturday

[spin_kick_snap]

After a big day outside - playgrounds! puppies! snow! - Katherine had come back to the place where she'd woken up and had promptly fallen asleep, all tuckered out by her adventures. Now she was awake again and hungry. The only cereal in the house was a sugar cereal, which she wasn't supposed to have and she wasn't allowed to use the stove without adult supervision.

But there didn't seem to be an adult in the whole house! Just her. That was funny. Who had a house with nobody in it?

She took a shower in the pretty bathroom and got dressed, figuring maybe she could find somewhere to eat. And another funny thing - she found a twenty dollar bill tucked away in the exact place she hid money back home: hidden in a pencil box in the top drawer of the desk. She painstakingly wrote out an IOU and put it there, and then sat down to plan her day.

First, breakfast. Then...puppies again, maybe?

[Open! Dante's thread chronologically last]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante blinked, then let out a laugh. "Of course not," he said. "I got more guitars at my place, we can jam."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't really know how to play," Katherine said, who would be surprised at how quickly she picked it up this weekend, "but it always looked like fun." She gave him a shy, tentative smile. "I like music. Sometimes I sing to myself when there's no one around to hear."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Why not when people are around to hear?" Dante asked. "I should take you to meet a friend of mine, he sells records and stuff. Bet he'd like to hear you sing."

He opened up the front door.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh no!" Katherine said, shaking her head hard enough that her hair went flying. "Nobody wants to hear me kittywalling."

She might not be able to remember the word 'caterwaul' but she definitely knew the definition.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Who told you that?" Dante asked, stepping out towards the stairs.

[spin_kick_snap]

"My dad," Katherine said simply, letting go of his hand again to grip the banister and take each step carefully, one at a time.

Honestly, Dante, had you expected to hear any different?

[rebelseekspizza]

"Well, your dad is wrong," Dante said, making sure to slow his steps so she could keep up. "I'd fuckin' love to hear your kittywalling."

He kinda loved the word, even if he hated the way it'd been used.

[spin_kick_snap]

New band name?

"But why?" Katherine asked, quietly appreciating his patience. "Nobody wants to hear bad singing."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Because I don't know if it's bad," Dante said. "You might be pretty good. Maybe your dad's just bad at appreciating singing."

[spin_kick_snap]

If he turned to look, he'd notice that Katherine was blushing. She'd gotten into the habit pretty early.

"Well, maybe you could," she said in a quiet voice. "But you gotta promise not to look at me."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Okay, I promise," Dante said easily.

[spin_kick_snap]

"And if I'm bad, you can tell me," she added. "Just cause I'm a kid doesn't mean I need to get stuff sugarcoated. I don't need a participation trophy just for showing up."

There was a particular cadence to her voice whenever she repeating one of her parents.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Sure," Dante said again, though he privately wondered who the fuck had gotten on her case about that.

[spin_kick_snap]

Oh, that was pure Papa Li at his finest, complaining about how kids these days were too cossetted, too spoiled, too prone to being told they were perfect when all anybody meant was that they were little. He wasn't like that. He prided himself on being a man who said the hard truths, even to his tiny daughters.

"Okay," Katherine said, "where's your - what's that?" She pointed at the portal.

[rebelseekspizza]

"That's the portal back to my house," Dante said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Don't worry, it's gonna bring you back when the weekend's over."

[spin_kick_snap]

Katherine's dubious face was both epic and getting a workout.

"Remember, you pinky promised," she said, looking up at him as she took his hand.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I did, and I'm sticking with that," Dante promised her. "I'm not stealing you and I'm not gonna get you hurt. We're just gonna go for ice cream, and you're gonna sleep somewhere warm tonight, so your folks can be off doing their thing without worrying."

He smiled at her, her tiny hand in his, and stepped through the portal.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Is Sarah there, too?" she asked, and then looked around wide-eyed as they were suddenly somewhere else.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nah, Sarah's too tiny to leave at home," Dante improvised, looking up at the fancy Italian arches of Limbo City. Home was just down the street; he pointed at it. "That's my house."

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's not a house," Katherine argued. "It's like...a, a, fire station or something. It's too big to be a house for just two people!"

Her standards were much more cramped.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Maybe in Los Angeles, but not out here," Dante said, laughing a little. "You wanna go stare at it first, or grab some ice cream?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ice cream!" Katherine said with an excited little bounce.

She stopped a moment or two later when she realized she was already being rowdy, though.

"I mean, ice cream please," she corrected. "If it's not too much of a bother."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Dude," Dante said, looking scandalized. "Ice cream! You can look alive!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"But I don't wanna get too excited in case you change your mind," Katherine explained. "Nobody likes a rowdy rumpus. Or a whinebox."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I do," Dante said, without a moment's hesitation. "I'm not gonna change my mind about getting you ice cream, c'mon, I'm not that mean."