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]

"No," Dante said, shaking his head while Eric prepared another tiny spoon. "Is that a mistake? Should I fix that?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Katherine nodded vigorously, then reached for the next one. "We can try them all together!" she suggested, forgetting to whisper. "And decide the best ones."

[rebelseekspizza]

Eric looked terribly amused as he passed the cherry garcia to her.

"How about you do the taste testing and just tell me what I need to get?" Dante said, grinning. "I trust you."

[spin_kick_snap]

"But don't you wanna try new things?" Katherine asked. "How will you find new things you like?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I mean, through you, my official taste-tester," Dante told her solemnly. "Which is a big responsibility."

[spin_kick_snap]

"But what if I like something that you don't like?" Katherine asked, all wide-eyed again with the vast responsibility.

...You know, Dante. Like a vegetable.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I think I'll survive," Dante said, thinking about it. "But I don't think that'll happen."

[spin_kick_snap]

"If, umm, if you're sure," Katherine said, straightening her shoulders to bear up under this new responsibility. "Which ones haven't you tasted so I can start with those?"

Okay, well, first the cherry garcia before it melted all over her. "This one is also good," she reported. "It had a little bit of cherry in it!"

She looked around. "Do you, umm, do you have a paper and a pencil?" she asked.

Look, you needed to write this stuff down. That's what made it science!

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante blinked. Then he let out a laugh. "Fuck, you're Kathy, of course you want that," he said.

He threw Eric a desperate look while he dug into his pockets. "Uh, I have a pen in here?" he said, offering it to her.

"How about a napkin?" Eric suggested, plucking one out of the dispenser and holding it out.

[spin_kick_snap]

Katherine didn't understand what Mr. Babysitter was laughing at. Of course she was herself, who else would she be?

"Thank you," she said gravely to the ice cream man, though she wasn't sure how useful one napkin was. There were lots of flavors to try out! But maybe she should only do a few anyway.

She pointed at a few more and studiously taste-tested each one. "That one is too busy," she said, pointing at the rocky road. "It doesn't know what to be. Fudge ripple and chocolate chip are both okay, but ripple is better."

Turned out she had a lot of opinions. Who knew?

[rebelseekspizza]

"Have you figured out which ones you want on your cone yet?" Dante asked, watching the whole thing with a small smile on his face.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh!" Katherine said, glancing up from her napkin that was practically indecipherable with her childish scrawl over both sides. "I forgot all about that."

She was actually a little full from all the samples the nice ice cream man was letting her have.

"I think the best combination would be..." She consulted her notes again. "The pistachio - " almost how it was pronounced, kiddo, good job " - and the strawberry, with the double fudge to finish up."

[rebelseekspizza]

"You heard the girl," Dante said solemnly, looking up at Eric. "Two of those, stat."

The guy laughed as he went to get two cones and started scooping.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I hope you like it," Katherine said, looking nervously up at Dante. "Those are the very best flavors, I think."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante grinned down at her. "You did exhaustive research," he said. "If I don't like it, it's my tongue that's stupid."

He took the first cone from Eric and passed it to her.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I hope you don't have a stupid tongue," Katherine said, giving the three ice creams one long lick. "It sorta tastes like a cake!"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante laughed, took his own, and emulated her, getting all three ice cream flavors in his mouth at once.

"Fuck, it does," he marvelled. "I guess your research worked!"

He put a few bills down on the counter. A little extra for tipping. "Thanks, man."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Glad to see your tongue isn't stupid," Eric said with a chuckle, ringing them out and pocketing the tip with an appreciative nod. "Might put a crimp on your home life."

Katherine reached for Mr. Babysitter's hand, adjusting her guitar strap a little to keep from getting ice cream on it. "What next?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante tossed Eric a wink for that comment, because he was still him and being in a relationship was not gonna stop him from being him ever.

"Wanna go for a walk to the park?" he asked, turning around to head for the exit. "We can eat our ice cream and you can play."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It won't be too cold?" Katherine asked, glad she'd bundled up extra warm today. "It snowed yesterday. I never got to see snow before."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Not for a little while," Dante promised her. "And we won't be far from home if you start feeling chilly."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Okay," Katherine said with another fast swipe of her tongue over her cone to keep it from staining her mittens. "It'll keep our cones from getting too melty, too!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Exactly, fast thinking," Dante said, as they walked further down the street.

He was making short work of his own ice cream. Look, he was a fast eater.

It was cold in Limbo City, but there wasn't a hint of snow yet. Temperatures would have to drop below freezing, first.

[spin_kick_snap]

Being in the city made that much less likely, too. But someone else mentioned the snow in a post on the island so I rolled with it.

Katherine was savoring hers with the relish of someone who didn't often get this kind of treat and wasn't sure when she would again. "So why do you like baby-sitting?" she asked as they strolled along.

[rebelseekspizza]

"'Cause I think kids are cool," Dante said easily. "And you give me a good excuse to get tons of ice cream without having to explain myself to anybody."