House in Limbo City, Limbo City, Friday

[spin_kick_snap]

With her mom's kimchi recipe now in her possession, Kathy figured she should try to make some. Without a proper kimchi fridge, she couldn't make much, but she figured she could probably get away with one or two jars in the back of the fridge. With her mom's recipe in hand, her children behind her and the gijesa of her whole family on Monday (though her parents got short shrift compared to Sarah), family was kind of on her mind a lot.

Her usual strawberry Yakult had been swapped for banana milk and she had a bowl of injulmi rice balls to snack on when her hands weren't covered with red pepper flakes or salt. She sang as she worked, TARA and BTS and Super Junior blaring from her phone, dancing around the kitchen chopping vegetables, salting water, simmering the glutinous rice powder.

For the first time since she moved in, the house - or, at least, the kitchen - really smelled like home.

[Open for visitors or phone calls or them guys what live here!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"Something smells interesting," Dante said as he followed his nose into the kitchen. "...And someone looks like she's having a good time."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm making kimchi," Kathy said with a grin. "My mom's kimchi which is, obviously, the best kimchi in the whole world. Not to brag or anything."

It just was what it was, you know?

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh, really?" Dante said. He walked up to the counter, leaning against it as he watched what she was doing. "Couldn't wait another, like, two weeks, huh?"

Sometimes you ordered a 'oh fuck I feel so guilty about what I asked you to do' gift and it took a while.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy, ignorant of any delivery schedules, immediately tried figuring out what was happening in two weeks that she'd need to make kimchi for. "...No?" she said, brows puckering. "But this will be ready in about two weeks if you needed it for something?"

That didn't seem right.

"Did you need the kitchen?"

...That didn't seem right either.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sighed.

He reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, flicking through a few screens, and then held it up.

... it was a payment confirmation from a company that imported Korean kimchi fridges.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy gasped, looking up at him with sudden happy surprise. "You got me a kimchi fridge?" she asked, not linking it to any guilt or past requests at all. She just figured that he knew she'd wanted one but couldn't justify the cost and had decided to surprise her. "For real?"

[rebelseekspizza]

It was like, 33 percent guilt? 66 percent wanting to see her smile like that.

"I mean, I ordered it weeks ago, it's just taking a while to get here," Dante admitted. "Had been hoping I'd get it to you quick."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh, you ordered it from Korea," Kathy said, snagging the phone and going through the specs. "It's got one of the UV rays! And the lactic acid thermometer. And the space for wine bottles on the door!"

Kathy didn't know if she wanted to learn how to make wine and beer in her spare time? But, like, now she could.

"You picked such a good one!" she said, beaming at him.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged helplessly, though he couldn't help but smile along with her. "There's a company that imports them here?" he said. "I just kinda went with what they recommended. But... good."

[spin_kick_snap]

"And here I was, purposefully cutting the recipe down by half so I wouldn't take up too much fridge space," Kathy said, leaning over to give him a hug. "Which also means that there's more room for pizza, which I'm sure didn't factor into your decision at all."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Maybe a little bit," Dante said, laughing. He wrapped his arms around her. "But fuck, if I can buy a smile that big with a fridge..."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm a girl of very simple needs," Kathy giggled. "Crazy amounts of sex and weird Asian appliances and I'm good."

She pulled his face down for a kiss. "Thank you."

[rebelseekspizza]

"You're welcome," Dante said, grinning. "Kinda wish I hadn't spoiled the surprise, but eh."

He kissed her again. Kinda had to.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wasn't complaining. She was happy to kiss him back for as long as she had breath.

"I promise to be this excited when it arrives," she said, leaning against his chest, one foot popped in the air.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You better," Dante murmured, "Or my ego's gonna get bruised."

He slid his hand up along her back. "So... you wanna have that conversation we talked about, or should we wait?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh!" Yeah, Kathy had been trying to come up with a number of subtle ways to bring it up, and then subsequently talked herself out of each of them because any number of 'what ifs'?

"I'd like to," she said, taking a deep breath. "I'd like to a lot. You mind if I keep working on this, though?"

It would give her something to fiddle with while they talked.

[rebelseekspizza]

"It's fine," Dante said, mouth curving. "Do what you need to do."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, bringing the cabbage over to the sink to be rinsed off. "So, umm, I guess I should maybe start with a promise that I'm not, like, thinking about kids in the near future," she said, a little awkward. "I want them, yeah. But I'm only twenty-one. I've got a long way to go before I'd even start thinking about it. So, like, if you were worried or whatever..."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I wasn't," Dante said, moving back to lean against the counter. "I know you better than that."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Okay," Kathy said. "I had to talk Anders down from blue-screening when they all showed up last year."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's mouth curved.

"Then for the record, not doing this 'cause I'm scared of anything," he said, holding his hands up. "I just saw you light up around those kids and I figured I owed you a talk instead of, like, stretching out the avoiding time as much as possible."

[spin_kick_snap]

Well. That sounded....yeah. Words like 'owed' and 'avoiding' definitely didn't sound like the start of a great talk that ended in arguing over baby names or whatever.

"Cool," she said, really making sure those leaves were rinsed. "Sounds good."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sighed. He rubbed his forehead. Right. Not getting off on the best start.

"How about I go first?" he said finally. "I don't know if I ever wanna pass my crazy-ass genes on to some poor kid. That's a lot of burden to put on someone. I might come around to it, but I'd have to think about it. But... if I did? I know you'd be the best fuckin' mom in the world. And..."

He sucked in a breath.

"And I know I wanna be there to be a good dad to whatever kids you wind up having," he said. "If my genes are involved or no."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I understand and I would never - wait, what?" For a moment, Kathy stood still, hands still under the running water. She'd been preparing herself for a 'no' so hard that she hadn't even considered that it would be anything else. "You mean it?"

And the cabbage was forgotten in the sink as she was launching herself at Dante again, the prick of happy tears in her eyes.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Thought you were going to-- oof."

Dante wasn't going to not wrap his arms around her, but still, the 'oof' needed to be said.