House in Limbo City, Limbo City, Friday

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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!]

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[smilestopscars]

The past three days had been something of a whirlwind, and one of Ezra's own design. He'd needed to shake off the weekend and so he'd thrown himself into other things, starting with his usual class on Tuesday and leading up to some random college party last night.

But now it was Friday, and he was at home, and...

It was probably time to check in with someone. So Kathy's phone was ringing.

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Girl Generation was interrupted by Babymetal's Megitsune, which could mean only one thing.

"Hi Ez," Kathy said, holding her phone between her ear and shoulder as she rinsed the salt off her hands. It wasn't her usual energetic and enthusiastic greeting, but still warm and fond for all that it was a bit more subdued.

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Ezra was honestly not expecting anything particularly bubbly.

In fact, his own greeting didn't fare much better in not sounding subdued. "Hello, darling. Did I interrupt anything?"

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"Just making kimchi," Kathy said, though she couldn't help but audibly smile a bit at that. She'd honestly never expected to get her hands on her mom's recipe and yet, here it was. "Do you think Lock would like some? I'd offer it to you, but it's both vegetables and requires waiting for two weeks before it's ready to be eaten."

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"I'm sure he would love it." Ezra himself, probably, too. But he couldn't say that and risk his reputation as a person who found vegetable suspicious. Or, indeed, as an impatient person.

Anyway, he was smiling the tiniest bit. "Might even call it worth the wait."

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And, if she gave it to Lock, Ez would be able to steal some, which was his favorite way of eating.

"Then I'll bring a jar next time I come by to visit," Kathy said. "And pray that it came out okay, since this is my first time making it by myself."

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"It's bound to be good, cupcake." If for nothing else then just for how much care and effort he knew she put into these things. "And if not, well, maybe Lock needs a little excitement in his life."

He did not.

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"True," Kathy nodded solemnly. "I can't imagine what else Lock could have going on. Saved by homemade kimchi, hope his spice tolerance is decent."

She said, looking at the amount of gochujang she was adding to the mix.

"So, what's up? I'm guessing you didn't intuit I was making food and decide to call and lay claim to some."

It wasn't so much that she couldn't imagine why he'd be calling so much as there were any number of subjects he could be wanting to broach she was at a loss just choosing one.

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"I'm checking in," Ezra replied, after a little pause to decide what he actually wanted to say. His voice was on the soft side, but still pretty light. "Would hate for it to seem like I was running away again."

There was a fair bit to run away from, after all.

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"Taking time to deal and decompress isn't running away," Kathy said softly. "And you've had a lot of shit to deal with recently."

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The noise Ezra made was kind of dry and rough, but amused all the same. "Just let me atone for past sins, darling," he told her, gently. "I'm just saying."

He worried, a lot, about looking like he wasn't trying to be better.

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But he was being better. And Kathy wanted him to know that she noticed. He'd earned back the benefit of the doubt at the very least.

Kathy hopped up onto the counter and smiled, a little rueful. "I appreciate the call," she admitted. "This weekend was rough. I felt pretty bruised coming out of it and I'm pretty sure I got off relatively easy."

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"Yeah. It was..." He trailed off, and sighed before continuing. "A surprise."

Several surprises, really.

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"That's for damn sure," Kathy said with a small huff of a laugh. "Sometimes I hate how fast I get attached to them. Just makes everything harder."

She hadn't realized until this year that the pain of sending them back through the portal was the least of the ways she could hurt over them.

"Are you okay?"

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"No."

His tone remained light. But there wasn't any point to lying, even as much as her instincts wanted him to do it anyway.

"I don't believe I am."

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Kathy was glad he hadn't bothered lying; she wouldn't have believed a yes, but the fact that he didn't try touched her.

"I think it would be hard to be," she said softly. "It was a lot. Both Zeke and Tiger both."

But at least Tiger had just needed care and reassurance. And Ezra was excellent at offering both.

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He'd still felt like he'd been failing at that a fair bit, at several points over the weekend.

"Yes," he said with another sigh. "Thank goodness for Ella, I guess." She had been the easiest, even though she sure as hell wasn't without her own issues.

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Kathy still didn't know about Ada, but Dante had vaguely said something about early-onset Alzheimer's for Janie and figured Ella was dealing with something similar.

"Evie was trying to race into being a teenager and Carys was dealing with a a new little siblings," Kathy said, nodding. "Neither of those were traumatic or anything, but they weren't exactly restful, either."

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"It's a lot," Ezra agreed, vaguely. "Hope you still had a good time, though."

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"I always do," Kathy admitted. "I get to be a parent for a weekend to any number of beautiful kids that I may never get to see. But they exist and they're loved and I get to do that for a little while to and - I'm babbling about nonsense."

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"It's not nonsense," Ezra tod her softly. He couldn't see him shake his head but she could still hear the sincerity, right? "You can go on if you want."

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"It hurt me to watch Zeke this weekend," she continued softly. "He was in so much pain and I didn't know what to do - and, worse yet, I knew that no matter what I did, I wouldn't be able to fix it. But I also realized that it was worth it to see him again. That I'd rather hurt and have him around than never have known because he never came back."

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"I think that's where our experiences diverge, darling," Ezra told her gently, after a short pause. "Because I would rather not have ripped the pain back to the surface for him."

It was different for Kathy, he knew. She couldn't hurt their kid just by being there.

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"Not his pain," Kathy clarified. "Mine."

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"I didn't misunderstand."

No, he'd followed just fine, he was sure.

"I'm just saying that for me, I don't think it was worth any of it to see him again. Because for him to see me was too painful for him for any positive experience on my part to outweigh it."