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!]

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[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..."

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

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"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."

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"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.

[spin_kick_snap]

Nobody even believed that 'oof,' Nephilim.

"They don't have to have your genes," she whispered. "Hell, they don't even have to have mine. You loving them and being a good dad to them is all I ever wanted from you. I don't care who they look like."

And then she was kissing him hard enough to make the excitement over the fridge look like golf claps.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante kissed her back; he'd be a fool not to, and anything else he wanted to say could wait.

His hands slid up her back and he held her close, instead.

[spin_kick_snap]

It took Kathy a round or two of kissing to finally settle back down and acknowledge that the conversation wasn't over just because he'd said what she wanted to hear. "Sorry not sorry about jumping you," she said.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante laughed softly. "Better not be sorry," he teased. He leaned his forehead against hers.

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"I heard that 'oof,'" Kathy teased. "Now I'm worried you strained yourself."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nah, I think I'm good," Dante said, brushing some of her hair away from her cheek.

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"Aww, and here I was going to go and make jokes about you being old for the next couple of weeks," Kathy said, nuzzling his hand. "Ah well, I'm sure I'll find something to harass you about instead."

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"You always do," Dante said, mouth curving.

He leaned in and kissed her again. Gently.

[spin_kick_snap]

And when they pulled away again, she was once more leaning against his chest, one foot in the air.

Ugh, she became a cliche when she was happy, this was terrible.

...She'd work on it later.

"So, I think I kinda knocked us off-course," she admitted, chin pressed against him. "Did you have more you wanted to say, or...?"

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Dante shrugged. "Not really," he said quietly. "Besides that I liked seeing you that way, last weekend."

He'd been kinda surprised by it.

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Kathy ducked her head, smiling a little. "You did?" And inane question, but... "I always kinda figured that wouldn't really be your deal."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I mean, would I have thought about it without you? Don't think so," Dante said, figuring honesty was good. "Like, it wasn't in my big picture of... whatever life was gonna look like if I didn't die."

Then again, not much was.

"But it is in yours," he said. "And now life has calmed the fuck down, I'm like, fuck it. Why not? If it makes you that happy, and I can't find any real problems in me with it..."

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"Was that what it was, this weekend?" Kathy asked. "Seeing me happy that way?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah," Dante admitted. "You looked like... a mom. A little like my mom, even. You were good at it, too."

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"It's like I told Anders," Kathy said, "I just don't ever want a kid to question if they're loved and wanted. They come from weird places and impossible scenarios and I can't control what's waiting for them when they go back. But while they're here, I just always want them to know what they're special and important and...well, loved."

Important enough to mention twice, she guessed.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Any kid would be lucky to have you," Dante said, mouth curving. "And there's no way I wouldn't be there for you if you decided to have one. So I guess you're in this together with at least one of us."

Beat.

"I mean, in a couple of years."

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"Definitely not for a few years," Kathy said hastily. "I'm not in a place where I can be there for a kid the way I'd wanna be yet, so..."

She shrugged. They had awhile.

"I don't know if I'd be willing to do it if Anders wasn't," she said. "All or nothing, I think. It doesn't seem fair, making him deal with a kid if he doesn't want one, even if it's two-to-one in favor of having them, you know?"

She smiled, a bit wanly. "It's why I was kinda figuring I wouldn't end up having any. Because I wasn't sure the three of us would agree."