Antigua, Saturday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's kotatsu had died an undignified death and the repair (something about proper voltage) was complicated enough to require several days of work. Faced with a girlfriend sad about the cold and, more importantly, faced with a girlfriend's frigid feet, Dante had made the executive decision that they needed a tropical vacation. Immediately. So last week, he'd basically shoved the entire household through a portal that opened to a small island in the Caribbean, complete with blue ocean, white sand, and an all-inclusive menu that contained more fruity booze cocktails than actual food items.

The week had been fun, in a lazy, let's-not-do-anything way, which had also had the side benefit of short-circuiting Kathy's "Christmas Crazy." She'd sprawled in the sun and read trashy novels and swam in the ocean and practiced her Spanish without a care. In fact, she'd lost track of the date until they were talking about returning home tomorrow and she realized that, oh shit, today was her birthday. (And also Dante's, but they didn't talk about that.)

A quick conversation with the resort, some handwavy phone calls to invite guests, and more fairy lights than a grown woman should really need and their little villa was turned into a tropical wonderland birthday party.

[Open! If you think you'd get a phone call (for either Kathy or Dante), you did! Dante modded with permission. No OCD]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

And nobody could argue with science!

"Well hey there, Alluka-elf," Kathy said, opening her arms. "How 'bout a hug for me, huh?"

[that_oldsaying]

Nobody at all!

"One moment!" she said, carefully setting her bag down, so that it stayed flat the whole time. Then she, with a gleeful laugh, flung herself at Kathy. "I missed you, happy birthday!"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I've missed you too!" she said, giving Alluka a happy squeeze. She loosened her arms for a moment, then squeezed again. "That hug's for you, Nanika," she said, not wanting to leave Alluka's sister out.

[that_oldsaying]

"She says thank you," Alluka shared, bouncing a little on her toes once the hugs were over. "And she's happy you thought of her!"

Most people did tend to leave her out of things. She was glad her big sister hadn't.

[spin_kick_snap]

Hard to ignore the entity that had, you know, brought her back to life and all. She might not always be visible, but that didn't mean she wasn't there.

"So come tell me all about how training is going," Kathy said. "There's chocolate fondue and I'll pretend it's healthy if you eat it with fruit."

Compromise.

[that_oldsaying]

It was a good compromise!

"Yes, okay," she said, "but, but don't you want your presents?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Did you want me to open them now?" Kathy asked. "Sure! Let's go sit and I can open them while we talk."

[that_oldsaying]

"Only, only if you want to," Alluka said, all big eyes. "And you only get your birthday gifts now!"

It wasn't Christmas yet!

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's fair," Kathy said. "Especially since I didn't bring anybody's Christmas presents along with me here! I'd feel bad about opening mine with none to give."

[that_oldsaying]

"And it would make your birthday be taken up by Christmas again," Alluka said, picking up her bag carefully once more. "And that's not fair."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's smile was warm and rueful. "Man, where were you when I was a kid, huh?" she asked. "Because, yeah. That happened to me all the time."

[that_oldsaying]

"I was in my room," she said simply, with a child's honesty. It didn't bother her that she'd been in her room then.

She wasn't in her room now and that was more important!

"But now, I'm not," she continued, "and you get both holidays celebrated! So, so getting bigger is a good thing."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't disagree at all," Kathy admitted. "I like being grown up." She sat down next to the fondue bowls and handed one of the skewers over to Alluka. "How about you?" she asked. "Do you like being more grown up?"

She couldn't really say 'bigger.' Alluka was still pretty itsy-bitsy.

[that_oldsaying]

Alas, canon. Stop going on hiatus.

She... well, yes. She was.

Alluka took the skewer, folding herself into a seat neatly as she thought about that. "Um, um, I think so?" she ventured. "Sometimes it's scary and sad though."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded and leaned over to offer Alluka's hand. "It is," she said, quietly. "Scary and sad and overwhelming. But those are the days that you just gotta remember your family is here to help, too."

Her real family, obviously. Not those assholes she was blood-related to.

"That's what gets me through."

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka set her skewer down in favour of taking Kathy's hand.

"And we'll help you with anything you need us for," she said seriously, even if she didn't think she'd be a lot of help with a bunch of things. But she was learning and getting better so--maybe she could.

"A lot of times, after training, what gets talked about is what, what we're supposed to use our training for," she offered. "Hunters can do anything, be whatever they want, so they choose all sorts of ways to do those things and how to make choices about the scary and sad and big things."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You already did," Kathy said quietly. "You know that, right? When I came back...you were one of the only people who didn't need me to be anything other than what I was at the time. You didn't need me to be the bouncy, happy Kathy I'd been when I'd left, you didn't need me to be okay, you weren't furious for the ways I'd let you down. You just let me be who I was. I...I needed that. A lot."

[that_oldsaying]

"I just wanted you alive," Alluka admitted. "And, and you were. So I was happy and if you needed to just be, I was okay with that, because you were there to be. And that's, that's still true? If you're ever sad or scared or angry and don't want act like something you don't feel... it's okay. I love you, however you are."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's still hard sometimes," Kathy admitted. "I'm not okay. I have a whole lot of issues stemming from what happened and baggage from before that. I'm working to get better and I am... but not every day is easy."

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka hesitated.

She had something to say about that... baggage... but it didn't seem like the time.

"It's okay if there's hard days," Alluka said, after a few moments. "It's okay if there's bad days. There's days when I still wish I was in my room. But, but you keep trying to open the door so it's okay, if there's days when the door jams or you can't reach the knob. If... if that makes sense?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded. "Perfectly," she assured her. "You get it, Alluka. Better than a lot of other people."

She took a moment to dip a pineapple chunk into the chocolate before adding, "...Did you have something else to say? You look like you did."

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka had no real poker face to speak of, too, when it was her in charge of her and Nanika's body, so her trepidation was basically scribbled all over her face at that question.

"Presents first!" she announced, since she could avoid, but she couldn't really lie.

And she didn't want to either. It was just that she had to think of a way to come at it sideways. It was a party, after all, and...

[spin_kick_snap]

"I can agree to that," Kathy said, as someone who frequently used deflection instead of outright falsehood.

She'd just circle back afterwards.

[that_oldsaying]

She was sort of surprised that had worked but, despite her own doubts about Kathy's acceptance, Alluka was going to accept the gift for what it was.

"Okay!" she said, with a smile that grew brighter the longer it stuck around as she bounced out of her seat to lift her bag up to set it there so she could properly shift things around to...

"Um, um, so I made these myself," Alluka said. "So if they're not very good, I'm sorry."

But she'd tried really hard and, despite her anxiety over them being potentially terrible (she hadn't thought they were terrible, but she'd also never had them before this...) Alluka carefully lifted out an opaque Tupperware container, a wide, flat one.

Inside it, neatly arrayed between layers of wax paper were lollipops. But not just any sort of lollipop. They were traditional Korean sugar candy.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy gasped. "Is that bbopki?!" she asked, her eyes bright and, yes, actually forgetting what Alluka had been trying to distract her from for a moment. "Oh my god, I haven't have bbopki in years!"

She snatched a lollipop out of the container with a cry of delight and immediately stuck it into her mouth. "Mmmm!"