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]

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"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."

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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."

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"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."

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"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?"

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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...

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"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.

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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!"

[that_oldsaying]

Unlike other people Nina, who'd be grateful that Kathy might forget anything, Alluka was just glad Kathy liked it.

She beamed.

"It is!" she said happily, all her work figuring out how to make it completely worth it at Kathy's delight.

Even though candy wasn't usually what she'd give to Kathy.

[spin_kick_snap]

Not usually, but it wasn't like Kathy didn't like candy, she just worried that other people - coughcoughAllukacoughDantecough - didn't get proper nutrition.

"How did you decide to make this?" she asked. Around the lollipop, yes.

[that_oldsaying]

"It came up one night after training that one of the things a lot of Hunters do is help to, to preserve cultures and spread knowledge," Alluka explained, carefully setting the container on the table.

"I'm not very attached to my culture," due to growing up in a single room, "but, but I knew your birthday was coming up and I know you and your family were much more connected to your culture. So... so I thought maybe making you something from it, but I can't make anything too complicated..."

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"We are," Kathy said. "Well, were. I think it's because we're first gen immigrants, you know? There's this huge push to assimilate, but also to hold onto huge chunks of your culture at the same time. Be American, but never forget where you came from."

She grinned at Alluka, feeling a chunk of the foamy candy fizz in her mouth. "Come over sometime and I'll teach you how to make kimchi," she said. "I cam across my mom's old recipe."

[that_oldsaying]

"I'd love to," Alluka said, sitting back down, another box in her hands now. This one was wrapped, in two kinds of papers, one half with little suns and the other half with little moons. "I'm getting better at cooking, but mostly campfire stuff. We're not always near a real kitchen."

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"And see, that's where you have me beat," Kathy admitted, looking curiously at the box. "Without a stove and pots and pans, I'd be lost. Even the grill was kind of intimidating for me."

[that_oldsaying]

She giggled.

"Then, then if we go camping, I'll make sure you have food to eat," Alluka said, offering the box the Kathy. "This one is from Nanika and I, together. We each picked one out."

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"Binyeo," Kathy said, holding up the pink one to the light. She laughed, a short sound, but when she looked back down to Alluka, there were tears in her eyes. Happy ones. "This looks like the one I picked out for Sarah's fifteenth birthday," she said, not pointing out that she'd died before Kathy'd had a chance to give it to her.

It was with her now, though, through the magic of Fandom.

"One of you has very similar tastes to me. And I like that."

[that_oldsaying]

"Nanika says you're welcome," Alluka said, smiling. "She liked that one best."

And it didn't bother her if Nanika had similar tastes to Kathy!

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Well, it wasn't like Alluka and Nanika were in competition for Kathy's (boundless) affection!

Kathy quickly braided her hair and looped it back up into a low knot on the back of her neck, securing it with Alluka's binyeo. "Should I let you borrow this one for tonight?" she asked, holding the pink one up. "And do your hair like mine?"

[that_oldsaying]

Feelings were complicated!

"Oh, yes, please!" Alluka said, eyes bright. "As long as you don't mind!"

[spin_kick_snap]

Infinitely.

"So long as you don't run off tonight with my binyeo, I don't mind at all," Kathy assured her. "Come sit in front of me on this bench and I'll braid your hair."