Kwik Stop Rooftop, Wednesday Afternoon

[rebelseekspizza]

"Look, I said I'm sorry I'm late," Dante said, eyeing the cat sitting on the other side of the roof. "And that I didn't show up last week. You gonna hold that over my head forever?"

The cat ignored him, licking its paw daintily. Not that it was doing much to get rid of the grime.

"I brought bacon," Dante added, holding up a strip. "You're seriously not going to come over here for that?" Nope. No response, apparently.

Dante sighed, leaning back on the roof, and shut his eyes. Weather wasn't great today anyway. Maybe he should go back indoo-- "Hey!"

The cat shoved Dante's hood down over his head, fell forward into his lap, grabbed the bacon and ran. "Are you fur real?!"

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Comments

[cracksmostly]

That there was actually a person on the roof came as a bit of a surprise; it was the cat that had gotten Merrill's attention first.

She squinted upward for several seconds, frowning, before she finally called, "Why are you up there?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante'd seen her coming before, of course, but he hadn't paid Merrill all that much attention - glaring at the cat had taken precedence - until she spoke up.

His head turned towards her, and he squinted. "Wanted to relax, so I figured I'd get high," he called.

[cracksmostly]

"So you didn't end up there by accident?" What? That was just as likely, wasn't it? "Though I don't think I understand what being high has to do with relaxing."

Tragically, the pun had gone both literally and figuratively over her head.

[rebelseekspizza]

That was okay. That just meant Dante had to look really amused by a) himself and b) her at the same time. "Somebody's got to start taking you to the right bars," he called.

Like Isabela!

"But no, I'm not up here by accident. I like the view."

And/or the cat. And/or he just spent his life feeling a strange, inexplicable urge to sprawl on weird things.

[cracksmostly]

And try to fit into spaces that should not physically accommodate him at all and yet somehow did?

"I think I missed something," Merrill said, half to herself, echoing what would be a mantra of hers for years yet. "But that's good. At least you have an idea of how to get back down again later, when you're done looking. And making faces at cats."

[rebelseekspizza]

Hey, as long as he was laughing in the face of Isaac Newton anyway...

"I'm not making faces," Dante replied. "The cat's just being a dick."

Yeah. Sure.

[cracksmostly]

It would make sense for cat physics to apply to him, yes.

Merrill giggled. "So the cat started it, then?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"He's just pissed I wasn't here last week," Dante reported. "Who knew cats could be clingy?"

Admittedly, not a description pretty much anyone else on the island had cause to pin on this particular cat.

[cracksmostly]

"Lots of animals can be. They just don't want you to know it," Merrill pointed out, although even she seemed slightly dubious about how accurate that description was in reference to this particular cat. "He missed you, though! That's sweet."

Speaking of descriptions most people wouldn't use.

[rebelseekspizza]

"It'd be sweeter if he didn't keep messing with my clothes and then running over there, like some kinda hooligan," Dante said. (That was a description most people would use. For him and for the cat.) He pointed at the cat. "You might as well fuck off!" he called.

[cracksmostly]

"Oh, I don't think he's going to do that. He's probably trying to play with you," Merrill suggested. "In a . . . bratty sort of way."

[rebelseekspizza]

"He's going to have to come up with a new game, then," Dante said.

After a moment's thought, he pushed off the roof and landed neatly on the ground on both feet. There. You come back from that, cat.

[cracksmostly]

"Oooooh. I couldn't do that," said Merrill, clearly impressed. "I'd probably land on my head somehow. Are you sure you're not part cat yourself? Maybe that's why this one likes you so much."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nah," Dante said. "Know a guy who's part fox, though."

Though on the oth-- yeah, no, cats didn't have super strength.

[cracksmostly]

"Maybe something else that's very graceful?" Merrill said thoughtfully, peering up at the rooftop for a glimpse of the cat. "Like . . . oh, I don't know. You spend a lot of time on roofs, do you?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"You think I'm graceful?" Dante asked, smirking.

Because of course that's what he took from it.

(And he knew he had his own kind of grace. Still.)

[cracksmostly]

Of course it was.

"Well, you'd have to be, to get up and down from the roof like that, and you're certainly not clumsy. I wish I could do things like that, instead of tripping over things," Merrill said wistfully.

[rebelseekspizza]

Oh, Merrill. If Isabela hadn't more or less threatened him with death, he'd-- okay, he'd probably still not hit on you too hard. You had that whole baby bird thing going on.

"Hey, I'm sure you have your own skills," Dante said, idly walking towards her.

[cracksmostly]

She was the baby bird that occasionally fell out of the nest, really.

"Not a whole lot of people have much use for having hours and hours of Dalish history recited at them," Merrill said with a wry little huff that wasn't quite a laugh. "Though I wonder if your cat friend might -- never mind. I know a little bit of magic, but that isn't -- not everyone thinks of that as a skill."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante squinted at her. "Magic?" he said. "Like Anders?"

He might not have gotten the memo about being careful about mentioning that kind of thing.

[cracksmostly]

"Like that, but a little bit different. I don't think human magic is quite the same as the Dalish. You know A-- maybe I shouldn't have said that," Merrill said quickly, going wide-eyed. "I'm not very good at remembering when not to babble."

Relax, Merrill, no one's going to catch you even after you're part of Kirkwall's Worst Kept Secret.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante tilted his head at her curiously. "So you don't set stuff on fire?" he checked.

Because that was the relevant part.

[cracksmostly]

"No," Merrill blurted out. "I mean, I can, but only if I want to, not by accident any more."

Which was a good thing when you spent most of your life in forests and such.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I meant on purpose. But now I gotta know," Dante said, "You used to be a firestarter, huh?"

Dante, no.