fandomtownies | Outside the Ruins of Pizza Planet, Sunday Morning

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Outside the Ruins of Pizza Planet, Sunday Morning

"This," Dante said, "Has got to be the most depressing part of the week so far."

No, the entire town being in disrepair wasn't it. Running into Kathy wasn't it. Fighting a tentacle beast wasn't it.

He picked a sliver of cardboard with the Pizza Planet logo still on top of it up out of the debris, and sighed. "Shitting hell."

[[ open. idek. ]]

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"No, I don't hate her."

Fuck. Realizing that much just made him feel tired.

"But do I still want to smack her? Yeah."

"Believe me," she said with a short laugh, "I know the feeling."

Some days she itched to slap that mask right off of him. Or Anders, when Justice was looking out of his eyes and--ugh.

"I thought you two were gonna get an apartment and you were gonna go to college," Dante said. He shoved his hands into his pockets. "It'd be fine, you know? Good."

Kathy nodded, willing to listen to Dante talk. Hell, enjoying hearing Dante talk. She was hungry for this, she realized. Just conversation between them that wasn't fraught by might-have-beens and bitterness and angst. "He was going to follow me out to California?" she asked, more to urge Dante to keep going than because she doubted the answer.

"I think he was gonna when he graduated," Dante said, "Not sure if he was sure of it, but he really fucking loved you, Kat."

Fucking hell, he was gonna break his own heart here.

"Yeah," Kathy said. "He did."

Past tense for her. For both of her, really.

"I really love him, too."

Present.

"Yeah," Dante said.

He sucked in a loud breath of air. "You and him here...?"

She shook her head. "No. None of us are exactly...close anymore. Most days, we wind up avoiding one another. When we do meet up, we fight. It's the same old fight, too."

She was bitter, Anders had Justice, and Dante refused to get close to anyone. They went round in circles, playing it out a hundred times over.

"Have you met him, here? He's...different. Went home. Made some bad choices. Came back changed."

Dante shook his head. "I've been busy keeping an eye on my own Anders," he admitted. "Haven't gone out to find the other one."

"Good," Kathy said. "That's good. Not that I have a right to tell either of you what's best," she added, her grin growing wry and self-mocking. "But I'm glad you two have each other....'s backs."

That last bit had been tacked on belatedly, after she realized that Dante might not appreciate the alternate phrasing.

Dante shrugged vaguely anyway, altered phrasing or not.

"He's had a tough year," he said, "Wasn't gonna bail on him if I could help it."

"Must be nice," she said before she could help it, then looked away. And when she spoke again, it was to change the subject. "Look, I know this is gonna be weird for you for awhile. If you want, we can maybe try to hash out something so you don't have to worry about running into me, at least until you're settled in more. Give you a chance to adjust. I already don't live in the park, so that's easy enough to avoid."

Maybe he could get tips from other him on how to avoid her. That Dante practically had it down to a science.

Dante blinked a couple of times, and then shook his head.

"Why the fuck would I do that?" he asked. "Yeah, it kinda sucks sometimes, but..."

He trailed off.

He didn't want to say that he missed Kathy - or at least the Kathy Kathy had been before she turned on him.

It was Kathy's turn to blink. She was used to the other Dante's belief that the inevitable suck meant he had to avoid her.

"Because--because..." She didn't have a better answer for him than because I'm me. "For Anders' sake?"

Other Dante had had a few different life experiences than this one.

"That doesn't even make any sense," he pointed out. "Fuckin' hell, Kat."

"I'm just saying, if you're with him to keep an eye on him and he doesn't want to see me..." She trailed off, unable to follow her own logic, either. "Made sense in my head," she muttered. "Look, I just don't want to cause any more hurt than another me already has, okay? I'm trying to be thoughtful. Bear with me, it's been awhile, okay? I'm rusty."

"You're fine," Dante said, a small smile playing across his mouth, even if he didn't realize it. "It's. You remind me of her before I was pissed at her, you know? It hurts, but it's good."

And he'd know about the various degrees and complexities of hurts.

"She must not have been that great then," Kathy said, huffing a small laugh. "I'm kind of a bitch."

"You're a little more down in the dumps," Dante said, tilting his head. "That's all."

Kathy thought back to some of the things she'd done to survive Fandom and shook her head. But, hey, if Dante wanted to believe that, who was she to tell him otherwise? He'd find out soon enough, most likely.

"Come on, Dante, at least go with broodingly tragic," she snorted. "It means the same thing but sounds so much better."

Dante pulled a face. "Broodingly tragic's not really my style," he said. "Or yours."

"How do you know I don't stand at the window of my warehouse, staring through the window at middle distance, thinking sad thoughts as a single tear falls down my cheek?" Kathy asked with a smirk.

"'Cause you're smirking about it," Dante pointed out, with a helpful gesture.

"I smirk about a lot of things," Kathy countered. "You know, when I'm not tragically brooding."

"You're fulla shit in any universe, Kathy," Dante said.

He meant it cheerfully for once, instead of judging.

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