Dite's Decadent Delights, Tuesday

[spin_kick_snap]

The shop was a mess. She wasn't sure how they'd gotten in, but there were dead goldfish laying around the ground and octopus ink on the top shelves, and a whole bunch of unidentifiable gunk and goo pretty much everywhere else. Half the stock was ruined and Kathy wasn't entirely sure whether the shop's insurance covered 'Acts of Fandom.' Though that got her wondering if places on the island actually had insurance and what kind of idiots would offer Fandom insurance anyway. Something to look up, after she finished scouring the store.

Until then, Kathy had a date with cleaning chemicals and scrub brushes. By the time she was finished, this was going to be the cleanest dirty store ever.

[No OCD]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

So Dante hadn't seen Kathy around, but hey, it'd been an invasion. He should at least check and see if she'd made it through alive, right?

And okay, shit was still kind of awkward, but not as awkward as it used to be. He hesitated by the door for a fraction of a second-- but then he stepped in. "Kathy?"

[spin_kick_snap]

She was about as alive and well as ever, however you wanted to take that.

Dante probably wasn't expecting her head to pop up from the top of one of the shelves, but the large ink stain dripping down the back of it at least explained why. "Hey, Dante," she said, a smudge of ink on her face. "If you're here to shop, you might wanna come back after I've had a chance to clean up a little. This place looks like a warzone."

[rebelseekspizza]

There was a prolonged silence as Dante took in the scene in front of him, then her face.

"...Please tell me it didn't turn Japanese porn in here."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't know, I wasn't here and I'm not thinking about it," Kathy said, bouncing down from the shelf. "I don't want to know what creatures with tentacles did in any sex shop, never mind my sex shop." Beat.

"Might have to burn my old school uniform, just to be safe." She was way too East Asian to take chances with sapient cephalopods around.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Might wanna burn the fleshlights too," Dante said, frowning.

He took a few steps inside and glanced over there. Just to be safe, obviously. "You been in the library all weekend?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, that was a thought I hadn't had before," Kathy grumbled, adding a new to-do to her mental list. "And, yeah, most of it. After Gratuity figured out the Konami code was supposed to do something up at Galactica, I went home to shower and sleep."

Missed your pizzas, Dante. Sorry.

"Stayed at my place yesterday. Decided to catch up with some reading. You went out there, right?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, it was kinda nuts down there," Dante said, stepping around an ink stain as he turned towards her. "You didn't head out to fight at all?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Nah," Kathy said, studiously fiddling with a bucket handle. "Seemed too much like what Banzai would have done. Weirded me out, so I played civilian instead."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I guess that's good." Funny, that didn't quite come out like Dante was convinced, even if he approved of her not Banzai-ing it up. "I guess that answers all of my questions too."

[spin_kick_snap]

She glanced up at him. "What questions?"

And why was his tone weird?

[rebelseekspizza]

"Like if you were doing okay or gotten hurt or something," Dante said, shrugging. "I figured I'd check in on you."

And also tell her about something he felt vaguely awkward about. Woo.

[spin_kick_snap]

Dite's seemed to be the place for awkward conversations!

"I'm okay," she said. "A little fidgety, but okay." Okay, kind of a lot fidgety, now that she no longer had fight club to fall back on and had been cooped up for the weekend, but she'd deal.

Twitch twitch.

"You okay?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I'm fine," Dante said easily. He squinted at her. "... Okay, why are you fidgety?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Dammit, Dante. Stop knowing her so well.

Kathy sighed. "Just got a lot of pent-up everything, I guess," she said. "Not doing the Baltimore thing anymore. My last place got broken up by the cops and between Eliot's lecture on the way back from the station and Anders' really not liking the whole, I'm not looking for a new one."

Which really cut down on the number of fights she could get into. Unless she wanted to start chasing down bad guys again and--no.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You're... fidgety because you haven't gotten to punch anything for a while?" Dante summarized. "Huh."

He could get that.

"You can whale on me for a while if it'll help," he said, without really thinking about it.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Sort of," Kathy said, turning from where she'd been washing the floor to look at him again. "You'd...you's have to hit back. Not like a spar, either. Like a fight."

Dante would have to hold back, of course. A punch at his full strength would probably re-kill her, even without Eryx. But he'd still have fight back or it wouldn't do much at all.

"Could you do that?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Don't expect me to leave you any black eyes," Dante said, mildly surprised she'd taken him up on it. He wasn't even sure how serious he was about it. "But we can give it a shot, if it'll help."

He had a feeling he was going to have to learn how to fight while handicapping himself.

[spin_kick_snap]

He was the best option she had. Hell, he might be the only option she had. She'd be able to really let go for a change, which would be nice.

"I'm okay if you avoid the face," Kathy assured him with wry humor. "But it's just not the same if you don't hit back."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I can hit back," Dante allowed. "A little."

He'd probably be dodging more for a while than actually hitting, but he could pull it off. "Gym sometime?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Sounds good," Kathy said, more than a little surprised that it was actually going to happen. She really hadn't expected him to offer--so much so, she hadn't even thought to ask. "Thanks. That'll help."

Hopefully.

"Heh. Remember the first time we did that and Ezra showed up with snack to watch?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snickered. "And he lazy-assed it all the way through until we headed out to have some fun."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I mean, that's Ezra in a nutshell right there," Kathy said with a fond smile. "Have you talked to him since Limbo City?"

Kathy had tried but Ezra's usual reticence to talk was compounded by his aggressive desire not to talk to her.

[rebelseekspizza]

"A little bit, but he Ezra'd it," Dante admitted. "So... I didn't hear much outta him."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I hope he's doing okay," Kathy sighed. "Not that we'll ever know whether he is or not."

Unless and until he hit rock bottom. And probably not even then.

[rebelseekspizza]

"His choice," Dante said, walking up to the counter - he needed something to lean on. "Nothing we can do about it."