Caritas- Tuesday

[throughaphase]

The holidays were over and Kitty and Tino were embroiled in a fight. She wanted to take the tree down, he was one of the people who insisted that it stayed up till the Epiphany. (Who saw that one coming.) Maybe he just liked having the tree up? Or was sampling what was left of the ornaments? Maybe he'd simply read it somewhere. Her arguments that she didn't even believe in all that, she just liked pretty tree lights wasn't really going over well.

So the fight was pretty silent. She'd go to the back room and take down some ornaments, he'd sneak back later and put them back on.

This was gonna be an all night thing.


[Open!]

Comments

[died8yearsago]

Well, it was Tuesday, and Rosa was around, so of course she was coming in and lifting an eyebrow at the palpable tension in the air that she wasn't yet sure if she wanted to ask about.

So she just sat down and gave Kitty a nod.

"Kitty."

[throughaphase]

"Hi. When do you take a tree down?"

Welp.

[died8yearsago]

Rosa looked at Kitty for a moment.

"As soon as humanly possible," she stated. "But you are talking to someone who doesn't see why anyone bothers putting on up in the first place."

Just kindly ignore that a conversation about potentially getting one had taken place. Rosa would firmly deny the existence of said conversation, thank you.

[throughaphase]

"Because it's pretty," Kitty stated. "Tino is apparently a stickler about keeping it up."

Not dirty, dear god, not dirty.

[died8yearsago]

Well, if the narrative hadn't pointed it out...

"That's one hundred times more reason to take it down," Rosa pointed out. "You want me to do it? I'll do it."

She was already pushing off her seat onto her feet, even.

[myfifthrodeo]

Clearly what this place needed was the other Rosa, right? Well, whether it did or not, she was promised some virgin cocktails to sample -- and she was bored -- so here she was.

"Woo. Got some tension going on in here, huh."

[throughaphase]

"Please don't get tossed into the lake, it's January and I'm not sure when the clinic closes," Kitty warned.

[throughaphase]

"There's a passive aggressive debate happening about when the tree comes down," Kitty said. "What say you?"

[myfifthrodeo]

"We always kept it up at least through Día de Reyes," Rosa said, shrugging. "But that's probably at least half Papi being too busy in the diner to take it down any sooner."

[throughaphase]

"Okay so you seem to be Team Tino," Kitty said. "I am kind of wondering if he's really just procrastinating instead of having an actual reason."

[myfifthrodeo]

Rosa looked over at Tino, wrinkling her nose. "Sorry about that. I don't have a tree at all at home."

She did have a large mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe half-done on her wall, though.

[throughaphase]

"Not big on the holiday or is it too much trouble?" Both were valid, as far as Kitty was concerned.

[myfifthrodeo]

"Oh, it's huge for my family. But that's why I went back to Roswell for it." Rosa shrugged. "My dad's really religious, and I kind of . . . missed a bunch of Christmases for a while, so he and my sister get really extra clingy."

[myfifthrodeo]

Rosa couldn't help but give this other woman a thorough once over. She looked like she could eat glass -- or at least wanted people to think she could. Rosa had all sorts of outfit envy going on.

[throughaphase]

"Is clingy good or bad? Or am I prying?" Kitty checked.

[myfifthrodeo]

Rosa laughed. "It's fine. I can't really blame her." She considered for a moment, then finally just decided she was tired of dancing around it. It didn't seem like it would kick up too much of a fuss around here. "I was dead for ten years. I'd be clingy, too."

[died8yearsago]

Rosa would definitely chew glass. She'd probably love it.

For now, though, she was staunchly ignoring any newbies who were eyeing her in favor of just enjoying her beer in silence, as God intended.

[throughaphase]

"Well, that sucks," Kitty said, like that was a totally normal thing to hear. "You're okay now?"

She had friends who had come back kinda different, see.

[myfifthrodeo]

Well, that just meant Rosa could watch her at her leisure. She plucked a cherry from her mocktail and bit it off the stem, still eyeing the woman, then idly chewed on the stem.

She at least needed to get the name of this woman's lipstick.

[myfifthrodeo]

"All recovered and not even a little burned."

But, uh, definitely different, yes. That would probably take a little longer to come out, though.

"Guess bartending around here means you hear all sorts of stories, huh?"

[throughaphase]

"Well yeah, but this is more a home thing for me," Kitty explained. "Way too many of my friends have been dead for years and come back."

[myfifthrodeo]

"Really?" Rosa blinked, eyebrow going up. ". . . Were they resurrected by aliens too?"

[died8yearsago]

"It's fine," Rosa assured her. "In fact, it's brilliant. I used to do the Polar Bear plunge every year just to get out of having to do Christmas with my family, and think of how much less work that's going to be. I grab the tree, punch Tino in the face, I take the tree with me to the pond, bam. Perfect. I don't need to drag it out and the fish get a belated festive treat."

[throughaphase]

"Is there a way to make sure the tree doesn't end up in the pond?" Kitty wondered. "We need to use it again next year."

[throughaphase]

"No. I mean, I was, but my case was really temporary."

Comics!