fandomhighdorms | The Gym, Tuesday Afternoon

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The Gym, Tuesday Afternoon

As if Kennedy hadn't been on edge enough this morning for no reason that she could place, just a vague irritable feeling upon waking up that she blamed on sleeping funny so her arm had been half-numb for an hour, the fog that had been creepy and bothersome since she'd gone out for an early run in it still hadn't let up. Oh, yeah, and then adding to the fun was the more recent hello, your-friend's-a-demon bombshell to process, which had derailed any thought of even bothering to figure out which fog-covered spot of behind-the-dorms was where Reserves was supposed to be. If it was even meeting in this.

Which added up to hi, edgy Kennedy in the gym, taking out the thrown-for-a-loop wiggedness by going at the heavy bag as hard as she could, which was not as hard as she thought she ought to be going at it, and would it be too much to ask for the stupid bag to budge just a little more for all the effort she was putting into this?

Tuesdays were supposed to be a high point of her week. They weren't supposed to go all freaky-weird on her, damn it. But they kept doing that. So, hitting things. It worked.

[[i lack the brain for actual fighty today, sadly. gym post is open, and i warn you now, my brain is goofy today so you might get some trippy-ass (and possibly slowish until i get home) pings.]]

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Tara was walking through the school complex, trying to shake off her whatever-it-was, and she paused at the gym entrance just to see what was going on.

"Baby?" she asked Kennedy as she walked toward her. "Aren't you usually at reserves about now?"

Yeah, that warranted calling for a break but first Kennedy slammed a forearm into the bag, exhaling in annoyance at what she thought wasn't nearly hard enough of a hit.

"Usually, yeah," she said, wiping her face off with the hem of her shirt as she turned to Tara. "There, uh, seems to be a little bit of a visibility issue today." As if it was zero-visibility or something, which wasn't the case, but then again it wasn't the only thing bothering her.

Tara wrinkled her nose. "I noticed," she said. "It's all hinky out there, huh? We spent all class talking about it. Nobody can tell what it is, just ... wrong."

"Safe to say it's definitely not right," Kennedy agreed, leaning against the bag. "I think it was messing with my head, earlier. I don't know, making me see things? I was out in it with Raven a little while ago, and we both kind of flipped out."

For starters. Gah.

Tara frowned and took a cross-legged seat on the mats near the bag.

"F-flipped out like how? Are you okay?"

Raven was usually pretty mellow, was the thing.

Yeah, Raven was pretty mellow, which made this whole thing extra difficult to process.

"I'm a little vague on the details in the middle," thank you very much, wacky emotion overload, "but she started spazzing like I was trying to hurt her, and then I freaked 'cause I thought something got her and was after me, and then..."

Kennedy's shoulders sagged and she dropped down onto the mats. "Oh, god, Tara, it's... I don't know. We're both okay but it's still kind of bad."

Tara moved as close to Kennedy as she could get without sitting on her and started stroking her hair and making soothing noises. She had no idea what this was, only that it sounded bad.

"You're safe," she crooned. "The fog'll burn off overnight and tomorrow everything will be fine. This is just -- island stuff."

If she said it enough, she might even believe it.

Before she could stop herself from letting down her tough-girl facade, Kennedy curled into Tara instinctively. There had been way too much going on lately to shake her concept of how the world worked, and it was, honestly, draining.

"She's part demon," she blurted out, completely forgetting that Raven had asked her not to tell. "I thought she was something else, and I hit her, and whenever the stuff affecting us wore off she was all..."

Kennedy made a vague gesture toward her face. "I asked her, and she said."

[[note to self, nfb. also, can change this if it's not okay.]]

"....What?"

Tara had no idea what to make of that; a certain amount of what was going through her mind was along the lines of oh, god, and I told her all about how happy I was when I found out I wasn't...

"She is? She's not -- she's not evil." A pause. "Is she?"

"She says she isn't. She definitely doesn't act like it," Kennedy replied, running a hand through her hair. "And I just don't know if I can believe it. Which sucks, I know, but... God. I don't know. It's Raven."

"It's Raven," Tara agreed a little numbly. "She -- listened to me, when I found out I wasn't one, and ... now I feel really bad."

She rubbed her forehead. "I th-think we should believe it. If we don't she's been lying to everybody and hiding it for months, right?"

Which she'd been doing anyhow, Tara realized, evil or not, but she couldn't fault Raven for not heading up the demon pride parade.

Edited 2010-03-23 19:36 (UTC)

"Oh, God. You told her about that, huh?" Kennedy asked with a little wince of her own, and something about Tara's words was triggering the vague sense that she should be feeling bad about her reaction earlier. Vague but getting slowly less so.

"Gotta say, there are better ways to find that out about a friend than trying to punch them in the face," she muttered. "Damn, this is really not my best day."

"Yeah...." Tara felt not-so-vaguely bad about it, now. "You went to hit her? Oh my god, is she hurt?"

The demon thing was forgotten for the second; Tara had a pretty good idea that Kennedy hit hard.

Not as hard as she wished she could, although for now that was actually a good thing.

Kennedy actually looked abashed; she ducked her head and nodded. "I... might've hit her a few times. I thought she was some kind of monster. She says she's okay, though, and I didn't see any bruises before I left." She raised her head and gave Tara a half-aggrieved look. "This is all way more complicated than I thought it was."

"More complicated than I thought it was, too," Tara said, a little ruefully. "It was way easier when I just figured demons were bad."

Worse, too, in that it had given her a burden that shadowed almost every moment of her life. But infinitely simpler.

Yeah, that part was definitely worse.

"Tell me about it. Y'know what I kind of love?" Kennedy asked, reaching over to cover Tara's hand with hers. "You get it, why this breaks my brain so much. I mean, friends and teachers who are demons, vampires fighting on our side, it's like, crazy. But there it is. And it's making my head spin a little."

"It's a spinny head thing," Tara said. "Between that and the creepy fog...."

She intertwined her fingers with Kennedy's. "It's a weird day already. Like you said, not the best one."

"I was going to go out patrolling tonight." Kennedy gave Tara's hand a light squeeze. "Don't know now if I should. If it makes me trip out again, not so good."

"Don't?" Tara said. It was a request, but a strong one. "We don't know what's wrong. I -- you can't get hurt, Kennedy. Please stay in."

In a wheedling tone, she added, "I'll bake cookies...."

"I should be keeping an eye out for people," Kennedy protested, but halfheartedly at best; she was just as likely to hurt someone else as help them if the earlier incident was any indication.

"...cookies, huh?" she relented. "You make a pretty irresistible offer."

"Your favorite kind," Tara promised, still wheedling. "You should rest anyhow ... you can go out tomorrow if it's still like this, right?"

"I'm not that tired." Now she was just protesting for the sake of it; Tara had already convinced her. "But since you're way too cute to say no to, and I can't turn down cookies, I think I can call it a day. Do I get to watch while you make 'em?"

Tara tilted in to kiss Kennedy's forehead. "I'll even let you lick the spoon."

"Oooh. Sexy," Kennedy teased-- not quite as lightly as usual, but mostly there. "You just might have yourself a deal here."

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The Gym, Tuesday Afternoon

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