fandomhighdorms | 5th Floor Common Room, Thursday Afternoon

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5th Floor Common Room, Thursday Afternoon

Kathy had spent much of the morning making a list of all the things about her life that she was going to have to hide from her parents tomorrow when they visited. Sex, powers, Banzai, the island were obvious candidates, of course, but by the time she'd gotten to Raven's abilities, my piercings, Japanese friends, she just couldn't take it anymore. Hiding bits of her life and personality from her family was fine. She was used to that. But having to act like she was ashamed of her friends because her dad was a bigot who couldn't let history go? That was just a line too far.

So, rather than think about her parents at all, Kathy had found the most complicated recipe for strawberry cupcakes she could find, ran to the store for ingredients, and had come to the common room to throw herself into an whirlwind of baking. It was hard to think about, well, anything, when you were trying to made graham cracker crust by hand at the same time you were thickening strawberry filling in a saucepan and beating butter and cream cheese together for frosting.

Normally, she would have tried to distract herself with homework, burying all the things she didn't want to think about under piles of equations, chemical formulae, and essay outlines. It felt good to be doing the same thing with something as frivolous as baking, especially since her parents would have vastly preferred the former. And between snacking on cupcakes (for quality control!) and belting out classic rock, Kathy managed to jolly herself back into a good mood in a fairly short amount of time.

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Funny how most of their interactions were in public. Oops?

"This me?" Kathy asked. "Are there so many of me, then? And--what? You're not fond of the others?"

"The others are all right," Dante said. Which in his general vocabulary of non-effusiveness was basically the same as being fond of them. "But you just going for what you want? That's peak Kathy."

"See, it's a pity you don't hang out with Banzai more," Kathy said, grabbing an unfrosted cupcake to start hollowing it out so she could add the strawberry compote to it. "That's when I find it the easiest to go for what I want. And I'm far more inclined to take it, rather than asking politely."

She shook her head. "And god only knows what you would have thought of me if you'd met me when I first showed up. Or even a year ago, really."

All of her assertiveness was a pretty new development.

Hey, he'd scored another free cupcake, so Dante was going to pick one up before he responded. "Banzai's got weird ideas about running around in rainbows," he said. "This is hotter."

He took a bite of the cupcake.

"Douchebag Dad got you that bad, huh?"

Yeah, that was his name now, Kathy. Deal with it.

"I--I was just a shy kid," Kathy said, shrugging. "Shy and quiet and nerdy. I just had to outgrow that a bit."

And the fact she'd done all that outgrowing here, outside of her parents' influence and in only a few years?

...Dammit, even Kathy couldn't make a good argument for it being purely coincidental.

"Maybe I just meant you'd like me better now just because my skirts are a lot shorter." Or maybe Kathy was using a joke to deflect. WHO KNEW?

"I do appreciate the attention to detail."

He took another bite. And looked. Hey, he was cool with deflection, even if he was genuinely curious.

Considering Dante practically led the 'I don't wanna talk about it' brigade (tied for first with Ezra) it would be weird if he wasn't. Granted, it annoyed Kathy to be on the receiving end of it, but she was generally willing to let it go.

Most of Kathy didn't move, serenely coring cupcakes while she brought her knee up to her chest and then extended her leg up, toes pointing at the ceiling. "Maybe I just like attention," she suggested, holding that pose for a moment before dropping her leg back down and demurely crossing her ankles.

Which, again, was more true than it had been two years ago, but was still laughable in certain circumstances.

Hey, there. Dante tilted his head for as long as she held that leg up, though it didn't distract him from polishing off the rest of that cupcake. "You're pretty good at getting mine," he said. "No idea if that'd be different a year ago, but who cares?"

Not the leader of the 'I don't wanna talk about it' brigade, that was for sure.

Dante? Not interested in the past, even a hypothetical one? Quelle surprise.

"You're good at getting mine, too," she said. "You've had it pretty much since the picnic."

Dante laughed. "You sure knew how to splutter," he said, "But you tried to hang in there."

And Kathy joined him. "If you think you've seen the last of my spluttering or blushing, you're in for a real surprise," she said. "Just ask Ezra. He gets a kick out of how easily I still blush, even after...everything."

"How'd that get started anyway?" Dante asked.

He was keeping half an eye on the rest of those cupcakes, but he was interested.

Considering the conversation he'd had with Isabela earlier, he was going to love her answer.

"Honestly?" she said. "Sex pollen."

She'd happily give him the whole story, but the phrase 'sex pollen' deserved to stand on its own.

Aaand that got his full attention back on her, at least.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," Kathy said, grinning. "It happens just about every year. Usually around Valentine's Day or prom, I guess. And we met in a common room game of spin the bottle. I worked up the nerve to kiss him after the game ended, actually. And then a few weeks later, he came by to ask about a message I'd accidentally left on his voicemail." She sighed and shook her head. "I called him a prude--sorta--and mentioned posing naked in doorways. He was intrigued enough to try to find out more."

Possibly more by the prude comment than the naked lounging.

"You called Ezra a prude?"

Yeah, this was getting funnier by the minute.

"Like I said, it was an accident!" Kathy said, laughing. "A--a misdial, kind of!" She could explain to him that sometimes the phones went crazy, but there were some experiences you just needed to let newbies have for themselves. "But, yeah, I did. So he came up to my room to prove to me exactly how not prudish he really is."

Her laughter tapered off into a fond smile. "I mean, that time we just messed around, really. I lost my shirt, but that's about it. He wasn't my first kiss--" that distinction belonged to Anders, actually, "--but he was my first everything else. And he let me take things at my own pace, helping me learn what I liked while teaching me what he did." She picked up the knife to start spreading the frosting over the now-filled cupcakes. "I started off by telling him we probably wouldn't get much past kissing. And now he's got me coming in alleyways, just daring someone to walk by."

Dante shook his head as she talked, grinning.

"Oh, Ez," he said. "Fuck, I love that guy."

He reached for another cupcake. He was kind of hardwired to try his luck like that. "He knows what he's doing."

And Kathy's hand was there, smacking at his to try to keep him away from them. You think she wasn't ready for that, Dante? She had a little sister, c'mon now.

"Hey there, what happened to charming me into sharing?" she chided. "And would you be so impressed with Ezra if I told you the first time I tried to get him to sleep with me, he got distracted halfway and chased after an alot instead?"

It had taken awhile, but not Kathy was able to see that as funny and not a blow to her pride.

"I'm hungry," Dante retorted.

And not terribly good at shooting her innocent, charming smiles, as it turned out.

"Wait, chasing after an alot?" Beat. "Did he go fox on you, or what?"

The innocent thing as definitely a stretch, it was true.

"You could always ask," Kathy pointed out. "Nicely. You'd be surprised what simple manners can do." And then, just to be a brat, she took a bite of her freshly frosted cupcake and gave an, "Mmmm" at how good it was.

"And, yeah, pretty much. We were in the woods, having a picnic, things were happening, and then suddenly he was off, chasing after something and leaving me confused and aggravated on the blanket."

Again, a lot funnier now than it had been then.

"Shoulda grabbed him by the scruff of his adorable neck and given him a good tongue-lashing," Dante said.

Yeah, smirking was definitely working out better on him. And puns.

And he could just take a cupcake if he really wanted to. He was just debating if he did.

Of course he could. But then he'd piss off the person who made him cupcakes, likely resulting in no cupcakes in the future. Didn't it just make more sense to be nice, thus getting cupcakes now and later?

"Yeah, I decided to pack up and go home instead," she said, sucking frosting off her finger. "I figure any compelling argument I had, I'd already made by being naked on the blanket."

Yeah, but... being nice was weird. And he was still hungry!

"Pretty sure he didn't get the message about turning into a fox halfway into getting laid that way," Dante said.

Not focusing on her mouth this time, because: serious internal debate about the merits of those cupcakes.

That was okay, she was still going to enjoy her frosting. And the strawberry that came with it.

"Well, if he ever does the same thing to you, I'm sure you'll be able to impart that lesson better than I could have," Kathy told him. "And then I hope you come see me and tell me all about it."

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