5th Floor Common Room, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

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.

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

Her dad with teleportation powers. Now there was a terrifying mental image.

"...Shut up," she mumbled, which was Kathy for 'I know I was just ridiculous, you don't have to rub it in.'

[rebelseekspizza]

"Just say it," Dante replied, lifting his chin at her. "Blow off steam before he shows his mug."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Dante..." Kathy sighed. "Fuck him?"

Yeah, that was convincing, Kathy.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You can do better than that."

Dante snagged the last cupcake owed to him and bit into it, sinking back into the couch.

[spin_kick_snap]

"How come you get cupcakes and I get cusswords?" Kathy grumbled. "Fuck--fuck my dad. He'ss, umm, an asshole."

At least she got the whole thing out this time!

[rebelseekspizza]

"'Cause I need cupcakes," Dante said, "And you need cusswords. Which is a kind adorable word, by the way."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy flipped him off. "Still think I need cusswords?"

Because Dante would be so fazed, yes.

[rebelseekspizza]

"As long as you keep stammering through them, yep."

Dante took a bite of his cupcake and looked... largely amused.

[spin_kick_snap]

"If I said 'fuck you', would that count?" Kathy asked.

Except she still stammered on the f, so probably not.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Only if you can do it without saying f-f-f." Dante smirked at her over the cupcake.

[spin_kick_snap]

You know what? Kathy had a great idea. She hopped up from her seat and sauntered over to where Dante was lounging on the couch. Bending over, she whispered in his ear, "I could say 'fuck you' again. But I think I'd rather say, 'fuck me' instead."

[rebelseekspizza]

Hey, now. Talk about the nice kind of progress. Dante leaned towards her, reaching out to tuck some hair behind her ear. "Happy to," he whispered back. "Any way you like."

[spin_kick_snap]

She turned her head to catch a finger in her mouth, running her tongue around it briefly before letting it go again. "The answer to that?" she said with a smile. "Is frequently."