Strokes of Genius, Thursday (December 10)

[thismaskiwear]

Her head was still full of thoughts of ladies, tigers, idiot kings, sexist archaic crap, and new boots by the time Katchoo arrived at work, and it was really the last of those thoughts that had her whistling occasional broken snippets of classic showtunes around the shelves as she restocked

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[flowering_mind]

"Fandom is cruel," Ino informed her from the doorway. "Cruel and unusual today."

A beat.

"And hi!"

[thismaskiwear]

"More than a usual day, less than the weekend?" Katchoo hazarded, and oh look, a tiny, tiny hint of a smile. "Oh, God, don't tell me -- if I open the windows I get sprayed in the face by something nauseatingly peppermint-scented."

[flowering_mind]

Ino considered that.

"Not 'less someone's trying to kill you or something," she decided impishly.

[thismaskiwear]

"Not this week." Katchoo favored her with a dry chuckle. "At least, not that I know of. So, what's the evil island doing this time?"

Hang on -- there was something poking the inside of her left wrist. She fiddled with the wide leather band and pulled out a tiny wrapped candy cane where the razor blade usually was. "Huh."

[thatsamilkshake]

Not that Francine was getting paranoid about this by now, but if the first words out of her mouth when she came in with take-out fried chicken were, "Sanity check: you love who?" well, can you really blame her?

[thismaskiwear]

Katchoo bounded (clunkily) out from behind the counter over to Francine, reaching for her hand. "You, obviously, dork, but sanity has nothing to do with it. Neither does the fried chicken, but I love you for that too."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Judges will accept that answer," Francine decided, going for a quick hello-kiss that was made oddly less awkward by the fact that her patience with the entire world was wearing thin this week and she just didn't have the energy to wibble internally for thirty seconds about whether she felt stupid and clumsy doing that, or not.

[thismaskiwear]

"Oh, good. I didn't have a bribe ready for the judges today." Katchoo looked up at her, frowning, but ooo, she didn't have to look up at quite as sharply an angle in these boots. "What happened? This isn't Raven again, is it?"