Rocky Bits, Friday Morning

[moodyvagrant]

It was a cold morning, and Anders shivered inside his ragged jacket as he picked through the rubble on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. It wasn't a bad place to scavenge: Sometimes there was wire there, or glass, and once a plastic bag holding a precious half-full box of bandages

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[godilovedthis]

If anybody asked, Kathy would swear to her dying breath that she'd always intended to come up here. Sure, climbing was hell on her legs and the rocks were an omnipresent danger, but whatever--good scavenging, wire, glass, et cetera. The fact that Anders was up here was purely coincidence.

Cresting the rise, she paused for a moment--to catch her breath, the do a quick scan for hollows...but mostly, just to watch him. How close was Justice to the surface right now? How careworn did Anders look today?

Foolishness. She blamed it on all the new people, constantly trying to make her feel things. So when she did speak, it was to drawl, "Fancy meeting you here," like she didn't care one way or another.

And maybe, if she concentrated, she could believe it, too.

[rebelscreams]

Dante... well, Dante had spent his fair share of time moving around the island these past few days. Keeping an eye on everyone was harder when there was a flock of new people wandering around, getting into trouble.

And so it was inevitable that he'd eventually trip all over one of his own rules again.

One was bad enough. Two was worse.

He slipped silently between the rockier parts, staying out of sight.

He was already here. He might as well watch over them for now.

[moodyvagrant]

Anders sensed someone was watching, but that wasn't unusual. Not unusual enough to worry about until whoever-it-was attacked, anyhow.

"It's not a bad place to be," he said, solely addressing Kathy (and ignoring his complicated feelings about her). "Seems like people have picked it through pretty well right now, though. I haven't found anything but a hairtie."

To be fair, he always needed hairties.

[godilovedthis]

"Well, that one will be a decent replacement for when you inevitably lose the current one." There was enough humor lurking around the edges of that statement to turn it from a chastise to a joke, shared between the two of them.

Which meant, of course, that as soon as she realized that was what it was, she'd stiffened a bit and turned her back on him to go poking through a pile of rocks by her feet.

[rebelscreams]

As silently as he could, Dante pushed himself up onto a particularly high rock.

Look, he wasn't trying to be a creeper. He was just... unconcerned about appearances right now.

(It was still nice seeing them together again.)

[moodyvagrant]

"I don't know where they all go," Anders said, with the same undercurrent of old humor. "Maybe they turn hollow. Who can say?"

As he spoke, Dante's shock of bright hair caught his eye, and he tilted his head in that direction. "-- someone is here."

He knew who it was. He just wasn't sure he wanted to say.

[godilovedthis]

Kathy glanced over and smothered a sigh as she caught a glimpse of Dante's mask and her stomach lurched uncomfortably. The three of them hadn't been together in one place since...when had it been?

"Oh, look, a reunion," she said, pouring on the sarcasm. "How nice. Shall we invite him over or leave him to skulk?"

Part of her wanted to call him over. Part of her wanted to do anything but, so as to avoid watching him refuse.

[rebelscreams]

And they'd spotted him.

Oh well.

Dante wasn't going to run away; that had never been his style.

He held up a hand and gave them both a sardonic little wave.

[moodyvagrant]

"Come over, Dante," Anders called, raising his voice. "No point hiding. Not form us."

He sounded, and felt, suspicious. Why were they all three here, after so long? Was he being set up?

[godilovedthis]

"If I'd known this was going to be a party, I would have worn my pretty dress," Kathy snarked. Not that she had anything that could be called pretty anymore. Or that she'd wear a dress, not with her legs looking the way they did, lumpy and mottled and scarred.

Dammit, she should have stayed in town, rather than trailing after Anders like a forlorn puppy. Actually, considering the two people with her, perhaps she should have gone with bedraggled kitten? Better odds they'd care.

[rebelscreams]

Because things were changing. Of that much, Dante was aware.

He just wasn't sure if Anders - or rather, the thing in Anders' head - was still paying attention.

He showed absolutely none of this, of course. He hopped off one rock onto another, fluidly and casually, and paced easily towards them. "So what brought on this party?"

[moodyvagrant]

"I came up to look for metal," Anders said, annoyed. He hated Dante's mask and Kathy's sarcasm -- though he supposed he'd changed just as much. "Kathy followed me, and you followed her. Can't you people just leave me alone?"

[godilovedthis]

Yeah, well, Kathy hated the way that sometimes the person looking out of Anders' eyes wasn't Anders. So there.

"Don't flatter yourself," Kathy snorted. "One time I came up here, there were nests with eggs in them and I ate like a queen for a week."

Sure, it had been spring and probably not this most recent spring, but whatever. It was a good enough explanation.

"So I come back and check from time to time." Like...in December.

[rebelscreams]

Dante didn't hate much of anything.

Or at least he tried not to. It made things easier.

"New people running around the island," he said idly, as he shoved his hands back into his pockets. "Just making sure everyone's safe. Ish."

He looked towards the coast. "And you told me to come over."

[moodyvagrant]

"Jono said that," Anders said, sharper. "New people. Cleaner. Us but healthy. I didn't know whether to believe it."

[godilovedthis]

"There are," Kathy said. "Younger versions of you are here. Both of you."

She knew Dante knew about his counterpart, but wasn't sure if he'd realized there was an Anders wandering around as well. Dante still had brown hair and Anders had no unwanted passenger. It sounded almost like a fairy tale if you ignored one simple fact.

Specifically, where the other Kathy was.