An Ice Creamery, Baltimore, Early Sunday Afternoon

[vanillajello]

Friday had been pretty spectacularly bad, and the less said about it the better. Saturday, Kate had just laid low and recuperated. And today, today was just one of those days she had to get off the island. It was just a necessity, being outside in the normal world. Not getting yelled at by vampires, not singing things that were better kept silent

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[future_sandworm]

There were so many things that made Leto want to act, but the path was still unclear. No, that wasn't entirely true; there was an outline, but he needed Ghani to agree. All this was a heavy burden to carry and he felt the need for distraction, so he called a person he knew could usually provide it. Having found a place where no one was likely to find him for some time - not even Ghanima - he dialled Kate's number.

[vanillajello]

And as a result, Kate almost choked on a spoonful of ice cream when she saw who was calling. She had the decendy to swallow before she actually picked the call up, but-- "Holy crap, Leto?"

Yeah. She'd probably had more eloquent ways of answering her phone in the past, but right now those were sadly not to be.

[future_sandworm]

"Kate?" He sounded amused at her response. "I wasn't aware that calling would frighten you."

[vanillajello]

"Oh shut up, I'm not frightened," she replied, snickering. "I'm surprised."

[future_sandworm]

He laughed. "I see. And you know why I'm calling, no doubt."

[vanillajello]

"Because you miiiiss me?"

Or that distraction stuff they used to be so good at. She was betting on the latter, but the former was more fun to say.

[future_sandworm]

"Of course I do." Leto wasn't going to admit it was for completely selfish reasons. "Also, I need to make sure you're enjoying yourself properly nowadays." That wasn't meant to be interpreted in a sexual way, or rather, if it was he would deny it.

[vanillajello]

"Eh, enjoying myself kinda comes and goes." And hey, that actually worked in both sexual and non-sexual ways. "You know how it is."

[future_sandworm]

"I do know. Has Fandom offered any of its peculiar forms of entertainment lately?" he continued.

[vanillajello]

"Well, we had a singing day on Friday."

And boy did her tone ever convey how much she had not enjoyed that.

[future_sandworm]

"One of those." Leto had a feeling Kate didn't want to talk about the details. "So, perhaps it was a good thing I didn't call you then," he said lightly and teasingly.

[vanillajello]

"I don't think that would've been half as bad as some of the crap that happened," Kate sighed. No, she didn't want to go into the details. "How are you, anyway?"

[future_sandworm]

"Life is different on Arrakis than in Fandom." No, he didn't want to go into details either. "So, any happy events lately? Or have you spent too much time as a cat?"

[vanillajello]

"I was a cat most of last week." A beat. "Is it sad that that's pretty much the happiest thing that's happened to me within the last month or so?"

[future_sandworm]

"A little," Leto admitted. "Will you tell me about the bad things?" It was Kate's problems and not his own.

[vanillajello]

"Well, there's been some crazy family stuff," Kate said, poking at the remaining ice cream idly with her spoon. "That kinda bled into relationship stuff too. And then there's just... Fandom crap. It's kind of a huge mess."

And she didn't even realize how that relationship thing slipped in there.