(Untitled)

[luna_regina]

Who: Rissa and Kate
Where: Magneto's back porch
When: Sundown
What: Chocolate Death Shakes at Sundown. And a lot of Mommying.

Rissa sipped the shake. They were an old recipe around the Moon - chocolate ice cream, oreos, fudge, chocolate sauce, and chocolate chips blended together - and Rissa had missed them

Comments

[gymshoe_runaway]

Kate had stolen a couple pillows and was laying them, leaning against Rissa. "These are good. How'd you learn to make these?" She'd been quiet since yesterday, even a little withdrawn. She hadn't told Rissa what had happened but she'd been thinking about it. And seriously thinking about going to practice with Rissa.

[gymshoe_runaway]

Kate looked into her cup, playing with the cup so the light played off the colors of chocolate in it, and she signed

[luna_regina]

Rissa frowned. Her hand dropped away from Kate's hair and she held her tight against her side. "Easy." She whispered gently, holding the girl tight. "It's over."

She knew what Kevin had done. It'd been something that had had to happen to more than one person in her life. They'd had to be scared straight, scared into thinking. She just wished that Kevin would have spoken to her first.

[gymshoe_runaway]

She cuddled against Rissa, enjoying being held. It had been a while since her mom had held her, and for all she might say she kinda hated her parents, some things she missed. So She cuddled up to Rissa and closed her eyes.

"He scared me."

[luna_regina]

She looked down at the teenager. It'd been too long since Reja or one of the older ones had cuddled her like this. The three youngest could always be counted on for a bit of snuggling.

"Yes, I've no doubt he did." She sighed. "But he did it to keep you from being hurt."

[gymshoe_runaway]

She didn't see Rissa looking at her, but she wouldn't have cared.

"I know. He made a point that I couldn't get away. But...if someone was gonna take money, they wouldn't do that. And...you just don't keep your money together. Or food. Same thing. And if they just wanna beat you up then...you can run away, you know. They can't fold you with both hands. And if guys get rough, you kinda have warning..." The last was muttered.

"Kevin..just..grabbed me."

[luna_regina]

"What if they don't want money, or food, or anything like that?" It was a hard, horrible lesson that Kate needed to learn. "Some would grab you, without warning, just because they can, and because hurting you would bring them pleasure."

Rissa shifted and turned Kate to look at her. "My second husband was a perfect gentleman. He opened doors for people, he spoke gently, he volunteered, he went to church." She took a deep breath. "Until we got behind closed doors. Then he was a violent, vicious bully, who took deep delight in saying the nastiest, most cruel things, just so I would cry. He would make me have sex with him, just to have food money." Rissa closed her eyes and pushed the memories away. "And for the longest time, no one believed me. He left no marks, he never raised his voice around others, he was a good man to them. To me, he was nothing but a horrible fraud, and it took me a very long time to recover from all the damage he did." Another deep breath. "You cannot tell by looking at someone just how they are going to treat

[gymshoe_runaway]

Kate looked up at Rissa, listening to her. She didn't know what to say, for a lot of reasons. 'I'm sorry' just felt weird, and she'd had sex for money to buy food, and just so many other things. "I know you can't tell by how someone looks. I just...i dunno know."

[luna_regina]

Rissa sighed. "Do you really know? If you'd known, you wouldn't have let yourself be put into a situation where they'd cut off your route of escape." She pointed out. "It sounds stupid, but there's some truth into always being aware of your surroundings. Also," she went inexorably on, "you'd have listened to that gut instinct that tells you when something's wrong." She gently brushed Kate's hair back. "Instincts are completely natural. We just have to learn how to listen to them."

[gymshoe_runaway]

"I'm not saying it smart, I mean yeah I shouldn't have been over there. I get that." That had shaken her up, but it was secondary to what Kevin had done.