Overland Park, KS, Monday Afternoon

[vanillajello]

Saturday had seen a very weird trip to the mall, and as a consequence, Sunday had been pretty quiet. Tara had woken up as herself again, and everything was a little awkward. It wasn’t as if Tara’s condition was a big family secret, but it was out now, and it affected the mood in the house. Everyone tried to do their own thing, and conversations revolved around trivial stuff. Kate’s family, in an effort to make light conversation, asked questions about life in Fandom and where Leto was from. They didn’t know how much editing went into answering them.

And today the house was empty apart from Kate and Leto. Max had gone to work, Tara had gone somewhere with Charmaine, and Marshall had gone to visit his best friend. It seemed like they were all maybe slightly running away, glad to put the weekend behind them.

Kate was holed up in her room for the moment. She had taken a shower, and after getting dressed and blowdrying her hair, she rummaged around her desk drawer until she found a lighter and a near-empty packet of cigarettes. She took one, and after opening her door a little to signal it was okay to come in, she went to smoke the cigarette by the open window.


[For the boy. NFB due to distance.]

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[vanillajello]

She frowned. "Well, there's prejudiced assholes in every world."

Finally done with her cigarette, she carefully put it out on the window sill, and made a few waving gestures to get whatever smoke was still in the room to go out.

[future_sandworm]

"Tobacco does leave a rather heavy scent," he laughed.

Leto then turned quiet for a moment, his expression a little more serious as his gaze turned to the window. "Can I ask you something else?"

[vanillajello]

"And I'm not supposed to smoke, and especially not here," Kate replied, getting rid of evidence by putting the cigarette butt in a piece of tissue and pocketing it.

"Sure, ask away," she shrugged, taking note of his expression.

[future_sandworm]

"I thought about your father's comments," he said, shooting Kate a glance. "Is it assumed that I would not have asked to go with you unless I had intentions other than that of being your friend?"

[vanillajello]

"Dad thinks like that. Mom probably kinda assumes it too, but she's better at hiding it." Except for the part where she turned into T, which Kate thought was probably partly an act of protecting her. She'd already done it to Marshall once, too.

"It's kinda hard for parents here to avoid assuming that when you're a girl and you bring home a boy."

[future_sandworm]

"And what is your assumption?" he asked, smiling at her.

[vanillajello]

"Oh, I don't make assumptions," she smirked. "Assumptions are dangerous."

[future_sandworm]

"They are," Leto agreed, amused by her response. "But I ask because I've been told I fail to respond as expected to people's assumptions regarding love affairs, and I don't wish that to happen again."

Kate was not as naive as Dinah, though.

[vanillajello]

"How do you fail at that?" Kate asked, curious because she herself had encountered a few cases in the past six months where a description like that would have been suitable.

[future_sandworm]

"I tend to express attraction as well as friendship in a way that have made some people expect a monogamous arrangement," he said. "I will have to make a political marriage when I ascend the throne, and I'm not going to make any promises before that. And so I'm seeing someone, but it is not exclusive."

[vanillajello]

Kate raised her eyebrows. "Huh. Well, that's definitely something that you have to be upfront about. Otherwise things can get messy."

[future_sandworm]

He smiled. "So I've learnt the hard way," he said.

[vanillajello]

"But I bet you've never had anyone break into your house because they thought you were crazy in love with them and wanted to run away with you," Kate said with a slight smirk.

[future_sandworm]

"No," Leto replied, raising an eyebrow. "Have you?"

[vanillajello]

"Yeah," Kate replied, with an amused grin. It was kind of almost funny now. In this safe moment. "This spring."

[future_sandworm]

He blinked. "Why?"

[vanillajello]

"You'd have to ask him," she shrugged. "I never said I loved him, I thought it was just a casual thing. Then there was all this messy stuff and he got fired and showed up here, thinking I was gonna run away with him."

[future_sandworm]

"Then you certainly have had worse experiences than I have," Leto replied, not quite smiling. "I just got threatened by her friends." He held a hand out to Kate.

[vanillajello]

"It wasn't so bad. I only had to hijack Mom's car and drive away in a panic." Wow, listen to the sarcasm there.

She took his offered hand, and gave it a little squeeze, absent-mindedly wondering why she never hesitated in doing so. "It was kinda my own fault, anyway. Not the stalkery thing, but the mess itself."

[future_sandworm]

"It was?" he asked. "How?"

[vanillajello]

She made a face. "It's embarrassing. He was my boss and I kinda broke our thing off once, but then he fired me and I got back together with him and he gave me my hjob back, but then I tried to sue the company for sexual harrassment and... Yeah. Messy."

[future_sandworm]

Leto frowned. "He fired you when you refused him? And he expected you to run off with him? Who is this man?"

He took a step closer to Kate, as if wanting to protect her, something which she clearly didn't need.

[vanillajello]

"Gene Stuart," Kate replied, amused by his attitude. No, she didn't need protection, but it still felt nice.

"I don't think he's exactly right in the head."

[future_sandworm]

"Clearly not," Leto muttered. "Is he still causing you problems? Has your family dealt with him?"

[vanillajello]

"After I ditched him in the living room, I think I met him maybe two or three times. I think he got the message. At least I haven't seen him since the start of the summer," Kate said, shaking her head. "Mom and Dad don't know about this, and Moosh doesn't know everything."