Room 324, Monday After Classes

[vanillajello]

Kate was twitchy. She supposed it was a natural side effect of knowing one of her best friends was pretty much going to walk into his death in a few days, and she was supposed to go... see him off, or something. That was not something she wanted to be dealing with.

So after classes, she'd pulled on her PVH garb, and sat down in front of her computer. This was easy, this was so far removed from everything else going on in her life. She got to talk about the whole Princess Valhalla mythology, and random other stuff too. In fact, she was just in the middle of a good rant about the latest season of one of her favorite trashy shows when the guy on the screen (fourth_mister, again) interrupted her.

"Uh, I'm sorry but... I don't actually watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey."

Kate blinked, a little taken aback. "Oh," she said. "I... thought you said I could talk about whatever I wanted."

"I did!" the guy assured her hastily, and gave her a smile. "But now I wanna do something else."

Well. This was unexpected, but she supposed she was game. At least to find out what it was he wanted to do. "... Okay. What?" If it involved her taking her clothes off, she was so not doing it.

"Do you have any cake?"

What? Kate laughed, just because that went way over her head. "Cake?" she repeated, then sobered up some, because she really had no idea where this was going. "Why?"

"Um... I was hoping you could, um..." He swallowed. "Sit on it?"

Uhh. Kate didn't even know what to say to that. After a moment of hesitation, she told him she didn't really have the means to fulfill his request at the moment, but that she'd think about it, and then she announced she had to go, and ended the chat.

With a sigh, Kate started changing out of the costume into some regular clothes, her mind buzzing with several different kinds of things all at once.

[ooc: Door is closed, post is open! The contents of the conversation under the cut are NFB, please and thank you. Taken again from UsoT S02E08.]

Comments

[therewaslife]

After seeing Kate when she'd come back last week, he'd kept his own low profile and hadn't seen her since. He didn't know why other than sometimes just needing time to himself to contemplate and recover from all of his stressing issues.

Still, it was Monday and he was out of class so he thought he'd stop by her room on the way up to his. He knocked twice but didn't say anything in case someone was napping.

[vanillajello]

Kate had managed to change into some shorts and a tank top, and was just putting her hair into a loose ponytail. "Who is it?" she called out, because that would determine whether pants were necessary.

[therewaslife]

Never before had Bod been a pants on or pants off indicator. Possibly because most people wore pants around him anyway.

"It's just me," he said quietly, leaning his head against the door and listening for any sounds behind it. "I thought I'd just say hullo."

[vanillajello]

Upon hearing his voice, Kate sauntered over to the door, then leaned against it too. She'd get to opening it in a moment. "Just hullo?"

[therewaslife]

"Well, that's all I'd planned since I didn't know if you were in or not," Bod replied, shrugging a shoulder. "I can say more, of course."

[vanillajello]

"I think I'd like you to say more," she said, her fingertip tracing a spiral on the door. "I haven't seen you in a few days."

That didn't sound like an accusation of any kind. Not like she'd tried to find him, either. She'd needed the time for herself.

[therewaslife]

"I was around," he replied, shrugging a shoulder. "I just chose to spend most of my time quietly. "Unobtrusively."

[vanillajello]

"I was around too," Kate shared, a little pointlessly but anyway. She pushed away from the door and reached for the handle, opening the door slowly. "You should come in."

[therewaslife]

"I wasn't sure you were going to let me in," he said but slipped inside the door once it was open wide enough. "Hullo."

[vanillajello]

She pushed the door closed behind him, then put her hands on his chest and pushed gently so he'd lean back against said closed door. "Hullo," she said. "Of course I was gonna let you in."

[therewaslife]

"You seemed to be enjoying talking through the door," he said, leaning back against the shut door after she'd pushed him. "I thought it was going to be the way of the conversation."

[vanillajello]

"I got bored," Kate replied, quirking a little smile up at him. She couldn't quite tell whether she was faking her ease right now, or whether it was just his influence. "I wanted to see you instead."

[therewaslife]

"I look the same," Bod said, almost returning her smile. It didn't quite turn into a smile but he'd tried. "No surprises to see, I think. No tattoos of bears."

[vanillajello]

"That's a good thing," she said, sliding her hands down to his sides. "I like you as you are."

[therewaslife]

"Thank you," Bod said, watching her movements quietly. Maybe he was trying to gauge how she was after not seeing her for awhile. Maybe he was looking for things she wasn't telling him (like how she really was).

"I like me as I am too." He shrugged. "Sometimes."

[vanillajello]

And maybe she was trying her hardest to just feel and act normal for the moment, because there were things she couldn't tell him, and not acting normal would definitely lead to him asking about them.

So far, Kate felt she was doing pretty well with it. She curled her fingers into his shirt. "Sometimes is better than never."

[therewaslife]

"I know," he said, nodding and looking down at her fingers. "How are you today?"

[vanillajello]

"Okay, I guess," she replied easily, shrugging a shoulder. "It's a Monday, so I've had better days, but it's not the worst I've ever had."

Funny how that last part wasn't even a lie. Monday last week had been worse. Or equally bad, but in a different way.

[therewaslife]

"What's so bad about Mondays?" he wondered curiously. "Difficult classes?"

[vanillajello]

"Mondays just suck in general," she said, shrugging again. "The weekend's over, and that sucks. I mean, it's not a rule that really works here, but... It's just a thing."

[therewaslife]

"All right," he said, nodding at her explanation. "I don't really mind Mondays. I'm sorry yours has been somewhat bad though. I hope that changes."

[vanillajello]

"Eh, it's changed already." Well... "I mean, we lack proper structure at this school, so it's not really as bad as it used to be when I went to Butterworth."

[therewaslife]

This time, Bod smiled softly and looked amused. "I meant today specifically. I hope this specific Monday changes into something less difficult for you. I didn't mean in general."

[vanillajello]

"Oh." Maybe her slight disorientation was showing after all. "Well, this one's not bad for a Monday. I did some princess stuff, and we got to blow shit up in weapons class."

[therewaslife]

Bod nodded quietly. "What sort of princess stuff was on the agenda for today? I haven't seen another video appear lately."