A sketchy bar, Baltimore, Friday Afternoon

[soniaroadsqueen]

Dante had found them a great bar. Dingy, grimy, and cheap. In what Ringo was pretty sure was one of the worse parts of town. Despite the time of day, they weren't the only one's there. There were also the sorts of people you might expect to be in a sketchy bar on a Friday afternoon.

People who Ringo wasn't even paying attention to. "Is whiskey the best way to do this?" she asked, glancing over at Dante. "That's what you usually have, right?"

She probably shouldn't be getting drinking advice from Dante, but it wasn't like she had anyone else to get it from anymore.

[ooc: Expecting one.]

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[soniaroadsqueen]

She watched him for a couple of seconds, then walked over to pick it up. "What do you want?" she asked, pulling out her phone.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Meat--"

Dante winced at himself. Nope. Not doing the memory thing.

"Whatever's got the most cheese on it."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Extra meat, extra cheese, then?" Ringo was already dialing the number, figuring Dante could object or just eat whatever ended up getting delivered.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, sure, whatever." He just hadn't wanted to order the Meat Lovers.

Fuck, if Kathy had ruined that pizza for him, Dante was going to be... even more pissed than he already was. Because fuck her, she didn't get to do that.

"Maybe get two."

[soniaroadsqueen]

She nodded and put in the order. Then she walked across the room to hop back up onto the table.

"They say thirty minutes." She wasn't sure what else to say, so she left it at that for the moment.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sat up.

He watched her for a while, trying to cobble together what few of his words remained.

"I know you're hurting too," he said finally. At least about Ringo, he could go a mile further and feel something other than anger.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She heard that 'too', Dante.

But she just nodded, jerkily, and swallowed. That lump in her throat seemed to be getting bigger.

"She's not coming back." Ringo knew that much.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah," Dante said. He sucked in a breath. "Even if she did make it out of this shit alive, she's still got a whole country to cover before she can get back."

He shook his head. "She wasn't built for this."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"She might be able to make it on her own," Ringo said quietly. She had a lot of faith in Kathy.

"But with her family?" That wasn't happening.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's eyes snapped up to hers. "No, she wouldn't," he said. "I've seen these things, Ringo. There's a ton of them, they keep coming no matter what happens to them, and they can make new ones as long as there's warm bodies."

He reached for his tiny bottle again.

"With enemies like that... you have to win every battle. They only have to win one."

[soniaroadsqueen]

This was one of those points that Ringo would normally argue. There were ways you could do it, after all. And she had Raven with her.

But at that moment, Ringo didn't have the energy to argue. And it wouldn't have done much good, anyway. Neither of them thought she'd make it given the actual situation, so "what ifs" didn't really matter.

She shrugged, the gesture so slight as to be almost invisible.

"Is it weird?" she asked softly. "That I miss her already?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's life experience left him with a much more pessimistic view. He hadn't managed to stop the constant attacks on him yet - and he had miles more power in him than Kathy did. Self-healing abilities, even.

But yeah.

"Nah," he said, taking a swig from the bottle. "I don't think so."

He didn't miss her. He was just angry.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh." Ringo's voice was still quiet. "Good."

Except nothing about this situation really felt 'good'.

Her expression flickered, some of the pain she was feeling flashing across her features before she got it back under control. A deep breath, eyes tightly shut, and then her face was blank again.

Not crying on Dante again.

[rebelseekspizza]

"So if you need to go off, whatever," Dante said, waving a hand at her.

(She could cry for them both by proxy. That'd work.)

[soniaroadsqueen]

"After I eat, yeah."

Ringo didn't even realize that she was chewing on her bottom lip.

"Maybe I'll go back home."

[rebelseekspizza]

"No, I mean, like--" He waved vaguely at her face, then shrugged. "Whatever."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Her face?

Ringo blinked, then narrowed her eyes, expression carefully controlled. "No. I'm fine."

Which was an utterly unconvincing lie. Especially since that control was harder to hold onto with Dante being so nice about it.

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah, well. Dante was tired. And angry. And couldn't find it in himself to be sad about Kathy, so in some ways he was being selfish: letting her take the burden of that, for now.

"Yeah, sure," he drawled. "You said different five seconds ago."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo scowled at him for, you know, bringing reality into this.

"I can just sit here and miss her. Don't need to--" What had he said? "Whatever."

And it was easier to do that by saying 'her' rather than 'Kathy' or 'senpai'.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Suit yourself," Dante said. He took another swig from his bottle. "Just sayin'."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Yeah, well your saying wasn't helping Ringo maintain her composure, Dante.

Her face twisted again, but she clenched her teeth and dug her fingernails into her palms for a few seconds in an effort to regain control. She could feel the corners of her eyes stinging, and her vision might have been the tiniest bit blurry, but she wasn't crying. She was fine.

Just fine.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante watched her. He didn't have much else to say; he wasn't going to drag it outta her.

But he could see her hitting that brink fine from here, no matter what she was trying to do about it.

[soniaroadsqueen]

On the brink, but not over it yet. Ringo took a few long, deep breaths and managed to pull herself back. Crazy Apple was there, ready to be called on if Ringo needed her. But she didn't want to. She felt like Kathy wouldn't have approved.

So she was going to do this on her own. Well, mostly. She might be stealing just a bit of her other self's calm indifference as she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes hard.

"Where's that pizza?" she eventually asked with a scowl. Because she needed to change the subject.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Probably on its way here any minute," Dante said. He'd finished his one tiny bottle and was digging into the next. "Sure you don't want anything from the minibar?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Despite how she was feeling, Ringo actually snorted in something approaching amusement. "We saw how well that went."

Then, going serious again, voice soft. "Besides, it doesn't help."