Some Life This Is - Kate the Chaser X Hoodie

11

"Don't just stare at people, you have to say words." "My notebook is missing." "Different words- you know what just go wait over there I'll deal with this."

That was the exchange that lead to where Kate is now, standing awkwardly in the flannels while Rogue and the woman at the counter talk. And, of course, the boy from earlier is still there and still staring. "I'll keep an eye out for it hon, don't worry." "Thank you, and I'm real sorry about her, she's just like that sometimes." "Don't I know it, my son Hadrian over there's the same way- somewhat nonverbal, autistic 'n stuff-" That catches Heather off guard. "She's-uh- she's not autistic-" "Girls are almost never diagnosed with it, she might be." Kate ducks into the clothes as they look into her direction. Hadrian does too, following her lead before holding up a familiar notebook and pointing to it, then to her. She nods back and motions for him to slide it to her, but instead he slides across while holding it.

Whatever works, she supposes, as he puts it in her hand.  She nods to him, and he pushes off the wall behind her to cross the smooth floor again. He reminds her, all the sudden, of a rabbit. The kind that wouldn't last their first winter alone due to an opportunistic fox or bird, or maybe a wolf. After watching him for a minute, her face remaining blank, she stands up and nods at Heather before holding up the notebook and pointing at it, "Found. Leaving."  Behind her as she leaves, she hears Heather apologizing to the woman again before walking out to Kate at the car. 

"Are you mad at me?" Kate asks as they both get in the car, sharply looking around at the bloodied faces surrounding the car before just looking down to the footwell. Heather pauses, then simply starts the car and drives them back into the mountains towards the cabin. In the silence of the car, Kate's swiftly spiraling mind drifts back to the night spent in the woods with Hoodie. 'As long as nobody else finds out,' she thinks, 'I can keep this memory safe. My own secret.'

Somehow, the idea of keeping a secret like this from them doesn't sound very good. She's not sure if she cares, the heat in her face remembering the incident as compared to the sinking guilt in her stomach confuses her. She comes back to herself as they pull up the service trail, hyper-aware of the forest around them and the lack of sound and light from the cabin. She doesn't know if that's good or bad yet. Heather looks over at her, then decides to try to gloss over what happened earlier with a somewhat jovial tone. "What do you suppose they've been up to?"

Kate can't form the words to respond, even if she tries, so she gets out of the car and head up to the house. She palms her knife and carefully makes her way in through one of the front windows, swiftly finding the source of the silence: Toby is asleep on the couch. She moves back to the other side of the house and looks into the bedroom, finding Tim asleep there hugging an empty coffee mug. She ducks as a bottle of pills hits the wall in front of her, before turning around to find Hoodie crouched on the kitchen table.

Upon looking at the bottle, it's sleeping meds. That explains the dead silence, then. "Well," she finally says, quieter than normal, "they needed the sleep I guess." He tilts his head and hops down as Heather enters. Kate tosses the bottle to her then points over at Toby, whom Heather quickly gets an actual blanket for. She looks back to Hoodie, who's gotten closer all the sudden to stare her down, then pulls her mask out of her jacket to quickly put it on.  She needs to not exist as a person for a while.

She checks her wrist for a hairtie, one she knows is supposed to be there. Across the room Heather tenses, anticipating a fight to break up as Hoodie holds up said hair band. Ready to jump into the foray, Heather is surprised by the relaxed demeanor Kate has as she takes it back and ties her hair up. As Kate leaves through the back door, stopping on the porch to figure out what she wants to do before taking off-
"How in the fuck did you do that, Hoodie?" Heather sharply whispers. In response, he shrugs and leaves after her, saying, "I guess she just doesn't see me as a threat."

"fuckinflurt-" toby slurs out, starting to wake up. Heather, in response, naturally just looks confused. "I have no idea if you just said words or not."

Hoodie doesn't care to listen to the rest of the conversation, pulling his mask up to be able to smoke as Kate slinks around the side of the house with an axe. Soon he hears wood getting split in a robotic rythm, knowing that she's probably blanking out and dissociating a bit. He stomps the cigarette out against the bare concrete and slinks around after her to make sure she doesn't get hurt, and to be there to help if she does. Rogue can handle the two inside for a while, especially with how messed up on the meds they still are. He decides to get her attention to talk once they're out of reasonably sized segments of firewood.

"Having a no-speech day?" He asks, staying relaxed and lighting another cigarette. She nods and makes her way over to him, keeping her distance but putting the axe back where it belongs against the siding. "I take it you didn't have the greatest time in town, then." She shakes her head, affirming his words. "Heather have anything to do with it?" She nods, he nods back, resigning himself to talking to her later on watch. "Alright," He decides, "Let's you and me go out into the woods and do something fun then. Wrestle some bucks or something, what do you say?"

His supposed-to-be-dead heart flutters when she nods, eyes excited behind the mask.