The Inferno, Boston, Tuesday Evening

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The bold neon-red sign saying INFERNO was blazing on the side of the building. It was the middle of the week, add yet there was still something of a line outside. Not around the building, like on the weekend, but there was still a brief wait until hopefuls (many of them couples on Valentine's Day dates) got to join the crowd inside, taking cover from the crisp chill of the weather outside.

Well, crowds, plural. The Inferno operated on three levels, with VIP-only Heaven upstairs and Hell down below, and the open-to-all restaurant/bar combo Purgatory on the ground floor.

As Ava had once put it, Purgatory was high-end without being snooty. There was a maître d' at the door, ready to seat people at tables (or at the bar, as they case might have been), but you could still waltz in with sneakers and a hoodie on. There was a nice, dimly-lit atmosphere, and candles on tables all over. Many of them were red or pink tonight, to mark the occasion

And behind the bar – smallest of the many at the Inferno – in his black shirt with Purgatory printed in surprisingly tasteful fashion on the back, was Ezra, serving up drinks, alongside one of his collegues. Wasn't really a one-person job tonight. Pretty busy.

And Ezra loved it. What was a better way of keeping himself distracted than by slinging drinks and flirting shamelessly at everyone who came up for drinks? Hey, maybe he'd come across a couple who'd want him to join in on their celebration of love!

A fox could hope.

[ooc: NFB, and for she who knows who she is!]

Comments

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You know, Ezra really hoped she would've figured this out on her own so he wouldn't have had to say it.

But you couldn't always get what you wanted.

"This is a Coterie business, Kathy," he said, shaking his head. "Not only that, this is the Coterie business."

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Kathy was not at her most brilliant after four shots of tequila on top of, well, everything else today. And the weekend. And--oh, pretty much everything else today.

"Well fuck me," Kathy said, closing her eyes and leaning back against the wall. "Of course it is. Why else would you be working here?"

God dammit.

"Still, why would they look at me twice? I'm nothing special, especially among the powered set." She was a Saturday morning cartoon. "And I doubt I'm the only pretty girl you've escorted into a closet." Probably the only one he just wanted to talk to, though.

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Ezra huffed a breath out through his nose, allowing himself that tiny slip of frustration bleeding through.

He stepped closer to her.

"Because every person with powers is a potential asset," he said. "And while the whole show has changed hands, I don't think they've gotten any less overenthused about recruiting everyone they think could be of value. And if you think they don't notice you knocking back four shots of tequila and still walking without a wobble?"

He shook his head again.

"Kathy, you are not dumb enough for that."

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Oh but she wanted to be. She wanted to be young, dumb, irresponsible, and spend a night not thinking about what she'd done or Raven had done or had been done to her. Why was that so fucking much to ask for?

"Yeah, well, good luck to them," she snorted, closing her eyes. "My heroing days are done, so I'm going to have to say no thanks to their recruitment deal." She sighed. "And, yes, before you say a damn thing, I already know that anything they want me for isn't likely to be heroic or involve asking."

Even as willfully blind as she was trying to be, she couldn't go that far. Opening one dark eye, she asked, "How'd they get their hooks in you anyway?" The last time she'd asked about the Coterie, he'd seduced her into dropping the topic. That seemed a lot less likely to happen now. "You're way too smooth to let that happen otherwise."

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"My life for my sisters," Ezra replied bluntly. "I'm Coterie so they can lead normal lives."

Which they were doing, so at least it was working.

He wasn't used to being this open about his life, but when there were so many different kinds of pressure happening, something had to give.

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"Oh fuck." Kathy wasn't even sure she'd known that Ezra had siblings. And she definitely wouldn't have guessed that he'd joined the Coterie to protect them. That put him in a new light; how much of his refusal to get close to people stemmed from not wanting the Coterie to have yet more leverage over him?

Not that she'd ask. And not that she'd assume he'd answer truthfully even if she did.

"That won't work for me," she said. "I have no family for them to use. Raven saw to that."

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"This is not a negotiation on what works or doesn't, Kathy," Ezra snapped. Ish. Kind of. It was a lot more sudden than he'd meant it to be, and he was also now closer to her and the box she was sitting on than he'd expected to be. He hadn't meant to surge forward. "You shouldn't even be here."

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"You're right," she said tightly, not backing down an inch with his sudden intrusion into her personal space. How far she'd come from the girl afraid to take off her pants. "By rights, I should be dead. And yet here I am."

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"And that is no reason to step on my turf."

In fact, it was exactly the opposite.

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"I didn't come in here to step on your turf, Ezra!" Kathy snapped. She hopped up from her box and stood toe-to-toe with him. "I didn't know you were even here! If I had, I'd've gone literally anywhere else to drink! I came here because I didn't want to think about any of my goddamn problems, not rub my face in them! I came here because this bar was a bad fucking joke!"

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"Then stop talking to me like you'd somehow be immune to the Coterie," Ezra told her, not even flinching at her sudden intensity. "And take me seriously when I say this is a bad place for you to be."

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"Fine!" Kathy snapped, hands in the air. "I'll leave. I already paid for my drinks and everything. There have to be a hundred bars in Boston where I won't be in danger of getting fairy-napped because I can run a one-minute mile. Better?"

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"Yes."

Okay, that was forceful again. See, Ezra had a lot of feelings about the Coterie, and people getting anywhere near it. In particular, people who seemed to have bounced back from death.

Sorry not sorry about the way he got in her face about it.

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"I guess I should be grateful that this time you're pushing me out of your life there's a reason for it."

That was a stupid, hurtful thing to say. Even as she said it, she knew it was stupid and hurtful. Hell, if she were actually trying to provoke a reaction out of Ezra, this would be the worst way to go about it. But she was tipsy and hurting and angry and just lashing out.

Funny how it only made her feel worse.

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That was the thing with lashing out. It was rarely as satisfying as you hoped it would be.

Ezra rolled his eyes. Bitterly, if that was a thing. "Oh how terrible of me to not want to see anyone else get drawn into this."

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Kathy didn't have much experience with it, but she certainly wasn't finding it to her taste. It just made her feel petty, on top of everything else.

"Fine," she said, pressing her fingertips to her temples. "Just...fine. You can escort me out of here if you want to. Tell people I was trying to pocket bendy straws and paper umbrellas if you want to." She tried to take a step towards the door. "Is that all?"

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Ezra's hand was on her wrist before he had time to actually think about doing it. Maybe taht was for the better, letting a little bit of instinct take over.

Or maybe it was a bad idea.

Either way, he found himself surprised at her skin being warm against his.

"Look," he said. "I'm glad you came back. I am."

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And Kathy wished she were colder, not of skin but heart. Because with that, her defenses crumbled a bit and she had to blink back tears.

"I missed you," she said, her other hand coming up to brush gentle fingers over his inner forearm. She didn't mention that she'd started missing him before she'd died. "I still do."

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There were benefits to not saying what they both knew was true, anyway.

Because if she'd pointed out what she hadn't pointed out, he probably wouldn't have yanked her into a hug.

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The hug was as good as it was unexpected. She wrapped her arms fiercely around him and clung tight, face pressed into his neck. She trembled, but only from the effort of not crying; it felt like that was all she did lately and she wasn't going to do it now and make Ez deal with it.

But hugging, she could do. That and drop a soft kiss on the side of his throat.

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Ezra wasn't as clingy, but it was a firm, tight hug all the same.

He nuzzled the top of her head, if only barely.

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She'd take it.

"Will you...do you think you might visit the island sometime soon?" Kathy managed to swap out 'the island' for 'me' at the last moment. Also, she wasn't letting go before he did.

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"I don't know."

It was the most honest answer he had to give. His voice was as even again. Just quieter.

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"Oh." Kathy closed her eyes against his shoulder. "Because of me?"

Which seemed like a pretty self-absorbed thing to ask, and yet...

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"Not everything is about you, sweet pea."

Well, not exclusively, anyway.

It wasn't harsh. But it wasn't exactly sweet, either, even if he brushed a couple of fingers through her hair.