Lords and Ladies (2.3)

“Erm...”  Kitty sniffles.  She gulps and turns around slowly, though not moving an inch from her sister’s embrace.  “There is...one thing...”

Lord Ilucis and Lady Paige’s steely gazes turn to Kitty, as does every other eye in the room.  Kitty feels a bead of sweat trailed down the side of her face.  She grips Lady’s arm like a vice, wrapped up in an almost forgotten psychic blanket of big sisterly security.

“Yes, Lady Kitten,” says Ilucis, with an amused grin.  “What would you ask, hmm?”

“Er...Only...There was a library book checked out by your son...” she begins.  Lord Ilucis eyes take on a wide look of confusion.  “...Dante,” adds Kitty, helpfully.

“Ah, yes.  The one with the penis.”

“...Okay, um.  Sure.  Anyway, it was checked out a couple of weeks ago in his name, but he, um, claims to have no memory of it...”

“What was it called?”

“Er, the...Uh...Zoinomicon.”

“Ah, hmm,” says Lord Ilucis.  “Bloody stupid name for a book.”

“...Yes.  Have you seen it?”

“No, but I will let you know if it turns up.  Though if you would ever like to borrow the Necronomicon, I happen to have it in my study,” he replies.

“Oh?  Ah,” says Kitty, smiling nervously.  “A joke.  Ahahahaha!  Hahaha.  Haha.  Heh heh.  Heh.”

“I don’t see,” replies Ilucis, without any trace of a smile, “what’s so funny about that.”

“Ahahahahahaha, you probably owe me some late fees!” says Kitty, desperately trying to keep the joke going.

Ilucis’ only response is to push his glasses up his nose and cross his hands over his lap.  “Are you quite finished?”

“...Um.  Yes.”

“Then I believe you all know the way out of my home.”

***

Kitty sits on the first floor, in a comfortable leather booth.  Her face is laying on the table, covered by her arms.

In the booth behind her, facing the opposite direction, sits Dante.  His face is in the exact same position, only Mindy is rubbing his back.

Officer Kiplin has taken to sitting between the booths, straddling a chair she’s turned backwards.  Her arms are crossed on top of the back of the chair.  No one is sure why she’s still here.

Kitty feels a shift in the weight on the leather seat.  Sweaty but familiar arms suddenly embrace her, pulling her over a little.

“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitty,” says princess Anilin’s voice, slightly muffled by a shark head.

“Hey Annie.”

“I’m so glad it’s you this time.  The last three girls I hugged were very offended.  Especially the one that turned out to be a guy.”

“I didn’t say that,” says Kiplin.

Kitty lets out a weary sigh, with a hint of gratitude.  “Annie, are you drunk?”

“You betcha!” says Annie, with great enthusiasm.  Her voice suddenly drops into a tone of severe depression.  “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Annie, I’m just happy for the company.”

Annie claps her hands happily inches above Kitty’s head.  “Yay!”

Kitty sits up a little, her nose still a bit runny.  Annie sees it, and springs into action, wiping the tears off her face with a handkerchief, followed by letting Kitty blow into it.   She sniffles after.

“Thank you.”

“Those are happy tears, right?” says Annie.  “You found the book, yeah?”

“I didn’t, Annie.”

“Oh.  Well, you at least kicked Dante’s ass!”

“I didn’t.”

“But he’s so...Skinny.  And lanky.  And he made me feel sad emotions.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m gonna...I’m gonna shove a heel up his something or another.”

“He’s right behind us, Annie.”

“Oh.  Cool.”  Annie sits up, and turns around, looking straight at Dante and Mindy.  She points at Dante.  “Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd!”

Mindy shoots a brief glare to her..  Annie moves the finger to her face.  “Neeeeeerd!”

“Cheerleader.  I was a cheerleader,” corrects Mindy.  Something on the table behind her erupts with musical fanfare, and she turns around and looks at a portable gaming system she’d placed on the table when she sat down.  She punches the air.

“CRITICAL HIT!   YES!”

Dante lifts his head to look at her in disbelief.  She pats his head.  “Critical hit,” she explains.

“Yes, I got that.”

“Annie,” says Kitty, pulling Annie back down onto the seat.  “We’re nerds too.”

Annie bites her lip for a moment.  “...Yeah, but we’re...um...We’re book nerds.  They’re tech nerds.  We’re automatically a higher class of person.”

Kitty raises an eyebrow.  “...Are you trying to start class warfare among nerds?”

“Yes.  Someone has to keep the tech loving masses under heel.”

Kitty rubs her cheek in thought.  “Annie, when you become queen, we’re not letting you near alcohol.”

“Awww.”

“Hey, Dante,” says Mindy, finally closing her game.  She leans on him.   “Why don’t you come rest at my place tonight?”

Dante sighs.

“It’s quiet.  There’s good food.  My brother and sister should leave us alone, other than they’d probably be happy to see us spending time together, we could cuddle...”

“I don’t know...”

Mindy sighs.  “Just cuddle.  If you even want that, just saying.  I think we should get you away from your Dad.”

“What if my sisters need me?  Or Isabella?”

“Phones exist, Dante.”

He leans back in the seat, sighing and looking at the ceiling.

“...Yeah, okay,” relents Dante, shrugging.  “I’ll do it.”

Mindy grins and hugs him.  “Let’s go.  Take your car?”

“Sure,” says Dante, sliding out of the booth and standing up.  Mindy follows suit, arm around his.

“I’m gonna head out too,” says Officer Kiplin.  “This was kinda fun.  We should hang out again sometime.  I’ll see ya all ‘round.”

“...We don’t know where you live?  Or your phone...” says Kitty, as Kiplin begins walking away, but she doesn’t seem to hear.  She gives a wave right back, and then she’s gone.  Soon, Dante and Mindy are gone too.

“Wanna get out of here?” asks Annie, leaning on Kitty.

“Can’t.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah...” Kitty sighs.  “Pamela and Lady are...having a discussion.”

“Ooooh.  Okay.  Hey, where’d beret girl wander off to, anyway?  She seemed fun...”

Kitty looked up, watching as Lady and Pamela approach, their faces both stoic.  Lady stops at the table.

“Kitty,” she says, her voice that familiar blend of calm, collected, and intimidating.  But it was a comfort.  “I am sorry.”

“For what?”

“For not paying you better attention growing up.  I thought...”  She pauses, and looks off into the distance.  “...Well, never mind.  This is not the place for a heart to heart.  Kitten, I have a quiet dinner party to get to at another noble’s house after this.  To discuss business and all.  I would...Love it if you and Yu came with me.”

“...Why?”

“Well, for one, the family isn’t too big and they have a  quiet daughter around your age.  I’d like to see you getting out more.  For two, I...don’t trust Ilucis.  I may have been invited, but I only came to this party to write a news article.  If I hadn’t been here...Well.”

Kitty frowns, in thought.  “...I guess that would be okay.”

“Can I come too?” says Annie, hopefully, her wide eyes peering out of the jaws of her shark mask.

“...Yes.  I am not going to return you to the Queen dead drunk.  It is much easier to explain that you were hiding out with my sister that explain that I let the Queen-to-be be seen publicly drunk.”

“Yay!”   Annie claps again.

“Let’s be off, then.  We don’t have much time to get you into appropriate dresses.”

“Dresses?”  Kitty’s eyes shine like beacons.

“Well, it’s not a costume party...And the princess is not showing up to a dinner party dressed as a drunken schoolgirl.”

***

White Manor was a building centuries older than the apocalypse.  It had been built in Victorian times, and various occupants has kept it maintained and occasionally rebuilt over time.  It had managed to survive the violent upheavals of the apocalypse, and ever since they had moved in as a noble Dragon family the White clan had taken great care.of it.

During the day, it was a beautiful classy villa, accessible by a peaceful street.

During the night, or at sundown as the case may be, it brought to mind the sort of homes people got murdered by vengeful ghosts inside of.

“This must be some new form of comfortable I’m unfamiliar with,” says Dante, as he and his wife walk the dirt path through the garden, up to the ominous shadow of the house in the setting sun.

“It’s not that bad inside.”

“If you say so.”

They walk up the porch to the front door.  Mindy rings the doorbell, and they wait.

“I’m surprised it didn’t open by itself,” says Dante.  Mindy chuckles.

The door finally opens, revealing a tall man, big man with a complexion similar to Mindy’s.  He’s in his thirties, a broadly shouldered gentleman, his head covered in dreadlocks and his eyes looking at the world  through small circular spectacles.  He’s wearing a formal, collared shirt, a half-undone tie still hanging down.

Most people know him as the city’s first Postmaster General, but Dante and Mindy knew him as Benjamin White.

Mindy ran into his outstretched arms.  “Ben!”

“Welcome home!”  he says, a genuine smile across his face.  Ben is a well-known philanthropist in the city.  Upon graduating school, he had taken one look at the city and realized:  There was no mail service, no reliable way to deliver messages to those without functioning computers or phones, especially those living in the more out of the way or rural areas.  And so, day by day, piece by piece, postman by postman, he set one up.  Cars now delivered mail to the city streets, and runners delivered it to the more out of the way areas.  “Good timing!  I just got home.  Busy day at work, but-”

“I brought a guest,” says Mindy, with a big, proud grin.

“Oh?”  Ben’s eyes scan upwards behind him, to the skinny man standing in the doorway.

He squints in disbelief, then recoils in surprised confirmation.

He holds his arm outstretched.

“Welcome home, brother!  Welcome to the family, at last!” He reaches forward, grabbing Dante and pulling him into a tight, nearly crushing bear hug.  Dante sputters and coughs, feeling as if the life is going to be crushed out of him through brother(-in-law)ly love and compassion.

What will he do?