Off the Coast of Wainscott, New York, Early July 2002 (Wednesday Fandom Time)

[brat_inslayage]

It wasn't that it hadn't been a pain in the ass before now, but these days knowing that fourteen months had gone by and it was probably still barely the end of the same summer she'd left Fandom really got under Kennedy's skin. Of course, that was guesswork on her part, since she was in no way enough of a geek to sit down and try to figure it out.

And there wasn't an app for that. (She'd looked.)

Whatever; it was summer (again) here, and she was two weeks into a monthlong stay at the Hamptons beach house with her family. Jañe had decided she wanted to learn to surf, and-- in part because it made Kennedy's stepmother give her that scowly look-- Kennedy had immediately volunteered to take her for lessons.

So that had been fun, except for the part where it made her miss Fandom break trips and the week in Hawaii and trying to teach Wesley to surf. That in turn made her miss Fandom in general more, which led to wondering when exactly it was there by now, then to frustration at not being able to figure it out. Throw in a year's worth of growing restlessness over not having a nice worthwhile cause-for-buttkicking that she could get into and it all added up to being dissatisfied, cranky, and snappish.

Finally after dinner she'd headed out to the marina at a full jog, taken a dinghy out to the family yacht, and... started doing pushups on the deck. (Wobbly, a bit, but she tried to tell herself that just added to the challenge.) It didn't take the edge off much, but at least out here she wasn't likely to snap at anyone.

[[expecting a call from a certain ex-watcher, but open for phone calls anyway. being from fandom is a get-out-of-bitched-at free card.]]

Comments

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

So Wesley had been in District 12 for he wasn't even sure how long at this point, and it turned out that being polite and stuttery was... not so effective at helping Katniss get out of bed.

However, he did know one person who was fairly convincing (though he wasn't certain about the kicking people out of bed thing), so after several days of awkwardly making suggestions to no avail, he tried another tactic: calling the bossiest person he knew for help.

Well, after Cordelia.

[brat_inslayage]

Don't tell Kennedy that, Wesley; she might have to try and demonstrate superiority in that department and nobody needs that, not ever. Thank every power that ever was that those two never coexisted in Sunnydale.

Her phone going off was a welcome distraction on the "throw a freaking parade" end of the scale, and she ditched her impromptu workout to scramble up and lean against the boat railing, laughing out loud when she saw the caller ID.

"Wes?" she asked, a little breathlessly. "Trip me out-- I swear to god I was just thinking about you."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

In spite of himself, Wesley had to grin upon hearing Kennedy's voice, which made him feel better about being downstairs where Katniss couldn't see him. He would feel wildly inappropriate to be smiling in front of her now, all things considered.

"Oh? I'm flattered," he said, though he was missing just a bit of the snarky deadpan she probably remembered. "Er -- how are you?"

Way to wimp out.

[brat_inslayage]

"At the beach. Hanging out at the summer house, taking my sister for surfing lessons... rough life, huh?" She didn't mean to come off so flippant, and in fact would feel pretty badly about it if she knew what he'd just been through, but it was about par for the course when it came to her saying things that came out sounding annoyingly privileged anyway.


Kennedy watched a seagull glide in to perch on a buoy out in the water and grinned wistfully into the growing darkness. "Just kinda reminded me of the last time I watched someone learn to surf, y'know? Good timing, too, 'cause-- hey, when is it over there for you guys? How is everything?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

He smiled faintly at the memory. Good lord, he really had been bad at it, hadn't he?

"It's... just about autumn?" he guessed, though he was only vaguely certain of that since the last few days had bled together like nobody's business. "I'm actually not at school at the moment. I'm, ah, visiting a friend? Which is actually what I wanted to talk about."

Yeah, how did one explain that he needed lessons in kicking someone out of bed? It wasn't exactly likely to flatter her.

[brat_inslayage]

She'd find a way to take it as a compliment somehow. She had a disturbing capacity for doing that.

"Let me guess. Same autumn I left," Kennedy mused with just a tiny hint of a whine; this sounded like a Situation, and her possible-trouble radar was pinging. "But whatever. What's up? Is this a helping kinda thing? 'cause I can do that."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

The whining about the time difference was amusing, and fit well with the way Wesley remembered her. Although, he reasoned, given her situation career-wise, she could hardly be faulted for having a problem with patience.

"I suppose it is," he said hesitantly. He was just figuring out how to word the problem when a glance out the window gave him a view of the remains of District 12, and he forced himself to speak already. "I... well, I'm with a friend, and she's just been through rather a lot, and I was hoping you would have some advice on how to encourage her to... er. Get out of bed."

It sounded bad when he put it like that, but when the alternative was beating around the bush for probably an hour, he thought this was preferable.

"I just thought -- well, you're rather persuasive, and perhaps you -- "

Yeah, he sort of had to trail off after that.

[brat_inslayage]

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up just a sec," Kennedy blurted out, vaguely sorry he couldn't see the incredulous look on her face. "You're trying to ask me for advice? Oh god, don't tell me hell froze over again."

Stop talking, Kennedy. God. Or at least be serious.

"That, um. Sounds bad," she went on in a more level tone (thereby proving she'd taken the narrative's advice however unintentionally). "You sure my style of persuasion is what you're looking for though? Not to say it doesn't work, 'cause in most cases it does, but it doesn't so much go over that well..."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Oh. Was it more Karla-style advice? Because dishing out stuff like that seemed... difficult. And kind of mean. On the other hand, he did want to be effective.

"Er. I suppose I could... possibly try it?"

Yeah, be a little less sure, Wesley. Being assertive could get you far.

[brat_inslayage]

"Why the hell not?" Kennedy reasoned. "Never hurts to give it a try, right? Sometimes you just need a kick in the ass-- I mean, worked for me when Constance did it last year, which means what, they don't teach you this stuff at the Academy?"

Kennedy, that was not remotely the same kind of situation. Shut up.

She sighed. "Look, I could pretty much see you waffling from here, and lemme tell ya, that? Not gonna help."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

...She so got him.

"I found that my ability to be stern is severely undermined by certain stubborn parties who refuse to listen," Wesley deadpanned.

Thanks, Sunnydale.

"So if you've any other advice, it can only be a help."

Because so far, stuttering and offering to bring Katniss food had just resulted in him getting ignored.

[brat_inslayage]

"Depends, I guess," Kennedy said after a moment. "'cause me? I push and throw my weight around and pester the hell out of people because I can. 'cause I expect results. I don't go in hoping I might get my way if I play my cards right; I play my cards 'cause that's how I get my way. My last five evaluations, Constance put me down as 'aggressively results-oriented.' Also there was an 'excessive' in there."

She ran a hand through her hair, tucked a few strands back into her ponytail, and chewed on her lower lip. "Always works for me. But that's me, and not so much you. Though now I'm thinking that might work in your favor-- is it cool if I ask who the stubborn party is?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, excessive and aggressive were words that didn't so much describe Wes of late. Except when he had bitched out Gale the other day, but that wasn't so much results-oriented as an attempt to make him feel guilty.

Which, okay, was maybe not so nice.

"It's Katniss," he said wearily, rubbing his temples with his thumbs. He considered for a moment whether it was polite to share the details that led to her current state, then decided that, if Kennedy was to help, she might as well know at least part of the story. "Her sister died. In front of her. An explosion. So she's... not in the best way right now."

Obviously.

[brat_inslayage]

There was a long, stunned silence on Kennedy's end of the line before she exhaled sharply and muttered, "Jesus. The last year-for-me-slash-summer-for-you-guys has just fucking blown for everybody." Everybody not her, which made her feel a little uncomfortable and she wasn't sure what to do about it. "God-- I am so sorry. Tell her for me when you get a chance, yeah?"

Still, that did help; she didn't know Katniss as well as she would have liked, but she had some sense of her personality.

"Listen. I am so not a psychologist or anything, so I can't be all professional about this, but... you two are a thing. Safe to say she knows how you are pretty well by now. You care enough to want to snap her out of it? Don't give in. Nobody used to be able to get me to back down the way Tara could when she really wanted to try, 'cause her being all stern was..." She laughed, and it was a little wistful but it didn't hurt, not really. "Different. Like I didn't know what to do with that. Not easy for her, you know? But I got that she cared enough to do it, so it got me to listen. And... I think that's sort of what you need to do here on, like, a way bigger scale. Probably not the kind of advice you thought you were gonna get from me, but... hey."

She paused for a moment, wondering how the hell she'd managed to come up with something kind of deep.

"You can do this, Wes. I know you can. Because I said so, if you don't believe it otherwise."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley paused for a long moment, taking that in. Not giving in. It was something he'd been taught, certainly, but in practice, it was... difficult.

Especially since he had a habit of surrounding himself with the most stubborn girls on the planet. Damn that pesky habit of his.

"Thank you," he said finally, and another long glance at the wreckage of Twelve out the window got him to finally look away. "I -- that is to say, I don't mean to -- to pressure her, of course. I just -- well, it's important to me that she recovers. So -- thank you. I'll try that."

How weird was it that he was actually inspired by her advice? Given their roles, it had always seemed like it should be the opposite. Shut up, he wasn't self-absorbed.

[brat_inslayage]

It was a little weird, all things considered, yeah; he might not be a Watcher any more, but Kennedy still thought of him as one, although on the other hand she'd never entirely conformed to how the Watcher-Potential relationship was supposed to go.

"You guys are my people," she answered in a moment of blunt honesty. "I gotta look out for you guys, even from here, you know? And hey-- nothing wrong with a little pressure if it's for a good reason. Sometimes people need that. I'm not saying to be an ass or anything. Just to take a stand. Hell, that's what you guys are supposed to be teaching us to do. Gotta back that up, right?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

...She was so going to be a Slayer one day.

"Certainly," he agreed, and a part of him was irrationally proud of how stubborn she was. It wasn't like he had had anything to do with it, of course, but something about having been raised with the singular mission of equipping Slayers made him react with pride when she was so obviously... well, equipped. Or grounded, at the very least.

Damnit, why couldn't he have been assigned to her instead?

"You seem to have quite a handle on this sort of thing," he said after a pause. Which raised the question... "Are things all right with you? You mentioned surfing, so it can't be too eventful..."

Yeah, but he was forgetting that uneventful fell under the subheading of Not All Right in Kennedy-speak.

[brat_inslayage]

Not that it would do any good to tell her that, would it?

"I fake it pretty well," Kennedy demurred. "Comes with being a pain in the ass and too hardheaded for my own good."

Uneventful was Not All Right, but-- shock of shocks-- she was learning perspective, and wasn't actually going to complain about it. Much.

"You know. It goes," she replied. "It's sorta been a long year since I left, but mostly 'cause it was boring... which is more than I can say for you guys' summer. I heard about the last invasion, and then there was Tara's mom, and now Katniss's sister, and... just damn."

She didn't even want to think about anything like that happening to Jañe; tragedy had come closer to her friends than she liked and it did not need to hit any closer to home. "Bad times all around, and mostly it drives me crazy me to not be there. Doing something'd beat the hell out of sitting here waiting."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

That, Wesley could understand. He had a brief but amusing mental image of Kennedy running around in search of something to do. She'd probably been bored out of her mind and had jumped on the first opportunity she'd been given to actually do something. That was probably why she was out teaching her sister to surf, he reasoned.

It was weird how well he got her.

"Tara's mother died?" That explained why he hadn't seen much of her this summer. Good lord, this summer really wasn't working out for anyone, was it? "I'm terribly sorry for her loss. Is she -- that is to say, are the two of you -- would you offer her my condolences?"

Someone had missed the news of the breakup, yep.

[brat_inslayage]

Well, it wasn't as if either of them had sent out a news bulletin about it.

"I can, but assuming you get back to school you'll probably see her before I will," Kennedy replied slowly. "We're kinda... not a thing any more. It's-- I'm over it, promise, but be nice to her when she gets back or I'll come back to kick your ass."

She'd almost said take care of her for me, but it wasn't her place, and it wasn't necessary. She had plenty of confidence in Tara's ability to take care of herself.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Oh."

It was a real testament to Kennedy's newfound priorities that she hadn't ranked "Breakup with Tara" on the list of awful things that had happened this summer.

"Noted," he said after a moment. "I'm... sorry about the two of you. Though I suppose if a year's already passed in your dimension, prolonging a multiversal relationship might have been a bit complicated."

This was him trying to help. No wonder he needed Kennedy's advice on dealing with people.

[brat_inslayage]

Someone, somewhere, had to be laughing hysterically at the mere thought of anyone actively soliciting Kennedy's advice on dealing with people.

"No, really?" Okay, that came out a bit sarcastic, but she relented. Seriously, this vague progression in maturity was scary. "...yeah, that was part of it. It's okay; I passed the crying-on-people's-shoulders stage like twenty freeway exits ago. Don't make a thing out of it. You've got enough to deal with."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

SO MATURE. Seriously, he was about two profound comments away from asking if she was on drugs.

"True enough," he conceded. "Well, I suppose it's good that you've, ah, come to terms."

And the preachy part ended... now. Thank god.

"So if you're spending your summer with so little to do, I assume that means there's little word from the Hellmouth?" Because he could be an information whore too sometimes.

[brat_inslayage]

That question would go so well, wouldn't it, Wes? Although it could totally be a valid concern.

"Oh, god, Hallmark-card it, why don't you," Kennedy groaned, even if there was a laugh behind the words. "And nah. Nothing. There was a whole... weird crime surge thing but nothing demony and that apparently stopped. No idea why." Because Constance wasn't saying, that was why.

She shrugged. "It was a weirdly quiet year. Makes me think something big might be coming up. Maybe when that happens it'll be my ticket to go. Besides, I haven't been lying around doing nothing, god. You're totally going to laugh, but I've been helping teach kids self-defense stuff. Shut up."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Okay, Wesley had never associated Kennedy with the possibility of having a job, but if he had, that one would be it. It was so, so freakishly appropriate for her.

"Good lord," he laughed, then immediately cleared his throat upon realizing how loud that had been. Laughter was... definitely not something he wanted Katniss to hear right now. In a slightly more hushed tone, he admitted, "That sounds... rather ideal for you. Are you enjoying it?"

Like Kennedy could possibly not enjoy an opportunity to show off and practice fighting.