Catherine 'Kitty' Gilmore (duplicitat) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-04-01 08:46:00 |
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It was odd and in truth felt just a tad strange that for once Kitty would be seeing Nina and it wouldn’t be because of some random run in. They wouldn't have to share looks of surprise and exclamations of “I didn’t expect to see you here.”. There would be surprise though, of that Kitty was almost certain. Because that morning Zach had had to be to the DoR early, which meant that while she had warned Nina she might have tagalongs, that morning it changed from a might to a for sure. Admittedly she was a bit hesitant what Nina's reaction to Gigi and Miah might be and to be entirely honest she couldn't pinpoint why the other woman’s opinion or reaction matter so much. Kitty had never minded before, so what was different? That thought fluttered around her mind as she got both herself and the two little ones ready to meet Nina in the cafeteria at eight o’clock. Being punctual with two small children in tow was difficult, but not impossible and Kitty had learned the fine art of being timely -- start getting everyone ready long before you actually needed to leave. Which was in fact why she stepped into the cafeteria minutes before eight o’clock and scanned the room for Nina’s familiar face. Kitty had thought briefly about making some kind of sign explaining they were holding a ‘sit-in’, though she wasn’t sure if they really were of if she had simply used this as an excuse to see Nina again. Plus, she was enough of a spectacle with two energetic children. “This way,” Gigi exclaimed while tugging on Kitty’s hand. Her daughter had no idea who they were looking for, but by some stroke of luck the direction in which she wanted to go seemed to be the right direction, because as they began to move Kitty’s gaze settled on Nina who was already seated at a table. “Alright, lead the way,” Kitty answered her daughter, allowing the three year old to pull her along. Miah was settled on her left hip, the younger of her children content for the time being in her arms. They wove their way through tables and people until Kitty had to pull Gigi up short before they passed Nina’s table. The little girl gave her a disgruntled look and opened her mouth to protest, but one look from Kitty caused her to snap her little mouth closed. Moving her attention away from her daughter and to Nina, Kitty smiled warmly while she said. “Good morning, Nina,” and then paused, silently pulling out a chair and urging Gigi to take a seat in it. “Turns out I had to bring company, I hope that’s okay.” Kitty added while she tried to keep the hesitance or nervousness she felt at bay. Needing something to do while she waited for Nina to answer, the younger woman pulled out a chair and sunk down onto it, Miah happily perched on her lap once she was settled. "Good morning." Nina's ability to maintain a straight face was being tested quite thoroughly as she looked over Kitty and the two children who'd joined them for breakfast. The natural conclusion was to assume the woman had children she'd never mentioned, and Nina's brow furrowed obviously as she tried to discern Kitty's age. She'd always assumed she was in her twenties, but the youthfulness of her looks conflicted with that of the child in her lap and the girl at her side. Belatedly, she realized she'd not yet replied to the rest of Kitty's greeting. "It's fine," she said quickly, the words true despite the delayed response. In the long run, what did their presence change? The two of them could still have breakfast, after all, and Nina rarely swore or discussed topics that weren't appropriate for children's ears. She offered a smile, one that the couldn't help but extend to the children as well. "More numbers will help bolster our presence and get the message across, after all." True to someone of her profession Nina was hard to read. Which meant that any attempt Kitty had been trying to make in figuring out the other woman’s reaction to their smaller breakfast companions was ultimately futile. Why it was she cared so much about Nina’s opinion was also something she was not going to study too closely in that moment, she would save that for when she had a moment alone and she could pull apart her own thoughts and reasoning more thoroughly than she could right then and there. Breathing a bit of a sigh of relief once Nina spoke again, Kitty returned the other woman’s smile with one of her own. “They’ve never had bacon pancakes unfortunately, but I promise they’ll support our cause.” She replied with a laugh, glancing over at Gigi before she realized she really should introduce Nina to her children. “Also introductions are probably in order,” Kitty began. “This little guy here is Miah, and the little girl who looks like she might take off running at any moment is Gigi,” She paused before adding. “Gigi, Miah, this is my friend Nina.” The two kids gave a chorus of “Hi’s” as they studied Nina, Gigi added “Nice to meet you.” Because Kitty had taught her that was polite. "Nice to meet you both," Nina replied, her smile broadening without her even knowing it. She'd always liked children, and now that she thought about it, she could vaguely recall seeing these two around before. Kitty watched the interaction between Nina and her children wordlessly, and when it seemed the other woman was okay with them she felt comfortable adding in. “Gigi and Miah are my kids.” This time she didn’t expect any kind of shocked or surprised expression from Nina, if only because she had to assume the lawyer would be just as good at hiding that as she had been any intentional shock she felt at the children’s presence. Just as Kitty provided that explanation, Nina suddenly realized why they were vaguely familiar. "You were at the LBJ Thanksgiving, weren't you?" She asked suddenly. They hadn't spoken to each other then, but it made her pleased to think that they apparently ran in the same circles. And if she'd been at Thanksgiving, perhaps she wasn't entirely disapproving of the Hellhounds who'd also attended the event. "I was, too." “I was,” Kitty answered with just a note of surprise in her tone. There had been so many new faces there that she couldn't remember everyone she had and hadn’t seen. The blonde didn’t even attempt to hide the smile that appeared when Nina confirmed that she had been there as well. Sometimes Austin felt so small in comparison to what the city had been like before, but it was kind of nice to think that maybe they had some acquaintances in common if they had been in attendance at the same event. “Both Maizie Wolfe and Olivia Jensen are close friends of mine,” she explained. “I can’t believe we didn’t run into each other there, since it seems we’ve crossed paths everywhere else.” Kitty remarked with a laugh, avoiding asking if Nina was in attendance because of her ties to the Dog King -- asking her something like that in the middle of the cafeteria was not wise, or even really proper. From the corner of her eye Kitty noticed Gigi wiggling around in her chair and before the young girl could be asked to settle down she looked directly at the grown ups and blurted out. “The big guys with motorcycles were there too!” Gigi shifted her attention to Nina as she added. “Do you know them?” "They were there," Nina agreed, leaning forward to better address Kitty's daughter, the food on her plate forgotten for now. She hadn't expected to discuss politics with so young an audience, but given the conversation she and Kitty had had when they'd first met, it made sense that her daughter would somehow ask similar kinds of questions, too. Nina liked to think she'd been the same way when she'd been that young. "I know only a few of them." And most of the ones she knew, she'd met when she'd been interrogating them on Olinger's behalf," she added, making sure to keep her voice quiet while she hoped the girl would do the same. Her eyes lifted to meet Kitty's, hoping she'd get the hint. "I know more of the people who just live there with those men, but aren't actually them." The little girl’s eyes got big when Nina admitted to knowing a few of the Hellhounds. “Mama says they aren’t nice,” Gigi exclaimed, no doubt parroting something Kitty had said to her that day at the LBJ. Kitty gave Nina an apologetic look as Nina attempted to suppress a smile, aware that her daughter took after her when it came to delving right into the deep end of a topic -- which in Gigi’s own way she had when she pinpointed the Hellhounds reputation around Austin. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are the people who don’t have a wolf patch on their back like?” It had always made her wonder what would bring a person to toss their lot in with raiders. But having been sheltered at Fox Grove, all she heard about the Hellhounds was the little bit that filtered down from the few times their scouts or Sepphy had crossed paths with the men. “Of course feel free to change the subject, I’m sure this is a touchy one because of your history with their leader.” Kitty added as she leaned into Nina and dropped her voice down low enough that it was likely the other woman was the only one who would have heard what she said. The whole thing was certainly more than Nina had bargained for, but who was she to stifle the pursuit of knowledge? She was aware of the potential eavesdropping that could occur, despite the fact that Kitty had lowered her voice, so she endeavored to do the same. There was a part of her that was quickly approaching a level of insouciance with the Capitol and its people by this point, anyway. "They're just regular people, like you and me," Nina replied, her voice pitched low as well as she thought about Adelaide and Demi, Noa and some of the others she'd met at Thanksgiving. "Circumstances just happened to mean they're family or friends to some of those men, and they have different opinions about what's good or bad." She tried to leave any kind of judgment out of her words, despite the fact that she herself didn't agree with how the Hellhounds conducted themselves in Austin. "Just like we ended up here, they ended up over there, but we're all the same in the end." When it was put that way Kitty herself could admit that it was harder to villainize the people who chose to throw in with the Hellhounds. While not nearly the same thing she knew what it was like to be automatically lumped in with thoughts and opinions simply because of your family connections, she had seen it happen more than once while her father had been moving through the political circles. “That might be a truer statement than you realize,” Kitty remarked in regards to Nina’s final words. While she wasn’t sure about how she felt about it and barely had any information to go on, her eyes were beginning to be opened to the fact that the Capitol may not be as lily white as the image presented to the shelter residents might lead someone to believe. “So they’re just like us?” Gigi interrupted, eyes wide as she studied Nina and Kitty. “It would seem that is what Nina is saying,” Kitty answered softly, her statement corroborated by the patient nod that Nina gave Gigi, but in such a way that it was clear that now that conversation was ended and Gigi should accept the answers she had been given. The cafeteria was not in fact the place to delve deeper into the questions this conversation brought up for Kitty and her daughter did not need to be pressing Nina further for answers either. “I'm sorry,” Her attention was turned back towards Nina now. “She’s full of questions, I really should have warned you before springing her on you.” Kitty offered an apologetic smile, all the while hoping that her daughter’s curious nature and how she had sprang both children on Nina wouldn’t mar the woman’s opinion of her. An opinion that was apparently more important to her than she had realized. "It's really all right," Nina replied, another smile appearing briefly on her face. And it wasn't a lie, either; though she was the sort of woman who'd consider a white lie in order to spare hurt feelings, depending on the situation, she aimed for honesty more often than not. In a way, too, she enjoyed learning more about Kitty. At the very least, she thought she better understood why she'd been so desperate to find hot cocoa that night. Kitty gave no other argument as to whether or not it really was ‘all right’ the way Gigi had brought up a sensitive subject. Obviously Nina knew better than she did just how dangerous it was or wasn’t to talk about the Hellhounds or possible connections to them. In truth she was still wrapping her head around the fact that Nina had ties to the raider group at all, ones that seemed fairly recent if she was able to confirm that not everyone within the Dog Park was nearly as intimidating or dangerous as those that wore the snarling wolf patch on their backs. The thought drew her back to the present and their intention, joking or not, to campaign for better breakfast food. "It occurs to me now that we may as well make our own bacon pancakes on our own, given the resources we have." It was a joking comment, with only a touch of the cynicism she had about their home if one looked deep enough into it. Still, she couldn't help but think about how the LBJ Library had faltered when they'd briefly lost their ability to forage for supplies. "That might be a better strategy for us." The change in subject was a welcome one, after all, this was the reason they were here. “I’ve been working in the DoR, and you really would be shocked at the amount of stuff the Capitol has,” Kitty didn’t have full access to all the records, but she had enough access to realize that the Capitol was in fact not hurting for resources. “So I believe you might be right and we really should just go ahead and make our own bacon pancakes,” she paused. “Maybe we could start our very own ignored breakfast items cooking club.” Kitty said this with a small laugh, the idea more of a joke than a true idea. Although she wouldn’t dislike the opportunity to see more of Nina. It had been a long while since Nina had actively made use of her kitchen, but she found that she didn't mind the idea of it. And once she allowed herself to imagine such an event, it was nicer than she thought it would've been to picture herself with some company one morning, the two of them bustling around and sorting out bacon pancakes or something else tasty. "I should warn you," she said, trying and failing to suppress a smile. "I'm not very good at cooking besides maybe… three different things. Pork chops, popcorn, canned spinach, and bacon. The essentials, really. But I'd be willing to give it a try one of these days." Kitty might have originally made the cooking club suggestion as a joke, but she found herself more than a little interested in the idea of spending a morning preparing a meal with Nina. She found she enjoyed the other woman’s company and the chance to talk and get to know her in a more private setting. “We’ll be quite the pair in that case,” Kitty began. “Because I’m really only good at making crepes and macaroons.” With her upbringing it had never been a strong focus to make sure that she knew how to cook, and anything she did know how to make she had learned from her maternal grandmother. “I’m more than willing to set out on this cooking adventure with you some day, which with your schedule you’ll probably have to pick the day.” Kitty’s was far more flexible in that respect. Their conversation carried on like this for a little while longer, the both of them talking and chatting while the finished their breakfast. Soon enough though Kitty’s children began to get antsy and Nina had to make her departure so as not to be late to work. The two women parted ways with the understanding that they would in fact make their breakfast club happen, eventually. |