Title: Purify Food and Drink
Fandom: Dimension 20: Fantasy High
Rating: G
Length: 1,234 words
Content notes: Mention of the concept of drugging someone's drink
Author's notes: Concrit welcome!
Summary: Riz and Kristen develop a habit of hanging at his place after they're done for the day.



Kristen’s been hanging out with the rest of the Bad Kids a lot lately. Not that they don’t normally see a lot of each other, sure, but when they break for the day after an afternoon of shakes at Basrar’s or hanging on the couch at a Sig Figs practice, more often than not Kristen tags along with someone on their way home and spends a couple of hours with them one-on-one before going back home later in the evening. Most often she comes home with Riz. He’s gotten used to sitting across the kitchen from her as he does his homework or research on a case and she devours whatever books she can find on comparative theology.

Riz is an (un-)licensed private investigator; he can sniff out pretty easily the fact that she doesn’t want to have to go home and deal with her parents and that things must be pretty tense with them, but she doesn’t seem too interested in talking about it, so he doesn’t push. Kristen’s not what anyone would call a shy person - he trusts her to tell them what she wants them to know when she’s ready to do so, and in the meantime he’s spoken to his mom and relayed the information back to Kristen that their apartment is always open to her.

—

The first time Kristen invited herself over to his place was the day after she’d first visited Adaine’s house and a few days after she had fallen asleep on the couch at Fig’s and they had all chosen to let her sleep instead of waking her up when they were breaking for the evening. Riz was a little surprised, not that she wanted to come hang out with him but that he hadn’t anticipated the possibility. It was a Friday evening and his mom normally did grocery shopping early Saturday mornings, so he didn’t really have much to offer her. She didn’t mention it, though, just excused herself after an hour or so to run down to the vending machines, saying she’d had a craving for some chips ever since they passed the machines on their way into the apartment. She came back not only with two bags, one for each of them, but also a couple bottles of soda. After that day, every time she visited she brought an assortment of snack foods with her in her backpack and split them with Riz while they hung out.

Eventually Riz got comfortable enough to let her into his room. She didn’t make fun of his evidence board so he let her stay, and their usual afternoon hangout spot gradually shifted from the kitchen to his bedroom. He cleared all his laundry off his other, non-desk, chair and made sure it was always clean for her to use when she came over. Kristen seemed to appreciate having a special spot that belonged to her in his room.

—

They've been hanging out a bit longer than usual this afternoon. Riz has spent the last hour and a half going over the details on a case that is stubbornly refusing to turn up any evidence while Kristen sits in her chair listening and making friendship bracelets, and it’s now way past dinnertime. Riz and Kristen shared a box of crackers when they first got home, so he’s not hungry, but he’s talked his way through the bottle of soda she brought for him and has been thirsty for the past several minutes. He finally gets up and goes to the kitchen to grab something.

“Water?” he asks as he fills up his mug - the smallness of their apartment and thinness of the walls are usually cons, but at least he doesn’t have to yell to make himself heard from his bedroom.

“Sure,” Kristen replies. Riz grabs one of the water bottles form his fridge and tosses it to her as he reenters his bedroom. She takes a swig and twists the cap back on.

“What, am I not cool enough for a mug?” she asks, eyeing the one he’s sipping out of. Riz gets up and walks back out of his room - he’ll have to wash his mom’s mug out, but that’s fine.

“Sure, give me just a sec.” He hears her following behind him as he makes his way to the kitchen.

“No, don’t bother, I was just teasing.”

Riz puts down the mug and leans against the kitchen counter. “The bottled stuff’s better anyway. Tastes less like weird chemicals.” They actually keep the bottled water in their home specifically for guests. Specifically for Kristen, really, since she’s the only one who visits with any sort of regularity.

“What?” she asks loudly, grabbing Riz’s own mug out of his hand and drinking a sip of its contents. She immediately makes a face but does finish swallowing her mouthful. “Eugh. Bleh.”

“See?” Riz retorts, snatching his mug back and drinking a couple gulps defiantly.

“Yeah, no, we’re not doing that. C’mon, help me fill all these up.” She lets herself inside their cabinets and starts pulling out their glasses and bowls. Carrying them all over to the sink, she fills each one and passes them along to Riz to put on the kitchen table, talking as she goes.

“We used to do this in youth group. We’d go to clubs and bars and witness to everyone and make sure there wasn’t anything funny in their drinks.” She sighs. “But it takes up a whole spell slot so if you’re not going with a group there’s really not much you can do. So I haven’t been back since, you know, figuring out I was attending a super messed up cult.”

Now that all Riz’s bowls, mugs, and glasses are situated next to each other on the table, Kristen twists her hand over top of them and mutters a spell. She picks up one of the glasses and hands it to Riz, who takes a tentative sip. It tastes just like the bottled stuff.

“I’ve been trying to get another group together to go with me, but nobody on my prayer chain has responded, so I might start going by myself. Anyway, if you get some gallon jugs before I see you next time, I can purify those whenever you start running low.”

Riz is, as occasionally happens with Kristen, deeply touched by her thoughtfulness. “Okay, don’t - don’t go to a club by yourself. Remember last time we went to a club? Adaine almost got turned into a werewolf!”

“That hardly ever happens,” Kristen scoffs.

“Look.” Riz sighs. “At least take one of us with you. I’ll go, if you want.”

Kristen’s face splits into a huge grin and she throws herself at him in a quick hug. She runs back to his bedroom and he can hear her rummaging around.

“Oh my god, you’re the best! Now where’d I leave my crystal, I need to - you don’t have a fake ID do you? I still have mine, but we’ll need to get you one if you want them to let you in. Well,” she pops her head around the doorway and wiggles her hand back and forth in a ‘more or less’ gesture. “Most places, anyway. I’ll have to call my guy-“

“You have a guy? Riz asks, grabbing another glass of clean water and following her back into his room. “Wait, you have a fake ID?”.