xp_logs | Angelo and Alejandra, Wednesday night

On Miguel's request, Angelo goes to walk Alejandra home from the shelter - and is then subjected to her own special brand of relationship counselling.

The Center wasn't much to look at - a converted store in the Bronx, the walls still covered with layers of graffiti, the same as every other building in the area - and if you hadn't known what it was, you would have walked right past it. Except, of course, for the small crowd of placard-holding Church of Humanity, picketing the place. They'd been there for almost two weeks now, and whilst the Center hadn't closed, numbers were dropping off significantly. No-one wanted to run the gauntlet of jeers anyone going in or out met, especially those with a visible mutation.

No one wanted to, maybe, but the young man strolling past with his hands in his pockets refused to be put off. He wasn't about to let anyone down, least of all Alejandra.

The Church of Humanity members stirred as Angelo approached, his obvious mutation drawing mutters that grew into the usual taunts about mutants being hellspawn and doomed to damnation. "God will punish you!" one older woman told him, shaking her "Stop Supporting Satan!" placard at him. "Repent now and your soul might be saved from everlasting hellfire..."

"Tell me how to repent from the way I was born an' I might think about it", he shot back at her, not breaking stride.

The woman stepped back, not expecting a retort, and there was glowering, but no further direct insults - while things were tense, there was a sense that the group was holding back. Perhaps the media coverage had something to do with it.

There were few people inside the Center - a couple of teenaged boys playing pool on the dilapidated table, a girl with brick orange skin sitting on a couch looking through various leaflets on mutant rights. And Alejandra, her long hair tied back as she finished collecting the last of the used styrofoam coffee cups that tended to populate the place. She looked up as the door opened, a scowl appearing. "I told Miguel I didn't need no bodyguard," she told Angelo irritably. "Takes more than a bunch of flatscans wavin' signs to scare me."

"You know Miguel never listens when you say that", he answered, rolling his eyes. "Just put up with it. He's worried about them gettin' in their head to throw rocks or worse, I think."

"Miguel just worries. He's turnin' into an old woman, he worries so much." But there was a certain softening of Alejandra's tone as she spoke, finishing her task. "Okay, it's time for you to be goin'," she continued, directing her words to the three other young people in the room. "I gotta lock up." There were some grumbles, but the boys laid down their pool cues. "An' make sure Anita here gets home safe, si? Don't let her go walkin' past those putos out there on her own."

'Anita' rolled her own eyes, but accepted the reluctant escort without arguing. As Alejandra locked the door behind them, she turned back to Angelo. "You gonna help me finish clearin' up? That Professor is visitin' tomorrow, and they want the place nice."

"Don't have anywhere else to be", he said with a shrug. "Sure, I'll help." And he moved to do just that.

Alejandra didn't say anything in response to that, although she gave him a briefly speculative look before setting him to cleaning. It didn't take long - things were mostly in place, it was just a matter of shifting a few chairs and tidying the pamphlet racks and clearing up the detritus of a day's use of the space. "Here, you can take out the trash," she told him when they're nearly finished, pointing towards the back door. "Don't forget to lock the door when you come back in. We had some puto tryin' to break in there day before yesterday."

Angelo scowled, turning back to her on his way to the door. "One of the ones out front? Or didn't you see who it was?"

She snorted. "One of them? That would take cojones they don't have." She waved him towards the door and set about turning off various lights, until only the light above the front door remained.

"Yeah, I guess not. Some random chancer, then." He shrugged, moving to finish his task. The one light would be enough for the walk back through.

When he returned, Alejandra was waiting for him. This time, the speculative look was more than just a brief flicker. "Thanks," she said, voice much less business-like than it had been. "Would've taken me a while t' get done."

"Nah, it wouldn't", he said, looking down at her strangely. "Wasn't hardly anythin' to do."

She met the look calmly, a slight hint of a smile playing about the corners of her mouth. "You and your mom, you've done a lot for Miguel and me," she said. "I dunno if I've thanked you properly for it. Rehab, a place to stay, your mom helpin' Miguel find work... It means a lot."

"Least we could do", he said with a small shrug. "I mean, you look at it one way, Miguel did me the biggest favour of my life back in LA. Never would've got out of the life without him."

She snorted again at that. "Only you could say bein' set on fire was a favour, Angelito," she told him, but almost fondly rather than critical. "An' Miguel might say different, but comin' here... it saved my life. Got me off the Kick, helped me find this place." She smiled suddenly. "I'm even thinkin' 'bout goin' back to school. Must be goin' loco."

"What doesn't kill you, an' all that", he said with a half-grin, then it turned into a real one. "Yeah? What're you thinkin' of studyin'?"

"High school, first," she told him, a little ruefully. "Never finished back in L.A., an' they kinda want that for these college classes. After that..." She shrugged a little. "Maybe somethin' that'll help out here? I've been talkin' to people, an' they seem to think I could do okay."

"Sure you would", he said with a gesture that might have turned into a ruffle of her hair if he'd completed it. "I know they do classes in social work some places."

"That, maybe. Maybe nursin'. I've got a strong stomach, an' they need people who aren't afraid of touchin' a mutie." At his aborted gesture, she smiled again, and reached to take his hand. "Think you could see me in the little white uniform?"

He looked down at her, eyebrows raised. "If that's what you're thinkin' about, don't tell big brother." Yes, he could.

"Miguel will only be happy if I wind up married to some cabron, pumpin' out kids every year." She tossed her head a little, flicking her ponytail over her shoulder and somehow in all that pulling him a little closer to her. "I got more ambition than that. Like you - you've got the good job, the nice place to live... I want that as well."

"An' you'll get it", he assured her, somehow failing to notice the pulling closer. It was only by a step, after all. "Maybe even with Elpis, if you want it in a couple years when you're done with school."

"Maybe," she said, noncommittally, before giving him another of those slow smiles. "So, if I do go back to school, you gonna help me out? Be my study buddy? You got time for that?"

"Yeeeah, I think I can manage that. Don't know a whole lot about nursin', but at least I could get your textbooks an' test you on stuff."

"High school first, remember?" She reached up and flicked his earlobe with her finger playfully, resting her hand on his shoulder as she let it drop. "Math, English... all that borin' stuff."

"Ah, that stuff's easy", he told her with that lopsided grin again. "You'd've got there already if things'd gone different."

"Always the sweet talker, even back then." Alejandra squeezed his shoulder a little, moving in closer. "Talkin' to you like this... it's like old times."

"Feels like forever ago", he said with a wistful kind of wryness. "'m glad we all got out of there." Alive, he didn't finish.

"Wasn't all bad. We had fun, remember?" Her hand strayed to his collar, fingers stroking the cropped short hair behind his ear. "Lots of fun." And with that, she leaned in and kissed him, lingeringly.

There wasn't a man alive - certainly not a young man, who'd never quite had the chance to get over this girl properly - who could have found the will to pull away from that instantly. The kiss lasted for a few seconds before he pulled back. "Alejandra - "

She watched him, with an almost challenging look. "What, Angelito? You tellin' me you don't want this?" She kept hold of his hand, not letting him pull entirely away. "What's stoppin' you?"

"If you'd showed up a year, year and a half ago", he said regretfully. "But you know I've got a girl. That's not changin'." Not yet, anyway.

"You've got a girl?" Alejandra feigned surprise. "You mean the one you never talk about no more, an' we never see? The one who never said more than two words at that dinner at your mom's place?" She shrugged. "Seems to me that's already changed, since I can't see nothin' there."

"She came to dinner at my mom's place", he pointed out sharply. "Just 'cause we might have a few issues right now, don't mean there's nothin' there."

"You coulda fooled me that there's somethin' there," she retorted, but there seemed to be something almost pleased at his reaction. "Issues don't mean nothin' - you want her, you be with her. None of this 'workin' out issues' crap - the Angelo Espinosa I knew always took what he wanted, and didn't let anythin' get in the way."

"Yeah, an' that's the part got me in trouble", he flashed back. "There's stuff I'd have happen that she don't want me to want... or not the way I'd've done it once."

She made a dismissive gesture, finally letting him go. "Don't matter. You love her, Angelito? You wanna be with her? If you do, then say so to her, 'cause I can tell you right now, you're gunna lose her if you don't. She's already eatin' her heart out over you - anyone can see that. Not that I care - uptight little puta don't mean shit to me."

"Feelin's mutual", Angelo drawled, trying for casual, then looked down at her more seriously. "Yeah, Alejita, I love her. An' I thought she knew that, no matter what."

"Maybe she knows it, but she ain't feelin' it right now." Alejandra shrugged. "She tries to be tough, but she's not half as tough as she wants to be. Beats me why you'd want someone like that, but if she's the one you want... No seas buey cabron." She poked him firmly in the chest with her finger.

"'jita", he protested. "Things ain't that easy anymore. I don't know what else I'm s'posed to do."

This time she poked him on the forehead. "You think too much, Angelito. What do you want to do? Right now, no takin' time to answer. First thing that jumps into your head." She grinned wickedly. "Or into somewhere else."

"I remember when you couldn't reach to do that", he told her, then shrugged slightly. "I wanna fix it."

"Then go fix it. Go drag her out from this work of hers and show her you want her. Sometimes, words just get in the way." Alejandra rolled her eyes. "I can't believe I'm even doin' this. If I didn't like you so much, I'd keep my nose out. But you ain't happy like this, an' I know I'm not the one you need." She poked him again. "C'mon, it's gettin' late an' Miguel'll think we've been jumped by those fuckers out there. Walk me home before he comes runnin' in, guns blazin'."

Show her you want her. He'd done that before, and he could do it again. He nodded slowly. "Good advice, Alejita. Thanks - an' yeah, let's not get Miguel arrested." He stepped towards the door, reaching to give her hand a fleeting squeeze.

She squeezed back, giving him a wicked look, although there was regret there as well. "An' if you don't work it out? You know where I am." She pulled a set of keys out of her pocket, and squared her shoulders, a slight glow emanating from her. "Watch my back while I lock up? No point givin' them a target."

Angelo nodded, knowing she wouldn't have asked if she wasn't more nervous than she let on, and turned to glare at the picketers.