xp_logs | Nathan and Angelo, Wednesday morning

After a frustrating early morning meeting with a bureaucrat at the UN about the 'Southeast Asian mystery', Nathan and Angelo have a late breakfast. Angelo calls him on his bad mood, Nathan tells him a little bit of the truth, and they establish that yes, running off to Cambodia is feasible if it becomes necessary.

"Stop with the wide-eyed perusal of your surroundings," Nathan said irritably as he and Angelo headed out of the UN building. "It's not that impressive." Really, he shouldn't be being this sharp with Angelo, but the meeting had not gone well. Moira had smoothed the way as much as possible but they'd still run into bureaucratic stonewalling. Of course, what did I expect?

Angelo blinked at him, vaguely hurt. "Maybe it's not if you're used to it."

Oh, and now he was getting the puppy-dog look. Charming. Boxing the ears of one's research assistant in the lobby of the United Nations was not on, Nathan reminded himself grumpily. "Mmm," was his only response to the hurt look. "I want to look at the notes you took once we're out of here. See if you heard anything I didn't from Mr. 'Proper Channels' back there."

"Sure. Got them ready for whenever." He was saying nothing about the grumpiness. Yet.

"We might as well have breakfast... lunch... brunch, whatever, in-town," Nathan said grudgingly. Angelo had been very patient about being rousted out of bed unexpectedly and given a grand total of ten minutes to don his best suit for an early-morning meeting. "Are you hungry?"

"Usually", Angelo answered almost cheerfully. "Where're we goin'?"

Nathan eyed their surroundings as they got outside, and then inclined his head in the direction of the UN Plaza Hotel. "The Ambassador Grill," he said, shortly. "Should be a great place to eavesdrop. I gather the food's good, too."

Angelo nodded. "Ambassador Grill it is, then. I'm good at listenin'."

It was late enough that they had missed the breakfast crowd, however, and too early for lunch. The restaurant wasn't empty, but it was definitely on the empty-ish side, and Nathan told himself to stop glaring when they were seated and he saw how the waiter shrank away, just a little, before recovering his professional composure and asking if they'd like anything to drink."

"Coffee," Nathan growled.

Angelo shot the waiter an apologetic glance when Nathan wasn't looking. "Coffee for me too, thanks."

"What?" Nathan demanded of Angelo when the waiter moved away. He picked up the menu and scanned it restlessly. Overpriced, definitely overpriced, but what the hell. Maybe someone interesting would walk in for brunch. "Why are you giving me that sideways look?"

Angelo opened his mouth to deny it, then stopped, shrugging. "You're bein' snappier'n usual, is all. But I guess it's a hard time."

Nathan opened his mouth to retort and then closed it again, his eyes narrowing a little. "I'm frustrated," he said finally, a bit tightly. "We just wasted two hours getting the highly dignified brush-off. And the son of a-" He stopped again, noticing the way the maitre'd was looking in their direction. "Mr. Proper Channels wrote me off as some sort of loony conspiracy theorist."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah. But it's not the first time we've come up against that kind of thing."

"Yes, but-" No. Not going there. "My ability to handle frustration is intermittent," he said in a bantering, if hard tone as the waiter came back with the coffee. "I'll take the eggs benedict," he said.

"Pancakes for me", Angelo told the waiter, saving any worried looks for when he was gone.

Nathan sighed. "Stop looking at me like that. It's not as if it's been a great fall in general, now, has it?"

"No. 's why I didn't say anythin' before this - like I said, I know it's a hard time."

"Then why are you saying something now? Just because I scared the waiter?"

"Maybe. You don't usually take it out on just random people like that."

Nathan raised an eyebrow, as if daring Angelo to go on, and sipped at his coffee.

Well then. He'd gone this far, might as well take it the rest of the way. "Is there more goin' on than I know about? An' do I get to, if there is?"

Nathan eyed him for a long, contemplative moment. "There is," he finally said, quietly, "but I don't feel like giving you all the details. Succinctly, I'm... possibly a little more sick than we thought. The epilepsy?"

Angelo nodded, with a simple, "Yeah, I remember."

"So maybe I'm more on edge that I should be." Nathan sighed and set his cup down. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"It's okay. Just worried me, is all." He fell silent for a moment, then, "So, what happens next?"

"With our latest quest?" Nathan asked, correctly divining that Angelo was changing the subject. He was coming right along with those diplomatic skills. "More research, I suppose. Obviously the proper channels are not going to bear fruit."

Angelo grinned crookedly. "Nothin' new there."

Nathan managed to scoff at him. "Don't look so enthusiastic." The banter, this time, had no edge to it, just wry good humor. "You're getting far too much of a taste for the sneaky stuff. Don't think I didn't notice you lying blithely to that office in Saigon while you were talking to them on the phone."

That got an angelic smile. "Can't help what I'm good at."

"Smartass," Nathan accused lightly. "You'd think someone had been teaching you bad habits."

He laughed. "Can't think who that'd be."

"Riiiight. So," Nathan said, relaxing a little as he leaned back in his chair. "If this turns out to require travel, you up for seeing a little of Southeast Asia?"

"When did I ever say no to seein' anywhere?"

"Interesting places," Nathan mused, "Cambodia especially. Such a horrific immediate past, but such an amazing distant past..."

Angelo grinned. "Count me in."

"Never doubted it for a minute," Nathan said, and managed a grin of his own.