xp_logs | Late in the evening

"Hey there." Marie stopped in the doorway of the rec room. "You okay, Angelo?"

Angelo, actually sitting up on the couch instead of curled up on it, looked over at the door. "Hey. Feeling a little better, yeah, thanks."

"Good to hear. You going to spend the night here?" She leaned on the doorframe and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Think so, yeah. Unless Alex and Shiro decide to let me back in. But I don't really mind." He looked at her, grinning wryly. "You going to stay over there, or come in and sit down?"

"Did you want me to talk to them?" She came over and sat down on a chair near him, tucking her feet up under her. "It's your room too, you know."

Angelo shrugged. "They're probably right. I needed to get out of there. They'll let me back in eventually."

She smiled at him. "You're taking it pretty well. How are you feeling about things with Paige? You two work that out at all?"

Angelo sighed. "I haven't seen her." He paused, then continued hesitantly, "You... you were right, you know. I... do love her."

"That's not a bad thing, you know. Love's never a bad thing. I think that people assume that love means obligations or that certain things have to happen, but that's not it at all. It's just love. What you do with it is up to you. Does she know?"

"Not yet", he admitted. "I didn't want to... She loves Jono. She told me so."

"That's got nothing to do with whether you love her or not, Angelo." Marie leaned forward, her expression serious. "You loving her doesn't interfere with her loving Jono, or it shouldn't. It's how you feel. And, well, if you're friends with her and want to keep that up, maybe you should tell her. The two of you can work out together what it means for your friendship."

Angelo nodded, knowing it made sense. "You're right. Things... things kind of got bad for a while before the big crisis happened."

"This stuff isn't easy. Our heads are full of what love is, how it's supposed to play out. It's not like that, though, and we just hurt ourselves until we figure out that it's not. And then we have to pick up and figure out how we're going to love, each of us. I used to be really down because I thought I'd never have what everyone else does with another person." She shrugged. "I won't. I'm not going to say it doesn't bother me sometimes, but it's not the end of the world. It's just going to be different for me, that's all."

Angelo reached out hesitantly to squeeze her gloved hand. "You seem really... okay with it", he said quietly. "Just hope I can get to that place."

Marie squeezed his hand back. "Well, it helps if you have someone you trust to get you there. Maybe Paige can help you."

His eyes darkened, but he nodded. "I hope so."

"I don't think that honesty can hurt here, Angelo. You're not hiding it well, and you don't want to cut her off, so... I think you better suck it up." She looked a little regretful. "I wish I had another answer for you. But if you love someone, sometimes the only thing to do is to say it. If nothing else, because it could be too late some day."

"No. I don't want to cut her off." Pulling his knees up and wrapping his arms around them, he continued softly, "But I don't want to scare her away, either."

"Angelo, you're not going to scare her away. Paige is a strong person. You're not putting demands on her, you're giving her a gift, saying that she matters to you and that everything she is is important to you. She doesn't owe you anything. She doesn't have to give up anything. She doesn't have to change. It'll be okay."

"Yeah", Angelo replied, nodding slightly with a faint smile. "Why do you always make so much sense?"

Marie shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's because I get a smack in the head with other people's lives once in a while. Maybe it's because I feel like I have to make sense, because life is so hard and we have it even harder. Or maybe I just get lucky." She shook her head and got up, reaching out to pat his shoulder gently. "All I know is that I know what it's like to love and be loved back in the way that they never talk about in books or movies. It's not stars and hearts, it's more like corner stones and steel girders, and it's a good thing."

Angelo smiled sadly. "I never met anyone like Paige before. I don't want to lose her..."

Yrth Aer Sii: "You won't, Angelo. If I know her at all, she won't let you." She stood in front of him and smiled down at him. "You're smart. She's smart. And you two need to talk about this. You and her. You can talk to the rest of us until you're blue in the face, but it'll never resolve anything."

Angelo looked up at her, his smile becoming more grateful than sad. "You're right. Again. I will talk to her. And if I get the nerve together, maybe I'll even tell her..."

"Think of it this way, Angelo." she said, a little amused. "You already tell her, and the rest of us, with half the things you do. You might as well put it all out on the table so there's nothing lurking to trip any of us up later."

"Yeah, yeah, I know", he said, half-laughing. "I'm a lousy actor."

She grinned at him. "I know you'll do the right thing. Make sure you get yourself some blankets from the upstairs cupboard if you're gonig to sleep here. Don't want you catching cold."

"Will do", he promised, raising a hand in a half-wave.

"Sleep well, Angelo." She returned the wave on her way out the door.