Amanda, Angelo - Sunday afternoon

[xp_daytripper]

Amanda's back from Brazil and Angelo drops by for a catch-up. She runs her plan for the students by him.



She'd been away for a while, and so Angelo felt it was time he went to visit Amanda. Knowing she wouldn't mind much, he hadn't said anything about it beforehand, choosing to just head out.

Unpacking had been done by virtue of tipping the contents of her duffle into the hamper she kept for dirty laundry. After yet another long soak and a complete set of clean clothes. Who'd have thought jungles would be so dirty? She was poking suspiciously at her empty bag, hoping she hadn't brought along any hitchhikers of the multi-legged sort when there was a knock on her door.

"Coming!" she called, tossing the duffle into the hamper as well and hurrying to answer it. She should have expected to find Angelo on the other side, but still it was a nice surprise - he'd been so busy with everything, she hadn't thought he'd remember she was back today. "Ange!"

Angelo grinned down at her, leaning on the doorframe. "Hey, you. Good to see you back in one piece.

"Good to be back. Jungles? So not my thing." It was more than the bugs, even, although those were bad enough. It had been the strange sense of dislocation, gone as soon as she set foot in Rio again. "C'mon in. You want a beer or something?" she continued, stepping aside so he could enter. At least the place was pretty tidy, but mainly because she hadn't been there much lately.

Or it was if you ignored the bulging laundry hamper in her bathroom - it had at least two trips' worth in there.

"Yeah, won't say no to that." He glanced around as he followed her into the room, noticing various new little touches. "Place's lookin' good."

"I guessed you wouldn't, but 's always better to ask," she said with a grin, closing the door behind him and going to the fridge. "My poor herb boxes didn't like me leaving for so long," she said with a grimace as she ruffled the thyme growing in one of said boxes in the kitchen window, open to let in the slight muggy New York air. "I got Angie to water 'em for me, but yeah, they needed some TLC when I got back." She snorted a little. "Might need to re-think the plant thing, if I'm gunna be travelling as much as I have been."

"You could always leave them at my mom's", he suggested. "'s what I do with the dog, when I go away an' Bobby an' Rahne both go too. She'd look after them, an' she likes you."

"There's an idea." Amanda handed him a beer and nudged him with her shoulder companionably. "Thanks for dropping by. 'S good to see you. And I had something I wanted to run past you as well, before I did the announcement and all."

He looked up from opening the beer, half-concerned. "Yeah? Somethin' good, I hope?"

She chuckled a little. "Yeah, it is. Or I hope it is. I emailed you about it a while ago, but you might not have got it. You remember how Pete used to have that regular run into New York for the kids at the school? So they didn't have to fuck around with the bus?"

"Oh, that." Concern gave way to another grin, as he took a seat. "Yeah, I remember. Shame it stopped."

"I'm thinking of starting it up again," she said, not waiting until he started drinking his beer at all...

True to expectations, that earned a proper spit-take. "...weren't you the one lamentin' how responsible we've both got these days?"

Amanda sighed dramatically. "Maybe I decided I couldn't deny my old age any more?" she said, and broke into laughter. "Pete nearly died laughing when I told him what I was planning the last time we were at the pub. Said something about poetic justice for all the hassles we gave him."

"Hey, we were never... okay, we were. But not as bad as Monet!"

"No-one was as bad as Ms. Perfect. Remember that time she turned up with enough shopping to fill the whole van?" Amanda laughed. "And Pete told her she had to lug it home herself. Which would have been funnier if she hadn't been able to, y'know, bench press a truck."

"Would've been funnier if she couldn't fly, too." He grinned. "I think she actually beat us home, that time."

"Almost - I think Pete had his foot on the floor the whole way to beat her, tho'." Amanda snickered. "Ah, good times... Any way, I was thinking, if the kids want me to do this, I don't want to leave them hanging without warning 'cause I have to go to some arse-end part of the world to kick someone in the brain. Well, to watch the others kick someone in the brain," she amended with a snort. "But yeah, I was thinking I'll need backup, for when that happens. Marie said she was good for it - how about you as well? I figure between the three of us we should have Saturdays covered."

"Should be", he agreed with a smile. "An' yeah - if you an' me happen to be away at the same time, odds are Marie won't be. Or if she is, we can always recruit somebody else to cover for the week."

"Good stuff." Amanda took a good swig of her own beer. "There's some security stuff we'll have to clear with Forge and Lee - I've already talked to them and the headmaster types, but we should be set to go next week. If we get any interest, that is," she added wryly.

"You really think there's any chance we won't?"

"Given it's a chance to escape the school? Probably not an issue, no." Amanda chuckled. "Still, you know this new batch better 'n me - every time I get back from somewhere, it seems there's a new one. 'S getting hard to keep track."

"They're good kids", he said with a smile. "But not too good, if you know what I mean, most of 'em. They're doin' fine, from what I can see."

"Been a pretty shite couple of months, too, which is what made me think of this. They're due some downtime and it seems like the teachers aren't in a state to help with it. They're either broken or trying to fill in for the ones that are broken." Amanda sighed. "Yeah, this is a good idea." She snickered. "Forge and me were thinking of sticking microchips in them in case we lose any."

"The teachers?" he grinned. "I think that idea's been floatin' around one way or another for a while now. An' I can't say it sounds like a bad one."

"Well, we were thinking more the kids, but it couldn't help with the teachers either." Amanda snorted. "That and the old plastic bubble idea. Looks like people are branching out and stealing Nate's thing of wrecking himself."

"Nate's... yeah." He looked rueful. "Though at least now he's powerless for a bit, he's takin' things easier."

Amanda didn't say 'about time', but the thought was there. "How's he coping with that? He's stopped posting on the journals, I saw."

"Could be worse. He's back at work, an' he's gettin' the cast off his arm soon. An' the TK's startin' to come back, slowly, even if he can't control when yet. He'll be okay."

"Like we kept telling him," she said, restraining the eye roll. "Problem with Nate is, he doesn't wait very well. He'll come good eventually."

"He always does", Angelo said with a nod. "But, anyway... tell me about your trip?"

Amanda bit her lip a little. "It was one of those ones I can't really talk about - security stuff. But we had a good result, and everyone came through all right." She grinned. "Though it was a close thing with the bugs. Thought I was going to get carried away one night."

"Bugs?" He pulled a face. "Big enough to carry you away?"

She nodded, face far too solemn to be serious. "This big," she said, holding her hands several inches apart, one still holding her beer.

"An' this", he declared just as solemnly, "is why I will never go to the jungle.  Unless Nate's got some Elpis mission goin' on there, but he never has yet."

"You and me both. If it hadn't been something magic-related, I would have left them to it." She was skating the edge of what she should and shouldn't say - and mentioning Selene would make things even worse - but this was Angelo. Her best friend. "City girl, me - it was harder even to cast a spell there. Oh, did I tell you, I worked out George's off-switch?" she continued, beaming as she changed topics. Snapping her fingers made the werelight appear, bobbing happily above Angelo's head in shades of orange and yellow. Another click and the light vanished. "Charlie's notes helped a lot. He had a whole bit on urban shamanism and the rest."

Angelo grinned, reaching up to bat at the werelight before it disappeared.  "Nah, you didn't say - how d'you turn him off, then?"

"Function follows form, don't it?" Amanda said, snapping her fingers again and making George reappear. "I'm drawing power from the city, right? So, the spells I use... they follow the same rules of a city. You don't turn off a light by talking at it in Latin - you turn it off at the switch. So basically what I had to do was picture a switch in my head, flick it, and there you go." She smiled a little bashfully. "Clicking my fingers makes it easier, tho'."

"Guess it would, at that."  He grinned, glancing again at the framed sketch on the wall.  "So... Charlie figured all this stuff out?"

"Some of it, yeah." Amanda's expression was both fond and wistful as she followed Angelo's gaze. "Not specifically for me, but he had this idea that the reason why there are so many types of magic is because of the different types of energy that can be used to cast spells. Had this whole folder of documents on it, with bibliographies and all."

"Now that's dedication to his work", Angelo said lightly, eyes lingering on the picture for a moment longer before he looked away, around the room.  "Bet he'd be glad he'd helped you... an' hell, maybe he knows."

"Maybe." She smiled a little sadly. "I hope he's all right, wherever he is." Then she took a breath and a swig from her beer. "Any way, how about we go get some lunch? You can catch me up on all the gossip I've missed while I was away."

"Lunch sounds good", he said with a smile.  "An' there's a lot - you were gone a whole week, you know how things are 'round here."