Amanda and Angel (Also posted early)

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

After coming back to the pick up site, Angel has a very important question for Amanda. And then Angel gets to meet George.




When Kyle, Julio and Angel arrived back at the meeting spot, Angel realized they were a little bit early. Amanda was the only one there but that wasn't bad, it gave her more time to digest all the hot dogs she'd eaten. Stupid Kyle, stupid hot dog experiment...

But maybe Amanda could answer a question she had. It'd stuck with her since she and Kyle had talked about the X-Men earlier in the trip. After all, Amanda was older and, therefore, much more experienced in things.

"Hi, Amanda!" she called, waving as she trotted over, leaving Kyle and Julio to contemplate yet another hot dog.

"Hey, Angel." Amanda smiled at the younger girl, looking at her over the top of her sunglasses. People were slowly filtering back, leaving Amanda to lean against the mini-bus and bask a little in the sun and the city whilst waiting for her charges to return. "Have a good day?"

"Yep! This trip was awesome, thank you." She grinned. "Today was, like, hot dog experiment take two with Kyle. Next week, I think I'll actually get some camera shopping done. Um, I have a question for you, if that's okay? I got told, finally and fully, about the X-Men and stuff and I was just wondering...what's a fetish?"

Amanda had a sudden coughing fit. As she spluttered and tried to catch her breath, she was wishing she was a telepath so she could project the image of Nathan in bondage gear the question had evoked straight at a particular young feral. "No wonder Pete laughed when I told him about taking this job on," she managed at length. "Okay... answer. Fetishes. Um." She looked at Angel almost pitifully. "I don't have to go into the birds and the bees and all that bollocks, do I?"

At that, Angel grinned. "Nah, I asked my folks when I was five where babies came from. I didn't get like the X rated version but they didn't believe in telling me babies were delivered by a magical stork. Unfortunately, this got them into trouble because I assumed any woman who was overweight was going to have a baby and was very, very loud and persistent about it."

"Well, that's a bloody relief." Amanda snorted. "Right then... fetishes are when people want to spice things up a bit, or can't go about things without a bit of help in the prop department. What Kyle would have meant with the X-Men is that the uniforms they use are all black leather, look a bit like bondage gear." She grimaced. "Do I have to explain bondage? ' Cause I'm pretty sure Summers or Munroe will have issues if it comes out I've been educating you lot in the ways of kinky sex acts."

Giggling, she responded, "No, no more explaining is needed! Um, can I just say for the record ew? I know I'm, like, weird and stuff for not noticing boys as, well, boys but just. Ew ew ew." Boy may not have cooties like she once believed but, still, ew. They were boys. "I learn about neat stuff...I was the only kid who knew what a transsexual was because I thought the play Rent was about me since they had a character named Angel in it."

"'Ew' is probably the best way to think of it for now, if you're not really interested in all that." Amanda grinned. She liked Angel - the kid had spark, and not just her powers. She reminded her of Jubilee sometimes, without the melodramatic streak. " Tho' I almost wish I'd been able to watch you ask Summers that - it'd serve the bondage brigade right for the outfits." She tilted her head slightly. "'Rent'? Don't think I know that one - I'm a bit behind on some of the pop culture references sometimes."

"So, so, so not interested in it," Angel agreed, waving her hands around slightly. "Guys are great as friends. Just friends. Just nice, nongropy friends. I figured you'd be less likely to, y'know, have a heart attack if I asked you. Not sure if Mr. Summers is old enough for that but the shock may have sent him over." She blinked at Amanda. "Oh! It's a musical about people dealing with life and AIDS. Angel is a male transsexual and apparently it disturbed my dad slightly when I wanted to be him when I grew up."

"Well, the groping can be nice, but not until you're ready for it." Which, Amanda reflected, she still really wasn't. Sure she'd had offers at the last clubbing night, but in the end, she'd turned them down. That whole part of her life was still a mess. "And Summers probably isn't old enough for a heart attack, but then again, he's had a tough year. Probably best as well to save him the shock." As much fun as the expression on his face would have been. "Ah, I get you. I think Terry mentioned it one time. Broadway, yeah?" She chuckled. "And it would have disturbed your dad even more if you'd said that after seeing 'Rocky Horror'."

Leaning against the van, Angel made a face. She doubted she'd ever be ready for boys and the slightly disgusting things that came with them. Boys and worms she could handle. Boys and kissing, not so much. "I think he totally would have threatened to lock me in my room again," she said, laughing. "First time he threatened me with that I cried for a whole hour and hid all his camera equipment."

"Didn't pull any punches, did you?" Amanda teased, but sounding a little approving as well. Yep, she liked this one - actually, most of the new batch were like that. Probably trouble magnets beyond what she and Sarah and Angelo had ever managed, but still, she didn't doubt they'd cope with anything the school threw at them. "Sometimes that's the best way. Makes 'em realise you mean business."

She huffed but the smile didn't slip at all. "I was, like, 8 and being locked in my room until I graduated high school was a loooong time. And no, my dad says that I was born with a motor mouth, a slight problem in talking before I think and a natural up frontedness. I'm not even sure if that's a real word or not."

"Doesn't matter if it isn't - sounds good to me." Amanda leaned back on the van next to Angel, pushing her sunglasses back up her nose. "So, how're you liking the school so far? Settling in all right?"

"Yeah, it's a great place and everyone there has been really nice. Weird but nice. I fit in great." Considering, Angel glanced over. "You were a former student, right? Can I ask what your powers are? I think I may have missed that..."

"'Weird' is Xaviers' specialty, but then again, so is 'understanding' , so you're on a good wicket." Glancing down at the younger girl, Amanda pondered what she'd heard on the grapevine. Nothing, most likely - she was last year's drama as far as the school was concerned. "I was there for a couple of years. As for my powers... 's a little tricky to explain, but the most basic way? I'm an energy converter. Energy goes in and I get to do nifty little things with it to make it come back out." She looked around - the parking lot was deserted except for the odd person leaving their cars. "Wanna see a magic trick?"

That caused Angel to bounce and clap her hands in glee. Once again, that whole 'not rude to ask what but rude to ask to show' came into play. But if they offered, totally different then. "Sure!"

"I'm still getting a handle on things - I had a bit of a setback last year and got bumped back down to beginner level, but there's one spell that I can get right most of the time..." Snapping her fingers, Amanda summoned the werelight. "Angel, this is George. My own personal night light. George, this is Angel. Mind your manners and say hello."

With that, the neon-shaded light bounced around Angel's head, pausing to hover in front of her nose, spinning like a miniture planet. It only lasted a moment before the light was bobbing around the younger girl's head like an exuberant puppy.

Angel's mouth would have dropped open but she was almost afraid that George would zip in there. He seemed curious enough. She giggled, though, after a second and reached up to poke at him. It? Him, she supposed, with that name. When George poked-more bounced-back, she looked enthralled.

"That is fantastic!"

It was gratifying, seeing that reaction. "First spell I ever learned, even if he's had a bit of a makeover. Turns out I get my energy from cities - not just any city either, it has to have a particular personality. And where I get the energy from tends to determine how a spell reacts. Even what spells I can cast." George bounced around Angel's upturned finger, obviously enjoying the poking game.

"That sounds so incredibly complicated but really interesting at the same time," Angel commented, wiggling her fingers as George bobbed and weaved through them. "What kind of personality does New York have?"

"That'd be why I'm having trouble - I have to work all this out from scratch and it is insanely complicated." Amanda crossed her arms over her chest, amused by the sight of Angel playing with George. And vice versa - it seemed the werelight had made a new friend. "Trial and error mostly, with the emphasis on the error. As for New York ... It's young. Alive. Kind of hyper." She grinned. "A bit like you lot, actually, when you're in the bus all talking ten to the dozen."

At this point, Angel was 'capturing' George in her hands and then letting him go, just like she used to do when she was a kid with fireflys. "I know that every mutant power is different but there's a lot of similar powers out there...you've really got the most unique one or that's what it sounds like." And it helped, she thought, to know that people struggled with their powers but still got a hold of it. "Us, chatter boxes? Nah, never. You'd have thought we were like mimes or something on the trip here."

The innocent look on Angel never, ironically, seemed to work.

The witch shrugged. "In a way, we're all unique. Even the 'paths have their own little quirks and combinations. Mine's pretty much the same as the rest of the energy converters - we just all seem to have different power sources and different ways of letting it out. Like yourself, yeah?" She chuckled at the mimes remark. "And here I was thinking it was all the black skivvies and berets you were wearing that made me think I was driving to a mime convention."

"Kyle desperately wants me to control my power so I can nuke food for him," Angel said, trying to keep a straight face. "Right now, though, I'd turn a hot pocket into a brick before I got anywhere with it. And I turn blue, like Mr. Wagner only not, really. Mr. W's the coolest person who ever existed, I think. And I can do a wicked stuck in a box impression."

"Yeah, Kurt's a good sort. Hardest part's getting past the whole saint thing, but he's not too bad. For an older brother," she added, with a snicker, knowing Kurt would be gratified to hear her owning to the relationship like that. "And it's early days for you, yet. You'll get there - you've got the right attitude about your powers to start with." People were starting to wander back, and she cancelled the werelight with another click of her fingers. "How's your 'walking into the wind'?" she added with a smirk.

"He's your big brother? Whoa. I don't have any siblings, just related to half of Seattle due to cousins." Angel grinned, even though she missed George. Shiny objects were fun especially when they reacted independently. "And funny enough, Kurt said that as well. It's different but fun and scary and great, all rolled into one. Like after you eat too many hot dogs-" God, she knew that feeling. "-and go on a rollercoaster. The walking into the wind needs a little work...I keep falling over."

"Well, adopted, but yeah, he is." Amanda pushed herself off the side of the van, slid her sunglasses up onto the top of her head, all the better for headcounting. She grinned at Angel. "And you're right. It's a hell of a ride, but it's also a shit load of fun sometimes. Don't let anything tell you any different, yeah?"

Amanda went up in her opinion. She was cool anyway but Mr. W was awesome and that added up in her mind. Angel grinned and waved at the returning students. "I won't, I promise."

"Good stuff." Turning and reaching through the window to the driver's seat, Amanda pulled out her clipboard to mark off returns and swatted Angel lightly on the butt with it. "In you go." Raising her voice to carry to the rest of the students, she continued. "All right, you horrible little toerags, let's be having you! Last one back on the bus is a rotten egg!"