Angelo and Crystal - Walking the Dogs

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

Backdated. Crystal, Angelo, Joyita, and Lockjaw run into each other Wednesday morning. Crystal and Angelo chat while Joyita and Lockjaw play.



It was a nice day, if cold as a New York autumn should be, and Joyita was getting one of her day's walks, off the leash and accompanied by Angelo, wearing a big coat and trying to resist lighting a cigarette.

He let her run, knowing she wasn't likely to go too far, walking more slowly behind.

Not far away, Crystal was out with Lockjaw. Unlike Angelo, she was not wearing a heavy coat, nor was she wearing any coat at all. The change in weather had caused her to unpack her longer boots, but that was because she liked the way they looked. During the summer, she had worn short-sleeved or sleeveless tops and short skirts, jeans a couple of times, and she saw no reason to change that now. Off-campus, yes. On-campus, no.

Upon noticing Joyita, Lockjaw began barking, wagging his short tail in excitement.

She noticed the puppy at almost the same moment and dashed forward to greet him. Angelo grinned, watching them, and sped up a little just in case Crystal was nervous about her puppy meeting strange unleashed dogs, even on campus. Joyita was a lot bigger than Lockjaw, after all.

Crystal nodded to Angelo, giving him a smile. "Greetings," she said. Another new person she had never met before. "I am Crystal Amaquelin, and this is Lockjaw," she said, indicating the puppy who was now sniffing the other dog.

"Angelo. Espinosa", he added after a moment, smiling back. "An' that's Joyita."

Angelo Espinosa? Why did that name... oh. Starting next week, Ms. Dane and Angelo Espinosa will be taking over the class on a permanent basis. The journal post Mr. Summers had made. "You are the new self-defense teacher," Crystal said, knowing full well that she was stating the obvious. "Are you enjoying teaching the class?"

"That'd be me", he said easily. "I haven't really got started yet, except on the readin', but... yeah, I think I will. Wouldn't have taken the job otherwise."

Crystal gave him a slight nod. "That is good to hear. I am glad that the staff was able to find someone on such short notice." Briefly, she wondered about Ms. Dane and Beginning Cooking. Ms. Dane was now going to be teaching a class she could know for a fact was one that Crystal was not going to take.

"I was already here, an' the staff pretty well know I can do it." Most of them, anyway.

"Oh yes, you attended school here," Crystal said, recalling seeing a few posts from him on the students' journal. One of the students who apparently liked the school so much he decided to stay.

"I did, yeah. Graduated just over a year back, hung around for awhile an' then just when I was gettin' set to leave for havin' nothin' to do, Nathan gave me the job at Elpis."

Hung around for awhile? Well, didn't that sound fun and exciting. Did that mean there hadn't been anywhere else he had wanted to go, or was it that he hadn't really had anywhere else to go? "So now you work for Elpis and you teach at the school, just like Mr. Dayspring does."

"Pretty much", he said with a grin, watching the dogs play. "An' I'm also doin' college courses. Pre-law, correspondence. It's easier that way."

"Do you like the courses?" Crystal asked. She had already been wondering what she would do as far as education after she graduated from Xavier's.

"So far, yeah. They're interestin', and they're the way into the qualifications I want to end up gettin'."

"Do you have long-term plans for your education or are you studying solely out of interest in the subject matter?" Crystal queried.

"Right now? I plan to qualify as a lawyer, after the courses it takes t'do that, then put it to use in the field I'm in now."

"Working with Elpis or teaching self-defense?" Crystal quipped, smiling a bit.

Angelo laughed. "Workin' with Elpis. Teachin' self-defence is just... a sideline, because they need someone to do it an' I'm here."

Crystal nodded, considering whether or not she wanted to broach the topic of just why the school had found itself in need of a new self-defense teacher. Well, how they had come to know they needed one, anyway. They really should had one a while ago, but apparently this fact had only been brought to light after certain security tapes had been viewed recently.

"You said that you think you will enjoy teaching the class," Crystal replied lightly. "Surely you are not required to teach it." It wouldn't be good if he had decided to teach the class out of a feeling of necessity, not because he wished to teach the class.

"Oh, no", he said hastily. "Not at all - they just offered it to me, an' I had the free time for a class like that, that doesn't take much preparation, so I said yes. Wasn't a requirement."

Crystal nodded. "I did not think that it would be a requirement. It is good that the school had someone already around who is capable of teaching self-defense in the middle of the school term." The thought of why Logan had been teaching when the school apparently had two readily available individuals and the school did not approve of his "teaching methods" was a hard one to conceive.

"They would have found a sub even if we hadn't been here", Angelo said in an effort at reassurance. "But this way, we're both around for the foreseeable future, an' there'll always be a teacher even if one of us has to be away."

"Away...yes, the teachers here do seem to require being away a lot," Crystal said nonchalantly, hiding her amusement. Perhaps Angelo had not meant it that way, but it was true, wasn't it?

"It does happen that way, yeah", he said equally casually. "For me, it's my... day job, I guess. With Elpis, we do a lot of international travel. Usually with a few days' warnin', though."

"Hopefully, the both of you will not need to be away at the same time," Crystal said, "although, as you say, I suppose they can always find another sub."

"If we are, there'll be someone else", he promised. "Ms. Munroe filled in for that first week, didn't she?"

"Yes, she did," Crystal replied simply.

He nodded, glancing at her sideways in sudden concern. "You know, if you wanted to come back to the class - it doesn't even have to be for grades, if you already got that settled - you'd be welcome. Don't let Logan put you off."

Crystal noted the concern in Angelo's look, not quite sure why it was there. "Thank-you, Mr. Espinosa, but I am now working with Mr. Dayspring on self-defense. Also, I think it would look a little odd if I returned to the class at this point in time."

"Not necessarily. If you'd gone back to it while Logan was teachin' maybe, but... well, anyway. You'll do well with Nathan. He taught me, he's good."

Crystal nodded, then watched Lockjaw and Joyita for a few moments, then looked back at Angelo. Even before she had known that Logan was no longer going to be teaching the class, she had known that she would not return to the class. That much had been obvious the moment Logan chose to continue to be rude to her in the gym. "He has earned my sister's admiration," she told Angelo.

That got a smile, almost inevitably. "Nathan? Yeah, he does that. What'd he do to get it this time?"

Crystal smiled slightly. "I suppose it is due to all of the various activities he is involved in and all of the effort he puts into said activities." Not to mention the fact that he hasn't called either of us anything even remotely resembling 'ice queen.'

"He's been like that as long as I've known him", Angelo said with a crooked grin. "Too much effort, sometimes, but what can you do?"

"I do not know," Crystal said. "I do not teach, I did not found an NGO, and I do not run around to various parts of the globe in an effort to save the world."

Angelo blinked. "No, I didn't mean... it was kind of rhetorical. 'What can you do to slow him down' kind of thing."

Crystal nodded. "I do not think that anyone other than Mr. Dayspring has the ability to slow him down. He seems very into what he is doing, although perhaps a vacation is in order. A real vacation, one that does not involve any sort of work."

"One of these days", came the wry answer. "Or the next time Moira decides he needs some time on Muir."

"He told me that he will be going there for 'a good chunk of the holidays'," Crystal told Angelo. "If he does not go there sooner, at least he will go there then."

"Yeah, he did mention that." He smiled. "It's a nice place - I haven't been there for a year or so, but I liked it a lot."

"I am sure that it is very lovely," Crystal replied.