xp_logs | Angelo and Domino, Monday morning

Angelo shows up for work and finds Domino on the couch. Catching up ensues.

It wasn't very long after arriving in the boathouse that Angelo realised he wasn't the only one there, even with Nathan nowhere in sight yet. A little warily, he peered into the living room area, where there'd been definite noise, and blinked when he saw who was sprawled out on the sofa.

"...Nate didn't say you were comin' to visit!"

"Yes, well, he's old and senile," a tousle-haired, slightly sleepy-looking Dom said merrily, setting her coffee aside and getting up off the couch to come over and give Angelo a hug.

He grinned as he hugged her back, pleased to see her. "When'd you get in? He hasn't been hidin' you from us, has he?"

"Just since last night. Late enough that there was really no point to going up to the house to find a guest room," Domino said, stepping away and retrieving her coffee as she sat back down on the couch. "Nate warned me you'd be down here disgustingly early. He's already in the city - Joel wanted a breakfast meeting."

"Ah, I wondered where he'd got to." He dropped onto the couch next to her, smiling. "An' it's not that early. I've already been up two hours."

"All you evil morning people. It's almost obscene." Domino's violet eyes were innocent over the rim of her coffee cup as she took another sip. "So I hear you and Sarah are enjoying each other's company on a regular basis."

"Do you now?" he said with an amused glance over the cigarette packet that had just appeared in his hands. "Guess I don't need to ask from who. Yeah, we are."

"He's an old woman with the gossiping, sometimes." Domino gave the cigarette packet a repressive look, but the smile lingered. "So how goes the preparation for running around in leathers? I'm sure Sarah will appreciate the leathers, by the way, she strikes me as the type..."

"Oh, don't you start. I get enough of that from Nathan an' Scott", was the response to the look, but he grinned anyway. "It's goin' pretty well, I think. Storm said they might take me out on my first trainee mission soon. An' I think she will too."

"They'll be lucky to have you," Domino said, and although she was grinning, there wasn't a trace of insincerity in the words. "And hell, if nothing else, you'll get proof that Nate can get into a fight without coming back on a stretcher."

"Oh, I know he can", Angelo said wryly. "Just seems to be the exception, not the rule."

"Piffle," Domino said, and laughed aloud at the look she got for her choice of words. "Not that I blame you for exaggerating. When he comes back on a stretcher he tends to do so in a spectacular fashion."

"An' usually unconscious for at least a day", he agreed. "He tell you I bribed a teleporter into takin' me to San Diego, after what I saw him doin' on the news out there?"

"Oh, yes. He told me the story. You know," Domino said more seriously, "you should take a lesson from that, if you're going to do this. The X-Men, I mean." She took another sip of coffee, as if gathering her thoughts. "It wasn't just Nate, after all. What was it, six X-Men involved in keeping the Pacific from doing bad things to San Diego? And they were insane, all of them. It takes a special kind of craziness to pit yourself against a force of nature."

"Insane, yeah, but Dom... they took it on an' they won. Why Nathan's done everythin' he has, why he won't stop", he said slowly, "an' it took me this long to get it, maybe I needed to be out there in Smichov with him an' see it... if there's somethin' that can be done to help, somethin' we can do, when there's nothin' but ourselves to stop us... do we have the right not to?"

There was something about her smile that told Angelo she'd directly steered the conversation in this direction, just to hear what he'd had to say about that. "You're a hopeless idealist. I find that so cute." She reached out and ruffled his hair. "Too bad I'm already attached to a scruffy Brit. Sarah would probably stab me, anyway."

"Funny, Nathan keeps callin' me a cynic", he said with a crooked grin, ducking his head. "An' she wouldn't, we're not like that. But there's Pete, yeah."

"Who's probably going to go 'I'm sorry, do I know you?' as soon as I walk in," Domino said mournfully. "I haven't been over in too long."

"Too right you haven't", was the retort. "'specially when you know Nathan'd come get you in the Blackbird if you gave him enough warnin'."

"I think Charles would take exception to Nate burning his jet fuel to ferry me around. But," Domino admitted, "you have a point. I suppose I've just been busy. Did Nate tell you I was in Yemen?" Her eyes sparkled somewhat wickedly. "Productive trip. Although now I think I'm persona non grata in the country."

"Now that's the fun kind of trip", he said with a wicked grin of his own. "What'd you do?"

"All kinds of vile and unwomanly things. At least, that's what the poor traumatized imam who was frothing at the mouth was claiming."

"You know", came the answer as he tried not to laugh, "we're supposed to be diplomats these days."

Domino put her nose in the air. "Well, I certainly didn't sign anything to that effect. All I promised was to not blow things up anymore. So pfft."

"...well, I guess that counts. So you didn't blow anythin' up in Yemen?"

"Not a thing. I'm becoming so dull."