xp_logs | log: [Amanda and Julio]

Accidentally ditched by his friends, Amanda takes Julio for coffee. And they commence with a bitch session.

It had been easy to notice, glancing into the interior of the bus through the rear-vision mirror, the Julio was a bit more subdued than he'd been before she'd left. And given she was already checking on people, it wasn't exactly out of her way, so to speak. So she waited until most of the other students had piled off the bus, nodding and waving and reminding them to check in if they were going to be late, before calling to Julio, quietly:

"Got a minute, mate?"

It was a testament to Julio's control that day that his shoulders did not visibly slump. "I will meet up with you guys in a minute," he said to his friends and turned to walk back to the bus. Walking over to Amanda, he tugged his hat more firmly down around his ears.

"Yes? What is it?"

Catching the faintest hint of resignation in his voice - hanging around with Doug was improving her awareness of these little cues - Amanda regretted her impulse. Fuck, I'm turning into one of those do-gooders. "Nothing much - just wanted to say hi, see how you were doing..." she began a bit lamely, fiddling with the van's keys. "But it's all right - you go catch up to your mates. I'll see you at the end of the day, yeah?"

Two factions immediately went to war in Julio's brain. The first was the impulse to smile, nod, and beat a hasty retreat, the other was a kneejerk reaction from Julio's own personal code of chivalry. Oh hell, she was trying to be nice.

"I am sorry. People have been checking up on me a lot lately," he gave Amanda a rueful smile. "It is my own fault, after all."

"Tends to happen around the school," she agreed, equally rueful. "But 's none of my business and you're free to tell me to get knotted, if you like. Fuck knows I had enough of that when I was there." She shrugged again. "I know this coffee place not far away - you want one? We can not talk about whatever you like." The last was said with a wink.

Julio scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully, "I do not know..." he turned around to see his friends had wandered off without him. Possibly because the mighty mutant metabolism struck again. Well, that answered that. "Okay."

She grinned, relieved. Stop trying so hard, Sefton, she told herself. Locking up the van, she shoved the keys in her pocket and cocked her head in the direction of the coffee shop. "'S good to be back with the van," she remarked as he fell into step beside her - well, sort of, since she was on the short side and had to lengthen her stride a little to match his. "I sort of missed it. Well, not the traffic." She laughed a little. "I'm going to have to watch the swearing - I think I caught Laurie taking notes today."

The boy lifted his eyebrows in a mock-serious expression, "Are you kidding? I was taking notes. I was very impressed."

A faint blush coloured the Brit's cheeks, although it might have been the chill. "Bloody hell, I'm turning into Uncle Pete and all," she said, laughing a little. "If I start wearing nothing but black suits, you lot have permission to throw me in the nearest body of water, yeah?"

Julio titled his head at Amanda. "Who is Uncle Pete? Not someone I have met and then forgotten, yes?" he hoped not. It was a source of shame when he was still figuring out who had been in San Diego that day and who hadn't.

"Oh, I'd forgotten you hadn't met him in person. Pete Wisdom - makes the odd post on the journals, tho' he's been caught up with work lately. He's one of the bastards I threaten you lot with if you're late - used to work for British Intelligence." She sounded proud of him. "He also used to be the school counselor - it was him who started this bus lark, actually. He's not really my uncle, I just call him that 'cause, well..." The blush deepened a little. "It started as a joke, but... he's family to me these days. Him and his sister got me off the streets in England and got me here."

"Ah, one of the people we are not supposed to know about then," Julio said amiably. There was something of a 'just don't ask' policy in regards to the Snow Valley people from the staff to the students at Xavier's. It was unspoken, true, but still there.

"That's it," Amanda agreed, acknowledging the nature of Snow Valley's relationship to the school with a wry nod. "Pete spent all his time as counselor warning us not to turn out like him. The anti-role model, he called himself."

"Whereas I am convinced our new counselor is insane. Legitimately. He is a....sometimes a different person when I talk to him?" Nice enough guy, though. If something of a dork.

"I think it's part of the job description," Amanda said with a snort. "Being balmy, that is. Who else would take the job on?" They reached the coffee shop, a small, cosy-looking place with slightly steamed up windows. The smell of roasting coffee beans wafted out as Amanda opened the door. "Here we are."

Julio reached above Amanda to hold the door open for her and let her in. "Gracias," They selected a small table near the corner. Julio began to peel off his layers in the suddenly very warm cafe. "So, what was it you really wanted to talk about?"

Amanda paused in the action of unwrapping her scarf. "Um," she said eloquently, before collecting herself and sitting down, scarf joining her hat on the table in front of her. "Well, Wanda's been in a right foul mood ever since her brother turned up, and I saw some of the stuff on the journals, reacting to him. I just thought... it must be hard, having him around."

"And that is what I believe is an understatement," Julio unwound his own scarf but left his hat on. He was sure he would be sporting some truly wicked hat hair. He pulled off his gloves and continued, "Here is a man who is being offered sanctuary, and could not be a bigger dick about it."

"From what Wanda's been muttering, that's his default state - dick." Amanda pulled a face. "'S the problem with being the mutant haven - Xavier tends to have to let everyone in, even when they're utter prats. Since you can't very well tell someone who's asking for help to bugger off, can you?" She shrugged again - it was a very eloquent gesture for her. "Still isn't fun for you and Forge and Lorna." There might have been the barest hesitation before she said the last name.

"No," Julio said thoughtfully. "Not that she has discussed it with me. And I have not asked." He looked down for a moment and then sighed. "I just wish he would not be making himself so...at home? He does not belong with us. Especially if it means that his father is looking for him." He said the word father the way that one might say "cat vomit."

Amanda's response was interrupted by the appearance of the waitress asking for their order. After asking for a hot chocolate, Amanda waited until Julio had made his request and the girl had left before speaking again. "I've only seen him on the journals, and Wanda's ranted a bit about him, but he's an arrogant bastard, all right. I think..." And here she paused again, thinking out her words. "I think he's spent so long being the double agent sort that he's sort of set himself up in his head as being the superior one. No-one else has had to go through what he did, we can't possibly understand, blahblah fishcakes." The last was something she'd picked up from Doug. "Just 'cause he thinks he's better doesn't mean he is, tho'."

The boy cracked his knuckles and sighed. "It would not be so bad if he would just shut up. But he talks and talks and ...." he made a talking gesture with his hand. "It is one thing to be full of guilt about the past, it is another to be a jerk about it. And to let everyone know. At great length."

"Like one of those yappy dogs rich women carry in their handbags?" Amanda suggested innocently.

"Yes, exactly." Julio grinned, and then paused to accept his coffee from the waitress. "Only, they have an excuse because their brains are so small. I do not think he has the same excuse."

"You never know, he might?" Amanda said, grinning. "Maybe Wanda got all the brains and he's got a peanut?"

"Perhaps, it is his secondary mutation?" Julio added sugar to his coffee and continued, "his...como se? superiority complex?" He straightened, "I am better than you because I have sacrificed the last five years of my life stopping him, only I have done such a fantastic job, that I am now on the run." Julio mimicked Pietro's accent credibly.

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Maybe we should introduce him to Pete - he did pretty much the same thing last year with the Hellfire Club. Had most of us thinking he'd gone to the Dark Side and all." She sipped at her hot chocolate, blowing on it first to cool it down. "The man's a prat, pretty much. Hopefully he'll go off to a nice government safe house or something and be superior somewhere else."

"We can only hope," Julio said. His cellphone chirped with a text message. He rolled his eyes and flipped open his phone. "Where am I? Where are you?" he muttered, punching a few buttons. "Sorry," he looked back at Amanda apologetically, stuffing the phone in his pocket.

"No worries," she said, cheerfully. Julio was angry and upset, but he was doing okay with it. That was enough for her and she knew better now than to push. "We can finish up and you can go off and give New York what for, if you like. I'll probably have to stop in at the office, wade through my inbox some more."

"That would be good, I think they thought I would be right behind them," he shook his head. He began to fish for some money for the coffee in his pockets.

"Don't worry about it - working girl, I'll take care of it," she said, waving him away. "Consider it thanks for humouring me."

Julio gave Amanda a Look and dropped a couple of dollar bills on the table. "For the tip," he said, and began pulling on his coat and gloves. He looked out the window at the gray New York sky. "I wish it would snow," he said, almost wistfully.

Come February you'll wish it would stop," Amanda replied with a chuckle and let the money situation lie. Kid had his pride, after all. "I'll catch you later, Julio. Have a good day, yeah?"

"Yes, you too," he finished pulling on his scarf, and then made his way out of the coffee shop. He pulled his phone out and hit a couple of buttons before holding to his ear.

"...Hi? Yes, no, you left me. I said I would be right back. Where you at?"

Amanda waved to the retreating back and settled down to finish her hot chocolate. Good thing she'd brought her Arabic reader with her.