Angelo and Sarah, Thursday afternoon

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

Angelo goes to the brownstone and ends up no-holds-barred sparring with Sarah. Then they adjourn to her apartment. These two have a very... special relationship.



Angelo didn't usually come over to the brownstone during the week, or not intending to stay the night, anyway, because he had to be at the office in the morning. But there were exceptions, sometimes, and having just come back from deadly peril in Russia would most definitely be one, according to... well, everybody. Also, he'd been chased out of the medlab again. So, he was over to see Sarah ... who didn't seem to be in her apartment.

She'd been spending more time in the gym than she had in a very long time, working out her confusion and aggression on one of the poor punching bags. It seemed those knock-down drag-out fights she used to love were just hanging out in the back of her mind, waiting for something to remind her of them. Growling, she whipped the bone in her shoulder out and nailed the bag squarely in what would have been the throat. If that hadn't already taken her "opponent" out, the next kick to its "chin" would have.

He had a vague idea of the layout of the brownstone, from visiting both Amanda and Sarah, and knew about the gym though he'd never been in it. He couldn't be sure she'd be there - she could have just gone out, after all - but it was worth a look, so he wandered upstairs to check.

Sarah sat on a bench against the wall, breathing heavily. It just wasn't as much fun when you didn't have somebody to fight back. Leaning her head up against the wall, she stared at the ceiling while she caught her breath, pulling her sweaty hair back up again. Finally she got up, hitting the bone she was carrying against the wall with a crack. It vibrated nicely in her hand.

This happened to be the exact moment Angelo pushed the door open, sticking his head round. "Sarah?"

She looked back over her shoulder at him, clothes sticking and torn. She'd obviously been in here a while. "Oh, hey. Didn't know you were coming over." She finally turned towards him, gesturing towards the punching bag. "I keep hoping it will learn to fight back. It didn't, so I hit the wall instead."

"...the wall doesn't really fight back either", he said, wandering over to sit down next to her and not showing his worry. He was well aware she'd hate being worried about. "Everythin' okay?"

She shrugged, hands resting on her hips. "Just restless. I haven't had a good fight in a really long time, and I'm beginning to miss it."

"Yeah, I guess sparrin' an' self-defence lessons don't really count", he agreed, settling comfortably on the bench. "It'd been a while for me, too, when I wasn't outclassed. Before Russia, that is."

"They don't. It's just going through the motions." She tossed the bone from hand to hand, and lashed out at the wall again. "I want a few bruises from my sparring, thank you very much."

This was taking him back to their schooldays... and hadn't they been through this conversation once before? "You know", he said slowly, "we haven't sparred in... years. Not properly."

Sarah glanced over from where she was standing, eyebrows raised. "You want to fight me?" Her grip tightened almost imperceptibly on the bone in her hand. She stalked over, slowly, studying his reaction with each step. "Once upon a time, you were the only one who -would-."

He didn't move, watching her approach with almost lazy interest, though there was sharp focus somewhere behind it. "I remember that. Want to see if we've still got it?"

Sarah came closer, taunting with every step. "I know I do. What about you, tough boy?" She stopped just short of him, blood trickling from the bone in her hand down her arm. "How soft have you gotten?"

"Been worryin' about that myself, bone girl", he muttered. "All the suit an' tie work, it's got a place for a good bit of the stuff I do, but there's the team, an' even some of the stuff we end up doin' with Elpis... I did well enough in Moscow, but I need to not let myself get soft in between missions."

She pulled another bone from her hip, this one thin and sharp. The point faced outwards, and she jabbed quickly at his shoulder. "Then take me down."

He just grinned at that, sharp and possibly a little scary though obviously not to Sarah, and dodged sideways before coming to his feet and lunging at her with his skin stretched out to grab. "Bring it on."

She dropped to the ground, laughing, as she kicked out her foot to bring him down. The bone in her hand swung at his face, just barely missing him. If it wasn't apparent by now, Sarah was very serious about this 'no holds barred' idea.

Well, that was good, because so was Angelo. He'd missed this, reminded of it by the two fights with terrorists in Moscow, and he was laughing as he stumbled over her foot, managing to turn it into a roll before he landed too hard. His skin was already tangling around her feet, trying to keep her from getting back up, as he ignored it tearing. "Good move."

"Not a bad save either." Sarah kicked at the skin wrapping itself around her feet, pushing herself back so she could get the chance to stand up. Pulling a bone knife from her hip, she lashed out again at his shoulder.

He couldn't pull his skin back in time to get out of the way, being as it was still a little tangled with Sarah's feet, and the result was a shallow gash across his shoulder. He grinned at her fiercely, enjoying every second. "First blood to you."

She took a step back, watching him closely as she caught her breath. "Come on. You're next."

"Let's go then." He got back up, circling her for just a moment before he darted in to aim a punch at somewhere in her stomach region, hoping she didn't have bone armour there.

The punch connected, cracking the thin layer of bone forming from just below the waistband of her pants. The force of the hit and the pain of having the broken bone forced back into the sensitive skin knocked the wind from her momentarily, and she staggered back a few paces. "Ow."

If this was anyone else, and any other time, he'd have stopped to ask if she was okay. But he knew she would be, so he just pressed the attack while she was off guard, sweeping out a foot at her ankles.

Sarah laughed, impressed that he kept going despite her injuries. She rolled out of his way, pulling a bone club from her shoulder and shoving it towards his own midsection. "Fuck but I've missed this."

"Fun, isn't it", Angelo said with a grin, dodging back. "Good to fight someone who'll heal of anythin' if I don't kill them. Or even if I did."

"Nathan used to like to remind me that there were ways to kill me for good. I haven't found it yet."

"Ah, there's ways to kill anyone for good, if you just look hard enough. Even Logan, I'd bet. But I'm glad you'll be around awhile longer."

"Course. Somebody's got to get you into trouble." Sarah grinned, picking flakes of bone from her tank top. "Otherwise you'd go soft."

"An' we can't be havin' that." He was pressing the torn cloth of his T-shirt to the wound in his shoulder, absently slowing the bleeding.

Sarah lashed out then, kicking his feet out from under him, and planting her hand firmly in the center of his chest. Slowly she crawled on top of him, grinning. "I think I won."

Angelo laughed, looking up at her without making the slightest effort to dislodge her. "Yeah? 'Cause from where I am, I'd say we both won."

"You would say that." While her tone implied this was a bad thing, the fact that Sarah hadn't moved at all from the position she was in wasn't very convincing. She leaned down, her face barely an inch from his ear. "I'd forgotten how hot a good fight could be."

"It really has been a while, huh?" Angelo asked with a wicked grin, quite deliberately not moving from his own place on the floor either. "Guess we should do this more often."

"It would make life more interesting, that's for damn sure." It was then that Sarah finally moved to stand up, and grinning, she held out her hand to help him up. "I think we should finish this somewhere else. Wouldn't want to scar anybody for life."

Angelo chuckled, taking her hand to pull himself to his feet. "Might be a good plan. There's public, an' then there's too public."

That didn't stop him suddenly pinning her against the wall for a short but fierce kiss, though.

When he pulled away, she pushed out her arm, pointing in the general direction of the gym door. "That way. Otherwise, we're going to end up fucking right here. You, me and the gym mats."

His only response was to laugh, pick her up - some people were still smaller than him, at least - and head for the door.