xp_logs | Kaiten: Out in the Sun (Reply)

Arriving in Tel Aviv a day before he and Domino fly out for Burma, Angelo gets to catch up with old acquaintances and familiarize himself with Elpis's Tel Aviv branch in all its wacky glory. All in all, it's a rather good day.

The Greeter's Hall at Ben Gurion International Airport had probably seen odder things in its time than an eight-foot tall ursine mutant, but one would never know that from the looks Theo was getting, Domino thought in amusement, sipping at her coffee.

"Stop smiling at people," she suggested to him. "They look like they think you're sizing them up for your next meal."

"I'm just happy Angelo's coming," Theo said with the huge grin that wasn't really helping, given the fact that it showed all his teeth. "Now, if we could just get Nate over, too..."

Right on cue, Angelo came through the security barrier, glancing around the hall to see who'd got to come and meet him. He was half-expecting to see the entire Pack gathered.

"ANGELO!" Theo's basso roar provoked a few people to dash for cover, and Domino tried very, very hard not to start laughing her ass off.

Angelo wasn't even trying very hard, laughing out loud as he turned to lug his bags in their direction. "Hey, Theo. Hey, Dom."

Theo beamed at him as he confiscated the luggage, lifting it easily. "Good flight? It was a good flight, right? You don't look aggravated, so there probably weren't any children kicking the back of your seat..."

Domino snickered, giving Angelo a one-armed hug - the other hand was holding her coffee, after all - as she reached the two of them. "There's real breakfast back at the house, by the way. I imagine you need it after the plane food."

"No, no kids," he reassured them, giving up his bags with no protest - well, hey, Theo was more than two feet taller than him, if he wanted to carry the bags, he was carrying the bags - then nodded emphatically. "Real food. Yes, please."

"Isabel took over the kitchen this morning. She's been taking cooking classes," Theo volunteered happily as they headed towards the exit. "Everything she makes is good. I'm getting fat."

"I hadn't noticed," Domino said dryly and poked him in the ribs. "The fur, you know."

"So how is everybody? I know it's only a month, but it feels like ages since I saw you all."

"Busy," Dom said. Outside, it was sunny, and if not hot, at least considerably more warm than Westchester had been. It had clearly rained not long before, to judge by the clouds off on the horizon and the still-drying pavement. "We've got all those new staff members Nate and Joel were interviewing in New York over here finally, getting their orientations."

"Oh, cool," Angelo said cheerfully. "Hope they're all settlin' in okay?"

"Well, most of them are heading right back out again to the new field projects," Theo said, sounding almost regretful. "I'm kind of sorry, you know? They're all so nice. Bright happy people."

"Your favorite sort," Domino murmured, amused, and then glanced at Angelo. "But yeah, Elpis-wise they're settling in. Joel picked carefully. The office feels a little crowded at the moment, though."

"Yeah, I can imagine," he said with a wry grin. "Even with that great big buildin' you guys've got."

"You'll get the grand tour tomorrow," Domino promised. "We've got some stuff to review that Mac came up with, and we're not flying out until tomorrow night, so you may as well come by and meet everyone, right?"

"Sounds good."

--

Most people, if they were starting up a humanitarian organization and needed to provide housing for their staff, would have just provided a housing allowance. Perhaps the most ambitious might have bought a low-rise or something similar, providing apartments. But the Pack had lived together for years, and the ex-Mistra operatives wouldn't have known what to do, living alone.

Nathan's answer had been a sprawling oceanside villa, big enough to house them all and yet provide a certain amount of privacy. The villa had been rather run-down at purchase, Domino had explained on the drive from the airport, but eight months of working on it had restored it to something approaching its 1920s glory.

Angelo stared at it through the car window as they approached. He'd never actually seen it before, except in pictures. "...wow, Nate really went all out."

"I think it was the view," Domino said, deadpan, as she pulled the car to a stop in the circular driveway. "Plus it really was a bargain - it had been on the market for a few years, mostly because no one wanted to put the effort into fixing it up."

"So you guys... where were you livin' until it was ready? Or did you just put up with it?"

"The latter," Theo said cheerfully, opening the door as the car stopped. "We're still working on some things, but it's mostly the finishing touches now. I mean, we need something to do in our spare time, right?"

Angelo laughed, opening his own door and getting out. "Sure, if construction work's your hobby. But you've got it lookin' really good, anyway."

"You should see the inside. Mina's been poring over pictures from the period, and she insisted we stick to 'authentic' decor," Domino said, "and oh! Speak of the devil." For there was indeed a Mina coming out onto the verandah, her son tucked under her arm. Little Nathan George squeaked and scowled at Angelo.

"Hey, you," he greeted her with a warm grin, then looked at the baby. "Now, what kind of face is that, huh?"

"Mah."

"He's a little cranky this morning," Mina said tranquilly, kissing Angelo's cheek.

"Mina, babe, I hate to break it to you, but that's one monumentally cranky baby every morning," Domino said, coming up the steps behind Angelo. "It's the name. You cursed him."

He gave Mina a one-armed hug, then turned back to Domino. "He's less cranky when he's woken up right, then? Or is it after breakfast?"

"My son has a very sunny temperament," Mina protested.

"Oh, yes. Just like his father," was Domino's chirpy retort. "Between the name and David's genes, I figure he'll be ten before he learns how to smile."

"Ma-bah," was the sulky comment from the baby, who seemed perfectly aware of the fact that people were talking about him.

"He should spend more time with Rachel," Angelo declared with a grin. "I defy anyone t'sulk around her."

"Good point," Mina said, then looked over at Theo, arriving with the bags. "Why don't you get Angelo settled into his room and then show him to the kitchen, Theo? Isabel's still cooking. The boys didn't quite manage to demolish everything just yet."

"...wow, she must really be cookin' up a storm."

"All these healthy young male appetites."

--

It wasn't all that much of a surprise that there was a bar within walking distance; in fact, apparently it had been one of the villa's selling points, or so Nathan had once told Angelo with a perfectly straight face.

The bar was largish, and packed on a Thursday night as per usual. David set down a beer in front of Angelo with a crooked grin. "Nice to be somewhere where you've of age to drink, no?"

"Really is," he said, lifting the drink with a grin. "Though give it five months, an' that'll be everywhere."

Domino, on Angelo's other side, sniffled. "I feel so very old now, this is sad." She deliberately ruffled his hair. "You're growing up on us!"

He ducked his head away, but it was joking. "Yeah, yeah. When you're old... I can't think of a good way to end that."

"Smart man," David said dryly. "She bites, you know."

"Only when I'm invited," Domino said loftily, then glanced back over her shoulder at the dance floor. "Oh, to hell with it..." was her parting reply back over her shoulder as she vanished into the crowd.

David laughed, shaking his head. "She's in a funny position," he said to Angelo, "because the way she dances, men usually take it as an invitation. And she doesn't actually mean to be offering them anymore." He snorted softly and lifted his beer. "To think that I would ever live to see the day when Dom became strictly monogamous."

"Happens to most people in the end, doesn't it? An' really, if it had t'be anyone, Pete Wisdom..."

"It does fit, doesn't it?" David gave him a sideways look. "So how about you? Still seeing this Sarah girl?" He grinned a bit, the expression looking odd given that he usually scowled about as much as his son did. "Nate gossips."

"...well, not really seein' her. Not like that, we never were... but, yeah, when we both get the time." He wasn't ashamed of how it stood - it was a mutual agreement, after all.

"Ahh. Well, nothing wrong with that. You're young. Nate mentioned the girl in Russia, too..."

Angelo eyed them all. "...is there anythin' Nate doesn't tell you about me?" Oh, the mocking he'd be getting for that gossip when Angelo got home.

"Well... probably?" David smirked and then sipped at his beer again. "Have you not ever caught him using that chat program the boys created? He sits there with it open when he's in the office in the mornings, and talks to whoever's at the office here in the afternoons. The conversations tend to roam a lot."

"He never lets me look at what he's doin' on his computer. Does that chat program autolog?"

"Ask Vasily or Gar. I wouldn't be surprised. They've never been adverse to accumulating blackmail material, after all."

"Right, then. That's on the list for the next time Juliette locks him out. She does that sometimes."

David raised a beer. "Sounds like a plan."

--

"Hmmm," Domino sighed, holding onto his arm as they headed back towards the house. "I think I'm glad we're not flying out until tomorrow night. Will give me a chance to get over the hangover." Some of the others had already gone back, some were still at the bar, but the two of them had mutually agreed that they shouldn't make it too late a night.

"That's always a bonus," Angelo agreed cheerfully, managing not to seem like he was either holding her up or leaning on her. "Glad I got a chance to see everybody before we went, too."

"You wouldn't like to move here, would you?" Domino asked a bit wistfully. "I keep trying to talk Nate into it..."

"...can't say it doesn't sound nice," he admitted. "But my mom's in New York, an' most of my friends. All of them, that aren't here or at the West Coast annex."

"This is true. I suppose I just like the happy little fantasy world where everyone's living here together." They were getting closer to the long driveway leading down to the villa, and Domino shifted, slinging an arm around Angelo's shoulders. "I'll behave, by the way," she said after a moment. "On the trip, I mean."

"Course you will," he said briskly. "Nate'd never let you hear the end of it if you didn't." He wasn't going to be the one to bring up what Nathan had told him were the real reasons.

"Not going to take any chances. No matter what people think." She sounded moody, even if it was too dark out here to see the look on her face.

Angelo glanced at her sideways, a little worried suddenly. "I know you're not," he tried to reassure her.

"Do you?" Her arm slid off his shoulders. "I'm sure you've been hearing from everyone how crazy you are for going to one of the worst countries in the world with me."

"Maybe. But I'm still goin'."

There was a noise from her direction that might have been a laugh, or a grumble. "I suppose you are. Do I get to know why?"

"'Cause I want to. 'Cause I trust you an' they do too, whatever they say. It's jokes when it comes from the Pack anyway, you know that."

There was a long silence from Domino as they headed down the driveway. "I suppose. And I suppose I've only got myself to blame," she conceded, her voice quiet. "You don't make people forget a decade of wild behavior with less than one year of behaving like a responsible professional. But I'd never let anything happen to you, Angelo," she said, looking sideways at him. "You know that, right?"

"Think that part'd be covered by 'I trust you'," he offered, trying to keep his tone light and mostly failing.

She didn't seem to be in the mood for light. "I look at you, you know," she said - not looking at him as she spoke, oddly enough, "and I wish I'd been able to... figure things out the way you have. That I'd stayed at the damned convent school, even."

"You'd've hated it an' you know it. Maybe a different school, though... but it looks t'me like you've got things figured out pretty well now, even without that."

"Yeah, well, how much fucking around did I do in the interim?" She gave a laugh that didn't have any humor at all behind it. "You, on the other hand - you went straight from messed-up kid to fully functioning productive adult. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars..."

"Hardly straight there," he pointed out, abandoning any attempt at light. "Took the best part of three years an' mood stabilisers."

"Every word Nate says about you just drips with pride, you know? I wish I'd given him reason to talk that way about me..."

"He does, Domino. An' I didn't know either of you back then, but I'd bet not that much's changed."

Surprisingly, she reached out and took his arm again as they kept walking. "You can call me Nadia," she said, and it wasn't quite as much of a non sequitur as it sounded. "If you want. Not all the time, though! I'm still getting used to it myself."

"I will if you want me to," he said, shooting her a quick vaguely startled look. "I just always thought you preferred Domino."

"I've been using Nadia for work. But I've been thinking about it, too... I'm never going to be the person I would have been, in another life, but I don't know that Domino the promiscuous alcoholic mercenary is who I want to be, either."

"Then I'll call you Nadia," he said decisively. "An' if I forget until I get used to it, smack me."

"Oh, inviting me to be violent?" The laugh sounded a little more natural, this time, but she sighed afterwards, wistfully again. "Your opinion matters to me, you know. Not just because we're both working for Elpis, or we're both Nathan's proteges or whatever the hell you call us... it just really does."

He blinked over at her again, then smiled slowly. "Thanks. Yours too."

"Now we're just getting mushy." She laughed again. "I have a passport in my real name now, did I tell you that? Russian, although I'm probably entitled to a British one, too... but I was born in the same city you had your adventure in last month."

"That's really good," he said with a grin. "'s good to know where you came from."

"Can't know where you're going unless you know where you've been, right?" Domino paused, reaching out a hand to stop Angelo, too. "Shhh."

He stopped mid-word, looking at her curiously.

They were just coming around the west wing of the villa - Domino had been steering him that way because she'd forgotten her key to the front doors and she didn't want to wake up the baby. There were two other people by the pool, however, surprising given the lateness of the hour. They were sitting side by side, their feet in the water. There was just enough illumination from the pool lights underwater - nothing else was on - to see that it was Lien and Chris. And to see them kiss.

Domino nudged Angelo back, further out of sight. "Side door," she whispered gleefully. "I am so not interrupting that."

Angelo laughed very quietly and let her nudge him back, turning towards the side door. "Well, it'd just be rude. This somethin' you've been waitin' for?"

"I was kind of hoping, yeah. They've both been so lonely." Lien since GW had died, and Chris ever since Youra. "But I've been noticing them spending more time together lately. Don't breathe a word of it to the matchmaking wenches inside, okay? I think this is something we have to let develop on its own."

"Promise," he said with a nod. "An' I won't even tell Nathan."

The side door was locked, and Domino knocked softly, hoping someone would be close enough to hear. "Couples and babies and lions and tigers and bears, oh my," she quipped quietly. "Now I really am starting to feel old."

"Hey, you're not the one havin' babies yet. Not that I think you will anytime soon," he added hastily at her look.

"Every time someone makes that joke, Espinosa, Pete gets another dozen gray hairs or so."

"Only where he can hear it."

"It creates a disturbance in the Force. Trust me."