xp_logs | Kurt and Amanda, Monday evening

After getting home, drying himself out, and getting his hand re-splinted, Kurt gets a visitor. Who, fortunately, does not know what he did today.

"A little bird told me I might find you up here." Amanda's words were as casual as always, but there was an underlying hint of concern as well. "Sounds like you've had an eventual few days, big brother."

Kurt, sitting on a bench with his back to the door, turned to look at her over his shoulder. "Hello, Amanda. Eventful would be one way to put it, yes."

"Wow. You look like hell," she observed frankly, boots crunching on the greenhouse path as she came over to join him. In contrast to Kurt's battered condition, she looked well-rested for the first time since Tel Aviv, a certain content expression on her face, although that was giving way to a certain worried expression as she took in the bandaged hand and the cuts on his face. "What the fuck happened to you?"

"A plane crash", he told her, calmly enough if with a rueful edge. "Followed by a fight in which I was... a little outmatched."

"Wait... you were in a plane crash, and then you got into a fight?" Amanda knew well enough it was probably X-Men business, but there were limits, surely. "You were that short-handed?"

"More that the fight would not have been easy to avoid. They brought it to us." He was not about to tell her the plane had crashed because it was shot down.

"And you worry about me..." She shook her head at him, taking in the visible injuries. "What's the damage? And please tell me you're taking some time off and letting yourself mend."

He held up the splinted hand, promising, "This is the worst of it. And you can trust me to do that much, at least." If only because he wasn't much good to the team like this. And one trip to Arlington didn't count, even if he had accidentally dropped himself in the river at the end.

She raised her eyebrow a little skeptically, but didn't pursue it. "I swear, I can't leave you alone for five minutes..."

He eyed her right back. "I seem to remember reading about someone who was dumped into a body of water wearing a backpack." He was aware of the irony, but he hadn't even come close to drowning. Not really.

Amanda poked her tongue out at him. "That was a bit unavoidable. It was only up to my knees when we started."

"And yet it would not have got very far with you still in it if I had been there."

"And no-one would have been able to hit you if I'd been wherever you were," she pointed out, perhaps a little childishly, but hey, she was the younger sister here. "So there."

Kurt couldn't help laughing as he looked up at her. "Then perhaps we should just agree. You look well, jel'enedra."

"Better than you do," she retorted playfully, but there was a hint of a blush. "Amazing what taking the day off does for a body."

He didn't miss the blush, looking at her with raised eyebrows. "The day off, hm?"

"Yeah, the day off. You know, no work, doing stuff that's relaxing, maybe some company..." She tried to be nonchalant about it, but there were hints of a smug grin playing around the corners of her mouth.

"And who might this company have been?" Kurt asked, as if he didn't already know, deliberately playing big-brother.

"Angelo," she replied deliberately, willing the blush away. Her ears stayed pretty pink, though. "He came back from the mission-thing he was on, and needed a break?"

"Ahh", came the purposely light answer. "Yes, I can imagine he would have. The week cannot have been easy."

"Not really, no." The grin was getting a little wider, despite the realities of Angelo's mission. "He really needed a break."

"And so you... made sure he took one?" Kurt was giving her an amused look. "Is it time I had a talk with him?"

"It was the least I could do," she rejoined, mock-innocently. "Poor Ange, all exhausted and stressed. It's only right a friend should help out, right?" She wasn't even hiding the smile now, and it transformed her expression. She looked... happy. Happier than she had in a very long time. "And if 'talk' means that whole threatening thing, you don't need to worry, Kurt. Ange... he loves me. And I love him."

Kurt studied her expression for a long few moments, and nodded. "I am glad to hear it, jel'enedra. It is not before time. But perhaps I will talk to him anyway... a big brother's duty, after all."

A slight look of panic entered her expression. The concept of big brother's duty, and talks, was a new one for her. "Don't... scare him too much?" she asked, almost plaintively. "He'd never hurt me, and I don't think he needs to be told that."

"I will do my best not to", Kurt said, suspiciously solemnly. "I would not want to scare him away. Yet."

Amanda laughed suddenly. "You know, if you can scare him away, he's not the person I think he is." And she reached over to take his uninjured hand. "But thanks, big brother."

He squeezed her hand, smiling over at her. "You are welcome, jel'enedra."