xp_logs | Forge and Marie; Thursday night

Marie's borrowed telepathy threatens to unravel Forge and Marie-Ange's well-constructed subterfuge, when Marie catches fleeting thoughts from Forge after a night out. After some arguing, the secret is revealed.

Forge closed the door to his and Angelo's suite behind him, careful to try and make as little noise as possible. Angelo had a flight the next day, and was probably either catching up on sleep or... well, there weren't any obvious noises that would have indicated Amanda was visiting. The quick thought gave Forge a small smile. At least one of them was getting some results out of a date.

Then again, Forge's carefully-conspired wooing of Marie-Ange wasn't without benefits. Although there was absolutely no romantic interest in there - Thankfully!, he thought to himself - he had to admit that spending an evening with the Frenchwoman was intriguing in ways he'd not expected. Of course, the entire purpose of their faux relationship was to hopefully antagonize and irritate Doug to the point where he would HAVE to act on his feelings for Marie-Ange. It was stunningly obvious that the linguist still carried a torch for his ex - hell, he was carrying an entire bonfire.

Forge just figured that it was his job to start throwing gasoline.

Marie was cautiously heading back to her room from the flyer's platform. The halls had been pretty abandoned - up until she'd almost reached her room. She sighed in relief as she saw him head into his room, quickening her pace to reach her room. Pausing outside her door to reach into her pocket for a key, a couple of her patches slipped. ...Marie-Ange...sneaking around... The key dropped from her hand to clatter onto the floor and she looked around the hallway, trying to figure out where the thought was coming from.

Whistling quietly, Forge folded his blazer over the back of the sofa, followed by his tie as he headed into the small kitchenette. He rolled up his sleeves as he opened the fridge with a foot and began looking for something to snack on. Thankfully, Angelo was cool enough to have a very liberal food-sharing policy, and also fortunate enough to have his mother and half of the Teen Girl Squad providing him food at any opportunity.

Retrieving a pair of foil-wrapped burritos, Forge smiled and unwrapped them and tossed them on a plate. Microwave for a minute and a half, don't want things to get too hot, he thought. He made a note on his PDA to restock the fridge while Angelo was on vacation; the last thing he wanted was to be accused of taking advantage of his roommate and friend.

Narrowing her eyes, Marie twisted slightly, trying to follow the thoughts back to their source. They were louder than most, almost as if the person was shouting. The more she concentrated on trying to follow the thought, the less she was able to hold onto her shielding patches and the voice grew even louder. When she had made a complete half turn, her eyes settled on the door across the hall and she suddenly realized just who had been thinking about sneaking around with Marie Ange. Angelo would never hurt Amanda. Which left...Forge? That made absolutely no sense. Without another thought, she took the two steps required to land her in front of the door to the boys' suite and knocked.

Raising his eyes to the door, Forge cocked his head in surprise. Who'd be knocking at this hour?

Leaving the microwave behind, he slipped around the end of the couch and opened the door. He blinked, surprised to see Marie standing in the hall. "Heya," he greeted her quietly, stepping back half a pace. "Trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah," she said, Nate's warning suddenly coming back. "Um...want some company?" Like that's not suspicious. Since when do you ask Forge to hang out?

Totally oblivious, Forge grinned and held the door open. "Awesome. But we've got to keep it down, Angelo's sleeping." The ding of the microwave sounded, and Forge smiled even wider. "See, that's fate for you. I knew I wasn't hungry enough for two burritos by myself. Want one?" He walked into the kitchen and paused. "I wonder if precognition is contagious. That would be kind of creepy."

Contagious? Oh my G-d. Marie's fist clenched slightly. "How can you be doing this to Doug?" she blurted out. "Ah mean, of all people."

Forge paused with a burrito in each hand. "Seriously, Angelo's mom made them and yeahbuhwhat?" Marie's accusing question was like a log across the tracks of his train of thought, and given the speed at which Forge's brain worked, the effect was similar.

Setting his food down on a plate, he let out a slow breath. Don't worry, she doesn't know the whole thing with Marie-Ange is just a ruse. All you have to do is talk your way out of this and oh shit she's caught the telepathy you idiot...

Marie blushed slightly, embarrassed about how she was obtaining her information, but angry too. Despite the competition between the two boys, she'd always thought they still had a friendship that would've kept Forge from going after Marie-Ange. She suddenly had vague memories of seeing a few journal posts that suddenly had new meaning. "You and Marie-Ange," she said flatly. "Sneaking around."

"Not sneaking," Forge insisted, trying to keep a blush down. He'd seen the Professor's post about Marie "dealing with unexpected consequences" and then spending extended time talking to Nathan almost always meant psionic-type consequences, and that little tingle in the back of his brain was a lot like oh crap, she absorbed Betsy?

Realizing that he was gripping the counter almost hard enough to crack it, Forge forced himself to relax. "No sneaking involved," he said confidently. "Not trying to hide anything. She's fun to be with, and if Doug isn't going to make a move - hey, you can't expect her to sit and wait forever, right?"

"No, Ah wouldn't expect her ta. But Ah also wouldn't expect her to be with you!" Marie's voice rose slightly and she cast an apologetic glance in the direction of Angelo's door. "Seriously Forge, don't you get that it's different for her to be with someone else versus you? A stranger compared to a friend?" She felt something run through her body, almost like an electric current and did her best to ignore it, trying to push all her feelings down.

"Of course it's different," Forge hissed back defensively. "That's the point. Yeah, Doug sat through her dating a stranger and did nothing. And maybe there's some unwritten 'Guy Code' that I'm not aware of, but I'm not sure I'd care even if I was." To hell with subtlety, he thought. If Marie was just going to barge in and start casting aspersions...

"I know I might not be every girl's idea of what they're looking for -any girl's, if you want to get right down to it," he snapped bitterly, "but that's what Doug needs to see. This needs to be the kick in the nuts for him to see what's right in front of him. And since I was the catalyst for ruining what they had, I'm responsible for fixing it. And if you don't understand that, fine. But don't play this like I'm the badguy. And where do you get off with this 'better a stranger than a friend' crap? I might not be Mister Right, but I'm a damn step up from Garrison."

She'd been calming down, until he'd thrown in the dig at Garrison. "How dare you! Don't spout that self effacing stuff to me. It's only true if you believe it. Don't blame yourself when Marie-Ange didn't point the finger in your direction. Don't put down someone else just to make yourself feel better," Marie said, slamming her fist on the counter in front of her with each point. And then stopped as her mouth dropped open at the glowing psi knife clenched in her fist.

"Oh, I'll be as self-effacing as I want to holy shit what in the hell is THAT?" For the second time in as many minutes, Marie managed to completely disrupt Forge's composure, only this time it was with a cascading blade of energy extending across the counter between them, barely an inch from Forge's chest. Cautiously, he scooted backwards against the fridge. "Marie. You want to put that away now. Please?"

"Ah don't know how Ah made it," she said slowly, the words themselves drawn out. "Um." All her anger drained out of her as she stared at the purple shimmering object in her hand. She took a step back and held up her hand, inspecting the blade, curiosity mixed with fear on her face. "Go away," she told it, and blinked in surprise when the blade seemed to listen by blinking out of existence. "Ah'm sorry," she said, shoving her hands in her pockets. "Ah hadn't done that before."

"Yeah," Forge gulped, still flattened against the fridge. "That seems new," he squeaked out before regaining some poise. In the sudden silence, he listened and heard no noise from Angelo's room. "Man sleeps like a brick some nights, I swear. Okay, so I'll put down the bitter sarcasm and you can put down the... purple energy swordlike pseudopsionic manifestation, and we can talk nice?"

"Sounds like a plan," Marie said, still keeping her hands deep in her pockets. "This power is complicated." She hoped she never absorbed a power while possessed again. Belatedly she wondered why she hadn't just wished to never be possessed again. "Ah just don't want to see him get hurt," she said, guiding the conversation back to Doug. Luckily, she doubted Forge had noticed that his comment about Kane had actually been what set her off.

"Me neither," Forge said honestly. "And seeing him holding back what he feels out of guilt or some misguided inadequacy - he needs a catalyst. Something to spur him into action. With Garrison, maybe he felt outclassed. Believe me, I know what that's like. But if he sees Marie-Ange and me?" Forge shrugged expressively, "He'll get jealous. He'll think 'She could do better.' and he'll want to be that better. That's what they both want."

"It's a dangerous game you're playing," she said softly. "If it backfires, you might lose a friend." Not to mention shatter his self-esteem beyond all belief. "But...if you and Marie-Ange think it's best, Ah won't interfere." Marie finally pulled one hand out of her pocket to run it through her hair. "He just needs to be happy, y' know?"

"That's why I'm doing this," Forge admitted. A look of guilt crossed his face briefly, and he focused on a spot somewhere beyond Marie as he explained. "I never understood what those two saw in each other. I was so rock-solid convinced that the way of the world meant that if you were exceptional, then that set you apart from everything that 'normal' people have to deal with. Ethics, rules, friendships, love -it's why Doug and I got off on the wrong foot. Here he was, Mister Popular, and I flat-out called him a sellout for it. Turns out he had the right idea, and I needled him about it incessantly until I think it really got to him."

He folded his arms, leaning back against the fridge. "It's my fault they broke up. And both of them, despite it all, still love each other. Angie knows it, Doug knows it, but the only missing piece is that he has to be willing to act on it."

"Ah don't remember her screaming your name at him when they broke up," Marie said, turning away. "But yeah...he never stopped loving her. Ah think he just gave up on her loving him."

"Can't accept that," Forge said plainly. "Look, I'm no expert on love. I'm not even remotely experienced in the subject. But I know those two belong together. Sometimes it really is that simple."

Looking down, he held up the plate of burritos, still warm and steaming from the microwave. "Come on now. Share of my burrito goodness and join the conspiracy. Trust me, it'll all work out. I am a genius, you might have heard."

She looked at him, almost incredulously, before smiling and reaching out to take a burrito. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And if it didn't work out, she could always comfort herself by making Forge's life miserable. She doubted she'd even have to bribe Angelo with a cobbler to get into the suite.