Angel and John

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

John finds Angel outside doing what Angel does best...setting things on fire. And then hell proceeds to freeze over. In a good way.



Boredom was a teenager's mortal enemy, especially if coupled with a large amount of lazy. Angel was sprawled in front of the mansion, book bag and camera close at hand as she stared up at the sky. She could have gone and found something to do once the football game was over, but that would take effort and she was rather comfortable. Twirling a blade of grass between her fingers, she concentrated until a light blue flame ran up her hand, setting it on fire.

Yep. Bored.

"You know if you could hear it screaming, you wouldn't do that," John said as he stepped up next to her. He let out a brief smile. "I'm guessing you're the Angel Yvette was telling me about."

She was startled enough for the other blade of grass to go up in a small ball of flame but at least she didn't scream. Grinning, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. "Yvette...oh! Oh! You must be John, right? She mentioned meeting you. And, uh, whoops..." Angel shook her hand, the pieces of the burnt grass coming off in a small black shower.

John let out a snort of a laugh. "Are you always this destructive?"

"I'm getting better!" Angel exclaimed and then giggled, looking sheepish. "Sometimes, yeah. Too much excitement or, well, Red Bull and then fwoosh!"

Hyper too, John thought. He chuckled, relaxing a little at being in the presence of someone who didn't seem to give a shit about his past or just didn't have a clue about it or was just rather good at hiding what she thought of him. "So the weather's not affecting you, I see." It was six degrees outside. "And how does that work?"

"Dunno the exact science behind it," she responded, sitting all the way up now and turning so she could peer up at him easier. "But it's like I've got an internal thermostat inside--no matter the temperature, I'm good. I'm also one hundred percent, completely fireproof, so that might have something to do with it." It was obvious from her tone how cool she thought her powers were.

Well, that was pretty impressive. He joined join her on the grass, not wanting her to strain her neck or anything like that. John rested his forearm on his knee. "So what's your control like?" He was definitely curious about her. He had always thought of himself as having a defect, what with not being able to generate fire and all. But through the years, he'd compensated for the lack of that with skilled control over his powers. And well, he thought that was pretty cool.

Angel hooked her arms around her knees and thought about that. "It's getting better, I don't set quite so many random things on fire these days. I create microwave's, that's how I make the fire...and, well, we kind of learned what happens when I don't pay attention and Mr. Logan's metal noggin is near by." Another sheepish look. "But Yvette mentioned your mutation is all fire-y as well?" she asked, curious.

"Yeah," he said, shrugging a little. "But I can't create fire on my own. I can work with sparks though and turn it into something more." He flicked his lighter out, extracted a ball of flame and let it float between them. He changed it into a ring of fire, splitted it into two, allowing the second one to float closer to Angel, a cue for her to take control of it. "I can also work with bigger flames, of course. But unlike you, if I don't mentally control it, I can get scorched, burnt, you name it." John fought the urge to light himself a cigarette just then. "Basically, manipulation's my game. I can increase and decrease the heat, the size and shape the flames if I want to. But that's really only useful when you're working on controlling your powers -- it's good exercise by the way," he said. "And well, yeah, that's it. Nothing much, really."

"Nothing much?" Angel said, staring at the ball of flame she was holding in her hand before playing with it between her fingers. "Oh my God, that's awesome! I mean, it's not the same thing as mine but that's what makes it awesome. You can do shapes and control other people's fire--which is cooler than anything, really--and..." She giggled when the fire finally went out in her hands, creating a small line of smoke. "So. Cool."

John raised his eyebrows a little before letting out a slight smile. "Well..." He contemplated the idea in his head for a moment. "Seeing as you're immune to getting hurt by raging flames, I could probably help you out if you want to learn more about control. I don't think we'll get into any trouble seeing as to how neither one of us is likely to get hurt." And gee, quite possibly, hell's just frozen over or something. "But you'll probably have to get permission for that. I don't know what's their policy these days on informal training." He wasn't about to risk getting himself into any trouble with the school authorities. John knew one thing though -- they were incredibly protective of the students.

With the incident on Friday, there was probably nothing more in the world that she wanted. Angel refrained from flailing or doing anything that would make her look too stupid, even if she couldn't stop grinning. "That would be the best thing ever," she said, rubbing her hands together in glee. "And I can ask Miss Munroe when I go to drop off more pictures for the year book. One of my suitemates is helping me with the whole flying thing outside of class but, yeah, you're right...the whole fire thing might need some permission." But that wasn't going to be hard to get, not if she used the puppy dog eyes. She was real, real good with those.

"That and the fact that I don't exactly have the best reputation around here," he said, letting out a wry smile. "You'll find out soon enough." John flicked his lighter and drew another ball of flame out, using it to ward off the cold. He grinned a little. "Now -- tell me all about this incident with Logan..."