xp_logs | Remix: Amanda, Angelo

Having been off the journals all day, Amanda is somewhat surprised when Angelo turns up as per their date. But only for a minute.

They'd arranged for her to come by after she got back from the team weekend, and she'd figured she might as well keep the date. Of course, Angelo hadn't really expected to be a girl at the time, but there she was anyway, heading up the brownstone steps.

Amanda was running late - she'd gotten stuck at work longer than she'd wanted, and a training session with Wanda had meant she was sweaty and gross by the time she'd gotten to her apartment. She was not long out of the shower, drying her hair and contemplating chopping it off to make it quicker to deal with, when there was a knock at the door. It sounded like Angelo, only a bit less heavy. Still towelling off her hair, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and her feet bare, she opened the door with a "Hey, Ange, sorry I'm running late..."

Then she took in the figure standing on her doorstep. Dark hair and eyes, grey skin, jeans and one of those loud shirts he loved to wear. Typical Angelo. Only, the hair was much, much longer, the jeans a bit on the long side, and the shirt straining across a chest area that was much more filled out than Amanda remembered.

Apparently, somewhere along the line, her boyfriend had turned into a girlfriend.

"Huh," she said, taking all this in.

Angelo grinned up at her ruefully. "Hi. We had a little problem on the team bondin' thing. It's only for a week."

Amanda raised her eyebrows, one hand still holding the door open, damp towel around her neck, her hair a mess. "Well, it's better than the bruises," she said at last. "But I am not calling you Angela."

"Please don't", she said with a wince. "Except maybe in public to make people not stare. But here... no."

"That's the beauty of 'Ange' as a nickname. Works either way. Not that I was thinking of that at the time." With a smile, Amanda reached over and grabbed Angleo's hand, drawing him - no, her inside. "So... staying in and getting take out's a better option now? What with the sudden girliness?" she said, closing the door behind them. "Was it just you, or the whole lot of you at this thing?"

"Everybody that went", came the wry answer. "Some of us are takin' it better than others, even if it's just temporary. Pietro wasn't happy at all. An' yeah, take out sounds great."

"See, this is where I'm smug about our lot never doing team bonding that doesn't involve..." Amanda trailled off as a thought registered. "Oh, fuck," she said, but with laughter in her voice and face. "Sof, Doug and Angie were at the same place." She shook her head. "This is just too fucked up. At least it's just a week."

"Yeah, they probably got hit too", she said with a grin. "One of the counsellors took exception to us for somethin'. Never did get a proper explanation out of him."

"I swear, they're never going to let anyone leave the mansion again at this rate..." Finger-combing her hair to get rid of the worst of the tangles, Amanda looked Angelo up and down again, a certain appreciative grin on her face. "Still, 's not so bad."

Angelo tilted her head, an utterly shameless grin appearing in turn. "Well, yeah, I have to say, if I'd seen this girl on the street, I'd've looked twice." It went without saying that was all she would have done.

Amanda laughed at that, and then leaned over to steal a kiss. "Yes, love, you're hot. And I might take shameless advantage of that later. But right now, I'm hungry - work was insane today. What do you feel like? Pizza, Chinese or maybe that Thai place? I wouldn't insult your mum's cooking by suggesting Mexican."

"Hm. Thai, I think", she decided. "The food they had at that camp place was beyond borin'. Should've heard Logan bitchin' about the healthy breakfasts."

"Not enough dead animal for him?" Amanda asked, grabbing the approriate take-out menu from the stack by the phone. "Can you order? The usual for me - I'm just going to finish with my hair before it dries like this and it's all knots." As she handed the menu to Angelo, she chuckled. "You realise you're shorter than me, yeah?"

"Exactly. As in, none." She pulled a joking face, accepting the menu and reaching for the phone. "An' yeah, I did notice. Probably means I'm shorter than everyone."

"Afraid so, love," Amanda told him with a grin, as she vanished into the bedroom to finish with her hair. "Welcome to the land of the little people."

***

Amanda set aside her now-empty container of pad thai, and reached for her beer bottle. "That's better," she said, stretching her legs along the couch so her feet were in Angelo's lap. "So... how many more times do I get to apologise for nearly getting us killed before you start throwing things at me?"

Angelo had no complaints about the feet, shifting only slightly to make it comfortable. "I think one more should do it. Got all these cushions just ready for the throwin', right here."

"See? I told you the couch likes you more than me," she replied, before her smile faded. "Seriously, tho'? It was dumb, and we were bloody lucky. Some spy-in-training I am. If anything had happened to you..." She let the sentence hang unfinished.

"But it didn't", Angelo pointed out firmly. "An' don't forget, it was all startin' to go to hell even before you slipped up, an' that was nothin' to do with you."

"I s'pose," she admitted, absently picking at the label of her beer bottle. "I asked Remy for more work on the undercover stuff any way. Once he's back, that is." A contemplative pause followed, where she looked down at the bottle, peeling the label in small strips. "Miguel and Alejandra... they're settling in okay?"

"Well as they can", she said quietly. "It's... pickin' up an' leavin' everythin' behind, it's not easy, especially when it's because you have to. But they're where they need to be - or Alejandra is, an' that's enough for Miguel. He's dealin'. So's Mom - she wasn't exactly happy when we showed up out of the blue, especially since it was him, but we talked an' she's okay. She knows things've changed."

"Must be weird, having them so close. Part of your life you thought was done with," Amanda replied, watching hi... her. Angelo was good at hiding what he was feeling, but Amanda had had many years to learn to read his face. Her face, now. "You okay with things?"

"...it is weird", she confessed after a silent moment of thought. "I mean... I didn't think I'd ever see either of them again. 'specially not like this. But... it is what it is, an' they're here an' not goin' back. Pretty much gotta be okay with it."

Wrinkling her nose, Amanda poked Angelo gently with her foot. "Not a lot you can do, no. But you don't have to be okay, either. Look where being okay all the time got Kurt."

"True. But this's a bit different. I'll get used to it."

"Hmm." Amanda frowned a little, but didn't push. A hang-over from the whole week undercover - she'd gotten used to letting him speak for both of them and not pushing too hard. Instead, she continued picking at the label, something obviously on her mind, but not sure how to verbalise it.

Angelo twisted to look at her, a little worried now herself. "What?"

Amanda looked up, shrugging a little. "I... ugh, I don't know how to put it, Ange. Seeing you there, how you were, seeing how easy it was for you to slip back into that..." Seeing you nearly shoot that bastard. "It's got to be hard," she continued. "And I worry." She gave Angelo a wry smile. "Amanda's worried, must be Monday."

"Ah. Yeah. It was, uh... that used to be my life. You don't just forget shit like that. An' when it comes up so you have to go back an' pretend you never left... but my life is this now."

"Just... you know I love you, right? All of you - who you were, who you are. Even if you do have better breasts than me right now," she added with a grin. "And that's not going to change, just 'cause of what I saw. I know that's behind you, but it's not something you just drop. And having Miguel and Alejandra 'round, that's going to be a reminder of what you used to be. Just promise you won't just bottle it all up until you go boom?"

"That's what I've got my therapist for", she said wryly. "...an' Miguel never gets to find out about that. Ever."

Amanda rolled her eyes and poked Angelo with her foot again. "Oh, 'cause we're so chatty that I'd have the chance. But still, 'm glad you've got someone you'll talk to 'bout this." She finished her beer, the label now a pile of paper fragments in the ashtray on the coffee table. "You want another?" she asked, holding up the empty bottle.

"Yeah, it's just, I know what he'd say, 'cause it's what I would've said four years ago, an' none of it would be complimentary. Sure, another beer sounds good."

Lifting her feet off Angelo's lap, Amanda got up, holding her hand out for his empty. "What do you care what he says any way?" she asked.

She stretched up to hand over the empty bottle. "Because..." She paused, thinking it out. "'Cause I've been where he is, an' he still needs help here, so I don't want to piss him off enough he disappears, is part of it. The other part... because he asked me for help. All this time, everythin' that happened, an' he still could suck it up enough to ask for my help when he needed it. When Alejandra needed it." Maybe it didn't make sense outside her own head, but it was the best answer she could give.

There was another pause as Amanda padded back to the kitchen, followed by the sound of the fridge opening and a clink of bottles against each other. "There's a saying," came Amanda's voice as she returned, passing Angelo her beer over the back of the couch before rounding the end of it and sitting down again, legs crossed underneath her. "The life of the man you save is your responsibility forever. Something Strange told me once, when we were talking about the healing. You might not have saved Miguel's life, but you had a part in making sure he and Alejandra got out and had a chance at something else. 'S only reasonable you feel like you ought to stand by him. Just don't let him start making your decisions for you, 'cause you feel obliged."

"Funny thing is", Angelo said slowly, "it was no more than repayin' him, in a twisted way. I mean sure, it wasn't what he intended, but I'd never have got out of LA without what he did. Never've been more than what I was back then. If there was any obligation, it's paid off - or it will be, once I see him set up here."

"I get you," Amanda replied. "Same as me and Rack sometimes - without him, I wouldn't have the ability with languages or the memory for what I read, plus what I've learned about controlling my mutation. But he did try to kill you, Ange. True, his sister's a mutant now, and that's changing his tune. Just... be careful?" Don't let him drag you back down.

Angelo snorted. "It's not changin' his tune much. Only for her, an' he puts up with me 'cause I helped him. An' yeah, I will be. Promise."

"Good. 'Cause I'd hate to have to kill him if he did anything to you." She said it apparently jokingly, but there was a certain set to her expression. "I tend to get protective over my boyfriend. Girlfriend. Whatever."

"I've noticed. But no tryin' to kill him, 'cause then Alejandra'd go for you an' it'd all just get messy." This was delivered absolutely deadpan.

"Especially if there was oil of some kind involved. Or maybe jelly," Amanda suggested, innocently.

Angelo peered up at her, laughing now. "I don't think you're supposed to be the one makin' suggestions like that about my ex."

Amanda grinned. "You're forgetting I'm an equal opportunity letch," she replied, leering at the laughing girl at the other end of the couch. "Who likes to try and break your brain sometimes. Did it work?"

Angelo gave this due consideration. "Hmm... most of the way there. Just needs a bit more work."

"Well, I could suggest a couple of things we could do with you in that state," the witch suggested, tone still light but definitely watching Angelo's reaction. "If that's not so weird as to break you brain completely and make you run screaming?"

Angelo raised her eyebrows at that response. "Chica, with the way our lives are, I hope you're not suggestin' I'm that easy to scare off?"

The grin grew broader. "I'd hope not, but you never know. This is pretty bloody weird. So... you saying you're up for finding out how the other half lives, so to speak?"

"Yeah, I think that's exactly what I'm sayin'. Might as well take advantage of the experience while it lasts, huh?" This was delivered with a frankly wicked grin.

"And here I was thinking I was going to have to ply you with booze..."