xp_logs | Amanda and Angelo, Saturday evening

They mingle, then get to the dancing part of the evening.

"...well, if you look at the statistics, you'll see homelessness is a real problem among young mutants. They manifest, they get kicked out or driven out of home by prejudice, and they have nowhere to go. If you also consider the powers control issues you get during and just after manifestation, it's a real problem that needs real resources. I can send you the current figures if you like..." Amanda continued on, handing over her business card to the man she was speaking to, and then looked up as Angelo approached. "Hey, you," she said, nodding to the man as he excused himself. "I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"Sounded like it to me", he said with a grin, slinging an arm round her shoulders. "An' you had a good point... but you knew that."

"Of course I did," she replied, only a little smugly as she tilted her chin up to kiss his cheek. "How many of our lot at Xavier's came from that? Or Mark's kids at Silver? And that's not even the official studies. Now they're finally getting off their arses and doing them, that is." She caught herself and gave him a sheepish grin. "Sorry, preaching to the choir, I know. How about you? Getting what you need for Elpis?"

"More than there should be", was the simple answer. "An' yeah, pretty much. It's just about talkin' to people more than gettin' anythin' specific at these things."

"Well, if you need a pretty girl to bat her eyelashes at some of the hard cases while you turn on the charm, I'm sure you can find someone to help," she teased. "Not that you need the help, from what I'm seeing."

That got another pleased grin, and he joked, "What d'you think Nathan pays me for? Apart from keepin' him out of trouble, but that's really more a deal with Joel."

"Ah, but did you get the people skills from keeping Nate out of trouble, or was it the other way 'round?" she replied, still teasing. "And I still find the idea of you being Nate's minder funny sometimes. Remember that time he threw you in the lake?"

"Vividly", was the dry answer. "God, I was stupid back then."

"We were teenagers. I think 'stupid' is an identifying feature," Amanda said from the lofty heights of just turned twenty. "Stupid and with massive chips on our shoulders. I'm surprised more of us didn't get chucked in."

"An' that those of that did, only got it once or twice", he agreed cheerfully. "Still... that was a long time ago. That said, if Pietro's not safe..."

Amanda wrinkled her nose slightly. "I think 'smug git' outweighs 'stupid kid' any day," she pointed out. "So he deserved the swim. 'S hard to believe he and Wanda are related, much less twins."

"He's not that bad", Angelo said mildly. "I mean, yeah, he deserved gettin' thrown in the lake, but..." He gestured vaguely, aware he shouldn't go into details of Pietro's history in public, and Amanda probably already knew the relevant parts anyway. "An' anyway, Logan doesn't like him."

Amanda shrugged. She'd overheard enough from Wanda that she had a good idea what Pietro thought of Snow Valley's other job, but now wasn't the time and place to argue his hypocrisy. She did shake her head at him for the last statement, though. "Love, I know you hate Logan, but that's pretty dodgy logic there. Does that mean you hate Sarah now she and Logan are at it?"

"No", he said reasonably. "That's different. She's Sarah, we've been friends a long time. Pietro's new, I get to use whatever logic I want about him. An' he hasn't done anythin' he hasn't tried to make up for."

"Okay, okay, you get to have the wacky logic," was Amanda's only response - she didn't like Pietro's smugness, and whilst Logan was, quite frankly, completely insane, at least he was honestly insane. She glanced around the room. "And this isn't the right place for this sort of talk any way."

"...yeah, fair point." He followed her glance around the room, eyes settling on the square at the end. "You want to dance?"

She grinned at him. "Your toes up for it?"

"I think they can handle it", he returned, laughing.

"Famous last words," she told him with a laugh as they made their way over to the dancefloor. Laying her hand on Angelo's shoulder, she chuckled. "And now I'm remembering prom. Need me to tell you where your hand goes again?"

"I'm not that bad a dancer", he said with a grin. "...any more."

"I think it was one part neither of us having a clue what was going on. At least we don't have Doug and Angie getting out the cattle prods this time?" The song was a slow one - not particularly Amanda's taste, but she'd discovered the beauty of slow songs was you got to cuddle. Laying her cheek on his shoulder, she made a small happy noise. "Okay, so this is how it's supposed to go. Better late than never, yeah?"

"Definitely better", he agreed, hand resting comfortably on the small of her back as they moved through the dance.

And then they come home, where Amanda shows off the fancy shoes again. Among other things.

Amanda twirled a little to make her dress swish as she waited for Angelo to finish paying off the cab driver. There'd been a couple of glasses of champagne towards the end there, the fizzy wine always going to her head, but not overly so. Mostly she was just 'high on life' as the hippies would say - she'd had a lovely evening, hadn't felt too out her depth and she had a boyfriend who made a rather dashing figure in a tux who was about to come upstairs with her. "I feel a bit like Cinderella," she said with a grin. "Only with less pumpkins."

Angelo turned away from the cab just in time to catch the end of the twirl, and laughed. "No pumpkins at all. An' that's a promise."

"Good. 'Cause I'm not the biggest fan. C'mere." Reaching over for his hand, she tugged him closer to her, wrapping her arms around his neck. "In case I haven't said it enough tonight, you look dead sexy in that," she murmured with a wicked grin. "I had a hard time behaving myself all night."

His arms slipped around her waist as he took a step closer, backing them towards the steps up to the building. "You were a model of restraint", he said solemnly. "I think you deserve a reward."

"Reward? I like the sound of that." The back of her heel hit the bottom step of the brownstone stairs, and she stepped up, bringing them to the same height. "What sort of reward did you have in mind?"

"Oh, I think you can guess exactly what I've got in mind", he told her, a wicked grin of his own starting to appear. "Though maybe I should be a bit inventive tonight."

"Mmm, inventive," she replied, resting her forehead against his and pressing herself closer. The air was a little cool, but Angelo was plenty warm enough for the both of them. "I guess that means we have to get upstairs, yeah?"

"It'd probably be a good idea", came the amused response. "Bit cold out here for exhibitionism, even if you were into that."

She leaned in and kissed him rather lingeringly, and then said, as she pulled back: "Who says I'm not?" After a moment, she added: "But you might have something there about the cold."

His eyebrows were raised as she pulled away. "Oh, really." There was a note in his voice of storing that one away for future reference, but then he nodded, reaching for her hands again as he started up the steps. "Hold that thought for warmer nights. As much warmer as it ever gets here."

She giggled, and followed, hurriedly grabbing her skirt with her free hand to get the hem of it out from underfoot. "Or for next time they send us on holiday somewhere warm, yeah?" She waved to the desk guy as they went past, and he smirked a little at them.

"Or for that", he agreed cheerfully, utterly unconcerned by what the desk guy did or didn't think - especially since he was right. "You know how much I travel, who knows where the next place Elpis goes might be? An' if you can get the time off..."

"That might be trickier after all the time I've had lately. Then again, we might have something big come up and all get time off." As they reached the first floor, she pulled him to a stop and kissed him again. "Something to tide us over."

He laughed quietly as she pulled away. "Not complainin', at all, but the things to tide us over might just end up delayin' the main event."

She pouted at him, but reached for his hand and started for the second flight of stairs. "See, there you go with the bloody logic again," she teased. "But you do have a point. Again. Besides, if we hang about, Pete or Remy might happen by and decide there's urgent work needs doing, just to mess with me."

He grinned, following her. "Plenty of time to take things slower once we're in the apartment, if that's what you want."

"I've been that good, have I?" They reached her door, finally, and she fished in the rather silly-small handbag for her keys. "Where are you, you bloody things..." she muttered, a little impatiently.

"You have", he confirmed with a lazy grin, slipping his arms around her from behind as he waited for her to find the keys.

Her fingers fumbled just a bit at the touch, especially when she felt his breath warm on the back of her neck. So that was why putting your hair up was a good thing. But finally the keys were uncovered, at the bottom of the bag (underneath her business cards, the lipstick she'd even remembered to refresh with and her wallet) and she managed to unlock and open her door, before turning around in Angelo's embrace to slide her arms around his neck again. "So, where were we, again?"

He stepped them both forward into the apartment and pushed the door firmly shut before he answered. "I think... right about here." This was followed with a kiss, of course.

The kiss was returned with interest, one of her hands slipping up to run through the buzzcut hair. Angelo continued to nudge them towards the couch - or possibly the bedroom - and her foot nudged against something. Looking down as the kiss broke, she realised it was one of the spurned heels, where she'd tossed it in the hurry of earlier. "Poor shoes," she said with a pout. "Too bad they tried to kill me. They looked fucking amazing."

"Could always try them again", he suggested, mostly joking. "Now it doesn't matter so much if you fall over - I mean, you know I'd catch you, an' it wouldn't be embarrassin' here, right?"

He might have been joking, but Amanda seized upon the idea. And a couple of others. "Wait here," she said with a wicked grin and another quick kiss, before slipping out of his arms and bending to pick up the shoes. "I know you're rewarding me toinght, but I have an idea."

He chuckled, watching her disappear, then padded over to the couch. He was comfortably settled there to wait for her, shoes off and eyes on the door to her bedroom, when she re-emerged.

It was just as well he was sitting down, Amanda thought with a gleeful little grin, as she opened the door and took a moment to pose. The shoes were indeed on, but the dress was gone, leaving just stockings and the fancy black underwear that she had a weakness for but usually couldn't justify wearing. "What do you think?" she asked, making sure he got a proper eyeful. "Nice shoes, aren't they?"

He most definitely did get a proper eyeful, being as he was openly staring, very appreciatively. "They... really are", he managed. "Do you get to keep them?"

"Considering I bought 'em? Yeah." She walked slowly towards him, one part drawing things out and making sure he got the full show, one part avoiding falling flat on her face. The lack of a long skirt to manage helped. "And I guess I'll just have to practice wearing them until they stop trying to kill me. Somewhere safe, of course," she suggested, mock-innocently.

"Somewhere safe", Angelo agreed, sitting up without taking his eyes off her, taking in the full effect. "An' I'm glad they're not just borrowed."

She grinned. "Never struck me as having an interest in fashion before, Ange," she teased.

She'd stopped moving. That would not do, and the only response she got was a joking growl as he raised his hands to wrap strands of skin around her wrists and draw her carefully closer.

Amanda went willingly, winding up in his lap. He owed her a reward, after all.