Angelo and Nathan, Tuesday morning

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Nathan arrives back at the office after a meeting, to find Angelo committing the cardinal sin of working on his day off. Being a raging hypocrite, Nathan decides that Steps Must Be Taken. Sometime after the splashing, the two of them actually have a very necessary conversation.



"Out," was the frustrated comment from Nathan as he stepped through the door of the office and saw Angelo working at his desk. Juliette looked up, then shrugged and looked back down at her computer screen. "Damn it, boy, get out of here and go look up the definition of 'day off'," Nathan said, tugging at his tie as he headed for his own desk. "Or better yet, go do something with your roommate. Or your girlfriend."

"My suitemate's in his lab. My girlfriend's got work of her own to do, now she's up to it", came the flat recitation of an answer. "I was bored."

Nathan's eyes widened, then narrowed, in a dangerous way that would have set off instant alarm bells in Angelo's head - if he'd been looking at Nathan, instead of at his desk. "I see," was the reply, sapped of all previous irritation. Nathan took off his tie and jacket, leaving it on the back of his chair, then gave the still oblivious Angelo a tight and somewhat terrifying smile. "That's all right, then. I have an idea."

He proceeded to demonstrate yet again that even a moderately decrepit man of his size could still move both swiftly and silently. Before Angelo could react, Nathan was across the office and quite literally pouncing on him, hauling him up out of his chair and slinging him across a shoulder. The office door opened under a push of telekinesis.

"We'll be outside, Juliette!"

"What - " was all he got out before he was out of his chair and they were halfway to the door, then he gave up protesting. It would clearly do no good whatsoever, and he settled for glaring at Nathan's back.

"I used to have this habit, when you were moping," Nathan said casually as he strode down the dock. Angelo was solid muscle in a way that he hadn't been a couple of years ago, but a little telekinesis took care of the extra weight. "Damned fine habit. I'm not sure why I ever got out of it."

"Oh, for - " There was a note of mild alarm in Angelo's voice as he realized where they were heading. "I was seventeen. Don't you dare."

"Oh, I dare. It's for your own good, mi'thelos," Nathan said cheerfully, not even registering the Askani that slipped out. He had more important things on his mind. Such as gauging the proper level of a telekinetic assist needed to toss Angelo off the dock and about ten metres out, rather than just drop him into the water.

SPLASH!

Angelo heard it, and remembered enough of his Askani lessons to understand it, but didn't have enough time to really register it before he went under the water. He surfaced a few seconds later, splashing and flailing, and glared. "Right." Ten metres was just within his range to reach out and grab Nathan by the ankle. And yank.

SPLASH!

Nathan surfaced, sputtering. A moment later, he was laughing, nearly hysterically, as he was treading water. "Why do you think I took off my jacket, boy?"

"So you wouldn't get it caught in the splash?" Angelo suggested with a faint reluctant grin and as much of a shrug as he could manage without sinking.

"No, so you wouldn't get it wet when you pulled me in after you. I saw that coming a mile away." Nathan swum over to the dock, hauling himself out. He offered Angelo a hand as the younger man followed.

He didn't even consider yanking Nathan back in, considering it gratuitous and beneath him. "Thanks."

Nathan pulled him up onto the dock easily. "Water's nice today," he said, without the slightest trace of shame. Grey eyes flickered sideways to Angelo - and Nathan started laughing again, helplessly.

"It's not that funny." His mouth kept twitching treacherously, though, and he focused on shaking the water off himself and at Nathan.

"Yes, it is! There you were, brooding with the elegance of a champion brooder... and now you're all wet."

"So are you. An' I was not broodin'. I was focused."

"You're brooding. You've been brooding ever since I got back from Yosemite. Every time I look at you, I can see it." A trace of frustration found its way into the humor. "Did you see Jack while I was away?"

"Yes", Angelo retorted. "I wasn't avoidin' his calls." The last was pointed, and a convenient way to not mention how much they'd actually talked about anything important.

"And yet you're still walking around like someone killed your dog." Nathan undid the top couple of buttons of his very wet shirt. "I notice I haven't seen or sensed Amanda around here anywhere, these last few days..."

"She hasn't been here", Angelo told him neutrally. "I've been goin' over there most days, though."

Nathan eyed him. "I see."

Angelo eyed him right back, suspicious. "What?"

"You two are still having trouble. Still not talking?" Nathan ventured, although from Angelo's tone and the way he had stiffened up, he figured that was a fairly safe assumption.

"We talk", he contradicted. "Just, you know... not about some things." And his visits tended to be short.

"Well, there's a recipe for a breakup before the end of the summer." It was almost conversationally said, and Nathan just raised an eyebrow as Angelo looked up at him. "What, you think I'm exaggerating?" The look in those gray eyes was very slightly challenging. "You two keep not talking through this, it's going to be harder and harder to start. If you even get to that point. If you don't just drift apart through lack of wanting to push."

That hit home, and Angelo looked down again rather than let Nathan see his expression. "An' what if I do push, an' she doesn't want to talk about it bad enough..." It wasn't a fight he was afraid of. It was a fight that couldn't be fixed.

"Angelo, do you have any idea how many times I have not wanted to talk about things with Moira? Even in just the years I've been here? We've mellowed," Nathan conceded, "mostly because Rachel gets upset if we don't watch our moods around here. But there are so many times that she's just... raged at me. Yelled, smacked me upside the head, pushed me in the dearest body of water, dumped drinks over my head... I could go on, she has many more tactics, and lately they're just sneakier, not less effective. But the key is, she doesn't let me not talk. And that is the only reason we've survived the amount of crap we have with our relationship intact." Nathan paused, tilting his head slightly. "I suppose I give her the same treatment in most cases. Less so lately, and it's a bit more socially acceptable for her to swat me than vice-versa..."

As usual when Angelo was feeling overwhelmed, this was met with silence. He never had any idea what to say when he felt like that.

"You have a choice to make," Nathan went on. "Push, or don't. Pushing might mean a fight." He didn't know enough about what was going on with the two of them to be sure one way or the other. "But if you don't, and she doesn't... what the two of you have dies. It just does it more slowly, and very quietly."

That got a faint and decidedly unhappy smile. "Been there once already."

"You were young and dumb, at the time," Nathan said, and the words might have been harsh if not for the kindness behind them. "And one thing I like to think you've learned is not to make the same mistake twice." He paused, rubbing at his jaw for a moment as he tried to pull together the right words. "If you let fear win, with the two of you... you let the dark side of what we do-" And by that he meant both the X-Men and Pete's people. "-win. I don't think that deep down, you'd be okay with doing that."

"...no." His voice was very quiet. "No, I'm not." It didn't mean he was going to rush out right that second and talk to Amanda, though. He could take time to work himself up to it without letting fear win, right?

"Good." And that was all the pushing he was going to do. He could give advice, but unfortunately, he couldn't shut the two of them in a closet together and refuse to let them out until they talked. Well, really, Nathan, you could... tempting, but no.