xp_logs | Angelo and Nathan, Friday morning

Angelo isn't quite avoiding everyone after his 'adventure' at Trask's house.

He was more awake for longer periods today - for values of 'longer' that corresponded to a good twenty minutes or so before he drifted back to sleep. Amelia had him on the good stuff. Probably to keep him in one place, a distant, amused part of Nathan's brain pointed out. He wouldn't put it past them. Sneaky redheads. Even if he really had no intention of going anywhere.

Angelo had been coming down to check on him on a regular basis, staying as long as he could before he was chased out to eat, or to shower, or to let the doctors do their own checks. He slipped quietly through the door now, heading for the usual corner.

Nathan's eyes had been closed, as he'd listened to the various sounds of the infirmary and the soft murmur of the ambient psi-atmosphere. It was a measure of how drugged he was that he actually found it soothing. Angelo's appearance was noticeable, though, and he opened his eyes, blinking to clear them as he watched the young man settle into a chair.

He glanced that way sharply, catching the tiny movement in his peripheral vision, then smiled slightly. "Hey. Wondered if you'd ever be awake when I came down."

"Mm. Been avoiding you... expecting a lecture." #'So you can catch bullets, huh?'# The projected thought wasn't much less fuzzy than Nathan's words, but he did sort of mimick Angelo's accent, which had been the point.

"Lectures can wait 'til you can stand up", Angelo said quietly, drawing his legs up into his chair. "An' trust me, come that day you'll be hearin' all about it."

#Jean was in trouble. Fighting Saidullayev by herself. Trask did... something, trying to get into my head. I threw her out, but wasn't... with it.# All in all it was an understandable if costly moment of carelessness, which was the reason he wasn't kicking himself about it. Grumbling, but not kicking. #Thought I'd knocked her out, was running to help Jean...#

"An' you turned your back on her", Angelo finished, tiredly. "S'pose it's too late to get into 'why didn't you make sure'."

#Heat of the moment.# He didn't know how to explain, and didn't think Angelo really wanted to hear it. The simple answer was 'these things happened', but it wasn't one that Angelo took all that well from him. #You look tired...#

"Yeah, well. You know how it is." When one of you winds up down here.

Nathan caught that thought. #You've been banged up more than I have this year, boy.#

"An' never once in that time did I get shot."

#Mm.# There was something to be said about being shot being preferable to vacuum exposure, but he really didn't want to argue. Nathan closed his eyes for a moment - just to rest them - his brow creasing as he tried to think. "Didn't think," he finally said, his voice soft, "to ask Moira or Pete... what happened with Barath?"

"He's alive", Angelo assured him quickly, "an' gonna stay that way. Got a bit banged up in the attack, but nothin' serious."

"Good..." He'd asked, rather muzzily - yesterday? - if 'everyone' was okay, and Moira had reassured him in a way that he knew meant she was telling the truth. He just hadn't been sure if she'd thought he was only talking about Jean and the X-Men who'd been in Budapest. Nathan opened his eyes again, narrowing them to try and focus. "Moira said Dom's coming."

"Yeah. She'll be here real soon, an' don't worry, we won't let her kick your ass. Yet."

#No... tag-teaming. Brats. Both of you.#

"But we do it so well." That even came with the shadow of a grin.

#Bad habit. Work on that.# Nathan closed his eyes again, grumbling silently. Pretty bad when the effort it took to carry on a conversation had him wanting to sleep again. Although it had been useful yesterday when Pete had been ribbing him about letting himself get shot in the back by a history professor. #Go sleep. Shower. Jump girlfriend. Things like that.#

Angelo tried as hard as he could to stamp down on the thought, That'd be easier if my girlfriend was talkin' to me, and said aloud only, "Yeah, okay. I've been sleepin'. Showerin', even."

Fortunately for him, Nathan was asleep by the time he finished speaking, thus sparing Angelo any unasked-for commentary. At least for the time being.

Angelo looked at him for a long moment, then settled back in his chair and closed his eyes. Whether to meditate or to sleep himself, he'd find out in short order.