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xp_logsBeer and pizza night returns, with talk about Logan and the _other_ stupid act of the last couple of days.
Marie dropped on the couch, smiling at Amanda as she sprawled out comfortably. "Ah figured it was about time we started pizza night again. No more crises are allowed ta happen on Fridays from here on out. Interferes with my social calendar," she said with a wink.
"Amen to that." Amanda raised her beer in a mock toast. Her smile was just a tad fuzzy - there were several empties already sitting next to her end of the couch. "'S good to have you back - I was starting to think you and the Mountie had eloped or something."
That earned a short laugh from Marie. "Man, we should've told people we did. Ah think some jaws might've hit the floor. And there probably would've been at least one heart attack." Running a hand through her hair, her face turned more serious. "But yeah, Ah know Ah should've done better at telling people where Ah disappeared to. Ah just freaked when they told me Twoyoungman was missing and headed straight there without a second thought. And then...well, if you were wondering, Ah don't ever recommend having a mystical creature chew on your head. Gives you split ends."
"Mystical creature?" That got Amanda's professional attention, and she sat up from her slump a little. "Native Canadian magic, was it? If your shaman bloke was involved?" Her own stories of ozone-layer-destroying hairstyles could wait a little.
"Called the Wendigo," Marie said, shuddering as she could almost smell the creature. "Ah could've battled him for days and gotten nowhere. It healed faster than Logan and was stronger than anything Ah've ever come up against. Had to do some magic to vanquish him or whatever."
"Wendigo..." Amanda's brow furrowed - she wasn't the best with Native Canadian or American mysticism. Sitting up, she leaned forward and flailed at the coffee table until she'd secured a napkin, and she scribbled the name and some notes down with the stub of pencil she kept in her pocket. "Do you think your Twoyoungman would mind if I called and asked some questions if I can't find out much in our stuff? I like to keep the magical villain's gallery updated - less surprises when we wander into things."
"Ah'm sure he'd love to chat with you," Marie replied. "Ah should be able to tell you a lot more about the Wendigo because he couldn't stop talking about it, but all Ah remember is that it stunk to high heaven, brought awful winter weather with it, and that Ah had to get it's blood in the sun on a stick thingie to get it to go away."
"Elemental spirit of some sort? Huh." Another couple of notes and Amanda stuffed the napkin into her pocket along with the pencil. "I got told, 'bout Logan..." Mostly because she'd still been training hand to hand with him, and now there was a gap in her schedule. She watched Marie carefully as she continued: "How're you holding up?"
"As well as Ah can, y'know?" she said, very aware of Amanda watching for her reaction. "Ah'm not gonna try and lie to you and say everything's hunky dorey...but it's also not the end of the world. He's in Canada with the best people for him and Ah can still talk to him and visit and stuff. And here...Ah've got Gar, you...Kurt, and other folks too. Ah'm not alone. Ah just have to remember that."
"And he'll be back. Bloke like Logan, he's hard to get rid of." Amanda gave Marie a small, wry grin. "But yeah, you do have us. Lots of people. 'S good you know that - took me a while to get that one through my thick skull, back when I was doing the whole misunderstood teen thing. Any time you need anything, you let me know, yeah? Even if it's distracting shoe shopping or something." The witch's expression turned soulful. "See what I'll do for you? Forget hell, I'm willing to brave a shoe shop."
Marie clutched at her heart in an overly dramatic manner. "Why Ah do declare! The things you'll put yourself through for friendship! Even if Ah took you to stores without a Doc Marten in sight?"
Amanda snickered at the display. "For you, Scarlett? Even that. True test of love, right there." The last words fell a little flat however, as she thought of Angelo. They hadn't spoken since Trask's house.
The change of tone earned a raised eyebrow from Marie. "What's going on?" she asked, lifting the top of the pizza box open and offering a slice to Amanda.
Amanda wrinkled her nose, taking a mouthful of her beer and setting the now-empty bottle aside before accepting the pizza. She picked at the topping, popping a fragment of cheese in her mouth and eating it before answering. "You hear about Angelo's outing the other night? To Trask's?"
"Do what?" Marie said, her voice and face filling with surprise. "Ah...haven't been great in keeping up with people. What happened? Ah mean, Ah saw him yesterday, so he's obviously ok...but what?"
The witch sighed. These conversations would be so much easier when she didn't have to blurt out other people's secrets to explain things. "He did something stupid, when he found out about Nate getting hurt. Took off after the person who did it without telling anyone. Summers, Cain and I went after him and got him to come back, but..." She poked at the pizza slice. "It got nasty. I got nasty."
"You were reacting to what Ah'm guessing was poor decision making on his part," Marie said, peeling off her gloves before reaching for a slice of pizza.
"Racing off without telling anyone or bringing backup? To kill someone without thinking about the consequences? Yeah, not one of his better ideas, tho' I doubt there was a lot of thinking going on. More just reacting." Amanda sighed again. "I don't know what was worse - him just taking off for bloody revenge, or him not thinking to tell me. Still, I know where he gets it from - Nate used to be just as bad. And I'm no Moira - when I'm pissed off, I'm not backwards about it, and I'm not going to sit back while he goes and gets himself killed."
"I doubt Moira just sat back hun. Ah'm betting she's had her 'bouts of words with Nate. But...Ange should know better than to go off half-cocked. And when he does, he needs to be told in no uncertain words that he needs to not do it again...or he will get himself killed." Marie had set her pizza down, suddenly less hungry than she'd been a moment before.
"Moira at least has a sense of tact - I just wade in and say whatever comes to mind, to hell with what it actually is." Amanda picked a piece of meat off her own slice, but rolled it between her fingers rather than eating it. "Or the consequences. He hasn't talked to me since that night, and I'm sure as hell not going to push again." The abused piece of pizza was dumped on a napkin and set down on the arm of the couch. "I don't know if I can do this, Marie. Bad enough the X-stuff or my job could get one of us killed, without this sort of thing. I love him, but I don't think I can stand by and wait for him to wind up dead because he didn't stop to think for five minutes."
Marie paused before reaching out to squeeze the blonde witch's shoulder. "Have you called him? He might think you don't want to talk to him, depending on the reaction you had. And...don't write things off yet. It's not easy and it sounds like his main trigger was hit. But he needs to talk to someone about that because frankly, in the field? That could get any of us killed, if Nate goes down and he reacts like that when there's still an active threat." She swallowed hard, thinking of Garrison, Logan...all the friends whom she'd had to ignore in the field due to the greater threat. Sometimes she'd done better than others.
"I've been too scared to," Amanda admitted. "In case he hangs up on me or something. And I'm not writing things off completely, just... I don't know. I'm probably being a giant hypocrite, 'cause if anything happened to him, I dunno if I'd be rational meself, but..." Her hands moved to her t-shirt, where she started twisting the hem. "It's different, with me. I am what I am, and sometimes that's not so nice. Angelo... he's a hero, god help him. With the hero instincts. I can't see that meshing too well with the Trenchcoat thing sometimes."
Marie shrugged. "We all have dark and light inside us. You're a hero too, just a different sort. And you don't have to have the same attitudes about how to reach goals to maintain a relationship. Look at Gar and me. 'Ro and Remy. Hell, even Nate and Moira. Ah could keep going, but Ah'm hoping you get my point. So long as you can each respect the other's path...that's the important part."
At Marie's words, Amanda seemed to shrink a little into herself. "And if I can't respect his path? If it leads him to throwing his life away because revenge is more important than thinking things through? What happens then?"
"You don't worry about that because Ange will come to his senses. If he doesn't do it on his own, you or Nate or Ah will beat some sense inta him until he realizes that out of all the paths there are, revenge is never the right one. You can't be a hero and seek revenge at the same time. Revenge turns you into those you fight against," the Southern girl said, sad eyes watching Amanda's body language, but not backing down.
"Hell, I would have looked at maybe getting the Trenchcoats into taking care of the crazy bitch ourselves, if he'd come to me about this," Amanda admitted. "'Specially since something probably needs to be done. But with Angelo's stunt, there's no way we'll be going near anything of hers - 's too hot." She made an impatient noise. "I've always been able to trust him, Marie. But even with promising no secrets from each other, he goes off and does this without even thinking of what it might do to me, to us... It hurts, Marie." She gave her friend a half-pleading look. "I thought good relationships weren't s'posed to do that?"
Marie shook her head. "No, that's not quite right. Ah mean, you definitely want the good to outweigh the bad...but its also how the hurt gets handled. You guys have to talk it out or it won't work. You have to let him know how he hurt you and then you see how he reacts to it...and if it happens again."
"Yeah, well, I thought we'd covered the whole talking problem last time, after Candra and Belladonna and the road trip we did to fix things," Amanda said, just a bit mutinously. Then she rubbed her eyes with another sigh. "I know we need to talk. And I will. Just... not yet. 'M still too bloody angry at him, and he's going to be glued to Nate's bedside for a while. Better to give him his brood time first." She gave Marie a small, sad smile. "Sorry for the angst and woe. Maybe we should have that whole 'emo muppet does a shot' rule for beer and pizza night too?"
"It's not to late to start that rule," Marie said, as she reached out to grab a beer and pass it to Amanda, before getting herself one as well. "Though it's good to get this stuff out every now and again, y'know?"
"No more bottling. The only New Year's resolution I've been able to keep ever. Go me." Amanda held up her beer and clinked it against Marie's. "To us. May we not strangle the men in our lives. Even when they're being really dumb."
Once Marie goes home, Amanda falls into an old habit, and makes a rather amusing call to her brother.
Wind wafted through Amanda's hair, blowing it across her face and into her mouth as she raised the vodka bottle to her lips. Rather clumsily, she pawed at her face, dragging the strands away and taking a health swig. The fire escape outside her kitchen was perhaps on the chilly side, but she'd felt stifled in the apartment after Marie had left, and needed the air and proximity to the city to help her clear her head.
The vodka bottle... well, that had just come along for the ride. Things were much easier to deal with when you had a vodka bottle. All warm and fuzzy and hey, the writing on the bottle was blue, just like Kurt! Kurt was like a bottle of vodka! Groping in her pocket for her phone, she fumbled at the buttons. Kurt needed to know this. It was Important.
The voice that answered, eventually, was more than a little muzzy. "...hello?"
"Blue!" Amanda started giggling as she used the nickname, completely oblivious to the time. "Did you know you're just like a bottle of vodka?"
"...Amanda?" He pushed himself up in the bed, confused and still not properly awake. "Do you know what time it is? And why are you comparing me to vodka?"
"'Cause I'm all warm and fuzzy, even tho' it's windy out here, and you're all warm and fuzzy, and the bottle's blue, just like you." Amanda paused to have another mouthful, and coughed a little. "Time? Oh, hang on a sec. It's..." Somehow she juggled phone and bottle to push up her sleeve and peer at her watch. "It's three-fifteen."
"And why are you calling me at three- fifteen in the morning, jel'enedra?" he asked patiently. "Is everything all right, the vodka aside? Where are you?"
"On the fire escape. And I told you, I had to tell you about the vodka thing." Amanda hiccuped a little, and had another drink to settle it. "Boys are dumb," she pronounced, appropos of nothing.
"...on occasion", Kurt agreed carefully. "How much vodka have you already had, and why are you on the fire escape?"
The sound of a bed creaking lightly came across the line before another exhausted voice answered instead of Kurt's. "If you fall off the fire escape and bust your head wide open," Wanda said, having listened in to the last bit, yawning heavily, "you will have no one else to blame but yourself. Is everything all right? And yes, boys are dumb, present company excluded."
"Wanda!" Amanda crowed, face lighting up. "Are you in bed with my brother?" She started giggling again. "Ooh, I didn't interrupt, did I? 'Cause I wouldn't want to do that. Sex is good." Then she pouted. "Except when your boyfriend is a plonker. Then there's no sex."
"No", Kurt put in dryly. "We were sleeping. I take it Angelo has done something to leave you out on the fire escape with only vodka for company?"
There was a small laugh. "Let me just say we'd just gotten to sleep," Wanda added in. "It must run in the family…and is Angelo being dumb enough that someone needs to have a stern talking with him? Or is it a case of withholding the cuddly side of the bed?"
"Oh, there's been stern talking to, that's the problem. Silly boys running off to get revenge for their bosses getting shot don't like it when you yell at them." Amanda sat with a plop on the stair, bottle dangling from one hand between her knees. Vaguely, she realised her socked feet were cold, but another shot of vodka would help with that. "Wait a minute... 'runs in the family'? Did we have sex and I missed it, Boss Lady? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I'd remember that."
"Wrong family member." There was a slight choking sound from Kurt and she shook her head ruefully. "When you sober up and Kurt wakes up, tomorrow, I just might explain more." Speaking of waking up, Wanda was starting to and she frowned. "Amanda, go put the bottle down – you know better than that to have as a coping mechanism. And if you protest, I will make something horrible happen to that bottle in a ridiculous manner." She couldn't do it, not with the distance, and if Amanda had been sober, she would have called her bluff. But she was willing to bet that her assistant was so far gone that she'd believe it.
It was either that or have Kurt teleport them over there and considering their lack of dress and the cold…
Amanda paused in mid-swallow, and cuddled the bottle close. "No! Don't hurt the vodka!" she protested. "The vodka's my friend. It makes me feel better."
"The vodka will not be your friend in the morning", Kurt said firmly, if still sleepily. "Do not make me come over there at this hour and take it away, Gemile."
There was a long pause, and then a sigh and a slight 'clunk' as Amanda set the bottle down. "No Gemiles here," she said, sadly. "And I'll stop. I don't want to be a bother and make you leave the nice warm boss lady."
"Amanda, the next time I hear you call yourself a bother, your entire wardrobe is going to disappear and the only thing you will have left will be horrible old lady outfits. This is what friends are for – you call us up at god awful o'clock in the morning, you bare your soul and you buy us breakfast once it is not so stupidly early. And once there are clothes and hangover cures. Go back inside, ~little witch~, and warm up before your feet fall off."
"But..." Amanda sighed. "My bed's too empty with just me in it." She looked longingly at the bottle at her feet, but she'd promised she wouldn't. And the little sober part of her brain was pointing out she knew just what a bad idea that would be. Instead, she climbed to her feet, and started the difficult task of getting back in through her kitchen window.
"I still see my Gemile", Kurt said quietly. "She is not entirely dead, I think, even now. We will be here when you need us, little sister."
"Kurt, I..." There was a crash of something breaking as she floundered into the sink where several days' worth of dishes rested. "Fuck."
Wanda tilted her head. "Sounds like someone is getting a gift certificate to Ikea," she said mildly. "Are you okay over there?"
"Yeah. But 'm def'ly not winning any stealth points tonight." Amanda leaned against the counter and rubbed her elbow, where she'd hit it on something hard, possibly the window sill. "No gold stars for me." She yawned then, suddenly and jaw-crackingly. "'M tired. Think I'll have a nap." Her legs were being decidedly uncooperative, and she slid down the kitchen cabinets to sit on the floor. "Nice floor. No more moving around."
"I think you should try to get up and go to your bed, Amanda", Kurt said, calm but worried. "The floor will not be a comfortable place to sleep."
The only answer was a soft snort, which then settled into a gentle snore.
Blinking, Wanda grabbed the phone back from Kurt and memory dialed Mark’s cell phone number. Yawning, she rattled off a quick explanation of why she was calling so early in the morning so there would be no slaying in the morning, and asked Mark to go over and make sure Amanda was comfortable. And not laying on broken pottery shards, either.
With that done, she closed the phone with a snap and tossed it back to Kurt before burrowing back under the blankets. “Wake me before ten and you will hang from the window by your tail,” she told him, immediately going back to sleep.
Marie dropped on the couch, smiling at Amanda as she sprawled out comfortably. "Ah figured it was about time we started pizza night again. No more crises are allowed ta happen on Fridays from here on out. Interferes with my social calendar," she said with a wink.
"Amen to that." Amanda raised her beer in a mock toast. Her smile was just a tad fuzzy - there were several empties already sitting next to her end of the couch. "'S good to have you back - I was starting to think you and the Mountie had eloped or something."
That earned a short laugh from Marie. "Man, we should've told people we did. Ah think some jaws might've hit the floor. And there probably would've been at least one heart attack." Running a hand through her hair, her face turned more serious. "But yeah, Ah know Ah should've done better at telling people where Ah disappeared to. Ah just freaked when they told me Twoyoungman was missing and headed straight there without a second thought. And then...well, if you were wondering, Ah don't ever recommend having a mystical creature chew on your head. Gives you split ends."
"Mystical creature?" That got Amanda's professional attention, and she sat up from her slump a little. "Native Canadian magic, was it? If your shaman bloke was involved?" Her own stories of ozone-layer-destroying hairstyles could wait a little.
"Called the Wendigo," Marie said, shuddering as she could almost smell the creature. "Ah could've battled him for days and gotten nowhere. It healed faster than Logan and was stronger than anything Ah've ever come up against. Had to do some magic to vanquish him or whatever."
"Wendigo..." Amanda's brow furrowed - she wasn't the best with Native Canadian or American mysticism. Sitting up, she leaned forward and flailed at the coffee table until she'd secured a napkin, and she scribbled the name and some notes down with the stub of pencil she kept in her pocket. "Do you think your Twoyoungman would mind if I called and asked some questions if I can't find out much in our stuff? I like to keep the magical villain's gallery updated - less surprises when we wander into things."
"Ah'm sure he'd love to chat with you," Marie replied. "Ah should be able to tell you a lot more about the Wendigo because he couldn't stop talking about it, but all Ah remember is that it stunk to high heaven, brought awful winter weather with it, and that Ah had to get it's blood in the sun on a stick thingie to get it to go away."
"Elemental spirit of some sort? Huh." Another couple of notes and Amanda stuffed the napkin into her pocket along with the pencil. "I got told, 'bout Logan..." Mostly because she'd still been training hand to hand with him, and now there was a gap in her schedule. She watched Marie carefully as she continued: "How're you holding up?"
"As well as Ah can, y'know?" she said, very aware of Amanda watching for her reaction. "Ah'm not gonna try and lie to you and say everything's hunky dorey...but it's also not the end of the world. He's in Canada with the best people for him and Ah can still talk to him and visit and stuff. And here...Ah've got Gar, you...Kurt, and other folks too. Ah'm not alone. Ah just have to remember that."
"And he'll be back. Bloke like Logan, he's hard to get rid of." Amanda gave Marie a small, wry grin. "But yeah, you do have us. Lots of people. 'S good you know that - took me a while to get that one through my thick skull, back when I was doing the whole misunderstood teen thing. Any time you need anything, you let me know, yeah? Even if it's distracting shoe shopping or something." The witch's expression turned soulful. "See what I'll do for you? Forget hell, I'm willing to brave a shoe shop."
Marie clutched at her heart in an overly dramatic manner. "Why Ah do declare! The things you'll put yourself through for friendship! Even if Ah took you to stores without a Doc Marten in sight?"
Amanda snickered at the display. "For you, Scarlett? Even that. True test of love, right there." The last words fell a little flat however, as she thought of Angelo. They hadn't spoken since Trask's house.
The change of tone earned a raised eyebrow from Marie. "What's going on?" she asked, lifting the top of the pizza box open and offering a slice to Amanda.
Amanda wrinkled her nose, taking a mouthful of her beer and setting the now-empty bottle aside before accepting the pizza. She picked at the topping, popping a fragment of cheese in her mouth and eating it before answering. "You hear about Angelo's outing the other night? To Trask's?"
"Do what?" Marie said, her voice and face filling with surprise. "Ah...haven't been great in keeping up with people. What happened? Ah mean, Ah saw him yesterday, so he's obviously ok...but what?"
The witch sighed. These conversations would be so much easier when she didn't have to blurt out other people's secrets to explain things. "He did something stupid, when he found out about Nate getting hurt. Took off after the person who did it without telling anyone. Summers, Cain and I went after him and got him to come back, but..." She poked at the pizza slice. "It got nasty. I got nasty."
"You were reacting to what Ah'm guessing was poor decision making on his part," Marie said, peeling off her gloves before reaching for a slice of pizza.
"Racing off without telling anyone or bringing backup? To kill someone without thinking about the consequences? Yeah, not one of his better ideas, tho' I doubt there was a lot of thinking going on. More just reacting." Amanda sighed again. "I don't know what was worse - him just taking off for bloody revenge, or him not thinking to tell me. Still, I know where he gets it from - Nate used to be just as bad. And I'm no Moira - when I'm pissed off, I'm not backwards about it, and I'm not going to sit back while he goes and gets himself killed."
"I doubt Moira just sat back hun. Ah'm betting she's had her 'bouts of words with Nate. But...Ange should know better than to go off half-cocked. And when he does, he needs to be told in no uncertain words that he needs to not do it again...or he will get himself killed." Marie had set her pizza down, suddenly less hungry than she'd been a moment before.
"Moira at least has a sense of tact - I just wade in and say whatever comes to mind, to hell with what it actually is." Amanda picked a piece of meat off her own slice, but rolled it between her fingers rather than eating it. "Or the consequences. He hasn't talked to me since that night, and I'm sure as hell not going to push again." The abused piece of pizza was dumped on a napkin and set down on the arm of the couch. "I don't know if I can do this, Marie. Bad enough the X-stuff or my job could get one of us killed, without this sort of thing. I love him, but I don't think I can stand by and wait for him to wind up dead because he didn't stop to think for five minutes."
Marie paused before reaching out to squeeze the blonde witch's shoulder. "Have you called him? He might think you don't want to talk to him, depending on the reaction you had. And...don't write things off yet. It's not easy and it sounds like his main trigger was hit. But he needs to talk to someone about that because frankly, in the field? That could get any of us killed, if Nate goes down and he reacts like that when there's still an active threat." She swallowed hard, thinking of Garrison, Logan...all the friends whom she'd had to ignore in the field due to the greater threat. Sometimes she'd done better than others.
"I've been too scared to," Amanda admitted. "In case he hangs up on me or something. And I'm not writing things off completely, just... I don't know. I'm probably being a giant hypocrite, 'cause if anything happened to him, I dunno if I'd be rational meself, but..." Her hands moved to her t-shirt, where she started twisting the hem. "It's different, with me. I am what I am, and sometimes that's not so nice. Angelo... he's a hero, god help him. With the hero instincts. I can't see that meshing too well with the Trenchcoat thing sometimes."
Marie shrugged. "We all have dark and light inside us. You're a hero too, just a different sort. And you don't have to have the same attitudes about how to reach goals to maintain a relationship. Look at Gar and me. 'Ro and Remy. Hell, even Nate and Moira. Ah could keep going, but Ah'm hoping you get my point. So long as you can each respect the other's path...that's the important part."
At Marie's words, Amanda seemed to shrink a little into herself. "And if I can't respect his path? If it leads him to throwing his life away because revenge is more important than thinking things through? What happens then?"
"You don't worry about that because Ange will come to his senses. If he doesn't do it on his own, you or Nate or Ah will beat some sense inta him until he realizes that out of all the paths there are, revenge is never the right one. You can't be a hero and seek revenge at the same time. Revenge turns you into those you fight against," the Southern girl said, sad eyes watching Amanda's body language, but not backing down.
"Hell, I would have looked at maybe getting the Trenchcoats into taking care of the crazy bitch ourselves, if he'd come to me about this," Amanda admitted. "'Specially since something probably needs to be done. But with Angelo's stunt, there's no way we'll be going near anything of hers - 's too hot." She made an impatient noise. "I've always been able to trust him, Marie. But even with promising no secrets from each other, he goes off and does this without even thinking of what it might do to me, to us... It hurts, Marie." She gave her friend a half-pleading look. "I thought good relationships weren't s'posed to do that?"
Marie shook her head. "No, that's not quite right. Ah mean, you definitely want the good to outweigh the bad...but its also how the hurt gets handled. You guys have to talk it out or it won't work. You have to let him know how he hurt you and then you see how he reacts to it...and if it happens again."
"Yeah, well, I thought we'd covered the whole talking problem last time, after Candra and Belladonna and the road trip we did to fix things," Amanda said, just a bit mutinously. Then she rubbed her eyes with another sigh. "I know we need to talk. And I will. Just... not yet. 'M still too bloody angry at him, and he's going to be glued to Nate's bedside for a while. Better to give him his brood time first." She gave Marie a small, sad smile. "Sorry for the angst and woe. Maybe we should have that whole 'emo muppet does a shot' rule for beer and pizza night too?"
"It's not to late to start that rule," Marie said, as she reached out to grab a beer and pass it to Amanda, before getting herself one as well. "Though it's good to get this stuff out every now and again, y'know?"
"No more bottling. The only New Year's resolution I've been able to keep ever. Go me." Amanda held up her beer and clinked it against Marie's. "To us. May we not strangle the men in our lives. Even when they're being really dumb."
Once Marie goes home, Amanda falls into an old habit, and makes a rather amusing call to her brother.
Wind wafted through Amanda's hair, blowing it across her face and into her mouth as she raised the vodka bottle to her lips. Rather clumsily, she pawed at her face, dragging the strands away and taking a health swig. The fire escape outside her kitchen was perhaps on the chilly side, but she'd felt stifled in the apartment after Marie had left, and needed the air and proximity to the city to help her clear her head.
The vodka bottle... well, that had just come along for the ride. Things were much easier to deal with when you had a vodka bottle. All warm and fuzzy and hey, the writing on the bottle was blue, just like Kurt! Kurt was like a bottle of vodka! Groping in her pocket for her phone, she fumbled at the buttons. Kurt needed to know this. It was Important.
The voice that answered, eventually, was more than a little muzzy. "...hello?"
"Blue!" Amanda started giggling as she used the nickname, completely oblivious to the time. "Did you know you're just like a bottle of vodka?"
"...Amanda?" He pushed himself up in the bed, confused and still not properly awake. "Do you know what time it is? And why are you comparing me to vodka?"
"'Cause I'm all warm and fuzzy, even tho' it's windy out here, and you're all warm and fuzzy, and the bottle's blue, just like you." Amanda paused to have another mouthful, and coughed a little. "Time? Oh, hang on a sec. It's..." Somehow she juggled phone and bottle to push up her sleeve and peer at her watch. "It's three-fifteen."
"And why are you calling me at three- fifteen in the morning, jel'enedra?" he asked patiently. "Is everything all right, the vodka aside? Where are you?"
"On the fire escape. And I told you, I had to tell you about the vodka thing." Amanda hiccuped a little, and had another drink to settle it. "Boys are dumb," she pronounced, appropos of nothing.
"...on occasion", Kurt agreed carefully. "How much vodka have you already had, and why are you on the fire escape?"
The sound of a bed creaking lightly came across the line before another exhausted voice answered instead of Kurt's. "If you fall off the fire escape and bust your head wide open," Wanda said, having listened in to the last bit, yawning heavily, "you will have no one else to blame but yourself. Is everything all right? And yes, boys are dumb, present company excluded."
"Wanda!" Amanda crowed, face lighting up. "Are you in bed with my brother?" She started giggling again. "Ooh, I didn't interrupt, did I? 'Cause I wouldn't want to do that. Sex is good." Then she pouted. "Except when your boyfriend is a plonker. Then there's no sex."
"No", Kurt put in dryly. "We were sleeping. I take it Angelo has done something to leave you out on the fire escape with only vodka for company?"
There was a small laugh. "Let me just say we'd just gotten to sleep," Wanda added in. "It must run in the family…and is Angelo being dumb enough that someone needs to have a stern talking with him? Or is it a case of withholding the cuddly side of the bed?"
"Oh, there's been stern talking to, that's the problem. Silly boys running off to get revenge for their bosses getting shot don't like it when you yell at them." Amanda sat with a plop on the stair, bottle dangling from one hand between her knees. Vaguely, she realised her socked feet were cold, but another shot of vodka would help with that. "Wait a minute... 'runs in the family'? Did we have sex and I missed it, Boss Lady? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I'd remember that."
"Wrong family member." There was a slight choking sound from Kurt and she shook her head ruefully. "When you sober up and Kurt wakes up, tomorrow, I just might explain more." Speaking of waking up, Wanda was starting to and she frowned. "Amanda, go put the bottle down – you know better than that to have as a coping mechanism. And if you protest, I will make something horrible happen to that bottle in a ridiculous manner." She couldn't do it, not with the distance, and if Amanda had been sober, she would have called her bluff. But she was willing to bet that her assistant was so far gone that she'd believe it.
It was either that or have Kurt teleport them over there and considering their lack of dress and the cold…
Amanda paused in mid-swallow, and cuddled the bottle close. "No! Don't hurt the vodka!" she protested. "The vodka's my friend. It makes me feel better."
"The vodka will not be your friend in the morning", Kurt said firmly, if still sleepily. "Do not make me come over there at this hour and take it away, Gemile."
There was a long pause, and then a sigh and a slight 'clunk' as Amanda set the bottle down. "No Gemiles here," she said, sadly. "And I'll stop. I don't want to be a bother and make you leave the nice warm boss lady."
"Amanda, the next time I hear you call yourself a bother, your entire wardrobe is going to disappear and the only thing you will have left will be horrible old lady outfits. This is what friends are for – you call us up at god awful o'clock in the morning, you bare your soul and you buy us breakfast once it is not so stupidly early. And once there are clothes and hangover cures. Go back inside, ~little witch~, and warm up before your feet fall off."
"But..." Amanda sighed. "My bed's too empty with just me in it." She looked longingly at the bottle at her feet, but she'd promised she wouldn't. And the little sober part of her brain was pointing out she knew just what a bad idea that would be. Instead, she climbed to her feet, and started the difficult task of getting back in through her kitchen window.
"I still see my Gemile", Kurt said quietly. "She is not entirely dead, I think, even now. We will be here when you need us, little sister."
"Kurt, I..." There was a crash of something breaking as she floundered into the sink where several days' worth of dishes rested. "Fuck."
Wanda tilted her head. "Sounds like someone is getting a gift certificate to Ikea," she said mildly. "Are you okay over there?"
"Yeah. But 'm def'ly not winning any stealth points tonight." Amanda leaned against the counter and rubbed her elbow, where she'd hit it on something hard, possibly the window sill. "No gold stars for me." She yawned then, suddenly and jaw-crackingly. "'M tired. Think I'll have a nap." Her legs were being decidedly uncooperative, and she slid down the kitchen cabinets to sit on the floor. "Nice floor. No more moving around."
"I think you should try to get up and go to your bed, Amanda", Kurt said, calm but worried. "The floor will not be a comfortable place to sleep."
The only answer was a soft snort, which then settled into a gentle snore.
Blinking, Wanda grabbed the phone back from Kurt and memory dialed Mark’s cell phone number. Yawning, she rattled off a quick explanation of why she was calling so early in the morning so there would be no slaying in the morning, and asked Mark to go over and make sure Amanda was comfortable. And not laying on broken pottery shards, either.
With that done, she closed the phone with a snap and tossed it back to Kurt before burrowing back under the blankets. “Wake me before ten and you will hang from the window by your tail,” she told him, immediately going back to sleep.
