Red X: Reconstruction - Angel and Marie (Backdated)

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Marie takes a break and spies the youngest pyro hard at work. Maybe a little too hard. There's food and talk of explosions.



Angel straddled a bench as she hunched forward so as not to get fire or sparks on anything flammable. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and the foreman had given her a welding mask to wear. She didn't technically need it but it made them feel better and, hey, it was fun to wear! She was concentrating hard, gently running her hand over a piece of piping.

Welding was easy when it came to power levels but it really needed more finesse than pure force and that was proving more of a struggle. Her first hour had been...a disaster. But she'd gotten into the flow now, finding that it was like caressing than, well, groping the metal.

Marie dropped her shouldered burden of wooden and metal beams where she'd been directed, smiling as she was offered a glass of water. Noticing Angel, she asked for a second cup and took it over to the redhead. "How goes?" she asked, offering the water while downing her own.

With a sizzle, the fire dropped away and Angel pushed up the mask. "Oh my god, you're my favorite person in the entire world right now," she exclaimed, carefully putting the metal down. She'd already accidentally started a couple of small fires and she didn't want a repeat of that. Taking the cup she finished it in record time. "Didn't realize I was so thirsty. And it's goin' pretty well, I'm finally getting the hang of this. I hope."

"Looks like ya are," Marie said, tossing her cup into a nearby trashcan. "How long you been at it though? Gotta make sure you aren't pushing yourself too far."

"Uh." Angel glanced over at a clock that someone had kindly brought out. "I think the answer to that is way too long." Her stomach suddenly grumbled in agreement and she grinned sheepishly.

Mare shook her finger at Angel, making a tsking sound, but still grinning at the younger girl. "Ah think this is an emergency operation now. Come on," she said, holding out a gloved hand.

"And if by 'emergency operation', you mean 'Feed Angel until she curls in a ball and dies', then I'm totally in," Angel grinned, reaching up to grab the offered hand. She let herself be helped up to her feet before letting go, stretching her arms over her head as her back made an audible popping noise. She'd been bent over for quite some time now, working on various pieces of piping and whatnot and her back was unhappy with her. "I could eat a horse."

"Hmm," Marie said, eyes twinkling as she tapped her finger to her chin. "Ah think horse is being served at tent three. Of course, there are tuna sandwiches at tent two, but it's your call."

Angel thought about it for a second before throwing her hands up in the air. "Snifflesworths demands tuna!" she declared, clearly talking about her stomach.

Marie just stared at Angel for a moment, wondering what was in the water she and the girl had just consumed. "Well, uh, demands must be met Ah suppose." Gesturing in the tent's direction, the pair headed towards it at a fairly quick pace. Gathering sandwiches, chips, apples and more water, they found an empty space to settle down.

The sandwich lady handing out food had been very accommodating in appeasing Snifflesworths' demands of tuna and Angel found herself with four sandwiches, two apples and a bag of chips. She was silent while she inhaled the first one, refueling not only her stomach but the stores of energy she'd been using up all morning. She'd pushed herself a lot harder than she had really realized. When she was done with the first, she sighed in relief and beamed at Marie. "Thanks for the rescue," she said.

"Anytime...but you gotta make sure to take regular breaks. You're no good to the work here if you end up passing out after welding one two many times, y' know?" Marie said, making short work of her own meal. "It can be hard, because there's always lots to do, but you gotta remember to eat, rest, and all that good stuff."

Angel nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's like when I get too focused on my photography. I set up an alarm in there so I wouldn't spend too many hours without a break." She grinned. "Not that I don't, you know, immediately go back in once I've eaten or somethin' but it's the principle of the matter. This is...I like doing stuff with my powers, yeah? That's not all blowing stuff up." She thought about that for a moment. "That's fun, too, though. I like explosions."

"Contained explosions," Marie said. "Please, no random burning and exploding. But yeah, it's always nice to find constructive uses of powers instead of just using them destructively."

"Forge has let me do explosions in the lab," Angel offered, beaming. "I try to keep the explosions outside to itty bitty ones. And I'm really liking the welding stuff. It's like the glass blowing glass Shiro and I went to ages ago." She should drag him back to that, actually. "Are you having fun?"

"Ah always do. Ah love the look on the big construction workers faces when little ol' me comes by carrying ten times what they're trying to show off with. Once it made one of 'em drop their own load. Poor fella. Hope his toe is feeling better," Marie responded with a grin.

Angel started giggling because she could just imagine the look. The guys were great but they were still guys who worked construction so that had to have been a sight. "It's seriously like a bunch of my uncles are here," she said, still laughing, "I've got like 16 uncles between real ones and married, so they could do their own construction set!"

Satisfied now that Angel had refueled her system and rested at least a little, Marie nodded while she stood up and stretched. "Well, Ah gotta get back to work. Trying to have enough visit to pop over and see an ol' buddy before Ah head back home. Need anything else?"

"Nope, as good as good can be," Angel replied, scooping up her trash and Marie's. "I'll just drop these off and I'll catch you later!" Turning back to the tent, she started humming about setting things on fire.