xp_logs | Angelo and Laurie, Sunday afternoon

Angelo tracks Laurie down to the woods and serious conversation ensues.

Laurie pulled arrows out of the practice target and placed them in the quiver at her back. It was quiet in this part of the woods, the animals having made themselves scarce the moment she started practice. She found it was a good place to get away from the busy nature of the mansion and just relax, and archery had always been one of the best ways she knew to empty her mind of any immediate thoughts and simply be.

The peace was interrupted, shortly, by the sounds of a largeish dog having fun running through the woods, and Angelo calling to her as he followed.

Laurie turned in time to be greeted with an enthusiastic jump by Joyita, sending her tumbling backwards onto the ground with a laugh. "Yes, yes, I'm happy to see you too." she said as she scratched Joyita's ears.

"She always does that", Angelo said wryly, catching up. "An' I think she knows we were lookin' for you, too."

"That's okay, I'm sort of used to animals being enthusiastic around me these days." Laurie explained with a grin, pushing Joyita gently away so she could sit up. "But you were looking for me?"

"Get off her, girl", Angelo commanded before answering. "Yeah. I figure we didn't really get to talk after the whole... thing on the journals."

Laurie had to think for a moment about which thing he could be referring to, there'd been a lot of 'things' on the journals in the past month or two but there probably weren't that many that could have him wanting to talk to her directly about them.

"Oh...yeah." Laurie replied after a moment, pushing herself to her feet and resettling the quiver of arrows more comfortably along her back before bending to brush dirt and leaf litter off her pants. "I'm not entirely sure we had a lot to say about that...I think you were fairly coherent about how you felt."

"But it wasn't fair", he said frankly. "My head wasn't in a good place, but I owe you an apology anyway. An' there's some stuff you should know."

"If I went around crying about how unfair everything was, we'd be in a movie called 'The Labyrinth'." Laurie informed him with an easy smile, watching Joyita examine the archery range. She'd never been one to hold grudges and arguments were soon forgotten unless the other person decided to stew about it. Angelo had obviously been feeling bad about what he'd said however, and forgiveness was a coin easily given. "But apology accepted all the same. What was it you wanted me to know?"

"Question, first. How much do you know about me, Laurie? It's all out there to read, if you go back far enough, but how much do you know?"

It wasn't a question she'd been expecting and so it took her a moment before she got her surprise under control and really started to think about it. She'd started reading the team files properly after talking to Nathan but there were a lot of them, and she was still on the early team members at the moment.

"Not a lot," she admitted, giving him a searching look. "I know you used to live in L.A, and that you've been a student here for awhile but nothing much beyond what I've seen of you since I came here."

"That's the basics. You don't know what I did back in LA, then?"

"Not really, but I haven't read your team file yet. I have a feeling by your intentness that it wasn't knitting booties however."

He laughed, sharp and unamused. "Not so much. I was runnin' with a gang. Started as their gofer when I was six, after my dad died."

"Why did you do that?" she asked, reaching down to pat Joyita who had been sniffing around her feet. There was no hint of judgement in her tone, just an honest question. "You had to have had other options."

"There probably were, at least one or two", he said with a crooked shrug. "But I wasn't thinkin' about it like that. Dad was dead, we had to move house 'cause Mom couldn't stay there, she couldn't work for a month after either... it wasn't pretty, Dad's dyin', an' it happened in the house." His eyes had gone distant, remembering. "There was a lot of blood. An' then we were on our own. The neighbours helped with food an' stuff, but... I was just shy of six when he died. Birthday came within the month, an' all I could see was we needed more money from somewhere. Not many folks'd give a little kid any kind of work."

Laurie looked up at him for a moment, thinking back at who Angelo had been, and what sort of pressure all of that must have been on a six year old. She stood finally and walked over to him, pulling him into a hug.

He hadn't been expecting that, and he stood stiff and startled for a moment before relaxing into it. "Guess what I'm tryin' to say is... I didn't get to be a normal kid, Laurie, an' I don't know what it's like growin' up normal. So if I get like... like that when you start up with your pranks, it's just 'cause I know who I was at seventeen an' it wasn't even close. But it wasn't right, either, I know that."

She hugged him for a moment more before looking up at him, a question in her gaze. "If you're asking me for forgiveness, well, you've always had that, but thank you for telling me about your past. I know I need to read up more on what people have been through, so I don't stick my foot into it all the time. But sometimes it's good to hear it from the people themselves too."

"It might happen again, is the thing", he said frankly. "Not when things are goin' good, I'm okay a lot of the time, but when they get like they were that week, with Miguel an' everythin'... it gets harder to deal with even the little things."

"Angelo...one of the things I was always told about asking for forgiveness was that you've got to earn it." Laurie said, stepping away from him. "Just because things get hard isn't an excuse more then once, I'm sorry. I'll never not forgive you, you're my friend as well as my teammate, at least I'd like to think so. But unless you really mean to try and be different, to try and not get frustrated and angry at people when things get hard, then I'm not sure just exactly what it is you want from me. But, if what you're saying is that you want some patience while you try and fix that, then I can give you that."

"Patience would be good." He quirked a wry grin. "Just don't go all Jennie on me an' we'll be okay."

"Angelo, Jennie's my friend as much as you are, try not to take pot shots at her, hey?" Laurie replied with a firm look, before softening it with a smile. "I'm just finishing up here, did you want some company back to the house?"

"...yeah, I think Joyita's had all the exercise she can take for today", Angelo said, looking down at the dog who was now flopped out at their feet. For Laurie's sake, he said no more about Jennie. "You all packed up, or does the target come back with you?"

"It stays here, thanks. Mr Marko made it pretty weather proof and it's a little large to cart all the way back to the house and then back out here any time I want to practice." Laurie explained, picking up her bow where she'd rested it against a tree, it was the one Forge had made for her, the one that always reminded her of Dinosaurs and what weird things they all took in stride sometimes. Her life had changed so much since she'd come to the mansion, she couldn't yet say if that was for good or ill.

"Looks like you're ready t'go, then." He nudged Joyita with a foot, prompting her to get up.