xp_logs | Doug and Marie-Ange (BACKDATED)

Also backdated. Doug goes to pick Marie-Ange up at the airport when she comes back to go to the Winter Ball with him. They go out to dinner and just generally try to be as normal as possible.

Doug was thankful that he'd invested in a pair of sunglasses that closed off all peripheral vision, almost like blinders. Given that his power was still running a bit higher than he was used to, although not as badly as right after his clash with Mastermold, the holiday crush of people at JFK was a burden on him. But he'd preemptively taken some prescription-strength pain reliever against the possibility of a migraine, so he was managing. Besides, given how worried Marie-Ange had been about him when she left, he thought it was important that he meet her here as she arrived.

Marie-Ange had managed to pack light when she left for Europe, but still, light for her was 'one suitcase, and one carry-on' and so she had asked Doug to meet her at baggage claim. The flight from Venice Marco Polo Airport to the airport in Paris had been crowded, but the flight to New York was surprisingly light of passengers, and she had managed to sleep for a few hours. So once she got to baggage claim, she looked travel-weary, but not half as exhausted as the last time Doug had seen her.

Doug closed his laptop once he spotted Marie-Ange, and had slipped it back into his backpack by the time she reached him.Concentrating on the laptop, along with the sunglasses and painkillers, had his headache at a dull sort of feeling behind his eyes. He stood and held out his arms, hugging her tightly. He gave her a brief, dry kiss on the lips and smiled."I missed you," he said simply.

"I missed you too. Europe is not half as interesting without someone to point out all the good places to eat." Marie-Ange said as they waited for the bags to start coming down the conveyer belt to the claim area. "I bought you a sweater in Dublin. Which is very cliche but it looked warm and it was handmade." It was all idle chatter, but Marie-Ange wasn't sure she had the energy for much else. Sleep or not, she was weary.

"Mmm. It's been cold here, so I'll probably start wearing it right away." Marie-Ange could certainly be depended on to buy him something that looked fashionable and flattered him. He plucked Marie-Ange's suitcase deftly from the conveyor, then started herding her towards the parking area. "How are Wanda and Amanda?"

If you want it, it is in my suitcase..." Marie-Ange said as they walked towards Doug's car. She'd been slightly surprised to find he was driving again, but pleasantly surprised, since if Doug was driving, she did not have to. "Amanda is... not taking Pete's disappearance well at all. Wanda is conspiring against her to make her see her family for Christmas. Which of course means that Wanda will overwork herself most likely."

Doug imagined that Amanda had lost herself in overworking as well, taking her 'Uncle Pete' for example. It was an interesting thing, how many of them self-medicated in a way through working, trying to distract themselves from the unfortunate realities of their lives with the humdrum day-to-day aspects of them. Well, except for Jubilee, who seemed to be doing her best to kill her liver before the age of thirty. Of course, he and Angie also occasionally fell victim to the overworking as coping mechanism trap. "Dinner?" he asked as he put the car into gear, unsure if she'd eaten on the plane or not.

"Yes, please." Marie-Ange said gratefully. She had eaten during her layover, but even had she not been hungry, spending time with Doug at something so normal as a meal out was more than welcome. They had not done that in over a month, she had not seen him in nearly a month. "And then if it is all right, I would like to go home and have a shower. I do not know why, but flying always makes my skin feel gritty."

Doug made a turn heading out of the parking area to head off of Manhattan. While things were just starting to reopen in some cases, it was for the most part chain restaurants, which neither of them cared for. He was pretty sure he could find something acceptable to their slight food-snobbery. "That's fine," he told her. "I picked your dark green floor length dress to take to the cleaners," he continued. "It's back hanging in your apartment. Also, I think we're going on a double date with Crystal and Forge at some point."

Marie-Ange raised an eyebrow at Doug and laughed quietly. "A double date? I take it Forge is overworking himself in much the same fashion that Amanda is?" Not that she could blame Forge - or Amanda. She had buried herself in work as well, it was just that Marie-Ange was a little better at knowing her limits, and that making herself sick and exhausted would do no one any good. "The dark green dress with the ..." she made a gesture that moved up her leg and hip, obviously to suggest a dress with an open skirt that revealed leg. "Or the sleeveless one with the cream trim?"

"The sleeveless one. I also got the wrap that matches it cleaned." Doug almost chuckled at the prosaicness of their conversation, but he supposed it was just another way that they dealt with things, by attempting to lose themselves in the everyday and normal. "As for Forge...that's my guess. Haven't seen him all that much, but his email said that Crystal was on his case to be social more."

"So you are -not- still beating him in chess?" Marie-Ange said, with an almost-giggle. The last time she had talked to Forge, Doug was at a something like 70-game undefeated record. "Dinner out may be the best idea, perhaps if you have volunteered us to chaperone that dance? I know that I am certainly going to want at least a few hours away from teenagers. Possibly somewhere that has a good wine list." Which was to say, certainly somewhere with a good wine list.

Doug shrugged. "Well, I haven't been living in his lab so much anymore, so not as much opportunity. Plus I've been busy with work." He considered her suggestion about dinner out, trying to estimate if any of their favorite restaurants in the city would be open in time. "Probably better off going somewhere near the mansion," he decided. And the good wine list went without saying, between Marie-Ange and Crystal.

"Oh! Work, that reminds me!" Marie-Ange's bags had been tossed into the trunk of Doug's car, but her purse and laptop bag were at her feet. She rummaged in the purse, and pulled out a pair of thumb drives. "Thirteen months of financial transactions. Signore Bianchi said that was all that he could get, and that he would email you once you had confirmed that you had the information. Also, you were right, he had a shirt for that fake band with the cow monster in it."

Doug shook his head, ever so slightly bemused at Marie-Ange's insistence on calling various things in World of Warcraft by not quite their proper names. "Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain," he told her gently. He shifted in the driver's seat to pocket the thumb drives. "I'll take a look at them tomorrow," he promised.

---

Doug flipped through his menu and drummed his fingers on the white linen tablecloth. Yet another unintended side effect of his impromptu vegeterianism, he thought with a sigh. Less options on the menu seemed palatable. He wondered if this was going to be a permanent thing,orifhe'd ever be able to stomach the sight and smell of cooked meat."It'sa good thing you don't cook hardly at all," he said to Marie-Ange."Your apartment wasn't nearly as nasty as mine when I had it cleaned."

"Just take-out containers and melted ice cream in my freezer?" Marie-Ange asked. She couldn't remember clearly what had been in her refrigerator, but ice cream and take-out containers were a safe guess.She closed her menu and set it in front of her, and picked up her wine glass, rolling the stem between her fingers. "Maybe not even that. I think the last time I bought ice cream, I put it in your freezer because we were eating it and watching movies."

"It was pretty much just the takeout. Thank goodness I had enough to pay some people to clean both apartments." As it was, just the rancid smell from the doorway when he'd unlocked it for the cleaning service had sent him dashing for the bathroom.

"You could have called me." Marie-Ange protested, with a small frown. "You could have gotten one of my credit cards, or gotten me to authorize it over the phone." Even if her apartment had not been nearly as bad as Doug's, it was the principle of the thing. "Perhaps we need some kind of ... savings account for this sort of thing. It is the second time that we have had to call in cleaners for both of our apartments."

"Hm. That's not a bad idea," Doug said thoughtfully. "Though really, it wasn't that much of a bother to cover the cleaning expenses for your place." Between some of the jobs they had done, and having Emma Frost as one of their bosses, the pair weren't hurting for investment advice, and Doug had put a bit of a nest egg away out of his salary.

"No, but we are not the only people who had to have apartments cleaned, we just were unlucky enough to have it happen a second time. Someday Wanda is going to explode something messy and take out a wall and everyone will suffer." Between more idle chatter, the waiter appeared and Doug and Marie-Ange ordered dinner, for once Marie-Ange having taken longer than Doug to decide.

When the waiter had left, Doug looked across the table at his girlfriend. "You didn't have to order vegetarian just because I did," he said softly to her.

"Yes, I did." Marie-Ange answered. "If I had gotten ... the lamb, would you have been able to eat any dinner? I did not want any of the fish entrees, and I like spinach linguini. I want to eat dinner with you, not sit and watch you try not to sick up because of what I ordered."

Doug cocked his head. He hadn't considered that. And Marie-Ange was correct, that it would have been much more difficult for him if she'd ordered something with meat. He might have been able to stomach it, but it didn't really cost her anything to be considerate. "Thank you," he said simply.

"It would have been different had you gone vegan. It is not as though I am intolerant of dietary preferences, but I am not sure I could quite deal with you having given up ice cream and cheese as well." Marie-Ange said, smiling a little. "And I am not sure I even understand how vegans stand that fake cheese because it does not taste very good at all."

Doug nodded. "Karolina was very nice in sharing her food with me while we were all at the mansion, but some of that vegan stuff didn't taste quite right." He shook his head. "I don't think I could have given up ice cream. I like it too much. If we ever have to fight an ice cream golem for work, well then I'm just going to quit."

"Oh, well, now you have doomed us. My phone is going to ring any minute now, and it will be Remy telling us that there is a farm taken over by mad cows and their dairy monsters. Mark will have to swim to safety in an ocean of whipping cream and Bishop and Jubilee will sour all the milk with their powers." Despite attempting to keep a straight face, Marie-Ange was openly giggling before she was done, and continued to giggle afterward, waving one hand in the air in a unmistakable "I can't stop laughing" gesture.

It was good to see Marie-Ange laughing, as it seemed like she hadn't hardly since New York. The mental image even drew a chuckle out of Doug, which was a measure of how his brain was maybe finally beginning to fix itself with the help that Emma had provided.