log: amara and lil

[x-volcanic.livejournal.com]

Back on Sunday night, Amara and Lil had a bitch session about guys.

Occasionally, sometimes, a girl just need to chill out at home with a tub of ice-cream and talk about guys. At least Amara had heard about this, it wasn't usually something that bothered her. But she'd been - well, thrown by her last encounter with Manuel, and she'd been stewing around like a little raincloud ever since. But now she was curled up on the couch with a tub of nearly melted ice-cream, waving her spoon as she spoke to Lil.

"I do not understand men at all. Or how on earth you manage to deal with so many of them." That was not actually meant to be a slight against Lil, even if it sounded like one. But she seemed to be on friendly terms with a lot of the guys at the mansion, and Amara honestly did not know how she did it.

"Woah there. So many of them?" Lil asked, dropping her spoon into the quart of mint-chocolate chip she was digging into. "Two. Maddy - who is in another country and doesn't count right now because I'm not talking to him - and Bishop who has been MIA for a couple weeks so I haven't been talking to him, either." The taller blonde's legs were tucked under her as she sat on the other end, frowning at her roommate. "Anyone else is just a friend and most of them not even that... what don't you understand about them?" she asked after defending herself and shoveled a scoop into her mouth.

"No no, I don't mean dating them or whatever. That is -- just. No. Just interacting or being friendly or whatever. You're friends with plenty of the guys here." Lil, you would certainly be hearing about it before now if there was anyone in Amara's life frustrating her romantically. "I just don't understand how a guy goes from being perfectly nice and charming and sweet when you first meet them to being malicious and rude when you're just trying to be friendly."

"Oh. Pfft." The Canadian blew a raspberry with her tongue and waved her spoon dismissively. "I'm only friends with the act and hit like one. Thinking, well, I don't do a lot of that on either side of the gender spectrum so I can't really say I think like a guy but I got a good feel for how their brains work. Or at least I thought I did before my asshole husband started acting the way he did." She rolled her eyes and took another large bite. "Men try to impress you until they get in your pants or realize they won't. Then, they try other tactics or give up all together. Anyone in particular pulling the switch on you?"

"You're still friends with more guys than I am," Amara pointed out. She and Julio got along well, and there were guys in the group of people Amara spent time with at college, but she wasn't really... friends with all that many. "And I don't think your husband counts as a regular guy, really." Who in their right mind would let Lil walk away? "I don't really think he was trying to get into my pants. It was Manuel." She dug into her ice-cream after that, having a mouthful of what was essentially liquid ice-cream.

She skipped over the first part about Maddy not being a regular guy but there was no way she could keep her next reaction from happening. Lil just couldn't help it. When her roommate named Manuel as the man she was having trouble with it, mint-and-chocolate flew out of her mouth. "What?!" She grabbed a napkin and quickly wiped up the mess in her lap and on her face. "Wasn't trying to get into your pants when he was nice or when he was acting like an asshole?" She'd probably kill him either way.

"At all!" Then again, it's possible that Amara wouldn't recognise if someone was trying to hit on her, but she just did not get that vibe from Manuel at all. "We were just, you know, in the same place at the same time. But I've never known someone to act so incredibly differently."

"In the same place at the same time at least twice," Lil clarified. "And there was a major difference in his personality? He is an empath. Maybe that was it?" the Amazon offered by way of explanation. She wasn't quite sure how that particular power worked or just how good Manuel was with it but since he'd been able to hunt her down in the gym when she wasn't doing so hot Lil wouldn't have put it past him. "You need me to kick his ass for something?"

"Finding me in the kitchen or the library is not that much of a surprise," Amara said with a shrug. "But who knows. As I said, I do not understand guys at all, and this is just all the more evidence that they do not make sense." She chuckled a little at Lil's suggestion. "No, I am fine. I will just make a point of avoiding him from now on." Which was really the easiest way to deal with this sort of thing, right?

Lil nodded. "Avoiding I can get behind." She'd been avoiding Madison for months now and Bishop for weeks. If the Canadian couldn't solve her problems by kicking or punching them, she ignored them for as long as possible. "Tough when he's living in the same house, though."

"Well, it should not be too hard. I will make a point to avoid the library, and he is a terrible cook. I do not imagine he will spend all that much time in the kitchen, even if he is attempting to learn how." She shrugged. "Anyway, that is enough about my problems, they don't even rate as issues. What's this about Bishop being MIA?"

The Amazon frowned and gave her roomie a one-shoulder shrug of her own. "Dunno. Assume he's busy. Saw him briefly when I went out on the mission with Ororo but we haven't talked or anything since before, well, since before Maddy called." Lil's eyes were focused on her melting ice cream. "Kinda confused about what I wanna do and all. I mean, I like him but Madison..." She sighed again and let her head drop back against the wall. "I dunno. Men are assholes."

"Did you ever call Madison back?" Amara couldn't remember if they'd had this discussion or not, but why not? It wasn't going to hurt to rehash it. "Obviously neither of them deserve you if we're sitting here eating ice-cream and bitching about them. Want me to light a fire under them?" She grinned a little playfully at that.

Lil snorted as she shook her head. "No. No need for any flame treatment... and no, I didn't call him. Not planning on it either. But Bishop isn't bad," she defend. "It's just timing sucks and the universe apparently hates me." There was humor in her voice but her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Maybe the universe thinks you need some time to yourself to think," she said with a smile. "How come you don't plan on calling Madison back?" Not that it was really any of Amara's business, but... they were having a heart to heart. It couldn't hurt to ask.

The taller blonde swirled her spoon though the melting icecream then let it drip off back into the carton. "'Cause I need him to keep making the steps. This isn't the first time we've crashed and burned but it's the first time since we've been married that it's been this bad. We fight; I leave to cool off for a bit then show up back home and it's like nothing happened. Him calling me - and me not calling back - means he knows I'm not gonna just come home. That he's gotta work this time and his phone call was the first step." That's how she was looking at it now: the first step instead of a lame attempt to talk to her. Lil didn't know if or when she'd get another one but it was a start.

"That's fair enough," Amara said with a smile. "It sounds like you two really need to redefine how your relationship works, and this isn't a bad way to do it. And he definitely he certainly should be working for it." Even if it took the both of them to help the relationship fall apart, Amara was pretty firm in her belief that Madison should be the one to woo Lil back - partly because she believed her suitemate was worth the effort, but also because she believed it was the man's job to do the pursuing.

"We don't need to redefine it. He needs to wake up and realize I'm not gonna be the second most important thing in his life and especially not to a robot." She dropped the spoon into the bowl and started to rub the bridge of her nose. "He should be working for it. He's just an ass though. I miss him so fucking much and it's driving me crazy but it's hard as hell not to just go home." And back to him. Just like always.

"But that's exactly what I mean. He's put the robot before you, and you've let him for so long. And you both need to change - he needs to put you first, and you need to make him do that. Which is what you're doing right now. He just needs to step up." Amara glanced down at her ice-cream, which was pretty much liquid now. Hrmmm. "Staying busy is best for not going home. I don't think studying will work for you quite like it did for me, but you could always help me bake if you like. And as the weather gets warmer I will probably start running again. Outside, rather than on the treadmills."

"That's not redefining. That's setting things the way they should be." Lil sighed again and shook her head. She didn't really want to think about this anymore. "I'm horrible in the kitchen and I've spent the last three weeks hitting the gym pretty hard... but I'd be up for running with you if you'd like company."

"I guess so," Amara said with a little chuckle. "And of course I'd love the company. Exercising is not something I enjoy doing, as a rule, so I'm more likely to do it if I have someone to do it with."

"I'll make you into a gym bunny yet," the taller blonde promised. "We'll find something you like and get you in shape for the X-men, too. Just so long as you keep supplying me with cookies, that is." After all, it was fair in Lil's mind; cookies as payment could go very far.

Amara just laughed at that. "Agreed!"