xp_logs | Angelo and Amanda, Thursday early evening

They have a work date, then take a break for a movie - with added discussion of Jake's problems.

"Ugh." Amanda sighed and closed the manila folder of reports she'd been reading, tossing it aside on the coffee table. Stretching a bit, she reached out with her bare foot and poked Angelo gently in the stomach with her toe. "No more genocide in Sri Lanka for me tonight. Is it break time yet?"

She and Angelo were at her place, having one of their "Work Dates". Given the demands on both their time, they'd realised the only way they'd see each other regularly was to incorporate their jobs. This was one of their solutions - every few nights, one would visit the other and they'd spend the first few hours getting whatever needed doing done. Then they'd declare a break and watch a movie or get food or something. Tonight they were both stretched out on her couch, reports and files and books scattered around them, facing each other with their backs against the armrests. Amanda had her feet resting on Angelo's thigh, and Angelo had his longer (than hers, anyway) legs tucked against her side.

Angelo was poring over a long and densely written report about Indonesia, which he set aside gladly. "I think it needs to be, before I go blind. Movie?"

"You pick the movie and I get the beer and the popcorn?" she suggested. Amanda hated choosing movies. She made no move to get up straight away, however, stretching like a cat and wriggling her foot under the hem of Angelo's shirt so it was resting on his bare skin. "I can't believe it's actually getting warm again. Yay, spring."

"Cold foot!" he protested, without actually taking the trouble to move. "An' sure, I can pick one out. What you in the mood for?"

She poked her tongue out at him playfully. "Warm boyfriend," she responded unapologetically. "I dunno, something we've seen before? That way it doesn't matter if we get distracted later."

"Yeah, I'll come up with somethin'", he agreed. "Nothin' too thinky, either."

"Fuck no. It's definitely a no-brain night tonight. I've got so much to catch up on after that couple of weeks off." Amanda made a slight complaining noise as Angelo began getting up to look through her movie collection, and she hauled herself off the couch, heading for the kitchen. "Busy at the Elpis office?" she asked, reaching into a cupboard for the microwave popcorn.

"Always." He sighed and pushed himself the rest of the way up, heading for the DVD collection. "There's so much to be done out there."

"Yeah. I heard about the child smuggling thing the X-Men helped out with the other week. At least you've got plenty of bodies on staff to help with the work?" She put the bag in the microwave, hitting the appropriate buttons before hunting up a bowl.

"There's always child smugglin'. Lucky for us, we've got a contact out off Madripoor now, Scott's dad. But, yeah, plenty of people an' Nate keeps recruitin' more. We're gonna be out of space in the office, he keeps that up." He grinned at her over his shoulder.

"Who's the latest victim?" Amanda asked with an answering laugh, finding her favourite popcorn bowl in the sink and rinsing it out. "I see you wound up with Poison Ivy - she seems to have settled in all right."

"Oh, you mean Cammie? Yeah, she's doin' pretty okay, I think." He went back to flicking through the DVD cases. "Not sure she's adjusted to bein' off the streets yet, but that's what it does to you."

"You mean the whole not trusting anyone and acting tough and pushing boundaries to see what'll get you kicked out so you know where you stand? I have no idea what you mean." Amanda's tone was amused as she rummaged in the fridge for beer, pulling out a couple of bottles. When she found what she was looking for, she straightened, peering at Angelo over the top of the open fridge door. "You crashing here tonight? I've got a couple of six packs here if you are." She waggled a bottle at him temptingly.

"Yeah, I think I can stretch to that." He straightened up. "Got the car, an' all, an' Nate never minds if I'm a bit late in."

"Well, you're the man to go to about stretching," she teased, sounding satisfied. "Does this mean I get to have my wicked way with you as well? I need to balance out all that clean living with Homily."

"When did I ever not let you have your wicked way?" he demanded. "An' you'll be un-clean-livin'ed in no time if I get anythin' to say about it. An' Jake, too, from what he said."

"Ooh, beer and sex. I'm so spoiled," she replied, poking her tongue out at him. "Yeah, Jake seems determined to kill off my remaining brain cells as fast as he can. Not that I'm about to say no - 's been ages since Jake and I tied one on and he needs the downtime after the last few months he's had." She closed the fridge and set the beer on the counter as the microwave beeped. "'M glad he's with us - we'll make sure nothing else happens to him."

"Yeah, I hope we can", Angelo agreed more seriously. "We were playin' basketball the other week an' then things got... weird. He said people were shockin' his arm."

She paused in the middle of getting the popcorn out of the microwave. "They're what?" Then she realised the bag was hot and she was burning her fingers; dropping it hastily, she shook the insulted digits to cool them down. "I know Wanda's looking into it - think I might have a chat to her."

"Electric shocks", was the unhappy response. "Or he said it felt like it. Made his fingers twitch so bad he dropped the ball."

Yep, definitely time to talk to Wanda, and perhaps the rest of the group about doing something, if Jake wasn't going to do it himself. "He didn't say, silly bugger. Don't worry, we'll sort it out."

"If I'd known that, I'd've told you sooner. Let me know if you need anythin' I can help with?"

"Of course." She came back over to the living area, bowl in the crook of one arm and beer bottles held by their necks in her other hand. "We look out for each other even when we're too whatever to look out for ourselves."

"That's what a team's for", he agreed, wandering back to the couch just in time to liberate the bowl. "Whichever one you're with."

She grinned and leaned in to kiss him briefly before reclaiming her spot on the couch. "Pretty much, yeah," she agreed. "So, what're we watching?"