Face the Blood - Doreen & Angel & a Linen Closet (Backdated to June 14th)

[x-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Doreen finds Angel in a linen closet and the two manage something of a conversation while Doreen's mind jumps from topic to topic to avoid the subject of Yvette. ((backdated))

Angel was safely tucked away in a small closet - she'd been given a task of folding various linens and the closet had offered itself as a mall oasis of quiet and peace. The folding itself proved to be mind numbing enough that she could stop thinking about Yvette long enough to actually get something accomplished. The smell of fresh linens made her tired or maybe that was just her exhaustion but she kept dozing off with her head on the pile in front of her.

It was easy for Doreen to sniff someone out. Everyone in their group also had the familiar scent of home about them, and Angel always smelled slightly like burning. Something that Doreen had picked up on Julian’s clothes more than once. She cracked the door to the closet open, “Are you awake?” she asked the older girl, who looked like she was sleeping on the linens.

"Yes." Angel cracked open an eye and sat up, rubbing the back of her neck. "Hey Doreen," she said, pushing the pile of laundry back so it wouldn't fall on when she moved. She paused and frowned worriedly. "Is Yvette okay? Has there been any change?"

“Nothing’s changed yet,” Doreen said simply, “I mean, I wish it had, but it hasn’t yet,” she amended. “If you’re tired maybe you should go lay down? I mean, I wouldn’t want to sleep in a linen closet,” she said. This was both good and bad, Doreen had been wanting to talk to Angel since she found out Angel was dating Julian, she just didn’t know how to start up such a conversation. Now the whole thing seemed pretty trivial.

Angel smiled a little bit. "Well, it's small like my dark room at home so it's kinda comforting in a way. A little more comfortable than napping on the waiting room floor." She supposed she could have gone back to where they were staying but it was going to take someone like Mr. Marko to remove her at this point. She held out a towel. "Want to help fold? I think the nurses are unfolding them on purpose so I have something to do. I might have been driving them a bit crazy, you know?"

“I can try,” Doreen said, “My claws aren’t really linen friendly though and I think we all were. Catseye yelled at me,” Doreen said, her tail still overly fluffy from that. Though she supposed her friend had a good point, she shouldn’t be blaming herself. “It’s pretty scary.”

"Oh, yeah. Um, then maybe just keep me company? And yeah, it really is scary." Angel tugged on a towel and sighed. "No, not scary. I'm training for scary now. It's terrifying and she's my best fried and I just don't know anymore. I'm tired, I guess, and I just want her to get better." She looked up at Doreen and frowned. "I'm sorry you got yelled at, though."

“I can do that,” Doreen said, for the keeping company, “I think we’re all just frazzled right now. It was scary, when it all happened, but I suppose it would be. I think we’re all stressed out, but I got scared when Cats yelled at me. I don’t know why… so I sort of ran away. I’ll have to talk to her later.”

"Okay, dude, if I was a squirrel girl and I got yelled at by a catgirl, I think I would have split as well." Focus on other things, like the towels. Angel could do this.

“She’s not as scary as Mr. Logan,” Doreen said honestly, “I don’t know what it is, but he scares the daylights out of me,” she said, with a twitch of the tail.

"Maybe the fact that he's got metal claws?" Angel guessed. "Or that he always looks a little loud and grumpy? Maybe the hair?" She grinned a little, though it was tired and a bit of an effort. Mr. Logan had that affect on everyone, it seemed.

“I dunno, I guess. He’s just… scary, kind of. It’s nothing he does, I guess he just smells scary,” Doreen said, “That doesn’t make any sense at all, does it?”

"I think it would to someone else with a nose like yours." Another stack of towels down and away in a bin where they were less likely to fall over on her and smother her to death. "I just, you know, set things on fire. A lot."

“But you can fly! I’ve always wanted to fly,” Doreen said. “It must be really fun.”
Some of the tension left Angel's face at that. "Oh it's beyond fun, beyond anything I can actually ever explain." She snickered. "I fell off the roof finding out. Seems to be a bit of a trick with our flyers..." Angel's voice trailed off as she thought about Julian and tiredly pushed that thought out of her head. She had too much grief at the hospital to think about.

“I can jump off the roof, but I don’t fly,” Doreen said, “It just feels like the plunge off the top of a roller coaster or when you start down a steep hill,” she said, “When Julian does it, I think he’s going to be flat as a pancake.”

It would be really bad form to say it would serve him right because it was petty and she had other things to worry about. But ooohh, it was tempting. "Problems with being a teek, I guess," Angel muttered.

“I think it was because when he did it in front of me he was hung over,” Doreen said simply. Just stating a fact, not being mean. “He was really upset.”

Angel really wasn't surprised that this was where the conversation was going - Dori had known Julian for a long time. She felt a dull sense of resentment that it was being brought up now - but on the other hand, maybe it would take her mind off of Yvette for a little bit. "Don't think I can blame him," Angel said simply but her jaw was tightening a little. "After all, he'd made me really, really upset."

Though the drinking thing she hadn't heard about. Ew.

In truth, the conversation change was nothing more than Doreen’s ever changing mind, that never managed to stay on track too long. Though everything now had an Undercurrent of Yvette, “I know. I know he didn’t mean to. He’s really not that type of person. I’m sorry I brought it up. It seems really silly right now. I just get… I dunno, really distracted easily. And I don’t like thinking about Yvette being hurt because of what we did.”

That got a reaction - Angel dropped the towel midfold and stared at Dori. "You guys do know that this is totally not your fault, right?" she asked, shaking her head. "But no, I get you, anything seems better than thinking about Yvette right now. I'm still mad but it's kind of distant right now. Too worried, too stressed and not enough sleep."

“I know it’s not. But it still kind of feels like it is, you know?” Doreen said, running a clawed foot over the floor, hearing the slight scratching there, “I can’t forget it. One minute everything was going perfectly and then, yeah.”

"But you can't think like that," she said slowly, pushing her hair back behind her ears. "I mean, if you do - what're you gonna do the next time you see a situation where you can help someone?"

“Still help them, but… I guess we’ll just have to plan it better. Those kids didn’t deserve anything like that either, they were just playing,” Doreen said.

"No one deserves any of this," Angel agreed. "But you guys couldn't have known. I don't even think the really, really experienced X-Men could have seen it coming." It didn't make it hurt any less. It made her worry about the things she would see in the future on the X-Men and it made her cry when no one looked after the nurses told her there'd been no improvement for Yvette.

“I know, but… I guess it’s hard to really understand unless you were there,” Doreen mused, her tail dropping a bit.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Another stab of guilt, that she'd been elsewhere when it had happened. She had no illusions that she could have stopped anything but at least she could have been there. Angel shook her head and scrubbed at her eyes. This wasn't getting them anywhere. "She'll get better. I know she will. And that's really all that matters."

“I can describe what it was like, and how it smelled and stuff, but… it was, I dunno. I just want her to get better, and I know you’re right and she will,” Doreen said with a pause and a sniff, “But I almost wish I hadn’t come!” she said, putting an arm over her eyes to wipe away the tears. She didn’t like using her hands for that, there was always too much of a chance to scratch herself.

Angel had a clear moment of panic. She didn't know Dori that well and the tears she was used to dealing with tended to be caused by her kicking her cousins in the shins. But after a moment of staring, she scooted her chair closer and put a hand on Dori's shoulder.

"I'm glad you did," she said quietly. "I am, really. And I know that girl is that you saved. And she'll get better but until then we'll have to stick together. I mean, that's what New Mutants do, right? And even though this isn't what they've, you know, been teaching us, it totally applies. We've gotta stick together, for Yvette. And for us."

“I know,” she sniffled, the comfort helping quite a bit, she wiped her eyes with the palm of her hands and sniffled, “I’m sorry. It’s just been a really long last few days.”

"No apologizing, okay?" A clean wash cloth was pressed into her hands. "Everyone's really tense and upset - and we're allowed to be." Angel looked around the small room and made a decision. She'd really just been hiding, trying to avoid thinking about Yvette, the hospital and everything else. But that wasn't fair to her or to anyone.

"Want to get something to drink with me?" she asked Dori. "We can go and sit and just talk in some place that's ... not a closet."

“Sure,” Doreen said, “I like drinks. Can we get some pop?”

"Sure. And food, food's supposed to be good for people who are stressed out. Well, that and I just like food."

“Me too,” Doreen said, “I like snickers bars the best.”