Angel and Julian

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

When the door to Angel's dark room goes a bit funky, Angel and Julian are finally forced to interact again. Something odd is brought to light.



"What part of don't talk to me don't you understand?!" Angel yelled, turning on her heel in a huff. She'd come down to the lab area because she wanted some alone time with her dark room and the latest bunch of film that needed to be developed. She hadn't expected to see Julian down there and now she was determinedly heading towards the dark room, trying her best to ignore him or the lump in her throat. After what Callie had told her he'd said about what he thought she said, she didn't want to see him at all.

In a blink she was gone, the door to the darkroom shutting with a metal clang. It'd been over a week since they'd last talked at that horrible dinner - and in that time, he'd finally started to pull himself together. The fact that Angel was assuming he was down here to see her was insulting- to the point that it drudged everything he was starting to work through back to the surface.

Well... he wasn't going to let her her have the satisfaction of affecting him like that. Julian headed toward the dark room door and tossed it open. "What part of we live in the same house do you" he slammed the door hard, "not understand?!"

There was a surge of guilt that maybe, just maybe, he had been down for something else other than trying to talk to her. But it was quickly overridden by the fact that he had the audacity to actually follow her into her dark room. She spun around and pointed a finger at him, glaring. "Do I need to hang a sign on the door saying 'No douche bags allowed'? I didn't even allow you in here when we were dating!"

It wasn't a very large room but there was room enough to try and stomp by him, fully thinking to toss him out by the scruff of his neck.

Arms crossed over his chest, Julian stood his ground. "You don't own this room, Angelica," his voice was firm, but not raised. "I live here. I'll go wherever the hell I want- and just because I happen to be in the same hallway as you, doesn't mean I'm stalking you or whatever."

She stopped dead in her tracks, only an arms length away from him, maybe less. Her jaw was probably having a very nice conversation with the folks in the southern states at the moment but she didn't seem inclined to care. "Not ... my ... this is my dark room!" Angel shrieked, flailing her arms a little bit. "Do you see any other photographers crowding the mansion hallways, Keller?! I didn't ask you to follow me in here! You - I - words! Angry words! Out!"

Julian simply shook his head in the dim light, giving her a beat to calm down. "You want me out, you throw me out."

"Oh I am. Watch me, see? This is me throwing you out on your floating green behind." Grumbling under her breath, Angel squeezed past him and ignored whatever wibbly feelings her stomach did. If she could annex her stomach, which was apparently the part that reacted the strongest to boys, she would. "Now get ..." Angel tugged on the door hard enough that she knew she was going to have to step back or get sent flying but all that happened was a huge yank and ... nothing.

"What the hell did you do to my door?" she muttered, yanking on it again. Still no give. There was no lock on that door, how had he done that? Now she was pulling back in frustration, both hands on the handle and one foot on the wall.


With a snort, Julian pushed his way to the handle, "Wimp." The second after he'd said it, he regretted it- he considered apologizing, but something kept him from doing so. "You just need to-" he grasped the handle and gave a tug.

Nothing happened. "Huh."

He tugged again, still nothing gave. Finally he tried turning the handle from the other side with telekinesis, but the door remained stuck.

Looking to Angel he gave a little shrug, "I didn't do it."

She could, perhaps, blast her way out fairly easily. But the dark room was small and it held a number of flammable chemicals that could go up if she wasn't careful. And considering her agitation, Angel knew she probably wouldn't be very careful. On top of all of the fairly expensive equipment she had in the room; she'd cut off an arm to make sure they were okay.

"Oh. Fantastic." Angel banged on the door and yelled for Forge or Paige but no one came. "Of all the days no one is in the labs and it's the day I'm stuck with you in here." She'd been running on pure anger before but now some of the tiredness was starting to sneak in.

Julian scoffed, "Yeah, because this is exactly where I want to be too...trapped in a closet with...." Biting back a rather crude expletive, Julian held up his hands in surrender, taking a few steps away from the door. "Well...isn't this just...fuck." He leaned against the sink and looked to the floor with a sigh. "Don't suppose you became telepathic anytime soon, otherwise, we're stuck here."

Angel was doing her best to ignore him, despite the fact that the room wasn't the biggest and he kind of smelled good. 'No! Bad Angel brain! Bad! Not after that dinner!' She huffed past him and started to looking for the pad and pencil she kept around for notes. "I'll slip notes under the door and in the mean time, have fun sniffing the various chemicals. Or something. Go about your business, yadda yadda."


"Okay, well, my business in coming in here was to tell you off, so I'll just keep up with that." Julian crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the rinse sink. "I wasn't down here for you, Firefly." He was just able to make out her shapely ass in the dim light, and barely avoided being caught as she spun around, glaring.

"Stop doing that!" she snapped, waving her pen in his direction. "And well excuse me for thinking that! You're never down here and whoo, I made a mistake." Angel did sarcastic jazz hands before heading back towards the door. She paused in front of him and glowered. "As if you've never done that. Mr. I'm going to tell everyone that Angel's a bitch because she "said" my family doesn't love me WHEN I TOTALLY DIDN'T!"

She needed to give people shorter names. Like bastard.

Julian's fist clenched and slammed down on the tile floor with a dull thwack. The gesture intended to punctuate his sudden burst of anger ended up hurting, a great deal. In the dim light of the room he bit his lip and managed to stagger out with a slight gasp, "Yes you did." Regaining his composure, "You totally bit into me for not being able to be a trainee."

She stared at him like he'd completely lost his mind. "Yeah, I did. It wasn't a remark on your family - the last time you'd said anything about it was that they might not take the call. I was mostly poking you for not even trying to take the call. I'm mad at you, really, really pissed off. But I wouldn't ever go after someone's family. That's dirty pool, Julian."

He shifted uncomfortably on the floor, his hand radiating pain that made his words difficult to get out. "No, I did try. I called and..." he paused and looked away from her. "I guess I didn't tell you about this."

"If you didn't tell me about it," she said with her teeth gritted, "then it's not my fault if you took what I said badly."







He winced, "Okay, I deserved that." Straightening out his face, he smiled slightly, "But I'm willing to let your mistake go- where-as you seem to enjoy holding mine against me." He leaned forward, over the water, "And if you hadn't noticed, I have been leaving you alone- respecting your wishes."

She leaned over as well and snarled, "Let my mistake go? Are you insane? Did you leave your brain with Esmee? I yelled at you but, you know, I think I've got some right." Good lord, had he dipped himself in yummy sauce or something? "Making kissy face is not something I'm -"

There was only a few inches between them now and Julian's eyes were drawn to those lips. She was soft and warm in the darkened room and she smelled like he remembered. Not entirely conscious of what was being spoken, he darted forward, pressing his own to them. Shutting his eyes he tilted his head and attempted to slip his tongue between her lips.

There was a muffled squeak and then Angel had to fight with herself so badly as she shoved him away from her. Not as hard as she might have but not gently, either. "That ... we're not in a movie or a bad bodice ripper book!" Angel squeaked, clearing her voice to get some of the squeakiness out. "A kiss won't make it better!"

Her fingers clenched against his shirt for a moment as tears filled her eyes and then she next to the door, hunched over and scribbling rescue us notes and trying not to cry. She was so pissed and tired and confused that she couldn't hold herself together anymore.

Hand over his mouth, Julian looked down at her sobbing form. "Angel, I'm sorry, I don't know what I was...what I was thinking." He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back against the wall, sinking down to the floor. "God, I'm so sorry."

Angel managed to slide a few notes under the door before she completely dissolved. She put her back against the wall and just cupped her face as she just finally let go in front of him. "I'm tired," Angel hiccuped, "and I don't know what to do anymore."

Her tears stabbed his heart like hundreds of little daggers. "Yeah, you and me both. I keep getting half the people in the mansion telling me to work things out with you and half the people saying that I need to give you space." Julian looked away, "All I know is that all of the time, I'm missing being with you...as dorky as that sounds."

"It does sound dorky but I ... yeah, me too," she sniffled into her hands, refusing to look up at him. "I don't want to be fighting. I want to stop being angry. But every time I think of prom I want to go ballistic. Or that dinner."


"You should! I mean, you have every right to be...but," he sighed, "I don't even really remember what happened." He looked up at the ceiling and gave a long sigh. "I don't like fighting either."

"What do you mean you don't really remember it?" Angel yelped, raising her head to glare at him with a sudden fresh rush of anger. "How could you not remember it? You were sucking face with Esme at the prom while we were dating! It wasn't that long ago, you jerk!" Half-heartedly, Angel bawled up a piece of paper and threw it at him.

"Yeah, I know that...but I don't really...it's all fuzzy. Like, I didn't want to kiss her, because it wouldn't be fair to you- and frankly she's no where near as pretty-no-smart-no! I mean, she's not as awesome as you are. And then...suddenly it happened." He tossed the piece of paper back at Angel, "I still can't figure out what changed in my head."

Distracted, Angel missed the paper and it bounced off of her head. "That's ... kind of weird? I remember every second of it and I wasn't even the one kissing her! Also, ew. Just saying." Her frown deepened and she stood up. "Julian? Do you think she put a whammy one you?"

With a snicker and a wave, he attempted to quickly dismiss the thought. Unfortunately, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. "Wait...just to be sure, what are you talking about?"

"Okay, maybe I'm being paranoid -" And grabbing at straws. This was the most time she'd spent with him since she'd stormed out at the prom and part of her just wanted to ignore everything that had happened and just start over. "- but do you think she may have, I dunno the technical term for it, smack you one? Mentally?" She wiggled her fingers at him in demonstration. Angel was mostly over her trepidation around telepaths but this could turn out to be really creepy.

The more he thought about it the more difficult it became to rebuke. "I...I really can't believe that Esme would do something like that." Once again, he immediately regretted saying it, "No, no, no...not because of any secret feelings-I-may-have-for-her-which-I-don't and my god! Why do I keep talking?" He laughed nervously. "Look, what I'm saying is...Esme...she isn't like the other Stepfords. I can't believe she'd do that to me.

He really should learn how to stop talking, they could agree on that, at least. "Okay, well, I guess we could grab one of the telepaths and have them ... check?" Angel suggested, trying to see a way around this. "But oh geez, if it was her - well, I'm a giant bitch, I guess. But if she didn't, you're still an ass. It's that damned cat in a box thing! I hate that cat in a box, it should have just been put in a hamster ball!"

"Huh? Cat in a box? What about Catseye?" He held up a hand, "Nevermind, look- if I go and get checked out by Doctor Grey-Summers...can we just...I don't know." After a pause he completed the thought, "Start over?"

"If, you know, Esme mentally jump your mouth, then - I don't know?" Angel blushed and looked away, staring at the door of the dark room; she didn't look at him as she reached out and linked her hand lightly with his, just at the small fingers. But it was voluntary, even if it was the most she was willing to give for the moment. "Look, Julian, even if we manage to fix the prom stuff, there were a lot of really awful things said that I can't just forget about it. Some of the things you said, how I acted ... can, can we just work on fixing the friendship before we think about if we should get back together?"

Hesitantly he gave her fingers a squeeze, "That's probably a good idea, yeah. And...I would like to get back together if you're willing to give me another chance and...well, if Esme is to blame for all this. I'll go see Doctor Grey-Summers as soon as I can...which means," a sigh, "we need to get out of here. So...how bad would it be if I blasted the door open?"

"Well, you wouldn't have to worry about us getting back together because I'll kill you myself."