Julian and Angel

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Julian comes to talk to Angel about what really happened at prom. Angel's calm - ish.



Two mugs of hot chocolate in hand, Julian Keller knocked on the door of Angelica Jones' suite. It was a little warm out, but the liquid was more of a symbolic offering than anything else- a peace offering. "Hey Angel, it's Jules!" he knocked again with his foot against the bottom of the door. "I've got food...sorta."

"Sort of? How do you sort of have food?" Angel called back before yanking open the door. She paused and then laughed. "Oh, that's how you sort of have food. Come on, let me take those, they look hot." One of the perks that came with her powers was that there really never was a seasonal food for Angel. Hot chocolate could be had with glee at any time of the year. And she'd spent several hours the last few days with babies so treats were devoured whenever she could have one.

"Yeah, I didn't want to say drinks since these aren't Irished up at all." He handed the mug over and stepped into the room without pause. "Did they fix the darkroom door?"

She nodded and headed towards the couch with drinks, though she kept stealing sips out of her own mug. "Yeah, Kyle just kept laughing his butt off while he was putting on a new door but it's all fixed now. Though I got asked if I wanted either a doggy door or an escape hatch several times."

Julian chuckled and took a seat on the other side of the couch. "I'm guessing you said no," he took a sip, enjoying the warm liquid slowly spreading throughout his system. "How goes it?"

Angel refrained from mentioning the stress with the leathers - she wasn't sure what she could talk about, so she focused on normal things. "Eh, doing okay. Just enjoying my summer vacation - the guys gave me some time off from the station. So I've either been doing nothing or doing some X-Men training." Angel drank deeply and hummed a little - Julian had always made the best hot chocolate in the world. Ever. "You?"

"Not much, just...hanging around and stuff. Oh, and I spoke to Esme," he took a drink immediately, not wanting to say what happened, but knowing he had to.

That froze her and Angel stared at him over the top of her mug for a moment before blinking and snapping herself out of it. "And what did she say?" she asked slowly, feeling a little cautious at the moment.

He sighed and set down his mug on the coffee table. "Look, you gotta promise, you're not gunna get upset and...I dunno, hurt me or her, okay?"

"Okay, you know, that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence," she snapped but it was half hearted. "I'm not going to hurt anyone! I can't promise I won't yell or flail or stomp around like a PMSing Godzilla who's baby has been stolen but I'm not going to pitch anyone from a roof. Scott would totally bench me!"

A small smirk crossed his lips, "Fair enough. She hit me with a telepathic whammy, made me kiss her." He readied himself for the yelling.

Instead, there was dead silence as Angel stared at him. The only sound was soft and normal. If it were in a kitchen. The hot chocolate in the mug was suddenly boiling at a rapid pace to the point where it was evaporating as she clenched the mug between her hands.

"Oh that bitch."

He held up his hands, "Calm down, Angel- she didn't mean to."

"Oh, I'm perfectly calm. This is calm. I'm not yelling. I'm calm. Explain. Now."

Pointing out that she was yelling wasn't going to help matters. "Okay, just, maybe set down the cocoa?" Julian stood up and started to pace slightly, "So, she lost control...you know what it's like to lose control right?" Before she could respond, he continued, "Believe me, right now she's beating herself up enough...I went up there to verbally kick her ass...couldn't do it."

Peevishly, Angel set the now mostly dried out mug down and flexed her hands. "Oh, I understand about losing control, I really do," she responded as she stood as well, hands on her hips. "I also understand about owning up to it, apologizing and making things right! She had to have known what she'd done!"

"Look, you remember a while back...after the whole Murderworld reality-television thing? Things started floating around at night, someone played tetris with the woodpile and stuff?" He looked away, "That was me. I didn't say something because I was ashamed about it...that's the same thing that happened here."

Immediately, Angel facepalmed. "Oh my god, you ... you ... BOY! Such a boy! No, it's not the same!" She stomped her foot for emphasis. "You played tetris in your sleep, you didn't pick people up and forced them to play tonsil hockey with each other! It's just not the same, Julian."

"Okay, fine- fine!" Julian crossed his arms over his chest, trying to bite back the simmering anger that was starting to build up inside himself. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to protect her, but...she made a mistake...I know what it's like to make a mistake." He paused again, "What do you want to do?"

"Line her and her sisters up and bounce their heads together like coconuts?"

The look he gave her was a no.

"Go all out prank and bitch war?"

More no.

Angel sighed. "Look, I guess I'll talk to her or something. Did you at least tell the teachers? Even if it was totally an accident, she's gonna need to talk to the mind bender teachers."

"Doctor Grey-Summers was the one who told me it happened in the first place. Nathan confirmed it and both of them have talked to her and Professor Xavier has talked to her too. It doesn't need to go beyond the six of us." He looked her in the eye, "There's no reason to give fuel to the fire where the Stepford Sisters are concerned- enough people already don't trust them."

Julian sighed and shook his head, "God I sound like I'm trying to protect her, but...I'm pissed off too, Angel."

"You certainly don't sound like it." With a grunt, she flopped back on the couch and sank into it. "I'm not going to go blabbing my mouth, though it would make you look better if I did. Well, mostly. It's not like she made the rest of it happen. I'm just pissed she didn't immediately try to make things right. I would totally have understood!"

Sitting down on the other end of the couch, Julian picked up and held out his mug of cocoa to Angelica, "You may want to tell her that. Might help if it ever happens again."

One moment he had the mug in his hand, the next it was in Angel's possession. "Trust me, I will totally mention it. And oh, hell no, this is never, ever happening again. And I claim your hot chocolate as a prize."

Julian wondered what he'd just gotten Esme into. "I think I still owe you a gallon or twenty of hot chocolate for the last couple months- so just say the word and it'll be brewed."