xp_logs | Malibu: Tension Rising

Angel and Nick talk of love, relationships and workouts.

Nicholas Gleason collapsed on the front of the fountain, sweat dripping off of his face and hitting the driveway, he was panting very heavily. It had been a long time since he had gone running in his human form, and the aches and pains throughout his body were definitely showing the effects. Suddenly his right leg shot out in front of him. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" The shooting pains of a cramp radiated through his whole body. He slammed his eyes shut, just hoping that the pain would go away, or maybe his leg would fall off, not noticing that he was no longer alone at the front of the mansion.

A pair of hands batted his own away from his leg before one got a gentle grip on his knee and the other one at his ankle. "Tucking into a teeny tiny ball of pain is so not going to make this better," came Angel's cheery voice above the yelping. "Come on, straighten your leg -" She started to coax him into completely straightening it, to arch his heel, and attempt to ease him out of the muscle cramp. Through it all, she kept chattering at him.

"Man, this used to happen to me all the time when I first started swimming, you know?" Nick brought in a deep breath through gritted teeth. "You know being a wolf this would never happen, but I thought that I would knock down the Keller's property value if the neighbors heard that they had a big dog running around." Still closing his eyes from the pain, he forced one open slightly to eye his fellow student. "Thanks for helping out Angel."

Nick brought in a deep breath through gritted teeth. "You know being a wolf this would never happen, but I thought that I would knock down the Keller's property value if the neighbors heard that they had a big dog running around." Still closing his eyes from the pain, he forced one open slightly to eye his fellow student. "Thanks for helping out Angel."

She flopped down on the ground next to him and handed over a bottle of water. "No problem! Leg cramps are one of the worst thing, especially if you're not used to getting them. I used to be one tiny ball of cramps before I figured out how to warm up properly before swimming."

The boy let out a snort of a laugh. "Warm up? Doesn't that take on a bit of a different connotation when it comes to you?" A playful smile spreads across his face as he turns back towards her, still pointing and flexing his toes in the process.

"...man, that's so bad, why didn't I think of it?" She blew a raspberry in his general direction before grinning. "Many things totally take on a different meaning when it comes to me and ... wow, that sounds kind of dirty, doesn't it?"

"No it sounds..." Nick pauses for a second, pushing his eyebrows together. "Well actually, yeah, that's the only way you can go with that one." Letting himself fall into a small giggle, Nick sets his leg down onto the ground, flexing it several times as a test. "Hey, looks like we won't have to amputate."

She broke out into applause. "Good because that would totally suck." The wind shifted and Angel shivered for a moment, remembering what the smell of burning Kyle was like. She didn't want to do that ever again. "Were you just out running or something when it happened?"

"Yeah. It looks like I've got to get used to running like this instead of a wolf again. My legs just aren't used to it." Dropping his face towards the ground. "I guess I'm just not used to a lot of things since coming here."

"Hey, Nick, you okay? For real real and not for play play sort of thing?" The sudden shift in conversation threw Angel a little bit and she frowned at her fellow classmate in concern.

"Not for play play?" The boy raised his eyebrows for a second, he still wasn't able to understand some of the slang terms of youth despite being one himself. The slight distraction wasn't enough to drag his mind out of his current doom cloud as Kevin would put it. "I'll be alright, there's just a few... things going on right now."

She gestured around them - they had somehow managed to be the only two in the nearby area. Everyone else was either off doing stuff or doing what teenagers did best. Sleeping. "Want to talk about it? I've been told that I'm a good listener." If not, she could probably distract him. She didn't know Nick all that well but she liked him well enough to want to know him better.

Nick followed her gesture noticing that they were alone as well. Slowly he shrugged off the situation before deciding that his awkward situation couldn't really get any worse, why not try and get some help with it. "Well, it's about a girl..." He decided to start their, not knowing how keyed into the mansion rumor mill Angel was.

"A girl, huh?" she parroted, trying not to grin. "Purple hair, by chance? Tail? That kind of girl?"

"I'm about as subtle as a ninja in a leopard-print thong aren't I?" Nick added with a grin, hoping that if he put in a joke, he'd be able to actually talk about the situation instead of running into hysterics as had been the pattern recently when he tried to bring up Catseye.

It worked at least on Angel as she burst out into immediate giggles at the very image he presented to her. It took her a moment to compose herself because every time she looked at him, she broke down again - the image of Ms. Braddock in that outfit or Nick...

By the time she was done, she was flapping her hands at him. "I'm sorry, I'm done, I swear. Okay - yes. Calm, caaalm. Okay! Cats and you, hmm?"

Nick couldn't help but smile. Angel's easy nature had done it again, being one of the few things that could get through his emo shields and allow him to open up. "Well, that's the whole thing. I don't know if there really is a me and Cats. I know how I feel about her, but I can never get a good read in on her. It's like this frustrating game of 'Guess what's on her mind'. And I was never good at those in the first place."

"Cats is ... she's special," Angel said, her voice a bit softer now. "She thinks differently and I know she's trying to get her brain more to how we think but it's gotta be hard going for her. And she's special in a really awesome way but sometimes you have to change your game plan when you deal with her, you know? Roll with the punches because, boy, does she throw out some doozies."

"Well at least I'm not the only one..." Nick turned to Angel with a smile. "Hey, do you mind if we go for a walk and talk? I know there isn't anybody around, but I always get the feeling that I'm being watched at this place. Gives me the creeps."

She scrambled to her feet before bending at the waist, smiling at him as she offered him both of her hands. "Come on, Romeo, let's take a walk and we'll talk about the mysteries of the universe and girls and probably cake. I like cake."

"As long as there aren't any girls popping out of the cake, I think I should be ok." Nick slowly pulled himself up to his feet and began to follow Angel down the path once again.

Three stories above them, looking down from the concealed balcony of the master bedroom, Julian Keller stared at the pair as they walked down the path. His jaw was slack and his eyes were wide, disbelief flooded out from him in tidal surges. Nick and Angelica...he'd always assumed he'd get back together with her, but they were certainly very familiar from what he'd just witnessed. "Son of a-" he muttered as a flower filled vase near the door shattered under an involuntary telekinetic surge.

*****

Moments later, Julian runs into Inez who gives him some useful advice.

Inez walked back and forth in the room she'd claimed, casually tossing her phone from one hand to the other. After everything that had happened in the past few weeks, the vacation in Malibu should be relaxing her, but instead she was as antsy as she'd ever been. Even after her fellow New Mutants had managed to cooperate and get a plan together successfully at the casino, she was still feeling like an outsider. She'd been feeling it a lot lately, with no idea why.

Sighing, Inez fell backwards onto the large bed and realized how comfortable it was - just as she heard a knock at the door. "Come in," she called, not looking at the door.

The knock was actually several oranges from the kitchen slapping against her door as Julian headed to 'his' room. Trying to get his powers under control, which was proving difficult after what he'd just seen, he heard her invite him in and the door opened before he could even touch the handle. What was typically a night time occurrence was happening in the daylight and that was only feeding to his anxiousness.

The oranges soared into the room and out one of the open windows, onto the sandy beach below. Poking his head through the door, "Sorry, sorry- didn't mean to- my powers they're..." Julian sighed and muttered, "fuck."

Inez raised an eyebrow. "Issues?" she asked, before realizing that Julian probably wasn't in the mood for teasing. Problems with his powers probably meant problems elsewhere in his head.

She sat up cross-legged on the bed and patted the edge of it next to her. "C'mon," she said quietly, nodding to Julian. "Talk to me."

With another sigh Julian padded into the room and dropped down onto the bed, he needed to talk to someone, but wasn't sure what to say. Luckily, he always could count on Inez to be there for him and for that, he was thankful. "Well, I just saw the most disturbing thing in the history of ever."

"Fred brought a Speedo?" Inez guessed.

After a pause, "Okay, the second most disturbing thing in the history of ever." Her joke elicited both a slight smile and a shudder.

Given where they were, Inez figured it had something to do with Julian's past, either his friends or his parents. "Something bugged you pretty bad, huh?" she said, trying not to pry but being willing to listen. "I mean, you're usually not all with the fling-fling-fling and stuff, right?"

"Only at night, and only if I'm stressed...nice to know it can happen during the day too I guess." The sarcasm dripped from every word as he turned his blue eyes to meet hers. "I..." it was too awful to put into words, "I just...," that wasn't going to keep him from trying though. Closing his eyes he fell back on the bed and let his arms fall open.

Without a word, Inez laid back and put a hand on Julian's chest, just laying there for a moment before speaking again. "I know it's not easy for you, coming home," she said. "I know your dad came by the mansion and I'm pretty sure it didn't go well so this can't be your favorite place in the world right now. But whatever it is, just remember we're here for you."

Lightly, she brushed her hair back and looked up at Julian and smiled. "I'm here for you, y'know."

He sighed and put his hand over hers, it was colder than Angel's ever had been, but then again Inez wasn't a pyrokinetic. "Yeah, the fact my dad took the family to Hawaii on the days I'll be here is definitely not helping things, but this isn't really about him." Tracing a small pattern on the back of her hand, Julian smiled at his friend weakly, "I just saw Nick and Angel together...they looked...overly chummy, if you know what I mean."

To her credit, Inez didn't react to the news beyond a slightly raised eyebrow. She'd heard through the grapevine about Nick's crush on Catseye, and Angel certainly hadn't admitted to any attraction to the werewolf. But then again, this was a vacation. Perhaps it was a "what happens in Malibu stays in Malibu" thing. And if so...

She scooted up, leaning her head on Julian's shoulder. "I know you guys are patching things up..." she said quietly, "but have you considered that when Angel says she wants to be friends, she means, y'know, just-friends?"

After a moment and in a rather pathetic tone, Julian surrendered a, "Yeah." Then added, "But...I dunno, it just...I guess I'm okay with it, the whole friends thing. I just have a problem with, well...why him? He's such a dork."

"Angel's like, queen of the dorks," Inez replied. "Especially when she's had sugar. But... I don't think that's your problem. I think it's not that she might be interested in Nick. It's that she's interested in someone who... well, isn't you."

He gave her a glower for a moment before rolling his eyes, "Duh." Rolling to his side, Julian suddenly became aware of just how close she was. "Uhm, yeah, I mean, of course it's about the fact that she's not with me. Why wouldn't she be with me?" Frowning, Keller thought he knew the answer: prom. "It wasn't even my fault really."

Inez smirked. "Not your fault how?"

With a slight wince, Julian tensed- he hadn't told anyone about Esme's accidental-on-purpose slip of the mind. "Um, nothing." A shake of the head and Keller met her eyes again, "You're right though, that's my point."

Thinking for a moment, Inez reached up to take Julian's hand in between both of hers. "Okay, listen. I'm going to say this once and if you tell anyone else I'll totally deny it. Yeah, Julian. You're a great guy. You're not perfect, but... you're a good one. But sometimes, that's not enough. Sometimes people just move on."

"I...I know that, but...ugh, just sucks, ya know?" Julian gave her hand a gentle squeeze and a weak smile. With a slight smile, he broke eye contact with her and chuckled.

"Julian." Inez's voice was soft but firm as she grabbed his chin gently and turned his face towards hers. "Move. On," she repeated.

Her eyes were deep, he hadn't noticed that before. For a moment, he had a perfound sense of self-doubt, but pushed it away with a charming smile and another chuckle. His hand came up to brush her hair back behind her ear, "You're wrong you know."

"I'm right, then I'm wrong?" Inez said with a quiet laugh. "How's that work, huh?"

Leaning closer, he whispered, "I'm pretty damn near perfect." Before she could respond, he darted forward and pressed his lips to hers.

Inez's eyes snapped open for a second of surprise and then a few long seconds of... well, something a lot better than surprise. Finally pulling away, Inez looked at Julian, then let out a small giggle. "I think that the matter needs more research," she said through a wide smile. "Does that door lock?"

His own smile widening, Julian winked and headed toward the door, "It damn well better."