amanda and warren: reunions

[x-highflying.livejournal.com]

Now that he's back in New York, Warren starts the process of catching up with old friends. First on his list: Amanda Sefton.

Returning to New York had been a strange homecoming for Warren. It wasn't that he hadn't visited in the time he'd been in California, but they'd been brief visits primarily focused on seeing his mother or on business. Now he was back for good - and back alone, which was strange on top of that. He hadn't expected to return here permanently without Piotr, and if he had to admit to himself, he was a little sad that he hadn't. But things had fell out the way they had, and Warren knew that he couldn't dwell on them, no matter how much he did miss his former partner.

After suffering through a fair few tedious business meetings to catch him up to what was going on with Worthington Industries, Warren knew there were a lot of other things to be caught up on now that he was back in New York full time. One (or several) of those things was to reconnect with the friends he'd lost touch with over the years, especially those he'd made at Xavier's. He'd already been in touch with the Professor about the X-Men, but his time at Xavier's had been made up of more than just being an X-Man and his relationship with Piotr. Amanda had been one of the friends he'd called - and one of the few that had actually answered. When he'd learnt she was living in New York he'd insisted on them catching up over a drink, giving her the address to a recently opened bar in SoHo that he'd been to with some of the guys from work.

He'd arrived first, ordering himself a drink and flirting with the bartender while he waited for Amanda to arrive. If there was one thing he had been enjoying since the break up with Piotr, it was the freedom to flirt again. Not that the relationship had stopped him, particularly, but there was definitely no guilt attached to it anymore.

Amanda had been surprised and gratified at getting the invitation. Of course, a call at work ran late and she found herself dashing to get there - lucky it wasn't far. She grinned as she walked up the stairs to the bar, pausing to smooth her clothes and hair before making her entrance - the intervening years had meant a lot of changes and she was waiting to see his reaction to them.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked, approaching the bar and indicating the stool next to Warren without any indication that she knew who he was.

Turning around, a confirmation that it was taken dying on his lips when he took a close look at the woman who had asked the question. A broad smile broke across his face, and he pushed himself up off the bar stool to sweep her up into a hug.

"Holy shit, Amanda," he said with a laugh, releasing her just far enough so he could get a good look at her. "I nearly didn't recognize you for a second there. Don't you clean up well these days?" This was definitely not the Amanda he remembered from their days at Xavier's.

She laughed and hugged him back, muffled for a moment by an expensive suit and shirt. "Well, it's been nearly four years, flyboy. You didn't expect me to stay sixteen, did you?" She looked him up and down, just as he was looking at her. "I swear, you don't look a day older. Still the same Warren."

"Well, not really," he said with a laugh, letting her go so he could return to his stool and motioning for her to join him. "But I didn't really expect you to look quite so spectacular." Not that she'd ever not looked good, but the punk look he remembered was a far cry from the professional young woman sitting next to him. "And now you're just being kind. I'm pretty sure I found my first wrinkle the other day."

"What, and we didn't hear about it in the tabloids?" Amanda asked, taking the other stool. "Gin and tonic," she ordered from the bartender. "For shame. So... back on the east coast for a while, are you?"

"I've been carefully keeping them distracted," he joked, nodding to the bartender to bring him another of the scotch on the rocks he'd been drinking. "Getting to know the nightlife of New York again is very important, didn't you know?" He certainly had been making himself be seen all around the place, though it wasn't quite as fun as he remembered it being.

"Indefinitely, actually. My dad's not as well as he could be, so I'm being pressured into playing the Worthington heir once again."

"And how's the Pl... how's Piotr coping with that?" Amanda asked, not-quite-innocently. She'd picked up on the 'nightlife' part and had her suspicions, but preferred for him to say it outright.

It was a question he'd expected, and the almost slip into Piotr's old nickname almost made him smile. He hadn't heard that in a long time. "Piotr's... he's..." For someone who had made his living talking, he was certainly lost for words. "We're no longer together. He's still in California."

"Oh." It wasn't really a surprise, but Amanda's expression was sympathetic. She hadn't really liked Piotr, but she liked Warren and Piotr had made him happy. "I'm sorry, mate. It sucks when that sort of thing happens."

"It is what it is," he replied with a shrug and a casualness he didn't really feel. But now wasn't really the time to be getting into it - or at least, he didn't want to discuss it right now. "But how about you," he said with a dazzling smile, deliberately changing the subject. "I think you've got a few stories to be telling me, hmmm?"

"Where should I start?" she replied, giving him the chance to change the subject. "I spent a bit of time down in New Orleans after I got kicked out, finished my high school equivalency and then my powers decided to come back so I wound up on Muir for a while. Then Pete and Remy hired me on for Team Bastard, and that's been pretty much it for the past three years. Well, aside from the odd bit of being eaten by cities." She sipped her drink nonchalantly.

"That's it?" He said with a chuckle and the shake of his head. "You know, I think you need to tell me a little more about some of that. Have you had dinner yet? I have a feeling this might take awhile."

"Well, you know me, always living larger than life." She shrugged. "And if there's one thing that hasn't changed, it's the whole bottomless pit when it comes to food. Feed me and I'm yours forever." Impishly, she batted her eyelashes at him.

Warren laughed at that, waving over the bartender so he could pay for the drinks so they could move on. "Don't say that, I might actually take you up on it now, and then you'll be in trouble." He winked playfully, leaning over to scrawl his signature on the tab and retrieving his credit card.

"'Trouble' is my middle name, remember?"