xp_logs | Doug and Amanda - holiday plans (backdated)

Doug stops by Amanda's apartment, and finds her doing something rather unexpected. They chat about holiday plans and sort of talk around other issues.

Amanda, surprisingly to some, wasn't exactly untidy, but cleaning was usually low on her list of priorities, usually bumped down by "research horrible magical event that might unleash tentacle demons on the world", "go on an information-gathering assignment to somewhere that involves a lot of flying to get to" and "watching Black Books on DVD." There did come a time, however, when the mess got to her and with an actual planned absence coming up, Amanda was taking advantage of the pre-Christmas slow down to catch up on vital things, like vacuuming the dust-bunny civilization out from under her bed and clearing out the mysterious fungal life-forms from the back of the fridge. In the spirit of sharing she had her door open, her stereo on and the volume up at a suitably "too bad if you don't like punk versions of Christmas songs" level.

Doug paused at the doorway, his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion at the unmistakeable sound of a vacuum over the punk-Christmas strains. He supposed it was his duty to check for pod people. He rapped his knuckles on the doorjamb and entered. "Amanda?" he called.

The vacuum stopped and after a moment Amanda herself appeared, hair in two short braids and a smudge of white bathroom cleaner on her cheek. "Hey," she said by way of greeting as she headed to the stereo to turn the music down. "What's up? Did you need something?"

An awkward silence ensued as Doug remembered that he and Amanda were still on fairly uneven footing. The session they'd spent teaching Laurie about the differences between a fight in a dojo and a fight for real had been a step back towards normalcy, but Doug was still a touch uneasy, not sure how to mend fences with his friend, given that she'd made her opinion of his joining the White Court quite clear. "Just...checking in," he said, the pod people joke in his head suddenly feeling ridiculous.

She surprised him with a small, wry grin. "Yeah, I know, you don't get me being domestic all that much. But I'm heading back to Germany for a few to do the family Christmas thing and I didn't want to wind up battling a Rubbish Monster or something when I got back, so I figured it was time. So not to worry - 'm not possessed by Laurie or whatever."

Doug chuckled. "Good to know. I'm tidying myself, going home for the holidays." He hadn't been home in quite some time, and he wasn't sure how he felt about the invitation his parents had made.

Amanda blinked. "Home? As in back to Colorado?" What she knew of Doug's family wasn't much, but she knew they weren't really the sort to accept "mutant super spy" as an occupation. That was going to be one awkward trip.

"Yeah. Though I suppose it could be worse. Angie's going home to see her folks." At least the Ramseys were more laidback than the Colberts. Not that Doug didn't like Marie-Ange's parents, but he was pretty sure that her very Catholic mother probably had some words for their 'living in sin'.

Amanda snorted. "Yeah, she said. Talk about gluttons for punishment." She stepped away from the door and headed for the kitchen. "You want some tea?" she asked over her shoulder. She still wasn't happy about the Hellfire Club, but 'twas the season and all that.

"Tea would be nice." Doug accepted the unspoken olive branch that Amanda had extended, and followed behind her to the kitchen. "I'm sure I'll get some 'when are you going to ask Marie-Ange to marry you' from my parents, but they at least have my sisters to meddle with as
well."

"Sounds like the old biddies with the clan. All "when are you going to be married, when are you going to have babies?" And calling me an old maid when they think I can't hear 'em." Amanda snorted as she put the kettle on. "I don't even know if they're even related to me or how. Still, Kurt and Jimi get the most of it. I'm too gadjo for them to want to matchmake with." She glanced over her shoulder at Doug as she reached for mugs. "You get on with your sisters all right?"

"Other than their still viewing me as their 'dorky' big brother, not all that badly. And I can let them have their illusions." He didn't add that it was safer for his sisters and parents to have those illusions, because in a very real sense, what they didn't know -could- hurt them, given the line of work that the 'junior Trenchcoats' had chosen for themselves.

"Must get awkward, tho', having to lie to them about what you do," Amanda observed, fishing tea bags out of the cannister. "I tend to just avoid certain bits for mine, but that's mostly the parts about killing and having sex with people for information."

"Yes and no," Doug mused. "I think that in some ways, people never quite see everything about the people in their lives, you know?" He waved his hands, having trouble articulating what he meant. "I mean, in some ways, people see what they want about others." Which was why he was playing the role that he was as White Knight. "So my sisters continue to see me as 'dorky big brother', and it's not that difficult to keep them thinking in that direction. And safer in the long run." He cocked his head, the 'having sex with people for information' remark having registered. "You doing okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Amanda replied, and for once it wasn't a lie - her tone and body language told Doug that. "I mean, I would have preferred if there'd been another way, and I'm sorry about Angelo, but I knew what I was signing up for when I joined up. You use all your skills, right? To do the job? Mine just happen to include not being that fussed about sex."

Doug didn't necessarily buy the prevailing theory among the X-Forcers that happy families didn't make for good spies. His was a fairly normal family, even if he cultivated their lack of understanding of him for their safety. "If you say so," he said dubiously. "Just...I
worry about you." Because despite the argument they'd had, he was probably closer to her than anyone else except Marie-Ange.

"Newflash, Doug - you're always worried about someone," Amanda pointed out, not unkindly. "And you have to understand... I'm not like you or Angie. Having sex when you love the person is great, yeah, but it's not a prerequisite. I can have sex without living someone... hell, I can have sex without feeling anything for the person, and it's not a big deal. Fuck, I didn't even know that much about love until about five years ago, and I'm still working shite out. Ange and I... we were already starting to drift. Russia just gave us the push to actually talk about it."

Doug cocked his head at Amanda. "I think that's a bit unfair to Angie," he said bluntly. He held up a hand to forestall whatever Amanda was about to say in reply, and went on. "We've talked, and I know that if she was convinced it was the best option, she would absolutely sleep with someone for the job. And I don't even know that she'd feel all that bad about it." He shrugged.

Amanda had the grace to blush - he was right in that she was doing Angie a disservice. In many ways, the French girl was more ruthless than the witch was. "And how'd you feel about it?" she asked, instead.

"How would Angie doing something like that for the job make her love me any less?" Doug asked seriously. "When things went tits-up in Africa, we were considering it as an option to get the money to escape. One or the other of us rolling a rich tourist..." He met Amanda's eyes. "We're none of us the same people we were when we lived at the mansion."

"It's not about loving anyone any less," Amanda replied, a little stung both by the jab about her preconceptions and by what she saw as criticism of Angelo. "But fine, you aren't the same, neither of you. And neither am I, so you can stop your worrying about me, mother hen."

"Fair enough," Doug agreed. And really, he thought, he could stand to take his own advice about preconceptions where Amanda and Angelo were concerned. Sometimes things just didn't work out. "At least I'm a better-looking yenta than the 'old biddies in the clan'?" he
teased with a mock-preening toss of his head.

"Only when you have tits, I'm afraid."