Angelo and Molly, Tuesday afternoon

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

Angelo hangs out with Molly in the forest and is crowned Prince Angelo of Stretchytown.



There was a meadow Molly liked in the forest. It was neat in the fall cause it had pretty leaves and it was neat in the winter cause you could make snowmen and it was neat in the spring cause it had flowers. So it was a very cool meadow. Molly was sitting on the ground there now, picking flowers, yellow and blue and purple and white. She carefully weaved them in her hair, so she could make a wildflower hat for her hair. Her mom had told her how to make braids a long time ago.

There was a bark of greeting from behind her as Angelo and Joyita approached, the dog for once on her leash (spring meant baby animals and he didn't want her accidentally killing anything).

"Hey, Molly!"

Molly turned, then held out her arms.By then the flowers were everywhere and mostly covered her entire hair. Which meant there were no flowers around her patch of meadow.

"Oh! Joyita! Come here, girl!" she said. She grinned.

"Hi Angelo!"

Angelo let go of his end of the leash and the dog raced gleefully towards Molly as he followed, smiling.  "Having fun?"

Molly let herself be bowled over cause if she just sat there Joyita would run into her and that would be bad. She giggled as the dog licked her face and she scratched her behind the ears.

"I made a flower hat! I'm supposed to be studying but I did that already so now I'm bored and so I made a hat. Do you want me to make you a hat too? The flower's look pretty in your hair cause its dark!"

He considered this seriously, glancing back at the mansion, then visibly decided 'to hell with it, it's Molly'.  "Sure, you can make me a hat if you've got any flowers left over."

Molly blinked at him.  She leaned in. "Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Well, I wouldn't let just anyone put flowers in my hair", he conceded. "But you're cute and tiny so you get a pass."

Jumping up, Molly's grin turned hugely bright. "Really? Okay! I'll be right back! Can you sit on that rock? Cause...you're tall and stuff and okay? The flowers will be awesome!"

"Okay", he said, laughing, and headed over to sit obediently on the rock she'd pointed out.

Molly dashed off into the brush. A few moments passed before she was heard shouting "Nooo, Joyita don't eat the flowers!"

"Oh, lord."  He got up and started in that direction.  "Joyita, stop that! Flowers aren't for eating."

The dog rolled around in the meadow, gnawing on the flowers Molly had just picked. Molly had a deep frown and a bit of a pout, arms folded.

"This is why you can't have nice things, dog", Angelo told her sternly, approaching to take the leash back and tug Joyita away from the flowers. "Sorry, Molly."

Molly was still pouting a little, but she sniffed and shrugged. "S'okay," she said.

"She's a doggie. She didn't know. The flowers were pretty so maybe she wanted some of the pretty too."

Molly held up the flowers she picked that hadn't been eaten. "Do you like these for your hair?"

"Nice colours", he said, smiling.  "If you like them, I like them."

Glancing down at the flowers, Molly's grin appeared again like a light switch.

"They'll be neat cause your skin is grey so it'll make the colors pop bright!" Molly said, holding up the flowers.

"Okay, back to the rock?"

Molly was twitchy from excitement as she grabbed his hand, her other arm, teeming with wildflowers, pressed to her stomach. She wanted to get started with his pretty flower hat.

"Okay", he answered cheerfully and followed her back to the rock, Joyita's leash wrapped firmly around his wrist.

Back at the rock, Molly circled around him, trying to decide where to put things. But eventually she discovered that it was hard to put stuff in Angelo's hair cause it was so short and the flowers didn't want to stay. She frowned.

"Hmm."

"Maybe you could make the stems longer", he suggested helpfully.  "Or tie them together."

Molly tilted her head then blinked. "Oh! Like a wreath?"

"Exactly." Angelo grinned.  "Much less likely to fall off that way."

"Good idea!" Molly said as she got to work. Her fingers were all green and she quickly set to making a ring of pretty flowers.

"I think it sounds better as a crown, though. Don't you think?"

"Definitely it should be a crown", he agreed.  "I can be a prince to go with your princess."

Molly giggled. "A prince! Of course! And Joyita...the noble steed! We can fight crime too! I bet lots of princesses and princes don't do that!" she said.

Stepping back a moment, Molly got quiet while she worked, then finally, she walked in front of Angelo, holding up the flower crown.

"I, Molly Hayes, Princess of Powerful..." She motioned for him to lower his head.  "Duck thee....Prince Angelo Espinoza of Stretchytown!"

"Most don't, even.  We'll be the active kind of royalty."  He bowed his head obediently.

Molly carefully placed the crown on his head, stepped back again, then stepped forward to adjust it a couple more times before beaming broadly.

"Perfecto! We will be the defenders of...the um...X-People when they aren't defending the other stuff! Yeah!"

"Even the X-People need defenders sometimes", Angelo agreed easily, raising his head again and grinning at her.

Molly nodded very matter of factly. She then paused and tapped her chin and reached out to grab Angelo's hand again.

"We need swords! Let's go find some sticks!"

"I've <I>got</i> a sword", he protested, laughing as she pulled him up and along.  "A real one.  Elves made it."

Stopping dead in her tracks, Molly spun around to face him.

"Really? Seriously? Seriously?  Can I see? I get to borrow a sword when Kurt and me fight pirates and zombie pirates but I have to give it back when we're done. Like REAL elves? Did you get to meet Legolas? Or Dobby? But Dobby's a house elf..."

"Real elves", he assured her solemnly.  "In Asgard, but not Legolas or Dobby.  The prince's name was Calin, he was a friend.  The sword's back at my apartment but I'll drive you over and back if you want to see."

Molly's eyes got wider. "You got to meet ELVES? That is so. cool. Real real elves? You're not kidding? Real ones? Okay! is it a magic sword? Does it glow blue when there are spiders? That would be very useful."

"Real real elves", he promised.  "I was a warrior with them for awhile.  It doesn't glow blue, but it is kind of magic.  It's got runes on it."

"Ruins? Like...rocks?" Molly said as she followed him up the hill back toward the mansion.

"Runes", he corrected.  "It's like an alphabet, but you can use it for some magic.  Hang on."  Stretching around to his back, he pulled up his T-shirt to show her the tattoos up his spine.  "These are them, I had them copied when I got back."

Molly peered closer. "Oh!" she said, nodding as she hopped back. "Viking words. Like on the Dragon tamer movie. Cool!"

"More or less", he said with a grin over his shoulder.  "The place I was at with the elves was where the Viking gods live, so I guess they are Viking words."

"Did you get to meet any dragons? Do they talk?" Molly said.

"Personally, not while I was there, but Kitty who used to live here brought a little dragon back with her.  He didn't talk, but he was pretty smart."

This was a totally bad thing for Angelo to say, for Molly let out a squeal.

"OH MY GOSH. What? Really? That's AWESOME! Can I see it? Can we get one? Does it fly? What's its name? Does it breathe fire?"

Angelo laughed at the barrage of questions and answered them one by one. "He's in California with Kitty, so seeing him might be difficult but I'll see what I can arrange.  Getting one, probably not unless we can figure out a way back to Asgard.  Yes, he flew, his name was Lockheed and he didn't breathe fire last time I saw him, but who knows now he's bigger."

Molly bit her lip. It'd been awhile since she got to go to California. "Is he in Los Angeles?" she asked hopefully. It'd be neat to be able to see her friends.

"Not actually in, but close enough", he told her, glancing back over his shoulder again.  "Do you want to go to Los Angeles?"

Glancing down, Molly nodded. "Just for a little while," she said. She liked living here a lot but she missed her friends in LA sometimes.

"I'll talk to the Professor", he promised.  "Maybe in the next school vacation he'll let me take you to visit the X-People annex over there. And anyone else you want to."

Molly smiled. "That'd be awesome! Thank you!" she said.