Scott and Angel || In Town

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Angel and Scott stumble into one another while in town, and random talk ensues. Because that's the best kind.



Angel was smiling as she made her way down the street. This was one of those perks to being twenty when her partner in crime was only fifteen - she could buy spray paint, and Maddie couldn't. Of course, that was probably something to be thankful for.

Whooooooooa. Angel's thought process and and feet both grinded to a halt when she saw a one Scott Summers walking in her direction. The last thing she needed was the team leader/teacher/Danger Room torturer extraordinaire catching her buying spray paint. Not only would it put an end to what they were planning, but Scott would probably find a way to punish her. Probably in the form of multiple Danger Room runs. Wow, what are the chances of him being in the area on the exact same day, at the exact same moment that I come to buy spray paint? Really. Well, he hadn't seen her yet. Maybe she could just slip away...

Scott took a sip of his coffee as he watched Angel's furtive movements with amusement, the young woman was obviously hiding something and for a moment he considered letting her think she had lost him and tailing her to see what she was upto. The Blackbird was looking a little dusty recently and he needed to convince someone to give it a good cleaning and Angel had done such a good job last time. Chuckling to himself Scott turned to face her, "Angel?" he asked in an obviously affected tone of voice, "fancy seeing you here."

Grah. No spray paint would be bought today, clearly. "Hey Mr. Summers," Angel said cheerily. "You ever noticed how suffocating the mansion feels? I mean, you've been there long enough, right, so you probably know - the place is huge, but you get tired of beating down the same walls day after day after day after day after...well, you know where I'm going with this. I needed to get out for a bit, and there's this awesome camera shop near here...But enough about me. What're you up to? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

Scott held up his coffee as if that was answer enough. "I thought I'd swing by town grab something to eat and go people watching for a little while." he informed her. "What I want to know is how you got cabin fever in a mansion with massive grounds?" he asked with a smile. "How exactly do you ever plan to survive if you ever end up on a cruise ship, smaller walls and trapped out at sea no other people in sight for thousands of miles."

"Jump ship and swim back to shore," Angel replied with hesitation. "No worries about hypothermia, I'll fill a water bottle to take with me when I go overboard and just take breaks when I need them. By the time that happens we probably wouldn't be more than a couple of hours out, so getting back wouldn't take too long." It was probably frightening that she was able to answer that so matter-of-fact.

"You've actually thought about this?" Scott asked in surprise. He already had the glimmerings of a new DR scenario dropping a team on a boat in the middle of nowhere, he could always call it the Angel scenario so people knew who to thank.

"Not really," Angel said with a shrug. "My first reaction when I hear something involving water is 'jump in.' The rest of that just kind of came as I was talking." She started digging through her pockets for money. Staring at Scott's cup was making her thirsty - not that she wanted coffee, but a soda or something would be nice.

"Looking for something?" Scott asked in concern as Angel attacked her pockets. "You really like swimming that much? We could probably arrange something involving that," he informed her with the trademark Summer's glint in his eye.

"Just cash." She finally managed to dig out a twenty, a weak smirk pulling at her lips when she saw the look on Scott's face. "No offense Mr. Summers, but I tend not to trust you when you get all contemplate-y like that. It's usually followed by, 'I have this DR idea...'"

"Well now you mention it," Scott drawled, "I do have this Danger Room idea..."

"I knew it," Angel said with a laugh. "I'll pass, thanks, last time I did a Danger Room run with you I ended up spending my Saturday cleaning the Blackbird. Fun, but not an experience I want to repeat."

"But this one has lots and lots of water," Scott said with a laugh, "and you agreed to the bet. You could always say no you know."

"Well I always like water," Angel admitted, smiling grudgingly. "But I maintain that you used some super secret X-Man mind game to trick me into agreeing to that bet. That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

"So if I challenged you to another game, perhaps with a tub of ice cream as the winners prize?" Scott asked with a grin.

Angel ignored her instant reaction of "OHMYGOD ICECREAMYESPLEASE," reeling it in for a more appropriate response of skepticism. "I....think I have to ask what the challenge is, first," she replied casually. But oh my god did she want ice cream now.

"Well if I told you that would ruin the surprise wouldn't it," Scott pointed out . "What kind of trainer would I be if I made it too easy for you now, I'd have to turn in my badge and secret decoder ring."

"Well, I -- wait, secret decoder ring?" Angel was momentarily distracted by the thought of that. She shook her head quickly, refocusing. "That gives you an unfair advantage though, doesn't it? You know what the challenge is, which makes it that much easier for you to win, so it's not really a challenge so much as 'how can we beat Angel today?'" She really wanted to win a tub of ice cream. "Eh, you know what, I don't actually care. Let's do it." She wasn't generally hard to convince.

"So you're just worried about me beating you again?" Scott asked with a smile. While it wasn't what Angel really had to worry about it was nice to hear something that polished his ego every once in a while. "Well," he mused, "not every DR session has to be a one on one. How about we just pit you against a scenario. I'll program it and let it run and everything else is all on you then."

"Nah, not really worried about it," Angel said with a shrug and a smile. "I'm just giving you a hard time, Mr. Summers, I'm good at that."

"You're not worried about being beaten?" Scott asked, mock hurt pasted across his face. "I must be slipping these days."

"I think if you were slipping, someone would have sent out some mass email informing everyone of as much," Angel "assured" Scott with a barely suppressed grin. "Trust me, your reputation as the evil DR man is still fully in tact, I promise."

"Well just so long as we have that clear," Scott replied grinning at Angel. "So what are you looking for in the camera shop?" he asked curiously.

"Lenses," Angel replied with the first camera part that came to mind. "I accidentally left a couple of camera lenses in England - along with about half of my wardrobe and all of my school stuff, but that's another story entirely - so I went through all my camera stuff today to figure out exactly what I needed to replace and figured I'd start getting on that before school starts."

"Good lenses can't be cheap," Scott replied, "I hope you get what you need. Since we're here, are you going to be taking pictures at the dance and graduation? OR should we hire someone to come in and take care of it?"

"Oh I have, like, a whole stash of cash set aside for camera supplies," Angel assured Scott. "And I would be insulted if you were to hire someone to take pictures of everything, especially when you have a perfectly good photographer living right under your roof."

"Well you never know, you might actually want to dance during the night," Scott pointed out. "I wouldn't want you to feel like you had to stay busy taking photos instead of enjoying yourself."

"I can do both if I feel the overwhelming need to dance," Angel said with a shrug. "Taking pictures is plenty of fun, though. But thanks for the consideration," she added with a smile.

"Spinning taking photos?" Scott asked quirking an eyebrow. "This I have to see." he noted taking a last sip of his coffee and tossing the can over his shoulder where it landed directly in the middle of a trashcan.

Angel peaked around Scott to watch the cup fall into the trashcan. "I'm a very talented person Mr. Summers," she assured him. "All though not nearly as talented as you are, clearly." If she had done something like that, the cup probably would have hit her in the head.

"I cheat," Scott confided, "having the mutant power of geometry is a pretty useful party trick."

"Fair enough," Angel agreed. "I mean, not really fair, since, you know, you're cheating and all, but hey, whatever works for you. Secret's safe with me, though I don't think it's actually a secret?"

"It's not something I hide," confirmed Scott, "But it still makes for a great trick. Everyone always seems to underestimate me when it comes to games of angles."

"Or they just don't think before they agree to play a game of squash with you," Angel replied with a smirk. She was over that, of course, but it was still fun to bring up every now and then - just for the sake of causing trouble.

Scott grinned, "Well it's not my fault if some people don't realize what they're getting into. I'm doing a civic duty by teaching people to always think before agreeing to do something."

"And the fact that you get to beat people at something is just a fringe benefit, right?" Angel asked with a raised a eyebrow.

"Well I didn't say there weren't benefits to helping people." Scott agreed with a laugh.

"As long as you don't abuse it," Angel said with her own laugh, ignoring the fact that this was slightly strange - she couldn't recall ever hearing Scott laugh before. "You know what they say, power, responsibility...actually, you probably know the saying better than I do."

"That's a lesson more than a few people could do with learning, but it's hard to get it to take." He smiled at Angel, "I'd never abuse it, like I said I see it as an education. Speaking of which," he nodded at a nearby pool club, "fancy a game?"

Angel turned to look at the pool club, then back at Scott. a smile pulling at her lips. "Even knowing I'm going to lose? Sure. Love to."