Doug and Angel (Backdated)

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Angel brings Doug the gift of donuts and a happy-go-lucky redhead, because one can never have enough of those.



Angel was humming as she wound her way through the office. Destination - Doug. It was her early day - she was already done with classes, and she'd been horribly neglecting her language lessons since...well, her return from England, if she was honest. But that was beside the point. They'd all been busy, after all.

So she'd picked up a box of donuts, just in case the language master needed a bribe, and headed to Snow Valley. And she'd only eaten three of the donuts so far. That was good. Of course if Doug wasn't in, then all bets were off.

The 'language master' was in - he tended to be in the office most days lately, doing something. Not that he was anti-social, but work was his default activity these days. It at least generally helped get his mind out of various unproductive ruts. He looked up at the entering redhead bearing donuts. "Hey, Angel," he greeted her. "Did we have a session scheduled that I forgot about, or is this a surprise visit?"

"Surprise," Angel said happily, setting the box down on Doug's desk. "I'd do the whole happy flourish arms spread out wide 'SURPRISE!' thing, but it kind of loses its effect when you already know I'm here and I've already said surprise once, ya know?"

Doug shook his head with a wry smile. There were very few people like Angel. Maddie had a similar whimsy to her, but even she lacked Angel's irrepressible energy. "It certainly does," he agreed. "Donutula's?" he asked, indicating the box.

"Of course. As if there's any other donut shop worth going to." Angel grinned as she flopped into the empty seat, grinning. "I'm not gonna tell you what the flavor of the day is though, you're going to have to eat it and guess." Even someone without Doug's abilities would've been able to tell that Angel already knew exactly what Doug was in for - and was looking forward to his reaction.

Doug took the 'flavor of the day' out and dutifully took a large bite. There was very little that intimidated Doug when it came to food, so if Angel was hoping for a 'Mr. Yuk' face, she wasn't going to get it. "Huh," he mumbled as he swallowed. "Is that...country gravy?"

"Good, right?" Angel said happily. Chicken fried steak. She'd thought it was yummy herself. "Om nom." She helped herself to a fourth donut. "So what've you been up to?" She asked in a sweet voice. "I'm pretty sure I haven't seen you in, like, a million years."

"Eh, stuff." Getting imprisoned by the Genoshan government, emotional breakdowns, rescuing a young magic user, Hellfire Club politics, assassination attempts by Remy's ex-wife... You know, little things. Doug shrugged. "Work keeps me busy and all. How about you?"

"Vague much?" Angel teased a bit. She knew Doug's work wasn't the kind of thing that allowed for a lot of details. "Nothing really for me, loving the quiet life - oh, someone gave me a position of power, did you hear about that?"

"Vague is my job," Doug noted with a smile that was a bit easier as he pushed away his darker thoughts. It was hard to stay even kind of grumpy around Angel. "Power? Oh dear," Doug said with raised eyebrows. "How many times have you steepled your fingers and laughed diabolically?" he asked with a smirk.

"Oh so many times," Angel said proudly, her grin widening. "I think it's starting to scare people. Slinky and Twinkie are even taking turns sitting in my lap so I can stroke them whilst I plot my dastardly deeds. So much better than a cat."

"Dare I ask what kind of power someone's been so foolish as to put in your hands?" Doug's smirk was now more a full-on smile, headed toward a giggle. He could absolutely picture the effusive redhead petting her ferrets in fine villainous form.

"New Mutants mentor! Can you believe that?" Angel was giggling; she couldn't help it. "For some reason Ms. Smith thought I was a good person to take over for her. I dunno, not questioning it though. One small step towards my eventual hostile takeover."

"Oh god, the redheads really are taking over." Doug thought about just what sort of trouble Maddie could get up to with Angel along to enable her, and shuddered. "Well," he said with a shrug. "I for one welcome my new titian overladies."

"That's good, you know," Angel said matter-of-factly, nodding seriously. "Acceptance and all that. Plus, I mean, you're cute. All that makes it more likely we'll let you live."

"Well, that's comforting." Doug chuckled. "You know, the living and all. It certainly beats the alternative." There was a brief, barely perceptible wince at the allusion to the times he'd been close to 'the alternative'. But at least he could joke about it a little bit. Progress.

Angel tilted her head, her smile faltering a bit. She was a lot of things, but completely oblivious wasn't one of them, despite most beliefs. "You all right?" She asked quietly.

Doug hunched a shoulder in what was supposed to look more like a devil-may-care shrug than it actually ended up as. "Ish." After all, his life could always be worse.

"Ahuh." Angel pursed her lips for a moment. "Not as bad as horrible, but not as good as fantastic." If that made sense to anyone outside of Angel's head.

"More or less." Vague was Doug's stock in trade, considering his job. And being evasive about the state of his mental landscape was something like second nature at this point. He was used to compartmentalizing, not showing people certain things if it might cause problems. It wasn't always successful - his spectacular breakdown being the most obvious example - but it got him through the day.

"How about you?" Redirection, another classic Doug tactic.

The redhead raised an eyebrow - she would have been amused if what he was doing hadn't been so obvious. "You know what before I even answer that I'm just going to tell you that I'm well aware of what you're doing, but I'm going to let it go because you're a superspy with super-hacking skills and could probably have me deported if you really wanted to. Or, you know, arrested. Or something." Translation: You're not as sneaky as you like to think, Doug Ramsey. "If you ever want to talk, though..." Angel let the sentence hang. He was smart, he'd figure out what she meant.

Doug was very accomplished at reading between the lines, yes. So he was well aware of what Angel was trying to say. "I appreciate it." And he did, even if some secrets went too deep to share casually. "Some of it is just my job being what it is. It's not easy."

"I figured," Angel admitted. "Sometimes you just shouldn't be alone, though." A beat of silence passed, and she grinned. "Besides, when you hang around with me you're more likely to get donuts. You can never go wrong with donuts."

"I do like donuts," Doug admitted. "And...thanks."

"That's what I'm here for, isn't it?" Angel grinned. "Well, no, wait, actually I was here to ask about language lessons, but hey - since I'm in the neighborhood and all..."