xp_logs | (no subject)

Angelo and Illyana have a chat in the kitchen on Thursday night. Angelo is obliging, and Illyana is unnecessarily sneaky in getting public knowledge out of him. Old habits die hard. ;)

Angelo was sitting in the kitchen, having scraped together a rough meal of leftovers to eat before bed. Intent on his meal, he didn't hear when the door opened quietly, and didn't look up.

Illyana stepped into the kitchen carefully, bare feet quiet on the ceramic. She glanced around, noted the figure at the table, and quickly catalogued the exits -- window, door -- and took an almost tentative step inward, keeping a firm hold on the faint memories the room evoked. She was quiet, but not silent, while she took a few steps inward, almost as though she was judging something.

Angelo finally registered her presence and looked up, having to double-take before he realized who this must be. "...'Yana?" he said hesitantly.

Her gaze shifted immediately to the young man sitting at the table, and although she did not visibly tense, her posture changed slightly, from exploratory to something more guarded. "Yes," she said, vague recognition dawning on her face as she took a more complete look at him. Something familiar -- though it was half-memory at best. "Hello," she added, unsure how to proceed from there.

Angelo glanced down, a little sadly, as he realized she didn't know him. "Hi. I'm Angelo", he said in case she'd forgotten his name. "We were kind of friends... before."

"Were we?" She paused, spending a moment searching her fuzzy memories of the time before the portal for some display of him. "I'm sorry -- I'm afraid that I don't remember," she said, injecting regret into the words.

He nodded, having expected that. "It's okay - you were gone a long time, I guess. 's really weird", he added, almost to himself. "Last time I saw you, you were eight, an' that was only a couple of months ago, here..."

"I have been told that it's -- unnerving," she said, moving awkwardly, as though she didn't often stop to chat with someone. "For me, everything is the same way I left it," she added, motioning vaguely at the kitchen.

Angelo nodded again. "Well, yeah, that makes sense. You weren't gone long at all, on this end."

A corner of her mouth quirked upward in a humourless smile. "Five minutes," she said. "Or so I've been told."

"Sounds about right", he agreed. "I wasn't around - was kinda recoverin' from somethin' else, but people told me about it, after."

Her eyes fell on his hands, and she looked up, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Those?" she asked, pointing a short-nailed finger.

Angelo glanced down reflexively. "Oh - no, those are older. It was a fire, though."

"I see," Illyana murmured, face masked from emotion. Her brow wrinkled for a moment. "An attack?" she asked curiously. "I remember something like that from -- shortly before I was taken."

He nodded. "Yeah. You, an' the other little ones an' quite a few others, got taken hostage, I think."

It had been a long time since she had thought about that childhood trauma. "Yes," she said, shrugging easily, as though they were discussing the weather. "I remember it. Men dressed in black, that kind of thing."

Angelo nodded again, eyeing her a little oddly, then reminding himself that it had been a lot longer for her than it had for him. "That's the one. Not that I actually saw them."

Illyana's lips quirked. "I think I had my face hidden in someone's shoulder for most of it," she said, with a very slight undertone of self-derisiveness. "How did they manage to get you into a fire, though?"

"They didn't, directly", he explained. "You know John? Controls fire? He was tryin' to stop them taking hostages, an' one of them knocked him out before he killed his fire. So it went out of control."

Typical bloody disaster from these ones, she thought, but managed to keep it to herself. "Wonderful," she remarked instead, dryly. "I hope it got some of the ones it was aimed at, at least?"

"Couldn't say. From what I heard, though, most of them never made it out of the house."

"I shouldn't think so, with all the mutants who live here," she commented, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, wouldn't you have had the advantage in a fight? Unconsciousness causing fire," she added, "notwithstanding."

He nodded grimly. "I was out of it for most all the actual fightin', but once Pete raised the alarm, they didn't stand a chance. Way I understand it, they wouldn't've lasted as long as they did if they hadn't grabbed the more defenseless kids an' holed up in the ballroom."

She shook her head. "Awful," she said. "But at least they won't be making any return visits."

He grinned wryly. "Yeah, I think it's pretty safe to say that."

She managed a half-smile, although it looked as though she hadn't had much practise at the whole 'smiling' enterprise before. "The -- security here seems fairly extensive anyway," she said. "It's quite impressive."

"Most of that was put in place after the last attack", he told her. "Lee's only been on staff a few months. But, yeah. Security's hard to get past these days."

She made a mental note to figure out who 'Lee' was (not her roommate, surely?), and moved on. "It certainly must feel safer here, then." No hostage situations to speak of, she didn't add.

The wry grin returned, at that. "Well, the mansion does, yeah. No more invasions."

Her lips quirked again. "Then something good came of it, at least," she said, with a brief consideration for the amount of chaos attacks on the mansion must have caused -- Belasco's included.

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess it did, at that."

Aware that she'd said the wrong thing -- damn this place, anyway, for its bloody social conventions -- she shifted her weight. "I should probably leave you to your food," she said apologetically, with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I didn't mean to keep you from it."

Angelo shook his head. "No, it's fine. You came in here for somethin' - you hungry?"

"No, just -- getting reaquainted, I suppose you could say." Illyana looked slightly embarrassed. "I keep remembering things I've been wanting to see again for years, so I thought I'd take a look around."

He smiled sadly. "Makes sense - 's not like you've been able to before now, bein' sick an' all. You want a reacquaintin' tour? Just let me finish this, an' we can go if you want."

These people just believe the emotional nonsense. Amazing, Illyana thought. To Angelo, she said, "Oh -- thank you, but I think I'd -- well, it's a bit emotional, really. I'd kind of prefer to do it on my own." Because there was no way that she could check the exits in every room without coming off as either crazy or suspicious.

He shrugged. "Fair enough. How've you been settlin' back in?"

The question surprised her. "Pretty well," she replied, shrugging. "It's all quite strange, I think, for everyone. But it's very -- well, it's amazing, to be back."

"Yeah. Must be stranger for you than anyone", he said, eyeing her speculatively. "Bein' gone so long, an' then nothin' at all's changed..."

"It's -- yes, it's very strange. But really, in a way, it's like I didn't miss anything. I think it must be harder for other people, not having me grow up with them." It was risky, but being casual was better than utterly ignoring the subject of her childhood.

"It's... weird, yeah. Did they let the boys down to see you at all? Miles an' Artie?"

She shook her head. "No. I didn't see them -- just after I got back, when the doctors weren't sure if I was really me. And then I became ill, and I'm told it wasn't in my best interests to have too many visitors." She looked irritated at the last, as though the excuse of an insufficient immune system annoyed her.

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, of course. They'll be wantin' to see you at some point, though I don't know how much anyone's explained about what happened..."

"Quite a hard concept to explain to a child," she said, remembering her own disbelief and shock. "I'll be glad to see them again, though."

Angelo smiled. "Well, I'm sure someone'll arrange that for you whenever you want, if you don't run into them first now you're back upstairs."

The thought of entertaining -- even being responsible for the well-being of -- childhood friends made Illyana's head swim. "Yes, of course," she said, smiling. "I'll be sure to ask as soon as everything's settled." She stopped, then said regretfully, "It's been lovely talking to you, but I should really let you eat, and I'd like to explore a bit more before bed."

Angelo nodded. "Sure, I can understand that. I'll see you 'round the house."

"Absolutely. Thank you," she added, and turned to leave.