Amanda and Domino, Tuesday afternoon

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A few hours prior to this log. Domino goes looking for Amanda. The two of them talk, mostly about Nathan, but also a little about Manuel, Frank, and shopping plans.



Domino paused in front of the closed door, checking the number. Yeah, this is it... She reached out and knocked on the door, twice and firmly. "Amanda?" she called out, hoping that she had heard the room number the boy downstairs had given her properly. He had been stuttering and staring at her chest at the time, after all.

There was someone knocking on the door, Amanda realised muzzily. She opened her eyes, realising she'd fallen asleep re-reading her history book, and groaned. The headache had receded but not gone, which was odd. All this cramming for exams must be fucking with her recovery time. Then she heard Domino's voice call her name, and she shoved the history book off her chest and got up, wincing as movement made the room spin. "Jus' a sec..." she replied groggily, making her way to the door and opening it. At the last minute she realised she probably looked like death warmed over from the combination of lack of sleep and magical over-exertion.

Domino tilted her head at the girl as she opened the door. "You look like shit," she observed calmly. Not that she understood any of this magical stuff, but she wasn't blind, and the cost of what Amanda had done was written all over her face. "Can I come in?"

"'Course," Amanda said, smiling slightly. "'Scuse the mess - 's exams an' everyone's gone crazy with the study. Not so much time for the cleanin' up." She moved a pile of laundry off her chair and kicked it under the bed. "Didn't get a hell of a lot of sleep last night, either," she explained, waiting until Domino had sat down before plonking herself down on the bed again. There was a half-mug of her willowbark tea on the bedside table - it was cold, but she drank it down any way, grimacing at the taste and the temperature. "How's Nate doin'?"

"Stubborn," Domino said with a snort. "They generally hook people who've been badly hurt, just been through surgery, or both, up to a pump where they can control the amount of painkiller they're getting. Of course, that presupposes that the patient is willing to use it." As she spoke, she was looking around the room, taking in each detail and filing them away. "Nate will probably kick himself for messing with your study-time," she observed.

Amanda shrugged. "I'll manage. I don't tend t' need a lot of sleep, so I can make up for it." She shook her head. "Nate's such a plonker, sometimes. He has a go at me for over-doin' things, an' then does the same thing himself." Leaning back against the wall and folding her legs Indian-style, she observed the older woman just as frankly as Domino had her. "Yer lookin' better. Get enough kip?"

Domino made a face. "Too much. Woke up all groggy." She slouched in the chair, smiling conspiratorially at Amanda. "As for Nate's 'do as I say, not as I do' approach, it's not something he's invented just for you, if that's any consolation." Domino felt her smile turn a little brittle. "And he may a hypocrite when you call him on his behavior, but it's not entirely his fault. It's his conditioning. Deep down he's programmed not to care about the damage he takes so long as it doesn't get in the way of completing the mission."

Amanda frowned. "He's mentioned the conditionin' before. I s'pose I didn't realise how much of a hold it has on him doin' normal things." As always when she was bothered by something, her hands figeted, the left coming up to play with Romany's amulet. "Then again, Samson's been tryin' t' tell me that a lot of the stuff I do is 'cause of how I was brought up, an' Rack didn't use all that telepathic stuff on me." Glancing up at Domino again, she asked: "Can it be fixed? The conditionin', I mean. The X geezer's got that big brain of his..."

"I don't know," Domino said quietly. She had been wondering that herself. "I'd tend to think no. They rewrote his mind, Amanda, when he was years younger than you. Even if it could be undone, we might not recognize the Nate we'd get at the other end." She smiled faintly. "I figured out pretty early on that he needed a minder. One of the reasons I never took to that boarding school. Well, that and the fact that going from the fighting pits to nuns, uniforms, and a classical education really just didn't work for me."

Amanda snickered at the image of Domino in a school uniform terrorising nuns, welcoming the lightening of the mood. "I had him pegged as needin' someone t'watch him from the start too, tho' that was when he was fallin' over every five minutes, so it weren't hard. Just wish I could do somethin' more than the magical patch-up jobs after he gets hurt. He's done a lot for me, an' for Manny, even if Manny's a git sometimes an' don't remember it."

"You are doing more than that," Domino murmured, without breaking eye contact. "He tends not to connect with people, Amanda. I don't know what you did, how you got it under his defenses, but you obviously have." She paused, smiling wryly. "As for Lizard Boy... pardon me, your boyfriend, I'm rather astounded Nate hasn't blown him through a wall, given some of the stuff I've read between the lines of his emails."

A faint blush came into Amanda's face. "'S mutual," she said, looking down. "I mean, I don't tend t' trust people that much, but Nate's... I dunno how t' say it. I was goin' through some shite, an' he said somethin' that helped, a lot more 'n either of us realised at the time." The blush intensified, and Amanda coughed and switched the subject. "As for Lizard Boy..." A small grin appeared on her face as she glanced over at Frank's tank, where the iguana was watching them solemnly. "Manny's... complicated. He thinks he knows it all, but he's not even close sometimes, an' somethin' in Nate brings out the worst in him. Most days I just try an' keep 'em apart an' do damage control when they butt heads. Doesn't help they're both stubborn bastards."

"Hah!" Domino said, following Amanda's gaze over to Frank's tank. "He's yours, then?" she asked, getting up and wandering over to take a closer look. Frank blinked at her impassively. "He's grown," she observed, and then looked back at Amanda with a grin. "Nate ever tell you he's got a bird? Or rather, the nice couple that look after our Rome safehouse have a bird that thinks she belongs to Nate? Great big huge parrot... one of those really alarmingly colorful ones, a macaw or something like that." Domino laughed. "Bella - that's the bird - will curl up on Nate's pillow when we're staying there and coo at him. He feeds her at the table and growls at anyone who makes fun of him."

Amanda giggled, and the laughter did more to relieve the tiredness in her face than any amount of rest. "No, he hadn't said. Can't imagine why, not like I'd tease him or nothin' for bein' a big marshmallow..." Her mock-innocent expression was marred by another giggle, this one wicked. "An' Frank was a present from one of the teachers, Betsy. For me birthday. Manny took a shine to him - named him, actually - an' was lookin' after him while he thought I was... after Mexico, any way. He's good company." She joined Domino at the tank and carefully lifted the lizard out, settling him on her shoulder. "You'd think Frank could talk, t' hear Manny go on when they're together. 'S cute, but you didn't hear that from me."

"I'm sure Manuel's got some redeeming qualities," Domino said casually, peering at Frank, "or you wouldn't be with him." Not waiting to note Amanda's reaction to that, she went on. "Nate is the biggest animal-lover I've ever known, to be honest. He just has never had pets of his own because he's always been on the move."

"Makes sense, with this adoptin' habit of his," said Amanda, lifting her arm as Frank decided to take a walk down it, curious about this new person in the room. "An' not t' jump the gun or nothin', but if he plans t' stay here for a while..." She let the rest of the suggestion hang, catching a flicker on Domino's face. "He don't care 'bout you any the less 'cause he's decided t' stay here, you know," she said quietly, scratching Frank behind his eye ridges.

Domino shook her head, laughing softly as she held a hand out to Frank, who regarded it thoughtfully. "People keep telling me that," she said lightly. "It's not as if I don't know it. And I'm glad if he thinks he can be happy here. Just..." She shrugged, letting her hand fall back to her side. "Just easier said than done to let go," she said, and then laughed again. "Hey, happier thoughts, okay? I promised you much spoiling, and even if I hadn't, it would be in order, after what you did for Nate. When are you free this week?"

"I've got me first two exams tomorrow, an' then a couple of days off after that before the rest next week. How long are you stayin'?" Amanda brightened at the thought of doing something that wasn't study of some kind.

"Why don't we make it Thursday?" Domino suggested with a grin. "I'll borrow a car and we'll do New York until she screams for mercy."

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Yes, yes, I'd say the collapsing was a major clue.

:)