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xp_logsDomino makes good her promise to spoil Amanda by taking her to New York. There is shopping, food, clubbing and not a little flirting. And lots and lots of talking about things. Including the attractiveness of Not Nice men.
Domino was putting the finishing touches on the note when Amanda appeared at her door, overnight bag over her shoulder and looking tired but excited. Domino grinned at her. "Just penning the note to your noble guardian to explain why you're vanishing for the next twenty-four hours. I promised Pete I'd bring you back mostly intact."
Amanda snickered. "Last time I talked t' Pete 'bout this, he put his hands over his ears an' said the less he knew the better. An' that he weren't payin' our bail if we get banged up." She adjusted the beaten-up leather jacket she'd refused to part with upon her arrival at the mansion and settled the strap of her duffle bag more comfortably over her shoulder. "So, we right?" she asked, bouncing a little on her toes.
"One thing, first," Domino said seriously, reaching for the envelope sitting on the desk in front of her. "I thought you might want these now, given some of what I have planned..." She sat back, smiling slightly as Amanda took the envelope, shooting her a quizzical look. "It was Nate's idea originally. That's a full set of fake papers, about as ironclad as the ones we carry. Made the last name 'Seaton' instead of 'Sefton', but I've got your first name and a relatively good pic. Oh, and they say you're of age, of course." She chuckled softly. "Also, there's a bank card there. Call it a emergency fund... should be able to get you out of just about any trouble you get yourself into."
"You wot?" Stunned, Amanda pulled out a passport, along with a number of other papers, flipping it open to examine the picture. "Looks even better than the one Pete had made for me," she murmured, examining it and the rest - birth certificate, driver's licence, the bank card... "This is just... unbelievable," she said, looking up at Dom. Then a grin spread across her face. "An' it means I can ditch that fake ID Remy got me with the incredibly stupid name."
Domino snorted. "There's a fake ID, then there are those. That should stand up to anything short of a full INS investigation." She winked at Amanda. "So don't get yourself into too much trouble."
"Famous last words," Amanda said with a smirk. "Ta, Dom. Really. This is just brilliant." She hadn't known Domino long enough for hugging, so she settled on a smile as she carefully put the documents back in the envelope and the envelope in her bag. "Wanna go see just how much trouble I can get us into?"
***
"Ooh, yes," Domino said, studying herself in the full-length mirrors. The red leather pants were just right. They'd take a little breaking in, of course, but leather always did. The top, sleeveless and glittery, wasn't quite right, though, she thought critically. Needed something more low-cut. "How're you doing, Amanda?" she called, eyeing the closed door of the other dressing room.
There was a pause, and then Amanda's doubtful voice: "Um, not sure. This ain't exactly me usual thing, Dom. I'm thinkin' I look a right Neville in this." She'd managed to discourage Domino from anything low cut - with difficulty, since Domino had extolled the value of cleavage in making men do what you wanted, and Amanda wasn't about to explain _why_ she didn't wear anything that was cut below the collarbones - but this...
"Aw, come on, Amanda. Let me see?" Domino said, striding across to the door. "That was a perfectly nice dress..."
Taking a deep breath, Amanda came out. "Between you an' Marie, gettin' me into skirts..." she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and mock-glaring at Domino. The dress itself was very simply cut - sleeveless, with a t-shirt-type neckline and the hem stopping just above her knees. But it was made of Lycra and hugged Amanda's skinny frame closely and Domino nodded approvingly. If the girl insisted on covering herself up, there were other ways. "You sure 'bout the colour? I"m pretty sure I saw somethin' in black..." Amanda adjusted the skirt, looking doubtfully at the dark red material.
"Black is for looking dangerous, or blending in. Depends on the black." Domino looked Amanda up and down, deciding that yes, this was precisely the right dress. "Red makes a different statement. Although I still preferred the one with the lower-cut neck." She half-turned away, slipping the top off - she and Amanda were the only two back here and she wasn't about to get shy - and reached for the beaded one.
"Just don't feel comfortable with me tits hangin' out is all..." Amanda began, but was distracted by Domino's impromptu strip tease. 'Not bad,' was Amanda's first thought, closely followed by surprise at the cris-crossing lines of scars across the older woman's back. Whip marks, Amanda recognised, and not recent ones - Domino had to have been just a kid when they were made, and the different layers implied they'd occurred over time. Then Domino turned around, pulling the top over her head, and Amanda's eyes dropped to the knife slashes across the white skin of her stomach.
"What?" Domino asked, and then noticed what Amanda was looking at. "Ah," she said. "You should see the ones on my legs. Couple of bastards in a North Korean prison thought it was fun to carve their names. 'Chung was here', that sort of thing." She slid on the beaded top, and turned to check it in the mirror. "Ah. That's better."
"Yeah, looks good," Amanda said, but a bit absently, her mind occupied. She went back into the cubicle to change - Domino had given her what seemed like half the store to try on - wondering whether it was only in England that people freaked out about scarring. Then again, the people she'd met in the States weren't exactly _normal_ people... She'd pulled the dress over her head and was standing in the cubicle in her underwear (no bra - the humidity of the last few days had made the scarring chafe too much) when Domino knocked on the door.
"Look, I found it in black..." Domino started, pushing the door open just slightly, but enough to see Amanda and some rather unusual scars all over her upper body. "Ah," she said quietly, opening the door a little more, enough to step in, before closing it firmly behind her. Amanda folded her arms across her chest, a bit defensively, and Domino smiled slightly, her gaze skimming over the scars for a moment before returning to Amanda's face. "Why didn't you say? I wouldn't have yammered at you about cleavage."
"Well, it ain't exactly somethin' you can toss into casual conversation, is it?" Amanda said after a moment's indecision of which reaction to go with. She decided on pragmatic; after all, Domino at least had some idea where she was coming from. "An' I've had some bad experiences with it, back home, mostly. Foster mothers insistin' I cover 'em up, teasin' at school 'cause I wouldn't go t' swimmin' lessons, gettin' known as the girl with the marked-up skin..." She shrugged. "Magic ritual, when I was eleven. Bindin' spell - it was supposed t' make me the permanent property of the fuckwad who brought me up. Same one who came after me in Mexico." She dropped her arms so Domino could get the full picture, indicating the claw-like marks on her thighs. "Same reason I don't do minis, neither, not unless I've got somethin' on underneath."
"Mmm." Domino turned for a moment, hanging up the black version of the dress, and then slid out of the outfit she had on. Fair was fair, she reflected, and set the clothes aside, turning around in place so that Amanda could get a good look at all of her scars. "Mine are accumulated, either on the job or while I was a kid in the combat pits. Although a number of them are from that North Korean prison I mentioned. Nate and G.W. have plenty of mementos from there, too." She smiled slightly, turning to take the black dress off the hangar. "Try that," she suggested, and slid the beaded top back on, deciding to try it with the black leather pants. "Although I still like the red," she said, opening the door and slipping back out.
***
"So, what were you lot doin' in jail in North Korea?" Amanda asked, her mouth full. She and Domino had retreated to the Village for late lunch in one of the myriad small cafes and restaurants in that area. Amanda was demolishing a plate of pasta at a rate that amused and mystified Domino - there didn't seem to be enough space in the girl's small frame for all that food.
"Mourning our own stupidity," Domino said. Amanda gave her a dubious look, and she grinned. "I'll tell you the whole story if you tell me how you eat like that and stay that thin. Got one of those alarming mutant metabolisms?"
Amanda shook her head and swallowed before replying. "Not exactly," she said. "'S the magic. Tends t' burn a lot of me own energy, as well as whatever me mutation absorbs. People are always tellin' me I'm too skinny, but it ain't like I do it on purpose." She shrugged. "'S part an' parcel of the rest of it - the headaches an' nosebleeds an' such happen when I use too much. McCoy said somethin' 'bout the human central nervous system not bein' meant for channellin' magic."
"Mmm," Domino said, eyeing her thoughtfully and hoping that whoever was teaching her magic was also teaching her not to overdo things. Probably doesn't help to be healing gunshot wounds... "Mixed blessing, then," she observed, and then picked up a piece of bruschetta and leaned back in her chair, nibbling at it. "And fair is fair. So. North Korea. A job went totally, horribly, mindblowingly bad. The three of us wound up in prison for the better part of two months."
Amanda listened, eyes a little wide - Nate, and to a lesser extent, Pete, tended to shield her from the uglier side of their jobs. "How long had you been with 'em by that stage?" she asked.
"Um... about three years, so I was a little older than you. Eighteen." Domino set the bruschetta back down and picked up her wine glass instead. Alcohol, when discussing this story, was definitely in order. "It got quite rough," she said frankly. "That's not a country whose prisons you want to be visiting, especially for that long."
"I bet it bloody isn't." Amanda propped her chin on her hand, food temporarily forgotten in favour of Domino's story. "An' that's where you got those scars? The ones on yer back?"
"No, the ones on my back are old, from Hong Kong. Probably better than half of the others are from North Korea, though." Domino sipped at her wine, her eyes going distant for a moment. "I didn't think I was going to make it through that," she confessed, an artifcial lightness to her voice. "Really didn't."
"What got you through?" Amanda asked softly, quick to see the pain behind the mask, since she did it herself so often. Or used to.
"Nate. Which is kind of funny, given that he was dying at the time." Amanda's eyes widened, and Domino explained. "He and I were wearing dampening collars, of course, or they never would have kept him in there, and they confiscated the medication he takes to help keep the virus under control. But they had him and I and G.W. all in one cell, and Nate would not let us give up." Domino smiled thinly. "They would pick one of us, take you away to have some fun, then throw you back in the cell with the other two. Was supposed to break the other two's spirits, but it didn't work so well, thanks to Nate. Who, incidentally, liked to goad the guards so they'd pick him." She sighed a little, sipping at her wine again.
"That sounds like Nate," Amanda agreed. She frowned. "So how did he survive if he wasn't gettin' treatment for the virus? An' how did you get out?"
"Very nearly didn't. To both questions." Domino swirled the wine in her glass, thinking. "He generally takes extra doses leading up to a job, just in case he happens to drop a pill bottle or we get detained. So there was quite a bit in his system for at least the first couple of weeks. Plus I doubt the collar was totally dampening his telekinesis - he's awfully fucking strong, so there was probably a little still operating at the subconscious level. Didn't stop him from getting really sick, though. That last week..."
Domino stopped, downing the rest of her wine. "He was pretty out of it by then," she said more quietly. "Delirious, coughing up blood. When the rest of the team came for us - and that was one mess of an extraction, because they had to stage a general prison break - Theo had to carry him out."
Amanda was quiet, absorbing all this. It didn't take looking at Domino's aura to see how much the experience had affected her, and how she felt about Nate's role in it - Amanda was beginning to get an idea of just how strong the bonds were between the two, and she couldn't help a pang of envy. "'S funny," she said at last. "I always sort of thought yer kind of job would be excitin', but I s'pose I didn't realise just how fuckin' dangerous it is. How d'you do it? Keep goin' out there?"
"I've never had anything resembling a 'safe' life," Domino confessed. "At least as a merc I get to decide what sort of situations I put myself in more often than not. Not like in the combat pits." She laughed softly, telling herself to relax. "And to be honest, Amanda, things rarely go *that* badly. Oh, it can be a hard life, physically and mentally, even when things are going well, but there are compensations. Money, freedom..."
"Can't argue with those," the girl agreed with a grin. "An' Pete manages t' come back in one piece most of the time, tho' he ain't in exactly the same business. I think he just likes t' tell me the bad things 'bout it so I don't follow him into it. Tho' I ain't exactly sure what use me powers would be, any way." She picked up her fork again. "Fuck, up until January all I was thinkin' about with me future was where I was gunna kip that night. Now I have t' decide on a career."
"Options," Domino said with a wink. "Scary things. But you've got some time to think about it, don't you? Get school finished with first..." She tilted her head, giving Amanda a thoughtful look. "What do you like to do?" she asked curiously. "That's probably a good place to start."
"'Sides the magic... 'M not sure. I like horses - there was a fire at this horse stud near the school, an' we went an' helped out. That was brilliant - I was thinkin' of maybe askin' 'em if they'd take me on as a stable hand or somethin' once I finish up." She shrugged. "Everyone else is talkin' uni an' such, but I dunno. I'm not one for the school work. Art's all right, an' some of the history stuff, an' Nate's talkin' 'bout teachin' languages which would be wicked, but the rest I couldn't give a toss about." Amanda chuckled. "Like I said, I ain't really thought about it. Doesn't help that Manny's got everythin' mapped out an' keeps tellin' me he'll take care of things." That thought made her nose wrinkle. "Which is all well an' good, until he gets sick of me, an' then I'm back where I started. Better t' take care of meself."
"Self-sufficiency," Domino said lightly. "That's what you want. I can't blame you, from what I know of your background from Nate and Pete." She nodded at the waiter, who had appeared silently to refill her glass. He topped off Amanda's as well. "And hell, even if you want to do university you don't have to do it now. Have a little fun first, little sister. Find out exactly what you want out of life and then go get it."
With a grin, Amanda raised her glass. "I'll drink t' that," she said.
***
The red dress was perfect, Domino thought, eyeing Amanda across the glass and steel table and smiling. The club she'd decided on was packed, the music fast and frenetic and the lightshow enough to induce seizures in anyone prone to epilepsy. Not having that problem, she was rather enjoying herself.
"Know you're more into punk," she said loudly, leaning across the table so that Amanda could hear her, "but a little variety never hurt!" Amanda grinned, and Domino leaned in closer. "So, you and Manuel exclusive, or should we find you something cute?"
Amanda laughed out loud at the thought. "Exclusive? Me? Fuck, no!" She gave Domino an impish grin. "An' Manny don't mind, since he gets his share down the link. He knows I ain't into that sort of thing… well, you've met Rom, have you?"
"Couple of times," Domino said cheerfully. "She and I got along well. Helped her torment Pete one night while Nate sat there snickering behind his beer." She eyed the candidates in their immediate vicinity, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "What about the blond over by the bar? He's definitely checking us out."
"You mean he's checkin' you out," Amanda pointed out, snickering. "He's had his eyes glued on yer cleavage since you walked in." She sipped her vodka and orange - beer was too heavy for clubbing, it made her too full - and let her eyes wander. "What about you? See anythin' you like?" she asked, curious to know where Domino's preferences lay.
"Hmm... I'm torn," Domino confessed. "Guy over there who could be G.W.'s younger brother... awfully tempting. But the redhead by the bar's gorgeous. I have a definite thing for hot women in black leather." Her gaze lingered on the redhead, who smiled wryly, raising her glass as if in salute.
Amanda tried very hard not to gawk at the redhead, although it was hard. "You got good taste," she managed at last, smiling to herself at the sensations Manuel was probably getting down the link as the result of her imagination going to some interesting places involving Domino and the redhead. She took another sip - well, more of a gulp - of her drink and cast her gaze around again. A lanky young guy with reddish brown hair caught her glance and nodded appreciatively, cocking his head towards the dance floor.
Domino laughed. "Go on," she said, waving at Amanda. "I'm going to go introduce myself, I think." She pushed herself out of her chair, martini in one hand, and made her way over to the bar. "Hey there," she said casually, slipping in next to the redhead, who grinned at her. "You do things to those pants that ought to be illegal."
"I'm Alec," the guy said, by way of introduction as Amanda joined him. "I haven't seen you here before. You visiting your friend?"
"Amanda," she replied, giving him one of her most winning smiles. She glanced over at Domino, who was chatting up the redhead, rather successfully by the looks of it, and smiled. "Yer mostly right - Dom's not me friend, she's me big sister."
***
Stumbling down the street at three in the morning, Amanda giggled slightly tipsily and gave a half-skip. "I've had the best time," she announced.
"You need to come visit me in Europe," Domino said with a grin, linking arms with her, just to make sure Amanda didn't take a header into the street. Their hotel was just down the road and around the corner - they could have taken a cab from the club, but she had figured that a little fresh air would be good for both of them. Naomi had tried to convince her to come back to her place ("And bring your little friend if you want - she's cute!" the redhead - who was, of all things, a Marine on leave - had offered) but Domino had put her off with vague promises of coming back next week. Not that she wouldn't have minded something more, but she didn't want Amanda too hung over or exhausted in the morning.
"Berlin's got great night life," she went on cheerfully, "and Amsterdam... well. Lots of fun to be had in Amsterdam."
"So I've heard - I used t' talk t' the backpackers in Brighton a bit, place is crawlin' with 'em. An' yeah, that'd be wicked. I want t' go back an' see Rom an' the rest of them durin' summer hols, an' Manuel said somethin' 'bout takin' me t' Spain, so maybe sometime then?" Amanda was pleasantly buzzed - perhaps a little more drunk than she usually got - but most of all she felt _relaxed_, the stress of the previous week forgotten. She half-hugged Domino's arm. "Sorry t' cramp yer style with that Naomi - she had it bad for you."
"Anytime you want. Just get Nate to let me know you're coming so I can make plans." Domino laughed. "As for Naomi... she got a taste. A little me goes a long way." She grinned at Amanda. "You going to be with me for a while, little sister? Though I'd hit up room service for some more alcohol, maybe some food. Then we could do the girl talk thing."
"The buzz I've got goin', I'm good for hours yet," Amanda replied with a grin. "An' I never say no t' food."
They reached the hotel, and Domino snickered as the doorman ogled them both shamelessly as they passed him. Inside, the lobby was ridiculously opulent - she had deliberately picked a five-star hotel, since this trip was all about spoiling Amanda - but quite deserted. The concierge stared, but Domino ignored him, leading Amanda over to the elevator.
The elevator doors opened after a minute, and they got in, joining an older man who was clearly coming up from the fitness centre in the basement. He gave them a suspicious look, clearly disapproving of their attire, and Domino smirked. She slipped an arm around Amanda, letting her hand rest lightly on the girl's hip.
After a brief start at the unexpected touch, Amanda took the hint and cuddled up to Domino with a wicked grin. "Think we can make his eyes pop?" she whispered in Domino's ear.
"Or have fun trying," Domino murmured, smiling broadly as Amanda looked up at her.
"Just don't shoot me or anythin' for this," said Amanda with a grin, before reaching up on tiptoe and kissing her fairly thoroughly. There was a strangled noise from the man, and Amanda bit back a giggle.
The elevator chose that moment to stop at his floor, and Domino drew back, laughing softly as the man scuttled out, shooting an outraged look back over his shoulder at them as the doors slid shut. "Prude," she scoffed, then slid her arm back around Amanda. "And you are not a bad kisser. I suppose it's highly inappropriate given our pseudo-familial thing, but hell, I schemed to get Nate in bed for years."
"'S all about the tongue stud," Amanda said with a wicked grin. "An' knowin' how t' use it." She wrapped her arm around Domino's waist, not pushing things but perfectly happy to see where they led. "An' 's one fucked up family I'm in, any way, since I had this whole thing for Angelo, until I realised there's no way he'll look at anyone as long as Paige is on the scene, an' he's pretty much me big brother now." Her look turned curious. "So did it work? You schemin' t' get Nate?"
The elevator stopped at their floor. "Once," Domino said, leading Amanda out and trying to remember what their room number was. 1524, yeah, that was it. She steered Amanda in that direction, digging out the keycard. "We were both drunk, he was hypothermic... didn't turn out to be such a good idea."
"Don't tell me, he went an' got all uptight 'bout the ethics of fuckin' his 'daughter' figure," Amanda said with a roll of her eyes as Domino disentangled herself long enough to unlock their room door and open it. She'd already seen it earlier, when they'd come back from various adventures in shopping to change for the evening, but she couldn't resist running (sort of) in and bouncing on the bed again. That done, she looked up at Dom and grinned impishly. "So, the whole emotional minefield shite aside, how was it?"
"You sleep with an empath," she pointed out, propping herself up on an elbow and grinning at Amanda. "So you have some idea. Although, with all due respect to Lizard Boy, I'm betting Nate has a little more in the way of stamina. Manuel's a little scrawny, comparatively." She fell silent for a moment, running a hand over the comforter, smoothing out some of the creases she was causing. "To be fair to him, he's got issues. With getting involved with younger women. He told me once - when he was mindblowingly drunk, so please don't let him know you know this - that his mother was fourteen when she had him. His father was twenty years older."
"Fourteen? Christ, that's fuckin' criminal. I mean, there were girls that age an' younger sellin' it on the street, but havin' a kid's different. Still, explains why he gets all flustered when I tease him." Amanda leaned back against the bedhead, stretching her legs out. Her dress had ridden up a bit, exposing part of the scars on her legs, but she didn't even notice. "But fuck it, he gives me such perfect straight lines sometimes I can't help it. An' he's cute when he's flustered. Gets that look on his face." She snickered.
"Wouldn't tease him too much about that," Domino advised. "Major sore spot. But yeah, he is awfully cute when he's flustered." She pillowed her head on her bent arm, eyeing Amanda thoughtfully.
"I won't. Just sometimes when I want him off guard. Wouldn't work so well if I did it all the time." Amanda grinned, and noted Domino's look. "What?"
"You have a tiny bit of a crush, don't you?" Domino asked, arching an eyebrow.
Amanda's slight blush answered the question. "An' you don't?" she asked, turning the tables.
"Hey, I am at peace with my failure to land tall, dark, and dysfunctional," Domino quipped. "Well, mostly. On good days, I am. On other days, I have my Moira-dartboard." Amanda blinked at her and Domino laughed, shaking her head. "Kidding... really, kidding. She's good for him. I know that. My occasional evil thought doesn't change that."
"Tell me about it," Amanda said with a wry face. "Doesn't help goin' to a school where bein' gorgeous seems t' be everyone else's second mutation an' I'm... well, me. An' I knew pretty much straight away Nate wouldn't have a bar of me, so it ain't like I'm pinin' away for him or somethin'. Just... he understood, right from the start, y'know?"
Domino sat up, folding her legs under her. "Funny how little old you landed a rich, relatively good-looking if highly annoying empath," she said lightly. "Don't sell yourself short. And as for Nate, when you've got a badass and a Sensitive Guy and a lost little boy inhabiting the same not-unattractive body... well, hard to resist."
"Very much so. An' I seem t' have a thing for the annoyin' ones. But who wants nice all the bloody time? That's borin', that is." Amanda got up and opened the mini-bar door. "Like Doug - he's _too_ nice, almost. Bland. Like American cheese." She scooped all the little bottles up in her skirt (unheeding of the fact she was flashing her underwear), and came back to dump them on the bed. "Couldn't decide which," she explained as Domino raised an eyebrow at her.
"Well, save some room for the martinis," Domino pointed out, leaning forward and swiping the little bottle of Grand Marnier. "As for nice... yeah, I find it a little tiresome myself. Like vanilla ice cream."
"There's always room for martinis," Amanda said with a chuckle as she picked through the bottles and came up with a vodka and cranberry pre-mix. Spinning off the cap, she asked, seemingly innocently: "You've known Pete a while, haven't you?"
"Yes indeed," Domino said brightly, grinning at her. "Why do you ask?"
"Have you an' he ever...?" Amanda let the question hang, an impish grin on her face. "Speakin' of dangerous an' not-nice-all-the-time."
Domino took a swig of the Grand Marnier and laughed. "Well..." she drawled. "You could always ask him about Belfast. I'm not positive he would remember..."
Amanda grinned. "Now who's sellin' 'emselves short? I think I'd remember, no matter how drunk I was."
Domino smiled, a slow predatory smile. "We could always put that to the test," she suggested, just to see how Amanda reacted. "And as for your dear uncle... I've always found him thoroughly adorable, and we have had some fun over the years."
"I'm game if you are," Amanda said with a smirk. "Tho' if you ain't, 's no skin off my nose. An' 'adorable' ain't a word I'd've used for Pete, but yeah, he's a bit of all right." She took a few mouthfuls of the vodka mix. "He ain't _really_ me uncle, just so you don't think I'm bein' freaky."
"I think I use the word adorable because he gets this... offended look when things don't go his way," Domino mused. "Like the world just disappointed him horribly and he's seriously considering delivering a solid kick to its ass. Not quite as 'Oh my, take me now'-inducing as Nate's Death-Glare of Righteous Wrath, but still lots of fun." She finished the Grand Marnier and then tossed the bottle back over her shoulder. It landed right in the garbage can, and she smiled widely. "As for being game... once we eat. Need lots of energy if we're going to aim for leaving Lizard Boy catatonic, right?"
"Right," Amanda agreed with a grin. "Food good."
Domino was putting the finishing touches on the note when Amanda appeared at her door, overnight bag over her shoulder and looking tired but excited. Domino grinned at her. "Just penning the note to your noble guardian to explain why you're vanishing for the next twenty-four hours. I promised Pete I'd bring you back mostly intact."
Amanda snickered. "Last time I talked t' Pete 'bout this, he put his hands over his ears an' said the less he knew the better. An' that he weren't payin' our bail if we get banged up." She adjusted the beaten-up leather jacket she'd refused to part with upon her arrival at the mansion and settled the strap of her duffle bag more comfortably over her shoulder. "So, we right?" she asked, bouncing a little on her toes.
"One thing, first," Domino said seriously, reaching for the envelope sitting on the desk in front of her. "I thought you might want these now, given some of what I have planned..." She sat back, smiling slightly as Amanda took the envelope, shooting her a quizzical look. "It was Nate's idea originally. That's a full set of fake papers, about as ironclad as the ones we carry. Made the last name 'Seaton' instead of 'Sefton', but I've got your first name and a relatively good pic. Oh, and they say you're of age, of course." She chuckled softly. "Also, there's a bank card there. Call it a emergency fund... should be able to get you out of just about any trouble you get yourself into."
"You wot?" Stunned, Amanda pulled out a passport, along with a number of other papers, flipping it open to examine the picture. "Looks even better than the one Pete had made for me," she murmured, examining it and the rest - birth certificate, driver's licence, the bank card... "This is just... unbelievable," she said, looking up at Dom. Then a grin spread across her face. "An' it means I can ditch that fake ID Remy got me with the incredibly stupid name."
Domino snorted. "There's a fake ID, then there are those. That should stand up to anything short of a full INS investigation." She winked at Amanda. "So don't get yourself into too much trouble."
"Famous last words," Amanda said with a smirk. "Ta, Dom. Really. This is just brilliant." She hadn't known Domino long enough for hugging, so she settled on a smile as she carefully put the documents back in the envelope and the envelope in her bag. "Wanna go see just how much trouble I can get us into?"
***
"Ooh, yes," Domino said, studying herself in the full-length mirrors. The red leather pants were just right. They'd take a little breaking in, of course, but leather always did. The top, sleeveless and glittery, wasn't quite right, though, she thought critically. Needed something more low-cut. "How're you doing, Amanda?" she called, eyeing the closed door of the other dressing room.
There was a pause, and then Amanda's doubtful voice: "Um, not sure. This ain't exactly me usual thing, Dom. I'm thinkin' I look a right Neville in this." She'd managed to discourage Domino from anything low cut - with difficulty, since Domino had extolled the value of cleavage in making men do what you wanted, and Amanda wasn't about to explain _why_ she didn't wear anything that was cut below the collarbones - but this...
"Aw, come on, Amanda. Let me see?" Domino said, striding across to the door. "That was a perfectly nice dress..."
Taking a deep breath, Amanda came out. "Between you an' Marie, gettin' me into skirts..." she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and mock-glaring at Domino. The dress itself was very simply cut - sleeveless, with a t-shirt-type neckline and the hem stopping just above her knees. But it was made of Lycra and hugged Amanda's skinny frame closely and Domino nodded approvingly. If the girl insisted on covering herself up, there were other ways. "You sure 'bout the colour? I"m pretty sure I saw somethin' in black..." Amanda adjusted the skirt, looking doubtfully at the dark red material.
"Black is for looking dangerous, or blending in. Depends on the black." Domino looked Amanda up and down, deciding that yes, this was precisely the right dress. "Red makes a different statement. Although I still preferred the one with the lower-cut neck." She half-turned away, slipping the top off - she and Amanda were the only two back here and she wasn't about to get shy - and reached for the beaded one.
"Just don't feel comfortable with me tits hangin' out is all..." Amanda began, but was distracted by Domino's impromptu strip tease. 'Not bad,' was Amanda's first thought, closely followed by surprise at the cris-crossing lines of scars across the older woman's back. Whip marks, Amanda recognised, and not recent ones - Domino had to have been just a kid when they were made, and the different layers implied they'd occurred over time. Then Domino turned around, pulling the top over her head, and Amanda's eyes dropped to the knife slashes across the white skin of her stomach.
"What?" Domino asked, and then noticed what Amanda was looking at. "Ah," she said. "You should see the ones on my legs. Couple of bastards in a North Korean prison thought it was fun to carve their names. 'Chung was here', that sort of thing." She slid on the beaded top, and turned to check it in the mirror. "Ah. That's better."
"Yeah, looks good," Amanda said, but a bit absently, her mind occupied. She went back into the cubicle to change - Domino had given her what seemed like half the store to try on - wondering whether it was only in England that people freaked out about scarring. Then again, the people she'd met in the States weren't exactly _normal_ people... She'd pulled the dress over her head and was standing in the cubicle in her underwear (no bra - the humidity of the last few days had made the scarring chafe too much) when Domino knocked on the door.
"Look, I found it in black..." Domino started, pushing the door open just slightly, but enough to see Amanda and some rather unusual scars all over her upper body. "Ah," she said quietly, opening the door a little more, enough to step in, before closing it firmly behind her. Amanda folded her arms across her chest, a bit defensively, and Domino smiled slightly, her gaze skimming over the scars for a moment before returning to Amanda's face. "Why didn't you say? I wouldn't have yammered at you about cleavage."
"Well, it ain't exactly somethin' you can toss into casual conversation, is it?" Amanda said after a moment's indecision of which reaction to go with. She decided on pragmatic; after all, Domino at least had some idea where she was coming from. "An' I've had some bad experiences with it, back home, mostly. Foster mothers insistin' I cover 'em up, teasin' at school 'cause I wouldn't go t' swimmin' lessons, gettin' known as the girl with the marked-up skin..." She shrugged. "Magic ritual, when I was eleven. Bindin' spell - it was supposed t' make me the permanent property of the fuckwad who brought me up. Same one who came after me in Mexico." She dropped her arms so Domino could get the full picture, indicating the claw-like marks on her thighs. "Same reason I don't do minis, neither, not unless I've got somethin' on underneath."
"Mmm." Domino turned for a moment, hanging up the black version of the dress, and then slid out of the outfit she had on. Fair was fair, she reflected, and set the clothes aside, turning around in place so that Amanda could get a good look at all of her scars. "Mine are accumulated, either on the job or while I was a kid in the combat pits. Although a number of them are from that North Korean prison I mentioned. Nate and G.W. have plenty of mementos from there, too." She smiled slightly, turning to take the black dress off the hangar. "Try that," she suggested, and slid the beaded top back on, deciding to try it with the black leather pants. "Although I still like the red," she said, opening the door and slipping back out.
***
"So, what were you lot doin' in jail in North Korea?" Amanda asked, her mouth full. She and Domino had retreated to the Village for late lunch in one of the myriad small cafes and restaurants in that area. Amanda was demolishing a plate of pasta at a rate that amused and mystified Domino - there didn't seem to be enough space in the girl's small frame for all that food.
"Mourning our own stupidity," Domino said. Amanda gave her a dubious look, and she grinned. "I'll tell you the whole story if you tell me how you eat like that and stay that thin. Got one of those alarming mutant metabolisms?"
Amanda shook her head and swallowed before replying. "Not exactly," she said. "'S the magic. Tends t' burn a lot of me own energy, as well as whatever me mutation absorbs. People are always tellin' me I'm too skinny, but it ain't like I do it on purpose." She shrugged. "'S part an' parcel of the rest of it - the headaches an' nosebleeds an' such happen when I use too much. McCoy said somethin' 'bout the human central nervous system not bein' meant for channellin' magic."
"Mmm," Domino said, eyeing her thoughtfully and hoping that whoever was teaching her magic was also teaching her not to overdo things. Probably doesn't help to be healing gunshot wounds... "Mixed blessing, then," she observed, and then picked up a piece of bruschetta and leaned back in her chair, nibbling at it. "And fair is fair. So. North Korea. A job went totally, horribly, mindblowingly bad. The three of us wound up in prison for the better part of two months."
Amanda listened, eyes a little wide - Nate, and to a lesser extent, Pete, tended to shield her from the uglier side of their jobs. "How long had you been with 'em by that stage?" she asked.
"Um... about three years, so I was a little older than you. Eighteen." Domino set the bruschetta back down and picked up her wine glass instead. Alcohol, when discussing this story, was definitely in order. "It got quite rough," she said frankly. "That's not a country whose prisons you want to be visiting, especially for that long."
"I bet it bloody isn't." Amanda propped her chin on her hand, food temporarily forgotten in favour of Domino's story. "An' that's where you got those scars? The ones on yer back?"
"No, the ones on my back are old, from Hong Kong. Probably better than half of the others are from North Korea, though." Domino sipped at her wine, her eyes going distant for a moment. "I didn't think I was going to make it through that," she confessed, an artifcial lightness to her voice. "Really didn't."
"What got you through?" Amanda asked softly, quick to see the pain behind the mask, since she did it herself so often. Or used to.
"Nate. Which is kind of funny, given that he was dying at the time." Amanda's eyes widened, and Domino explained. "He and I were wearing dampening collars, of course, or they never would have kept him in there, and they confiscated the medication he takes to help keep the virus under control. But they had him and I and G.W. all in one cell, and Nate would not let us give up." Domino smiled thinly. "They would pick one of us, take you away to have some fun, then throw you back in the cell with the other two. Was supposed to break the other two's spirits, but it didn't work so well, thanks to Nate. Who, incidentally, liked to goad the guards so they'd pick him." She sighed a little, sipping at her wine again.
"That sounds like Nate," Amanda agreed. She frowned. "So how did he survive if he wasn't gettin' treatment for the virus? An' how did you get out?"
"Very nearly didn't. To both questions." Domino swirled the wine in her glass, thinking. "He generally takes extra doses leading up to a job, just in case he happens to drop a pill bottle or we get detained. So there was quite a bit in his system for at least the first couple of weeks. Plus I doubt the collar was totally dampening his telekinesis - he's awfully fucking strong, so there was probably a little still operating at the subconscious level. Didn't stop him from getting really sick, though. That last week..."
Domino stopped, downing the rest of her wine. "He was pretty out of it by then," she said more quietly. "Delirious, coughing up blood. When the rest of the team came for us - and that was one mess of an extraction, because they had to stage a general prison break - Theo had to carry him out."
Amanda was quiet, absorbing all this. It didn't take looking at Domino's aura to see how much the experience had affected her, and how she felt about Nate's role in it - Amanda was beginning to get an idea of just how strong the bonds were between the two, and she couldn't help a pang of envy. "'S funny," she said at last. "I always sort of thought yer kind of job would be excitin', but I s'pose I didn't realise just how fuckin' dangerous it is. How d'you do it? Keep goin' out there?"
"I've never had anything resembling a 'safe' life," Domino confessed. "At least as a merc I get to decide what sort of situations I put myself in more often than not. Not like in the combat pits." She laughed softly, telling herself to relax. "And to be honest, Amanda, things rarely go *that* badly. Oh, it can be a hard life, physically and mentally, even when things are going well, but there are compensations. Money, freedom..."
"Can't argue with those," the girl agreed with a grin. "An' Pete manages t' come back in one piece most of the time, tho' he ain't in exactly the same business. I think he just likes t' tell me the bad things 'bout it so I don't follow him into it. Tho' I ain't exactly sure what use me powers would be, any way." She picked up her fork again. "Fuck, up until January all I was thinkin' about with me future was where I was gunna kip that night. Now I have t' decide on a career."
"Options," Domino said with a wink. "Scary things. But you've got some time to think about it, don't you? Get school finished with first..." She tilted her head, giving Amanda a thoughtful look. "What do you like to do?" she asked curiously. "That's probably a good place to start."
"'Sides the magic... 'M not sure. I like horses - there was a fire at this horse stud near the school, an' we went an' helped out. That was brilliant - I was thinkin' of maybe askin' 'em if they'd take me on as a stable hand or somethin' once I finish up." She shrugged. "Everyone else is talkin' uni an' such, but I dunno. I'm not one for the school work. Art's all right, an' some of the history stuff, an' Nate's talkin' 'bout teachin' languages which would be wicked, but the rest I couldn't give a toss about." Amanda chuckled. "Like I said, I ain't really thought about it. Doesn't help that Manny's got everythin' mapped out an' keeps tellin' me he'll take care of things." That thought made her nose wrinkle. "Which is all well an' good, until he gets sick of me, an' then I'm back where I started. Better t' take care of meself."
"Self-sufficiency," Domino said lightly. "That's what you want. I can't blame you, from what I know of your background from Nate and Pete." She nodded at the waiter, who had appeared silently to refill her glass. He topped off Amanda's as well. "And hell, even if you want to do university you don't have to do it now. Have a little fun first, little sister. Find out exactly what you want out of life and then go get it."
With a grin, Amanda raised her glass. "I'll drink t' that," she said.
***
The red dress was perfect, Domino thought, eyeing Amanda across the glass and steel table and smiling. The club she'd decided on was packed, the music fast and frenetic and the lightshow enough to induce seizures in anyone prone to epilepsy. Not having that problem, she was rather enjoying herself.
"Know you're more into punk," she said loudly, leaning across the table so that Amanda could hear her, "but a little variety never hurt!" Amanda grinned, and Domino leaned in closer. "So, you and Manuel exclusive, or should we find you something cute?"
Amanda laughed out loud at the thought. "Exclusive? Me? Fuck, no!" She gave Domino an impish grin. "An' Manny don't mind, since he gets his share down the link. He knows I ain't into that sort of thing… well, you've met Rom, have you?"
"Couple of times," Domino said cheerfully. "She and I got along well. Helped her torment Pete one night while Nate sat there snickering behind his beer." She eyed the candidates in their immediate vicinity, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "What about the blond over by the bar? He's definitely checking us out."
"You mean he's checkin' you out," Amanda pointed out, snickering. "He's had his eyes glued on yer cleavage since you walked in." She sipped her vodka and orange - beer was too heavy for clubbing, it made her too full - and let her eyes wander. "What about you? See anythin' you like?" she asked, curious to know where Domino's preferences lay.
"Hmm... I'm torn," Domino confessed. "Guy over there who could be G.W.'s younger brother... awfully tempting. But the redhead by the bar's gorgeous. I have a definite thing for hot women in black leather." Her gaze lingered on the redhead, who smiled wryly, raising her glass as if in salute.
Amanda tried very hard not to gawk at the redhead, although it was hard. "You got good taste," she managed at last, smiling to herself at the sensations Manuel was probably getting down the link as the result of her imagination going to some interesting places involving Domino and the redhead. She took another sip - well, more of a gulp - of her drink and cast her gaze around again. A lanky young guy with reddish brown hair caught her glance and nodded appreciatively, cocking his head towards the dance floor.
Domino laughed. "Go on," she said, waving at Amanda. "I'm going to go introduce myself, I think." She pushed herself out of her chair, martini in one hand, and made her way over to the bar. "Hey there," she said casually, slipping in next to the redhead, who grinned at her. "You do things to those pants that ought to be illegal."
"I'm Alec," the guy said, by way of introduction as Amanda joined him. "I haven't seen you here before. You visiting your friend?"
"Amanda," she replied, giving him one of her most winning smiles. She glanced over at Domino, who was chatting up the redhead, rather successfully by the looks of it, and smiled. "Yer mostly right - Dom's not me friend, she's me big sister."
***
Stumbling down the street at three in the morning, Amanda giggled slightly tipsily and gave a half-skip. "I've had the best time," she announced.
"You need to come visit me in Europe," Domino said with a grin, linking arms with her, just to make sure Amanda didn't take a header into the street. Their hotel was just down the road and around the corner - they could have taken a cab from the club, but she had figured that a little fresh air would be good for both of them. Naomi had tried to convince her to come back to her place ("And bring your little friend if you want - she's cute!" the redhead - who was, of all things, a Marine on leave - had offered) but Domino had put her off with vague promises of coming back next week. Not that she wouldn't have minded something more, but she didn't want Amanda too hung over or exhausted in the morning.
"Berlin's got great night life," she went on cheerfully, "and Amsterdam... well. Lots of fun to be had in Amsterdam."
"So I've heard - I used t' talk t' the backpackers in Brighton a bit, place is crawlin' with 'em. An' yeah, that'd be wicked. I want t' go back an' see Rom an' the rest of them durin' summer hols, an' Manuel said somethin' 'bout takin' me t' Spain, so maybe sometime then?" Amanda was pleasantly buzzed - perhaps a little more drunk than she usually got - but most of all she felt _relaxed_, the stress of the previous week forgotten. She half-hugged Domino's arm. "Sorry t' cramp yer style with that Naomi - she had it bad for you."
"Anytime you want. Just get Nate to let me know you're coming so I can make plans." Domino laughed. "As for Naomi... she got a taste. A little me goes a long way." She grinned at Amanda. "You going to be with me for a while, little sister? Though I'd hit up room service for some more alcohol, maybe some food. Then we could do the girl talk thing."
"The buzz I've got goin', I'm good for hours yet," Amanda replied with a grin. "An' I never say no t' food."
They reached the hotel, and Domino snickered as the doorman ogled them both shamelessly as they passed him. Inside, the lobby was ridiculously opulent - she had deliberately picked a five-star hotel, since this trip was all about spoiling Amanda - but quite deserted. The concierge stared, but Domino ignored him, leading Amanda over to the elevator.
The elevator doors opened after a minute, and they got in, joining an older man who was clearly coming up from the fitness centre in the basement. He gave them a suspicious look, clearly disapproving of their attire, and Domino smirked. She slipped an arm around Amanda, letting her hand rest lightly on the girl's hip.
After a brief start at the unexpected touch, Amanda took the hint and cuddled up to Domino with a wicked grin. "Think we can make his eyes pop?" she whispered in Domino's ear.
"Or have fun trying," Domino murmured, smiling broadly as Amanda looked up at her.
"Just don't shoot me or anythin' for this," said Amanda with a grin, before reaching up on tiptoe and kissing her fairly thoroughly. There was a strangled noise from the man, and Amanda bit back a giggle.
The elevator chose that moment to stop at his floor, and Domino drew back, laughing softly as the man scuttled out, shooting an outraged look back over his shoulder at them as the doors slid shut. "Prude," she scoffed, then slid her arm back around Amanda. "And you are not a bad kisser. I suppose it's highly inappropriate given our pseudo-familial thing, but hell, I schemed to get Nate in bed for years."
"'S all about the tongue stud," Amanda said with a wicked grin. "An' knowin' how t' use it." She wrapped her arm around Domino's waist, not pushing things but perfectly happy to see where they led. "An' 's one fucked up family I'm in, any way, since I had this whole thing for Angelo, until I realised there's no way he'll look at anyone as long as Paige is on the scene, an' he's pretty much me big brother now." Her look turned curious. "So did it work? You schemin' t' get Nate?"
The elevator stopped at their floor. "Once," Domino said, leading Amanda out and trying to remember what their room number was. 1524, yeah, that was it. She steered Amanda in that direction, digging out the keycard. "We were both drunk, he was hypothermic... didn't turn out to be such a good idea."
"Don't tell me, he went an' got all uptight 'bout the ethics of fuckin' his 'daughter' figure," Amanda said with a roll of her eyes as Domino disentangled herself long enough to unlock their room door and open it. She'd already seen it earlier, when they'd come back from various adventures in shopping to change for the evening, but she couldn't resist running (sort of) in and bouncing on the bed again. That done, she looked up at Dom and grinned impishly. "So, the whole emotional minefield shite aside, how was it?"
"You sleep with an empath," she pointed out, propping herself up on an elbow and grinning at Amanda. "So you have some idea. Although, with all due respect to Lizard Boy, I'm betting Nate has a little more in the way of stamina. Manuel's a little scrawny, comparatively." She fell silent for a moment, running a hand over the comforter, smoothing out some of the creases she was causing. "To be fair to him, he's got issues. With getting involved with younger women. He told me once - when he was mindblowingly drunk, so please don't let him know you know this - that his mother was fourteen when she had him. His father was twenty years older."
"Fourteen? Christ, that's fuckin' criminal. I mean, there were girls that age an' younger sellin' it on the street, but havin' a kid's different. Still, explains why he gets all flustered when I tease him." Amanda leaned back against the bedhead, stretching her legs out. Her dress had ridden up a bit, exposing part of the scars on her legs, but she didn't even notice. "But fuck it, he gives me such perfect straight lines sometimes I can't help it. An' he's cute when he's flustered. Gets that look on his face." She snickered.
"Wouldn't tease him too much about that," Domino advised. "Major sore spot. But yeah, he is awfully cute when he's flustered." She pillowed her head on her bent arm, eyeing Amanda thoughtfully.
"I won't. Just sometimes when I want him off guard. Wouldn't work so well if I did it all the time." Amanda grinned, and noted Domino's look. "What?"
"You have a tiny bit of a crush, don't you?" Domino asked, arching an eyebrow.
Amanda's slight blush answered the question. "An' you don't?" she asked, turning the tables.
"Hey, I am at peace with my failure to land tall, dark, and dysfunctional," Domino quipped. "Well, mostly. On good days, I am. On other days, I have my Moira-dartboard." Amanda blinked at her and Domino laughed, shaking her head. "Kidding... really, kidding. She's good for him. I know that. My occasional evil thought doesn't change that."
"Tell me about it," Amanda said with a wry face. "Doesn't help goin' to a school where bein' gorgeous seems t' be everyone else's second mutation an' I'm... well, me. An' I knew pretty much straight away Nate wouldn't have a bar of me, so it ain't like I'm pinin' away for him or somethin'. Just... he understood, right from the start, y'know?"
Domino sat up, folding her legs under her. "Funny how little old you landed a rich, relatively good-looking if highly annoying empath," she said lightly. "Don't sell yourself short. And as for Nate, when you've got a badass and a Sensitive Guy and a lost little boy inhabiting the same not-unattractive body... well, hard to resist."
"Very much so. An' I seem t' have a thing for the annoyin' ones. But who wants nice all the bloody time? That's borin', that is." Amanda got up and opened the mini-bar door. "Like Doug - he's _too_ nice, almost. Bland. Like American cheese." She scooped all the little bottles up in her skirt (unheeding of the fact she was flashing her underwear), and came back to dump them on the bed. "Couldn't decide which," she explained as Domino raised an eyebrow at her.
"Well, save some room for the martinis," Domino pointed out, leaning forward and swiping the little bottle of Grand Marnier. "As for nice... yeah, I find it a little tiresome myself. Like vanilla ice cream."
"There's always room for martinis," Amanda said with a chuckle as she picked through the bottles and came up with a vodka and cranberry pre-mix. Spinning off the cap, she asked, seemingly innocently: "You've known Pete a while, haven't you?"
"Yes indeed," Domino said brightly, grinning at her. "Why do you ask?"
"Have you an' he ever...?" Amanda let the question hang, an impish grin on her face. "Speakin' of dangerous an' not-nice-all-the-time."
Domino took a swig of the Grand Marnier and laughed. "Well..." she drawled. "You could always ask him about Belfast. I'm not positive he would remember..."
Amanda grinned. "Now who's sellin' 'emselves short? I think I'd remember, no matter how drunk I was."
Domino smiled, a slow predatory smile. "We could always put that to the test," she suggested, just to see how Amanda reacted. "And as for your dear uncle... I've always found him thoroughly adorable, and we have had some fun over the years."
"I'm game if you are," Amanda said with a smirk. "Tho' if you ain't, 's no skin off my nose. An' 'adorable' ain't a word I'd've used for Pete, but yeah, he's a bit of all right." She took a few mouthfuls of the vodka mix. "He ain't _really_ me uncle, just so you don't think I'm bein' freaky."
"I think I use the word adorable because he gets this... offended look when things don't go his way," Domino mused. "Like the world just disappointed him horribly and he's seriously considering delivering a solid kick to its ass. Not quite as 'Oh my, take me now'-inducing as Nate's Death-Glare of Righteous Wrath, but still lots of fun." She finished the Grand Marnier and then tossed the bottle back over her shoulder. It landed right in the garbage can, and she smiled widely. "As for being game... once we eat. Need lots of energy if we're going to aim for leaving Lizard Boy catatonic, right?"
"Right," Amanda agreed with a grin. "Food good."
