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[x-snowflake.livejournal.com]

Illyana and Angelo have a chat by the lake, Friday afternoon.


During one of his study periods, Angelo wandered off outside for "fresh air" (a cigarette break). Spotting Illyana heading through the doors in front of him, he called out to her.

She turned abruptly, surprised, but managed to control her expression of astonishment after a brief moment spent looking like a trapped animal. She waved, and, realising that her options were now limited in terms of social convention, made her way over. "Hi," she said, although the word sounded awkward to her own ears.

Angelo smiled at her. "Hey. How's it goin'?"

"Oh, fine," she said, with a tense smile of her own. "Just -- walking," she added, gesturing at the grounds behind.

Angelo nodded, automatically pulling out his cigarettes and lighting one. "Yeah, me too. Study break."

"Right." She still seemed taken aback by the unexpected human contact. "Well, how is your studying?" she asked finally, more for lack of anything to say than because she cared very much.

Angelo shrugged. "Okay, I guess. They havin' you start again next year?"

"I -- think so," she said, nodding, finding her grounding after a moment. "They're not very sure where to put me just now," she added. "I think I'm quite behind, but I'm not completely uneducated -- " If only they knew -- "so they're trying to decide where I go."

Angelo nodded. "Makes sense. You seen the grounds yet?" he asked suddenly.

She shook her head. "Not yet. I was just about to, though. Exploring," she explained.

He smiled. "You want a tour?"

Fantastic, she thought, unsure whether to be pleased or dismayed at the offer. There was no refusing this time, at least if she didn't want to seem suspicious. Damn. "If you're offering," she said, with a smile.

"Nothin' else to do for an hour or so. Well, nothin' I want to do, anyway."

"Certainly," she said, smile looking less tacked on now that the fate of her afternoon seemed set. "Which way?"

He shrugged. "Your call. What d'you want to see first?"

She shrugged. "I'm not really sure what there is to see," she admitted, more to see where he would choose than because she hadn't had a plan for her travels. "It's been a while since I've been out here."

Angelo nodded, understanding. "Well, there's the lake, woods, there's a boathouse but Mr. Marko lives in there so it's offlimits..."

"I see." She pretended to think for a moment, putting her hands in the pockets of her borrowed jeans. "Why don't we go towards the lake, then?" she suggested. "It's been a while since I've seen anything like it."

Angelo grinned. "The lake it is, then. This way."

Illyana nodded and followed him, long hair trailing behind her in the wind. She remained silent, unsure of what to say. Instead, for the first time since meeting him, she took note of the way he walked, and the way he moved; since reading the journals -- a venture which had proved to be more useful than she'd thought -- she had been forced to reconsider him, and still wasn't sure how much of a threat she ought to consider him.

Angelo was happy to continue in silence, drawing occasionally on his cigarette, as they walked towards the lake. He was relaxed at that time, no wariness in his walk, but a certain amount of the grace of a fighter.

Taking advantange of the continued silence, Illyana studied him, making her own walk deliberately graceless for the time being -- a technique she'd picked up at some cost, but one that had kept her safe a number of times before. She wouldn't be able to keep it up forever; 'forever' was foolishness, especially in a place that seemed able to bleed secrets from stones.

As they approached the lake, Angelo turned to her. "So, yeah. This is it. Should be really nice, come summer."

She looked out over the water. "Should be," she agreed. She looked at him, expression inscrutable, and said, "It's a bit strange, having all this safe land around."

Angelo glanced over at her, faintly surprised, then reminded himself of where she'd been. "Yeah, it is. Still not really used to all this open space, either. Or the quiet."

The mansion was not exactly Illyana's idea of quiet. More than two people lived there, for one thing. "The space is fairly daunting," she agreed. She slid him another blue-eyed glance. "I rather like this kind of quiet, though. It's comforting to know that nothing's going to jump out from behind a corner."

He shrugged. "There is that. But if anythin' - anyone, rather'd - jumped out at me back home, I'd've had the brothers at my back. Not the same here. An' I'm a city boy. Upstate's way too quiet."

She felt a twinge of -- something -- when he mentioned his brothers at his back, but nodded nonetheless, so used to ignoring that feeling (whatever it was) that it had become second nature. "I understand," she said. "Although it seems to me that distance is a matter of relativity, given some of the people here." She tilted her head back at the mansion.

Angelo raised an eyebrow at her. "How'd'you mean?"

"Well," she said, shrugging. "We have telepaths, telekinetics, witches, more mutants with long-range powers than we know what to do with -- I don't think the usual rules of combat apply, really."

"Ahh, I see", he answered with a nod. "Yeah, 's true. Still doesn't feel quite the same, though. I'll get over it."

"It's good to be cautious." She paused, shrugged again, this time with a look of vague annoyance. "Which I'm comforted to learn some people here are."

Angelo blinked at her. "Hey. Not all of us've been given a reason to be. Not all of the people here now were even here last time the place got attacked."

She looked at him, eyebrow raised. "I'm sorry," she said, without the slightest trace of apology audible in her voice. "I had no idea so many people had no access to the media before coming here. Is that a common thing? It's just that I keep reading the newspaper in the morning, and I thought they were fairly widely distributed."

Angelo met her gaze dead on. "You know what I mean. Seems to me it's hard to really get it for the ones who haven't been there. You can read all the papers an' watch all the TV you want, but cautiousness like you're talkin' about... I think maybe comes with experience."

A flare of satisfaction -- so that's where the limits go -- kept Illyana from murmuring her apologies and changing the subject. "Or from being taught by those more experienced," she countered. "The survival rate might be a bit low, otherwise."

Angelo grinned wryly. "D'you remember Sarah?" he asked. "I think you two'd get on. We've got some pretty good combat teachers here - they've been there, an' they do what they can."

"I -- I'm not really sure," she said, though she had a vague impression of the basement, and somebody female. "Combat instructors -- who might they be?"

"At the moment, the official ones are Wisdom - he's the guidance counsellor too - an' Logan."

"Right," she said, nodding, although her memory of both men was sketchy at best. At least she knew who to fake weak with. No sense in advertising -- anyway. "Do they teach everyone, or just the people who want to know?"

"The classes are elective", he told her. "Although a lot more people are in them since the raid. An' some do one-on-one stuff too."

Illyana nodded thoughtfully, casting her eyes out over the water. "Sounds like it scared a lot of people," she said. "The raid, I mean."

Angelo glanced at her speculatively. "It... yeah. The younger kids especially, an' the ones from better backgrounds. Me, I was more mad as
hell they'd let it happen - which maybe wasn't completely fair. They put in better security, after."

She glanced at him, then back out to the lake. "It's understandable. Tragedy tends to be quite -- motivational," she said, words clipped but forcedly matter-of-fact. Her voice became sardonic again as she added, recalling their earlier argument, "Especially if one hasn't seen it firsthand before."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah. 's easy t'forget, sometimes, that not all the kids here've been where... we have."

"That's true," she conceded. She smirked. "When they're not whining about the injustices of the world, that is."

Angelo blinked. "Who d'you mean?"

She shook her head, sensing a potential miscalculation. "Nothing. Just some things I've been reading on the journals lately, that's all."

He eyed her wryly. "Oh, you mean Clarice. Yeah, she can come across that way. She's a good kid really."

"I noticed," Illyana said dryly, but her voice was without venom. "I think some people here get a bit -- overwrought."

"No argument here", Angelo answered dryly. "Some would say I'm guilty of that myself. Been told I whine."

"Have you?" She looked as though she was considering this, then shrugged, as though it didn't matter very much.

Angelo chuckled. "Yeah. Apparently, me talkin' about my life makes the people who had it better feel talked down to."

"Really." There was real amusement in Illyana's voice. "An interesting perspective."

"So I'm told. Seems they feel like me explainin' myself that way is me tryin' to disregard their opinions."

"If their opinions are wrong, I don't see a problem with that," Illyana said dryly.

Angelo shrugged. "Thing is, I'm not sure they are wrong. I didn't have their life anymore than they had mine."

Illyana nodded and left it at that, rather than voicing any other criticism. One must walk quietly in these times, she thought, and looked out over the water again.