xp_logs | Angelo and Nathan

They have a brief spar, and make some progress on repairing their friendship.

Nathan paused at the door of the mat room, somewhat startled to see that Angelo was already in there. Eager, I guess, he thought, still wondering precisely what was going on. But he had made a promise, and that, at least, he could keep. "Hey," he said a bit cautiously, coming in and watching Angelo warm up.

Angelo glanced over his shoulder, not breaking the pace of his warm-up. "Hey", he answered simply.

All right. Calm, apparently happy Angelo, as if they'd just stepped back two weeks and nothing at all had happened. Almost unconsciously, Nathan reinforced his shields a little, really not wanting to pick up on anything that might tell him there was an ulterior motive here. Maybe that was sticking his head in the sand, but so be it.

Angelo, despite his outward calm, was less happy than very, very nervous. He just hoped Dom had been right, and this would work...

"I just came from my run," Nathan said, "so I'm warmed-up already. How long have you been at it?" Maybe not the smartest thing, to come to a practice session like this already weary, but he hadn't been about to skip the run, either.

"Half an hour or so", Angelo answered. "Enough, I think."

"Probably," Nathan agreed.

"So, we can get started then."

Nathan gestured at the center mats. "After you."

Angelo moved forward to the indicated place, and turned to wait, still fighting back the nervousness. Nathan's cautiousness seemed to be fading, and he wasn't sure what that meant.

It was easier to shift into all-business in a situation like this and Nathan did, fighting back a few residual flickers of spiky anxiety. "Do me a favor and don't go for the bad leg?" he asked with a faint smile and fell into a defensive stance, waiting. Angelo looked awfully intent.

Angelo nodded. "Sure thing - I'll try, anyway", he answered, concentrating on the upcoming spar rather than letting himself get distracted by worry about the results.

And he wasn't attacking, again. Nathan bit back what would have been a cheerfully malicious comment about his lack of killer instinct, reminding himself he couldn't engage on that level, and then moved at as close to his usual top speed as he could manage, sweeping Angelo's legs out from under him and then getting back out of range.

Angelo raised an eyebrow at Nathan's lack of commentary on what he'd been doing wrong, as he sprang back to his feet. He moved quickly to engage the fight again, playing it more actively this time.

The daily exercise regimen was definitely doing what it was supposed to do, Nathan acknowledged to himsef; he wasn't nearly as tired as he'd thought. He focused on blocking Angelo's attacks, rather than attacking himself.

Angelo kept coming, trying attack after attack, in the hope of getting past Nathan's guard - in more ways than one.

He was so tempted to reach out and see what was behind all this focus, but Nathan shook his head almost angrily, reminding himself just how little good he tended to do with that extra insight. Better to stay focused himself. He took the next opening Angelo gave him and lashed out, the blow hard enough to send Angelo staggering backwards despite the fact that he'd pulled most of it. "Keep your head up," Nathan said quietly.

Angelo nodded, oddly gratified by the advice - if only because it was the first Nathan had spoken to him since they'd started. "Good advice. Thanks." He moved forward again, careful to avoid offering the openings he knew about.

His timing was predictable, Nathan thought, continuing to block. Yeah, there was a definite pattern there. Any opponent patient enough to wait him out got a wide range of potential openings. Sighing inwardly, Nathan took one, then another in a quick succession of moves that left Angelo on the mats again.

Angelo scrambled up and rejoined the fight almost immediately, determined to gain some kind of advantage. "Thought you were gonna teach me self-defense? Would kinda help if you talked to me, if only to tell me where I'm goin' wrong. If I only wanted a spar, I'd just've waited for Sarah to get better."

Nathan gritted his teeth, stifling the first three responses that immediately sprung to mind. "You want a critique, fine," he said. "Stop coming right at me like that. Straight lines are not always the best route from point A to point B."

Angelo nodded, taking it in and quite deliberately not plunging straight back into the attack. "Yeah, that's the kind of thing I need. Anythin' else?"

"You're slow. You don't have nearly the range of movement you should for someone your size."

Another nod. "Probably gettin' out of practice - haven't had an actual person t'work with one-on-one lately. Somethin' to work on, that."

"You need to start running. Build up your stamina," Nathan said, backing away a step and falling back into a defensive position. "The smoking's probably not helping."

Angelo sensed something of an advantage, and pressed it, trying to force Nathan to break his defensive pattern. "Runnin'... well, it'd make Paige happy. If she didn't die of the shock. An' point taken on the smokin'. Should try an' give up again, I guess..."

"Weight training, calisthenics... you can't do well at this just doing this. The other things are building blocks."

Angelo nodded again, taking mental note of all this. "Well, it's not like I don't have time. Keep me busy, just as a bonus."

"You decided why you're doing this, yet?" Nathan asked, unable to quite keep the edge out of his voice this time.

Angelo repressed a grin. Ah. A reaction. "Not past what I told you last time, really. Wanna keep in shape. Or get back in shape an' stay there, whichever."

"And you still want my help."

Angelo looked at him squarely. "Yeah. I do."

Nathan, instead of blocking in a more normal fashion, grabbed his wrist. Wanting to see what Angelo's reaction would be, needing to figure out whether this was just a particular roundabout way for the boy to get what he'd been begging for down on the dock that way. "Why?" he asked, more harshly than he'd intended.

Angelo didn't react much, despite his instincts telling him to pull away. "'Cause you're one of the best here. 'Cause you already promised you would."

That simple, then. Something close to disappointment stirred inside him, but Nathan squelched it ruthlessly and reinforced his shields further, letting go of Angelo and stepping back. "If I'd needed reminding that I'd given you my word, I wouldn't be here, would I?" he asked coldly.

Angelo nodded. "I know. I knew you'd keep your word." And that was the closest he'd come, for the moment, to saying, "I shouldn't have said I don't trust you."

"Really." Nathan launched himself into a full attack for the first time since they'd started, moving at full speed, driving Angelo back across the mats. He got around the young man's attempts to block easily, landing a quick succession of half-strength hits.

Angelo almost grinned at Nathan finally letting himself attack, but was too busy trying to put up some kind of defence. "Yes. Really."

"Ironic." Nathan kicked his feet out from under him again. "Considering."

Angelo was back on his feet immediately. "Maybe so", he allowed. "Or maybe I was wrong about more things than one."

Nathan took a sharp step back, his eyes widening, then narrowing. For a moment he was lost as to a reaction, unable to keep his expression neutral. "You seemed fairly definitive about those things," he said finally, his voice tighter than it should have been. "Sure you're not just having second thoughts? Wanting to backtrack because you don't want the conflict?"

"I thought they were true at the time, no denyin' that", Angelo admitted with a half-shrug. "Now? I'm thinkin' I was only partly right at best, on at least one count. I already said all I'm gonna say about the whole e-mail thing... but as for the trust... it's maybe not as dead as I first thought. On my side anyway, don't know about yours. An'... I miss the way things were", he finished frankly.

Nathan's fists clenched and unclenched at his sides as he wrestled with an overwhelming, contradictory rush of emotions. Anything he said was going to be the wrong thing. Anything at all... He gritted his teeth, swallowing past a lump in his throat, and concentrated on Angelo, levitating him slowly up into the air until he was halfway to the ceiling and a good distance above the ground.

"Do you trust me not to drop you?" he asked, his voice rough with suppressed feeling. "Not to bounce you off the walls, or the ceiling? You think you've seen me when I'm angry, but I can be a lot angrier than that, Angelo. And hell, some of the stuff I can do on reflex is probably scarier."

Angelo brutally shoved down the part of himself that wanted to protest, and forced himself not to so much as struggle, looking down at Nathan as calmly as he could. "I know that now. Didn't then. An' I don't think you'll lose your temper like that again without real good reason. You said so, an' that means you're gonna be actively tryin' not to. An' since you're sleepin' again..."

Nathan lowered him back to the ground, as lightly as if he had been a falling leaf. "I'm a control freak, Angelo," he said tightly. "Losing control like that is not something I like to do, no."

Angelo nodded. "Which means you'll be tryin' to make sure you don't. An' I'll try not t'give you cause to." He sighed. "I really do miss how things were, y'know? I always liked talkin' to you..."

So this was what it felt like to have puppy-dog eyes used on one, Nathan thought a bit wildly. "I just... don't know that either of us knew where to draw the line," he muttered when Angelo gazed at him, clearly waiting for a response. "Me more than you." He mustered a faint smile. "I'm not good at lines."

Angelo shrugged. "Never much was either. But if there's gonna be a line drawn, maybe it should be one we agree on. Both of us. Or work it out as we go along, or somethin'."

His smile grew, almost despite himself. "Angelo, I think that may be the most mature thing you've ever said to me."