xp_logs | Nathan and Amanda, Wednesday afternoon (Reply)

Nathan ventures out of the room to pick up a sample of one of his glass bushes and get a look at the damage. Amanda is out for a walk to clear her head, and their paths intersect.

Oh, yes. He was definitely going to owe Cain beer, Nathan thought with a sigh, kneeling down to take a closer look at one of the glass bushes. Rather pretty, he thought, reaching out and touching one of the glassy leaves. Still green, too. He wondered why.

"Admirin' your handiwork?" Amanda asked as she approached. She'd been taking a walk to clear her head when she'd spotted Nate. Perfect distraction from things she would rather not think about, but were becoming pressing. "Y'know, there's people who'd pay good money for their own glass bush."

Nathan smiled a bit wearily, looking up at her. "Maybe I should embark on a second career as an artist?" he asked as lightly as he could. She looked tense, tired... he really ought to try and figure out what was wrong, he thought dimly, but he supposed he was a bad teacher-type-person, because he didn't have the energy.

"You have the attitude for it. All high drama an' goin' off in a tiff," Amanda teased gently, glad he wasn't with it enough to pick up on the jitters and ask what was up. It was not something she wanted to explain, especially to him. "Maybe I should get you a beret?"

"Drama queen," Nathan said with a soft, half-hearted chuckle, looking back down at the bush. "That's the phrase you're looking for, trouble." He rose, his eyes roaming over the damaged grass and the stumps of the bushes he'd blown up. "Cain probably wants to throttle me."

"Nah, that's Rasputin. Tho' he's been sort of sensible lately, so maybe you can have his drama queen tiara?" She grinned unapologetically at him as he surveyed the damage. "Yeah, he probably does. An' he probably will. Got the will all made out?"

"Yeah, all notarized and stuff," Nathan said, the tired smile tugging at his lips. "Maybe I could placate him with beer. Cain likes beer." He stuck his hands in his pockets and moved slowly towards her, feeling hesitant. "Heading back to the house?"

"Beer cures all," Amanda agreed solemnly. She caught his hesitation, the sudden awkwardness, and shrugged, deliberately casual. "I s'pose. Was just clearin' me head, but I can be yer bodyguard if yer worried 'bout runnin' into Marko on the way."

His smile grew a little. "You'd protect me from the scary groundskeeper? Shit, now I really do feel loved." He paused, bending to pick up a stray glass leaf. "Souvenir," he said lightly, straightening again. "Moira wants to figure out how I do it."

Amanda laughed at him. "I'd try. We have this whole 'avoid each other like the plague' thing goin' on, an' I'm figurin' it'd work t' keep him away from you, least for as long as it took t' get away." Sunlight reflected off the leaf in miniature rainbows, and she shook her head. "Buggered if I know how you did that. 'S pretty, tho'."

"It kind of is, isn't it? Maybe I'll figure out how it happens and do it for fun. The art idea might not be so far-fetched after all." He pocketed the leaf and started slowly back towards the house, Amanda keeping pace with him. "Bella called me all kinds of nasty names when I put her back into her cage," he said. "Didn't want to bring her out where she could step on any glass, though."

Pausing to hold up one booted foot, Amanda said: "I have t' say, I weren't too happy 'bout that part meself. 'S summer, it ain't shoe season. But it ain't like you did it on purpose, so yer forgiven." She took a couple of quicker steps to catch up with him again.

"Oh, good," Nathan bantered a bit weakly, wondering just what she knew about why he'd done it. He hadn't been able to bring himself to check the journals again before heading outside. "Uh, sorry about the Arabic," he ventured finally.

"'S all right." Amanda had decided she wasn't going to ask, since that would only give him another reason to tell her he didn't want to talk about it. Besides, it would be better if he volunteered. But she glanced up at his tired, worried face, and relented a little. "The Prof made an announcement on the journals, said yer'd had a disagreement with another teacher. That's all."

Nathan nodded slowly. He supposed Charles would have had to say something, between his post and the state of this part of the grounds. "Wasn't really... a disagreement," he said slowly. "Just... kind of got out of hand."

"A lot of yer disagreements tend t' do that," was all Amanda said. "But as long as yer dealin' with whatever it was, I s'pose there's no harm done." She was getting rather good at the whole feigned nonchalance thing. Either that or Nate was really in a bad way concentration-wise. But he'd made it pretty clear he didn't want to talk about it, and she figured that when he did, it wouldn't be to her - that whole sense of guilt thing of his wouldn't let him.

Was he dealing with it? That was kind of an iffy proposition at the moment, so Nathan let it pass. "You'd think I was hard to get along with or something," Nathan said with another faint smile, very little humor about it this time. "Always getting into it with someone..."

Despite herself, Amanda snorted. "Into it? You might want t' pick a better way t' say that," she said, grinning wickedly.

Nathan blinked at her, what she meant taking a moment to sink in. "Oh," he said, his voice a little strangled at the thought of that particular sort of innuendo being applied to his encounter with Betsy. "Right. Really have to watch the sloppy phrasing, don't I?"

"Sorry, couldn't resist. That look on yer face..." Amanda looked up at him, her face mischievous. "You don't have t' say anythin' t' me 'bout it. 'S yer business, an' I had no right bargin' in an' makin' a nuisance of meself. " Especially when she did the very same hiding trick herself.

Nathan still had to wonder just how much speculating might be going on as to the identity of the other teacher he'd gotten into the 'disagreement' with. Even if Amanda wasn't doing it, there would almost certainly be others who would, and the thought was sobering. "Sometimes, someone calls you on something," he said slowly, "and even when it's the right thing to do, you might not be ready to hear it."

"And fuck do I know what that's like," Amanda said wryly. She shoved her hands in her pockets, taking two steps for every one of Nathan's - even with the bad leg, his stride was a lot longer than hers. "Sometimes you just have t' go off in a huff an' think 'bout it yerself for a while. Sorry I didn't realise that."

Nathan shook his head. "Don't apologize," he said quietly, managing another slight smile. "You and I are too much alike, you know? Except I've had a lot more years to get set in my ways and cranky about it."

"Could be why we butt heads sometimes," she said, looking up at him with a slight smile. "An' you ain't that cranky - you didn't tell me t' fuck off, at least. You were very polite about it, in a desperate 'leave me the hell alone' sort of way."

"Never let it be said I don't have manners," he bantered a bit feebly, fighting the sudden impulse to reach out and put his arm around her shoulders. Mixed signals bad.

"Hey, better 'n swearin' at whoever's botherin' you an' throwin' up on their shoes." Amanda's chuckle was not really humorous. "Did that t' Lee once, when she came botherin' 'round when I was doin' that whole path of destruction in March. Served her right - told her t' sod off an' she had t' go all do-goodery on me." Her face darkened at the thought of Jubilee, and how things were going now. "Least she's cut that out, I suppose."

"I threw up on Dom's shoes once," Nathan volunteered, trying to break the sudden bleak silence.

Amanda giggled. "Bloody hell, 'm surprised you still have all yer bits intact after that." She glanced up at him. "Sorry, didn't mean t' get all mopey on you. 'M sort of distracted. Not exactly a good way t' cheer you up, is it?"

Nathan's smile was a bit unsteady. "You... cheer me up just by being here, Amanda. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Until I get it through me thick head?" she offered, but with another of those brief grins. "'S hard for me t' remember people like the person, not just the power, sometimes. 'M gettin' there, slowly. You ain't the only one set in their ways."