Angelo and Nathan

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Nathan seeks Angelo out in order to beat some sense into him - not literally - about what he's doing to Amanda. Some progress is made, and Angelo agrees to go and talk to her.



Angelo was sitting in the empty kitchen - it not being a usual mealtime, when half the mansion would descend - eating some leftovers he'd found in the fridge.

Kitchen. Always look in the kitchen first when you're dealing with teenaged boys, Nathan reminded himself, not for the first time, as he paused in the doorway and raised an eyebrow at Angelo. "I ought to bounce your head off the table," he said, no heat in the words, only rueful affection.

Angelo glanced up. "What for this time?" he asked, half-wary, half-confused by the contradiction of the words and the tone.

"Making Amanda's choices for her," Nathan said, coming over and sitting down. "And yes," he said before Angelo could say anything, "I know you had your reasons and you think it was honestly the best thing you could do. But it wasn't."

Angelo looked up at him, lost for words for a moment. "Why?" he asked finally, voice flat. "She's back with Manuel now, isn't she? Better for her not to be in the middle anymore."

"Why should she have to make that choice?" Nathan prodded. "You want my honest opinion on the issue?" Angelo nodded slowly, and Nathan proceeded to give it. "I'm not going to say Manuel isn't good for her. I don't think he is, but that's not my choice to make. I will say, without hesitation, that the relationship is a very, very hard one for her." He looked hard at Angelo. "You and her? It's a good thing, Angelo. A healthy thing. Amanda is someone who needs as much support as she can get, especially right now, and you are one of her pillars whether you, or Manuel, like it or not."

Angelo looked miserable. "But how can that be, if us bein' friends does nothin' but make the relationship harder? You think I don't miss what we had? She's been as much a support for me as I ever was for her. If I didn't think this was the way to stop her gettin' hurt at least in one way, I'd already've gone back on it. 'Specially now..."

With Jono, Nathan completed Angelo's mind. "And that just makes it even more important that you don't do this," he said steadily. "If you need it as much as she does. You deserve to have a friendship like that, you both do. Manuel is the one who has to accept it for what it is." And if he doesn't, I swear I'll beat it into his head...

Angelo looked up again, meeting Nathan's eyes squarely. "Easier said than done. She's tried t'tell him, so many times."

"Of course it's easier said than done. Anything worth doing is." He gave him a hard look. "And I know that's a fucking cliche, all right? But she should not have to choose. Neither should you."

Angelo laughed bitterly. "Shouldn't? Even I know that. But sometimes, you do. Lesser of two evils, an' all that. She's linked to him, he can hurt her if he wants to. An' he hates me, we all know that."

"He doesn't much like me, either," Nathan pointed out. "Do you see me pushing Amanda away for her own good?"

"He isn't convinced you're a threat to what he has with her", Angelo countered. "He isn't so damn sure there's somethin' goin' on between you two that he won't be told otherwise."

"And how long did it take you to decide that he couldn't be convinced?" Nathan countered. "As for hurting her through the link... trust me, if I ever catch him using his power to hurt her, he will not be doing it again."

"Until that day on the back porch where we both stood there an' told him to his face nothin' had happened or would happen between us. Isn't he supposed to be able to "see" dishonesty, like any other emotion? But he still didn't believe it." He sighed, on the verge of revealing what else had happened that day on the porch, but not sure it would do any good.

"He's a child, Angelo," Nathan said bluntly. "In a lot of ways, he's a child. He can see the emotions, but that doesn't mean he has the judgement or the life experience to distinguish subtleties."

Angelo nodded, reluctantly accepting the truth of that. "Still. That's somethin' he's not gonna learn overnight - an' so he might be convinced when he has. How long will that take? Months? Years? With him diggin' at her about me the whole time, whether he uses the link or not?"

"What if, what if," Nathan said restlessly, reminding himself that actually bouncing Angelo's head off the table wouldn't do any good, even if it had been an option. "You're still making her choices for her, Angelo. You're taking your friendship away from her, and you're not even letting her choose whether Manuel's comfort level and hers is worth sacrificing that."

Angelo looked at him levelly, and with pain in his voice, muttered, "She did. On the porch. She made it pretty clear there she couldn't deal with bein' in the middle anymore. An' again, outside your room - kinda hard to miss how much it was hurtin' her, bein' torn like that. Both times, she ran away."

"You have the patience of a flea," Nathan said flatly. "You think you could have given her a few days to let the fucking shock fade before you decided to take it upon yourself to sever ties?" He shook his head suddenly. "The state she's in is only partially because of Manuel. A lot of it is Columbia, and Asgard, and me having my brainwashing moment... she needs you, you idiot. She needs you for the support you can give her when it comes to the rest of her life. Her relationship with Manuel, all-encompassing and dysfunctional as it might be, is not her whole life."

Angelo shook his head, staring intently at the table as if he was trying to hide his eyes. "I waited long enough that I thought I was sure what the best thing was. Not long enough t'talk myself out of it. An' yeah, it's true that Manuel isn't her whole life. But he fills enough of it that me bein' part of it too just seems like it brings her more trouble than I- than it's worth. She's got other supports, who her boyfriend doesn't hate the sight of."

Oh, the self-esteem issues. Nathan reminded himself that rolling his eyes wasn't appropriate either. "You're breaking her heart," he said simply. "Sure, maybe she was torn, when she was trying to bounce the two of you, but there is now a great big hole in her life where you should be and it's hurting her worse than any of Manny's petulant snits about you."

Angelo was finally defeated on hearing that, letting his head drop onto his folded arms on the table and burying his face in them. "Really?" came the somewhat muffled question. "I..." But he trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Really," Nathan said. "Maybe you bought the defensive act she was putting up, Angelo, but I think deep down you know her better than that."

"I thought I was doin' the right thing", Angelo insisted, still not emerging from his little nest. "Otherwise I'd've gone to her when I last heard from Jono, gone back on what I was tryin' to do..."

"You weren't," Nathan said definitively. "But that doesn't mean you can't do it now. Or, well, not now." He smiled very, very wryly. "Tomorrow, maybe. But I wouldn't leave it too long, Angelo. It'll just be harder if you do."

Angelo nodded slightly. "An' she still wants t'see me?" he asked, turning his head slightly to look at Nathan with one suspiciously bright eye visible. "After what I did?"

"Whatever she might say, out of fear or stress or just plain, old-fashioned fatigue, yes, she does. Although you're going to have to make this up to her," Nathan said warningly. "You bailed on her at a very bad time, Angelo. Best of intentions or not... you know what they say about good intentions. Another cliche, but an accurate one."

Angelo nodded again, turning his head back. "I'll do my best."

"Good." Nathan got up, then, after a moment's thought, leaned down and hugged Angelo. "See?" he asked briskly. "Didn't dump you in the lake this time. I'm improving."

Angelo laughed weakly, with a tired note in it, turning into the hug if not returning it. "Seems so." He hesitated, then asked, "Will you talk to her for me? Tell her I'm sorry, before I go find her myself?"

Nathan shook his head, releasing Angelo and straightening. "This is about as far as I can go without putting myself in the middle," he said wryly, "and a fourth person in this mess is the last thing the situation needs. I might see my way clear to dropping a word in her ear, though."

Angelo nodded, accepting that. "If you could... please?"

Nathan nodded, then waved a hand at the leftovers. "Eat," he urged, turning towards the door. "I'll see you later."

Angelo turned to look at his food, suddenly discovering he wasn't really very hungry anymore, but picked up the fork and started poking at it anyway, eyes distant. "See you later."