xp_logs | Angelo and Bethany; Angelo and Amanda

Bethany runs into Angelo in the kitchen, and they chat about the puppy, the party, and the school. A few hours later, when Beth's gone home, Angelo meets Amanda for the promised spar.

Sometime after lunch, Angelo wandered along to the kitchen in search of a mid-afternoon snack, Joyita at his heels. As he'd carefully taught her, the puppy sat in the doorway and stayed there while he went to rummage for food.

A moment later, there were footsteps near the doorway, followed closely after by a happy-sounding puppy. "Well, hello there," Bethany giggled as her quest for food was delayed to let her crouch down and meet the puppy. "I don't believe we've met, slobber-face."

Angelo, head buried in the fridge, looked round with a grin. "Hey, Bethany! Long time no see! That's Joyita, by the way."

"Much prettier name than slobber-face," Bethany said approvingly, grinning and ruffling Joyita's ears as she looked towards the boy at the 'fridge. "Hi, Ange. She's yours, huh?"

Angelo chuckled. "Yeah, she is. Birthday present from Paige. Loves the whole world, as long as it makes a fuss of her."

"A true woman," Bethany nodded, patting the puppy's head approvingly before beginning to straighten back up. "I like her." She paused, and smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes. "The puppy, too."

Angelo grinned at her, honestly amused. "Well, I like them both too. Joyita's not allowed in the kitchen, though. Lorna's rules, so she stays in the doorway."

Bethany tilted her head, squinting in thought. "Have I met Lorna?" she thought aloud, slowly making her way further into the kitchen so she could eye the refridgerator. "And is there anything snackish I can mooch? I haven't eaten since yesterday."

"Don't know", Angelo said thoughtfully. "She was at the party yesterday - green hair? An' I'm sure there is, there's almost always leftovers."

"Have seen, don't know if I've met," Bethany said after a moment's thought, nodding to herself. She'd remember someone with green hair. "Didn't do much schmoozing last night."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, I mostly hung out with Paige an' the odd other person from the school. Rich people, other than most of the ones here, aren't really my choice of company."

Bethany nodded in agreement, stepping over so she could peek into the 'fridge for something small and unmarked. She didn't like mooching other peoples' food supplies, but.. gah, hungry. "I can relate. I can only take feelin' outclassed so much in one night, and all that. Wound up sticking with Nate and the doc most of the party."

Angelo grinned, grabbing what he'd been after from the fridge and stepping aside to let her get a better look. "Those two're pretty good company, really."

"He made me dance," Bethany said mournfully. "He used the eyes on me 'til I caved." After a moment's thought, she snatched the bread out of the refridgerator and looked around. Toaster, toaster..

Angelo chuckled. "No one can resist the eyes. Nathan's almost as bad as Miles or Leyu, that way."

"Don't think I've met them, either," Bethany mused, dropping two pieces of bread into the toaster before returning the rest to the 'fridge. "This place doesn't have human classes, does it? I miss so much shit not being here."

"They're two of our little kids", Angelo told her. "Leyu's the cute little Japanese girl you might've seen in passin' at the party, Miles is harder to miss, bein' green, but he wasn't there. An' we do have a lot of human classes - computer science, math, languages, that kind of thing. SAT stuff."

"Now you're tempting me, and it won't fly, and I'll have to be very very sad," Bethany chuckled, waiting patiently near the toaster.

"Can't see why it automatically wouldn't fly", Angelo answered pensively. "Leyu's nothin' more than human as far as we know - which could just be because she's too young to manifest, but it might not - an' she studies here because of her brother. It's a pretty good school."

"It'd have to fly with the school, and my school, and my folks," Bethany pointed out, giving Angelo a wry grin. "The planetary alignment doesn't get that good for thousands'a years yet. I don't have that much good karma."

Angelo grinned back. "Okay, point taken. You can still visit whenever, though."

"Well, sort of whenever," Bethany nodded, perking and snatching up her toast as it popped. "But yeah. Visiting, I can do."

At the time arranged, Angelo made his way down to the gym to meet Amanda. He was a little early, to give himself time to warm up, and wasn't sure if she'd be there yet or not.

Slightly out of breath, Amanda appeared as he was half-way through his warm-up. "Sorry 'm late," she said by way of greeting. "Was just seein' Beth off."

Angelo chuckled. "You're not much late, an' it's for a good reason. She doin' okay?"

"Better," Amanda said. "I'm still kickin' meself for havin' the bright idea of the two of them meetin', but it could've turned out worse..." She shook her head. "D'you mind if we don't talk 'bout it just now? Still workin' things out in me head." Like what to say to Manuel about events of the afternoon...

Angelo nodded, continuing into the last of his stretches. "Sure thing."

Amanda shrugged out of her jacket and started stretching herself. "Thanks for suggestin' this," she said, bending to touch her toes. "I've been goin' bonkers, not bein' able t' get off grounds, havin' all this shite." She folded her arms around her legs, bent nearly double, then straightened. "Needed t' blow off some steam."

Angelo nodded. "We all do, sometimes. We can do this whenever you want."

"That'd be good. Nate trains with me sometimes, but it's hard when he's broken." A brief grin flashed across her face. "No powers, right? Last thing I want is t' be accused of trashin' the joint again."

Angelo laughed. "No powers - even if mine aren't explosive like Jubilee's." He paused, the mention of Nate triggering a train of thought in his head that included shared dreams. "Amanda... did you have a really weird dream last Tuesday night?"

"Dream? No, I don't..." Amanda paused in her stretching, a guilty look crossing her face. "Oh fuck, I've done it again, haven't I? I ended up in yer head." She frowned, trying to remember. "There was somethin'... You showed me yer past?"

Angelo nodded. "Yeah... some stuff I don't think you knew about before. D'you remember?"

"Bits.. 'S a bit foggy." Making an effort, Amanda brought back images of Angelo, much younger, a gun. "I remember enough," she said. "You an' yer friend."

Face carefully blank, Angelo answered, "Yeah. That's right. You saw... that... we talked a lot, an' there was some other stuff."

"The roof." She smiled at the memory. "Ange... what I saw, what you showed me... It don't change anythin' between us."

He looked at her sharply, eyes lighting up. "Good to hear. Thanks."

"Yer welcome." Amanda grinned at him. "You ready for me t' kick yer arse?"

Angelo grinned and retorted, "I'm ready for you to try", moving into position.

Circling around him, Amanda watched him warily, taking a leaf from Nathan's book and not attacking first. "Do you mind?" she asked, waiting for him to attack. "That I ended up in yer head?"

Angelo recognized the tactic, but since they hadn't fought before, he wanted to gauge her for a little longer. "I... don't know. Nathan has, before, an' I'd probably've told you sooner or later anyway, so... not really?"

"Good." They were going to be here all night if someone didn't go first, and Angelo had been training with Nathan as well, so Amanda stepped in lightly, feinting at his face and following through with a gut punch. "I was worried, y'know? People don't like it when people walk in uninvited."

Angelo fended off the gut punch relatively easily, following up by aiming a slightly hesitant one at her midsection - Amanda had neither Sarah's healing factor, nor her fighting experience. "You didn't choose to walk in any more than I invited you. Not your fault."

She saw the punch coming and blocked it. "I can shield if I have to, y'know," she said, reading the reason for the hesitation. "An' I'm tougher than I look." She followed that statement up with several punches aimed at his face.

Angelo grinned, engaging in the fight more genuinely now. "That you are. What was it you needed me to teach you, again?"

A punch caught her on the shoulder, and she twisted away from it. "How t' dodge stuff like that, for a start," she said with a grin. "Add to Pete's dirty tricks, give me a chance t' practice on someone who doesn't worry 'bout hittin' a girl..." She used the momentum of the shoulder strike to turn around him and aim a punch at his kidneys. "Or gettin' hit by one."

Angelo grinned, dodging and punching back at her. "Dirty tricks I can do, though there probably aren't many I know that Pete doesn't. Second one, too - took me the longest time to get used to that, but I think I'm over it now."

"Trainin' with Sarah'd do that - you go light on her, she'd probably have yer guts for garters." A half-smile had appeared on her face as Angelo started coming at her harder. "'S the problem with self-defence class. You get someone like Doug who won't have a proper go at you, an' where's the learnin' in that?"

Angelo chuckled. "Sarah was always the exception. An' I think you might be underestimatin' Doug, these days."

"Maybe. He still don't like swingin' at girls, tho'," Amanda grunted, blocking several punches but missing one that caught her in the stomach and kicking out half-blindly in reaction.

Angelo avoided the kick easily, sweeping out a foot to knock her other leg out from under her. "Don't think he likes fightin' in general all that much."

"That probably ain't a bad thing. Evens things out, don't it? Just a pain in self defence class." The breath whooshed out of Amanda as she hit the mats as Angelo's sweep took her off her feet. "Ow."

"Okay, one thing you've gotta learn is how to land", he told her, bending to help her up and deliberately giving her the opportunity to turn it against him. "Even when you don't see it comin'."

Seeing what he was doing, Amanda took the offered hand and used it to pull him down, rather than pull herself up, kicking out at his ankles at the same time.

Angelo let her knock his ankles out from under him, going limp as he fell and hoping she was watching carefully - even this way left bruises, sometimes. "That's the way", he said approvingly. "Someone teach you that one, or did you just pick it up?"

She noted the way he collapsed into the fall, keeping her grip on his wrist and rolling to try and pin him, her knee aiming for his solar plexus. "Nate taught me that," she said, grinning. "After knockin' me on me arse a dozen times. 'Course, I have t' use magic t' get him down - he's too bloody big for me otherwise."

Angelo rolled out of the way, and was back on his feet very quickly, pulling her up with him where she was holding his wrist. "He cheats, too", he agreed cheerfully. "Uses the TK far too much to be fair."

"That he does." Amanda squeaked in surprise as Angelo used the hold she had on his wrist to yank her forward, wrapping his arm around her throat. She wriggled, testing the strength of his grip, and when it proved to be beyond hers, aimed an elbow at his gut.

Angelo oofed and let her go, staggering back a little overdramatically with a big grin. "That one of Pete's tricks? Though maybe it's a little obvious to be anythin' taught..."

"What, yer'd rather I stomped on yer foot an' broke it?" she asked, grinning, rolling her eyes at the theatrics. "'Cause that was the other thing I could've done."

Angelo chuckled. "I guess if you know the right place, weight doesn't matter. You actually done that one?"

"There was a bloke in Brighton got a bit grabby... Works even better in Docs." There was a certain satisfied glee on her face.

Angelo grinned. "Good for you. Sounds like he deserved it."

"He did." Amanda looked at him appraisingly. "So, you gunna give it another go? Yer turn, I think."