xp_logs | Angelo and Kyle, backdated

They run into each other in the gym, and Angelo ends up talking Kyle into a little revenge-type mischief for Thanksgiving.

Talking to Nate had helped. Some. But Kyle was still finding himself randomly growling and pacing, and after the third or fourth time Forge chucked a computer-piece-thing at his head, or a gear, or something, he decided maybe he needed to do something about that.

He'd remembered seeing a punching bag in the gym, and while he wasn't sure if hitting it would help, he -did- know it probably wouldn't hurt. And he really, really wanted to hit something. A lot. Preferably the green guy with the tongue, but if not him, than something substantial.

At the gym, which was, thankfully empty, he stripped off his shirt - not that it was much of one, since he'd been in a tanktop all day, and ran a hand through his hair. It'd seemed like such a good idea on the way down, and now he felt kinda silly. Except that -dammit-, those people had wanted to turn Miles into a weapon, and lock him up and the kid was too nice for that, and Alison was still not well, and there was that guy who was just like the way bigger, way goddamn freakier him.

*SMACK*.

~ow~. Kyle shook out his hand. Okay, that had hurt. In a sort of way that felt actually kinda good. But now his knuckles were popping. He looked at his fist and opened it slowly, looking at it. His thumb -definitly- hurt. He'd just curled his fingers back into a fist again, thumb on the outside when the door behind him opened - but not before he swung again, fist meeting the bag with a less painful, and much more solid sounding -smack-.

Angelo, standing in the doorway, took in the scene with a raised eyebrow and a slight grin. The kid seemed to know what he was doing. He moved further into the room on bare feet. "Hey, Kyle. Mind if I take the other bag?"

"Uh. " Kyle paused, trying to think if there was any reason he should mind. Oh. Right. The blood thing. "You aren't, uh, gonna bleed all over it or anything? I kinda liked my lunch, I'd like to keep it in me until I'm done digesting." Then he rolled his eyes and smacked himself on the side of the head. "Gah. Sorry. Not -trying- to be an ass." ~Brain. First, Gibney. Then mouth.~ he thought to himself.

Angelo grinned at him cheerfully. "Nah, I don't bleed that easy. Benefits of stretchy skin - when it's not stretched, it's good an' thick. When I said some of the blood-smell in here might be mine, 's only 'cause I've sparred with Sarah in here before, an' her bones are sharp sometimes."

Kyle decided that there must be something in the water, because he knew for damn sure that a week ago, this entire conversation would have bothered him. And it did kind of bother him. Sort of. But mostly he was still -really- intently pissed off about Miles and Alison and the attack. "She mentioned about the blood. It'd be more of a problem, only she's leaving, right?" He didn't wait for an answer though, turning to hit the bag again with a grunt.

Angelo nodded, moving forward towards one of the other bags. "Yeah, she's leavin'. Figure she'll probably either go back home, or out to Japan - her boyfriend's there."

Kyle shrugged. "Sucks. Kinda wish I had the chance to get to know her. She seemed pretty cool, even with the crazy monster thing." He flexed his fingers and tapped the bag with his fist gently, testing it. Hrm. Seemed to work better if he locked his wrist. "Not sure I'm buying the monster thing."

Angelo chuckled slightly and dropped his voice. "Truth? The one who bought into the monster thing most was Sarah herself. It was kind of a thing with the way she grew up. She is pretty cool, yeah." There was a flash of sadness in his eyes for a moment as he said that, before he shrugged it off and went on with his stretches.

"Yeah, I kinda figured. Her own worst critic and all that." Kyle knew that all too well. Entirely too well. He tapped at the bag again lightly and frowned. His elbow felt weird when he did that. "Seems like a bunch of folks here just managed to have the crap time of growing up."

Angelo shrugged helplessly. "Some of us, yeah. But then you've got, say, Jamie, who got what pretty much sounds like the perfect childhood. Luck of the draw."

Kyle snorted, twisted on his back foot and smacked the bag twice, once with each fist. That, he decided, was satisfying. "He has an evil twin. Or had. I'm still confused by that. And Ramsey's insane, and his girlfriend's no better. Everyone here is crazy, or has a shit childhood. Or both." He shrugged, eyed the bag, and slammed his fist into it again, hard. "It's a madhouse. Lorna was right."

Angelo chuckled. "Pretty much. Insanity seems to come with the territory - you'll get used to it soon enough, if you stay. But we do have some sane people here, I promise."

"You're not helping." Kyle said, though not seriously. "My roommate has a metal leg. The other one has wings. I got rescued out of a crazy weapon place by Nate, and Sam, and some hot chick who turns into metal or something, and .." He punched at the bag again, swinging it back towards the opposite wall, and then hit it again as it returned. "And for some godawful reason, I'm okay with this! What the hell? It's the water, right?"

Angelo grinned at him. "The hot chick'd be my girlfriend. Paige. An' to be honest, I don't know why it's so easy to get used to this place - Jay's not the only one here with wings, you know, one of the teachers does too."

Kyle covered his face with his hand. "Oh. Crap. Um. Eek? Didn't mean you, you know, imply with the girlfriend and ... " He ducked his head "Not hitting on your girlfriend. Seriously, dude."

Angelo laughed. "Kyle. We're cool. Seriously - if I got mad at every guy in the world who thought she was hot, I'd never stop." An' you're only fourteen. Don't think I need to be worryin' about you, somehow. "Long as you don't go tryin' to do anythin' about it, we're good."

Kyle frowned. "I bit her brother." He said. "And dude, more people with wings?" Kyle sighed. The wings were already distracting enough with -one- person. "Brain says "suitemate". My stomach keeps sayin' "No, dude, that's lunch." It's distracting."

"One more person with wings", Angelo confirmed. "Mr. Worthington - great big white wings, like you see in paintings of angels."

Kyle frowned. "Oh. Ooh, the one who was all attached to the big guy who teaches my art class." Yet another thing he had thought was gonna be weird, but that wasn't half as disturbing as he thought it would be. He was blaming it on shock. Too much all at once and his brain just started accepting weird stuff as normal.

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, that's him. The big guy's Piotr - I'm guessin' you saw him in his normal form, not all steeled up?"

"He turns into metal too?" Kyle asked. "He didn't in class, and .. " He grinned sheepishly. "I've been kinda more listening to Amanda make fun of him. She -really- doesn't like him, does she?"

Angelo grinned back. "Not much call for the steel form in art class, really. Well, you'd hope not, 'cept maybe as a model. An', yeah, he an' Amanda've had their... differences. She thinks he's an idiot, pretty much, an' he doesn't much like her either."

Kyle shrugged. "He seems okay to me, I guess." He really didn't have much of an opinon one way or another about most of his teachers. Except Dr. Moira, who was awesome. Who would've been awesome by way of dating Nate, even if she hadn't been the coolest teacher ever. "Amanda's cool though. Weird, but cool. But that's kinda this entire place. Weird, but cool."

Angelo nodded sincerely, finishing up his stretches and moving forward to the free punchbag. "Yeah, that about sums it up. 's why we're all still here, for all the drama that hits this place."

Kyle snarled and took a hard swing at the bag, his fist staying with it for a moment after connecting. "Some of us are here because we have to be. If I -could- go home, I would. Parents said no."

Angelo looked at him sideways, and said quietly as he started in on the punchbag, "I was here for the better part of a year before I even got word to my mom that I was alive. I know about havin' nowhere else to go, b'lieve me. She's here now, in New York, but... yeah."

"Still. She didn't refuse to let you come home." Kyle said, words coming harshly between punches. "Stupid -ears-. Stupid -fangs-. I -might- go home for Christmas if they think my grandparents won't have a cow. Maybe." He growled, low in his chest.

Angelo was watching him, surreptitiously, as he laid into the punchbag. "What'd they do, d'you think, if you just showed up?"

"Send me back?" Kyle said. "Dude, I'm fourteen. How the hell am I gonna get to Montana?" He shook his head. Not that it wasn't tempting, because it was. He was pretty sure that at least his granddad wouldn't be too bothered by it, and hell, his cousins would probably think it was cool or something. "I'd get so much detention..."

Angelo shrugged. "It was just a thought. Didn't say you should actually do it, necessarily - though a couple of the girls here do teleport. I was just thinkin', would they send you away if you were already there?"

"I dunno." Kyle tiled his head, thinking. "Its seriously tempting. I mean, just blam, show up for Thanksgiving. Give my mom a heart attack, eat some turkey, come back, have a nap?" He gave Angelo a lopsided grin. "Sounds like my idea of a good time."

Angelo grinned. "You could be back before they even knew you were gone, if it was on a weekend", he commented idly. "I'm not sure what Clarice's range is, but Illyana's gone to Russia an' back before now. Clarice'd be up for takin' you if she can, though, I bet. She's got... her own issues with parents an' mutations."

"Dude, you are -not- helping my resolve any." Kyle said, grinning fully. "And Clarice helping would just make it funnier. I don't think my folks' idea of my classmates includes purple people."

Angelo's own grin broadened. "Anyone asks, I didn't tell you to do any of this or put the idea in your head, but... it does sound really funny."

"You think maybe they'd let me bring one of those comupter camera... things? Cause the expression on mom's face 'd be -priceless-." Kyle shook his head, grinning widely. "Hell, I'm not sure what she told the rest of the family where I was. Or even that I got all fanged-n-clawed. "

"Can't see why not. I'm sure the mansion's got 'em to borrow, an' since you'd get it back safe an' sound, there shouldn't be a problem." Angelo was rather warming to the idea: harmless revenge against prejudiced parents was a Good Thing in his book.

Kyle's grin widened even further, openly showing his extended canines. "It sounds like a plan to me. I figure I should tell one of the teachers where I'm goin' for Thanksgiving and when I'm due back and stuff, but they won't throw a fit?"

"They might want you to take a chaperone", Angelo warned him. "But otherwise, yeah. Just between us, though, worst you're likely to get if you don't an' you get caught is grounded. Unless your parents pull you out."

"To visit my -parents-?" Kyle blinked. "Dude, I thnik they qualify as chaperones!" He shrugged. "And I'm thinking with my folks basically saying they didn't know 'bout Christmas or coming home in the summer that pulling me out's not gonna happen. Sides.. " He held up one foot and very deliberately sheathed and unsheathed the claws. "I'd screw up my mom's nice new carpet."

Angelo nodded. "Good point. An' if Clarice takes you, you got instant transport, so no worries there. Sounds like you're gonna have fun."

"Or at least mayhem. I can live with a little mayhem." Kyle tapped the bag lightly, though not with anything like force this time. He felt -better-. The idea of taunting his parents a little - well, it was just good. Remind them they didn't get to just drop him at some school and forget, and not tell people what'd happened. And even if it meant a shirt with a collar, hell, he could live with that, at least a little.

"A little mayhem's no bad thing every once in a while", Angelo agreed seriously as he turned his attention back to the punchbag, smiling at the obvious improvement in Kyle's mood.