Nathan and Angelo, Thursday night

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Angelo comes to Nathan for a quick refresher on lucid dreaming techniques, but Nathan can't really give him much of an explanation as to why they suddenly stopped working. After he promises to visit Angelo's dreams himself if the situation doesn't improve, the subject of the Columbia anniversary comes up. Nathan rather tentatively asks Angelo his impressions of Amanda's speech and its reception, and comes to a helpful realization and a couple of happier conclusions.


"Now," Nathan said, handing Angelo the cup of tea. "Drink that - it has no caffeine, by the way," he mentioned as he flopped down in the armchair, eyeing the young man sitting on the couch. "This was your first one of those dreams in a while?"

"Not exactly the first," Angelo told him. "The first I couldn't make go away with the things you taught me, yeah."

"What was different about it?" Nathan asked, pressing, if gently. "Any of the details? Where it started?"

Angelo frowned, thinking back. "It started in the mansion... that's unusual right there, they usually start in LA. I have had a few mansion dreams, but not many."

"Hmmm." Nathan gave him a smile that mixed fondness and concern. "I don't mean to sound like Leonard, but is there anything bugging you this... oh." He trailed off, his eyes widening a little as the possibilities hit him. "The anniversary," he went on more awkwardly. "You didn't see any of the footage of what that pyrokinetic did, did you?"

Angelo nodded slowly. "Saw it the first time round, an'... yeah."

Nathan sighed. Okay, now he felt like he was the one who needed the calming tea. He mustered a smile again, a little weaker than the last one but still hopefully semi-convincing. "All right. So we have a possible reason why the dreams might be hitting you harder than usual. Do you want to go back through some of the techniques I taught you, make sure you weren't forgetting anything...?"

Angelo nodded again, only too happy to get off the subject of Columbia and pyrokinetics. "Yeah, please. Just a refresher, like I said..."

Nathan leaned forward a little, organizing his thoughts before he went on. "You question your state, right? That should be the first thing you do - ask yourself if you're dreaming."

"Yeah, I remembered that part. It's a bit fuzzy, but I think I knew I was dreamin'. It was just actually makin' it stop that didn't happen when it should have."

Nathan frowned. "You were fully aware of the fact that you were dreaming?"

Angelo shrugged uneasily. "I'm not absolutely sure of that. Like I said, it's fuzzy. Maybe I'm just rememberin' what it should've been like, or somethin'..."

Nathan grimaced unhappily. "Reality tests," he reminded Angelo. "Replay the last few hours or minutes. If you have trouble remembering, it's a clue that it might be a dream." Angelo nodded. "If that doesn't help, try reading something. The text won't generally stay put."

Another nod, as Angelo made a mental note. "See... I'm pretty sure I tried everythin' I usually do. It just... wasn't workin'."

"You remember me telling you that this wasn't infallible?" Nathan said with a sigh. He hated to see Angelo upset by dreams again; he'd been doing so well with the lucid dreaming for the last few months. "You might achieve a lucid state and yet not be able to wake yourself up, or get out into another dream."

Angelo winced slightly, but answered, "Still better than not lucid. A bit better, at least."

"It might be a one-time thing," Nathan tried to reassure him. "Not that I'm wishing more of those dreams on you, but something might have been... off, about it." He shrugged helplessly. "I know, not helpful. It's an imprecise thing."

"I hope so," Angelo replied quietly. "I'll let you know, if it isn't."

"If it happens again, tell me," Nathan said, then hesitated before he went on. But he'd done it for Angelo before, successfully... "If it does, I'll try coming in while you're dreaming, see if I can help. I don't want to suppress your dreams for any more than a night at a time, though."

Angelo nodded again. "Maybe if you come into one of the dreams, you can figure out what's happenin'...?"

Nathan bit his lip. "If it happens again," he said. "I will. I promise." He sighed, rubbing at his jaw. "I'm not going to be here, Friday or Saturday night, though..."

"If it happens again," Angelo agreed. "An', okay. I'll get by Friday an' Saturday, even if it happens then."

"Okay. We'll sort this out," Nathan told him. "One way or the other." He smiled again, a bit wearily. "I don't like the idea of you not sleeping well again."

Angelo grinned ruefully. "Not that keen on it myself. But it's the first time in a while, so... I'll live."

"Heh. I've been having less luck than usual with lucid dreaming the last week or so myself, to be honest," Nathan said, then could have kicked himself for that little bit of unnecessary honesty.

Angelo tilted his head and looked at him with sharp eyes. "The memorial?"

"Yeah." The sedative and the time in the Box had helped, but the dreams had lingered stubbornly. "Or, you know, the anniversary, I mean," he said, stumbling over the words a little at the way Angelo was watching him. Had he just given something away there? Surely not. "Not necessarily the memorial itself..."

Angelo nodded. "Stands to reason, really... you okay?"

"Yeah... I'm fine." Nathan fell silent for a moment, remembering that Angelo had been there with Amanda, watching. He might... yeah, it was worth asking, at least. "What was... it like? Being there? How did they react to her speech?"

Angelo smiled, aiming for reassurance. "Really well. I mean... there were FoH there, of course there were, but they didn't dare make any real trouble. An' they were way outnumbered anyway."

A touch of disgust when he mentioned the FoH, a certain justifiable smugness at their minority status in the crowd... "What... did you think of her speech?"

"She did the best she could," Angelo answered quietly. "She was so nervous, right before... almost backed out 'cause she thought she'd screw it up... but it needed doin'."

Nathan stepped firmly on the stab of guilt. He couldn't have been there, even with an image inducer. Even three days later, with some space between him and the event, he knew that much. And yet. "Do you think it helped?" Nathan managed a ghost of a smile. "You were there, you got a better look at the audience than I did..." He really wanted to hear Angelo say yes.

Angelo nodded firmly. "I think it did. People who were already sympathetic to mutants, or weren't decided... they'll have listened."

He wanted to know that good had come out of it all. He'd said that to Amanda and meant it, and he meant it still. "I almost wish..." He cut himself off, shaking his head. "Well, I wish a lot of things," he said a bit wryly.

Angelo returned the grin. "Don't we all. It really did go well, though."

Nathan tilted his head, regarding Angelo for a long moment. Obviously happy about it, confident that it had done good... something Jack had said to him this afternoon came back, and he sighed inwardly. Very deliberately, he forced himself to set aside what needed to be set aside, if with a certain amount of wistful sadness, and smiled back at Angelo. "Maybe it can be the start of something more," he said, more firmly, and the young man visibly brightened even more.

"I hope so. 've you heard what Forge's been talkin' about? Gettin' a bit more political?"

Nathan managed to look embarassed. "I'd been... kind of tuning it out. So, no?" And he doubted Forge was going to want to talk to him about it, not after their last conversation. "Is that something you're going to be involved in?"

"I think it might be, yeah. It seems like somethin' worth doin'."

Calm, matter-of-fact... hopeful. Maybe Jack was right... well, of course Jack was right. In some ways, he really had been very unfair. He couldn't expect these kids to make right past wrongs. They were here to build a future, after all - their future, a better one. He needed to remember that.

"Well... I'll be cheering you on?" Nathan offered with another, slightly steadier smile.

Angelo's smile brightened - that was what he'd wanted to hear. "Thank you."

Nathan bit his lip. "And if I don't remember to tell Amanda that when she gets home," he said, his voice a little wobbly, as much with mirth as anything else, "feel free to hit me over the head, okay?"

Angelo chuckled. "Will do. But not too hard."