Post by Nightingale on Oct 7, 2006 13:44:34 GMT -5
With tea in one hand and toast in the other, Angie wandered through the base.
She realised as she was walking that it was probably a bad idea - trying to balance the plate in the crook of her arm so she could actually eat some of the toast just wasn't happening. After a while of trying to figure it out and failing miserably, she just took a sip of her tea and increased her speed a bit so that she'd reach her destination quicker - and, by extension, be able to eat some of her toast quicker.
Eventually, she came to the right corridor, and looking down at her hands with a bit of a frown, she wondered if she should have just eaten in the kitchen. Probably, but she was all the way here now, and she wanted her toast.
Poking her head around the always open door, Angie smiled brightly.
"You want some toast?"
Pyro glanced up from his computer screen. "No thanks," he said, and his tone was one of irritated bad temper. Following the conversation with Python, he'd left in a foul mood and had intended initially to shut himself up in his office and work for a bit. Of course, it was difficult to shut yourself up with the door still off its hinges courtesy of Cain Marko.
He didn't make any effort to pursue a conversation after his refusal of toast and carried on with whatever he was doing.
Someone's got his cranky pants on.
"Well, do you mind if I eat here? Having trouble balancing the plate on my arm and I'm really hungry."
With another smile, and not bothering to wait for his answer, Angie wandered in and sat in the spare chair in front of his desk. The toast, dripping with honey, was put on his desk just in case he changed his mind, and the young woman took a nice big bite before looking at him curiously.
"You ok?"
Well, obviously not, from his tone, but she asked the question anyway.
"Fine," he said, in the same short tone. "Was there something you wanted?" He didn't look up once from the computer. "Got a lot to do before I head offshore for a trip."
"No, I just thought you might like some toast." She shrugged easily - Pyro in a mood wasn't going to put her off, she'd dealt with much worse since she'd met him.
"You should eat." That was all she said on the matter - didn't want to seem like she was nagging. He was so skinny, though, he always seemed to forget about little things like food.
"Where are you heading?" Angie turned her attention back to her toast, grinning as honey ran down her fingers.
"New York," he said, glancing up briefly. Admittedly, the toast did smell appetising, but the discussion with Python had left a bitter, ash taste in his mouth and he had no appetite. "Picking up some new recruits. Thought it was time I went and actually worked for a living."
He sat back from the keyboard and looked at her.
"Suppose you're gonna try telling me it's a bad idea and all that stuff as well, now, right?"
Licking the honey off her fingers, Angie shook her head.
"Just make sure you come back to us."
Regardless of what she actually thought - and she didn't really think it was the best idea in the world - she wasn't about to feed his bad mood.
"I thought the peons were the ones that were supposed to do all the work, though." She grinned at him over her tea.
"I don't have peons," he said, his mood settling down a little. "I have colleagues. I'm not some sort of dictator."
A pause.
"You don't think that of me, do you?"
"No."
She made a face at him, the kind of look that said 'What are you, on drugs?'
"But you know, you're the leader-type, there's other people to do that kind of stuff."
Grabbing another triangle of toast, Angie pointed at the plate with one corner, catching a drip of honey before it was too late.
"You sure you're not hungry?"
"No thanks," he said. "I ate earlier."
He tapped his fingers on the desk briefly, clearly thinking about something. "I'm taking Cain with me," he said. "You and Aurora have done enough running around for now, and I really need to get off this rock for a break."
"Not planning on going incognito then?" She smiled, then popped a bit of toast in her mouth.
"Don't think Aurora would be up for a trip anyway." Draining the last of her tea, Angie picked up the last bit of toast and started shredding it into small pieces. Which of course left her fingers covered in honey again, but she could deal with honey.
"Did anyone tell you?"
He felt irritation starting up again, but kept it at bay. "Did anyone tell me what? I've been training all afternoon and in here for the last hour. You're the first person I've seen since Python."
"Oh, I figured... You know."
Shrugging, Angie licked the last of the honey off her fingers and wiped them on her jeans.
"She... Uh, had a bit of an episode. Has she ever mentioned Jeanne-Marie to you?"
A bit of an episode - the kind that left you locked in a room. Pyro, of all people, would be able to relate to that.
Even just thinking it made her feel guilty.
"Would this be the 'other personality' she suffers with? Yeah, she mentioned it to me briefly. Like I'd be a good person to advise her on dealing with mental issues." He narrowed his eyes at her.
"What happened, and where is she now?"
"Yeah. Although, uh, I think you could say that it's Jeanne-Marie who suffers with another personality. Aurora..." She wasn't the original personality. Had certainly been dominant for a good period of time, but Aurora had told her once that she'd only been alive for a few weeks, so to speak.
"I'm not sure exactly what happened, I came along to find Mystique stuffing her into a room. We went in and talked to her - Mystique, Jane and I. We've been trying to convince her to the cause, you know... Not sure how well it's going, though, she's not exactly happy about some of the things Aurora has done."
"I might drop by and see how she is," he said, sounding curiously cool and indifferent. "I'll see if I can go before I leave." He got up and moved to make himself a coffee from the machine. He didn't offer her one.
"What are your plans for the next few days?"
"Nothing major. I'm sure someone's got a project for me."
Tapping her knee, she thought about what she'd probably be doing until he got back. Cooking, sitting on the internet, talking to Aurora... There wasn't a whole lot that she could think of where she, specifically, would be useful.
"Why, have you got something specific in mind?"
"You should speak to Dharma. Do some fight training. Everyone on this island needs to have some basic self defence at the very least. I'm sure he's got some tricks up his sleeve. I'll only be gone a day or two at the most - and when we get back, we need to start training. As a cohesive unit."
"Juggernaut's shown me some basic stuff, actually."
Training as a cohesive unit?
"Er, don't you think I'd be better... You know, supporting from the back?"
She was actually thinking in terms of conserving her energy for if anyone got hurt, but it was entirely possible she'd sounded like she just didn't want to fight. Which she didn't, really, but she tried not to think of that as the main reason.
"Even the back line gets breached. I'd rather know you were able to at least go down with a fight." He shrugged. "Our numbers aren't so great that I can just assign someone to make sure you're OK the whole time."
"I'm not asking you to."
She frowned, a little confused and not entirely sure why he'd have thought that.
"It's all good, as I said, I've done some stuff with Juggernaut. I'll talk to Dharma while you're gone."
Angie really did feel like saying, 'Happy now?' but didn't bother. He was right - she needed to know some stuff, she'd been grabbed in Baltimore after all.
"Good," he said, mollified. "I'm sorry if I'm a bit bad-tempered. Just one of those days, y'know?" He managed a smile at her. "I'm just glad you're so patient with me. It's great having you to talk to."
"That's all good... Um. Pyro?" She took a deep breath and stood, playing with her mug for a moment before moving around to his side of the desk.
"I... I'm not your girlfriend, John. I... appreciate that you don't get much emotional support and all, but... I can't be that girl for you. I've... I've always been that girl, but I'm sorry, I can't be her anymore, not for you."
Looking down for a moment, Angie bit her lip and looked back at Pyro, her eyes full of sadness and annoyance and hope.
"I'm sorry, alright, that I'm completely fucking in love with you, and I'm trying to do something about it, I really am. I just can't stand here and watch you and... want you and... All I want to do is make you happy and it's clear you can't have that with me but no-one deserves to be happy more than you, because you're so special, and... I just wanted to..."
God, it had all come out in one big torrent, hadn't it.
Before she could really think about what she was doing, she stepped forward, put her hands to his cheeks, and kissed him.
She knew she'd never get another chance. Didn't know if she wanted another chance, but she wanted him to know what she felt for him, wanted to put it out there before she pushed it away and buried it forever.
To give John his credit, he didn't let his surprise at her sudden outburst show as more than a slightly raised eyebrow. "OK..." he said. "I was about to ask you if you wanted to learn how to play Halo."
Pyro's words made her clap her hands over her face in embarrassment.
"Oh, god," Angie whispered, leaning back against the desk with cheeks turning bright red.
She peeked out at him through her fingers before squeezing her eyes shut again.
"That... Uh..."
She dropped her hands, shaking hard enough now that she thrust them into her pockets to keep him from seeing.
"That was a very stupid thing to do."
She really wanted to kiss him again. But that would be even stupider.
"I'm sorry. And yes, I would love to learn how to play Halo."
If she thought she'd been red during her conversation with Juggernaut.... Well, she felt like her cheeks were about to burst into flame.
Oh, god.
"Don't apologise," he said, simply. "Let's just leave it at that for now." The day had been full of surprises and startlement. First Python and the need he felt to shift his father feelings onto him, and now this from Angie.
This, however, he had almost been anticipating.
"Do me one favour, though," he said. "Stop apologising for the way you feel. We'll work something out, I'm sure. You've been a good friend to me, Angie, and I appreciate that far more than I can ever really say. But...if you can accept that we're going to stop at that level...so much the better. Do you understand me?"
"Uh... OK."
It only made sense, in her mind, to apologise for liking him when he obviously didn't like her back. Angie didn't want to like him... Well, not that there was anything wrong with how she felt about him, but... She didn't want to like him because she knew it would never go any further and all it was doing was making her feel bad in the long run.
"Yeah, I understand." There wasn't really a way for her to move away from him without looking awkward.
So she looked awkward as she moved back to her seat on the other side of the desk. Having that barrier between them was a bit of a relief, actually.
"I'm sor..." She looked at him across the desk.
"I'm sorry for putting this on you, you don't need..."
Angie waved her hands rather vaguely, her cheeks still pink.
"So, you ever played Halo before? Ever played any games before?" He was almost relentless in changing the subject. Oddly, it wasn't because he didn't care about hurting her feelings. It was more about the fact that partly he wasn't equipped to deal with this sort of thing and also because he figured if he was detached from it, it might help.
"What? Oh, no, not Halo. I've played a couple of games but I was never much good."
Well, if he could completely ignore the fact that she'd just thrown herself at him - even though she'd promised herself that she'd never, ever do that - then so could Angie. For the moment. Her cheeks were still pink, though.
"More of a reader, you know?"
"Well, let's give it a shot, eh?" he said. "Let's say...half an hour. The empty room next to my room - I've turned it into a place to set up the Xbox." He gave her a warm smile.
"And Angie? Apology accepted. OK?"
"I'll see you then." Her smile wasn't quite so warm as his, though she did try her best. Which apology? The apology for liking him or the apology for telling him?
Did it even matter?
Picking up her dishes, she flashed him another small smile and left him to his own devices.
Well, that went... painfully. God, why did I do that?
For his part, Pyro was thinking one thing.
Oh God. How do I deal with this?
She realised as she was walking that it was probably a bad idea - trying to balance the plate in the crook of her arm so she could actually eat some of the toast just wasn't happening. After a while of trying to figure it out and failing miserably, she just took a sip of her tea and increased her speed a bit so that she'd reach her destination quicker - and, by extension, be able to eat some of her toast quicker.
Eventually, she came to the right corridor, and looking down at her hands with a bit of a frown, she wondered if she should have just eaten in the kitchen. Probably, but she was all the way here now, and she wanted her toast.
Poking her head around the always open door, Angie smiled brightly.
"You want some toast?"
Pyro glanced up from his computer screen. "No thanks," he said, and his tone was one of irritated bad temper. Following the conversation with Python, he'd left in a foul mood and had intended initially to shut himself up in his office and work for a bit. Of course, it was difficult to shut yourself up with the door still off its hinges courtesy of Cain Marko.
He didn't make any effort to pursue a conversation after his refusal of toast and carried on with whatever he was doing.
Someone's got his cranky pants on.
"Well, do you mind if I eat here? Having trouble balancing the plate on my arm and I'm really hungry."
With another smile, and not bothering to wait for his answer, Angie wandered in and sat in the spare chair in front of his desk. The toast, dripping with honey, was put on his desk just in case he changed his mind, and the young woman took a nice big bite before looking at him curiously.
"You ok?"
Well, obviously not, from his tone, but she asked the question anyway.
"Fine," he said, in the same short tone. "Was there something you wanted?" He didn't look up once from the computer. "Got a lot to do before I head offshore for a trip."
"No, I just thought you might like some toast." She shrugged easily - Pyro in a mood wasn't going to put her off, she'd dealt with much worse since she'd met him.
"You should eat." That was all she said on the matter - didn't want to seem like she was nagging. He was so skinny, though, he always seemed to forget about little things like food.
"Where are you heading?" Angie turned her attention back to her toast, grinning as honey ran down her fingers.
"New York," he said, glancing up briefly. Admittedly, the toast did smell appetising, but the discussion with Python had left a bitter, ash taste in his mouth and he had no appetite. "Picking up some new recruits. Thought it was time I went and actually worked for a living."
He sat back from the keyboard and looked at her.
"Suppose you're gonna try telling me it's a bad idea and all that stuff as well, now, right?"
Licking the honey off her fingers, Angie shook her head.
"Just make sure you come back to us."
Regardless of what she actually thought - and she didn't really think it was the best idea in the world - she wasn't about to feed his bad mood.
"I thought the peons were the ones that were supposed to do all the work, though." She grinned at him over her tea.
"I don't have peons," he said, his mood settling down a little. "I have colleagues. I'm not some sort of dictator."
A pause.
"You don't think that of me, do you?"
"No."
She made a face at him, the kind of look that said 'What are you, on drugs?'
"But you know, you're the leader-type, there's other people to do that kind of stuff."
Grabbing another triangle of toast, Angie pointed at the plate with one corner, catching a drip of honey before it was too late.
"You sure you're not hungry?"
"No thanks," he said. "I ate earlier."
He tapped his fingers on the desk briefly, clearly thinking about something. "I'm taking Cain with me," he said. "You and Aurora have done enough running around for now, and I really need to get off this rock for a break."
"Not planning on going incognito then?" She smiled, then popped a bit of toast in her mouth.
"Don't think Aurora would be up for a trip anyway." Draining the last of her tea, Angie picked up the last bit of toast and started shredding it into small pieces. Which of course left her fingers covered in honey again, but she could deal with honey.
"Did anyone tell you?"
He felt irritation starting up again, but kept it at bay. "Did anyone tell me what? I've been training all afternoon and in here for the last hour. You're the first person I've seen since Python."
"Oh, I figured... You know."
Shrugging, Angie licked the last of the honey off her fingers and wiped them on her jeans.
"She... Uh, had a bit of an episode. Has she ever mentioned Jeanne-Marie to you?"
A bit of an episode - the kind that left you locked in a room. Pyro, of all people, would be able to relate to that.
Even just thinking it made her feel guilty.
"Would this be the 'other personality' she suffers with? Yeah, she mentioned it to me briefly. Like I'd be a good person to advise her on dealing with mental issues." He narrowed his eyes at her.
"What happened, and where is she now?"
"Yeah. Although, uh, I think you could say that it's Jeanne-Marie who suffers with another personality. Aurora..." She wasn't the original personality. Had certainly been dominant for a good period of time, but Aurora had told her once that she'd only been alive for a few weeks, so to speak.
"I'm not sure exactly what happened, I came along to find Mystique stuffing her into a room. We went in and talked to her - Mystique, Jane and I. We've been trying to convince her to the cause, you know... Not sure how well it's going, though, she's not exactly happy about some of the things Aurora has done."
"I might drop by and see how she is," he said, sounding curiously cool and indifferent. "I'll see if I can go before I leave." He got up and moved to make himself a coffee from the machine. He didn't offer her one.
"What are your plans for the next few days?"
"Nothing major. I'm sure someone's got a project for me."
Tapping her knee, she thought about what she'd probably be doing until he got back. Cooking, sitting on the internet, talking to Aurora... There wasn't a whole lot that she could think of where she, specifically, would be useful.
"Why, have you got something specific in mind?"
"You should speak to Dharma. Do some fight training. Everyone on this island needs to have some basic self defence at the very least. I'm sure he's got some tricks up his sleeve. I'll only be gone a day or two at the most - and when we get back, we need to start training. As a cohesive unit."
"Juggernaut's shown me some basic stuff, actually."
Training as a cohesive unit?
"Er, don't you think I'd be better... You know, supporting from the back?"
She was actually thinking in terms of conserving her energy for if anyone got hurt, but it was entirely possible she'd sounded like she just didn't want to fight. Which she didn't, really, but she tried not to think of that as the main reason.
"Even the back line gets breached. I'd rather know you were able to at least go down with a fight." He shrugged. "Our numbers aren't so great that I can just assign someone to make sure you're OK the whole time."
"I'm not asking you to."
She frowned, a little confused and not entirely sure why he'd have thought that.
"It's all good, as I said, I've done some stuff with Juggernaut. I'll talk to Dharma while you're gone."
Angie really did feel like saying, 'Happy now?' but didn't bother. He was right - she needed to know some stuff, she'd been grabbed in Baltimore after all.
"Good," he said, mollified. "I'm sorry if I'm a bit bad-tempered. Just one of those days, y'know?" He managed a smile at her. "I'm just glad you're so patient with me. It's great having you to talk to."
"That's all good... Um. Pyro?" She took a deep breath and stood, playing with her mug for a moment before moving around to his side of the desk.
"I... I'm not your girlfriend, John. I... appreciate that you don't get much emotional support and all, but... I can't be that girl for you. I've... I've always been that girl, but I'm sorry, I can't be her anymore, not for you."
Looking down for a moment, Angie bit her lip and looked back at Pyro, her eyes full of sadness and annoyance and hope.
"I'm sorry, alright, that I'm completely fucking in love with you, and I'm trying to do something about it, I really am. I just can't stand here and watch you and... want you and... All I want to do is make you happy and it's clear you can't have that with me but no-one deserves to be happy more than you, because you're so special, and... I just wanted to..."
God, it had all come out in one big torrent, hadn't it.
Before she could really think about what she was doing, she stepped forward, put her hands to his cheeks, and kissed him.
She knew she'd never get another chance. Didn't know if she wanted another chance, but she wanted him to know what she felt for him, wanted to put it out there before she pushed it away and buried it forever.
To give John his credit, he didn't let his surprise at her sudden outburst show as more than a slightly raised eyebrow. "OK..." he said. "I was about to ask you if you wanted to learn how to play Halo."
Pyro's words made her clap her hands over her face in embarrassment.
"Oh, god," Angie whispered, leaning back against the desk with cheeks turning bright red.
She peeked out at him through her fingers before squeezing her eyes shut again.
"That... Uh..."
She dropped her hands, shaking hard enough now that she thrust them into her pockets to keep him from seeing.
"That was a very stupid thing to do."
She really wanted to kiss him again. But that would be even stupider.
"I'm sorry. And yes, I would love to learn how to play Halo."
If she thought she'd been red during her conversation with Juggernaut.... Well, she felt like her cheeks were about to burst into flame.
Oh, god.
"Don't apologise," he said, simply. "Let's just leave it at that for now." The day had been full of surprises and startlement. First Python and the need he felt to shift his father feelings onto him, and now this from Angie.
This, however, he had almost been anticipating.
"Do me one favour, though," he said. "Stop apologising for the way you feel. We'll work something out, I'm sure. You've been a good friend to me, Angie, and I appreciate that far more than I can ever really say. But...if you can accept that we're going to stop at that level...so much the better. Do you understand me?"
"Uh... OK."
It only made sense, in her mind, to apologise for liking him when he obviously didn't like her back. Angie didn't want to like him... Well, not that there was anything wrong with how she felt about him, but... She didn't want to like him because she knew it would never go any further and all it was doing was making her feel bad in the long run.
"Yeah, I understand." There wasn't really a way for her to move away from him without looking awkward.
So she looked awkward as she moved back to her seat on the other side of the desk. Having that barrier between them was a bit of a relief, actually.
"I'm sor..." She looked at him across the desk.
"I'm sorry for putting this on you, you don't need..."
Angie waved her hands rather vaguely, her cheeks still pink.
"So, you ever played Halo before? Ever played any games before?" He was almost relentless in changing the subject. Oddly, it wasn't because he didn't care about hurting her feelings. It was more about the fact that partly he wasn't equipped to deal with this sort of thing and also because he figured if he was detached from it, it might help.
"What? Oh, no, not Halo. I've played a couple of games but I was never much good."
Well, if he could completely ignore the fact that she'd just thrown herself at him - even though she'd promised herself that she'd never, ever do that - then so could Angie. For the moment. Her cheeks were still pink, though.
"More of a reader, you know?"
"Well, let's give it a shot, eh?" he said. "Let's say...half an hour. The empty room next to my room - I've turned it into a place to set up the Xbox." He gave her a warm smile.
"And Angie? Apology accepted. OK?"
"I'll see you then." Her smile wasn't quite so warm as his, though she did try her best. Which apology? The apology for liking him or the apology for telling him?
Did it even matter?
Picking up her dishes, she flashed him another small smile and left him to his own devices.
Well, that went... painfully. God, why did I do that?
For his part, Pyro was thinking one thing.
Oh God. How do I deal with this?