The X-Project

Once Angelo's finally back from L.A., Laurie stops by for a quick chat, covering puppies, mothers, self-defense, and foosball.




Laurie knocked on the door to the room Angelo and Forge shared, and then stepped back to wait for an answer. Angelo had invited her over for a cup of tea and to talk about their mother's joint project. She hadn't talked to Angelo much, and was feeling slightly shy about doing so now but Amanda seemed to think highly of him, a good thing since they were dating, and so that was good enough for her.

Angelo opened the door with a smile, blocking the way out with his legs before Joyita could escape and try to knock Laurie over with affection. "Hey, Laurie. How're you?"

"I'm good, although slightly deaf from the aerobics tape that someone who shall remain nameless was playing in our suite before I came over." Laurie replied with a shy smile.

It was at this point that she noticed Joyita and all attempt at rational discourse was abandoned in favour of paying attention to the puppy. "Doggie!"

Angelo watched her play with the dog - not really so much of a puppy anymore, even if she still acted like one - laughing. "Yeah, there's a reason she loves you for life."

Laurie looked up with a rueful grin. "I miss my own dog sometimes, being here. Although, Mum keeps telling me that since we only really live a block away I can come home for dinner any time I want. I feel like that's cheating though, since the others here can't see their folks at the drop of a hat."

"That's when you take them with you", Angelo suggested. "Or that's what my mom keeps sayin'. She'd feed everybody in the place if she could. Or your dog could move in... except maybe not into a suite."

"We should so have some kind of picnic. Your Mum and mine could cook, and I'm sure Lorna would help out too and then we get everyone on the front lawn with picnic baskets and let the animals run wild. Although...we should probably ask Cain first, I don't know if there's rules about letting your pets run wild on the mansion front lawn." Laurie replied, expression thoughtful. "And we could invite the other parents too if they wanted to come."

"Sounds like a pretty good plan to me, if Cain okays it. It's been a while since there was a parents' day, I think."

"Weekend of the eighth," came a voice from the other side of the suite. Forge shuffled out sleepily, rubbing at his eyes with his good hand. "June, I mean. Parents' Day. We were just joking about it in the staff meeting the other day, running background checks in case of Evil Parent Issues. At least, I think Mr. Dayspring was joking. I hope?"

Walking slowly on his new leg, Forge made his way to the small kitchenette, reaching into the fridge for a can of soda and draining it before looking over to Angelo and Laurie, finally registering the presence of a visitor that wasn't one of Angelo's usual women. "Oh, um. Hi. How's things?"

"Pretty good. I see you're up and about without defying doctor's orders this time." Laurie replied with a teasing grin.

"No respect, I tell you," Forge griped, shaking a finger at Laurie. "Is that the way to treat your lifesaving hero? Teenagers these days, what can you do with them?"

Angelo laughed, sitting back on the couch. "Forge, just how many times did you try to get up in the medlab before you were up to standin' on your own?"

"Six, if we're counting," Forge admitted sheepishly, "But I only fell the once. Like I said, I'm not Nathan."

"I found him trying to hobble across the Medlab for a glass of water. If I hadn't come along, I'm sure it would've all ended in tears." Laurie replied, standing from where she'd been playing with Joyita and joining Angelo on the couch.

Joyita promptly followed and lay down across all four of their feet -it was a stretch, but she could do it. "He told me he could walk on his own right before I stopped him fallin' over", Angelo added cheerfully, grinning at Forge.

"I thought Dr. Voght was going to have a coronary when she saw what he'd done to the Medlab bed though." Laurie said, reaching down to scratch behind Joyita's ears. Animals always seemed to love her, and would usually come up to her at the least opportunity. She might ask Kyle about that next time she got the chance. He wasn't exactly an animal but he did have those feral senses, so maybe he might still know what was going on with it.

"The woman doesn't understand the creative drive," Forge complained, fixing himself a sandwich. After all the torment his system had been through in the medlab, the doctors had advised him to take it easy for a while to let his metabolism adjust back to normal, and so a plain ham sandwich sounded just about fine.

"So what brings the young Miss Collins into our fair abode today, hmm?" Forge asked, arching an eyebrow. "Remedial self-defense lessons?"

"No. Although, if I'm ever in a position where I actually need to use self-defence, I'm pretty screwed. I'm not so good at the hitting other human beings thing." Laurie replied, looking slightly sheepish.

Considering what they'd been up against recently, and all the times this school had had one crisis or another it seemed silly to have a hangup on hurting other people but she did. She just didn't like the idea of hitting someone, not when she could simply put them to sleep using her powers.

Angelo looked at her sideways. "Remind me to work on that with you sometime. I mean, yeah, you've got your powers, but if you ever count on them an' find they don't work for whatever reason..."

"Hence why I prefer the 'avoidance' method of self defense," Forge proclaimed matter-of-factly. "Always skipped the class myself. There's no amount of teaching or practice that's going to make me anything less than useless in a self-defense situation anyway," he rapped his knuckles against his leg for emphasis, then leaned over the back of the couch, changing his posture completely as he tried to deflect the subject. "So, you're not here for class work, is there an Angelo Feeding that was missed? Because if so, I've gotta file a complaint. I was lost in the jungle eaten by dinosaurs for an entire day and I didn't get any Teen Girl Squad catering. Totally unfair."

"Nope, just came by to talk to him about our mothers. There's been plotting going on and my Mom has been making noises about fliers and the like. I was wondering if Angelo knew anything about it." Laurie replied with a grin. "Besides, food is now standard currency. Considering how easily you guys are bribed with pie."

Angelo laughed. "Yeah, I know about it. It's all my mom ever talks about these days - got herself quite the mission, it sounds like."

"What exactly is the mission? Mom's been too busy for us to have a long talk lately." Laurie replied, absently scratching Joyita behind the ears.

"Support group for parents an' families for mutants who want to be supportive but need help, I think is the basic idea", Angelo said with a grin. He was proud of the whole thing.

That gathered Forge's attention, as he paused with his sandwich half in his mouth. "Weawwy?" he mumbled, then swallowed. "Really? Hey, that's a great idea - would you mind tossing my number her way? It sounds like that could really mesh well with what some of the local HeliX chapters are doing. Always good to compare notes."

"I'll give you Mom's office number. She's been thinking of putting together a story to go on her morning program, I'm pretty positive that she'd love to hook in some of the local HeliX groups for that." Laurie replied, leaning back against the couch and taking a look around.

She hadn't been in Angelo & Forge's suite before, it was interesting. Definitely not the same decore as her own suite, but she supposed that was to be expected considering boys lived in this one.

"An' I'll give you my mom's number too", Angelo said cheerfully. "The more people she can get interested in this, the better, I figure. You want any coffee with your breakfast, Forge?"

"Coffee is always good," Forge remarked. "Fuels the brain parts."

Angelo laughed. "Coffee it is, then... if we've got any left." Nudging the dog off his feet, he got up to wander over to the kitchenette and check.

"Fuels the brain parts? I thought that was fish." Laurie replied with amusement, watching as Joyita resettled across her feet. "Or is this some new research I haven't heard of yet?"

"Consider it sort of like... field research," Forge replied, folding himself over the couch to sit cross-legged on a cushion. "Like that 'how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop' thing. Only this is 'how many cups of coffee does it take to get Forge thinking at full speed' thing." Recent travels had taken a bit out of him, and he'd just finished the last of the regimen of antibiotics and painkillers for his shoulder. Medication of any sort tended to throw him for a loop, and he was looking to get back to what passed for a normal metabolism any time now.

"It amuses me that I could probably do that for you without the caffeine hit once I get this whole powers thing under control." Laurie replied, grinning as she realised that she probably could eventually. Caffeine was just a chemical that reacted with the body afterall, if she could figure out how to work with her power on an individual basis, she could probably recreate a whole bunch of effects that would usually be done by drugs. Of course, that would require a lot more Biology knowledge and powers control then she currently had. She had enough difficulty with just 'feel calm' without trying to get fancy.

"The last time I volunteered to be a guinea pig for someone's powers experimentation," Forge explained, "it got me and Marius both grounded for a week. Although it did jumpstart my power again after I'd managed to darn near erase my own genetic structure. Besides, caffeine tastes good. Not that you... I mean, um... I wasn't saying... well, maybe once you've got some control down, maybe," he stammered, hiding a rising blush.

"I understand." Laurie replied, trying her best not to smile. "Mr Haller is going to be helping me with that actually. He said something about movies, although I'm not exactly sure what he has in mind yet. How'd you manage to almost erase your genetic structure? Is this one of those 'demon invasion' type stories?"

"Nah," Forge explained hastily. "One of the 'kidnapped by Magneto' stories. It seems weird that there's more than one of us with those..."

"Now these stories I haven't heard. Does he do that regularly? Because if he does then we might need to get one of those little diary things. You know, Monday, battle dinosaurs, Tuesday, get kidnapped by evil mutant supremacist. That sort of thing." Laurie replied, wondering why Angelo was taking so long with plain coffee.

It might have been because he was surreptitiously watching them over the kitchen counter, and had been since Forge's verbal stumble, but turned hastily to one of the cupboards as she glanced his way, to check if there was coffee in there like there should be.

"...I think we're out. I could go raid the main kitchen?"

Laurie nodded, although she'd never wished for the ability to raise only one eyebrow more harder in her life. It amused her that Angelo was most probably trying to find an excuse to give Forge and her time alone, she wondered what exactly Forge had been telling Angelo.

"Sure, bring back cookies!"

Forge shot a look at his departing suitemate that practically screamed I will kill you in your sleep for this treachery before turning his attention back to Laurie. The next few moments were silent, finally broken by "So... up for some foosball?"

"I don't know, do I get to play blue?" Laurie replied, suddenly amused by the whole thing. She grinned at Forge and winked. "I warn you though, I am the Mistress of foosball. Ten games and undefeated so far."

"You talk a good game, but let's see you back it up." Forge hopped off the couch and held the door open for Laurie. "Ten games, pfft."

"Well, I was playing against my ten year old cousin, so..." Laurie said, moving past Forge and out the door. "But loser has to do the winner's chores for a week. Can't play foosball without stakes, it wouldn't be right."

Coincidentally, Angelo was just emerging from the main kitchen with a jar of coffee in hand - yes, instant, whatever Lorna would have said about it. Sometimes coffee had to be had without taking the time to grind it.

Forge gave his suitemate a quick wave. "Absconding with Laurie for some foosball. You want winner?"

"You changed your mind about the coffee, then?" he asked, noticeably not moving to put it back. They really had run out. It was their coffee now. "Sure, I'll play the winner."

Forge shrugged, following Laurie down the hall towards the rec room. "Somehow I'm feeling a bit more motivated, what can I say?" he called back. "Better get your lucky foosball shirt, by the way! You're going to need it."