Doug and Angel, last Thursday

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

During one of her language sessions, Angel's discovery of boys rears its head. It's not fair trying to hide things from someone who can read body language.

Angel tapped her foot impatiently on the side of Doug's desk and scowled at the place that her language tutor was supposed to be. But he wasn't and it wasn't like he was normally late. And Mark had said he was in, so she'd gone to his office like normal. And where was he? She could have found their kitchen by now and gotten food or something.

Shifting, she flipped open one of the books he'd found for her and started to read, resisting the urge to root through his desk for candy.

At several minutes past the hour, Doug came running into the room, panting slightly. "Angel, hey," he said with a sheepish smile. "I was working out and kinda lost track of time," he admitted. He had obviously come directly from his workout, as he was still in a form-fitting black tank top and black sweatpants, and he carried a towel which he used to vigorously dry his slightly damp hair as he sat down behind his desk.

"Nah, it's okay. You were only about two minutes from getting totally raided out of whatever food you had in your desk though. Forfeit and all that." Closing the book, she glanced up and very nearly had her mouth hit her knees. Doug had always been super nice and...super nice. Hotter than the Fourth of July fireworks? Now that was a new one. "Or, yeah...lost all your paper clips or something," she continued, blinking.

"Lost all my paper clips?" Doug asked, slightly confused. He was somewhat used to the odd things that Angel would say without really thinking, but even he couldn't quite make sense out of that one. "And there's a reason I keep a lot of snacks in my desk. Well, two. One is in case you decide to raid it, since I've heard about your appetite." He grinned. "The other one is that sometimes I forget to eat if I don't have food right here."

Foooocus. "I would have melted them all into one shape," she explained, finding the other book as quickly as she could, trying to think things through. Okay, so she liked guys. Understatement of the last millennium. And most of them were one day crushes, Angel forced herself to realize. She could get through this, no problem. Just one little session and then she'd put him on her paper and move on. 'Oh, how I wish it were that easy...'

"Oh, okay. So I would have lost them in the name of your boredom. Now I get it." Doug nodded and threw his towel onto a small chair that held other random items of his. "Now, where did we leave off last time?" he asked, turning his chair to face Angel and giving his full attention to the tutoring.

Lessons were good. "Um, I think text book wise we were on page 50," she remembered, flipping through the pages. "I remember last time you were having me repeat that sentence over and over again." Angel grimaced. "And over and over and over..."

Doug shrugged. "And we will continue it over and over until you get it right." He reached across the desk and patted Angel's hand gently. "Just remember it's for a good cause, right?"

It took all off her control to make sure the tips of her hair didn't catch on fire. That seemed to be her body's favorite way of expression embarrassment. "Yeeeaaah," she said, trying to sound sulky to cover up the "Oh my god, TOUCHING!" that was going through her mind. She did brighten up. "Sooraya's going to be pleased, I hope."

"I really think she will," Doug agreed with a smile. Rummaging around in his desk, he found a bottle of water and cracked the cap. "Now, the sentence of doom. Try it again," he instructed, before taking a long pull from the bottle.

Staring was a bad thing. Closing her eyes seemed to help and, hey, he would think it was for concentration. Angel bit her lip and took a deep breath. "~Excuse me,~" she said, "~I wish to be finding...~ No, wait a minute. ~Excuse me, I need to find the library, can you help me?~"

"Better," Doug praised her gently. "Now just work on putting all the words together as a whole sentence, and remember your accent."

“Does the accent ever go away?" Angel asked, her curiosity pushing past the embarrassment and crush. "I mean, I am American but will it fade if I get really good?"

Doug nodded. "The more you practice, the less you will sound like a student and more like a native speaker. That's why we're practicing so much." He paused to try and think of an example. "I mean, does Ms. Munroe sound like a normal English speaker to you? Because English isn't her first language. Practice makes perfect."

"And perfect practice makes perfect, right?" Angel asked, grinning. "I just...you don't think Sooraya would be insulted, do you?"

"Insulted?" Doug cocked his head. "How do you mean?"

She flushed and stared down at her feet. "If I mess it up." Angel's toes were very interesting. It wasn't often that the case of the shys or nerves managed to hit her that hard. After all, she swam in front of people and things came out of her mouth that, sometimes, no sane person would think to say. But this was different than competition.

"Hey," Doug said quietly. Waiting until Angel looked up at him, he looked straight at her. "I think that Sooraya will be very honored that you took the time to try and learn how to speak to her in her native tongue, regardless of whether or not it goes perfectly. Even if you mess it up, I think she'll be touched that you went to all this effort for her."

Rubbing the back of her neck, Angel looked at him sheepishly. "I know. I'm just not used to doing something like this, you know? And new is good and this was an awesome idea--which means I'm awesome, huzzah!--but...yeah. I'm just being insane today, don't mind me." And that also included the crushing on the yummy tutor.

Except that Angel's body language was positively crying out "pay attention to me!" Doug paused for a moment and actually looked at Angel. Her face was slightly flushed, as was her neck. Her eyes were slightly more dilated than was normal for the lighting in his office. Her nostrils were flared. Her legs were rubbing together slightly as she squirmed in her chair, as if she couldn't sit still. And she was watching him rather intently. It all added up to a rather startling conclusion, and Doug's eyes widened minutely. ~Oh dear,~ he thought. ~How does one broach the fact that you just figured out that the other person has a crush on you?~

She glanced up and caught him looking at her. 'It's nothing,' she thought desperately. 'Nothing at all!' "Static hair?" she asked, reaching up to pat down her hair. It was also to make sure that her hair wasn't on fire or anything. Accidentally burning down his office was not exactly the smoothest move she could make. Not that there would be any moves. No. Because this was just the one day crush, all she had to do was get through it.

"No, no static hair," Doug said with a chuckle. "Why don't we take a break for a couple minutes and talk," he suggested quietly.

"...aren't we talking now?"

"I mean about stuff besides tutoring," Doug corrected. "Like you. And me. And...oh, bollocks," Doug grunted, frustrated at talking around it. "You've got a crush on me, don't you?" he asked very gently.

"Argh, you're cheating, aren't you?" Angel chided him, crossing her arms under her chest and sulking. "Maybe. For today. Maybe."

"Yes, I maybe cheated a little bit. But to be fair, your entire posture was kind of screaming 'pay attention to me!'" Doug said, flailing his hands to show what he meant. "And 'for today'? I think you're going to have to explain."

Angel sighed and then reached down for her bag. It didn't take her long to find her "Boys Are Smokin' Chart" (it had made her laugh) and she handed it over to Doug. "Like, you're hot, right? And I apparently now know this when I didn't before. And tomorrow I'll still find you hot but I won't, well, be crushing. I, um, there seems to be a pattern. You'd be the one to see it."

Doug perused the chart, with a brief chuckle for its title. "Wow, you -have- been thorough," he mused. "Looks like you've managed to crush on pretty much every boy at the mansion between the ages of 14 and 21." Angel had neatly noted the day she had crushed on a particular boy. "But only for a day, huh?" He tapped two names. "I don't recognize those two names, and it looks like you haven't -quite- made the rounds of the mansion yet. What about Kyle, and Julio, and Marius?"

"Names you don't..." Angel peered over and read the upside down words. "Oh! Jack's a guy in my dad's office and Luke works at a 7-11. Trust me, very, very hot. Wrestler kind of hot, even. And he smelled like hot dogs, which made it even better." She grinned ruefully at the other three names. "They're not going away. They're being pretty stubborn about it. Kyle flops in and out, depending on the day."

"I think I see a pattern there, too," Doug teased gently. "You crush on someone you think is cute for a day, but your crushes on your friends haven't gone away." He smiled. "My dad always says that happiness is being in love with your best friend, because he and my mom were really good friends before they ever dated." His smile turned a little wistful, though, as he thought of Marie-Ange, and his remaining feelings for her. Not to mention Amanda, who had taken Angie's place as his best friend, and the complicatedness of -their- relationship.

She wrinkled her nose at that. "Maybe that's why my dad and mom didn't last," Angel said, scratching her head. "They divorced when I was one but, well, they're like best friends. Never had a bad thing to say about the other, just that it didn't work. And neither of them really dated much after, so that's a reason that this is all so weird to me."

Doug nodded. "It could be." He shook his head gently and came back to the present. "In the light of...certain events, would it be easier if we left off today and picked back up tomorrow?" he asked with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

She glanced at her watch and looked sheepish. "Maybe. Or maybe you could go, I dunno, put on a sleeping bag or something." She mocked scowled at him. "Because what you're wearing right now? Is distracting, totally."

Doug grinned unrepentantly and stretched, taking a bit of amusement from the way Angel's eyes followed the play of his muscles. "How about we just call it a day, so I can go back and take the shower that I skipped to get up here for our session?" He stood up from his desk and snagged his towel as he walked around it. He helped Angel put her books back in her bag, then gave her his hand to help her stand up. "I'm very flattered, really, Angel," he said gently. "But I'm kinda glad it's only a one day thing." Leaning in, he kissed her softly on the cheek.

As soon as he was out of range, the tail ends of her hair lit up in flame. Face palming, she sighed. "Now look what you've gone and done," Angel grumbled, reaching down to start to put her books away. "It's going to take me forever to put that out. Luckily, no smell of burning hair for me since it's really not, you know, burning..." Glancing up, she gave him a shy smile. "Thanks."