“Yes, pest, a club contract.” He tapped the mouse pad, pretending to be totally engrossed in the design sketches on the screen.
A pointy finger in his side had him yelping and swatting at her hand. “Don’t ignore me.”
“As if I could,” he muttered.
“Why a club contract? Why not just ask her out on a date?”
“Do you think she’d go out on a date?” Curious, because he hadn’t expected that suggestion, he stopped pretending the screen had all his focus and turned towards his favorite pest. She was leaning back against the back of the couch, her hair piled in a messy bun, with one hand on her baby bump. Today’s t-shirt was a Star Wars themed one, with the Death Star over her bump and the words “That’s No Moon” with a background of stars. While her stomach wasn’t big enough to really fill out the Death Star yet, it wasn’t hard to imagine it getting there. Which was both weird and wonderful, knowing she was growing a tiny human being inside of her. Sometimes he wondered what their lives would be like now if he hadn’t dated one of her best friends and they’d ended up dating instead… buthe knew it wouldn’t have worked. Angel liked pain with her pleasure, but not to the levels Michael enjoyed giving it.
“I have no idea,” Angel answered matter-of-factly. “I just want to know why you didn’t bother to try.”
“Because I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have said yes and I’m trying not to push her or scare her off,” he said. “And I didn’t suggest the club contract, she did.” The expression on Angel’s face made him laugh. “Oh, didn’t know that, did you? Nosy thing.”
He poked her back, but he poked her thigh, and a lot more gently than she’d dug her finger into him.
“But you like her right? You want more than a club contract?”
“Why the third degree, pest?” he asked, rather than answering her questions. Angel really was a nosy thing, but she usually wasn’t this bad. She might ask, but she didn’t usually shoot questions at him like he was under interrogation, or with such an accusatory tone in her voice.
Angel crossed her arms, resting them between her breasts and swelling bump as she frowned at him. “Because I think she likes you. And she deserves a real relationship.”
“Well I like her too, and I agree,” he said, raising his eyebrow. “Is that all?”
A strange look came over her face, almost like hesitation and a little bit of doubt. “You’re… you’re careful with her right?”
There was a strange note in her voice, alerting Michael to another unexpected shift in the conversation. Hesitant and doubtful were not adjectives often applied to Angel. In fact, he’d say they almost never applied to Angel.
“What’s going on, Angel?” he asked, turning more fully towards her.
She bristled defensively. “Nothing. I’m just asking a question.”
Asking a question and worrying about it. Michael tilted his head, studying her, and Angel blushed. They’d done a lot of theater together and Angel was a very good actress, but she wasn’t great at hiding her own emotions without putting some real effort into it, and he could tell when she was doing it. Something had riled her protective instincts with Ellie, which Michael didn’t have a problem with, but now he was curious exactly why. It didn’t seem like just the club contract.
Ellie had been at the self-defense class last night, helping Angel out…
“Did something about Ellie’s past come up last night?” he asked. Whatever had happened to her, it seemed like the class would be a likely avenue for something to actually come out.
“I can’t talk about that,” Angel said immediately, her face going neutrally blank. Which, of course, was an answer in and of itself.
“I don’t expect you to betray her confidence,” he said, giving her a look. Really, she should know him better. “I know something happened to her though. Her hard limits make it pretty clear.”
“Really?” Angel’s natural curiosity perked her up a bit and Michael just had to shake his head in amusement.
“And you know that’s confidential information too, unless she chooses to share it with you.”
Pouting, Angel stuck her tongue out at him. “I wasn’t being nosy, I just didn’t realize you could tell someone’s experiences from their hard limits.”
“Well, you have to be particularly wise and insightful… Ouch!” Damn her elbows were sharp. And she’d somehow managed to get him in almost the exact same spot she’d poked him earlier. Considering she was both pregnant and not his, he didn’t have much in the way of recourse either, unless he wanted to tattle on her to Adam, and he had way too much dignity to stoop so low. Not to mention, he wasn’t entirely sure Adam wouldn’t just reward her. The two of them got along fairly well, but Michael liked to needle the other man just for fun sometimes. His best defense was probably to just distract her. “So she talked about it with you, huh?”
“Not any details, but yeah a little,” Angel said, making a sound halfway between a sigh and a growl. “We all did.”
Michael frowned. “What do you mean you all did?”
“We all shared our bad experiences,” Angel said with a shrug, although he could tell she was feeling uncomfortable saying so. Which was unusual because not much embarrassed Angel and finding a topic she was uncomfortable talking about was kind of like finding a unicorn. His frown deepened, a surge of protective anger rising inside of him.
“What bad experiences?”
“Oh geez, you had to go and get him going too?” Lexie asked, walking back into the room, followed by Patrick. She was wearing her usual attire for home when there was company - one of Patrick’s big shirts. Michael was fairly certain Patrick just kept her completely naked all the time when no one else was around.
