Stoker and Stalkers: Moments of Normality

[x-kitten.livejournal.com]

Mid-day and Kitty's feeling fine. Manuel, on the other hand...



Manuel sat in the chair in the student lounge. Well, he was more draped in it actually, his legs hanging off of one arm-rest. He held a crystal ball slightly smaller than his fist that he was rolling around in his hand idly. Back and forth, up onto the tips of his fingers and then rolling down the back of his hand, only to be flipped to his palm to start all over again. He was staring off into nowhere as he did this, his eyes hidden by his mirrored sunglasses.

Kitty came in carrying an armload of books, feeling annoyed with herself for not having gotten as much done last night as she needed to. She'd just gotten tired so quickly. But given how stressed she was, she really couldn't afford to keep collapsing over her work, so today she was starting early. She hadn't really expected the lounge to be empty, though. Kitty wanted people around, for all that they were a potential distraction. They were also potential study breaks.

"Hi, Manuel," she said, smiling as she settled into a chair. "How are you?"

Manuel casually looked over at Kitty, and the held out his hand - the one with the crystal ball in it - towards her. The ball rolled down his palm to his fingertips, almost in front of her nose, before he moved his hand and flipped the ball away. A small smile quirked his lips at that, but it died away quickly.

Kitty grinned, pulling out her pencil. "I've seen that movie," she said. "Went totally nuts about contact juggling when I was, like, maybe seven. Totally. Sucked at it. You're good, though."

Manuel frowned, just for a second, at Kitty's words. "It feels right." he said quietly. "I can feel her this way. The way she was."

That got a highly intelligent, "Huh?" as Kitty cocked her head quizzically at Manuel.

Manuel extended out his hand, and the crystall ball obediently rolled down its length and into Kitty's lap. "The orb." he said with a small, cruel smile. "Would you like to know more?"

Kitty was startled as he let the ball drop into her lap and, looking down at it, she missed his dark little smile. "Sure," she said, still sounding confused as she looked up. When she saw his smile she shivered slightly. That was not a good smile...

Manuel was in a particularly chaotic mood - he had been ever since Seattle, and he didn't know why. Still, it was as good a mood as any. "The ball will show you." he said, and then snatched one of her pencils from her stack of school things, to twirl between his fingers while he watched her. Idly, one foot of his twitched out some sort of rhythmic time.

Her hands move tentatively towards the ball in her lap, not sure what he was talking about, or that she wanted to find out. The way he was watching her didn't help matters, either. But, unless she wanted to just stand up and drop the ball on the floor she'd have to pick it up.

Manuel looked at the crystal ball with something like longing. Either that or he was staring at Kitty's crotch - or possibly both. Still the pencil twirled between his fingers and the foot tapped out its rhythms. "it's very strange." he said randomly.

Touching the ball carefully, Kitty's mind was suddenly flooded with images and emotions and her hands jerked back instinctively. It was Amanda, there was no question of that, Amanda as she used to be before everything went wrong. Even know it felt as though... as though the other girl had been sitting right with them and just stepped out for a moment. Tears stung Kitty's eyes as she blinked down at the ball.

Manuel smiled again at Kitty. "Ahh, she begins to see it now." he commented, everything about him becoming still. "If you could look deep inside of her, phase into her very essence, you would see something there. Do you know what it is?" he asked her, cocking his head like a dog.

"I don't think I want to know," she said quietly. It was too much. Too much of Amanda's heart and soul had gone into the ball, and touching it, even for an instant, had felt like intruding on that. Pulling her sleeve over her hand she carefully picked it up and set it on the table, unwilling to stay near it.

Manuel lazily extended his hand out to pick up the ball, to begin rolling it back and forth. "She chooses to remain blissfully ignorant." he said with a sigh. raising his hand to eye-level to spin the ball on one forefinger. "We should dance." he said abruptly, palming the ball and dropping it into one of his pockets. "You and I. Right now. I'm feeling sufficiently tragic for a dismal waltz across the floor."

Kitty watched him warily, uncertain how to deal with this Manuel. He was so... affected. She couldn't make out what he was thinking or why he was doing the things he was, couldn't get past the demeanor. And the demeanor worried her. "I should actually do my work..." she said slowly.

Manuel's eyes went wide for a moment. "But you _love_ to dance! Everyone loves to dance! COME ON, EVERYBODY, DANCE!" he shouted, leaping to his feet and spinning an imaginary dance partner around Kitty's chair. After two rotations, he flopped back into his chair and raked his fingers through his hair. "Apparently nobody wishes to dance with me." he said sadly. "How gloomy."

At the shout Kitty jerked back into her chair, eyes going wide as he spun about her chair, watching him. "Manuel," she finally said, very calmly, "you're frightening me. What the hell is this about?"

"Hadn't you heard? I'm not well!' he told her with a big charming smile on his face. "Poor little Manuelito, got a big hole where his heart should be." he said in sing-song. "So he fills it however he can!" he sing-songed. "He's a _bad man_." he whispered conspiratorially to Kitty. "Everyone says so. He remembers the little children, the ones who will never be again. He remembers them, and he's a Bad Man."

Kitty frowned, then stood up, collecting her books with jerky movements, the frown never leaving. "You," she said severely, "should see Samson. Or the Professor. Or both." She didn't know what this was about, but right now she didn't care. She just wanted out of this conversation.

"Don't be like that!" he said in his normal voice. "Can't a guy have a bit of fun around here?"

"At who's expense?" she asked, turning and heading for the door, not really caring if he answered.

"Why, mine, of course!" he said back to her. "I'll leave you alone. Nothing more emotionally volatile than ... the weather! Promise." he said.

Stopping, Kitty looked back over her shoulder at him, but she didn't say anything. The mood swings were alarming, at best, and she didn't know how to deal with him.

Manuel gestured towards the chair she'd vacated. "The weather." he promised.

"I really do have to work," she said slowly. But she wasn't leaving, yet.

Manuel nodded. "Quiet as a mouse. The weather - and I can watch C-SPAN. Nice and dull, no feeling behind it at all."

Sighing softly, Kitty gave in and turned back to settle in the chair again, this time pulling her legs up to sit cross legged. "I really don't understand you, Manuel," she said.

Manuel reached over for the remote control, and flicked on the television. The two of them were then assaulted with a high-decibel sonic mutilation consisting of a whole lot of grunting and bass-beats. "Jubilee left it on MTV again." he said apologetically, muting the television and switching it to C-SPAN.

Picking up the text book on top and one of her pencils Kitty shrugged. "It's ok."

Manuel turned the sound back on while adjusting it down to volumes that people not named Alison Blaire or Jubilation Lee could appreciate. "At least, I think it was Jubilee. Maybe it was Blinky. Sometimes he dinks with the volume." he said with a shrug, getting absorbed into the latest Congressional shenanigans.

The normality of just sitting there and working while he watched the tv slowly let the tenseness seep out of her and Kitty began to relax out of her wary uncertainty as the work caught her up.

Manuel let the silence go on for a few minutes before speaking again. "You _sure_ you don't want to dance?" he asked her with a small smile.

Kitty glanced up at him, then down at the problems she was working out in the book, then back at him. Finally she offered him a tentative smile. "Two more problems, then I'll give you your dance."

Manuel grinned. "Thank you, senorita." he said, and then went back to watching C-SPAN. He still had that aching hole inside, still had the drive to fill it with something - anything - but Kitty's blend of calm phleghmatic acceptance over a core of blind anger sounded just about perfect to him. He could relate.