Log: Laurie & Manny in the rose garden

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Manny joins Laurie in the rose garden and the two talk. Then Laurie surprises him with a rather pointed question.

Posted a little early due to timezone weirdness.




Laurie took a seat on the small iron bench, breathing in the floral scents around her from the rose garden. It was peaceful here in the afternoon and she often came after class to relax.

They were getting down to the wire now and finals were coming up, it made for a rather stressful time. Laurie had begun meditating between classes just to keep her powers in check, since she had no desire to make her fellow classmates feel as jittery as she did currently.

He didn't come out often but when he did, Manuel liked to explore things he hadn't normally appreciated while he was here and the rose garden was one of them. Of course he had been here, sat down but he had never really listened to anything outside of the link he had with Amanda and frustrations he felt on a daily basis. Forced to slow down his steps with the cane, it took a long time to make his way through here, pausing every few steps for a breather when he came upon a blond situated on the bench. "May I?" he asked, gesturing his question so that he may take a seat.

Laurie shuffled over to give him enough room as she nodded her head in acquience, continuing to repeat the mantras in her head she'd evented to help her with meditation. She'd started off with eyes closed and concentrating on only breathing but now she could meditate almost anywhere, with eyes open. She still prefered the old way though, it was a lot more soothing, but there were times on the team she wouldn't get the choice.

"How are you doing, Manuel?" she asked after a moment.

"I am well, thank you. And you?" he asked as he situated himself down slowly. His muscles relaxed, a warm feeling spread throughout the areas in his body that he found the msot taxed when he had walked for too long. The cane was set aside because for most, if it was out of sight, then they would not be inclined to ask him questions about how he was feeling.

"Content," she answered, leaning back against the bench and looking up at the blue sky overhead. "Did you know, there's only two months left of classes and then graduation."

"No, I didn't realize this. It feels like July," he admitted, brushing his hand over his wrist where the inhibitor should be. She must be Laurie, but he wasn't sure. She looked like the blond girl in the pictures, however, he didn't ask. Names had very little significance these days.

"I've sort of got a reason to be focussed on it, I suppose. I need to do well in exams if I'm going to be a doctor some day. I'm Laurie, by the way." Laurie replied, holding her hand out at the end in the standard greeting between newly met people.

Manuel reached over, taking her hand in a firm shake before releasing it as though touching her for even _that_ long was intolerable. "Yes, I assumed it was you. I suppose the cane gave me away."

"It's fairly distinctive, and Mr Dayspring hasn't hurt himself this week, and you don't exactly look alike even if he had." Laurie admitted with a smile, relaxing back into the bench now that the formalities had been observed.

As an after thought, Manuel rubbed the hand that touched her on his thigh, a lingering sense of calm over taking him and had he not known anybetter, he wouldn't have noticed. Her emotions must have been leaking into him, yes, that made sense, and he was thankful he wasn't projecting as far as he knew. It was hard to be positive and yet so many other emotions were filtering in though Laurie's dominated currently. He mimicked her relaxation without meaning to do so and smiled briefly back before turning his attention to a nearby rose bush. "Nathan is a little older than me. I'd like to think I had retained some of my youth while in a coma."

Laurie gave him a rather pointed once over, but there was a smile on her face at the time and she winked at him after a moment. "Oh, I think you'll pass well enough. Your first trip out to the rose garden?"

Manuel nodded without commenting and the smile reached his eyes. "It's been sometime since I ventured out here. I was not very interested in roses then. Too busy," he looked at her, making his excuse though not elaborating. "What will you do after graduation?"

"I'm waiting to see if I get accepted into the colleges I want at the moment. I'm really hoping I can get into NYU, since that's the closest. I'm really wanting to do Pre-med classes close to home, since it'll mean I can continue with the X-men training without a problem. I don't want to have to choose between the two." she answered, watching as a bee, having possibly just come from one of the roses, land on her hand lightly.

Manuel listened but turned his attention on the bee, waving his hand to shoo it away. "You seem smart, I'm sure you'll get into whatever school you want, especially NYU. How do you find the X-men training?"

Laurie moved her hand away from Manny's wave, allowing the bee to remain where it was. She was used to animals being drawn to her by now, and it only seemed to be reptiles who saw her as food, the rest just seemed curious.

"I try not to ever be complacent, it's only study that makes me seem so smart, I'm not in any way in someone like Forge or Paige's league. And X-man training is going well, although it's hard at times too. It's as much about the person training you as it is about the training itself. You get different ways of doing things, depending on the person, I find. It's better that way though, makes you ready for any situation."

His hand returned to his lap and watched the bee, half listening to what she said about Xmen training. His focus remained on the insect, how it moved and reacted to her which prompt him to change the subject. "You're powers, if you dont' mine me rudely changing the subject, would it have something to do with influencing that bee?"

Laurie looked down at the bee, who had settled in for the time being it seemed, wings vibrating slightly as it rested.

"Sort of, although it's more a side effect of my powers, I suppose. I can manipulate physical reactions using pheramones, which sometimes also extends to how people feel considering the body and the mind are fairly connected. But, I'm not an empath like you, I can't feel what other people feel, or manipulate their mind directly like a telepath would." she explained.

Interesting. "Sounds alluring in itself. Does the manipulation linger or does it go away immediately?" Habit to know that a bee would sting regardless had him watch her hand, waiting for the enevitable to happen.

"It depends on the person, and what I'm trying to do. I don't have to touch them to effect them, but I've learnt enough to keep my pheramones to myself these days. Someone like Kyle, they can usually throw off the effects quickly when I'm not trying to keep them dosed, someone without a healing factor would take a little longer. And then it depends on whether I've done something like put them to sleep, that usually lasts a little longer because the body is doing its own thing by then, and I only really need to just push the person over the edge. Panic or anger are different, those take continual effort since it's not a continous biological function." Laurie said, and realised she'd just blurted out a whole encyclopedia of information and blushed. "Sorry, I get a bit verbose when it comes to powers and biology."

"It's fine. My powers are similiar to an extent, however they should not linger. I recall a few times that they had." He brushed a hand over the one she touched, recalling how settled he felt over all the other emotions that fought through his constant headache. "Do you only project or do you feel other pheramones pushed onto you?"

"Project only, my Dad's powers don't affect me at all but I'm not sure if that's because we're related or because we're both got pheramones." Laurie replied readily enough, watching the bee take off as she moved her hand slightly.

"How fortunate for you," he added. "Mine go both ways. I project as much as I recieve. Uncontrollable now. The calm you feel overlaps the other emotions, however, if someone is angry, it is difficult for me to ignore. It makes me curious as to how you would train with that power."

"Very carefully," Laurie replied with an easy smile, watching as several more bees drifted in from the roses around them. "Mr Haller and Dr Summers-Grey helped me a lot when I first came here, and lately Kyle's been helping as well. It's easier with someone who's got a healing factor, I don't have to be so afraid of hurting him."

Thankfully, he didn't have a bee alergy, though watched them with distracting caution as was habit. He had run out of something to say, thus sat in silence, content not always to speak when spoken to.

Laurie allowed the silence for awhile, watch the bees idly coming and going from her hands, never staying for long but seemingly coming back every so often from their movements among flowers. "So, do you have a date for Prom yet?" she asked finally.

"I'm twenty three," he replied in monotone, turning his dark eyes on her in question. Prom was sometime ago and he was a graduate.

Hmm, that would be a no then, considering twenty-three year olds were a little old for high school. Still! That also meant no one had asked him yet, and she figured that considering how quickly people were hooking up around her, she had very few choices as to 'person to bring who won't take it as a prelude to something more'. "Sooo then. Would you like to go to Prom with me?" she asked hopefully.

The laughter hadn't meant to spill out and he lifted a hand to his mouth, fingers brushing over the sides to wipe the smile off his face. "Laurie," he started, excuses filing through his mind, one after another. He hadn't laughed like that since, well, since he couldn't recall. Not in all the months he'd been awake had a genuine smile broke through. Something must be wrong with him. No, perhaps it was good feelings being amplified. Projection. Yes. Perfect.

"It's not a date-date, seriously." Laurie began, raising her hand in an almost mollifying gesture. "It's just, you know, dressing up in really formal clothing and some dancing and stuff. You'll have fun, I'll have fun and it's all good in a completely non-date like manner."

Truely, he had every intent to say no. "Dressing up, I can do, however, is there not someone else you'd like to ask?" Asking him was like asking Magneto to a wedding. "People will talk." Not that _he_ cared any.

"Not without upsetting someone's girlfriend or having the possibility that they'll want something more, no." Laurie replied, tone slightly wheedling in its nature. "I don't really want a _date_, just someone to accompany who isn't going to spend the entire night going 'OMG! mutant!' which I'd get asking a guy from the town, or you know, the other reasons I've already mentioned. Come on, Manuel, what's the harm? If people talk, I can always tell them to butt out and mind their own business. I'm eighteen this year, it's not like I'm a child that can't make her own decisions."

"True. But heed my warning. People _will_ talk and not like it. I do not care what they say, but you may. And I'm sure anything they have to say will be less than polite as you've seen when I returned."

"I think I can deal with people's bad opinions. Especially since anyone who's really my friend won't judge me like that." Laurie replied firmly, she knew the value of her friend's regard, and they'd support her unless she was doing something obviously damaging, and this certainly wasn't that.

He leaned back and regarded her, brushing a hand over his jaw in consideration. He _did_ need new clothes. What Muir had provided was drab and boring. There was no better excuse to enhance his baige wardrobe. "Eighteen and headstrong. I'm hardpressed to say no."

"Good, you can pick me up just before then." Laurie replied with a grin, standing to go back inside. "Don't be late, while arriving after time isn't exactly rude, I hate non-punctuality."