Manuel, Valentia, and Lil

[x-diamondlil.livejournal.com]

Manuel, Valentia and Lil take a trip to the mall for clothing of both small and large varieties.


"Put her _down_ Lillian," Manuel ordered. "You may break something. She is nearly one third of your height," he quipped, ducking as Lil turned around with over her shoulder. Valentia half cried, half laughed, though it appeared to him that she wanted to laugh more than cry. Lillian had only scared her and the lunge had caught her off guard, but it was the lack of any bad feelings within Manuel that kept her happy. He ducked again down, walking in between cars as they headed for the mall. "Hold her skirt down. Honestly--"

"You said to grab her!" the blonde defended, shifting the squirming child so she was instead tucked beneath Lil's arm like a football. "And I'm not gonna hurt her but the damn cars around here very well could." Being an indestructible giantess meant that Valentia was much safer being held by her than running around a parking lot, that Lil knew for sure.

"I said grab her because she was running away, not throw her over your shoulder," Manuel trialed behind them. He had to make a visible effort to keep up with Lil because her one stride was to his two, plus the cane only slowed him. Regardless of how much he was falling behind, he was thankful she was quicker than him at grabbing Valentia. His sister still hadn't grasped the idea that he didn't want her very far from him. Especially with so many cars around, like Lil had mentioned. "Regardless, please be careful. Where did you need to go first? I know of a store that will customize your clothes for you."

She continued to hold the child at her hip in a seemingly careless manner as they walked. "I'm always careful. Val knows that, right Val?" Lil asked Manuel's sister while ruffling the girl's hair almost affectionately. She had no clue how to deal with children, having never spent an extended amount of time around one and if she had any maternal instincts, they were buried somewhere under all the aggression and snark.

Noticing Manuel's difficulty in keeping pace, the Amazon slowed hers slightly to make it easier on him. "We can go where ever. I haven't been here yet so I dunno what stores there are." Customizing her clothes sounded expensive and while her job at Harry's was a steady income there was simply no way she could afford a completely tailored wardrobe.

"We can begin with Valentia," he emphasized her name and walked into through the store doors, careful to hold Lil's for her as they passed through. "I require some pajamas for her and better clothes than what she came with. The people who were caring for her seemed to have bought her very little in terms of clothing. She was practically in rags," he frowned and gestured for the escalators. "Kids are upstairs, I believe. And would you _please_ handle her with more care. She is not a toy. I do hope you have not considered having children as you do not seem to know how to handle them."

Rolling her eyes, Lil once more shifted the child so she was perched comfortably in the tall woman's arms. The kid didn't weigh much and it was better than having to stoop to hold her hand or chase after her if the girl decided to make another break for it. "Better?" she asked Manuel as they walked though her face darkened when he made the comment about her ever reproducing. "Oh give me a fucking break," she spat, fixing him with a dark glare that made it perfectly clear that if she hadn't been holding Valentia she would have beaten him over the head with his cane. "I do fucking fine with them considering I haven't been around any ankle-biters before."

His gaze was met with hers, a level one that was equally challenging. "Could you please tone down your language. I do not need her picking up on that, if she ever were to speak. It is not appropriate for children. Especially ones of four years old. If you were so good around them, you would clean out your mouth with a bar of soap." He was very aware he would have been hit. "That is not very lady like. We will have to work on your mannerisms as well as your attire."

Stopping dead, Lil put Valentia down then turned to face Manuel while keeping a hand firmly planted on the child's head to keep her from running off. "Look here, Henry Higgins, I don't need you trying to make me into a lady. All I want is some damn clothes that fit for work and a date or two. You try and wash my mouth out with soap and I'm gonna make you eat it especially because I find your insinuation that I'd be a bad mother far more insulting than the word 'fuck.' If anyone needs work on their manners, it's you."

He really did want to hit her with his cane and he'd never had that impulse before. Not _this_ bad. "I did not say you would be a bad mother," and he lowered his tone. "Either respect my request or we can end this trip here and now." He had no problem continuing this on his own and he did not believe his request unreasonable.

"You said I shouldn't have kids," Lil fired back, the hand not on top of Valentia's head curling into a tight fist. "It's the same thing and it's insulting especially considering you don't know anything about my situation!" She wanted to hit him - hard - but wouldn't for the sake of the kid. Not yet, at least. "You need my legs to keep up with Val so you'd better think twice about dealing out ultimatums, pal. You want me to stop cursing, fine, but I want an apology."

"Fine. I apologize for you, on your behalf that you should not have children, since you cannot control yourself - emotions or language otherwise," Manuel stated quite carefully, holding out his hand to his sister. "You need to calm down before I will apologize for anything to you. Valentia--" he offered his hand and she eyed him before turning and disappearing around a clothes rack. "Valentia!"

"You've certainly got a way with women, don't you?" Lil snarked as she crossed her arms over her chest, hip popped to the side. "Serves you right that she bolted." And the blonde wasn't going to do anything to help him retrieve the girl until she got a decent apology from him. "Let's see who controls their emotions now."

Trying to rein in his anger, Manuel walked around her and in the direction he felt Valentia was heading. "Only ones that try my patience, Lillian," he quipped. He could sense Valentia, where ever she went though he hoped he did not have to try and catch her. They were still too new to one another.

Lil debated silently whether to follow him or not and quickly settled on keeping put as her spot - and height- gave her quite the view of their little cat-and-mouse game. She had faith they'd make their way back to her eventually but in the meanwhile, ribbing him was too perfect to pass up. "So then every woman you've ever met? If a four year old's fleeing, that doesn't bode well for you on the female front, 'enry 'iggins," she added with a bad cockney accent.

He thought to point out that he was not the one that was married and separated but it was in poor taste to do so, thus, he kept that to himself. "Women are not the only ones that exist," he threw at her over his shoulder. "At this point, I am willing to take a man over a woman if this is what I am left to deal with on a daily basis. Tailored clothes, a child and poor game of hide and seek."

A brow rose at that as her smirk grew. Professor Higgins had a thing for Colonel Pickerings huh? Explained the fashion sense. Rolling her eyes once more, Lil finally felt a bit of sympathy for the poor guy who'd been saddled with his kid sister unexpectedly and decided to give him a hand. Least she could do for help in the wardrobe department. "Heya, short stuff," she called out as she squatted and clapped her hands like one would while summoning a pet. "C'mere Val. Auntie Lil's got something for you."

Of course Valentia responded more to Lillian than she did to Manuel at the moment, especially since he was frustrated with his sister for running off. She poked her head out from between two shirts and hesitated, checking behind her while Manuel changed his direction. He could follow her anywhere, it was very easy to sense her emotions and the general direction she was going however, it took him sometime to get there. Stopping behind a rack, he could feel just how much she liked Lillian and went to her. It exhausted him to think that he had to put the extra effort out there to get her to actually listen to him. Not only that, he didn't like that she warmed to others and abandoned him, though he said nothing of it.

"She is not a dog," he finally said, walking around the rack and internally scolded Valentia emotionally for running off.

"No, she's a kid. Still gotta train 'em," Lil said before laughing at the child in her arms. She gave the girl a peck on the forehead then swept Valentia up to sit on her shoulders as the blonde stood. "I'll take my apology now seeing as I haven't dropped the F bomb or any other forbidden words since she took you for a lap around the store."

He opened his mouth to protest his sister up on Lillian's shoulders but instead, she seemed controlled, content and secure, wrapping little hands over the bigger woman's forehead. "If you hit her head off of anything, it will be the last thing you ever do," he said in what meant to be a very tight warning but the hint of a smile spread like an infectious disease over his face and he offered his hand, if only to entertain his sister. "Will you accept my apology, Lillian?" he said, sweeping the back of her hand to him, placing a tentative kiss on the pale skin. She was so insufferable sometimes, perfect for Bishop really. "I am sure that if you were my wife, you'd make a wonderful mother."

Her brow rose again at both the kiss and the remark. "What do you think, Val? Should I forgive him?" Lil asked the girl, tilting her head up slightly but carefully so as not to disturb the child before clasping both hands behind Valentia's back. Waiting a beat, the giantess turned her smirk back on Manuel. "I'll take her silence as an agreement. Apology accepted but don't you ever criticize me like that again or I'm gonna turn your sister loose in a candy store."

"As for the wife bit, in your dreams, pal. Not even in your dreams," Lil said though there was plenty of humor in her voice to assure him she meant no insult. "Been married once and I ain't gonna do that again for a loooong time." Yes, she was still technically married but seeing as he was in another country and they hadn't spoken in months, it was fairly safe to say the marriage was over even if it wasn't legal. "I am glad there weren't kids in the mix, though," she admitted, her smile fading to something much softer and almost wistful. "Wouldn't have been fair to them, all this."

Manuel let go of her hand and smoothed down his jacket, gesturing for her to lead the way. It struck him how odd their situation appeared. She was stalking around the mall with her height and a little girl on her shoulders, while he walked next to her, cane in hand, feeling half her size. "Please," he quipped. "I would never get married and I am not entirely sure why you did either, considering the way you speak of your marriage."

"I was young and stupid," she replied. "Met and started dating him when I was 16, engaged at 19, married at 20. It was a game of 'house' that went too far." Lil's heart ached as she skipped the other problems their marriage had encountered: their insecurities, Maddy's addiction, her temper and both of their stubborn, hard headed ways that prevented them from seeking help when the difficulties arose. "It's not all bad, marriage. Just not for all people. I tried and... it didn't work out. We did love each other though, were everything to each other but that stopped being mutual and things went screwy. Kinda like waking up when you can't tell what's real and what's still your dreams - the illusion."

There was nothing he could say to her that would comfort her the way she needed. "Marriage is complicated and I believe you need to have a specific mind frame when entering in one. Also, you need to be of a specific personality type - dependent, possibly? Or have a certain amount of dependency that relies on someone similar. I am only speculating," he said, stopping and turning to go around a woman and her baby stroller. "I have no experience in that field and I do not plan on it at all in this life or the next. what do you plan to do with that marriage? Divorce? Have you filed for it yet?"

Carefully, Lil pulled Val down onto her hip so the child wouldn't hit her head on any of the lower hanging light fixtures then gave Manuel a one shouldered shrug. "It's only been a couple of months but divorce eventually, yeah, I guess. I don't really want to talk about this," she said, brushing a lock of hair from Val's face while keeping her own down turned. It was obvious even to a non-empath that the topic made her uncomfortable. Divorce was most likely though she wouldn't be the one to draw up the papers. That had to come from Madison otherwise she'd be admitting defeat. Still, part of the blonde's heart clung to the dream that when she returned home after her training he'd have gotten the help he needed and all would be well between them again no matter how much her head told her she was stupid for even thinking it.

"She needs more pink stuff. All little girls should have lots of pink to wear," Lil declared suddenly and with the girl still on her hip made her way to the nearest rack of the most frilly, lacy girlie clothes she could find.

"I am not letting you dress her when you cannot dress yourself," Manuel moved to catch up with them and pulled a pink dress from Lillian's hands. "She is not going to wear pink. She is going to wear something that makes her look respectable and an upstanding citizen of her class. Clearly this is the wrong store for the type of clothes we are looking for. I know of a designer children's store. We should go there because it is better than this--" he frowned tightly. Valentia only seemed to cling to Lillian in her arms, content to be carried around which annoyed Manuel but he said nothing of it.

Lil opened her mouth to argue with him then snapped it shut, thinking better of starting another fight. "Lead on," the blonde said with a sugary fake smile then whispered into to the girl's ear, vowing to buy the child the most flowery, poofy dress she could find later. It didn't matter if Val could understand her or not, it was still a promise. Upstanding citizen of her class - she was a little girl and little girls were supposed to look like little fairytale princesses as far as Lil was concerned.