Manuel, Valentia, Nathan & Rachel - backdated March 4th

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Manuel and Nathan bring the girls together to meet. They couldn't be more different and it's a little rocky to start out.

"Now," Nathan said, not quite sternly, to Rachel, "remember what I
said. Valentia doesn't talk and she won't hear you if you talk at her
in her head." He tapped his daughter's forehead; Rachel giggled. "So
be nice. And no throwing things at her."

"I won't," Rachel promised, quite solemnly. She was sitting on the
floor of the rec room, in front of the couch where Nathan was seated
-his hip was still not liking non-standard seating positions. "I'll be
good. I promise."

He was almost positive she meant it. Almost. Nathan eyed her, his lips
twitching slightly, and tracked Manuel's approach to the rec room with
ease. His was a distinctive psi-pattern, and for all that Valentia
couldn't be read, the little staticy patch was pretty distinctive as
well.

Manuel tried to convey as best as he could that Rachel was a social
hound, but his sister didn't understand the references he made, nor
did she care. Her only delight was that she would be able to play.
With someone else. In the mansion. Those were very important points
and while she was excited, she was also shy and hesitant. Withdrawn
once they were on the move. Her anxiety climbed within her and
reflected onto Manuel, which he knew was a result of his own anxiety
at putting two mutant kids together. While Rachel was good, Valentia
was not, but the saving grace was that Nathan could monitor them
mentally while Manuel could only do that emotionally.

Today they were equally matched in black, Manuel with his slacks and
shirt, Valentia with her sparkled designer girl jeans and a long
sleeved shirt. She didn't dress like a little girl, but more like a
mix of him and Amanda, or so he drily noticed. Two ties hung loosely
around her neck, a red and an orange. While Manuel was trying to
discourage ties, the orange she had taken from Bishop and when she was
hard to part with it, the larger man only laughed and said he would
get it later.

"Good afternoon Nathan, Rachel," Manuel nodded and pulled his sudden
shy sister forward. "This is Valentia."

Rachel bounced back to her feet, beaming. Her clothes and Valentia's
couldn't have been more different, Nathan noted in amusement. She
hadn't gone for the eye-blinding color combinations today, but she
was in pink.

"Hi!" Rachel said, projecting pure unadulterated joy at the other little girl.

Manuel was familiar and comfortable enough with Rachel after spending
most of his recovery in Muir, that he didn't look at her any different
than he had before. She was a nice girl, friendly and curious. A very
drastic step away from what Valentia was and in his visual perception,
clothes were not the only thing that made them different.

He had to nudge her to do something and she gestured a thank you,
which only had Manuel rolling his eyes. "~You know you can say more~"
he let go of her hand and pushed her forward. "~She does not bite~"

Awkwardly, Valentia stood there, unsure of what to do, knowing that
all eyes were on her. He was about to step in and play mediator when
she went to the TV and turned it on.

"That right there is how we know she is family." She ignored, much like he did.

Rachel tilted her head in a mannerism uncannily reminiscent of her
father. "I brought toys?" she said hopefully to Valentia, going over
to the coffee table where Nathan had set the items she had so
painstakingly selected. "Want to do a puzzle? It has kittens on it."

Manuel sat down and linked his fingers together around the cane,
allowing a slow sigh to exhale from his nose as he patiently waited
for his sister to acknowledge Rachel. When she didn't, he spoke up in
Spanish. "~It is not polite to ignore her. Turn around.~"

When she ignored him too, he broke in a sharp tone, fortifying
that with emotions. "Valentia."

She responded by stalking over to the puzzle and flipping it over,
pushing the items to the floor. To which Manuel would not tolerate her
tantrum and he grabbed her to make her stop. "~Stop this~ What is
wrong with you?~" he barked in a heated tone. She tried to jerk away
from him but he held her tight and she gestured, frustration flaring
through her emotions. He didn't nearly get any of what she was trying
to gesture, except 'understand'.

"~Look, Look~," he pulled her to him and turned her around, taking her
hands and making her hold the puzzle. "~This is your say, this is how
you talk to her. See?~" He helped her place the piece down, trying to
cool his own frustration and for a brief moment, it was just her and
him. Tears brimming her eyes, frustration hanging heavy in him and he
made her do three more pieces before she calmed significantly.

"Rachel, come please. Help us."

Nathan had watched the exchange with a neutral expression, reserving
comments - although damn, but how he wanted to comment. Not your
place, Dayspring. Rachel was looking a good deal warier,
especially at Valentia's attack on the puzzle, and Nathan turned his
attention back to his daughter, sending a soothing thought down the
link.

Rachel shrugged almost irritably and came around to Manuel and
Valentia's side of the table. "I don't like it when you throw my
puzzle on the floor," she told Valentia. "That's bad."

Valentia might not have understood, but she did know the word 'bad'
and the subtle emotions conveyed from Rachel made her frown. She
pulled her hand away and threw the puzzle piece down, breaking from
Manuel and running out of the room.

"Valentia!"

Manuel pinched the bridge of his nose and stood up. "Clearly today is
not a good day for this. I am sorry Rachel." He didn't need to
apologize to Nathan. The man knew how trialing this was.

Rachel looked up at him, big gray eyes still filled with wariness.
"Throwing toys isn't nice," she said, and when Nathan reached out his
hand to her, she trotted over and crawled up onto his lap. "She can
come and play again but she's not allowed to throw my toys."

"Wait. Let me talk to her. I will be back." And strangle her,
he thought to himself as he headed out to the room. He left the room
and within a minute, he found his sister in the kitchen, sulking. It
took a few words between them to talk her down from her tantrum and
another to assure her that whatever she was feeling, it was okay but
not to let that get in the way of how she met and interacted with
others. He knew she was reacting to how he felt to sunny dispositions,
bitter that they could be blindly carefree and he had to build on
other emotions to drown out the negative ones so she wouldn't relay
that back into her interaction with Rachel.

After five minutes, Manuel returned with his sister in hand.

Rachel was no longer on Nathan's lap, but meticulously reassembling
what had been done of her puzzle; she looked up at their entrance,
gray eyes narrowing slightly. "Come help," she said, not quite
diffidently, and the loose pieces of the puzzle levitated into the air
around her.

She hesitated until Manuel rested a hand on her shoulder and gave her
a light shove. He stood nearby, Valentia approaching Rachel, wariness
slowly turning to fascination as the pieces floated around her and
reached up to grab a piece.

Nathan watched with a certain degree of fascination himself. #I think
she's actually doing that specifically to interest your
sister,# he sent to Manuel. #That's a bit disturbing. Especially since
she's not reading Valentia's mind.#

It was always a bit jarring for Nathan or Jean to talk in his head and
had the voice not been so distinctly clear in its observations, he
would have convinced himself he planted Nathan in his own head by
himself. The pair was a similar interaction of Nathan and Manuel on
levels only the two of them could understand and he thought to put
this in words, instead, remained silent. He did not want to put a
fracture in their communications though he knew Nathan was probably
reading his mind by now to hear if he were to respond.

Valentia plucked another piece out of the air and set it down on the
counter but more drawn to the pieces around her than making a puzzle
now.


Nathan relaxed back into the cushions of the couch, content to watch
the two of them. "If you need some you-time, I can probably handle
things here," he murmured.


"Under these circumstances, I think it may be better if I stay. Though I need to make a call," Manuel stood, telling Valentia that he would be back momentarily, but she was too busy with the pieces around her to acknowledge him.


"Then again, I could be mistaken."