xp_logs | Manuel and Amanda in the Student Lounge (Reply)

R-rated for much implied raunchiness. Nothing too explicit.

This takes place after Manuel's first pity-me posting. Not the castrate-with-a-brick one, the other one.

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Manuel's in the Student Lounge with his iPod blaring some very angry music. He looks like Death Warmed Over, forgoing his usual stylish attire for a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans.

It's impossible to sneak up on Manuel, given the nature of his power, but he's so wrapped up in the music and himself he barely notices Amanda's approach before she reaches the door. She's radiating concern, anger, and frustration. A moment later, the girl herself pokes her head in and sees him there. "Finally!" she exclaims. "I been looking all over for yer!"

Manuel looks up, and presses the PAUSE key. "I thought you were avoiding me." he shrugs. "But here I am."

She frowns, confused. "I told you why I wasn't coming to see you. After what you said about the fight, I figured you wouldn't want more anger in a close space. An' we do get horribly close." She grins at him suggestively. "But it wasn't 'cause I didn't want t' be around you. An' I said I was comin' to yer room, that's why I was lookin' for you. " She sits on the battered sofa beside him. "What's happened? I've seen you pissed off before, but what you said in your journal, that was somethin' different."

Manuel looks at Amanda and grins. "I had a couple of bad moments. The Mansion has not been a very emotionally healthy place of late. And feeling all the fear, the suspicion, the disdain - it gets to me after a while."

"I guess me sayin' I was goin' to steer clear of you didn't help, did it?" She tilts her head, considering her words. "Yer not... gettin' attached, are you?" she asks carefully.

Manuel laughs at that possibility. "You're so not my type. A nice screw, sure, but as a partner? Not hardly. And I know damned well you're not entertaining notions..." Just to be sure, he runs a quick scan looking for that very sort of thing.

Amanda smiles, knowing full well what his scan will show - pretty much the same attitude as his own, and a large dollop of cynicism for all things love-related. "I thought so, but... I dunno. When you seemed t' fall in a heap after I turned you down, yer had me wonderin'. We have a deal, remember?" She pats his leg in a friendly way.

Manuel nods. "Yeah, we have a deal." What he's not saying would fill volumes. "No need to worry. I'll be fine." He hopes.

"You need a break, I'll try t' be there for you. Can't guarantee nothin', but I'll try. Even if the staff have themselves pink fits. Ain't none of their business." She frowns slightly, remembering Pete's email.

Manuel picks up the feelings associated with that memory. "Ah - let me guess. The unwashed smelly Brit has warned you about me already, has he?"

"Something like that. An' Pete's not that smelly." She grins, amused. "He's just lookin' out for me, an' I can understand that.. He's worried about you using yer powers on me, thinks you'll do me head in. I told him I could look after meself."

Manuel nods. "I could, you know." he says by way of reference. "He's correct in my potentials."

"But would you?" She looks him in the eye. "You get what you want without it."

Manuel grins. "I do, for the most part. But sometimes it's not enough to just win."

She shakes her head ruefully, smiling. "Yer such an arrogant bastard sometimes," she says without anger. "Why do I bother? Oh, that's right, yer talent makes for really good sex."

Manuel shrugs. "It is my curse." he says with a grin.

She leans forward and kisses him, long and slow. "One you bear heroically," she says. Then, turning serious, she adds. "You know if yer ever make me do anything I don't want to an' Pete finds out, they'll never find all yer bits. An' that would be nothin' compared t' what I'd do t' yer. You've seen what was done to me the last time I was in someone's power - I'm not letting it happen again. All right?"

Manuel nods once, after he comes up for air from the kiss. "Consequently, if you should hex me in any way, I would be forced to commit desperate acts upon your emotional makeup. And I don't think I need to remind you about your own demons, do I?" he says far more lightly than he feels. In the depths of his brain, the sundered emotional tie to Amanda is screaming to be re-established, but he ignores it.

"I think we understand each other," Amanda says, with a smile. She slides into his lap and runs her hands through his hair. "Still feelin' like a pariah?"

Manuel nods. "Yes, but pariah-hood has its advantages." he says with a grin and a wriggle.

"It does, does it?" She twists in his lap so she's straddling him, knees either side of his legs. "How about you show me some of 'em?"

Manuel wriggles and stretches slowly, then slides a hand under Amanda's shirt, questing upwards. "Well, when you're a pariah no one wants to bother you. So you have _lots_ of free time..."

Squirming as his fingers run over her skin, Amanda leans forward and nips on his ear, before running her lips down his neck. "All this free time, eh? Does this mean you can fit me into yer busy schedule?"

"Funny, I thought I should be asking you if you could fit me in..." he smirks before his fingers tease flesh into full growth. Using his empathic power, he locks in on her emotions, using her to blot out the rest of the world.

(*fade to black*)

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