Manuel, Valentia & Cammie

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Later that evening, Manuel has some downtime with his sister and Cammie. Things are questioned but never is an answer expected.

Some parts of life lately had gotten truly mundane. That was, in it’s way a good thing. Cammie hadn’t had a truly mundane life in the last three years. So there was something to it she couldn’t put her finger on and didn’t want to spend much time exploring it. As it was, Manny’s sister was playing off to the side and she and her… guy she… did stuff with (zimisms were full of win).

With that total copout at a definition of their relationship she sat back on the couch, doing something that generally only did in private. Change out the bandages on her arm. She had forgotten to pick some new ones up on her last trip out to actually buy things she needed, so right now, unfortunately, she was resigned to only one option. The hot pink Jane had gotten her after the bottle she had taken to the chest.

“God damnit, my arm’s gonna look like I’m wrapping it in Barbie bandages,” she muttered.

"At least you are not blonde," Manuel replied absently, turning the page to the countless documents Emma had given him earlier on in the week. His elbows rested on his knees, hunched over the coffee table while his sister sat at the end of it, drawn inwardly and focused on her own concentration that she was barely listening. Even emotionally, Manuel could feel her distance and wondered if that was because of how loud Carmilla got when she was strung out and wreckless, which was ninety percent of the time. Still, he permitted this one interaction, if only because Carmilla was behaving herself and likewise for his sister.

"Yeah, that would suck hardcore," Cammie said holding on to the bandage and starting wrapping, "If I could figure out a foundation color for my arm," she said, "But hey, pink is bright and cheery. The color of... uh.. .things that are pink. The kid like pink things?"

"Valentia does not like pink," he said quietly. His sister raised her head in confusion and he impatiently set his pen down, signed to her rather than tell her in Spanish, which was the easier way. She echoed his irritate behaviour and was curt with her gestures. Manuel ignored her and picked up his pen again.

“Smart kid,” Cammie said, “God, this looks fucking wrong,” she said, “Jane is totally crazy. And it’s too hot for a hoodie, but whatever. I’ll wear one anyway and go get some bandages later,” she said, “Ones that don’t say ‘hey look at my arm!’.”

"Language," he warned. Sometimes he thought he was crazy, sitting in a room, tolerating her as much as she tolerated him. With his sister present, he found his tolerance level lowered significantly until his sharp quips were on the tip of his tongue and tension crawling down his back. It was difficult to ignore, but he did it, staring hard at the sheet Emma insisted he read. "Why not pull a sock over it until you get new ones?" he suggested. It wasn't a suggestion he would normally make but Carmilla seemed to live by the spur of the moment ideas. It was short of telling her to stuff a sock in it.

"She doesn't speak it," Cammie returned, "I could swear in it if I felt like, but my accent blows," she pointed out. "I'm not pulling a sock over my arm. That's just retarded."

"Just because she does not speak it does not mean she cannot learn it," Manuel countered and turned the page over, jotting some notes down in Spanish for himself in the margin. "For someone who does not care what other people think, you are very worried about this pink bandage."

"People stare at bright colors," Cammie returned. She didn't like people staring at her arm, it was as simple as that.

"People stare at colours period," he argued. "I think they will look at your hair more than the pink bandages."

"People don't look at colored hair on a teenaged girl and think anything more than that it's hair dye," Cammie pointed out, "A green arm draws a bit more. Hell, I don't mind my hair. Black hair was fucking boring."

"Drop the language Carmilla, please. I ask very little of you but you insist on this facade. I oblige you but I will not with teaching my sister words that she does not need to know." Valentia looked up, her gaze settling between them, sensing the tension from her brother. Manuel's eyes flickered to her before resting back on Cammie, raising them. See?

"Fine," she said, raising her hands in the air, "She'll learn it sooner or later," Cammie pointed out, "but it won't be from me." The pink bandages looked just gay in her own minds, and not in the cool way, "What facade are you talking about."

"It only means you will not be the one I throttle when the time comes that she blurts it out," he said, returning to his paperwork and Valentia mimicked him, his little shadow. "The facade you put on, on a regular basis."

"I'm not putting on a facade," Cammie said as she tied off the last of the pink monstrosity.

"Oh no, not you. Never." His mouth turned upward as he concentrated on writing the last little bit.

"What the fu- You know, this not swearing cr-crud makes it really difficult to hold a conversation," she grumbled, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I appreciate the effort," he said and polished off his writing, licking his thumb to flip to the next page, absorbed in what he was doing. "You tend to keep everyone at bay."

"That's not a facade," Cammie said, "That's just the way it is." It was a lot better off that way.

He looked up and regarded her, gesturing with the pen between his fingers. "This..." he waved at her over all appearence. "This is you. What you were five seconds ago was not you."

"That... makes no sense at all," Cammie returned, raising an eyebrow.

"It makes perfect sense if you feel what I do," he replied casually and this time, set the pen down for good. "When was the last time you were like this with another?"

"It doesn't matter," she snapped. The last time she had enjoyed someone's company had been over three years ago. It would be four in October.

Four years.

Time flew by.

"Appears to me it does."

"No, it doesn't. Look, if this is going to be the Spanish Fu- Inquisition, I'll just let you get back to your paperwork," she said, bristling.

His hand extended towards her but he made no move to go any further. "Come here." A half request, half demand.

It said a lot that she didn't automatically turn tail and run away, but moved in slowly, "What?"

Valentia was paying full attention now, despite the fact that she couldn't understand much of what they said.

His hand circled her waist, dropping her down next to him as opposed to in his lap as was typical for two in their situation. "Stop being on guard with me. I can see and feel everything you are feeling. Hiding from me does you no favours but exhausting your energy."

"Why do you even want to know, anyway?" she asked, quietly.

"I want nothing from you," he said, taking quiet note that Valentia was watching. "Is that not enough?"

“You asked a question. Why if you don’t want some sort of answer?” Cammie returned.

"I never care for answers. That would be wanting to know too much," he said simply. "You recoil and it is only natural for me to follow until you get use to my touch."

“You make it sound like training an animal,” Cammie muttered, “

"The question is, who is the animal?"

“Now that, sounds too much like philosophy for me to bother with it at the moment,” Cammie returned, but calmed down a bit now that there wasn’t the answer to the subject she did NOT want to talk about looming in the immediate future.

Manuel had no care for conversations like that and leaned back, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close. He sighed with content and cast a smile to his sister who had resumed her task at hand. Carmilla seemed as content as he and he wondered if she even knew how sick he got when he spent too much time with her.