Manuel and Adrienne

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

While shopping with Valentia, Manuel picks up on the emotions behind Adrienne's preoccupation with Garrison's safety and gets her to admit she has feelings for him. She then picks up on his relationship with Cammie.

"You can't be serious, Manuel," Adrienne scoffed as she saw what the young man intended to buy for his sister. "I don't understand why this is so difficult for you- you're a well-dressed man, why doesn't your good fashion sense carry over to women? Lucky for you I'm here." She moved to another rack in the children's boutique she'd taken him and Valentia to. "What would you do without me?" She cruised the racks expertly, the outward picture of calm and sophistication, though ever since her conversation with Lil she'd been preoccupied with wondering why she kept jumping down the blonde's throat about Garrison.


"Possibly flounder. I have taste," Manuel replied, casually picking at the frills of one particular dress Valentia was eyeing. "But I am lazy. There is a difference." He picked up on some underlying emotions over her cool air of indifference and a brow raised in curiousity. "You are not focused today. At least not on fashion."



"Definitely flounder," Adrienne agreed, throwing some things over one arm and returning to the small person with Manuel. She inspected the frilly thing the child was eying. "It's very nice," she praised the girl in her bad Spanish, which she only had the slightest grasp of due to some similarities with French. "You'll look very pretty in it. Do you like these?" Her choices were held out for the girl, one by one, and she sorted them into piles as she waited for nods or head shakes. She didn't ask Manuel whether he liked them.



"I suppose I shouldn't bother trying to hide my emotions from you," she added, realizing that ignoring Manuel's question wasn't going to make it go away. He wouldn't let her get away with that. "You're right, I'm not. I'm trying to figure out why I can't seem to get this one particular thing out of my head." It didn't make sense. Garrison was fine, he hadn't been injured, so why had she not been willing to let Lil off the hook about it? And why was she, as Manuel said, still so focused on the fact that she wasn't willing to let Lil off the hook about it? "You know when you have a song stuck in your head but you didn't hear it anywhere so it makes absolutely no sense it's in your head, and you can't figure out why you can't get it out of your head? I'm feeling a little like that, only not about a song."



"Clearly it is not about a song." Manuel's eyebrows drew together as he watched Valentia brighten at the clothes selections. She wanted something frilly but then she seemed to always dress like she was a trenchcoat and he couldn't ever figure out why she bounced between a gothic princess and a flowery one. "I am not a telepath Adrienne. Are you going to tell me or are you going to walk circles around me and dress my sister in ridiculous, ugly things that put her in no real relation to my style?"



Adrienne gave Manuel her best 'are you kidding me?' look. "Dear, dear Manuel, when are you going to figure this out? It's not about your style. She's her own person, she's not some sort of Mini-Manny." The phrase made her grin widely. She liked that one. "She should be able to make her own choices when it comes to clothes- they're only clothes. It's not as if she's inking something permanently onto her body, or trying to eat something that will make her sick." It seemed a little odd to her that the woman who'd always worn exactly what Daddy told her to right up until she got hired as a model would be taking the position she was. But then again, maybe it wasn't odd. "Clothes express what people see themselves as, and she should be able to decide who she is for herself, shouldn't she?"



She gestured for Valentia to follow her towards the changing rooms and turned back to Manny. "If I thought I could get away with it I would keep walking circles around you, but I recognize I'm no match for the information-gathering skills of the White Bishop." And talking to him about it might fix it. "When I heard that Garrison Kane had been injured on a mission recently, I blamed Lil for not keeping him safe. Then I did it again, more recently. So I've been preoccupied with trying to figure out why it is that I don't seem able to let her off the hook about what happened. Do I just want to have something to dislike her for, because really I dislike the fact that she's stringing her husband along while screwing around behind his back? I mean, my husband used to beat the living sh... stuffing out of me," she corrected when she remembered Valentia was with them, "and I was still faithful to him, so am I just pissed off at her because she's two-timing her own husband who seems like a decent guy?" One of the changing rooms was open and she turned to the small person. "Do you want me to go in to help you or can you do it yourself?"





"She can dress herself," he said in Spanish and Valentia seemed to agree. If anything, it was a proclamation of a certain amount of privacy, closing that door abruptly on her brother's face and he frowned into it. "While I feel the same way about Lillian in some aspects, I do not think you are so concentrated on just her. Am I sensing some deeper feelings of denial for Garrison?" he probed. Of all people. The Canadian was.... not someone he would have pegged for Adrienne but then, he could say similarly of Carmilla for himself.


The smile Adrienne wore after watching Valentia slam the dressing room door in Manuel's face vanished immediately when he asked about Garrison. In fact, her mouth hung open in shock. "What?" she finally managed to ask. "Feelings for what? Garrison? Denial?" He might still have been speaking Spanish for all the sense it made to her. He thought she had feelings for Garrison? "I... I don't know... are you sensing some deeper feelings of denial for Garrison?" He would know better than she did, wouldn't he? She had no idea what was going on in her own head, clearly.


Manuel shrugged. "Is it Garrison? Only you would know that answer. I do not, however I can sense something from you, unless your thoughts are more towards women, say Lillian?" Poke and prod in the right spots and he was sure to get a reaction.


"Definitely not Lil," Adrienne answered with a smile. As she watched the dressing room door for signs of Valentia, she thought about what it was Manuel could sense. Since sleeping with Morgan, she was completely confident that the blue woman was a friend and that the deeper feelings were not coming from that camp, which deflated his 'more towards women' theory.

But Garrison, on the other hand... the person she talked about baseball with, who'd stuck by her when she'd admitted to having Steven killed, through her complaints on missions, shooting him in the ass, all her idiocy with the Hellfire Club and power, her performance in Florida, their conversation in her penthouse...

She sat down on a bench in the shoe section, face going white. It made sense, as much as she hated to admit it. Now that Manuel had pointed it out, it made perfect sense. That's why she was calling Lil out when he'd been hurt. She had feelings for Kane, and they went beyond friendship. "Holy shit. I think you're right." Adrienne rolled her eyes and made a face. "I think I have feelings for him. This is bad. This is very bad. I can't have feelings for him." She didn't even know what sort of feelings she had- were they just lust? Just gratefulness for him putting up with the shit she'd brought onto him since coming to the mansion? Or something even more scary? "We're supposed to be friends!"

"Yes? And? You speak as though this revelation is a new one?" he said drily, sitting down next to her as he waited for his sister. "~Are you okay?~" he asked in Spanish but nothing came from the room, only a surge of emotion to confirm it.


"Is she okay?" Adrienne asked him, eyebrow raised as she was momentarily startled from her shock. She couldn't feel the emotion, only hear the silence. This also gave her an opportunity to avoid answering his comment about the revelation being a new one. His tone implied that she'd been feeling like this for a long time, which was most certainly a bad thing. Sagging back against the bench, she tried to concentrate on building up her pithy mental shields so she wouldn't throw at him everything she was feeling. Projecting all that confusion and terror on to Manuel would be embarrassing.


Valentia broke out of the dressing room and looked unhappy with the current selection. Her brother ran a hand over his jaw, thoughtful of this colourful selection that she seemed to dislike. He gestured for her to turn and she refused, shaking her head and gesturing to him. He considered her protest, waved her off to go back into the room before he returned his attention to Adrienne beside him. "You radiate confusion Senorita, perhaps you should consider what you are feeling more carefully."



The brunette rose from her bench and went to pick out some things that were as different from the rejected pieces as she could find in the shop, scowling at Manuel. "Is it that I can't shield from you, or do I just suck that much at it?" His advice about considering her feelings more carefully made her irritated, because she knew he was right, and she did have to consider her feelings more thoroughly. "What are you, the feelings guru? Does the powerful, dark, broody Manuel have feelings for someone?" she teased, recognizing that she shouldn't take out her anger on him, that she had no one to blame but herself.


"It is simple. I am an empath. You are not. Unless you are a telepath with empathetic training--" which the very few that had training could not shield to the max against him. "-- then you are exposed in the worse way possible. However, I will be a good empath and ignore you if that is what you would like," he said dismissively. "And do not even think about turning this conversation onto me," he shook his head to his sister who came out and abruptly went back in.


Comforted by the fact that she wasn't just a complete failure at shielding, Adrienne returned to Manuel's side and warned Valentia that she was putting some more clothes under the door for her to try, hoping this time she had better luck figuring out what the small person liked. Kids were the hardest to figure out, style-wise. "Well, I feel almost like I should apologize to you for exposing you," she murmured, "and I'll try to consider my feelings more thoroughly if you try to ignore them, or help," she suggested, though she didn't know if she would actually like help should it be offered. Help sorting out her feelings might make things worse. Manuel might suggest something stupid, like she was actually in love with Garrison, and she would be inclined to believe him since he was reading her emotions. And what a mess that would be.

"Ooo, Senor De la Rocha gets defensive," she chided playfully in response to his last comment. "You know what they say about denial, darling. So you do have feelings for someone! Who is it? And you know I'm not above breaking into your suite and sifting through all your clothes, your bed, your couch, until I figure it out, right?" She licked her lips as she pondered the idea of reading the details of Manuel's sex life. Just don't let it be one of my students, she thought wryly. I'd have to rip my own eyes out.

"I am not getting defensive," he replied in a curt tone. "I figured word would have spread to you of all people, considering it is Carmilla that I am technically with or... something of that sort-" he gestured with a subtle flick of his wrist. His sister came out and Manuel hooked his wolf head on her waist, pushing her to turn before shaking his head. She stomped her foot, crossed her arms and gestured angrily. He replied in Spanish, "~Take that off. You are four, not fourteen and not a whore~" Valentia stood there for a moment and Manuel stared back at her with a steely gaze before he pulled his cane away and waved her off. She briskly turned around and slammed the changeroom door.


Adrienne shot Manuel an unimpressed look. She might not be fluent in Spanish, but she understood the word 'whore' and got the gist of what he'd said. "You are such an old curmudgeon," she grumbled. Luckily most of what she'd chosen for the girl was quite tasteful; hopefully it would stand up to the nervous big brother's scrutiny. "Cammie, huh?" she mused, green eyes flashing with amusement. After thinking a moment on what she knew of them both, she nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose that does make sense. Just... don't give her any excuse to unleash that temper of hers, alright?" Damnit, she liked the younger woman, and didn't want to see her getting hurt. "And for the record, I'm going to warn her not to give you an excuse to unleash your broodiness." Worse than liking Cammie; she liked both of them. "I guess if you can consider your feelings for Cammie, I can think about mine for Garrison," she muttered, though she didn't anticipate it being a pleasant process.


"I do not consider my feelings concerning Carmilla. That would be too much assessment for myself. Instead I..how do you say? Wing it? Trust me, it is better this way."

"Well, if it's better that way, how come you get to 'wing it' but you're telling me to consider my feelings more carefully?" Adrienne complained. Not that it mattered- she wouldn't 'wing it' anyway. She didn't 'wing' anything. "Are you okay in there, Cookie?" she asked the small person in the change room.


"Please don't name her after a food. She has a name," Manuel quipped and he turned his eyes on his sister who came out. Because he was too harsh before, Manuel softened his emotions and gave her a nod of approval, even though he wasn't partial to the selections. She was her own person and he had to remind himself that he was being too much like his father.


Valentia smiled briefly and turned back into the changeroom. Manuel turned his attention back to Adrienne. "The difference is I am sleeping with Carmilla and we are content where we are by not addressing where we are. You are not sleeping with Garrison."


"Cookies aren't food," the brunette protested. "They're little balls of goodness with sweet, gooey things inside. Not that Valentia isn't a pretty name, though." She blanched as his mention of sleeping with Garrison. "No, I'm not sleeping with him. And I've never thought of it, which is why it's so dam...darn confusing to think that I have feelings for him." Morgan, sure. She'd thought about sleeping with Morgan. That's why she had slept with Morgan, so she wouldn't have to think about it anymore. But she'd never thought, not seriously, anyway, about sleeping with Garrison. They didn't have that sexual tension in their friendship- at least, she didn't feel it.

"So you're saying i have to address my feelings because they're not sexual?" She supposed that made some sort of sense, though she still felt lost as to what to do about it. "You mean like, talk to him?"

Manuel regarded her very patiently. "Are you sure you are not a blonde?"