Manuel & Laurie

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Manuel and Laurie get into a heated emotional arguement that results in upsetting his sister. It seems as though it's Manuel's day for enlightment.

Laurie hummed softly to herself as she prepared for her next batch of cupcakes, looking over at the two batches that lay cooling on the kitchen table, vanilla base but filled with a peach jam. They seemed to be cooling readily enough, and the ear she had trained to the timer on the oven said that the third batch was cooking away merrily.

That just left her with the job of cleaning all the equipment so she could start on the newest batch of cupcakes, a chocolate base with coffee mint cream, and a sort of mocha icing to go on top.

Naturally, the cooking drew out a four year old's curiousity and Valentia slipped into the room, quietly and without a word, sought out a cupcake for herself. Little hands didn't make an immediate grab for it because that wasn't what she was taught.

Her brother was quick to follow her inside and his expression tightened, clear disapproval radiating from him.

"You can have one, if you like," Laurie said, softly so as not to startle the little girl. "They should be cool enough."

She ignored Manuel, although to an untrained eye you couldn't tell it was a deliberate move on her part , she simply refused to acknowledge his presence in the room was all.

Manuel's hand fell on Valentia's shoulder. "Ask before you take, even if she gives you permission. Most would ask the parent or guardian before offering junk food," he said.

"Most would realise that fully organic, homemade cupcakes are far from 'junk food'," Laurie replied, turning the water on and putting a plug in the sink. She fished under the sink for the washing detergeant and squeezed a small amount into the water. "Those are vanilla and peach."

"Contrary to popular belief, most are not mind readers. Especially not empaths," Manuel quipped with an unfriendly tone in his voice.

Valentia looked between them before she reached out, but Manuel's hand stopped her.

"Yet most would ask before simply making assumptions based on their own limited understanding of the facts at hand," Laurie replied, tone just as unfriendly as she placed the cups and plates into the sink with what was probably unneccesary force. "Most would not be quite so arrogant."

"You confuse arrogance with concern," Manuel snapped back. "However, why should I correct you when you are so blindly commited to your own devices and assumptions yourself?"

"Ah yes, the vaunted concern of Manuel De La Rocha, who would never ever be arrogant," Laurie snarled back, hand grabbing for the wash cloth and quickly scrubbing at a plate with angry, sharp movements. "Who would never make assumptions himself, or be wrong about anything or anyone. I would look to myself before you try to instruct others, Manuel."

He could feel the pull of her anger and his own amplified with it as he gripped his cane and urged his sister away from the seething woman. "How typical of you, Laurie, to slap a label of arrogance on me when you cannot see past your own pride of virtue."

Laurie placed a plate in the drying rack, and picked up another with sharp, definite movements, glaring at the man in front of her. He just didn't give, not even an inch, not ever. It was a refrain she was coming to know from many of her dealings with the men of Xavier's mansion, all of them thinking they had a right to judge her. They didn't even know her, not really, not the person she was now.

"And how typical of you to hide behind insults, rather then dealing with your own fears," Laurie noted, placing another clean dish on the rack.

Valentia was clearly not impressed, fed into the emotions of both and unable to block it out. But Manuel did not cease, could not. "When you learn the definition, I will be glad to enlighten you." Manuel went to the fridge and got out some milk for his sister who had stepped closer to the muffins.

Laurie reached for the cutlery, absent minded in her attempts to control the irritation and fury Manuel always seemed to inspire in her. She gasped as her finger tip slipped and sliced along one of the sharp knives laying ready to be cleaned. She gripped her wet hand to her chest, looking around for the first aid kit that was kept handy in the main kitchen, and then glared at Manuel as she reached for it with her uninjured hand.

"Look what you made me do," she snapped, opening the kit and fishing through for a butterfly clip and some antiseptic cream. "If you weren't so pigheaded, we wouldn't even have been having this conversation."

"If you were not so insuffer--" Manuel stopped because suddenly, he was wearing a cupcake and his sister was running out of the room. He realized quite suddenly that she was getting everything and they were feeding into each other like a broken record. Again, only this time, it was easier recognized.

Looking down, he grimmaced and pulled the cupcake from his tie, clearly not impresed but dropped it into the sink, regardless of the fact she was there.

Laurie's eyes had followed Valentia out of the room and now she looked down at the cupcake in the dirty water in the sink that now had a cupcake floating in it. "There's a bin right over there, you know," she said mildly, burying the irritation she was still feeling deep.

It took a great deal of patience pulled out of somewhere to wash his hands, not say anything else but take her hand despite the spike in contact and tend to her cut. "I believe there are other things that are more important," he said quite formally, if not apologetically or as apologetically as Manuel ever got. He could sense where his sister was, in the immediate vicinity.

Laurie blinked, but didn't move to take her hand from his own as he tended to her cut. It wasn't often that someone took care of her, usually it was the other way around. "I..."

Valentia was mad at him and at this point, he did not know whether to run after her or give her space. Though the first impression was to go after her, she was within the mansion walls but he opted to do the second, give her space and currently, Laurie was the one bleeding.

"That... was entirely my fault," he said evenly, layering up another shield as the contact so easily broke it down. A spot of sweat formed at his brow and he could feel the emotions, drown in them at their contact. It was never a good thing to be so close to someone like her.

"No, it wasn't," Laurie replied, frowning softly at the rolling emotions she felt, they couldn't all be her own, surely? "Manuel, we need to do something about this, staying away isn't helping."

Manuel's own expression was pulled in, tight and debating in a hard separation from what he was feeling and what she was feeling. The only real give away to this inward battle was the brief termor in his hand as he fetched a wrap from the first aid.

"I believe.." he said carefully after a long moment. "That I may agree with your former suggestion - we should see someone. Perhaps Jean or Haller?" He did not know much about the man but there was enough that he felt from such an individual.

"Haller," Laurie said, watching him bandage her hand with a gentle touch. She could see that he was struggling, could feel it as their powers interacted and she found it increasingly hard not to let go, to pull away from him and the alarming lack of control she always felt in his presence. "Jean's in Calfornia now, and I don't think they'll be coming back any time soon."

Manuel removed his hand after she was wrapped, removed the cupcake from the sink and tossed it into the garbage. "Allow me to talk to Haller and we will solve this before I have a frequent case of de-ja-vu," he said as he washed his hands.

Laurie nodded and then looked toward the door where Valentia had escaped, she frowned softly. "Is your sister going to be alright?"

A cupcake was plucked from the tray and he gestured if it was alright to take two. At her nod, Manuel limped out, heading for where his sister was. "In the very simplest terms, she will be fine." Or he hoped.