Manuel and Amanda - Besotted

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Who: Manuel de la Rocha, Amanda Sefton
Where: Manuel's Room
When: Tuesday afternoon (5/4/2004)
Whart Happens: Starts with the offer of a translation-spell, then progresses into aura analysis, and ends up in the Scary Relationship Land



Things were returning to normal, or as close to normal as they got in the mansion. Classes done for the day, Amanda dropped by Manuel's room, one of her spell books and a large envelope tucked under her arm. She didn't bother to knock, instead 'pinging' him down the link.

Manuel was sitting at his computer, idly working in Reaktor, trying to get some new chord-progressions to sound like something other than Utter Shit when the *ping* came across the link. Sending back a warm feeling, he saved his work and waited for Amanda to arrive.

"Hey," she said, coming in and plonking herself in his lap without ceremony. "I got that translatin' spell for you. Took me a while t' find it."

Manuel looked at the witch in his lap and grinned. "And a very pleasant afternoon it is for me, too," he said while arching his back up for a kiss. "Translation spell, hrm?"

Amanda leaned into the kiss, and for a while the room went away. "Translation spell," she replied once she had her breath back. "For that psych stuff of yours, remember?"

Manuel got his own breath back, and then ahed as he remembered. "Right. The one that will help me read English."

"That's the one. Should help, least 'til you get a handle on it by yerself." Twisting slightly, Amanda lay the book down on the desk so she could wrap her arms around his neck. "Yer not busy right now, are you?" she asked, grinning suggestively.

Manuel ground his hips upwards for a long slow three count. "Not terribly. And if I was, it could _wait_. You're in a good mood."

"I am. 'M actually startin' t' get somewhere with me classes, me magic's comin' back an' no-one's missin' or in medlab. Of course, now I've said that the place is gunna be hit by a meteor or somethin', but in the meantime..." She nipped lightly at his ear, feeling the spike of lust come through the link. "Oh, an' I got a present for you."

Manuel grinned and shivered theatrically at the ear-nibble. "And my birthday's not until November..." he murmured with a smile. "Do I want to unwrap this present right away, or be slow and deliberate about it?"

She grinned. "Well, I was meanin' a different sort of present, but I wouldn't say no t' some unwrappin'..." She reached back over, pulling the envelope out of the book. "You remember how you was sayin' you wished you could see yer own colours? I was foolin' 'round with the photomanipulatin' program Shinobi showed me, an' I think I got pretty close..."

Manuel was _just about_ to start unwrapping when what she was saying dawned on him. "You found a way for me to see my own aura? HOW?"

"The wonders of technology," she said, with a hint of a smug grin. "I borrowed Shinobi's digital camera for some stuff for art, an' took a few photos of you when you weren't lookin'. An' then I added what I could see, what Rom taught me 'bout auras. It ain't exactly the same as yer power, but it's close."

"Not ideal, but it's better than nothing. I'm sure I was, as always, devestatingly sexy in my candid stills. So let's see them, come on!" he bounced with excitement.

Amanda giggled at his reaction and pulled a sheaf of colour prints from the envelope. "The first ones're what I can remember from when we swapped powers, when we made the link, remember? All spread out an' not very strong colours. The middle ones're after I got back from England, an' then the last ones're after the link got fixed." She handed them over and made to get off his lap, suddenly shy. "I ain't an expert with the program yet, so they might not be that good..."

Manuel clamped his grip down, preventing Amanda from leaving his lap easily. "Stay. I want to see." He then looked at the prints, starting with the first one. "Amazing..." is all he said for a good minute or two. "It's not perfect, so I shouldn't read too much into the colors..."

She nodded. "The aura thing ain't just emotions, like yer power, an' I don't get the threads, but I thought it might help for you t' see. I know not bein' able t'see yer own colours bugs you."

"So - what do they mean? I don't want to assume that you see the same way I do, and assign the colors meanings based on how my power works. What is all _this_ about?" he asked, flipping to the second set of prints and stabbing his finger into an ugly brown and black and red splotch on his aura.

"The innermost layer, that's yer energy. Yer...lifeforce, I s'pose you could call it. An' when yer hurt or sick, the colours change. That's the link, when it was broken. That's what I could see when I tried t' heal you that time." Amanda flinched at the memory. "Everytime I looked at you, that's what I could see."

Manuel ahed softly. "I thought that might be it. Trust me, it was as ugly to experience as it is to look at, here." He then hrmmed as he takes another look at the picture. "I don't like this picture."

"Me neither. Tho', if you ignore the link part, you can see the difference in yer aura from the first one. Second layer's emotions, personality, an' even with the link doin' all that damage, there's still a lot more to it than there was before."

Manuel hrmed again, and went back to that picture to look more closely at it. "Yes, I can see that. That second layer's not as fuzzy, not as indistinct as the first. Weird."

"An' then you get these last ones that I did the other day, an' it's less fuzzy again. An'..." Amanda blushed slightly. "An' the emotions're different. you're..happy."

Manuel looked at the last set, and then whistled. "You're not kidding. When did I get besotted? How did that happen?" he asked, careless of the hurt he might cause.

"Fucked if I know." Amanda's tone hardened slightly, traces of her old street-hard attitude returning. He didn't mean it, she knew that from the link, but it was still hard not to react. "No accountin' for taste, I s'pose."

"I don't _GET_ besotted." he continued, heedless of Amanda's reaction or of the spiky emotions he was getting over the link. "Besotting happens to other people. How the mighty have fallen..." he mused, then _finally_ clued in to the feelings he was getting over the link. "What? Why are you so ... whatever that feeling is?"

"Yer the expert on feelin's, you tell me," she snapped, trying again to slide off his lap. "Ain't like I asked you t' feel anythin' for me, an' I didn't expect t' feel what I do for you..." She stopped, realising she'd finally admitted there were actual feelings involved. "Fuck."

"Twenty thousand years of human evolution of feeling, and she expects me to master its complexities in barely a score." he said, this time letting her slide off of his lap. "So what _do_ you feel, anyway? I am besotted with you, and I don't know _why_. I close my eyes, and there you are. The link ... just makes it real, not just a feeling to be brushed aside or dismissed."

"I dunno _what_ I feel! It ain't like I've ever done this before. Used t' just be a bit of fun, at the best of times, an' a way of gettin' somethin' or not
gettin' beat up at the worst. Then suddenly I'm feelin' happy t' be with you, an' thinkin' 'bout you when I should be concentratin' on other stuff, an' gettin' protective over Beth, an' I dunno why. An' it... scares me, 'cause if I feel somethin' for someone else, that means they can hurt me. Like just
now. So what if yer besotted, it shouldn't bother me either way, but it makes me feel bad t' think it's somethin' you don't want, an' I dunno why it should."

Manuel nodded. "I can understand that." he said in a rare flash of sympathy and insight. "I don't not want it, that's what is so odd about it! I always used to avoid such entanglements, but now that I'm well and truly caught, it's not such a bad thing. It's kinda humbling, especially for me. The big bad empath, caught by a feeling." he said, mocking himself. "And I'm _defenseless_ against it, and _that_ scares me sometimes. That I can be hurt, and hurt badly, and I _can't fight back_."

"Then I s'pose we'll have t' be careful not t' hurt each other," Amanda said with a small, wry smile. "'Cause I don't not want it either, even if it does
scare me shitless sometimes."

"Least you _have_ normal emotions..." he grumbled under his breath. "It's scary, but it has its compensations..." he leered.

She came back over within arm's reach. "A couple," she agreed, sliding her hands up his arms and over his shoulders.

Manuel hrmed to himself, closing his eyes to luxuriate in the touch. "A couple." he repeated.