LOG: Manuel and Amanda - Don't Ever Trust The Mirror

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Who: Manuel de la Rocha, Amanda Sefton
Where: Manuel's Room
When: Saturday, May 29th
What Happens: Manuel's just been stepped down, and his old friend The Mirror makes a reappearance.



Manuel returned to his room with a gigantic smile on his face. The step-down had gone off without a hitch, and he could _see_ again. All the empathic auras and threads, once so fuzzy and indistinct, had leapt out into sharp focus and glorious, glorious color. He had spent the better part of an hour sitting in the kitchen, watching people go by, just _revelling_ in it. But enough was enough, and he wanted to see if his music felt more real, more like it used to. Hence the return to his room.

Amanda was lying on Manuel's bed, catching up on her sleep... well, it had started as waiting for him after his session with Xavier, but he'd taken so long and she was still tired from the previous week, it had turned into an impromptu nap. The joy, the exhilaration filling her head from his end of the link woke her up as he approached, and she half sat up, smiling sleepily as he came in. "It went all right, then?"

Manuel stared at Amanda openly, watching the byplay of her emotions, with a big smile. "Yep!" he said. "Went juuuuust fine. I can _SEE_ again!" And than he ran over to drop a sloppy kiss on Amanda's forehead. "I CAN SEE!"

She laughed out loud at his good mood, pleased to see him happy, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "So, what exactly can you see?" she asked teasingly.

"I can see it all, just like I used to." he grinned down at Amanda, leaning into the hug. "But best of all, I can do _this_." And his eyes glowed red, for the first time in months, as he projected as much lust as the dampener would allow him at Amanda, not using the link but his own abilities.

Her eyes widened as she felt a warm glow stirring in certain areas, feeling for the first time in months his power on its own, not down the link. "So I see," she said, a slow, lascivious grin appearing on her face as she pulled him closer. "So, you need to practice this at all? You might have gotten rusty with that thing on. And the Prof's all about practicing our skills..."

Manuel just grinned, and started practicing. At great length. Just to be sure, of course. "Not too shabby, eh? I can't project _much_, but I can project again." He lay next to Amanda, grinning up at the ceiling, letting his mind and his body recover for a spell.

"Not too shabby at all," she agreed, somewhat breathlessly. The practicing had been somewhat... exuberant. She chuckled softly at the grin on his face, enjoying the change in his mood. "Lets hear it for progress. So, what next? They got you on any new training t' go with bein' able t' project again?"

"That starts next week." he said, still grinning. "No rust here! And I've got multiple people who are going to help me out. It's really kind of cool. Of course, one of them is promising to put me through hell, but if it pans out like I hope it will, then my problems are gonna be _over_."

"See, if I didn't know better, I'd say the one that's gunna put you through hell is Nate, but there's no way yer'd be so cheerful 'bout studyin' with him if it were," she said wryly, turning over onto her side and slinging her arm over his waist.

Manuel snuggled into Amanda, and mmmmmed softly. "Actually, Charles will be handling the bulk of the formal training. I... had a talk with Askani the other day. Settled out some things. I've been foolish - again. I have to stop doing that."

"You did?" Surprised, Amanda twisted her head slightly and looked up at his face. "You talked t' 'em? Nate never said."

Manuel nodded. "Yeah, I did. She showed me some things, about what they were trying to do. I don't _LIKE_ them, don't get me wrong, but Nathan has a couple of fully-trained empaths in his head. Not broad-spectrum psions, but _empaths_. People like me. So of -course- I'm excited about it. I FINALLY get to meet someone like me!"

"That's fuckin' brilliant," she said, planting a kiss on his jaw, just below his ear. She was happy for him, but couldn't help a small twinge of envy. Someone like him. She pushed the thought away. "So, they ain't brain-eatin' parasites any more?" she teased.

Manuel felt that twinge, and rolled over to face her directly. "Something I said made you sad. Tell me about it? And they still might be, but the opportunity is worth the risk."

"'S nothin'. Just bein' selfish. 'M glad for you, really glad. Yer've worked so hard, an' now it's startin' t' pay off." She ran her fingers down his face. "Yer've done so well."

"Selfish?" he asked, refusing to be distracted by hot fingertips. "Selfish how? If you want something, just ask me. I'll do what I can to get it for you."

"You can't. It ain't somethin' you can get for me, kobaro. Just... homesick, I s'pose. Missin' Rom an' the rest of 'em. This place is home, but it's hard t' deal with sometimes." She hesitated, really not wanting to dampen the mood. "You don't think there's any mutant witches in that head of Nate's?"

"Homesick. That I can help with. Summer semester's coming up. Maybe we can arrange a visit back home for you? Besides, I've met Rom. I think it was her, anyway. Very briefly. She seemed to think it was a good idea for us to go visit." He then stopped to think for a second. "There's a _lot_ of people in there. Can't hurt to ask, right? Worst that can happen is that they'll say no."

"Home would be good. 'Specially with me head on straight this time." Then she frowned. "You met Rom? Where? She's been back in London all this time."

Manuel tapped Amanda's forehead, and then leaned over to nibble on her earlobe. "In your head." he whispered into her ear. "We dreamed a dream, you and I, and it was yours. About what happened in Mexico, and earlier."

"Wait a sec... That dream, I remember feelin' you there, for the Mexico part, well, bits of it. That dream ain't exactly nice an' laid out, it gets all mixed up. But Rom was never there. Unless..." She stiffened a little. "You saw? The earlier stuff?"

Manuel nodded. "Yes, I did. And I'm still here, and I still care just as much as I did before the dream. Come _on_, if you can tolerate my future, I can certainly tolerate your past. What was done to you was horrific. I know that now, in a way that I couldn't before. But I don't think any less of you for it. What you've done since then is... well, remarkable. You have had it rougher than I, I believe, counting my time being assraped in the asylum."

"That future might never happen - won't, if I have anythin' t' do with it." The stubborn note entered her voice again. "'S just... I've told people 'bout it, but in my way. Kept things at a distance, didn't let it touch me. Those dreams... there was nothin' held back. 'S a bit scary, knowin' you know all that. But good too, I think. Least now I don't have t' explain who the fuck Rack was," she said the last with another of those wry smiles.

Manuel rolled back onto his back and shrugged. "Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I sure as fuck don't want it to. And yeah, now I've seen Rack. Sensed him, too, in the way that I do. If we're lucky, I won't have any more dreams of the asylum. Those, believe me, you don't want to share." And then he shuddered as if a chill had come over him.

"We'll manage," was all she said, cuddling up to his side again, rubbing his leg with her toes to distract him from that particular train of thought. "So, what did Rom say t' you exactly?" she asked, changing the subject.

Manuel smiled, but it was a thin, polite one - not his genuinely happy one. "She said that a young man should meet his beloved's family. Which... in a way, also worries me. I have no fear of Rom or any of those people, but I'm more concerned about Alphonso."

"'Beloved'? " Amanda snorted at the old-fashioned word. Then she caught the complex mix of emotions washing down the link, and paused, trying to unravel them, unsuccessfully. Concern, yes, but also sadness, were prevalent. "Do you want t' see him?" she asked quietly, leaving aside the matter of her being there for now.

"I don't know. I saw him at Hellfire a few months back, and apparently he's remarried. Tried to get me to throw the White Queen over to take my place as King. When he threw me out, he was having several affairs simultaneously, but then again, so was my mother. There was not much love there." he said sadly. "I had to leave - the sadness and the anger were overwhelming me."

"So yer mum...?" Amanda didn't want to push him and let the question hang.

"Dead." Manuel said flatly. "I suspect murder, but I cannot prove anything."

"Fuck, I'm sorry, love." Her arm tightened around him at the desolation coming down the link. "We can go t' Spain an' not bother with yer dad, if it makes you feel better," she offered, unsure of what to say. Families, even dysfunctional ones, were unknown territory for her.

"No, we really do have to see him. I don't think I want to live under his roof while we're there, but we must visit. If for no other reason than I want to find where my mother is buried, and pay my respects. Right up until the end, I think she loved me." he mused. "It will help to put that part of my life behind me. But I'm not sure I can even legally go to Spain - I'm still a convicted mental patient there. I think Emma's working on clearing it up, I'll drop her a note tomorrow to inquire."

"If she can't... well, Nate an' Dom fixed me up with a set of fake papers - maybe they can help?" Amanda suggested. "An' I'll be there with you. Want me t' hex the old bastard if he gives you grief?" She was only half-joking.

"It's not me I'm worried about. Alphonso likes his playmates young. And he likes exotic. It is a trait we share, that last one. I like my playmates to be of legal age. Alphonso - is not so discriminating. If we spend a night under his roof, I'll want to be at your door with steel in my hand. And then I can't even guarantee that there won't be secret passages into the guest rooms, or surveillance." he said with a shrug.

"Defending me honour 'gainst yer dad, that's so sweet..." teased Amanda, tickling him a little. Then she became serious. Well, slightly moreso. "So we don't spend the night there. 'S not a problem. An' if yer dad gets grabby, well... I can look after meself. Won't even break the rules t' do it."

Manuel shrugged. "Ahhh, maybe it won't be." He then streeeeeeetched his lanky body out and stared at the ceiling. "It's too quiet in here. Put some music on, OK?"

"Yours or mine?" she asked with a grin, untangling herself and padding naked over to his computer.

"Whatever you want, it's your choice." he grinned as he watched Amanda's rear aspect wiggle as she moved.

That was not the answer Amanda had been expecting. Manuel hated her music, loudly and unashamedly telling her so, and would never surrender the choice in his own room... She grabbed one of his CDs randomly and stuck it in, frowning a little as she returned to the bed. "You sure yer feelin' all right?" she asked.

"I'm _fine_. Want me to prove it again? Heeeey, VNV! Enhhh, not sure if this one's all that good, really." he said with a shrug. "Not loud enough, too much synthesizer."

"Didn't take you long t' get tired of it, seein' how you were ravin' 'bout it not last week," Amanda said, still perturbed. Something about this was vaguely familiar...

"I was? Oh yeah, guess I was. I don't know, it isn't doing it for me right now." he said before rolling onto his side to run his fingertips down Amanda's arm. "But there are some things I _never_ get bored with." he said with a teasing grin.

Amanda's skin goosepimpled at the touch, but the vague disquiet remained. "Much as I'd like t' stay an' play, I've got some stuff that needs doin', before I take this holiday off the magic study Strange is insistin' on," she said, focussing on the feelings she got when she studied the magic as she told the lie. She wasn't sure if he was still dampened enough to be fooled, but his sudden agreeableness was weird.

Manuel stopped playing with Amanda's arm, and looked vaguely disconcerted. "What kind of stuff?" he asked as the VNV played quietly in his room. "More magic stuff?"

"Just need t' clear some things up, put stuff away... I can't leave it lyin' around for anyone t' get into. Some of it's not safe. I won't be long..." Amanda shrugged, clamping down on the link as hard as she could and doing her best to project an air of distractedness. Living with Rack had meant she'd learnt to keep a fairly tight grip on her emotions - life in the mansion had softened her up far more than she liked to admit, but the knowledge was there, if not the need.

Manuel rolled back onto his back, and then shrugged again. "Whatever. Come back soon, and bring food. I'm hungry." His eyes narrowed, however, as he looked at Amanda. "You're hiding something. What is it?"

"Just testin' something out." Amanda propped herself up on her elbow. "Yer actin' all agreeable, an' it's makin' me nervous. 'S not like you - usually if I have somethin' else I have t' do when you want t' play, you go all out t' convince me t' stay."

"I'm being reasonable and considerate, and you're displeased? That's a switch." he said with a smirk. "I could compel you to stay, maybe, but I'm trying to not do that sort of thing, remember? If you've got something important to do, and it is important, I can feel that, then you should be about it. As long as you return with food." And then, right on cue, Manuel's stomach rumbled.

That settled it. Amanda closed her eyes and brought up the aura sight, concentrating on the emotional parts of his aura when she looked. His emotional patterns were drifting more widely then they should, and were shifting as the suspicion and worry grew in her, echoing what she was feeling... "Yer mimicking me," she said, poking him in the chest. "I dunno if you realise it, but yer doin' that copyin' thing you used t' do when you were first here."

"I am not! I don't do that kind of thing any more!" he said, protesting far too much. "Why are you being so paranoid? I'm FINE. There's nothing wrong with me. Maybe you need to practice more with your Sight, learn to read what you're seeing better."

There was a calming drill Romany had taught her, to clear her mind and calm herself quickly, especially useful for healing spells, which required a state of serenity in the caster. She used it now to wipe smooth her emotions, waiting for his reaction. "I'm readin' fine," she said deliberately. "Yer the one who ain't feelin' his own emotions."

Manuel smiled at the ceiling. "Maybe you're right. No need to get all worked up about it, really. Have fun doing whatever it is that you're doing. And bring back food, please? I am really hungry, and I'm not decent enough to go out in public without a shower."

"Come with me. We can shower, maybe play around in there, an' go raid the kitchen together." 'And then I can drag you back to the Professor to find out what's happened', she added silently. "That other stuff can wait a bit longer."

Manuel grinned at that idea. "Mmm. Shower. That sounds like a lot of fun, actually." He then rolled out of bed, stark naked, turned off the CD player, and walked into his room's mini-bathroom.

Amanda's conscience pricked her just a little at the blatant manipulation when Manuel wasn't able to stop her, but not that much. And better her than someone else. She got up and followed Manuel into the bathroom, a small grin on her face as she thought the least she could do was make it worth his while.