Log: Manuel and Jubilee

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Who:Manuel De la Rocha, Jubilation Lee
When: 11th August 2004 Around lunchtime
What Happens: Jubilee and Manny talk, Jubilee realises that it will take her awhile to get used to being an ex-pixie and asks Manny out on a date.



Manuel blinked and ran his fingers through his too-long hair as he stepped into the kitchen. True to his word, Loki had assured him that that trigger was gone, banished forever before the cold light of reason, but Manuel had to test it for himself. Smiling, he headed for the fridge - his stomach wasn't ready for most modern foods, but there had to be _something_ in there that he could eat. Something safe and filling. Salad, perhaps?

She paused at the door, watching Manny as he searched through the fridge. It was the first time she'd seen him since they'd gotten back and she wasn't sure what to say to him. Coughing politely, she moved toward the drawer where Lorna kept her cooking books. Surely there had to be a receipe for mead somewhere in them.

Manuel blinked, and then smiled at Jubilee. "Hey! Almost didn't recognize you all tall and with your clothes on." he said with a smile. "And I've got the empathy bottled up, so I didn't sense you. You hungry too?"

Laughing, she moved further into the kitchen, her hand trailing along the counter-top unconsciously. She kept reminding herself that it hadn't really been all that long in Asgard but things still seemed strange. She was still getting used to not being so small and having to actually pick things up now. "A lot hungry, actually. I'm kinda clumsy at the moment, still gettin' used to pickin' things up rather then floatin' them."

"Floating them?" he asked curiously, grabbing a bottle of water for himself and digging through the fridge looking for foodstuffs. "Hey, someone pre-made some salad in here. Want some? Should be pretty easy on the stomach..."

She eased her way onto the counter and crossed her legs, nodding at the offer of salad. "Floating. I think it was magic, rather then TK but I was able to move objects just by asking them to move. It was nice to have a power that was useful for a change, rather then one that can just blow things up."

"I hear that - for the longest time, I thought mine was only good for fucking myself and other people up." he said, then retrieved the bowl of salad. "Oil and vinegar dressing OK by you?" he asked, putting the covered bowl on the counter.

"Oil and vinegar is perfect, although our stomachs might have something to say about it. Still, you like, only live once and all. So, what were you doin' in Asgard? Didn't really get a chance to catch up, with the fightin' and then all the huggin' and stuff when we got back here."

"Learning from the Lord of Lies." he said flatly, doling out the salad into two bowls. "Swordplay, empathy training, endurance runs, becoming _very_ well-acquainted with the lovelies in his court, and ferreting out spies and traitors." he said, his voice going even flatter and his expression falling as he spoke. "Not something I'm really all that proud of."

Jubilee reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "We all do things sometimes that we regret later on. The fact that you're not proud of whatever it was you had to do...well, that means you've learnt something, right? It's the thing about being alive, we get choices and a chance to change things."

"Sometimes we get choices." he said, voice extremely bitter. "Sometimes we get the choices taken away from us." Rallying, he put his hand over hers for a second. "But now is not the time to start crying about what happened." he said. "I'm hungry. Dig in."

Jubilee nodded, allowing her hand to linger on his shoulder for a second before squeezing and letting go. She grabbed the bowl of salad and quickly dug in, not realising how hungry she'd gotten over the night. "You'd think after all the food I ate in Asgard, I wouldn't be hungry. Guess it was a pixie thing."

"Must have been." he agreed, and then starting digging into his own salad. Before too much time elapsed, he was at the bottom of the bowl and still hungry. "Well, that seems to have gone down OK." he said, gingerly poking his stomach with a finger.

Jubilee grinned. "You know, it's a pity we can't just make Asgard food till our stomachs can handle the modern day stuff."

Manuel shrugged. "Don't look at me, I hated the kitchen until just recently. I never wanted to come down here, and I always had servants to cook and clean for me. Maybe Lorna knows something that she can whip up."

"You know, I came down to see if I could find a receipe for mead. It's possible that there'd be something in here that could pass for Asgard. Although, worse comes to worse, I can make a pretty mean ham sandwich, if you're still hungry and all."

"If you're making it, I'll happily eat it." he said with a grin. "I kinda liked mead - it was better than that shit-tasting Aesir Beer. Man, that stuff was FOUL!"

Jubilee laughed, vaulting down from the bench and then wobbling a little when she didn't simply fly toward her destination. "Whoa...okay, gettin' used to not havin' wings is gonna take more then a day, I guess. " Pausing for a moment to get her balance she walked slowly towards the fridge. "What do you like on your ham sandwiches?"

"I honestly don't know. Surprise me." he said with a shrug. "I'm feeling brave, and if I die from stomach upset you get to explain it to Amanda and Alphonso."

Taking out some ham and mayo from the Fridge, she snagged some bread that had been left on the counter to cool. 'Must have been made fresh this morning.' she thought.

"Amanda I could deal with. Alphonso...I haven't actually met him yet. That's your Dad, right?"

Manuel nodded. "That's him. Haven't seen much of him, although I think he's still here. Probably glued to his cellphone and trying to stay in touch with whoever he is fucking this week, in all senses of the term." he said with a shrug.

"Dude, what kinda asshole is he that he hasn't even spared a moment to make sure you're okay?"

"You have no idea." Manuel said drily. "I saw him when we first arrived - he hugged me, kissed both my cheeks, and then made sure I got inside OK. From there, I've barely seen him." he said nonchalantly. "This is not all that unusual for him."

Pulling a knife from the rack, she cut into the bread and then swore in Dark elven and shook her hand. "~Mother of a base-born human whore. ~" Placing the knife carefully on the table, she examined the damage. "Sorry, haven't had to physically manipulate tools in weeks. Like, I so don't know why this is hard, s'not like I was there for years or anythin'."

"Are you OK?" he asked, standing up to go look at Jubilee's hand. "Maybe I'd better do that instead. Go wash that cut off, bandage it up and sit down. Let me do the slicing."

She sighed and nodded, heading toward the first aid chest Lorna kept in the kitchen. Cooking classes had been known to beget some interesting injuries at times. "I'm fine, just shakey on the fine motor movements. Should be fine in a day or so."

Manuel started slicing up the bread and whatnot, not really paying attention to what he was doing - he was busy looking at Jubilee, making sure she bandaged herself up. "Make sure that bandage is tight." he cautioned.

She nodded, making sure the bandage was firm. "I'm fine, Dude. Was just a cut, nasty but not fatal. It's gonna be interestin' though. Got a call from my Grandmother last night. Supposedly they only just got back from some business and found the message from Xavier that I was missing. My Grandfather is insisting on coming to make sure I'm alright. Somethin' about not trustin' these foreign types to bake bread let alone make sure his Granddaughter was okay."

Manuel barked out a laugh at that. "Sounds like you got lucky, then. I'm sure Alphonso's been up to absolutely no good while I was away. Probably chasing anything with a skirt and poking his nose in where it wasn't wanted."

"You know, I think the folks here could probably give him as good as he could dish out. Considerin' I've now decided he's like, a total prick cause of the whole, not treatin' you right thing. Well, I think I'd have liked to see what he got if he did try any of that stuff here." Jubilee said, grinning back. She held up the bandaged hand. "See, all good. Now, seemin' that I'm all clumsy and stuff. How about I tell you what to put on the sandwich and you make it?"

Manuel grinned. "Probably. And whoa. When did I learn how to slice bread like this?" he said, looking down at the neatly-cut pile of bread. "That was new. Anyway - what do you want on this thing?"

"Okay, first you gotta slap on some mayo, dependin' on how you like it you can either go to town on that big boy and make it thick, or just stick a dollop on otherwise. Then you just put the ham on top and you got a sandwich."

"I think I can manage that." he said, following her instructions exactly. "There. Try that." he said, pushing the sandwich over to her. "I'll make myself one now."

Jubilee bit into the sandwich, chewing for a moment and then swallowing the bite. "Perfect. You know, keep going on like this, with the whole being able to make sandwiches and stuff and people will stop thinkin' of you as the playboy layabout type."

"That's the idea. Although I can probably still playboy with the best of them. If I'm going to avoid becoming a monster, I need to learn how to relate to people better. So here I am." he said with a shrug.

"Manny, I don't think you could ever be a monster. Still, it's good that you're doin' the whole interactin' thing with people, doing more stuff for yourself. It's a lot harder for people to take advantage of you if they can't hold things over you. And somethin' tells me that's somethin' that's important to you."

"You haven't seen my future." he said under his breath. "And it has become more important to me of late to be more social, more acceptable to my peers." he said, intending to be heard. "And speaking of being social, I am reminded. We never did get around to having that private party, just the two of us."

She was silent for a moment, thinking back to everything that had happened before Asgard. "No, we never did. Hey, people were talkin' about havin' some kind of coming home party or somethin'. I could use a date for that, if you're interested."

Manuel smiled. "Yeah, I think I could do that." he said with a grin. "That sounds like it could be a lot of fun." He thought of how much it would really steam Amanda, and he grinned even more. Served her right, the enslaving wench.