xp_logs | Nathan and Manuel, Thursday afternoon

Manuel gets an A on the latest international relations paper. Manuel is a very bad 'winner'. Nathan has very good self-control.

"Make sure you read the comments carefully," Nathan said, tossing each paper down the table towards its owner. "Well-done on the whole," he went on, "but I did write a lot of comments, even on the better papers. If there's anything you don't quite get, or can't decipher, come see me during my office hours and we can go over it."

Manuel barely even glanced at his paper - just enough to see the sea of red ink all over his paper. The pendant under his shirt seemed to pulse in time with his heartbeat, a mocking twitch. His first assignment done with Amanda's gift to him, and it looked like he'd fucked it up again. Or had it fucked for him. He wouldn't know until he puzzled out the comments. He could barely keep the scowl off his face.

Nathan noticed Manuel's scowl but did his best to ignore it as he continued to pass out the papers. If he wasn't happy with his mark, Nathan thought, seething, he could go jump off the roof. Literally. I suppose he thinks he should be getting a hundred percent or some such damned thing...

Manuel flipped his paper over fully, and began to look at the comments. May as well get a head start on his bad mood. However, the single letter at the top of the paper nearly stunned him into dropping the paper. This has _got_ to be a sick joke. he thought. No _way_ is he giving me an A. Not possible.

Nathan tossed the last of the papers out, and realized that while most people were vacating the classroom to look at their marks in privacy, Manuel was standing there staring at his paper, looking shocked. "Problem?" Nathan inquired in as mild a tone as he could muster.

"Is this some kind of joke?" he managed to blurt out after a few seconds. "You're _actually_ giving me an A on an assignment?"

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Why would I not give you an A on a paper that is an A?" he asked. It came out in more of a growl than he'd intended, and the last of the other students hustled out quickly. They had learned, over the last few weeks, to stand well clear when he and Manuel went at it.

Manuel laughed harshly. "Because before about five minutes ago I could have sworn that you thought I was at best a C student. And I have the papers and sarcastic commentary to prove it."

He couldn't believe it. The little bastard was giving him attitude because he'd gotten an A. How perverse could a person get? "Then thank Amanda for that charm, or whatever the hell it is," Nathan said curtly. "You kept telling me that you could knock my metaphorical socks off if that pesky problem you have with English went away. You did. Go celebrate."

Manuel, instead of looking overjoyed, got a very familiar suspicious look on his face. Mentally, he was reviewing the entire situation with Nathan, looking for a reason why Nathan would want or need to attempt to curry favor with him. "I think I will, thanks." he said.

Oh, for the love of... "The comments are mostly directed at your analysis," Nathan growled, tracing meditative patterns frantically in his mind and reminding himself that he was not supposed to be losing his temper at a student. No. Bad. "That's an A by the standards of what I can expect from a course at this level. You can still do better."

"Guess I'd better go find out what manic leaps of twisted logic you're making all over my paper _this time_." Manuel said with a smirk. He knew it was dumb, he knew it was petty and beneath a de la Rocha, but _damn him_ if he didn't _enjoy_ twisting Nathan. Just a little.

"Funny," Nathan said cuttingly, "you certainly seem to have paid attention to the twisted logic of my comments on your last paper. The problems with that one weren't all stylistic, you know. But your use of evidence and so forth is considerably better this time around, too."

"And you're not deducting points for quoting the ancient master anymore, by the looks of this." he said, holding out his paper and shaking it a little. "For a minute there I thought I was going to have to pull a Kruschev. And I like my shoes too much to bang them around."

"Ah, but that's because using Machiavelli was actually appropriate given your topic, this time," Nathan said, beginning to close his own books and folders and pile them together in preparation for leaving. Jack would be here for their session in about an hour, and the day was only going to get more crowded from there. "It was pertinent, here."

"He's always pertinent." Manuel shot back with a grin. His greatest weakness - he over-enjoyed the back-and-forth of a good debate. The hotter it got, the more he loved it. "You're just too blind to see the applications."

And Nathan was just perverse enough to deny it to him, when he wasn't in the mood to spar. "Of course I am," he said blandly. "Big, dumb... narrow-minded mercenary. Got me pegged, as per usual..."

Manuel grinned. He loved it when he _got_ Nathan like that. A failing that he just didn't have the will to overcome. "You said it, not me. I'll have to remember that for the teacher eval forms at end of term." he smirked, then began gathering his own things. Econ wasn't for another half-hour or so, so he had time.

Insufferable little jackass. "You might want to expand on this paper for your research assignment," Nathan said, taking refuge in professionalism as he so often had to do with Manuel. "There are lots more places you can go with that - that's what a number of the comments are about."

Ooh, was that a flame of irritation and honest _anger_ he just saw? How delightful. "Of course there are. This was supposed to be pretty narrow, and I wanted to focus on just the two sides of things. _IF_ I choose to do this for the big paper, then maybe I'll look at the other half-dozen or so influences."

"We've got what, two more of these short papers? Enough to get your feet wet in another couple of subject areas before you have to make a decision about the research paper one way or the other." Academic banalities. Joy. Why wasn't Manuel going away?

Manuel glanced over at the clock. Time to be wrapping this up. "Good, because I've had my eye on that Treaty of Versailles one for a while now." he said with his usual cocky grin. "Luckily for your impatience and your general state of all-pissed-off-hood, I've got to be running along. Meet Amanda for a smoke, maybe a little sumthin' sumthin' before my next class." he grinned. He had no intenion of doing any such thing, but it never failed to send Nathan into the most _amusing_ mental convulsions.

"Well, don't let me keep you," Nathan growled, knowing he was being twitched and not particularly liking it. "And if Amanda's late to Hindi, I'll know whose ass to kick."

"She won't be." he smirked. "I can guarantee it." He then finished gathering together the rest of his stuff and sauntered leisurely out the door.