Manuel and Nathan - Turning In Homework

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Manuel carefully makes his way down to Nathan's office Thursday morning to turn in the assignments he'd missed while being in Medical. Wonder of wonders, Manuel's actually trying to be a decent human being. So far, so good!



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Manuel carefully, slowly walked down the hall to where Nathan had his office. In one hand dangled a sheaf of papers - the sum total of his missed assignments since Halloween. The other hand was used to prop him up against the wall, to minimize his chances of falling flat on his face. He wore a black button-down, none of the buttons fastened, revealing his multiply-wrapped torso to the casual inspector as well as grey Xavier sweats. No shoes, no socks.

Nathan had left his office door open, and frowned as Manuel appeared in it. "Get in here and sit down before you fall over," he said disapprovingly, his eyes flickering to the papers in Manuel's hand as he correctly surmised that they were the missed assignments. "I could have come up to your room to get those."

Manuel gratefully dropped into a chair, but not without wincing as his torso was jarred. "No, it was important to me that I drop these off to you, rather than making you come to me." he said. "So here they are. This should be all the missed assignments. If you'll accept them, of course. If not, I understand completely. The make-up policy has been explained to me in exquisite detail." he said with a shaky grin.

"Exceptional circumstances," Nathan said, extending a flicker of telekinesis to tug at the papers gently. Manuel let them go and they floated over to land in front of Nathan on the desk. "You should have figured out by now that I'm a big marshmallow in some ways."

"I didn't want to risk it." he said plainly. "I had thought you would take them, but I wanted to show that even if you didn't I wasn't going to kick up a huge fuss and make a scene about it." he said, slumping in his chair as much as his abused ribs would let him. "Progress, no?" he said with just a faint hint of the old de la Rocha smirk.

"Progress," Nathan agreed quietly, leafing through the assignments. "Looks like you've got everything. Once you're back at class we can schedule you for a couple of presentations in a row to make up for the oral stuff you missed."

Manuel nodded. "I'm not sure when I'll be able to speak authoritatively - the ribs don't like it when I go for more than a few minutes at a time." he said. "Not complaining, just letting you know. I could compose the speech in my head, let you telepathically extract it and share it with the class..." he suggested.

"We'll see how it goes. I think I've had my fill of liberal use of my telepathy for the next little while, to be perfectly honest," Nathan said with a tight little smile. "Nothing to do with you, Manuel."

Manuel nodded, and then tried to relax himself more. "I understand." he said. "When the doctors..." and he only stumbled over that word a little "... give the OK, I will speak on whatever you want me to speak on. Will you let me know the topics ahead of time, so I can prepare, or are these to be off-the-cuff comments?"

"Actually, I thought I'd spring them on you just to see if you flounder or not." Manuel didn't bat an eye and Nathan sighed. "Of course I'm going to give you time to prepare. Presentations, I said."

Manuel nodded. "Then just email me the topics, I'll prepare the usual speeches about them. Five minutes each, right?" he asked, trying to confirm what he was fairly sure he remembered correctly. "Thank you." he said quietly. "For accepting the assignments, for being accomodating."

Nathan nodded to the first, then shrugged to the second. "I wouldn't consider it particularly fair not to be. 'I was mauled by a demon' is hardly on the same level as 'the dog ate my homework'."

"True, but the deal was that you hand out the assignments, and I complete them by a specified time. In my previous academic career, there was no excuse for failure. At all." he admitted. "There was no tolerance for failure."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Then this should be yet another piece of proof," he said quietly, "that this is not your previous academic career. That things are different here, even for the better."

Manuel nodded again. "You would think I'd get the message after having it demonstrated so many times." he said wryly. "But I have a tendency to cling to my old life - I don't know if you'd noticed or not." he said with a flash of real humor. "I am trying to decide what I can let go of, and what I should keep. So far, "let go" is overwhelming "keep"."

"I know it's hard." Nathan silenced the part of him that was sitting back and gaping at the fact that he and Manuel were having a civilized conversation about something this important. "My life has changed almost completely from what it was a year ago. There is a lot about who I was that makes no sense at all in this new context."

Manuel nodded. "And it's hard, so very hard, to just let go of everything that you were to rebuild an identity from the ground up. When all your previous assumptions are false, when things you took for granted, things you depended on, disappear out from under you..." he said, fighting hard for his composure. "But I should not distress myself of you right now. My control - is not where it should be."

"Manuel..." Nathan paused, tilting his head, and then decided to show, rather than tell. He coiled his emotions into the defense Askani had shown him, making them unreachable to Manuel's empathy. Or almost. He wasn't sure how well it would stand up to a concerted attack, and he wasn't about to ask Manuel or find another empath to test it. "Look at me," he said calmly. "You slip, it's not going to affect me anymore. So if you want to talk about this, don't let that stop you."

Manuel shook his head. "It is a point of honor with me." he said, his terrible pride swooping back in with a vengeance, "to not do that kind of thing anymore. No more slips, no more accidental projections, no more imposing my will unasked." he said.

"Admirable," Nathan said, "except that when you bottle up all of this, the slips and accidental projections threaten to happen more and more frequently."

"I have ways of letting these out." he protested. "They just do not involve you."

"Right," Nathan said, not actually meaning it sarcastically. "Good, then. Take it from someone who internalizes things too much - you don't want to get into that habit."

"I may be a stranger in a strange land, but even I recognize the need for outlets." Manuel said with some relief. "And since I can dimly see the curiousity, Amanda is the one I go to when I need comfort, when I have questions that I can't answer. Her and two others."

Nathan was tempted to ask who the other two were, but refrained. "Just keep in mind that they may not have all the answers either," he said, suspecting very strongly that the other two were probably students.

"No one has all the answers." Manuel retorted, warming to their old game of back-and-forth. He hadn't realized until right then how much he'd missed it. "But the other two are both Americans, lived here much of their lives, so they can help me through the cultural minefields." he added with great satisfaction. "Did I mention that before Halloween I got my learner's permit? I did not know I even needed one until she pointed it out."

"You're driving?" Nathan caught himself smiling suddenly. "Well, that should take care of the occasional feeling-like-you're-trapped here moments..."

"I have my permit." he reiterated. "I still need a legally licensed driver to be in the car with me." he pointed out. "But yes, I can go get a cup of coffee from time to time." he said. "The freedom is, as you pointed out, somewhat exhilerating."

"One step at a time," Nathan said, waving a hand at the assignments. "You approach the driving lessons as diligently as you did these and you'll pass your test in no time."

"Once I can sit for any period of time without wishing for death, I agree." he said with a grin. "I have a small savings - I want a car of my own. Something sleek and stylish. Something that goes very fast."

"Girls dig the car," Nathan murmured. A very small joke, but an honest attempt at one.

"They do. I've seen it." he retorted with a grin. "Something about the roar of the engine, the leather and steel, gets 'em in fundamental places." he said with a grin. "Not that I would ever take advantage of such a thing." he added with another silly grin.

"First things first," Nathan said, opening a folder and putting Manuel's assignments into it. "License, then car. Free piece of advice - let Amanda help you pick it. For the female opinion and all..."

Manuel grumbled a bit, and then nodded. "Makes sense, even though it is _my_ car. Won't hurt me to be considerate, and if I get something she likes, she'll be more amenable to going away for a short time."

"Going away?"

"Going away. You know, picking a destination and getting out of the Mansion for a weekend? That sort of thing. Neither of us are going anywhere permanently, not for a while yet." he clarified.

"Right," Nathan said with a faint smile. "That sort of going away. I'd sort of forgotten one could actually do that, around here..."

"It sounds like you need to remember it more often." Manuel mock-scolded. "Anyway, I won't take up any more of your time - I know Dr MacTaggart is a busy woman, which probably means you have your hands full as well. Email me those topics, I'll start on my presentations this afternoon." He tried to pick himself out of his chair, but his skin went ashen-pale and he collapsed back into his chair with a wince.

Nathan sighed and got up. "Overexerted a little getting yourself down here, did you?" he asked, coming around the desk to help Manuel up.

"Standing is the hardest part." he said tightly as he slowly stood up with Nathan's help. "Thank you." he told the bigger man. "Now I need food. I think I'm going to walk down to the kitchen, see what's available."

"Be careful," Nathan said, letting go of him once he was sure Manuel was more or less steady. "No one wants to find you collapsed on the floor somewhere."

"I do not wish to be collapsed on a floor somewhere either. I have time, I'll take things slow. But I have to do this for myself - things are insanely busy here, I can't ask to pull someone off of what they are doing to escort me all over the place. Hence the shirt." he said, once again with the pride showing clearly.

"Ahh. I was wondering about that."