xp_logs | Amanda, Scott; Amanda, Manuel

Two scenes of homecoming. The first with Scott, in the kitchen - they discuss the job, and Scott tells Amanda how proud he is of all of them.

Home. As good as the road trip with Nathan had been, and as beautiful the desert, there was a sense of satisfaction with being back at the mansion. It had become home in so many ways... Making a truly enormous pile of toast for herself, Amanda was in the process of finding something to put on it (there was cream cheese in the fridge _somewhere_, she could feel it) when she heard someone coming in.

Scott smiled at the sight of the gigantic pile of toast. "Please tell me you're not planning to bury that for later eating or something," he teased lightly as Amanda straightened and looked around at him.

She grinned. "No bushy tail, so no, I ain't turnin' into Squirrel Girl." Ah-hah! There was the cream cheese. Grabbing it, she closed the fridge and returned to her toast, practically bouncing up onto the stool - magical energy had the same effect on her as sugar did on most people, and she was finding it hard to sit still with Nevada still giving her a warm fuzzy glow. "Somethin' I can do for you, Captain?" she asked, spreading cream cheese on the first slice.

Captain? Scott wondered, amused. "Not really," he said, detouring over to the fridge himself. "Foraging for food myself. But you know, I'm glad I ran into you." He tossed a smile back over his shoulder at the girl. "I'd gotten a chance to tell pretty much everyone else 'well done', but you had to go and get back here a day later..."

Amanda blinked. Nathan had told her he was proud of her, and that was pretty much as she'd expected, but Captain Fuck... er Tightpants? It wasn't as if it was an official mission or anything. "Um, yeah... Needed t' recharge, an' Nate an' I both needed some time off before comin' back here, y'know?"

"Time off." Scott pulled a bottle of juice out of the fridge, smiling cheerfully at her. "What a concept. You two had a good time, I hope?"

"Yeah." She grinned... no, she _beamed_. "Even without the recharge, I would've had a great time.

It was so good to see her so happy, Scott thought, grinning back. The poor kid had been through so much lately. "I know a number of your fellow students who wouldn't have been quite so thrilled by a day in the car with Nathan," he joked. "But I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"Bah, 's just a matter of gettin' t' know him," Amanda said through a moutful of toast - wouldn't do to let it get cold. "An' 's really amazin' country out there. Not like home at all."

"New Mexico?" Scott leaned back against the counter, popping the lid off the bottle and taking a sip. He'd just come up from the Danger Room, and the quick shower he'd taken after his session really hadn't done much to cool him off. "I was out there once, a few years ago... it was gorgeous."

Amanda nodded, and swallowed. "Yeah, that's it. Nate used t' live there... before, but even with all that shite, he still loves it. I can see why - all that space, the desert..." Her tone turned a little dreamy and she blushed, realising she was probably making a berk of herself. "So, things were quiet here while we were gone?"

Their tough little punk witch could blush. That was a revelation. "Alarmingly," Scott said, giving her his best innocent look. "I was trying to figure out why. I mean, there has to be some correlation between the lot of you being in Vegas and the deathly stillness here all week..."

"We're the trouble magnets. Thought that was obvious," Amanda said with a shrug. "With me an' Lee an' Nate gone, well, there's yer drama for the last month, ain't it?"

"Took a lot of the liveliness out of the place, though," Scott said, his innocent look melting into a warm smile. "Not that I'm a huge fan of the drama, but still."

"Well, 'lively' 's one way of puttin' it," Amanda said wryly. Then a thought occurred to her. "An' I didn't fight with her none durin' the whole thing, neither, in case someone's been tellin' tales. Growled at her a bit in the mornin's, but so did everyone else. Girl snores worse 'n Nate."

Scott raised a defensive hand, still smiling. "Wasn't going to suggest it," he said, then chuckled. "And couldn't blame you if you did. Jubilee and I have had our... okay, our screaming arguments."

"Sorry, 's just everyone was watchin' us, expectin' somethin', an' I know better ' n that. Wasn't about t' let the whole job go down the bog just 'cause of Lee." Amanda frowned darkly at her tea mug. " I knew what the score was, if we fucked up. Wasn't about t' risk that."

"Hey," Scott said firmly, until she looked up at him. "You didn't. None of you messed up, and you got the job done. That's the important thing."

"Yeah, all right. An' we did, didn't we?" Unconsciously she rubbed at the fresh scar in her eyebrow where the piercing had been. "Wish I'd seen the look on that weasel Arcade's face when he realised we'd cleaned out his precious vault..." The grin returned, a touch smugly.

"One of the unfortunate consequences of making a clean getaway," Scott chuckled. "You don't get to see the look on the bad guy's face." He tilted his head a little, looking at her. "I gather it was a little rougher on you than the others," he ventured.

"Not that much. Got smacked in the face a couple of times, an' got an object lesson in why piercin's ain't exactly good for this kind of thing, but 's not the worst that's happened t' me lately. You get used t' it, don't you?" She shrugged again. "An' I got everythin' healed up all right, so no harm done, yeah?"

Ah, now he'd triggered the tough act again. Scott backed off gracefully, smiling again. "Still," he said. "No more getting smacked in the face? At least for a while?"

"No arguments here," she replied with a wry grin. "I know the image gives people the idea I _like_ gettin' hit, but 's not exactly fun. An' black an' blue ain't exactly me colour. Well, 'least not in face terms."

"Not the most flattering choice, no." He paused, his gaze straying down to the bottle in his hands for a moment before he looked back up at her. "I was worried about all of you," he said, "but I kept thinking of how soon this all was after that mess at the Hellfire Club, for you..." She seemed like she was bouncing back well, though, and Scott told himself to smile and stop burdening her with his damned fretting. "But, here you are. Triumphant return and all."

"Yeah, that's me, Teflon Girl an' all." Another of those careless shrugs. "Weren't that much, an' that mess at the Hellfire Club was our own bloody fault, so 's not like I deserve coddlin' for that." Amanda looked down at the last piece of toast, her appetite gone. "An' I should go. Gotta go check up on Manny... on _Manuel_ an' all. See how he's doin'."

Scott sighed and came over to where she was sitting, looking down to meet her eyes. "Not your fault," he said steadily. "Not his fault. Not anyone's fault but the people who actually did it." He felt hampered by the fact that he didn't really know her, that he was Captain Fuckwad and all and not precisely the sort of person that she'd be wanting to have a heart to heart with. "Don't forget what you did accomplish this week," he said finally, offering a somewhat tentative smile. "I know you're back in the middle of it all, now... but that's got to count for something, too. For a lot, in my opinion."

A wan smile crossed her face. "Yeah, it does. Goes a bit towards evenin' up the scales." She drained the cold dregs of her tea, and stacked her dishes in the washer. "Thanks, Captain. Means somethin', that comin' from you."

"Glad I could say it, then," Scott said and started for the door. "I'll see you later, Amanda. Welcome home."

Not long after, Amanda stops by Manuel's room, and things are as awkward as they were when she left. Things go from awkward to better to worse.

The thing about being away for almost two weeks was she'd had time to think, rather than react. It helped her head was finally back together and she was injury and exhaustion-free for the first time since Halloween. So it was a much calmer and collected witch who came knocking on Manuel's door. The fact it was pretty much immediately after she and Nathan got back was beside the point. She was going to be mature and supportive and give Manuel all the space he needed to sort things through, and not put any kind of pressure on him whatsoever...

Of course, all that fell through the second he opened the door. Without thinking, simply reacting out of pure happiness to see him after so long, she practically launched herself at him, giving him a fierce hug.

Manuel didn't even have time to get himself cleaned up or protest much at all before he had his arms full of wriggling wytchbrat. "Umm, hi!" he told her cheerily, trying to turn his head away to hide the red-rimmed eyes and the tear-tracks. "I guess you're back from Las Vegas now?" he said with a fine sense of the obvious. "I was ... never mind."

"Yeah, got back from the airport late last night. Came in from Santa Fe, actually - Nate an' me had t' do a bit of a detour." Finally letting go and stepping back, she frowned as she looked up at him - it wasn't hard to miss the distress. "What's wrong? Are you all right, love?"

"Bad day." he said quietly, stepping aside to plop himself down on his bed. His room was an absolute mess - clothes, papers, CDs, and other debris strewn everywhere. "How was Vegas?" he asked her lamely, cradling his head in his hands.

"A pit. Nearly literally. But we got the job done an' no-one got hurt. Much." Her hand moved to the new scar in her eyebrow without her realising, and she made herself drop it again and come in. His desk chair was covered with clothes, but she cleared the mess with a wave of her hand that sent the clothes obediently flying back into his wardrobe - she was still buzzing with power from Arizona, and she didn't even think about it. "So 's all good. Oh, an' I got you a present. Well, made it, actually."

"A present?" he said, perking up a little. "You really didn't have to..." he said, a flush spreading across his face. He adjusted the way he was sitting, to relieve a little pressure in uncomfortable places of his anatomy. "So what did you get me?" he asked her, unable to contain his curiosity.

"Didn't have to, but I wanted to." Getting up and digging in the front pocket of her jeans for the touchstone she'd made, she came and sat next to him on the bed, not touching him, but close enough to if he wanted to. "Hold out yer hand," she said, and when he did, lay the small piece of reddish sandstone in it.

"You got me a pebble." he said, staring in disbelief. "Umm, thanks, I guess. I can go add it to the others..." he said, moving off the bed and over to his desk, where he had quite the collection of stones going. "I'd offer you something to drink, but I finished my last Red Bull this morning. Stuff is good, I can see why I kept it in my fridge."

Unable to help rolling her eyes a little, Amanda said with a wry chuckle. "'S not just a pebble, same as any of those aren't. Hold it in yer hand an' close yer eyes, okay? You'll see what I mean."

"The other ones aren't just stones either?" he said incredulously, but did as he was told - he took the sandstone in his hand and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, his eyebrows attempted to merge with his hairline. "Ohhhhh." he breathed. "Stars!"

"'S New Mexico, just outside of Santa Fe," she explained, getting up and coming over to the desk to go through the rest of the 'just stones'. "It's called a touchstone - trappin' a moment, a memory in physical form. I can't do it often since it needs a lot of power an' I don't have a decent source here, but I wanted you t' share it." One of the 'rocks' was the translation amulet, and she shook her head a little. "An' this is what I gave you t' help you read," she said, picking it up and holding it out to him. "The translatin' charm. You might want t' put that on."

Manuel shrugged at that. "Translation-stone?" he asked, poking a finger at the stick-man-rune'd stone. "From what to what? And I'm acclimating as fast as I can!" he said, just a little bit of frustration leaking into his voice - but more importantly, it was _screaming_ over the link. "I encounter a dozen new things a day. Some stuff I remember, others gives me migraines if I try."

"Sorry, love - 'm a bit buzzed still, an' it means 'm too damn perky for me own good." Taking a breath to order her thoughts - and more importantly, process what was coming down the link, since without his power it was as much impressions and thoughts as emotions - she tried again. "That translation charm's from Asgard. Another dimension, if you like. The charm translates English into Asgardian, I think - I've never used that one, an' you didn't really need it once we got back." She looked at him a little apologetically. "An' I've got somethin' for headaches, if you need it. A tea. It might help."

"Asgard." Manuel said flatly. "It's bad enough that I can't remember much of my past without you making stuff up." he said, anger in his words and over the link.

"You think I'd lie t' you? After everythin'?" Amanda retorted, anger and hurt flashing out for a moment before she reminded herself that Manuel probably had every right to be frustrated and confused. "How much do you remember about my powers?" she asked instead, modifying her accent a little so she was easier to understand. This was important. "About what it is I actually do?"

"Very little." Manuel said, throwing himself back down onto the bed violently. "I don't remember much at all." he confessed. "You float, and can manipulate objects at a distance, and you have a ... light, I think. Something like that." he said, face scrunched up as he tried to remember. He was ignoring the incoming migraine, which was making itself felt in No Uncertain Terms.

"I'm a witch," she told him steadily. "My mutant power lets me channel certain types of energy, and I use that to do magic. Spells. You used t' call it my eye of newt stuff." He might have been trying to ignore the migraine, but she couldn't - even with the link half-crippled, she could feel it. Coming over to perch a little awkwardly on the edge of the bed, she made to lay her hand on his forehead, her fingertips beginning to glow with the healing spell. "Magic's real - as fucked up as that sounds, it's true. An' I can use it t' help you, at least with the pain, if you let me."

Manuel mentally shrugged, and then nodded to Amanda. "Go ahead, then." he said. He trusted her, but he didn't know why. And he couldn't help a fresh wave of resentment over not knowing, even though it was unfair to her to feel that way. He watched with a horrified fascination as her glowing fingers touched him on the forehead.

She couldn't heal the damage Selene had done, she knew that. But she could take away the pain at least. Or so she hoped. There was a small jolt as she touched him, the link flaring up and treating her to the jumble of pain and anger and resentment and confusion, all that Manuel was thinking and feeling right then, and she bit her lip. It wasn't fair, none of this was. Shoving aside all that, she concentrated on the spell, hoping more than anything she didn't hurt him - that would be the last straw. Just the gentlest of touches, focussing on smoothing the waves of pain she could see through the spell...

Manuel visibly relaxed as he immediately started to feel better. "Ahhhh." he said unconsciously as the incipient migraine went away in a gentle wash of good feelings. "That feels much better." he admitted with a pleased smile on his face. "Thank you."

"Yer welcome," she said softly, taking her hand away. The spell had left barely a dent in the power she'd absorbed previously, she noticed with a small sense of satisfaction - being fully charged always felt so good. "I'll try an' be more patient," she went on, resisting the urge to run her fingers down his face like she used to. "'S not somethin' I'm good at, an' like I said, when I'm charged I tend to get a bit hyper."

Manuel nodded, accepting her explanation at face value. "I've been going through my room here, seeing if anything rang any bells. So far, not much. I remember the dumbest goddamned things." he whined. "It's not fair."

"No, 's not." The words came out bitterly, and Amanda had to take a breath and calm herself down before she went on. "I know it's hard, Manuel, but 's still only been a couple of weeks. You need time t' heal - 's part of why yer gettin' the headaches. What was done hurt yer mind, an' that's something all the magic in the world can't fix. Or at least, not mine." Forcing a smile, she changed tacks. "What do you remember? Without strainin' an' givin' yerself a headache? Maybe we can build on that."

"It's all stupid stuff. I can dance, but I don't remember any of it actively. Same with going swimming. I remembered Alex and Scott, but I can't remember where the Kitchen is without a map. I can play music, but I wasn't in the band and trying to play anything I know gives me headaches." he said with frustration. "I didn't remember what my stones do. I can't even use my computer because I don't remember the password."

"It's not stupid stuff, 's what's safe." It came out with Amanda meaning it to, and she mentally kicked herself. She had no idea what would be safe to tell him, and what effect the knowledge would have on him, but she had to give him something. Not knowing was just as damaging. "The memories you had taken... they were the emotionally important ones, everythin' you felt strongly about. What's left are the little things that didn't matter so much. Like Alex an' Scott - you didn't have much t' do with 'em before, so you remember 'em. Music was important, so it gives you trouble. I tried t' save what I could, but I didn't get there in time."

Manuel stared at Amanda in dawning horror. He didn't say a word; he just stared at her blankly.

"Shite," Amanda said under her breath. Too much, too bloody much... When was she going to learn to shut her big mouth? "Manuel? I know it's a lot t' take in, but it'll be all right, we'll get through this. I didn't fight so hard t' save you only t' lose you now..." Please don't leave me... She didn't even hesitate this time - it was pure instinct that made her take his cold hand in hers, holding onto it tightly. "I love you. You might not remember it, but I do. An' I know you can do this - yer stubborn, like me."

Manuel stared at Amanda, his mind awhirl. Finally, he snapped out of his fugue state with a shuddering start. "I'm sorry, what?" he said with a blank look.

"Nothin'. Just babblin'." She let go of his hand, but stayed sitting where she was. "Are you all right? I probably shouldn't have told you all that."

"I've been better. What were we just talking about?" he asked her with a cheery smile. "Would you like to go for a walk or something? I'm kind of hungry."

"But... you..." Realising he really didn't remember what she'd said and that this was either a good or a bad thing - she was going to have to talk to Nathan to figure out which - Amanda gave up. "Nothin' important. An' yeah, I'd like that. Plane food's never enough, an' I'm pretty sure Lorna's been bakin', if the smell of the kitchen is anythin' t' go by," she said with a bright, fake smile. "I could always give you the short tour of the grounds after - take you t' the stables, introduce you t' the horses, that sort of thing."

"That would be nice." he said with a smile. "I've got a map around here somewhere, if you could mark down where the stables are..." he said, digging through his disaster area of a room to find his precious map. "Ah, here it is." he said after a minute or two of frantic sorting. He held it out to her along with a pen.

Circling the stables carefully and printing the word underneath in her usual childish scrawl, she handed him the map back, looking around his overturned room with a slight smile. "An' when we get back, I could help you clear up in here a bit?" she suggested. "Before you get trapped in here forever?"

Manuel looked around his disaster of a room, and then smiled at Amanda. "I'd like that." he said shyly, trying and failing to not blush. "Did I like horses?" he asked her as they walked out of his room and down to the stables. "I think I did, but I'm not really sure."

Real enthusiasm returning to her expression, Amanda nodded as they headed down the stairs. "'S one of the few things we have in common, likin' horses. There was a fire up at a horse stud near here, an' a bunch of us went t' help - you were really good with 'em." Pausing to grab her coat from the communal closet by the door, and passing him his, she chuckled a little. "I work there durin' break sometimes - maybe you could come with me once I'm done with finals, visit the place? They have some really gorgeous animals there, all purebreds, not like our motley bunch here."

Manuel smiled and nodded. "Wait." he said, pausing for a second to lean against the door as new pain bloomed in his head. "There was something about a horse. Me, you, and a horse. I can't quite remember it clearly, but there was something I was going to do for you about a horse." He then winced and shook his head to clear it. "Doesn't matter, really. Lead on."

Outside it was cold and grey. A real contrast to the desert. "Brr," Amanda said, shivering a little, shoving her hands into her pockets. "Forgot how blah it gets here in winter."

Manuel raised his face to the cold winter air and breathed in deeply. "It is cold out here." he agreed. "But it feels good - my room gets really warm." Especially when he hadn't left it for two days save for meals and brief entertaining of strangers.

She couldn't help a laugh at that. So much had changed... "You might not think that by the time we get t' the stables an' you can't feel yer feet," she said with a grin. "Oh, I meant t' ask you... I dunno what you were plannin' t' do over Christmas an' all, but if you want, you could come back t' England with me. My... family'll put us up, no worries. An' Nate an' Moira asked if we wanted t' visit Muir Island again."

Manuel shrugged bitterly. "I don't know if I had any plans or not. Your plan is as good as any other. At least I remember what Christmas is." he grumbled. "But yes, I will go with you to England, if Xavier and Samson say it's OK too. I still get pretty bad headaches, and I'm working with both of them to try to get my head straightened out."

She nodded. "Fair enough. If they say it's all right." She feel silent as they walked across the grounds, wet leaves underfoot mixing with the mud. It was hard, knowing what to say, and she had to keep checking all those little gestures that had become normal for her with him; taking his hand as they walked, for instance. She hadn't known she was such a contact junkie until it had become an issue. At last she broke the silence. "Christmas ain't really my holiday, but I want some time with Pete away from the school an' all the dramas, an' it's been a while since I saw Rom. They ain't my blood family, but they're as good as." Better, her mind amended, as she remembered what Wanda had told her. Romany would have moved heaven and earth to find her, that she was sure of.

Manuel nodded. "I'm sorry if I snapped at you earlier." he said. "I'm not having an easy time of things, and I get frustrated and angry. It doesn't make any sense, and I must have done this to myself."

She looked up at him, startled and shocked. "What makes you say that?" she asked. "That you did this?"

Manuel shrugged. "Just a feeling." he said dismissively. "I just can't help thinking that I did this. This is something that I deserved, that I had earned. I'm talking to Samson about it." he admitted. "It's probably nothing."

No, she wasn't going to let him shrug this off, not this, it was too important. "Listen t' me," she said almost fiercely, stopping and grabbing his sleeve to make him stop too. "No-one deserves what that bitch did t' you. No-one. Yeah, there's some stuff in yer past that yer not gunna like, but nothin' that earned you gettin' yer mind wiped like that. We were stupid, bein' there in the first place, but that doesn't mean they had any right t' do that..." There was a sudden stirring of dead leaves around them, as if a wind had sprung up, even though the air around them was still. "I won't let you blame yerself, Manuel. Not for this."

Manuel looked at the hand grabbing him, and then at Amanda. "I'm the reason we were there." he said simply. "If I didn't take us both there, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now." he said coldly. "Let go of me."

"An' if I hadn't agreed t' go with you, you probably wouldn't have gone!" she retorted. She let go of him, stuffing both hands in her jacket pockets, shoulders hunching. "'S easy t' play the blame game, kobaro, but in the end, it doesn't change things. I've learned that much." She nodded at the building visible through the trees at the end of the path. "Stables're there. If you stick t' the path, you should be able t' get there an' back again all right. I... don't feel much like it right now. I'll see you later, yeah?" Lorna had been right about the worst moment of her life part. And it didn't get better.

Manuel watched her go, wishing he could take his words back, helpless in his crashing sense of disappointment in himself. She was the _one thing_ he knew unequivocably, and here he was pissing her off, lashing out at the person he should be holding closest to him.