The X-Project

Before things get really interesting in Manny's evening, he has a go at drowning, just a little one. It all works out. No, nothing juicy happens, silly people. Sheesh.


Manuel was working off the remnants of his craptastic day by swimming laps in the outdoor pool. The day was still gloriously warm, the sun was shining, and the weather and the exercise were just starting to have their desired effect of removing his black mood when his leg got a cramp. Cursing, he awkwarded headed for shallower water where he could massage out the cramp before continuing his laps.

Civility said that sweaty athletes should trot off to the showers after exercise. Paul hung his bike up and was really planning on heading to his room when the blue of the pool caught his eye. He pulled off his cycling shoes and loped over, tucking his sunglasses in one shoe, planning to dive in and cool off. As he approached the pool, he spotted a young man floundering toward the shallow end.

"Hey," he called, speeding up and abandoning his shoes on the patio. The swimmer wasn't quite in trouble but he didn't look like he was doing well, either. "You okay?" Wouldn't do to have a student drown while he was around, not in his first week, anyway.

Manuel looked up, and his breath caught for just a moment. The man running towards him was quite possibly one of the most beautiful men he'd ever seen. Gaping for just a second, he quickly pulled it back together. "Just a leg cramp." he said in thickly-accented English. "I'll be fine."

"Fair enough." Paul lengthened his stride and took off from the shallow end of the pool. He hit the water with a minimal splash half-way down the pool, hardly needing a push from his flight mutation to cover the distance. He surfaced, shivering with pleasure at the cool water on his hot skin, and turned to make sure the other swimmer was, as he'd said, doing fine.

Manuel was massaging out the cramp, and apparently making headway. "I do not know you." he said somewhat brusquely. "You are - the new instructor, yes?"

Paul swam to where he could stand and pushed his hair back, wringing out fistfuls of it as he did so. "Yes, that's right. Paul. Monsieur Beaubier, if you're being formal or trying to ingratiate yourself somehow." He didn't recognize the young Spanish man and frowned, trying to put the face to one of the dozens of student profiles he'd read.

Manuel, sitting on the bottom of the pool, somehow managed a somewhat elegant bow. "Manuel de la Rocha." he said with a charming smile. "At your service."

Ah, that was it. The nagging gap closed and Paul put the face to the name and the profile. "Nice to meet you, Manuel." Paul returned the bow quite gracefully, then grinned. He pushed himself up to sit on the edge of the pool and turned his face toward the still warm sun. "How's the leg?"

"Better, I think. Still not as recovered as I could be - this is why I'm out here swimming laps." he said with a small smile. "If I may ask, what is your power?"

That was probably one of his favourite things about this place so far, Paul thought, smiling, how easy that question seemed to be for the students to ask. "As far as we can tell, the main facet of my mutation seems to be energy manipulation, mostly showing up as flight and light," he explained. "There's the added bonus of extra speed, as well as other little odds and ends that aren't really important to anyone but me."

Manuel nodded. "An interesting mutation." he said politely. "I am an empath. I will not demonstrate, as I get in trouble for that sort of thing."

Paul frowned a little at that, but nodded. "I'll take your word for it." This didn't seem to be the kind of place where people got in trouble for much but there were always exceptions. Only now he was naggingly curious as to how Manuel would demonstrate this skill. /Probably by telling you you're curious,/ he told himself.

Manuel looked at Paul with an amused grin. "You don't have to broadcast quite that loudly. I can see it just fine on my own. You're wondering, probably about why I don't demonstrate. I'll tell you. Because there are people here who do not like my power, and wish for me to never use it."

Paul had the good grace to look sheepish and laughed at himself. "Sorry. I didn't know I was doing it." He digested what Manuel had to say and nodded. "There's those who feel that way about all our powers," he said, shrugging.

"Very true. But I have been ... unwise ... in the use of my power. I'm trying to stop doing that, but it is hard. I don't think a small demonstration will be looked at amiss." he said, then grinned suddenly. His eyes glowed red as he sent a feeling of goodwill and comfort into Paul's brain, just a mild one, for demonstration purposes. "That was a fraction of my power." he confided as the feeling and the eyeglow died.

The warm feeling was soothing and then it was gone, leaving a brief longing in its absence. It was unnerving, that someone could make him feel that way without exception, and Paul was silent a moment, processing the event. "That's a little threatening, yes, if you were throwing it around a bit," he said at last, his tone mild. "But a great deal of potential." The analytical side of Paul's mind sprang into gear, pointing out the ways in which someone like Manuel could be of use on a field mission.

"I am still working on shielding myself from others." he said, raising his right wrist to display a wet silver bracelet. "This makes sure that I only have access to a fraction of my power until I learn control. When I first arrived here from the asylum, I had no shields. It was a case of manipulate others or lose myself." he said carefully, waiting for the condemnation.

The condemnation didn't come, neither did pity. Paul nodded, knowing that what some people did to survive damaged others, it was inevitable. He'd done it himself. "We tell children not to touch the hand of a drowning person, because they'll be pulled in. It's a function of being alive."

Manuel smiled, a honest happy smile. "Well, I think we'll get along well. It is nice to see that _someone_ understands." He stretched out his now no-longer-cramped calf muscle and then looked at the deeper end of the pool. "I was going to finish up swimming my laps. Will this disturb you?"

"Not in the least." Paul gestured at himself, he was wearing a pair cycling shorts. "I'd only planned to jump in to cool off after my ride, I've already been swimming today." He paused and frowned a little. "It would probably be responsible of me to wait until you're finished swimming, after that cramp, wouldn't it?"

"I won't complain." he said with a leering grin, then dove under the water to swim back to the deep end of the pool. Manuel was lanky, too-lacking in muscle tone for it to be entirely healthy.

Paul laughed and shook his head, then laid back on the warm stone of the patio, arms behind his head. The sun was still strong enough to make being out a little longer worthwhile. He closed his eyes, listening to the wind in the trees and the sound of Manuel swimming laps, quite content.

Manuel finished up his laps, coming to a halt at the wall, gasping for air. As he tried to calm his body back down, he amused himself by looking at the other man in the pool. Not even the memories of the asylum and what had been done to him there could blunt his appreciation.

The silence alerted Paul to the fact that Manuel was either done swimming or at the bottom of the pool. He opened his eyes and looked to where he'd last heard water splashing, hoping sincerely for the former. "Done?" he asked, when he saw Manuel at the wall.

"For now, I think." he said with a grin. "It's good exercise. And I need it badly. But now I think I am hungry. Join me for a meal?" he asked with a cool amused smirk on his face.

"What did you have in mind?" Paul got up and stretched, feeling his back pop pleasantly. He really needed to find a chiropractor around here.

"I am not much of a cook, and you are our guest. I figured I would let you decide." he said smoothly.

"I"m a picky eater," Paul said, wandering over to retrieve his shoes. "One of those odd vegan folks. Doesn't mean the food's not good. I threw a few meals and such in the fridge and freezer in the main kitchen - I figured no one would touch it but me. Could go see what's there."

Manuel nodded - he was an omnivore himself, but hey, the guy was cute. It couldn't hurt. "Sounds like a plan. Let me go get cleaned up first - I'll meet you in the kitchen, since you seem to know where that is."

"It was the first place Pete showed me. I'll see you there, then." Scooping up his shoes, he waved and ambled toward the house.