who; Psycho Mantis & Cordelia Chase where; Mantis' previously-forbidden room. Forbidden because no one but Annie ever frequents it; no doubt in fear of having their brain turned to mush. when; Jan 09. Say just before midnight. summary; Naturally Mantis knows how Buffy's arrival hurts Cordelia. So for once, he's actually.. inviting someone in to see him. rating; Probably PG. status; In progress.
It had probably been Cordelia's intense pain that had prompted Mantis to be so sharp with the teenage girl---normally, after all, he didn't bother himself overmuch with liars (liars of a certain caliber, anyway; lying to oneself was all right, because people often didn't realise they were doing it). And then, of course, Angel had shown up, and his emotion had added to the already complicated mix. Cordelia, however, was still in the fore of his mind. Mantis himself had never known love, of course, but he'd felt enough heartbreak to understand what it looked and tasted like.
Cordelia's heart was breaking into brittle little pieces, and there wasn't a thing any of them could do about it. .. Least of all Cordelia herself.
So he'd done something he'd never done before. He'd.. asked her to see him. To take what little comfort she could from his abilities---he could soothe the ache, at least for a while. He didn't mind pain: pain was all he knew.
His room was spartan. Just the furniture that had come with it (it had all been pushed up against walls, leaving the floor empty in the center), and a few things that Annie had left there during previous visits. The laptop was open and humming on the desk, Mantis himself seated on a chair in dark track-pants, an oversized cable-knit sweater that kept falling off his shoulders, and his usual gas-mask. Though he was across the room from the computer, the keys were still clicking; he never actually needed to touch the thing. His abilities did everything quite without physical interaction.