[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/SxoaK9n.png[/img][/center][hr][color=e7745b]“Hungry?”[/color]

Leech damn near jumped out of his shoes. Scrambling around in the dark, he blinked as his eyes struggled to take in the new light from that mutant bitch turning on the lantern in his home.

[color=19830a]“Fuck you! Get out of my house!”[/color] It had been two days and this bitch was back to darken his fucking day.

She gave a non-committal shrug, holding up a brown bag with grease marks showing through. [color=e7745b]“Guess I’ll have to enjoy my midnight snack alone.”[/color] She started to move past him, the scent of meat and oil catching his nose. His stomach cried out. He’d eaten, stumbling across one abandoned Happy Meal left on the bench, ice cold. His home wasn’t exactly freezing, but a bit of warm food made plenty of difference in comfort. [color=19830a]“Leave that.”[/color]

[color=e7745b]“Uh-uh,”[/color] she chided. Leech lunged a hand out to the bag but she carefully kept it away. [color=e7745b]“We talk or I walk.”[/color]

Moments later, Leech took a bite, meat and tomato juices drizzling through the edge of his lips and down his chin. He took a moment to let the warmth soothe him, his eyes closing as he savored the taste. He knew it wasn’t much of a good meal: the oil and fat and salt was a decadent pleasure, one he’d had plenty of times before. Every Friday night his family had gone out for food, and he always treasured those times, even if the recollection was inevitably followed by pain. But that was then and this was now. In his dingy room littered with rat shit and the constant underpinning smell of dirt, sweat, and mildew, to have that all overwritten for even just a moment was heaven.

Swallowing, he looked to see the woman watching him, smiling lightly. [color=19830a]“Fuck you.”[/color] She smiled and giggled into her food, which only pissed Leech off more. But he did have a question. [color=19830a]“Did you just fucking get here? How is this food still hot?”[/color]

Cheek full, she replied, [color=e7745b]“I can make fire with my brain.”[/color] She nodded to the edge of the room where a couple cockroaches had curled up, roasted to death. [color=e7745b]“I’ve been scaring off the rats too.”[/color]

[color=19830a]“Just fucking kill them.”[/color]

The lady got awkward. [color=e7745b]“I know they’re just pests but, like, it’s different with mammals. I remember when I first discovered that power and I was just lighting little fires and putting them out. I did it to a cat and the cry it let out still haunts me too this day.”[/color]

Leech’s jaw dropped. [color=19830a]“You lit a cat on fire?!”[/color]

[color=e7745b]“No! I mean it got a little singed, it was just a little spark! I put it out as it ran away, I’m sure it was fine!”[/color]

[color=19830a]“Literal sociopath.”[/color]

She huffed at his remark, burying her face in her food. After she swallowed, she admitted, [color=e7745b]“I know your story. It was an accident. It happened when I read your mind last week.”[/color] Leech felt his skin crawl. [color=e7745b]“I try to keep from going any deeper than surface thoughts. I can tune them out, or even quash them pretty heavily if I focus, but back then I was pretty desperate. I’m sorry.”[/color]

Leech felt his eye twitch. [color=19830a]“Be sorry then.”[/color]

[color=e7745b]“Have you ever thought about trying to find your parents?”[/color]

[color=19830a]“Nope.”[/color] He said firmly, hiding the lie behind a wall of disdain. [color=19830a][i]Of course I have you stupid bitch.[/i][/color] He’d imagined ideal senarios that wouldn’t come true, because if they’d been possible he’d have never been abandoned in the first place. He imagined the worst cases. He imagined finding them dead, killing them himself, finding that he had a new younger sibling, one who hadn’t been cursed with the X-gene like himself. He’d wondered if they did have another kid only to abandon it when it turned out to develop an inescapable mutation. If he had someone else like him, maybe he didn’t have to be alone. He looked up to the woman, the only human he’d really talked to in what felt like a lifetime and realized that’s exactly what she wanted, the mind reading cunt. [color=19830a]“You really think anything would change even if I found them?”[/color] He felt like spitting, but that’d waste the flavor.

[color=e7745b]“I think something has to change. I hate that this world is like this. I teach 4th grade and some of those kids are barely literate. Some of them are so terrified of going home and I can’t call Child Protective Services because without good evidence or timing I might only make it worse. The drug problem, the housing problem, the Key Bridge… God did you hear about Stark and Trask?”[/color] [color=19830a][i]Fucking who?[/i][/color] [color=e7745b]“War Machine? Sentinels? No?”[/color]

Leech sneered, [color=19830a]“Just put on your cape and go fix everything.”[/color] He put his attention on his fries, his desire for warm food outweighing the fullness of his stomach.

She let out a long sigh. [color=e7745b]“I can fix [i]some[/i] things. I was looking into shelters. If you don’t feel safe going to a youth homeless shelter, there’s an LGBTQ+ shelter that might be safe. I can talk with the owner on your behalf if you want.”[/color] Leech visible cringed. It was like worms were running down his spine. The woman glared at him. [color=e7745b]“Really? You’re in a position to be a bigot? It’s not like there are any mutant shelters around here. People prefer to act like they don’t exist.”[/color]

[color=19830a]“Yeah, I fucking know that dumbfuck.”[/color] She winced, running the back of her wrist on her forehead. [color=19830a]“This is the best I can get, right here.”[/color]

[color=e7745b]“Good enough to [b]shoot up a school over[/b]?”[/color]

Leech felt his insides roiling. For all the anger he could muster when he worked himself up, he did realize that in this moment he was able to relax. He hated to admit that. Crumpling up his paper and shiny wrapper with the last tidbits of his food, he sneered, [color=19830a]“Food’s gone, talk’s over: get out.”[/color]

She took the last bite of her burger, her fries still on hand. Swallowing, she said, [color=e7745b]“Just...can you please try? Just give it a shot? Even if it doesn’t go perfectly it’s better to try.”[/color]

[color=19830a]“Easy for you to say, Supercunt.”[/color]

She closed her eyes, before scooping up her food and heading out. Stopping in front of him, she calmed herself before saying, [color=e7745b]“My name’s Jean.”[/color] She left. Leech fumbled into a seated position, clicked off the lanturn, his anger not calming. In fact it only seemed to get worse as he ran through everything he’d said. Even his gross, flat, green nose could still smell, and the grime still remained, the food largely reminding him that there were other things in the wider world for his senses to enjoy than what he’d settled for here.[hr]Outside, Jean had floated a ways away, finding the rooftop of a closed shop, situating herself in a spot guarded from the wind before finishing off the rest of her meal. Brushing against her jacket pockets carrying a couple doses of naloxone, her mind raced with possibility as she considered the endless problems with a city as impoverished as Baltimore, so much well beyond what someone with a cape could solve. But she [i]could[/i] solve some. Despite talking up her goal to Scott, she was still waiting for the day she’d put on her costume and go into action. Sure, she was constantly busy with work and child rearing and domestic duties and trying to help ‘Leech’, but when was she going to make her debut? Was there just going to be a convenient fire or accident or supervillain attack for her to swoop in and help with? Was she just going to wait forever for the ‘best opportunity’ until her goal became a shameful, embarrassing memory she never acted upon? There was a lot to be afraid of. She’d never really been one for violence, and had no idea how she’d respond to a gun pointed at her. She’d never tested the limits of her powers. They only had so many savings, so if her exploits lost them one of both of their jobs they were going to be in a bad place. But her own words echoed back at her, rebounding in her head during her flight home.