Being superpowered didn't make every part of you better.
That was simple facts.Just ‘cause you got muscle like steel cables or legs that could get you three stories up in one jump, that don’t mean a damn thing for the rest of you.Unless you were Captain America, but man was just built like that apparently.But being built like he was built didn’t do one damn thing for Elvin’s ears, which made it even crazier that they were getting whipped by the snoring coming from across the room. Ripping a car door off its hinges was easy enough. Catching a nigga mid-swing just to hold him there while he figured out his whole life was about to change. All that? Always on the menu.But lying in the dark with Vince letting out a rattling snort with some THX-heavy bass behind it was something no amount of muscle solved.
Elvin stared up at the ceiling, jaw locked tight as the mattress sagged under him. Another wet gargle blasted across the gap between the beds as those eyes squeezed shut. “...nigga, c’mon…” He spoke the words into the mattress, doing his best not to actually wake the other kid. He really didn’t wanna do that, not for any real reason, just…Elvin sighed low.It was just how Vince was. Elvin knew if he woke the kid up ‘cause of the snores, he’d apologize six times before he got all small about it. Then Elvin'd have to sit there through a whole thing about how ‘it's not that deep, nobody's putting you on the couch, just go to sleep’. Whole conversation at midnight over some snoring. Not worth it.He rolled over onto his side, springs creaking as he jammed a pillow over his face. That didn’t do much, so he pressed down harder.
The pillow was old and thin as a slice of baloney, so all it really did was give the sound something to bounce off before it got to him anyway. He just lay like that, trying to fight off the snores as the clock on the milk-crate nightstand glared back red at him through the gap in his elbow.
11:11.
Make a wish. His eye twitched, a breath sliding out through his teeth. Wish this boy would shut up.
Or at least learn to breathe through his nose or… or somethin’.At least the snoring wasn’t something he had to deal with on the regular, only when the other kid was sick. Kid was cool. Kid was solid. Kid was also getting sick twice in one month which was crazy work for somebody who could set himself on fire for fun.
Granny said it was something about his immune system, from not eatin’ good or sleepin’ out in the cold too much. Which was probably why the old lady had taken Vince in so quick, and without any questions too.One look at the runaway little white boy with skinny ribs and Granny Halliday hadn’t even blinked at the ask, already pulling extra blankets out the hall closet while setting another plate on the dinner table. Two months in, there was still no talk about it apart from his cheeks getting pinched and being called ‘a good boy’ a little too much for his liking.
He could live with it, though.
Edna Halliday ran the block, she ran the house, and she ran Elvin, so when Vince got snotty, she’d make some of that nasty ginger tea with the lemon in it for El to bring it up to Vince so he could drink it down.Man said he loved the tea but, if you asked him, El was pretty sure the kid just loved being fussed over.
He didn’t even mind going to school either, which had El side-eyeing him like crazy. The last month he’d been all cool about middle school, because somehow Granny got Vince set up to go, runaway or not.
Elvin still didn't know how she pulled that. Didn't ask either. He didn’t care that much.
The snore came again, wetter this time, as Elvin sat up — "A'ight, bet." — pillow already forgotten about because it clearly wasn’t doing shit. He threw the thing off, face sweaty as he shoved himself up to the edge of the mattress. Headphones. Where the—He had headphones somewhere, the big over-ear ones, and if he could just find them he could put on some music to push the other sound out. SNRRRRKKK-GACK.
…this man. He fully swung his legs off the mattress, floor cold under his feet as the bed frame did that groan it always did now.
Wasn't the frame's fault at least.
Powers already made him bigger, and they also made him heavier than he looked, too.
He rubbed his eyes with the back of both hands, the smell of radiator heat on top of a whole jar of Vicks VapoRub as thick as Vince’s snoring. One step took him around the other mattress as he blinked out at the narrow room, half of it Vince's now/ He stared past the dresser was mostly his but partly Vince's as he looked for the big over-ear joints — expensive and soundproof — that he paid for with their first raid months ago.
Thick shoulders rolled as he scanned the whole of the room, the streetlamp outside usually throwing an orange slice of light right over where he kept his gear.Usually.
Not right now, though, not with something blocking the light.
Boots sat on the sill, elbows on the knees; the whole shape of a person posted up in a crouch on his fire escape like it was a stoop — one shape darker than the dark behind it.
"What the…"
"Shhh." A sneaker stepped over the sill, quiet as dust. A head ducked in through the gap in the window, streetlight catching on a thick length of chain wrapped tight around a waist. "You'll wake up Redneck."Elvin stood all the way up, whole body still as he stared at a dude he hadn’t laid eyes on in a month.
A whole-ass month.No call, no text-back, nothing; even after Granny had asked about him twice and Vince had asked at least three times as much as she had. El didn’t have an answer for either of them because the hell did he know?But now here he was on the fire escape at eleven at night doing the finger to the lips like they were in a movie. “Me?”
One finger pointed at his own chest. “Me? Nah, nah, hold on. I’m the one waking him up? You climbin’ up on my grandma’s building like a—”“Yo, keep it down.”
“Like a whole ass B&E…” Elvin bit the rest of the sentence down, swallowing the volume as he stared at the dumbass in front of him chilling on his window like a pigeon. "Nah, you don't shush me in my own damn house, B. The hell you doin' here at midnight?"
"It's not midnight."
"It's close to midnight."
"It's eleven."
"Eleven is close to midnight, y-" His teeth clicked shut, jaw locking tight the second he felt the bass drop back in his voice. "Don't do that. Don't do that dumbass shit to me. Ain’t no runaround on this.”“My bad, Big-E.”Yeah, it is. The frown sat heavy on his face, probably almost invisible in the dark. “What you doing out there? Come in the window like a normal person, matter of fact."
"I'm good out here."
"You good ou-" He took a step closer to the window only for Zain to lean back a little as he got nearer. "...you buggin'. Y’know that?”"I know."
“…A'ight, be good out there. You know how long it's been?"“I know that too, bruh.”“Nah, you don’t get it.” He smacked his lips, eyes locked dead on the shadow just outside his room. “‘Cause if you knew that for real, you’d be leading wit’ sum’ else.” One fist clenched tight at his side, thumb scratching at his nose as he sniffed. “A month, my nigga. You got my granny still makin’ food for you a couple ‘just in case’ on Saturdays and you ain’t show up once.”Zain was still quiet, eyes closing for a second. “...I know.”“You say that shit one more time, Imma knock your block off, bloody.”“...a’ight.”
“So what you doin’ here?”
"Came to tell you something."
Elvin waited.
Zain didn’t fill the silence.
That was… off.
Real off, cause the kid talked like he had somethin’ to prove. Half the time you couldn’t get him to stop talking over, under, and through you, finishing your sentence wrong on purpose just to piss you off even. "...A'ight, well? What?"
"I'mma be busy, E." Metal creaked slow in the night air as Zain shifted his weight. "Like, real busy. Might not see me for a minute."
Elvin scoffed straight out his nose, loud enough he had to glance back at Vince to make sure he didn’t wake up the sleeping beauty. "Oh. Word. So same as usual then."
"Nah."
"Nah? 'Cause from my spot, that’s the same shit y—" Both fists clenched tight now. “No damn difference on that shit, nigga. You already ain't been around. You already ain't been picking up yo’ fuckin’ phone. So how you gon' come tell me that you gon’ keep doin' what your ass was already doin'?"
"El."
"Nah, tell me, though. How that make sense to you? You just said the exact thing you already been doing. That's not news, B."
"El."
"Be real wit’ me, right now. Like we ain’t just eat hot dogs on a stoop a couple months ago…”
"El, I'm serious."
Elvin stopped, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. “"So say it different then.”
“Imma…” A hand went to the chain, one end wrapped tight around his fingers. “Imma be out here making some real mess.” The light coming up off the street caught the side of Zain's face and then didn't, depending on how he moved. "People gon’ get hurt. People gon’ get put on shirts, E. Ain’t nothin’ about money. This some war shit, man.”Elvin snorted before he could stop it, the sound a short bark. "...ai’ght, you buggin."“Nah, man, I need you and V to keep clear, and just… just…” A head of messy hair shook in the darkness. “Just stay out my way.”
"...Say that again."
"You heard me."
"Nah, say it again though." He straightened up to stand as tall as he could, another step bringing him closer to the open window and Zain’s face. "'Cause it sounded like you just told Big-E to sit somethin' out."‘...’s what I said, yeah.”“A’ight, you buggin’. Out your whole damn mind right now and you know that. Who picked up that car in Flatbush, muddy?” Another step forward had Zain inch just a little bit back. “Not V. Not you. That was all E. I’m the big nigga on the block. I could prolly give Captain America the work, B.”"I know."“Every time. Every single time, it's 'yo E, get this,' and I got it, 'cause that's what I do."“I know.”
"So then… what?"
"You could still get hurt."
Elvin couldn’t stop the laugh, arms shaking as his shirt pulled tight at his shoulders with each breath. “...hurt?” He shook his head slow. “B, I’m bulletproof.”“...not all the time.” Zain didn’t blink, the shot coming back as quick as E served it. “I mean…yeah, not all the time.” El frowned at having to admit that much, and tried to shrug it away. “But like most o—”
“And yo’ granny none.”
Elvin's arms came down. “...ay, what you talking ‘bout right now.”
It wasn’t a question but Zain had one for him anyway. "Vince ain’t either, is he?”
The radiator sputtered as Vince made a wet sound in his sleep heavy enough to match it as he rolled toward the wall. El went quiet and the room chose to get real loud all of a sudden in exchange.
"Yeah," Elvin didn’t need any super-eyes to see Zain’s lips twist in a smirk. His mouth moved, sure, but the rest of his face wasn’t doing much of nothing. "Shut the fuck up."
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
“Don’t come at me with that shit. Ghost for a month and you popping up to tell me about my granny?” The floorboard groaned under him, heart beating faster in his chest. "Don't play with me like that, son. Keep talking crazy and I'mma punt you straight over the water, son. You gon' land in Hoboken with your little chain and everything."
"If you're fast enough to catch me."
The boy grinned for real that time, tipping straight backward off the fire escape like he was falling into a pool.
"Yo—"
Elvin got his whole upper body out the window, shoulder banging the frame hard enough to rattle the glass, one hand grabbing the rail. Down in the alley there was nothing, just trash bags and the light off the bodega sign a block over, and then he caught it — a line of chain went up and out, the blue of that raggedy hoodie swinging wide over the alley, up and around the corner of the next building and…Gone.
Elvin stayed leaning out the window with the night air on his arms, looking at the corner where nothing was anymore.
Behind him Vince snored again.
"...he buggin'."