Chapter 62: 62 April
Flip.
Flip.
Flip.
Shuffle.
And then it starts all over again.
One card turns over, showing that it can bo moved over another, starting a chain reaction that moves even more cards, flipping the ones underneath it, further allowing more cards to stack and more cards to flip.
The simplicity of the game is always enough to bring me calm.
To me, solitaire is like meditating.
It lets me relax, forget the world and simply enjoy some peace.
Then the door to my bedroom opens.
It's already the morning by the time she is getting up and it's a good thing Uppercrust doesn't need me for anything 'till the evening today.
I look up from my cards and give the girl a smile, one she doesn't return, too busy throwing her eyes around, observing the entire room and everything in it.
I'm happy to see that I was right. She 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 look funny dressed in clothes many sizes too big for her, but I make sure not to laugh as I don't want to give a bad first impression.
I also made sure not to leave anything cape related in here.
Not because I particularly care about hiding it. I just wanted to see how she'll react, or if she will notice anyway, since that would mean she's a Thinker.
"Yo~ you're finally awake!~ I half expected you to be in a coma or something.~ Want some coffee?" I offer without dropping my smile.
With my words, she finally actually looks at me, briefly glancing at the cards on the table before returning her eyes to mine.
"Who are you? Where am I?" She asks, ignoring my question.
"I am your father." I respond with a poor attempt at a deep voice.
The deadpan look she sends me shows that she clearly doesn't appreciate the reference.
Tch, kids these days.
"The name's Lusia," I say with a roll of my eyes, so far beyond caring about keeping my identity a secret, "and you're in the matrix."
Another deadpan stare but her lip twitches this time.
Heh, I'll get you eventually.
I don't bother elaborating on where we are though, since it really should be pretty obvious at this point. Unless she wants me to give the address or something, but I don't even know what it is so I couldn't do that anyway.
"So do you want that coffee?" I repeat and she nods her head, so I make my way to the kitchen, my guest plodding along after me.
The coffee is brewed in silence as she simply watches me work the familiar motions.
I spend the time observing her, making sure not to try and make it subtle, because if she's a Thinker then she will notice and be more likely to clam up if she thinks I'm trying to pry information out of her or something.
But if I simply openly observe her then she is more likely to see it as simple curiosity and be less defensive about it.
One thing that comes to mind is that she is most definitely a Thinker, or maybe a Tinker by the way her eyes are constantly flitting around the place.
I assume it's a Thinker thing, her power feeding her full of information everywhere she looks, but it could also be a Tinker power telling her how she can take everything around her apart and build a death star.
Damn, it would be so fucking cool if she could build a death star.
But I'm leaning more on her being a Thinker because I have also noticed her balance.
It's not really something I would pick up on without actively looking for it, but she hasn't so much as stumbled once despite the fact that she should be feeling at least some kind of hangover right now.
I finish preparing the coffee and I pour us both a mug and take a sip.
Honestly? It's not great. But my options are kind of limited to say the least.
At least I have human slushies now, but I can't really prepare that for two.
...unless I do?
I have to try 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 hard to avoid smirking at the thought of serving someone a human slushie.
God, that would be so fucking funny.
After a moment of casual silence the little Asian girl finally decides to speak up.
"So," she starts, "is this the part where you make me 'an offer I can't refuse'?"
Her body tenses minutely as she speaks, no doubt preparing for a fight or something.
Jeez, someone watches too many movies.
I don't bother hiding my smirk anymore as I respond.
"I was thinking something more along the lines of a name. I can't just keep calling you the little Asian girl in my head after all.~"
I can tell the way my response catches her slightly flat footed and my smirk only grows when she scowls at me, no doubt because of the nickname.
"Just call me April." She demands in that way that kids do when they think they're being intimidating.
It's cute really.
It's also obviously not her actual name, but eh, who cares really. It's just a name, we only need them to help communication. It doesn't really matter what the form of address is specifically, so long as we know who we're talking to.
"Now tell me what you want already." She growls and it takes genuine effort to stop myself from pinching her cheeks.
I'm glad this is as fun as I was hoping it would be, even if not for the reason I had in mind.
"What makes you think I want anything from you?~ I just saw you passed out in the street covered in filth and decided to balance out my karma a little by cleaning you up and getting you somewhere where some rando can't come along and doing unspeakable things to you in your sleep.~"
Her glare lessens slightly, most likely do to the simple truth in the statement, but it doesn't disappear completely, telling me that she isn't buying it.
"Besides, what could you possible even offer me? You were passed out in the middle of an alley, dressed in old and worn clothes and looking like you can't remember what a shower is and you're not even an adult so it's not like you could offer your body, so tell me. What could I possibly want from you?"
It's an interesting thing, that she both understands the truth of what I am saying, making her want to place some measure of trust in me, but she can also tell that I'm not quite being honest, making for quite the dichotomy.
Definitely a Thinker then.
"You're a cape." She suddenly states in leu of answering me and I blink at the random non-sequitur.
"Pardon?" I blurt out in mild confusion, wondering what gave it away, or if her Thinker power is simply good enough to notice anyway.
Unexpectedly, she seems to gain some confidence at my question and I can't help but notice the way her chest seems to puff out slightly as she opens her mouth.
"When you were making the coffee your hands were changing direction faster than a normal person would be able to, as if you can ignore the velocity you were moving with, meaning you either have some kind of Mover power or a Brute one. I'd go with Brute though because you didn't seem to have any problem holding a hot mug of coffee despite not having any callouses on your hands to protect you from the heat."
There is a certain smugness to her tone as she all but lectures me.
She does bring up a good point for if I ever want to go undercover though because I never even thought about the fact that fresh coffee is generally too hot to keep in your hands.
Now while I'm sure that I could have come up with some kind of witty or intellectual response, I get the feeling that she likes to be the smartest person in the room, so I decide to go with something else instead.
"Takes one to know one.~" I playfully rebut while sticking my tongue out at her.
She doesn't respond to my knowledge of her being a parahuman, most likely already figuring I know, and instead she simply reiterates her earlier question.
"What do you want." She asks, slightly less hostile this time.
I just shrug my shoulders, which is a completely honest reaction and decide to just treat her the same as mini James, by which I mean honesty is the best policy.
"Who knows?~ Maybe I wanted to find out what your power was~ maybe I wanted to see if you were interesting~ maybe I wanted another cape friend~ maybe I wanted to see if you'd try and kill me or something.~"
Her face is enough to tell me she isn't happy with my answer so I decide with a sigh to try again.
"Look April, there was no great reason nor do I really want anything from you. I'm just plagued by a horrible boredom that never seems to want to go away and I figured you might bring about something interesting. If anything, all I want from you is for you to just do whatever it is that 𝘺𝘰𝘶 want so that I can watch and be entertained."
Honesty is always the best way to get to the heart of the matter as quickly as possible, no round about pointless conversations or misunderstandings. Just straight to the point so that everyone understands the situation.
I don't know if her power can tell if I'm lying or not or if she simply thinks it can, but either way a lot of the suspicion in her eyes dies out with my words, though the caution remains, which is to be expected.
"So if I walk out that door, you won't stop me?" She says, gesturing to the front door and raising an eyebrow.
I give her another shrug.
"Eh. If you're just gonna leave then I'd rather take you out with a blindfold or something, cuz I don't own this place and it would be silly to piss them off by giving the location away, but yeah, you want to go then feel free, I've already had a night of fun that was ostensibly thanks to you, so I'd say we're square."
It helps that everything I'm saying is true, something that won't change until I know for certain whether or not she can tell lies with her power.
I really do consider us even. I got her cleaned up and in exchange she inadvertently caused a very steamy night between Clara and I.
That's a pretty fair trade in my books.
Of course, I never said anything about finding her again, but that's besides the point.
She goes back to her coffee and for a few moments we once again bask in silence.
She breaks the silence once she finishes her coffee.
"You got anything I can eat in here?" She asks and I smile as I am reminded of my earlier thought about slushies.
I reach under my counter and pull out a big ol' jar of jerky and open it, taking a slice out and biting half of it in one go before tilting the jar to her.
"Jerky?" I offer with hidden anticipation.
She takes a tentative bite and immediately makes a face, though given the lack of disgust, I doubt it's because of her discovering the source of the meat.
"No seasoning? It's bland. You got anything else?" She asks, clearly making herself comfortable.
Not that I mind, because she takes another bite even as she complains about it.
𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬
The sudden feeling of pain and pleasure is enough to distract me from laughing out loud and it only garners a brief glance from April before she goes back to the jerky.
"Nah, I don't really do variety with what I consume. Just plain jerky and coffee for me." I answer with the smile of someone who knows they are making bad life decisions but will continue o do so anyway.
She gives me a queer look as she swallows another bite.
"That can't be good for your health." She states, full deadpan.
"Eh, superpowers for the win right? I'm sure I'll be fine.~" I respond with good humour, waving away her concern.
"Speaking of," she ventures, "what is your power anyway?"
Suddenly, I get a fun idea and with a grin I open my mouth to answer.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Aaaaaand that's a wrap baby!!
Muahaha, cliffhanger-kun is here bitches!!
Also, Fuck that little bitch. She is so much fun in my head but it is so fuckign difficult to write Thinkers, or just preternaturally intelligent people in general. There is a reason for the saying about characters never being capable of being smarter than the author who wrote them, and I don't have any bullshit thinker powers so it's difficult to imagine how 'April' is seeing the world.
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