I followed them down a couple streets, trying not to limp. They got me to wrap my arm in my sweater. It kept it from bleeding too much more. They called someone and even though it was rude and I was in pain I eavesdropped. It wasn’t something that took much concentration since even without using my hearing I could still faintly hear the other voice but just couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Hey are you home right now?” There was a pause before the other answered.

“…yeah, why? Ahe is home from daycare so if you wanted to-”

“No no- that’s, that’s not why I asked. I just kind of, bumped into this kid while I was running someone down and… his arm is pretty messed up.” Well that sounded like it was about to go somewhere interesting.

“Z! How bad is pretty messed up?! Why didn’t you bring him to the hospital?!” The voice on the other end jumped up a few octaves.

“Kona, I tried, he refused. I don’t know why but I couldn’t just let him go home like that. You’re the only person I thought of who could help. I messed up and now he’s hurt and I need to make it right.” I heard Kona sigh.

“Alright,” She said defeatedly. “bring the kid over, I’m about to put Ahe to bed so just be quiet about it.” I saw a faint smile pull at Z’s lips.

“I owe you one, thanks. I’ll be there in a minute.” There tone was softer as they said that but only slightly.

“Alright, see you soon then.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

When they hung up it fell silent again. They didn’t seem bothered by the silence though. I wanted to ask them about the other night. They seemed like a decent enough person so even though they were incredibly violent that time it felt like it must have been with a good reason. I couldn’t just bring that up though since they didn’t know it was me who was on that roof at that time. They seemed to have gotten the impression I was with those guys from before.

“So… why were you chasing that guy?” I ended up asking. They were walking a bit ahead of me but I could see there body frees for less than a second, but it was enough for me to notice.

“Just… a shitty dude, needed to get his ass beat.” That was incredibly vague but I guess that must be the point.

“Do you do that a lot?” I asked, wincing a bit felling my pants pull at my gashes in an uncomfortable way. They slow down there pace and look back at me.

“Is your leg hurt too?” I must have limped without realizing.

“A little maybe.” I can see it in there deadpanned expression that they’re not buying it.

“Why are you even pretending? What’s the point kid?” Well as fair as that question was, I usually don’t make too big of a deal when I get hurt like this because in a few days it will be completely healed anyway. I just shrugged, I didn’t really have an answer I could give them. I heard them sigh, probably at my non answer. “What are you doing out this time of night anyway? Alone too?” I paused, unsure of how much I should say.

“Fight with my dad… I guess you could call it.” I don’t know if you’d call it a fight but it wasn’t exactly just a normal conversation about the weather ether.

“Yeah, parent’s are tough.”

“Yeah.” It fell silent again. I wanted to ask them about the other night, and if they had abilities like I did. How I would even attempt to go about asking that without giving away that I was the person on the roof they saw that night though, I had no idea. The walk continued with the only thing breaking the silence being the sounds of our shoos clunking against the sidewalks.

After awhile we reached the apartment building Kona lived in. The building was about eight or so stories high and there were two light fixtures framing the front door. One of them was cracked and and the bulb wasn’t working. The other’s light flickered as moths and other bugs buzzed around it. The stucco that covered the entire building was cranked in places and chipped in others.

This area wasn’t as bad as where we were earlier but it was still edging close to gang territory. I don’t usually get involved with what the gangs are up to but doing what I do, that mugger or car thief I run into more than half the time is part of a gang. Just by proximities I end up learning where gang territory is. I haven’t really kept up with which group belongs to where though.

We stepped inside the building and the glass door covered in greasy hand prints shut behind us. There was an elevator but I wasn’t sure wether it was in service or not. They pressed the button though and even with there being no indication that it had worked, the doors did open eventually. They stepped in first and the elevator moved slightly with there weight. They didn’t seem phased by it though. I got in after them and the elevator moved again with my weight. There was barely enough space for the both of us, our shoulders were close enough I could feel there body heat. The elevator doors clunked shut and we were met with our wobbly reflection from the warped metal doors. They pressed the sixth floor and the elevator jerked before finally starting to go up.

“I don’t know what to call you.” I say, thinking I should probably learn there name outside of having heard it from Kona over the phone.

“Hm? Oh just call me Z. What about you?” I hesitated. Would it be a problem if I gave them my name? Probably not… I don’t think.

“Sai.” They nodded a bit and looked back ahead of them. The conversation fell silent again and all that could be heard was the creaking of the elevator as it made it’s way up. After what felt like longer than it should have the elevator jerked to a stop and the doors sputtered open. Z stepped out and I followed after them. We walked down the dimly lit hall, the floor being covered with an od shade of brown carpet. The cream wall paper was pealing in places and water stains doted the walls as we passed the first few apartment doors.

Z stoped as we neared the end of the hall and knocked lightly on one of the doors. Footsteps could be heard from the inside and the door was creaked open. A woman with long wavy black hair answered, her olive eyes, even in this lighting were bright enough to be seen. Her skin tone was close to mine but maybe a shade lighter, ether way though her skin was incredibly clear. I mostly lean towards guys but I’m not blind, she was really stunning. The fact that she was wearing a house coat and had faint bags under her eyes didn’t take away from that in the least. She looked at Z with a bit of a serious expression before looking toward me and smiling a bit apologetically.

“Come in, let’s have a look at that arm of yours.” She spoke in a whisper, but even her voice was beautiful.

“Thanks.” I said back, matching her voice level. We stepped inside and were brought over to the small living room that was also the kitchen. There was an old three seater couch upholstered with an odd pattern of faded flowers. It was covered with two mismatched towels though, which I assumed was specifically done so I didn’t just bleed all over her couch. In front of it was a small rectangular coffee table who’s corners were fitted with what I assume was those baby proofing things. On it there was an open first aid kit with it’s contents spread out in an organized way. Kona sat down on the couch and motioned for me to follow.

“Take a seat and let me have a look.” I sat down next to her, my body sinking into the couch more than expected. I could feel and hear the springs underneath me as I sat down. I slowly unwrapped my arm, at this point it having dried enough that I essentially had to rip up the parts that had scabbed into my sweater. I winced through gritted teeth as I pealed it away. The bleeding that had stoped started up again. I can’t imagine what this sweater would have looked like by now if it were white. “Jesus…” It was completely uncovered now and yeah, I’m not surprised that’s her reaction. It looked bad.

She picked up a bottle of disinfectant and soaked it into a gauze. She started by just cleaning around the gashes that started from my mid forearm all the way up to my shoulder. She looked up at Z who was just standing off to the side, watching her work. “You said you just bumped into this kid?” You could hear in her tone that she was asking because she didn’t believe that for a second.

“Yeah no really, I just turned a corner real fast and knocked him on his ass.” I was starting to feel a slight twist of gilt in my gut.

“Z, there’s no way that’s how this kid got these injuries. It looks like he was grazed by a car going a hundred miles an hour. Honestly I’m astonished that nothing looks broken.”

“Kona, I’m being honest, you can ask him your self.” She looked back at me after hearing Z’s words.

“You can tell me honestly if she isn’t telling it how it really is.” Well, at least I know Z’s pronouns. However now I was in a tough spot.

“No she’s not lying that’s all that really happened.” I couldn’t say anything else but now with having confirmed that’s all that happened, I was going to get questions.

“You must have been hurt already then right?” I couldn’t answer her right away and the silence hung in the room.

“Yeah…” I finally say, but if she was about to ask me how I was gain to have to come up with something.

“Wait so I didn’t hurt you?” Z asked in an irritated tone, though whispered it was bordering on not counting as whispering. Kona shot her an irritated look, her sharp eyes accompanied by a deepest frown. Z just cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest, falling silent again.

“What she means is, she’s glad she didn’t hurt you.” She spoke to me again in that soft tone. I felt odd, having people worry about me like this. I mean yeah my uncle and… why do my thought’s keep bringing me back to him right now when that’s the only thing I don’t want to be thinking about. I felt the disinfectant sting as Kona started to get to work on the actual wound. “You must have good genetics, I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone stop bleeding from a wound like this so quickly.” I hadn’t even noticed, it’s hard to keep track of all the things my body dose differently from others. Sometimes there’s small things that I think everyone experiences that I later realize are actually different.

“Yeah maybe.” I say, wincing every once in a while. My leg was still throbbing too. I should probably mention that at some point, but on the other hand it’s just going to heal on it’s own eventually anyway. I could see Z still looking slightly displeased standing off to the side. I found my self looking towards her as she stared off though the window that was at the other end of the room. I wanted to find out if she had any ability’s like I did. She was muscular from what I could see, I wondered if she was mistaken for a guy a lot. She looked back towards me and she caught me staring.

“What?” She asked, a frown still on her brow.

“You look strong.” She blinked at my words and her frown disappeared. She scratched the back of her neck a bit, shifting her weight on her feet slightly more to one side.

“Oh. Yeah, I work out a lot.” She didn’t sound as irritated now. It fell silent again, she wasn’t much of a conversationalist. Granted I guess I wasn’t exactly helping much with that ether. There was the sound of something thumping that suddenly came from down the small hall, followed by the sound of a door clicking open. Z and Kona’s attention turned at the same time.