Red.

Finding a green toothpick after beating some petty criminals, begging for her to check out “more” as he put it, was not how Celeste saw her night ending. But the desperate tone of the other made her hesitate and the way his fingers willed the way of the drain pipe that held her a little too snug for her liking. Something he willed by himself, a power that bled from within— like her fire; fire that followed her will when she wanted. 

Their footsteps filled the silence, but she wasn’t going to break it. Apparently he had the same idea, and the walk continued. She busied herself with flames that licked her fingers, small sparks dancing her palms and she waved them around. She could feel green urban eyes following her movement, simply absorbing the action. 

They made their way towards an apartment complex, and as he jiggled with his keys he finally spoke, “my mom is out at her boyfriends, so no one’s home.” She let herself take in his hunched form, and the obvious green that stuck to his features. The door creaked as it slid open, and he made his way through, waiting at the edge while she let herself in. 

The darkness of the small apartment soon lit up with a slight shuffle and click of the lights, a small living room, connected with a kitchen that seemed too bland and empty to be lived in. Paper towels and a stack of paper plates sat in the corner, the comment of his mother coming back into mind. 

The living room was decorated with a couch that held a pillow and blanket, the remote seated on a small table. The TV lay blank, and the green boy shuffled some more before announcing he was going to get some things. She was left with her thoughts after that. 

The whole situation was truly bizarre, but none of her red flags/ alarms rang in her head. So she let herself sit on the couch, rooming the corner. She looked down at her shoes, dirty docs that held way too much dried dirt and moved to take them off. By the time she was truly melting into the couch, the green boy had finally emerged, holding folder upon folder with scattered paper. 

With a quick move he was shifting the remote to the tv stand, before laying out the different assortment of papers. 

“Okay.” He seemed to whisper it to himself, letting his fingers flatten some more papers before looking up, green meeting red. 

He finally stood, “I was stopping a mugging incident, and this guy,” he pointed to a mugshot of a man who held dark eyebags and a nasty bruise on his chin, “Wallace Peterson, he was snatching a purse from a lady walking home one night.” He cleared his throat at her unmoving stare. 

“When I cornered him and attempted to get the bag back, he started freaking out from my ability. And not the ‘woah powers!’ kind of way, but more ‘oh shit powers’.” Green boy added the ending statement with a huge frown, and Celeste began to notice how many freckles danced his skin while he explained, moving his hands slightly along with his story.

“He started yelling and accusing me of screwing over his sister, and basically blamed me for getting her into the mess.” He paused slightly, both his hands moving in a confused motion, pointing up. “side note: i do not know this man, or his apparent sister.” 

Celeste's mouth quivered slightly, and she just leaned more into the couch as Freckles pointed to another picture of a girl.

“This is his sister. Which I’ve never met, but she’s hospitalized and currently in a coma that has kept her under for about 5 months.” Her mouth shot down, and a feeling that she hated crept up in her stomach— the trickle of the big picture she was starting to see.

“She had gone through human experimentations that attempted to allow her telekinesis abilities. But her body couldn’t take it; after another session in using said powers her body shut down and hasn't responded.” His lungs filled as he let out a big exhale, and she swore she could hear the pipes all around the apartment creak with his breath. 

He didn’t stop though, simply continuing as he adjusted a folder before opening it, different word documents that listed different drugs that she had never seen met her eyes. 

“These are all the legal reports that they tried to hide, but still managed to make public due to the accusations made towards them. They deny that she consented and knew what she was signing up for.” Finally he made it to a picture of a man in the middle of the table, and Celeste moved up slightly to look at the well dressed man who was leaning over talking to a man laying on the street. The nice clothes and garments contrasted horribly against the other, and the feeling only grew bigger in her gut.

He let out a breath, looking up at her eyes again, the different kinds of green formed his face a wondrous way, like the different red on her own features.

“This man, going by Matt Damon, is one of the many people enlisting helpless victims into experiments that are killing them.” 

Celeste could only feel the warm breath that met her cloth around her mouth, and she smacked her lips, allowing the silence to let her observe the man in the slightly blurry picture. 

“The only reason I know all this is because Wallace spilled most of this while monologuing, but most of it is kept under wraps unless you directly look for it.” He spread out more papers, different documents that vaguely covered experimentation procedures— many black covering certain terms and names.

“I can’t do this alone and,” the look on his face was desperate, mirroring her own emotions, “I want to figure out more about this, for my own sake and the many people who get sucked into it.” 

She let out a hot breath, her hands unwrapping the scarf that hid her face, letting the cool air settle into her skin. 

“Alright.”

His green orbs danced all over her exposed face, as it went up in a small smile at her words, “So were you born with your powers?” 

As she pulled her hood down, rubbing against her shaved sides, she let heat emit on her cool skin while she nodded, “Yeah.”

Freckles swayed on his feet, and the silence only drew on, before he shot out his hand, right in front of her face. “I’m Jack, by the way, in case you were wondering.” She had in fact been content forever addressing him as the color that painted his palette or the freckles that covered more skin than anything but she supposes he was doing the same. So despite everything she had ever learned in her life; learned about anyone she had ever met she let her mouth answer. 

“Celeste.” she put her hand out to shake his, a slight chill from their connected hands, “since I know you were wondering.” 

He chuckled slightly, moving to adjust the huge assortment of papers once more. And before the silence could truly drag on any longer he looked up, the once impassive face morphed into a smirk and he spoke the next words into the quiet of the room. 

“Do you uh, wanna spar or something?” the pipes all around creaked from his excitement, “to practice?”

She was already moving up, the flames boiling in her blood, down to every nerve to the edge of her fingers. Her mouth must have mimicked his completely, “thought you’d never ask.”