A knock on the door of my shared room with Elle woke me up the following morning, and more knocks on said door followed as I sluggishly dragged myself out of my warm, comfy bed to make my way over. By the time my hand gripped the knob and twisted, the person on the other side had begun knocking in a continuous beat that failed to conform to any sort of recognizable pattern.
I yanked open the door and glared blearily at the vile scoundrel who had dared to wake me. Aisha answered in kind with a cheery smile and a mischievous glint in her eyes that clearly expressed exactly how much enjoyment she was getting out of this horrible, awful crime.
“It is—” I paused briefly when I realized I didn’t actually know what time it was then forged ahead anyway. “Too early to be awake.”
One of her eyebrows rose challengingly. “It’s quarter to two.”
“We got back at, like, five in the goddamn morning.” I tried to close the door, but she put her shoe in the way.
“You slept with Elle on the ride back.”
“I do not care,” I flatly informed her as I turned and started back towards my bed.
“It’s a beautiful day outside!” she declared, bringing a hand to her chest and raising her voice because she was apparently not letting me go back to bed without a fight. “Birds are singing! Flowers are blooming!”
“I. Do. Not. Care,” I hissed as I threw myself upon the bed. Several birds of varying colored plumages and sizes were now flitting around the room while a kaleidoscopic array of flowers began springing from the walls. I tossed Elle, the traitor, a mild glare. She was too preoccupied staring intently at a bird that had alighted on her finger to notice, so I did the sensible thing and covered my head with a pillow.
“On days like these, kids like us—”
I threw the pillow at her, which only earned me cackling laughter for my efforts, and now I no longer had a pillow to hide beneath. I didn’t really think that one through.
“Very well then!” she cried, her tone challenging. “Let the pillow war begin!”
“No, wai—” I tried to say before finding myself with a face full of pillow. As it turned out, I only had the one pillow, and Elle was still thoroughly enraptured by the bird twittering away at her from its perch upon her finger, so the ‘pillow war’ wasn’t a war so much as us throwing that single pillow back and forth for a minute or two. Eventually I gave it up as a bad job because I had been thoroughly woken up and wearily said, “Fine, fine, you win.”
“You doubted I would? Now c’mon, Faultline’s tired of waiting for your lazy ass to get out of bed. Team meeting or whatever.”
“Alright, shower later then, I guess. Get out so I can change.”
“Aw c’mon, you ain’t got nothing I haven’t seen!”
I paused midway through pointing to the door and blinked. “Oh. Right. I, um, guess that’s true now, isn’t it?” She gave me an amused look, and I rolled my eyes. “Well, shut the door then.”
She pushed the door closed while I carefully stepped around the large, circular flower bed that had sprung up in the middle of the floor. I had long since grown inoculated to something like Elle turning our room into a scene straight out of Snow White, but Aisha seemed to be watching the goings on with much more interest. I still hadn’t gotten any extra furniture, but I had it on my to-do list once Melanie paid me for the Providence job. As it was, I started to fish around in my suitcase for some fresh clothes before turning to say over my shoulder, “Hey, can you help Elle get changed? Seems like she’s having a bad day. Just get out some clothes for her and tell her to change one item at a time.”
“A’ight?” she replied, sounding vaguely confused, which I suppose made sense. Newter and I had given her a rough explanation of how Elle’s powers affected her mood and how present she was, but considering Aisha hadn’t met the team until the night before Providence, AKA yesterday, this was still obviously a new concept for her. I had been a little bit thrown too the first time Melanie needed to come in and help Elle with getting ready for the day. I had never had other siblings or really lived with anyone but Mom, but after watching Melanie do it a couple times, I had surprised myself by starting to help. I hadn’t told her at the time, but it had meant a lot to me that she didn’t question me like I had nefarious motives and wanted to peek or whatever. It was affirming.
I pulled off the grimy sports bra I had worn under my costume and fallen asleep in and breathed a bit of a sigh of relief. Jesus, I hadn’t realized how tight that was, I thought, eying the clean sports bra I had laid out with trepidation. Gonna have to use some of that money on a new wardrobe too, since Melanie will get pissed if I steal shit…
“Um, so… Shirt off? I guess?” Aisha said behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, and she was eying Elle with trepidation as she mechanically started to pull off her thin white shirt, which I recognized from dressing her yesterday morning. She would need a shower later too.
Aisha looked to me with unsure eyes, and I gave her a quick nod. “Yeah, that’s right. Melanie or I will help her shower later.” Just like it was possible to give Elle a shirt and tell her to change or to give her food and and tell her to eat, helping her shower was a simple matter of bringing her to the bathroom and asking her to clean up.
“Who the hell is ‘Melanie’?”
“Faultline, duh. What, did you think Newter or Gregor were secretly named Melanie?”
“Fair,” she said with a chuckle as I turned my attention back to the offending article of clothing on my bed and started to pull it over my head. After a half minute of trying to maneuver my body correctly and an awkward grunt or two, my efforts were rewarded with a mild tearing sound as I stretched the band just a hair too much, but it finally settled into place. I glared when Aisha snorted, but she ignored my dour expression and pointed out the obvious. “You need new clothes.”
“Mhm,” I hummed in agreement as I pulled on a long-sleeved t-shirt that now hugged my chest a bit too snuggly. “It seems having your body shape changed all at once means your clothes don’t really fit anymore. I’m sure you’re just as shocked as I am.”
“Definitely.” She turned her attention back to Elle, who was currently staring vaguely in the direction of the window, though her aim was a bit too low. “Okay, um, shirt on— wait, no, bra off?”
I scoffed playfully before standing and pushing Aisha towards my bed. “Newbie. Let a pro handle this.”
A few minutes later, I had successfully guided Elle through the process of changing into fresh clothes and had crammed myself into my now very ill-fitting jeans, and the three of us made our way down to the conference room. Melanie, Gregor, and Masuyo were having a quiet conversation at one end of the table, and Newter was engrossed with something on his phone, but they all glanced up when we came in.
“Finally,” Newter groused, his tail jabbing towards me in a pointing motion. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“Have a seat,” I told Elle as I gently steered her towards one of the free chairs near the door. Once she was in the process of sitting down, I took the seat next to her and gave Newter an innocent look. “Time to start the meeting?”
Aisha chuckled as she grabbed the seat on my other side, and Melanie cleared her throat. “Now that we’re all awake, we need to discuss what happened, where we are now, and what’s happening next. I’ll begin with the obvious: Yesterday did not go according to plan.”
“Tell me about it,” Newter said. “Got the job done though. Employer happy?”
“Fortuitously, he did not comment regarding the public nature of how difficult the job became and paid in full.”
“This is good,” Gregor commented, a hint of relief in his words.
“For sure,” Newter said, a sly expression on his face, “‘cause somebody clearly needs to go shopping.”
I scowled at him and resisted the urge to cross my arms, which would only make the obvious even more so. “Well aware. You can stop leering, you perv.”
“Hey now, there’s no need to be like that,” the orange boy snickered.
Melanie cleared her throat meaningfully at the end of the table, and all eyes moved back to her. “That does bring up another topic that needs addressing. The next time you’re in a situation where you’re cutting a deal with someone, you need to involve me.”
“What, you wanted me to say no?” I demanded, bristling. “Fuck no!”
“Nothing like that, June,” she assured, her expression softening somewhat but still chiding. “I never would have stood between you and that, but as you saw yesterday with Piggot in the garage, there is an art to negotiation, and I’m certain you can agree I have more experience in it than you. I simply do not want you to get yourself stuck with the raw end of the stick next time.”
I wilted a bit at that. Dammit, you know she’s been nothing but supportive, I rebuked myself. Fucking chillax. With her sitting right next to Melanie, it did not escape my notice that Masuyo was watching my reaction intently. I didn’t know what to make of it though, and I had bigger fish to fry, so I ignored her for now. “Right,” I apologized. “Sorry, I just… Well, you know it’s important to me.”
“I know. Just try to remember next time you can always ask me for help.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best,” I said, nodding. I had only known her for a few weeks, but Melanie had proved herself to be firm but fair. She hadn’t sugarcoated the costs of my costume, but just as she had promised after our first team meeting, she had ‘discounted’ it wherever she could. Likewise, she had let me know two days before Providence that she had started making arrangements for getting me medical insurance and was just waiting on my false ID, which would require money from my cut from the job. And that wasn’t even counting the little things like the affirmation of letting me help with Elle and the professional respect she showed me during training.
She held my gaze for a moment then nodded in return. “As it stands, it sounds like the deal wasn’t as bad as it could be.” Her eyes shifted next to me. “Aisha, you’re certain nothing went wrong when you were… healing Panacea?”
“Yeah,” Aisha flippantly responded. “All I had to do was push it away from Glory Hole.”
Melanie’s eyes narrowed at that. For a second I thought she was going to scold Aisha for the joke name, but then she asked, “Pushed it away? You mean you redirected the desires? You didn’t eliminate them?”
I turned to look at Aisha more directly and paled a bit when that line of questioning gave her pause. “Um,” she replied, suddenly hesitant. “I mean, I didn’t want to fuck around in her head that much, you know? I just figured… I mean, I didn’t push it off to her family or nuthin’! Look, hang on a sec.”
Shadows engulfed her, and a moment later she was in Amy Dallon’s skin once more. “I had been wanting to save this charge of her just in case we needed healing or whatnot, but you want an explanation? Okay, this is complicated medical shit, but I’ll try to keep it basic: Our brain is made up of neurons, and when we encounter stimuli, they fire in certain ways. With similar stimuli you get similar but different neuron chains because it’s not the original stimulus, it’s something similar. That’s important because Amy’s power can tell me ‘oh, that brain activity there means she has the hots for the person represented by this particular neuron chain,’ but it doesn’t tell me it’s her sister she’s wanting to bang. That’s where the neuron chain similarities matter: I couldn’t tell who in particular a given chain was, but I could tell who was a family member and therefore not someone she should suddenly want to get hot ‘n’ frisky with. Likewise, I could extrapolate who was likely to be a friend because there were certain similarities between those chains and family chains.
“So, with all that said: Since I didn’t want to change anything more than necessary and I could isolate who was family and friends, I just picked the neuron chain for someone else. At worst, she’s pining after someone who’s, like, an acquaintance. Eliminate the incest shit, avoid possibly messing up friendships with sudden love eyes, and presto, she’s all better. Satisfied?”
Well, that was crazy and cool, I thought to myself as I stared at Aisha. She had told us in our hasty power explanations the day before yesterday that she inherited skills and basic knowledge when she became a doppelgänger, but it was something else to see her suddenly throwing around explanations of how the brain functions.
Melanie had steepled her fingers and listened carefully to Aisha’s power fueled explanation, and once my friend was done, asked, “And would you say that Panacea could view, for example, yourself, June, and Masuyo as acquaintances, Aisha?”
Aisha raised her finger in objection before pausing and frowning. “Um… I plead the fifth?”
“I don’t disagree Aisha could have been more careful about that,” Masuyo said, speaking up, “but it’s worth pointing out that Panacea helps at several hospitals in the area and goes to high school still. The pool of ‘acquaintances’ has got to be tremendous. If even three hundred people fall into that category, then statistically speaking, there’s only a one percent chance it’s one of the three of us.” She turned to me and added offhandedly, “Oh, and I think I’ve figured out Shade’s name, June.”
That startled a laugh out of me in spite of the serious discussion. “I guess so. I thought you were studying to be a nurse?”
“I am?” she answered, sounding confused. “You do realize you don’t only take nursing classes if you’re getting a nursing degree, right?”
“Of course I did,” I lied. “Just ain’t ever heard a nurse thrown down math like that.”
Melanie cleared her throat again. “Regardless, the fact remains that all three of you should remain cautious and alert the team if Panacea reaches out to you and acts unnaturally. The rest of us should all be in the clear, unless one of you has met Panacea outside of my knowledge?” She looked to Gregor and Newter, and they both shook their heads, affirming they hadn’t encountered her.
“Moving on then. Although we successfully completed the job, we antagonized the PRT in doing so. For Aisha’s sake, I’ll remind everyone that as mercenaries, we need to strike a balance of neutrality. In this case, that means we should leave town as soon as feasibly possible and stay distant for some time. While away, I will put out feelers to the PRT of a different city about taking a job at a discounted rate to reestablish some goodwill. Between that and time away from Brockton Bay, we should be able to smooth over any bumps. Thankfully, several people in the ER took videos of the confrontation, and although Newter and I came at Miss Militia from behind, the three officers who came at us from behind discharged their weapons in a hospital and towards civilians. Enough people reposted the videos that the PRT hasn’t been able to take them all down, so public opinion about what happened seems to be fairly mixed. Muddied waters makes reestablishing a balance easier.”
“Yo, I gotta interrupt,” Aisha abruptly announced. “I got a decent charge off of Panacea from watching her do her shit with Junebug, but it ain’t gonna last forever, so if any of you need healing or want a third eye or something, then speak up.”
“I got a bit scuffed up, but touching me is a one-way ticket to tripping balls,” Newter answered before turning to Gregor. “How about you, big guy?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I do have a few minor injuries,” Gregor admitted, “but you should attend to Melanie first.”
A look of fond exasperation crossed Melanie’s expression, giving me the impression he had a habit of putting others first. It certainly lined up with my own experiences with him these past few weeks. “I will spare you the argument, Gregor. Fortunately, my injuries are also quite minor. Aisha, if you would.”
In short order, Aisha fixed them both up and moved over to Masuyo, who shook her head. “No need,” she denied. “Panacea fixed me up when she took care of my arm last night.”
My eyes narrowed at that reminder. I’d almost forgotten she injured herself. Gotta look into that.
Elle had not physically engaged anyone in person yesterday and therefore did not need healing either, so Aisha shifted back into herself, and Melanie resumed talking. “Regarding where we will be going… I’m still working out exactly where we will go, but the most likely candidate thus far is Philadelphia.”
“Is there a particular reason for Philadelphia?” Gregor asked.
Melanie nodded. “I can’t say anything conclusively yet, but a source I’ve got working on Gregor and Newter’s case may have stumbled onto a lead there.”
That made Gregor and Newter both perk up noticeably, the latter excitedly saying, “You mean…?”
Melanie held up her hands in a ‘slow down’ gesture. “Like I said it’s nothing conclusive yet. I’m waiting on confirmation from her now, which is fine, since we have an appointment with the PRT in two days.”
I grinned. “Delicious burgers! Looking forward to it!”
Aisha, who had retaken her seat next to me, shoulder bumped me with a grin. “Lunch though, right? I thought somebody was on a crazy diet?”
“Not for now!” I retorted with a grin. “I’m under Doctor Panacea’s orders to eat a lot for the next few days to make up for all the biomass she had to use. I get to cheat, cheat, cheat!”
Melanie cleared her throat again, and I sheepishly returned my attention to her. “This will hardly be a casual lunch, June. As I just mentioned, tensions with the PRT are high right now, so we need to tread carefully in returning Dauntless’ boots. Despite the PRT’s assurances that it will only be Armsmaster and Gallant attending, I would be shocked if they didn’t have as many capes as they could muster standing by just in case.” She turned her gaze to each of us in turn. “We’ll need to plan accordingly and treat the situation with the same professionalism we would a mission. Is that clear?”
We all answered in the affirmative spare Elle, who was in no state for speaking.
“Okay. Then let’s go over what we know about Fugly Bob’s…”
----------------------------------------
“I’ll be back in a little while,” Masuyo said to Melanie as the meeting wrapped up, catching my attention.
“Stand up, Elle,” I quietly murmured, trying to discreetly listen in.
“I’ve just got to grab some things and talk to my… my good friend that I mentioned.”
I took Elle by the hand and led her towards the room’s exit at a pace I hoped wasn’t unreasonably slow.
Melanie nodded, giving Masuyo a look I couldn’t quite decipher using my peripheral vision. “I’m trusting you to impart the importance of discretion to her. We’ll see you back before tonight?”
“You will,” Masuyo affirmed as Elle and I slipped out.
My eyes narrowed as I carefully led my friend back towards our room. Masuyo was going to be sticking around? And Melanie was okay with it? What was going on? I had expected Masuyo would be leaving, but on reconsideration, I couldn’t really pinpoint why I had thought that. Nothing about Masuyo made sense to me when I really stopped and tried to understand her.
I needed to fix that.
I smoothly diverted to moving towards Gregor and Newter’s room instead and knocked on the shut door. Gregor opened the door a minute later and glanced down at us in surprise. “Juniper? Is everything alright?”
“Yeah. I just, I dunno, felt restless and wanted to go fly. Would you mind keeping an eye on Elle?”
“I will do this, but you are aware she does not require constant supervision, no?” he asked.
“W-Well, yeah?” I said, but in truth, no—no, I had not known that. But if nobody had said, ‘Please take care of Elle,’ then why had I…? “Of course I did! I was just, um, wanting to be thorough is all.”
His expression shifted, and I had gotten good enough at reading him to recognize the gentleness obscured by his translucent skin. I hastily turned to Elle to hide my flush and said, “Okay, Elle, would you mind staying with Gregor for now? I’mma head out for a bit.” She lightly squeezed my hand where I was still gripping hers, and I smiled in spite of myself. Perhaps today wasn’t so bad after all.
“And Juniper,” Gregor said, drawing my attention back to him. “Please remember to stay calm. Do not cut ties frivolously.”
It took conscious effort to keep the surprise off of my face. “I dunno what you’re talking about,” I muttered, averting my eyes from his knowing look. “Just goin’ out to fly…”
I all but fled back to our room and debated for a moment whether to pull on one of my backup costumes. Melanie had insisted on acquiring more than one, which was good, since the one I used in Providence was… not exactly in the best shape. No, not the whole costume, I decided as I grabbed my scarf. That would be far too flashy in the middle of the day, but bringing my mask along when I planned to fly was essential.
I tugged the mask on and pushed the window open as I summoned orbs from my backpack, which was still loaded up from yesterday. The orbs wrapped around me as much as I could without tempting bad feelings out, then I took off out the opening, hoping I wasn’t too late to follow Masuyo. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen by the time I was in the sky over Palanquin. Also unfortunately, my hair was getting everywhere. I needed to get hair ties or something for next time, but for now, I had to focus.
Did she already leave? Has she not left yet?
I had almost talked myself into flying off to her apartment when she finally slipped out of Palanquin. I grinned and kept pace overhead as she made her way to a vehicle in the lot out back, and then… Well, I didn’t do nothing, but as it turns out, stalking a car traveling at the speed limit through the Monday afternoon traffic in Brockton Bay was less than thrilling. Surprise! I had brought my phone, but I resisted the urge to lose myself in it, just in case she took a weird turn and I lost her. Eventually she did in fact make her way back to her apartment building, which presented me with a new obstacle: Finding which windows were the ones for her apartment. I knew there was one in the living room, and I imagined there was one in the bedroom. There were codes about that or something, right?
I flew up to the right floor and tapped my finger on my chin as I mentally walked myself through the building. Okay, the elevator is right inside the lobby, so I go up to here then that wa— no wait, right, if I’m entering the elevator from this angle, then I’m coming back this way. So that means…
I quickly flew over towards the area where the living room window should be and planted myself against the exterior of the building. It wouldn’t do for someone to look out the window and see me, after all. I peaked up and over the ledge. Whoops, this is that old lady’s place, I thought as I groaned and hastily pulled back before scooching over to the right window. I frowned when I saw there was a Middle Eastern woman I didn’t recognize sitting on the couch staring at her phone. Masuyo had mentioned meeting a friend earlier… So was this that friend? Were they… Apartment sitting, I think the term was? Or did I fuck up and get the wrong apartment again? I mean, I think that kitchen is laid out the same way? Kinda don’t recall now…
Thankfully Masuyo removed any doubt when the front door opened revealing her in the doorway. I ducked out of the way when Masuyo glanced towards the living room, and though my heart raced at the idea that she had seen me, objectively I knew she was just looking towards the woman in the apartment. Once my heart rate had settled down a bit, I realized my plan had a problem, which was par for the course, if I was being honest. Well, outside of fights. I seemed to be doing okay there so far.
Anyway, back to my original point. I really hadn’t thought this through. I didn’t have any good way to listen in on them with the window being closed, and the window, like most modern windows, had a frame that wasn’t made of metal. Did I dare to risk trying to open it? Surely her friend would remember she hadn’t opened it. It was October—why would she have opened the window?
Distracted as I was, I didn’t notice the latches on the window being undone until just before the frame was slid open. My head snapped to the window with wide eyes, and Masuyo gave me a vaguely amused look from where she was leaning on the windowsill. “You could just come in the normal way. Pretty sure you still have the key I made you.”
I floundered for what to say. “This… this is…”
“Exactly what it looks like?” she helpfully supplied with a wry smile. She pulled herself up from the sill and tapped on it imploringly. “C’mon inside. You haven’t even got a jacket on. You must be freezing.”
I grumbled. It was true, but that didn’t mean I needed her to rub it in. I didn’t know what she was playing at, since she clearly had someone else in the apartment, but I was willing to tentatively give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment. She had played a huge part in getting my arm fixed, so I could at least give her that much. I carefully maneuvered myself in through the window and set myself down on the floor before letting my orbs puddle to the ground. I glanced at the person I hadn’t recognized, and she stared right back.
“So this is Sabah,” Masuyo said as she waved towards the other person. “She… Well, she was there when I, um, found out what happened to you in Providence. So she… she knows. I’m sorry.”
My eyes narrowed at that, but I did my best to channel Gregor and calm down. It was tough, what with wanting to punch her for giving up my identity. I turned to Sabah, who took an unconscious step back. “Say nothing to anyone. Got it?”
“It’s my fault,” Masuyo interrupted. “If you’re going to be angry at someone, then blame me—not her. I was… in shock, I guess, when I figured it out and asked her for advice without really thinking it through. That doesn’t excuse it, but it’s what happened. It won’t happen again.”
What would Gregor do? What would Gregor do? I chanted internally, trying to will myself to be calm. It took me a minute, but blessedly neither of them said anything, apparently content to let me work through the revelation. Finally, I huffed and pulled down my scarf. “You burned your arm or whatever, so we’re even now, got it? You don’t have any other secrets you need to tell me or anything, right?”
Her eyes slid closed, and a look of resignation crossed her face. “Um… Two things? I… know who your father is. Was.”
Whatever I had been expecting her to say, that wasn’t it. He was dead? Why did she know? Was she my cousin on his side or something? But no, that didn’t make sense. Masuyo looked like… like Mom. “Don’t… don’t tell me.”
“Don’t?” she said, clearly taken aback.
“I don’t care who he was,” I firmly stated. “Until you came along, I only ever had Mom, and she was… I don’t want to talk about that either, really, but my point is I don’t care about ‘family.’” Her expression fell immediately, and I winced. I was screwing this up all over again. “Blood family, I mean. Goddammit, that’s not… Look, I’ve heard people say shit like ‘chosen family’ before or whatever, and I dunno if that… fits or not, but it’s true I only care about certain people. People worth caring about. I don’t give a flying fuck about who gave birth to me… Siblings, grandparents, none of that shit.” I paused a moment, the deluge of words having just burst out all at once, like a dam in me had broken or something. “Does… does that make sense?”
Sabah tittered, and both of us shot her looks. “Sorry, sorry. This is just… She’s exactly like I expected from your descriptions, Masuyo. It’s uncanny.”
A small smile crept onto Masuyo’s face as she watched Sabah fight to contain the urge to laugh. “Yes, well, I’m glad I was able to sufficiently prepare you for Hurricane June.”
I rolled my eyes. “Uh huh. Anyway, what was the second thing?”
The smile faded. “It’s… related to the first thing, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
I shrugged. That was fair. Now though… Awkwardly, I replied, “You totally ruined my attempt to spy on you, so I don’t really know where to go from here.”
Masuyo shrugged as well. “I’m guessing you were wanting to figure something out. No other reason to spy, right? You can just ask.”
I stared at her for a moment before deciding, Fuck it, why not? This was probably the longest we had ever spoken without her driving me to snap at her. What was the saying? Let it ride? “You let Shade use Gregor’s acid on your arm at Bayside. Why?”
Sabah turned to Masuyo with wide, startled eyes, but Masuyo held up her hands. “I’m okay! I’m okay,” she assured the dusky-skinned girl.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” she replied, sounding barely reassured, “but why would you knowingly pour acid on your arm?”
“Yeah, Masuyo,” I chimed in. “Why?”
“It’s hardly fair being double-teamed like this, you know,” my cousin joked. When neither of us relented in staring her down, an awkward laugh escaped her that bled into a sigh at the end. “Tough crowd… Sabah, I can’t give all the details here, since not all of it is public knowledge. Faultline would have my head.”
Somehow Sabah tensed up even more than she already was. “So you’re… joining them?”
“That… depends on June,” she admitted, shocking me. Faultline was letting her join? But why? Masuyo had no powers, so what was there to gain?
“Don’t look so shocked,” Masuyo added with a weak grin. “Plenty of non-powered people work for Faultline. But actually, I wouldn’t be working for Faultline.”
“Huh? But then…?”
“I’d be working for Gregor. As I’m sure you can guess, people stare at him at best when he goes out, so he usually pays someone to go out and get whatever he needs.”
“Drugs? Weapons?” Sabah whispered, her eyes wide. “Women?”
“God no!” Masuyo hurried to reassure her. “Nothing like that! From what I could tell, he doesn’t even seem like the kind of guy who’s into any of that. No, I mean things like food and drink, toiletries, new clothes, and the like.”
“Daniel fucked up a second time, I take it?” I spoke up. Gregor had explained his system the first time I saw Daniel. Gregor would pay people to be his go-fer up until the first time they were unavailable for an errand for whatever reason. If the reason wasn’t good, then he dropped them and got someone else. Same if it was their second strike. I had offered to just get whatever he needed for him, and he thanked me but declined politely, saying he preferred to not ask favors of his friends. Daniel had already been on his first strike when I met him, though Gregor had never explained what the guy had done.
“So he said,” Masuyo affirmed before proceeding to briefly explain to Sabah how being Gregor’s go-fer worked, leaving me to ponder the implications. I already knew Gregor had advised against severing ties with Masuyo, even after that disastrous move-out, so it was obvious why he’d chosen Masuyo to be a go-fer. But there were parts that still didn’t make sense to me.
“What about your school?” I abruptly asked. “And work at the hospital? Friends and all that? For that matter, we’re getting ready to go to Philly, surely you’re not coming with?”
Masuyo seemed to have finished her quick explanation to Sabah and easily answered, “It’s early enough in the semester to back out for family reasons and get back my tuition. The hospital was a strictly volunteer thing, so it’s easy enough to say I can’t attend for the same reasons. And as for Philadelphia, you’re not getting rid of me that easily!”
No. No, this didn’t make sense. Nobody just cared about somebody because they were related. Mom actually popped me out of her, and she certainly never gave a fuck, so why…? “Why?” I demanded. Some of the pain slipped into the words, but I wanted—no, needed—to put this to rest. To figure it out. Everything else in my life made sense. Aisha, Melanie, Elle, Gregor, Newter… I understood why they cared about me. I was useful, I was helpful… That made sense. Masuyo though?
It makes no sense.
Masuyo and Sabah shared a look of confusion for a moment before Masuyo asked, “Why what?”
I felt tears pricking at my eyes and hastily turned around, hoping they hadn’t seen. Fuck this. I’m going home. I took a step towards the window, answering the urge to flee.
“June?” she gently asked, and there was something in the way she said my name that made me stop. I couldn’t take a step further. My feet had become lead, and not the kind I could move with my power. “What’s wrong?”
“Why do you care about me?” I asked, entirely unable to help how broken the words came out. “I don’t get it.”
“June, you’re family—”
“No!” I bellowed, spinning around with wild eyes. “I told you, that means nothing! People always say that like it’s the answer to everything, but it’s fucking nothing! Family—” I spat the word out “—is just another way of saying ‘burden’! That’s all I ever was to Mom, and that’s probably why Dad fucked off to who knows where—so he didn’t have t-to t-take care of me.” Goddammit, I couldn’t stop the tears anymore, but the words were just tumbling out, like water through a sieve. I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to. “And you, you’re acting like you’re different, but it’s a lie, it always is! The moment I got here, you tried for days to convince me I’m someone I’m not, someone more convenient in a city of Nazis!
“So just… just stop it. Stop pretending to care. You don’t have to, and I don’t want you to. I c-can take care of myself!”
“Juniper,” Masuyo breathed out as she took a halting step forward, her arms rising halfway like she wanted to hug me but was afraid I would bolt if she tried. “I’m not y-your mother. I do care. I’ve always cared, and I’m so sorry I made you feel that way.”
“Stop it,” I begged, rubbing at my eyes. The tears wouldn’t stop. Why wouldn’t they fucking stop? “Stop lying…”
“I was a foster kid,” she blurted out. The non-sequitur shocked me, and I found myself looking up at her through blurry eyes. “My birth mother, she gave me up. I never found out why, and I can’t ask because she’s d-dead. I was adopted by a couple here in the city, and after a few years they started to fight. I was maybe five or six at the time, but I can still remember them divorcing and fighting back and forth in court. Both of them became so bitter and treated me so badly… I… I had to move in with Dad after Mom got killed in a drive-by while hanging out with her boyfriend. And Dad, he… he, um…” Masuyo shuddered, and Sabah reached out tentatively and took her hand. That seemed to ground her enough to continue, but she still had a haunted look in her eyes. “I got passed around from family to family, and I always… It never stuck. I think my longest stay with anyone after that was maybe six months?”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, completely lost.
“Because family should care!” The torment in her eyes vanished, burning to ash in the wake of a passion I hadn’t seen from her before. Tears were pouring from her eyes now too, and just like the last time I was here, their resemblance to my own lanced through me, cutting down to my core. “Because all those years, every time I stayed with someone, all I had ever wanted was for someone to care about me! To give a damn when I had a bad day, to hug me when I cried, t-to love me a-again…”
Masuyo sobbed and broke off, too choked up to continue, and Sabah let go of her hand and enveloped her in a hug. I sat there and stared silently for I don’t even know how long, completely flabbergasted.
“B-But you tried to make me be… How could you…?”
“I didn’t know what to think, June,” she managed to say, her face still half buried in the shorter Sabah’s hair. “CPS, they didn’t tell me anything about your transition, so when you just showed up, I… When I got shipped off to a new foster parent, I would test them, y’know? Push them to find where the boundaries were. I thought that’s what you were doing, and I got scared this joke, this… prank would get you shanked by some Empire goon. If I had known… I still would have been worried as all hell, but I never would have pushed you like that. Maybe I’d have tried to get you into homeschooling or something? Fuck, I don’t know.”
“Careful,” Sabah murmured, the corner of her lips quirking up just a tad, “I think she’s starting to rub off on you.”
I choked on a watery laugh. I knew full well what Sabah had meant, but… Yeah… Yeah, maybe she is.
I took a halting step forward. Then another. One more put me next to the two of them as Masuyo looked up and locked eyes with me. She unwrapped one of her arms from around Sabah and held it out invitingly, and the shorter girl took her cue from my cousin and did the same.
It makes no sense.
I took one more step and let the two of them wrap their arms around me. A cousin who was apparently just as broken as me, and a stranger I hadn’t met until today.
Fuck it. Let it ride.
I hugged them back.