Gwen shifted her weight slightly, turning to face him more fully.
There was no hostility in her gaze, no judgment. Just that same quiet, maddeningly intelligent curiosity that had always made Ethan feel like a frog on a dissection tray.
A frog that got there willingly, strapped itself with a smile and was all too happy to oblige her.
She tucked her hair behind her ear, and her voice came soft but firm.
"So. Are you going to tell me the truth, or do I get to watch you fumble through the worst lie of your life?" She said.
Ethan's mouth opened. Then closed. He looked at her. Looked away. Scratched his jaw. Rubbed the back of his neck.
He found it hard to come up with the correct bullshit, not with a brillant mind in front of him who knew him, and now had enough data to work out the truth (at least partially) with or without his cooperation. The silence stretched, echoing every bad choice he'd ever made that day.
He wanted to lie.
He really, truly did.
A denial would be so easy. Plausible deniability. Say it wasn't him. Blame angles. Lighting. Some other random vigilante with a similar build. What were the odds, right? She couldn't possibly think that was him? That's just bloody insane innit?
Except Gwen was smarter than that.
She'd always been smarter than that. Smarter than him, that's for sure, and she was looking at him with those wide eyes that saw too much and missed nothing.
And more than that, she wasn't angry. She wasn't accusing. She was... gentle.
Like she wasn't trying to trap him.
Like she just wanted to understand.
And that, more than anything, made his stomach twist.
So Ethan did the bravest, dumbest thing he'd done all week.
He exhaled slowly. Dropped into the couch beside her.
"It was me," he said. "Out there in Harlem. That was me. I've had powers for a while now. Since I was a kid. I just... keep them hidden."
Gwen blinked.
Then she squealed. A high-pitched, startled little noise that made Ethan flinch like she'd set off an air raid siren, he was expecting Captain Stacy to kick the door open and try to enact some good old fashioned police violence any moment now.
"ETHAN—"
"Shhhh—!"
"Are you KIDDING ME?! Powers?! What kind? When did you know? Can you fly? Are you bulletproof? Is this like a mutation, an accident, or some cosmic ray thing?" She shot like machine gun.
He held up both hands like a man trying to calm a charging rhino. "Okay, first of all; no flying…technically, no bulletproofing. Just telekinesis. Moving stuff. And shields. And yeah, I've had them for years. No cosmic rays, no lab accidents. It just popped up one day to make my life even crazier somehow."
Gwen stared at him like he'd just dropped the solution to cold fusion in her lap.
An appropriate reaction, if he was being honest.
Ethan rubbed at his temples. The effort of even thinking too hard still made his brain throb and his stomach do little annoyed flips, he added overusing his power to the list of bad choices, he should have been smarter with his 'attacks' and retreated earlier.
Well, that was done, no use crying over spilled milk.
Not when he was trying to make the best of this situation.
"It's not as good as you think, this world's not safe, Gwen," he said quietly, once her barrage of questions slowed to something resembling sanity. "There are people out there scarier than me. Scarier than the Hulk. Scarier than Abomination. They're not all big and green and obvious. Some of them smile at cameras. Run companies. Wear suits. Some of them are groups with names you wouldn't believe. Others are just... monsters with a plan and too much power for one person. And eventually, they're going to cross my path. Whether I want them to or not."
His mind went to a shining bald head and the complex and morally-grey individual who founded the Brotherhood of EVIL mutants.
She was silent again, lips pursed. Absorbing.
"So you're planning on what? Becoming a full-time vigilante?" she asked, smart enough not to ask what those things were exactly, he would've said it if he wanted to.
"No way in hell. But I need to get stronger. So when those things come, and they will, I'll be ready. And if I can help people along the way, then... maybe it's worth it." He said, mercilessly using her superior moral fiber against her.
There was a beat. Then, tentatively:
"Shouldn't you tell someone? I don't know... the government? The police?" She said like the sweet daddy's dearest daughter that she was.
Ethan stared at her. Blankly. Then deadpanned, "Yeah, sure. Let me just walk into a federal office, tell them I can move things with my mind, and ask nicely not to be dissected. I'm sure that'll go well."
…
"...Right. Yeah. Good point. Never mind." Gwen immediately winced.
Silence again. Heavy, but not cold. Just full of thoughts.
Then she broke it.
"Well... if you're gonna keep being a reckless idiot, you're going to need better gear." She said, and he could almost hear the sound of an objective being accomplished.
Ethan's mouth twitched, everything was going according to keikaku.
"Is that your way of volunteering?"
"Duh," she said, as if it were obvious. "I have like four designs in my head already. You do realize I aced ESU's engineering camp, right?"
Ethan blinked, then smiled, genuinely, not just because he'd secured the kind of engineering skills and brainpower he could never reach on his own.
Though it did make things better.
He pulled her into a warm hug that made her yelp, while his mind raced with possibilities: improved equipment, overhauling his suit with technical components, setting the stage for what might one day become a major weapon in his arsenal.
And no, he wouldn't comment on the fuzzy feeling curling in his stomach. Or why he was grinning like a loon.
Oh, who was he kidding? Gwen truly was the best girl.
She shook her head, still giggling, and returned to the couch. "You're the weirdest person I've ever met."
Ethan leaned back, arms behind his head, smiling as he looked at her.
"Takes one to know one, Gwen."
They didn't touch the heavy subject again that day. But they didn't need to. The air had cleared. Secrets spilled. Lines crossed. And somewhere, deep down, something shifted.
Neither of them said it.
But they both knew.
Everything had just changed.
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.