Smiling, Charlie stepped inside and nodded in thanks as Cole closed the door. The apartment was exactly what he’d expected, knowing Toby. “No, I haven’t heard anything.” He answered, looking at Cole with a fake worried expression crossing her features. “I was hoping you knew how to contact him. There are some cases and assignments left wide open with no one else to close them.”
That wasn’t entirely true. They had another lawyer, one the Hunters used for emergencies like this or when Toby was too swamped with trying to keep some of their members out of jail. But Cole didn’t need to know any of that. For all the other knew, Charlie was just a firm partner.
At Cole’s words, he quirked an eyebrow. It was beyond obvious that he young man was lying to him. It was as if Cole had never lied in his life. But Charlie would play along for the time being if only to see how much information he could get out of him. “It is odd. Usually, he at least leaves a note or voicemail.” Charlie paused for a split second at Cole’s question. “The name’s Charlie. Like I said, I work with your father.”
“Yeah uh, I think this is the first spontaneous thing he’s ever done in his entire life.” Cole chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. This was probably of our tree people that his dad was trying to avoid whilst he was away. But if they were really coworkers, then it wasn’t fair to leave her on the ropes like this.
Shrugging, Cole gave the man a sympathetic look. “Sorry Charlie, I uh, I think it’s one of those mid-life existential crisis thingys… Not really sure when he’ll be back.” It wasnt a total lie, technically, so maybe that would give Charlie some comfort to know.
“That’s…you know, not many people look at it that way. There’s usually questions and, well. You’re right. I don’t like to talk about it.”
Tom smiled, a small ghost of a smile, and said, “I appreciate you saying that.”
He drummed his fingers across the empty coffee cup in his hands, thinking, for the first time in a long time, about actually, willingly, shaking someone’s hand. He said, “I, uh, I do like books. Obviously, I guess. I work in a library.”
He glanced down at his shoes, trying to decide what to say next.
Anything. Just. Say. Anything.
“You read much?” he said.
Cole simply nodded and smiled softly, not wanting to say on that topic any longer than they need to. He could understand why people would have questions, and sure, Cole was curious, but this Tom seemed like a nice guy - there was no use alienating him further.
At the other man’s question, Cole shook his head, laughing a little. “Uh, me? No, not really. Unless comics count? I uh, don’t really have the attention span for that kind of thing so uh, nah. But I mean, I’m wanting to try again, so uh, what would you suggest? What kind of things do you read?”
“What?” Ellie said, monotone, disbelieving. Their dad, an Evo? She supposed anything was possible, but he was so old, it didn’t make sense for his ability to suddenly decide to turn on after nearly 50 years.
Was he afraid she would find out? Or even worse, was she afraid that she would tell everyone at the firm. Ellie could feel her jaw tense, but just like she had to do in court, she couldn’t let the anger and hurt actually show.
So, instead, she squished Cabbage a little before, moving her hand to continue petting him. “I wouldn’t have told anyone. It’s a reasonably small firm… He’ll call back, but until then we will need to shut everything off, clean out the fridge, those type things.” She said, burying the hurt until she got home later in the night. “And you should take Cabbage- I can’t have pets.”
Cole always hated when his sister did this - when she stopped speaking and just started thinking. He could never figure out exactly what was going through her mind, and that was, to say the least, a little worrying. “If you clench your jaw any tighter you’ll break your teeth.” He commented, watching her from the corner of his eye.
Where he was content to keep moping about their abandonment, there were apparently more pressing matters at hand. “Me!?” He stared at Ellie in disbelief. “Nope. No way. I can’t keep that thing in my apartment. We have a mutual hatred and it’s not one that I really want to explore.” Cole glared at the cat in question, truly horrified by the prospect of actually having to keep in his home.
Charlie’s lips curled into a snake-like grin at Cole’s question. “No, actually, I was hoping you could give me some information on your father.” His smile widened a little bit. “He works for me and went missing a few days ago. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard from him since last week.”
She gestured in, raising an eyebrow at him. “May I come inside? It might make this conversation a little more…private rather than having it in the hallway.” Hopefully he’d invite her in and answer some questions. Plus, Charlie wanted to get to know Cole a little, in case he decided to attempt anything on him.
Cole lowered his eyebrows at the stranger, wondering how he knew to come to this apartment to find out more about the old man. “Uhm, okay… sure.” He stepped aside, still eyeing whoever this was suspiciously. Stepping back inside his home, Cole walked to the kitchen and stood there awkwardly for a moment.
“You’ve not heard from him at all?” He asked, tapping his hands rhythmically on the kitchen bench. Just because he could understand why his dad left, didn’t mean he got why he’d just vanish like this. Didn’t he know it’d be so much less suspicious if he’d let even a few people know? “He uh.. he’s taking a spontaneous vacation. Weird he didn’t… tell you, you know?” Cole said evasively , looking at his hands - he never was a good liar. “What did you say your name was again?”
Tom braced himself, prepared for the multitude of questions that always followed his admission about what his ability actually was: how does it work? Can you predict when someone will die? Can you see how I’ll die? He hated it. But it didn’t come.
He looked up at Cole and blinked. No one had ever said that to Tom before.
He said, “Yeah. It…it does.”
He smiled slightly and said, “Thank you, Cole.”
Cole was, admittedly, a little confused by the reaction, but figured the guy must have his reasons. “Oh uh, no problem.” He said, somewhat sheepishly, though with a small smile.
Cole couldn’t even imagine having something a damn depressing as that. “Honestly dude, with something like that I’m impressed you’re standing here. I’d just be a stone cold mess 100% of the time.” Maybe it wasn’t right to talk about, but the depth of shittiness that could come from abilities always managed to surprise him. “Seriously, you’re a stronger man that I. But uh, I mean, you probably don’t want to talk about it so I’ll uh… stop. Books!” He pointed to the shelves, smiling at Tom awkwardly, hoping he hadn’t made him feel too bad. “Those certainly are a different topic we can move on to, if you want?”
Tom watched, mesmerized, as Cole effortlessly repaired the book. From time to time, it still came as a shock that there were people who liked their abilities, who found uses for them.
Tom smiled and said, “That’s pretty cool.”
The moment Cole asked about Tom’s own ability, he felt the grin slide off his face. Idiot. Of course someone would ask that. Of course of course of course.
Tom took a long breath. He swallowed. He said, “Yeah, I, uh, I have an ability. It’s…it’s not….”
He looked down at his shoes, watched himself scuff the toes of his right foot across the floor. He looked back up and said, “I see how people die.”
Cole felt instant regret as soon as he saw Tom’s face fall. With the confidence of most of the people in the school, he forgot that not everyone wanted to talk about their powers. He could understand it, of course; some people had really picked the short-straw when it came to abilities.
Then Tom actually said what his power was, and Cole seriously wishing he’d kept his mouth shut. But that was what he did, wasn’t it? Speak without thinking? Cole looked at him with a frown. “Dude, that sucks. Doesn’t seem fair you’d get lumped with that.”
Shit. Shit shit shit. Tom wasn’t supposed to just ask people about that kind of thing. It was private. Then again, Cole didn’t look like he’d minded.
Tom glanced down at his shoes and said, “Uh, sorry. I, uh, one of the reasons I came here was to study abilities. I didn’t…I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Oh man, don’t worry about it!” Cole said with a grin, surprised to see someone conscious about asking those sorts of things. Far as he could tell, everyone in the building was just waiting for someone to ask them that question. “I fix things. Molecular reconstruction they call it, though don’t ask me to tell you the science behind it. Okay so don’t worry, I promise I wont wreck anything, just watch.” Cole said as he took a random book off the shelf and tore a few pages from the middle. After showing that the pages were completely out of the book, he placed them back and smoothed his fingers over the tear, smiling slightly as he could feel the paper knit itself back together. “Pretty neat trick.” Passing the book over to Tom, Cole couldn’t stop his somewhat proud smile. “So you got an ability too, or you just study them?”
After spending the afternoon with his sister, Cole was ready to fall into bed and hide away for a few days. Hopefully Ellie was right and their dad would be back as soon as he realised what an idiot he was being, although that might take a while, given how stubborn they could all be sometimes. However, he hadn’t been home for 10 minutes before there was a loud knock on his door. He assumed it was Katherine, seen as she wasn’t about, but when he opened the door, it was clear that wasn’t the case.
“Hello?” He raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar person in the hallway, and figured they were just lost or something. Or a missionary. regardless, he wasn’t so exhuasted that he couldn’t spare a few minutes for them. “Uh, hi. Can I help you?”
