This is a continuation of the story To be Heard and to be Seen. I love the concept of Huey being able to read minds and Jazmine cursed with super strength.

Content Warning: Cursing, Trama, and Political Content.

October 22, 2019

The apartment was warm when he entered. In his ears played Daughter by Daughters. He crouched and removed his boots, pain giving way to relief. He dropped his bag and left it there, headed into the kitchen for water. His head pounded beneath the strain of today, his coworker's thoughts loud, and his boss disallows his headphones. It was because of the limited control in her life, he knew that before she opened her mouth, but that didn't prevent his head from pounding.

He sipped his water, turning to locate Jazmine. She sat on the couch, a book closed around her hand, and eyes locked onto him. Shit, she had been speaking, hadn't she?

Huey removed an earbud and closed his eyes against the sudden and loud weight of her mind.

"You were fired today." She stated. It was an accusation. Money was tight and she felt that if she could manage, so should he. That because they were the same they should function the same.

He took out the other earbud and pounded the water, hoping the liquid would ease the pressure behind his eyes.

So today was the day. This fight had been coming, he had felt its beginnings in both their minds for days, waiting, a corpse knocking.

They were in the thick of it.

"Do you know what it's like facing them? I know their limitations as well as my own. Whatever ideological perspective you have is nothing compared to that. Have you ever faced it? Hate and fear?" His eyes burned. "Or worse, their pity?"

"How could you say that?" She felt cornered, a band across her chest, constricting her breath.

Silent, Huey rolled his headphones between his fingers, eyes at his feet.

"What are you thinking?" She asked.

"I think you've spent your whole life too afraid to do anything." He said.

The earth fell out from beneath her. She opened her mouth and no sound came. From outside of her struggle his eyes flicked up to hers, then away. He put in his earbuds, and her shock dissolved behind anger.

"No, you fucking don't." She snarled. A heartbeat and she was upon him, forcing his defensive motions down and yanking the cord from his ears. Her thin hands were like steel; he couldn't move.

"You don't get to hide from this. What have you done? You sit on your pedestal above everyone, even me, and what gives you the right?"

"I-" His eyes widened then narrowed, reading her thoughts as concepts before she herself could put them to words. He was always faster than her. Jazmine's grip tightened. "Be honest with me Huey. Don't you dare gaslight your way out of this."

She could find his lies when he spoke commonly. His honest words when spoken were like riddles because a conversation with him was a response to the mind. Meditative and invasive.

"Fine," he hissed. "You want the meat of it? You hide within your delusions despite your age. Your hair is like clouds and your mind a crystal maze. Trapped within but the answer clear and before you. We're both cowards, and we don't know how to stop the drought. This was never about you. I've-" He stopped, looking away with a broken wet sound.

He didn't look at her as he finished. "Water winds past and we can't cross. You're mute and I've labeled you the answer."

She let him go, sinking to her knees to join him on the floor. Outside birds sang.

"So what do we do?" she asked. He glanced up at her, brow deeply furrowed.

"We need to face it, them - what we've hidden from. Otherwise this," he gestured between them, "won't work."

"What? Huey, I-" Jazmine faltered, rubbing her arms.

He shook his head.

When he spoke, his voice was pained. "I can't help you. Our scars aren't our identities."