rise like a —

[ txt ]: no cute boys chasing after you? [ txt ]: what do you mean? who is messing with you?  [ txt ]: yeah! my power got called feminine, because it relates to mother nature and people associate mother nature with periods, hormones, and such. 

[ txt ] anything for you, my baby. how are things going for you, aside from that? [ txt ] yeah. i know what you are going to have to go through. especially with powers that people don’t deem ‘masculine’ or such. so i am glad that you don’t let any of this bother you. 

“oh, so I walk over here to help you bleach your hair, and I’m the jerk.” but clayton’s tone lacks any and all of his usual acridity. he’s not as tense, here. not with ramón.

walking over, he lays a meaty hand on ramon’s shoulder, curling fingers to massage and soothe him. “I don’t you can look ridiculous.” he says it sincerely, ramón’s eyes. “now let’s go over to the showers.”

he had a pause in thought – in the shower, with ramón. maybe this plan wasn’t too bad, after all.

“You haven’t seen pictures of when I was a little kid, then,” Ramon chuckles, cringing at the thought of looking at his own baby photos he knew he mom had hidden away somewhere. May Clay never get to see them. Unless he wanted to. Maybe he would want to. Someday.

He gets up. “As long as we keep our clothes on—”

haha unless

“Not that I was planning to get naked or anything. Neither were you. Uh— right. let’s go.”

since clay got a response on his phone, rather than at the door, he took that as leave to just go inside. the space was clearly ramón’s, incredibly different from his own more militaristic and spartan space, which hit the point home more clearly.

he’s in ramón’s room again, for the night – only this time, it’s not out of necessity.

“you ready to go rinse out?” he asked, looking over to see what ramón would look like with a cream-covered scalp – and he did his best not to laugh. “or did you wanna test that heat resistance a little longer?”

“I’ve been burned much worse before, jerk,” Ramon chuckles, feeling ridiculous about this whole plan of his. But if they were gonna be forced inside until further notice, at least bleaching his hair gave him something else to think about until the circumstances changed. It also gave him an excuse to hang out with Clay, and he wasn’t gonna turn down one of those.

When his scalp starts to feel painful, Ramon decides it’s time to rinse. “Promise you won’t laugh if it looks ridiculous?”

[txt]: you think I can get away with it? [txt]: I’ll bring enough for the night, at least. [txt]: and some extra.

concern for ramón’s scalp aside. clay packed a change of clothes, his shower set, and a few additions of his own, rolled up under the clothing. not to rush ramón, but he just wanted to be….prepared. just in case.

bag hefted over his shoulder, he made his way to  ramón’s solo room and knocked.

Ramon grew friendly with an assortment of people since joining the Advocates, but Clay was by far the one he formed his deepest connection with. Even aside from their shared identity as trans supers, there was a mutual understanding between them; something he couldn’t put a finger on. He wished Clay would put a finger on him.

But he was also concerned about the unspoken tension between them; a vague feeling of closeness he yearned to make official. Explicit. He had a feeling Clay felt the same way. With an empty dorm and a quarantine in place, the idea of them finally making some progress... 

[txt]: ready when u are

[txt]: burning isn’t good. [txt]: is your room still open? I could bring a bag.

[txt]: how long do we leave it in, again?

[txt]: uhh until my hair feels like t’s burning [txt]: which was a few mins ago but i’m used to be being on fire so [txt]: but maybe come over and give it a look

[ txt ] half of one is all you can have! [ txt ] we need you healthy and in shape - and twinkies are addictive. 

[ txt ] I have witnessed things no human should have ever imagined or done [ txt ] but I still don’t get this anthro stuff [ txt ] even with literal decades of it being shoved through my head in a single second

The giggle was enough to prompt a grin from the older of the pair, even as he stretched his back out a little, still shaking off he whole interview situation. Instead, he figured he better be doing his actual job as a mentor here, even if he wasn’t specifically Ramón’s. 

“It get’s easier, but I’m not going to say it ever fully goes away. A lot of the time, we find ways to push ourselves away, without really thinking about it. Hell, I still do it sometimes. A lot of people were born with what they could, or discovered it. Me? I’m a lab rat. Government experiment, or just one person with way too much money. But… That’s the thing about the advocate.” And, yeah, the smile that settles on his lips is just a little proud. “We take anybody who wants to learn. Anybody who wants to do good. So even if we don’t fit in anywhere, we’ve still got somewhere to call homebase. Some of us learn faster than others, some of us still struggle, but you never really stop learning, either.”

Ramón could deal with easier. He just wished he didn’t have to. After all he’d been through sorting out his gender identity, the last thing he needed was another complication in his life that his powers gave him. It was like he was being trolled by the universe...

“It just feels like.. I dunno. I know I should be excited to become a superhero and whatever, but I just wanna be normal. I finally got a place where I felt like I belonged in the world, and now there’s something extra about me that I never wanted. Does that ever go away too?”

full trust in hero physiology was something neither of them would claim to have. the full light of the training room kept most of samson’s worst at bay. anything that was showing, he had to force it through that glow.

“fénix makes sense,” he offered back, nodding at the name. “I, went with umbran. since ‘shadow-’ anything was right out, and I wanted one word.” with a huff, he looked down a bit. “kinda weird to use our made-up names, right? maybe it’ll be easier when we have a costume?”

Ramón hadn’t even thought about what his super-suit would look like yet. Was he supposed to go garish with the colors and design? He knew he didn’t want to stand out, but if he was gonna fly around with flame wings anyway, maybe he should just lean into it... all of this superhero stuff was just so much.

“So when did you find out you had powers? I didn’t know I was a super until a few years ago and... suddenly I just was, y’know? Have you always had yours?”

It was like Ramón was unconscious one moment and suddenly very conscious the next. That was putting it mildly. How or when he got naked with Guillermo was a mystery. All he knew was that the older man was jerking off directly above his face, as though he was purposefully aiming for it. Ramón would’ve been startled by this encounter if he didn’t find it so arousing.

Ramón always thought Guillermo was hot, obviously, but just because he thought someone was attractive didn’t mean he wanted to have sex with them. At least not immediately. His friends always teased him for being so old-fashioned about sex, needing to know someone before getting into bed with them. But for whatever reason, that whole waiting period had been vetoed in this instance.

“Diabl— Guillermo, fuck,” he pants, preparing himself for impact. Guillermo’s orgasm seemed imminent, and Ramón wanted to be ready for when the moment came, feeling his colleague’s hot white load blasting on his—

And then it happened, Guillermo painting Ramón’s tanned face and pink tongue with more jizz than he’d ever seen —or tasted— in his life. 

And then he was awake, alone, with a notable lack of sperm coating his visage.

It felt weird to be getting a room mate. Most of his life, he had had his own room, being an only child and all and then just living alone afterwards. So to share a room with someone was going to be a new experience for him entirely. Knowing that Ramon was to be his room mate, he had made sure to have the room all tidy and prepared for the other to just set their stuff up and that his side also wasn’t a mess, which it had once been. He had an impression to make after all.

Watching as the door opened, Malcolm offered he other a smile, welcoming him into his new abode. Though it didn’t take long for that impression to go from good to bad. He didn’t mean to swat at Ramon’s hand like he did and he felt terrible afterwards for doing so. “No, no. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. It’s just, it’s kinda, extremely sharp and I didn’t want you to cut yourself on it.” The honest answer. “Do you need help unpacking? I’m free all day.”

Ramón could tell Malcolm wasn’t used to living with someone, at least not as closely as they currently were. His own experience growing up couldn’t have been more different, raised in a Dominican home with many siblings, both his parents, and two of his grandparents. He shared a room with his older brother for many years. This wasn’t any different... which lead to him feeling somewhat comfortable to touch things in the same room he slept in.

“No, I shouldn’t have—” he begins, trying not to sound like such a whimpering, overly apologetic loser. “I’m good with unpacking now... is that thing connected to your powers? Or is it just for show?”