jabbathehutt | Mist under the East River

Mist under the East River

No one even noticed what happened to the kids on Delancey. Or never talked about it, which amounted to the same thing.

The papers covered the accident that took the life of three construction workers on the Manhattan side of what will eventually become the second East River Bridge. They said digging hit an underground cave they didn't know was there, and the families were compensated widely.

No one talked about the handful of street kids who had taken to using the site as shelter at night. Who had, due to dares and a morbid curiosity, snuck into the site to find - not an underground cave but a secret basement. And this is because no one survived to talk about it afterwards.

Except Ezra Bridger. Who never does talk about it.

In fact, most people have probably forgotten he was even friends with those kids.

Now he sells papes and lives by his wits on the Lower East Side, tries to avoid making any more friends, and keeps himself to himself.

Well, as much as that's possible among the ragged army of New York City newsboys.

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It's not a big thing. Just a kid dived too deeply, got trapped under the dock and freaked out, trying to find his way up. Ezra follows the feel of his fear, finds him just at the edge of the dock and pulls him out, pushing him to the surface.

Spot may see the kid breaking water, crying out, and his friends splashing over as they realise he's in trouble, checking he's okay and pulling him out.

Ezra surfaces a shot distance away, watches the fuss for a few seconds, then pulls himself out of the water again.

Spot watches the kid for a long moment to make sure he is okay, his attention turning to Ezra once he's sure his friends have got it under control.

He strolls back over to where Ezra's back out of the water and sits down. He's quiet for a moment, and then asks.

"What was that?"

"He got caught under the dock," Ezra says. "Freaked out a bit."

He pauses, and adds:

"He was scared, and I could hear it."

It's the first time he's said it out loud, admitted it. He doesn't look at Spot, but he hopes Spot will believe him.

Spot believes him, of course he does, after what Ezra did to his father. It makes him curious though, because that means it's not just some weird kind of mind control, it's something else.

"So you can.. tell what people are feeling?" he asks with interest "Or do you just 'hear' strong emotions? How does it work?"

"Uh."

Ezra hesitates trying to figure out how to describe it. "I guess a bit of both? It ain't actually like hearing, but I dunno how else to say it. It's like noise."

He waves a hand vaguely at the boys in the water. "Couldn't tell you who was feeling what, but there's a load of happiness going on. Then if one person gets scared it's like - you know when you're on a busy street and someone screams?"

That's also how he found Spot that day.

If one person gets scared

Spot realises immediately that he must have drawn Ezra in that day with his father, because he knows he'd been terrified.

"And you can't help but just... jump in?" he asks with a raised eyebrow - he doesn't judge, he kind of admires it, if he's honest.

"Well, yeah," says Ezra, glancing at him. He's pretty sure that's not his freaky thing, but just doing the right thing.

"Wouldn't you?"

"I suppose I would." Spot agrees - he's certainly jumped in to defend plenty of Brooklyn boys when they're in trouble, despite the risk to himself. He's had to excuse more than one black eye with claims of roughhousing at school over the years.

Ezra shrugs in a 'well then' sort of way. "Wish I had more to say," he says. "Once I figured out what I was feeling I figured out how to push back at it. With rats at first."

"Until you could handle much bigger rats." Spot says with a grimly amused smile, thinking of his father.

He wonders what that must have been like, trying to figure out his powers alone.

"...yeah," says Ezra, echoing that smile in all its grim satisfaction. "Until that."

Spot nods - he doesn't thank him again, he already did that, although he is still grateful.

He does wonder if Ezra puts himself at risk of discovery, though, if he's prone to just jumping in like that.

"Do you think there's anyone else like you?" is what he asks instead, though

Ezra is quiet for a second, staring at the river below them. Honestly, he doesn't know. He doesn't know why the crystals gave him powers rather than killing him, but he's pretty sure that it couldn't be a one-off.

"I think so," he says finally. "I'm sure there has to be, but I never met anyone."

"Maybe you wouldn't even know if you did..." Spot muses. After all, the only reason he knows about Ezra is because he's seen him in action, there could be plenty of people out there with the same powers, or different ones, just going about their everyday lives and staying hidden.

He wonders why, or how, but he doesn't want to ask Ezra for the details he knows the other boy doesn't want to give.

Ezra can tell he's curious, and he actually wants to tell him, because he hasn't told anyone about it and it might be nice to talk about it.

But not here, in the bright sunlight, surrounded by people who might overhear.

"Probably not," he agrees.

"Makes you wonder how many might be out there..." Spot leans back on his hands, staring up at the cloudless sky.

Are they all hiding like Ezra? Do they use their powers the way he does, to help people?

Considering what he's managed to learn of human nature, he suspects it could go either way.

Ezra meanwhile leans forward, looking down at the brackish waters below them, thinking about the hidden things below them, that he's always been too scared to follow up.

"I try not to think about it too much," he admits.

Spot doesn't quite get that, wouldn't Ezra want to know if there were other people out there like him? But then he's always been searching for a place to belong, so maybe that's why.

He makes a noise of acknowledgement, though, and falls silent, continuing to watch the sky. He should probably leave soon, it won't be long before the sun is setting, but he wants to stay and enjoy the company a little longer.

The thing is, Spot's asking questions that Ezra has never really wanted to ask before, never had a moment outside of figuring out his powers, trying to survive from day to day, trying to stay hidden.

He's never talked about it with anyone because he's never had anyone to talk to about it. And now he finds he wants to talk about - to talk to Spot about it.

But it's too busy around here.

"You ever come out at night?" he asks finally. "Or - when there aren't so many kids around?"

Can we talk in private some time?

Spot's about to just say no when he realises what Ezra's actually asking. He glances sideways at him and frowns thoughtfully for a moment.

"I have to go home in a bit... but maybe I'll feel like a walk after dinner." he says casually - quiet enough that nobody else overhears it. He can almost certainly get away with that since his father's out of town, and he can think of a dozen places he might go 'walking' without being disturbed.

Ezra turns his head part of the way towards him and offers a smile. That probably works.

Except he still doesn't know where Spot's giant mansion or whatever is.

"Same place as before?"

"You know the park a couple of streets from there?" he says after a moment's thought. He knew a couple of places where they could sit and talk without really being disturbed, by newsies or anyone else, and it's not too far from the Hearst mansion, either.

Ezra nods.

"I know it."

Some of the Manahattan boys are pulling themselves out of the river now, talking about getting back to the lodging house for supper. Ezra watches them for a second, and then nods to Spot, standing up. It's an easy excuse - he doesn't eat at the same place, but he knows a few bakeries that will be closing up soon and that's usually good for food.

"See you later, I guess?"

He nods to Spot before headingg off, leaving the Brooklyn kid with plenty of time to go back to his place without looking like he's leaving with anyone.

But when he's been and got himself something he heads to the park after dark, day old bagel in hand, which predictably he ends up sharing with a curious squirrel.

"Yea, see you." he nods easily, waving the Manhattan kids goodbye as they head off. He stays a little longer before telling his boys he needs to go himself, taking the scenic route back home just because he can.

As long as he's there and dressed for dinner nobody's going to make any comments that his father might catch wind of, so he sneaks in his usual way and changes. He actually enjoys dinner, for once (despite his ever-present guilt at the quality of his food compared to everything any of his friends get) because his father isn't there to lecture him through it, and then afterwards he tells the staff he's going for a walk - a perfectly ordinary thing for a young man to do, as long as he's not back too late.

He doesn't realise until he's about halfway to the park that he didn't change back into his newsie clothes, but he decides in the end that since Ezra already knows and he's more likely to run into somebody who recognises Sean Hearst than somebody who recognises Spot Conlon, he'll just leave it.

Which is why he arrives at the park in an expensive (and perfectly tailored) grey wool suit and pristine white shirt - though without his father around to insist on absolutely proper dress, and in deference to the warmth of the evening, he's left off the suit jacket in favour of just waistcoat and shirt, the sleeves of which are rolled up. He's also abandoned his tie.

Ezra is sitting sideways on a bench, his back against the arm rest, his legs crossed up in front of him, concentrating on feeding the squirrel rather than thinking about hos nervous he is. In hindsight, talking to someone about the whole thing seems like a really bad idea, especially someone who has been lying about himself so thoroughly.

At least, he guesses, Spot can keep a secret. And he didn't run when he found out what Ezra could do.

He looks up when he notices someone approaching, and the squirrel scarpers. It's a few seconds of staring defiantly before Ezra recognises Spot, and then he feels like an idiot.

"Hey."

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