duality ➵ an ateez superhero au

𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: letting them know they are powerful

LETTING THEM KNOW THEY ARE POWERFUL

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"m-mutant?" mingi stutters, a giant question mark seemingly hovering over his head as he stares down at his own hands. they didn't even feel like his own hands, they felt like they belonged to some sort of alien.

his already tiny studio apartment had never felt so suffocating. he felt like he couldn't breathe, the walls coming inward and making the room smaller, and smaller, and smaller.

jeno could see that mingi wasn't processing the thought in his mind. he didn't think mingi was dumb but after explaining everything to him, all about mutant energy and how that festers in his body, he still couldn't seem to grasp the concept. understandably so. jeno figured he was still getting used to thing, he is new to this whole world after all. "i mean... how else can you explain the fire?"

mingi goes silent.

"your bright red hair?"

"it's dyed." mingi lies, almost instinctually, despite already fully aware that jeno saw right through it. as though mingi had spoken shards of broken glass. "sorry. that's my automatic response. i was born with fire truck red hair, i don't know why it's that colour."

"i...i just don't know..." he repeats, thinking about it for a second. his eyes glaze over, the gears churning so intensely in his mind that they could almost be heard. the thoughts in his head were bumping, crashing into one another, mingi felt another headache grow. he gnaws on his lip, reaching and grabbing at straws to find some sort of explanation that made more sense than just—superheroes!

"am i on punk'd?"

he frantically looks around his apartment for hidden cameras but fails to find any, getting drawn back into the conversation when jeno gently places a hand over mingi's own.

"no, this isn't fake mingi. welcome to the elite."

"the elite?" yeosang asks, looking at san as if he was an extra terrestrial being.

which quite frankly, yeosang felt as if he himself was extra terrestrial too with the whole phase shifting thing that just happened.

literally nothing came to mind that could even begin to explain whatever the fuck just happened except for... aliens.

"yeah!" san chirps a response, continuing to help yeosang fold some clothes as he clears out his few belongings from the room. yeosang lets san take over for a second, really taking in the room. if everything san had told him was even remotely true, he probably won't be coming back here any time soon, if at all. "that's what we call the facility that houses all the mutants. people just like you and me."

a sentimental look glazes san's eyes, "it's home. it's the only place i ever felt like i belonged. and the place where my extra abilities can be put to good use. i feel important there, i feel like i matter."

yeosang was just worrying about not having a place to stay. and now he was suddenly invited to go somewhere because he had super natural powers. it was like a message from the whoever's up there, looking down at yeosang with a fist over his heart, saying something along the lines of, "i got you bro."