My drafting table had a screw missing from the hinge that propped it up at the perfect angle. I had made it a habit not to draw with my face so close to the page that I could inhale the graphite that dusted the paper as I drew, but now the top wobbled as the tip of my pencil drifted along my drawing and I could see it bouncing as my lines appeared. The model I drew was curvaceous, a close representation of the model that commissioned me a dress for a gala event that she would be attending with her husband. Our first meeting consisted of her showing me a wonderful selection of dresses that her eye had been drawn to and I used them as the inspiration. This was how it normally went with clients and they almost always trusted the creation process.
"I want all of this to be accentuated." She said, referencing her figure. I loved her confidence, something I wish I had. She had every right to be confident, she was beautiful. The preliminary sketches I rendered were sent over and she loved all of the colorful works of art, which narrowed down very little for me, but I knew exactly what she would love despite it. The tip of my pencil reached the hemline and the table top creaked followed by an aggressive wobble that made the graphite snap.
"What the - " I closed my eyes, calmly reached for my inkwell pencil sharpener and listened to the blade shave off the wood to a point inside the red glass container. I abandoned the pencil in the cup hanging blissfully next to the table and ducked under it to find the source of my problem. My fingers slid over the metal pieces until I found an empty hole, one that, if filled, would have stabilized the desk. As my finger ran over it, my doorbell rang and I jumped, hitting the back of my head with angry huff. Quickly, I pulled a bag of frozen vegetables from the freezer and placed it on the sore spot, opening the door to greet the stranger.
"Hey, are you Mike?" He asked, a bag slung over his shoulder, "I had called the other day about the extra room and we were supposed to meet today."
"Shit, I'm so sorry I completely forgot. You are - ?" I invited him in, adjusting the bag on my head before abandoning it on a table by the door.
"I'm Rein. Are you okay? That looks like it hurt." He chuckled.
"Oh yeah, just a bump. Want to check out the place?" I pointed towards the rest of the apartment and gave him a tour. "This is the kitchen, well stocked with vegetable ice packs, and this is the living room." I spun on my heels as I extended my arms to present the room. "There are technically three bedrooms, but I use the downstairs as a studio. The other two are upstairs." It was a weird layout, but I needed a place to stay while I studied. So did this guy, or at least that's what he detailed to me over the phone.
"Oh wow, three stories? This looks great," He peeked down the stairs into my studio, "When would I be able to move in? I'm looking for a place since I'll be starting school soon."
"School? Are you an undergrad?" I asked.
"Nah, I'm going to grad school. I'm going in for Architecture." He chuckled.
"That's awesome, I just got here for grad too. Fashion design." I sunk down into a chair in the living room, "I'll have to do whatever paperwork, but if you wanted to move in soon I'm sure it wouldn't be too bad. The bedroom upstairs is empty and ready to be filled."
"Oh? That's amazing. Yeah, I'd love to move in by the weekend. I want a couple of days to settle down. Maybe even get to know my cute roommate." He laughed.
Did he really just say that? My cheeks flushed red and I suddenly felt warm all over, "Oh, well, you're welcome to it. I'll email the landlord and just let them know I found the roommate and they'll send over the paperwork as soon as they decide to I guess. Move-in season is always really busy." I shrugged, face still warm from the cute roommate comment. He nodded, looked over the apartment again before heading to the door.
"I'll be over tomorrow to move in what I've got. It's just a couple of boxes and a bed. Nothing crazy." He stood in the doorway and I nodded.
"I'll see you tomorrow then." He winked and then disappeared out into the parking lot. I returned to my studio and as I walked in I felt something hard dig into the heel of my foot. I stumbled over it, avoiding any more pain of my weight stepping on the missing loose screw that would stabilize my desktop.
"This is the last of it." Rein let the mattress plop onto the ground of the second bedroom and I dusted myself off. I had offered to help him unload his car, which went much faster than I had anticipated.
"I'll leave you to it. I have to take care of some final bits of this job." I pointed in the general direction I was headed and he nodded.
"Thanks for the help."
"No problem. I'll be downstairs." On my way out I knocked my shoulder against the doorframe and looked back. He definitely saw me. I put my head down and quickly hid myself away in my studio.
The design I was working on only needed a couple more details. A full ensemble of pieces and accessories were important and I wanted to make sure that this was a look and not just any regular gala dress. I capped the last marker, finishing the sketch and tossing all of my drawing tools into the bin they were stored in. Quickly looking back at the door to make sure Rein was still upstairs, I heard a distant thud of something being dropped. Deciding that he was far enough away to not disturb me, I picked up the sketch and stood in the center of the room. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes and felt my lungs fill with crisp air. Holding the sketch in one hand, I took my other hand and pushed my fingers into the page. Instead of the ripping or paper folding sound one might suspect, my glowing hands sunk into the sketch as though it were a vertical pool of water and after getting a good grip I pulled out the bodice of the dress. I let the paper fall, and it dropped with a thud as the gown flourished out of the page. The seams were crisp and the details were immaculate as the remaining sunlight of the day caught the diamond embellishments and made them sparkle. Looking down at the page, the sketch remained intact except the color was a little bit tinted. I rolled a dress form out from the corner and put it on it to get a good look. I bent down and shoved my hands inside, plucking out the matching shoes and bag.
"Wow. That was one incredible magic trick." I fell over, hitting my head on my stool this time instead of the now-fixed desk which made me growl a little bit as I pushed my hand against the new sore spot. The purse and heels hit the ground a few feet away with another clunk.
"Fuck. I should have been more careful." I applied pressure to the bump and winced.
"What do you mean? That was awesome." Rein came to help me up off the ground and as he helped me up I realized he was surprisingly warm.
"I don't really tell people about my quirk. It's easy to hide, but people still act weird around people with them." I went to pick up the heels and purse and I set them down on my cutting table. One of the buckles on the shoe seemed to have been knocked out of place. I looked Rein up and down and at this point didn't care too much if he saw me do it again. I bent down, reached inside the sketch and pulled out a duplicate pair of heels with the buckle perfectly attached.
"That's a bit wasteful. Don't you think?" He chuckles. I squint at him, not particularly enjoying his playful jabs as the thought of exposure meant I might need to go to a different school. I shook my head, rolled my eyes, and tossed the initial pair of heels back towards the sketch and they exploded into a cloud of color before being sucked back into the page.
"I really need you not to tell anyone." I crossed my arms and leaned against the table.
"Tell anyone? I would never out you like that. Should I tell you my quirk to make it even?" He smirked. I stared at him for a moment, watching his smug face with a look of shock on my own.
"You have a quirk?" I ask.
"It's easy for me to hide too, but we're going to have to go somewhere else for me to show you. It requires another individual." He shrugs and turns down the hall, heading upstairs.
"So what exactly is it?" I dig my hands into my pocket as I follow him inside the gas station. I knew he heard me because we made eye contact and he smiled. The door chime went off throughout the store and he scanned the aisles for people, but it was relatively dead. The cashier was an older gentleman, and looked like he was about to turn to dust if someone talked to him.
"Mmm, that." A bright yellow sportscar revved its engine as it pulled in front of a pump. A hulking man stepped out of it, making the transaction as he got ready to fill his car up with gas. I followed Rein out as he walked over to the car, looking up to check for cameras. Only one was pointed in his direction, but it looked broken. He snuck around the car, approaching the stranger from behind and then I gasped as he slipped into him. Rein was nowhere to be found, but the man took a deep breath in, face turning pink before he turned to me and then relaxing once more. He smiled, pushed down his shorts to show off his ass and continued pumping gas.
"What the - " Before I could finish, the pump stopped and this man continue to finish up at the pump with his shorts down. He closed up the gas tank with a click of the cap and then turned towards me with a smile.
"So? What do you think? We even?" He pulled his shorts up and then leaned against the car with that same smug look on his face that Rein was wearing earlier. To be honest, I felt a bit of a rush as he looked at me.
"I don't know what to say. That's impressive." I crossed my arms, nodding at him.
"I should give him back, though. I've made my point." He winked at me, turned towards the gas tank and then Rein slipped out of his back. The muscled hunk shook for a moment and then twitched before getting into his car and driving off with a full tank of gas.
"I think we're even." I looked at him and his eyes sparkled a bit as he smiled in my direction.
"We should go out. I think we could have some fun together." Rein spun around on my stool in the studio as I finished up some finishing touches on the dress. One of the nice things about my quirk is I could make the materials needed for any missing pieces and last minute details. This made the fabric store useless unless I wanted inspiration. It meant I got to avoid the judgmental quilters and home-sewers who felt they were the pinnacle of fashion in their book club.
"I need to finish this." I said, doodling a needle and a spool of thread, filling in the color with a marker and then picking it up off the page.
"Does your quirk have any limits? Like can you draw anything and make it real?" Rein leaned towards me as I stitched the hem and made sure the seams were reinforced.
"I haven't really tried. I don't normally use it for anything other than small things like this. I know that I can't like draw books and have their pages filled with the story I'm thinking of, it normally just comes out blank." I picked a pin out of the fabric and stabbed it into my wrist pin cushion.
"What about money?"
"Everyone always asks me that, but, ow fuck," pushing the needle through the fibers, I felt the sharp end pierce my finger and I looked up at him. "I can make money, but sometimes it can read as fake. Not always though." I sucked my finger, the taste of iron swirling around in my mouth.
"That's awesome. Do you get tired?" He joined me on the floor, crossing his legs as I finished up the last few stitches. "I only ask because sometimes if I'm inside if someone for a really long time then when I leave I have to like regain all that energy I spent."
"I haven't really, but I also haven't tried anything that might make me tired." I shrugged.
"Like what?"
"I don't know, like a person?" I started putting away my tools, adding the ones I wanted to keep and then crushing the other in my hand as they turned into particles slipping between my fingers.
"I haven't tried that, no. I did accidentally turn one of my drawings as a kid into a real thing, which terrified my parents. That was a crazy way to figure out your son had a quirk." I laughed, stepping back to look at the dress. There was a moment of silence as Rein joined me in looking at the garment I had created.
"It's beautiful." He rocks side to side in the chair.
"Thank you." I blush, looking over at him.
"So, now that your done would you like to go out?" He smiled.
"Fine, but only because I finished early." I chuckle.
The gas station light flickered as a woman approaches the older gentleman at the counter and speaks in a warm clear tone, "Hi there, I hope you're having a wonderful evening. Have you seen anything out of the ordinary happening around here?" Her dress swishes side to side as she leans against the counter. The warm smile on her face is sickly sweet and the older gentleman shakes his head. After getting nothing from the old man, her smile drops and she turns away from him to look around the aisles.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" The elderly man coughs.
"I can feel it. They've been here." She sniffs the air, "Two of them?" She turns back to the old man with that sickly sweet grin again.
"Ma'am?" His raspy voice struggles.
"I'd like to see your footage for the day," Her smile is frozen as she speaks and her eyes swirl, turning from a brown to a dark purple. The older man stands there dazed and then blankly nods.
"Yes, ma'am." He coughs.
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