Chapter Text
Jordan takes out their earbuds as they walk down the hallway, getting closer to Marie’s dorm. They check their phone one more time, confirming that she hasn’t seen or replied to their text saying they’re on their way. Not a big deal though, she probably just fell asleep when she got back from her morning lecture. That’s not uncommon for the overworked girl.
Reaching her door, Jordan knocks somewhat gently, trying to be considerate enough to wake their girlfriend slowly. They fidget with the straps of their tank top, a little tighter than they’d like in their male form. When there’s no response, they knock again. A little louder this time.
“Marie?” They call through the door. Nothing. Their heart starts to pound in their chest. She should be here. They pull out their phone again and scroll up in their texts. Yeah, she’d messaged Jordan at 11:14 saying she was back in her room and that they should come over after their class. She would’ve told them if she went somewhere else since.
They start knocking more incessantly on the door now, scared shitless. They’re two seconds away from switching to blast the door down when they hear footsteps, and then the door creaks open so it’s just slightly ajar.
They let out a sigh of relief as they push the door in. “Thank god, Marie I thought-“
Jordan freezes as they take in a completely unexpected sight. Marie isn’t here. But Jordan isn’t alone either.
Against the back wall of the room, stands a little girl. She’s in a fighting stance, and visibly trembling. Blood drips down her arm and to the floor. She’s enraged. That, or terrified, but she’s on high alert, eyes wrenched open, mouth wide as her chest heaves with staggered breathing.
Jordan hasn’t seen this girl before. Not exactly, but they’ve seen her little sister in a memory. And there’s a strong family resemblance.
Their face twists as shock and horror overtakes them.
“Marie?”
The girl flinches at her name. “Stop right there!” She shouts, “don’t move!”
She hold her hands up and some blood rises from the carpet, forming into a small dagger like blade floating in the air in front of her.
Jordan would be impressed if they weren’t so wildly confused and scared.
“Woah, I’m not- I’m not going to hurt you!”
They raise their hands in front of their chest in surrender as the sharp blood inches towards them. “Marie, what’s going on?”
This was clearly the wrong thing to say, as the girl’s anger is evident in the speed the blood takes on. “Who are you?” She growls.
Jordan’s eyebrows knit together. “Jordan?”, they say halfheartedly. The blood reaches them and hovers an inch away from their throat, backing them up into the open door, slamming it closed. The girl bites her cheek.
“Where am I?”. The question comes out almost as a whisper.
“You… you don’t know?” Jordan asks.
The girl deflates and the blood falls harmlessly to the floor as she does, dropping to her hands and knees. Her figure shakes in quiet sobs.
Jordan takes a second to catch their breath, feeling like they missed a week’s worth of Justine’s gossip blog.
They rush towards the girl but in a second the dagger is back at their throat as the girl glares up at them. They swallow, and choose their words carefully. “Hey, I just wanna talk. Okay? Can we talk?”
They see distinctive fear behind the anger in her eyes and quickly shift to their female form. Why didn’t they think of that sooner? Of course a strange man would be terrifying in any scenario.
Her eyes widen for a split second before her face softens and she nods gently. She doesn’t drop the weapon, but she pulls it further away from Jordan, giving them some room.
They breathe a sigh of relief. Slowly, giving the girl plenty of time to watch what they’re doing, they take a few steps towards her so they’re comfortably close, but not invading her space, then sit down cross legged on the floor.
Unsure what to do with their hands, they fidget with a ring while they try to calm their heart rate just a little bit. Finally their courage returns and they make eye contact with the scared child. “You are Marie, right?”.
The girl nods again.
Jordan can’t believe it’s actually her. Of course, not many supes have blood powers and bear a striking resemblance to Marie’s sister, but they were still hoping it wasn’t true. Their brow furrows. “How old are you?”.
Marie bites her cheek before replying. “Twelve”, she says defiantly.
Oh god, how could this have happened?
“And… you don’t know how you got here?”, they ask. Marie shakes her head quickly. “What’s the last thing you remember?”.
Marie looks down, the tension growing on her face. She looks up to meet Jordan’s gaze. “I was in the back of that truck. They tied me down, covered my eyes, gave me-“
Her hand shoots over to rub a spot on her left arm, and eyes widen when she sees no mark there. “They were taking me to that facility-“. Her face twitches like she’s trying to keep it neutral, but a tear falls down her cheek.
Jordan feels like being sick. They knew she’d been taken from her home after her parents died, but to treat a child in that way? It didn’t matter that the child could kill a person with the flick of a wrist, she’s still just a kid.
So all Marie remembers is killing her parents, being taken away, and then ending up in a college dorm in fight or flight mode. There go seven years of memories.
Jordan disregards Marie’s looming threat of physical violence and shuffles closer to her to wrap her in a tight hug. They hear the blood fall to the floor behind them.
The small girl sinks into the hug before her body tenses up and she pushes them off. “No! Get- get away!” Her ragged breathing interrupts her cries. “I- I killed my parents! I’m a monster! Get out of here!”
Jordan backs up only to their previous sitting position.
“I know”, they nod gently, ignoring the pressure behind their eyes, “but you’re not a monster. I’m not scared of you”.
Marie’s head drops and she wraps her arms around herself in a tight hug. “You should be”. She mumbles.
Jordan lets her sit there and self soothe for a while. They eventually get up, narrating what they’re doing the whole time, to grab two cherry cokes from Emma’s mini fridge. Marie’s favourite. Well, besides the white claws, and they’re not giving alcohol to a kid.
Marie seems dubious when they hand it to her, but she cracks her can open after Jordan does the same. “Mmm!” Her eyes light up when she takes a sip, and she quickly goes back for more.
Fuck’s sake, Jordan thinks , I hope I didn’t just give her a sugar high.
When Marie has downed half the can, she sets it down beside her, turning her attention back to the other person in the room. “So…”, she starts shyly, “who exactly did you say you are again?”
Jordan grimaces. They’ve been thinking about how to explain this, and haven’t landed on an answer. They run their hand through their bob. “Um, I’m… a friend of your family, okay? Name’s Jordan”. They reach a hand out for a shake, trying to project false confidence.
Marie looks a little unsure, but she accepts the handshake anyways, reaching out with her one not bloody hand.
Jordan gives what they hope is a reassuring smile. God, it sucks to see this poor kid covered in blood. Especially her own. Marie’s treasured pocketknife has been discarded on the floor, and they can only assume little Marie found it and used it to cut open her palm. Jordan has always hated to see Marie cut open and bloody. Obviously, cutting herself is part of her power. It needs to be done to get access to her weapon. But it still hurts.
“You… you were a boy when you came in here…”, Marie starts quietly. “Are you a supe too?”.
Jordan smiles. “Yeah I am! You wanna see what I can do?”
Marie looks a little nervous, but nods eagerly. Jordan makes a note to tone it down a little for her. “See that can over there?” They point to an empty white claw on Emma’s nightstand. Marie nods.
Jordan lets off a small blast, just enough to shoot the can off the table, then glances back at their audience.
Her face, though tearstained, is absolutely lit up, her grin spreading ear to ear. “Cool!”.
Jordan grins, “but wait, there’s more!”. They stand up to retrieve Marie’s knife from the other side of the room, but hesitate before they switch as planned. Glancing back to the cross legged girl, they grimace. “Is it okay if I…”
Marie seems to understand, and nods again. “I don’t mind”.
Jordan switches, and they kneels back down, holding out their forearm to show Marie as they drag the blade of her knife across their invulnerable skin.
Her eyes nearly pop out of her head. “Wait, so you-“.
“Nothing can break my skin”. They finish, “not while I’m like this anyways”.
Marie squints in consideration. “So… earlier… could I even have hurt you if I wanted to?”.
“Why don’t we test it?”
The truth is they did know the answer. Of course they’d tested this before. Marie had been reluctant but the two of them wanted to know what the capabilities and limits were. Nothing can cut through their skin, not even Marie’s fancy blood blades. She could do a little damage if she used, like, a wall of blood, or restrain them to some degree with her whips, but no real lasting pain.
Marie shrinks back right away. “No.”, she mutters quietly, “I can’t”.
“Look at me, kid”.
Marie raises her eyes.
“You won’t hurt me. You can test by using a little bitty blade on my arm super gently at first. And even if it does cut me, it’s nothing a band aid won’t fix. Sound okay?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t control it like that. I just got my powers”.
“Don’t worry about it, okay? I trust you. Just take it slow and picture what you want the blood to do”.
Marie had spent many hours talking to Jordan about her powers. They felt like they understood it almost as well as she did.
Young Marie nods slowly and closes her eyes, raising all of the blood in the room that’s yet to dry. Opening her eyes, she strains and pulls it all to one collective orb. It moves in a jagged manner towards Jordan’s arm, but she keeps amazing control as she forms a blade and touches the blood down to their skin. Pulling it away, she gasps, clearly afraid, seeing blood left on their arm. Jordan smiles and runs their hand along it showing that it wipes off completely. There’s no source there. “It’s just yours, it’s okay.”
She continues holding her breath, bringing the blade down more forcefully this time, even pulling back and forth in a sawing motion. When she stops, Jordan uses a t-shirt on the floor to wipe their arm again, completely unharmed. “See? I’m all good!”.
Marie finally grasps that she can’t hurt them and starts laughing. Elated, she drops the blood to the floor once again.
Jordan smiles as they toss the shirt into Marie’s laundry hamper and switch back to their feminine form. Marie stops laughing.
They look back at her to find her staring with an indecipherable look on her face. Suddenly unnerved, they try to make light of the uncomfortable power (and fact of their identity). “Oh yeah, and that’s my other power”, they chuckle, “not as cool at parties though”. Marie’s eyebrows knit together.
“Can I ask you a question?”.
They’re surprised at this, she hasn’t seemed to have trouble asking questions until now.
“Yeah, course you can, Marie”.
“Are-“, she pauses and takes a breath. “Are you a boy… or a girl?”.
Jordan feels the wind get knocked out of their sails. They have no idea how to answer that. People don’t usually ask things in that vein, more tell them what they should be.
Marie notices the silence and starts rambling to fill it. “Gosh, I’m really sorry ma’am, I know that’s not polite, mom always says it’s not polite. You don’t have to answer that, I shouldn’t have-“
“No, no, it’s okay”. Jordan stops her with a small smile. “I’m glad you asked, I just need a sec to think about how to answer. It’s not something people ask me very often”.
Marie nods, chewing on her lip. She still looks nervous.
Taking a deep breath, Jordan steels themself. “Well, I’m bigender. Have you heard that word before?”.
Marie shakes her head.
“It means that, basically, I’m both. When I was growing up I had to be a boy all the time, and I knew that didn’t feel right, but it also wasn’t completely wrong. I’m really lucky that my powers let me do both. I can be a boy and a girl, I can switch when I need to, to feel most like me”.
Marie smiles and nods. “That’s cool!”, she says grinning.
Nerves suddenly hit Jordan, and they don’t want to scare the poor thing again.
“But, I can absolutely stay like this if it makes you feel more comfortable”.
“Nah, I don’t mind”, Marie grins, brushing off the suggestion. “Can you tell me more about what it’s like? I can’t believe you’re both, it’s like a strawberry-orange popsicle!”.
Adoration rises in Jordan chest. What a cool person. A pang of sadness hits them at the same time imagining how carefree Marie might have been as an adult if she didn’t have to suffer so much trauma and hardship in her upbringing.
The juxtaposition of the bright and bubbly girl drenched in her own blood is almost too much to bear now that they’re focused on it.
“I can for sure, and please ask me if you have any other questions, but… how about first I- how about we get you cleaned up?”
Marie bites her cheek again, her mood dropping slightly. She nods anyways, and Jordan is grateful she’s placed her trust in them.