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Podfic Length: 4:30
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"You're blue. And fuzzy. And you have a tail."
Eduardo kind of wishes that this was not his life, but his life is incredibly peculiar sometimes and his holographic inducer is very much not working at the moment. Really, there are only two options here: lie (which Eduardo is not very good at), or admit that he's a mutant (which years of running have taught him is never the ideal option). Dustin isn't stupid or drunk enough for the option Eduardo usually uses, which is trying to convince the person that they're seeing things. And it's not close enough to Halloween for that excuse to work either.
"Please don't tell anyone."
"Are you blue and fuzzy all the time? Or is this some weird kinky thing?"
"My holographic inducer broke."
Holding up the still-functioning watch that houses the holographic inducer, Eduardo internally winces because he can hear his sister mentally screaming at him and telling him that this is why the family didn't want to send him away to college in the first place. Dustin takes the watch from him and looks it over, although Eduardo doesn't know what he's seeing. It mostly looks like a watch to him, even though the way it functions has actually been explained to him on multiple occasions. Dustin is good with tech, though, so maybe he understands it.
"Be right back."
There's a gust of air, and Eduardo blinks. Before he can even question what just happened, Dustin's standing in front of him again and holding out his watch. Eduardo takes it back warily, but when he puts it back on it works perfectly.
"You're not the only one with superpowers. Or a holographic inducer. You should ask Chris about his wings sometime—he keeps saying that he's going to bring up the fact that you make smoke when you bamf here and we totally know you're a mutant, but he's worried that you'll—shit. Are you crying?"
"No. I just. I'm sorry, I've just been hiding this for so long and."
"Oh my god. Come here, I just need to hug you. Stop being so sad, your sad eyes should be registered weapons."
Growing up around a sister who absorbed powers via touch and a mother who wasn't the worst mother by any means, but who was also busy trying to keep them all safe from various unpleasant mutant experimentation programs for a number of years, Eduardo is unused to physical affection. He knows it's a thing that people do, but he's not really aware of the intricacies of it as a social custom. So, when Dustin pulls Eduardo close and squeezes, Eduardo has to tamp down the instinct to fight Dustin off and relax into the touch. Once he's let the tension leech out of him, the hug is actually kind of nice.
"Wait. Chris has wings?"
"Chris has wings, I'm a speedster, and Mark is an empath. You never noticed?"
When Dustin points it out, Eduardo can see the idiosyncrasies that would have told him his friends were superpowered too. Things are forever mysteriously falling down around Chris, who always just laughs nervously and suggests that Harvard is haunted. Dustin twitches, never still for very long, and consumes about two times as much food as he should be able to—which is a lot of food, considering that Dustin's a college-aged boy and they just eat a lot. Mark is a little trickier, because in theory empaths should be kind and caring people and Mark is kind of an asshole, but working backwards from knowing he's an empath makes it easier to remember the way Mark sometimes drops chocolate bars into Eduardo's lap without explanation and sits down next to him, silent but a welcome presence anyway.
"He's a terrible empath."
"Mark likes to say that he only understands emotions and not people. Feeling better?"
"Yes. Thank you for, um. Fixing my holographic inducer."
"No problem, I fix Chris' all the time. And remember, we're always here to talk."
"That's . . . Thank you. I haven't had anyone to talk to about these kinds of things in a while. I'm glad you guys are my friends."
"And we're glad you're ours."