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"Babe, I'm so glad you're back, I've got telekinesis. From the storm."
Carlos dropped his keys on the table and ran over the sentence TK had greeted him with several times in his head. Nope. He was gonna need that one again.
"What?"
"I can move things with my mind. It's probably from the lightning storm earlier," TK explained quickly, the words tumbling out of his mouth.
Carlos gently took his boyfriend's head in his hands and checked his pupils. "Ok. Did you take something, honey?"
"What? No," TK denied.
His pupils were fine, but he was clearly hyped up and talking nonsense. Carlos was worried. "Did something else happen today? Did you hit your head or inhale something at a call?" He scanned the room looking for evidence of drugs, or anything else out of the ordinary.
"Carlos, you're not listening."
"I am listening, that's why I'm worried. So why don't we just sit for a sec and just calm down a little bit," Carlos said, using his softest tone.
TK huffed, clearly annoyed. "Look, I'll show you."
TK looked around and set his eyes on a coffee mug on the table. In the blink of an eye, the mug flew off the table and smashed against the wall.
Carlos watched the event, unimpressed. So TK was learning magic now? That man was full of surprises. Still, at least he hadn’t brought home another lizard.
"So was that supposed to happen? Or was it supposed to fly into your hand? It needs work, babe," Carlos told him, and went to get a dustpan and brush.
"What? Carlos, I'm serious."
"About...magic?" Carlos didn't like to say, but he hated magicians. He sincerely hoped this was a flash in the pan hobby or some trick TK had learned between calls. Magicians were tricksters and Carlos did not like to be tricked.
"Pick anything in this room!" TK insisted. "That you don't mind breaking,” he added, “I haven't quite figured out directions yet."
"Pick something for you to break with your mind powers, ok." Carlos sighed. He kind of just wanted to sit down with a glass of wine and watch something inane on TV, snuggled up on the couch, but he loved TK and he was clearly excited about whatever the hell this was. "Uh, how about the frying pan?"
"Frying pan," TK repeated with determination. He squinted at the frying pan, which was on the stove across the room.
Carlos did not have enough time to react before the frying pan flew across the room whacked him on the forehead. "OW, WHAT THE HELL, TK!"
"Ohhhh my god, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, are you ok?"
"No! You hit me in the head with a frying pan! How did you even know I'd pick the frying pan? Do you have fishing line attached to everything in here?"
TK lead him to the couch and sat him down. "Fishing line? No, I did it with my brain," TK corrected, annoyed he'd had to repeat himself. "I was in this really weird localised storm today and when I got back I could move stuff by just thinking about it."
"Ok, can you just stop now?” Carlos asked, getting impatient. “It's kinda weird that you're committing the bit this hard. Am I bleeding?"
TK sat down beside him and checked the wound, which already felt like it was a comically large cartoon lump.
"No, there's no blood. Just a bruise forming. Oh god, people are gonna think I did this," TK lamented.
"You did do this, TK."
"You should have chosen a pillow!" TK argued. "Look!"
A cushion flew across the room and whacked Carlos in full in the face.
"OH MY GOD, STOP!"
"I'm sorry! You didn't believe me!"
Carlos had had enough. "Of course I didn't believe you! I don't believe you! You don't have telekinesis.” Why was he explaining this to a grown man? “Telekinesis is not real. Please stop this, whatever this is. I’ve had a long day.”
"I'm telling the truth! Do you see any wires on any of this?" TK gestured wildly to everything in the room.
Carlos turned the cushion over in his hands. There weren't any wires, but obviously TK was either having a breakdown or playing a very strange, inappropriately long-winded prank. Because telekinesis was obviously not a thing that existed outside of fiction.
TK stood up and sported a grumpy, yet determined expression that was slightly worrying. He started to squint at Carlos, as if he was concentrating extremely hard at setting him on fire or something.
"Are you... what are you doing?" Carlos asked.
Then he started to float.
Carlos had never felt anything like it. The closest thing to it was one of those theme park rides that dropped you from a great height – the exact moment you dropped and felt weightless for a half-second before the freefall. He did not like those rides, and he did not like whatever the hell was happening right now. He made a sound akin to that of screaming goat, and then plonked back onto the couch again. At least the freefall this time was only a few inches, and he had a soft landing.
Carlos was in shock. "H…how did you do that?"
"Babe, I've been trying to tell you. The storm today. Weird powers? Please believe me because I'm freaking out."
TK would never prank him like this. Not without cracking a smile long before now. Plus, how the hell did he even do that? Lift him of the couch without even touching him? What the hell was happening?
"I believe you. I think…"
TK’s shoulders dropped with relief. “Oh thank god. So what do you think I should do?” he asked. “I mean, do you think this is permanent? How much do you think I could lift? Do you think I could fly with this?”
TK rattled off the questions so fast Carlos barely had time for any of them to sink in. In fact, every word bounced off him as he tried to process what was happening.
“I… I don’t…”
“Are you ok?” TK asked.
“Uh, sure. Just questioning reality and my own existence, that’s all. Maybe I’m going mad. Maybe I got hit in the head or inhaled something today,” Carlos wondered aloud.
“You’re not going mad,” TK told him. “I mean, you did get hit in the head. Just now, with a frying pan. But that was an accident and you’re fine.”
“Uh-huh. Can you show me again? Without hitting me in the face,” Carlos asked. He didn’t know if really wanted to witness it again, but the whole situation really wasn’t sinking in. Maybe this time TK would crack and smile and say ‘gotcha’ and Carlos could get on with being mad at him for this stupid charade.
TK chucked the cushion he’d been holding up in the air, and Carlos watched it change directions mid-air and hit the window across the room. It fell onto the sideboard and knocked some things over.
TK huffed. “I have to practice. These powers are useless if I can’t get a handle on them.”
“Powers,” Carlos repeated, nodding, as if somehow that would make it more believable. It didn’t.
“So should I become like a vigilante or something? Or a superhero?” TK asked.
“Vigilantism is against the law, so no,” Carlos said. “And you’re already a paramedic with first responder training, I don't think you can be more of a hero, even with telekinesis.”
TK seemed to be touched by the answer. “Thanks. But I gotta use them for something right? This is so cool. I mean, it will be once I can use it properly. I could lift heavy stuff off people or keep them steady while we get a backboard, I don’t know, maybe I should go back to fire fighting. Ooh, do you think I could like control fire? I think that’s called pyrokinesis. Let me look it up.”
Carlos silently watched TK while he looked up ‘pyrokinesis’ on his phone. He started to think about how the world would react to someone using telekinetic powers. Most people would probably assume it was a trick if they saw something strange. But if anyone were to take it seriously, it was likely the first reaction would be fear. An individual might understand, but the more people, the more afraid, and the more terrible and dangerous they became. If the government found out… Carlos had seen enough movies and tv shows to know this didn’t end well. Capture, imprisonment, experimentation… his eyes went wide, imagining all the ways this could go wrong.
“Does anyone else know about this?” Carlos asked, trying not to let the panic slip into his voice.
“No, I only found out when I got home and shut the door without touching it,” TK answered.
Carlos was relieved. “I think we should probably keep it that way.”
“Like a secret identity,” TK said, nodding.
“Sure,” Carlos replied. Whatever kept him safe. “You can practice in secret, and only use it when you really need to. If the wrong people found it, it could be dangerous.”
“I never thought of that,” TK said, then got excited. “I could start to learn magic tricks, as a cover.”
Carlos felt his heart sink a little. It was a good idea, but he really did hate magicians. Still, TK could do real magic now, which sort of negated the magician thing. It wasn’t a trick if it was real magic. Weird storm magic. Carlos tried to remember if he’d accidentally done some drugs earlier, because that would make much more sense than what was happening right now.
TK’s phone rang and he answered it.
“Hey, what’s up...Oh my god, really? That’s awesome… yeah, telekinesis... I know…”
Carlos looked at him in disbelief. Was he literally telling the first person who called him about his new powers? TK saw his expression and abruptly reined in his excitement.
“Oh, I gotta go… yeah… ok, I’ll talk to you tomorrow…”
Carlos waited for an explanation like a parent waiting for their kid to explain how a vase got broken.
“That was Nancy,” TK told him sheepishly. “Vega can read minds and Nancy has x-ray vision.”