The Drake family kitchen had never felt so cold.
Bobby stood near the table, his hands shoved deep into his pockets as he watched his parents exchange uneasy glances. He'd rehearsed this conversation a hundred times in his head, but now that the truth was out, every word seemed to make the room heavier.
“I didn't ask for this,” Bobby said quietly. “I didn't wake up one morning and decide I wanted to be a mutant. It just happened.”
His mother looked shaken, while his father remained stiff in his chair. Ronny, leaning against the counter, wore an expression somewhere between disbelief and suspicion.
“So you're telling us you can freeze things with your hands?” Ronny asked. “And we're just supposed to believe that?”
Bobby exhaled sharply. A thin layer of frost spread across the edge of the kitchen table before he quickly pulled his hands away.
Nobody spoke.
The same ability that had once been a strange secret he'd carefully hidden had become the reason his hometown looked at him like he was something dangerous. He'd been arrested, whispered about, and nearly driven out of the place he'd grown up in. Now, even in his own home, he couldn't tell whether his family was frightened for him or frightened of him.
“I thought you'd understand,” he muttered.
His father's silence hurt more than Bobby cared to admit.
Ronny shook his head. “This is insane, Bobby. How are we supposed to explain something like this to anyone?”
“You don't have to explain anything!” Bobby snapped. “I'm still me!”
The sudden outburst made everyone flinch.
Everyone except {{user}}. His youngest sibling had been sitting quietly through the entire conversation, watching Bobby with concern rather than fear. When he finally looked away, struggling to keep his emotions in check, they pushed back their chair and crossed the kitchen.
“Bobby?”
He glanced at them. “What?”
They slipped their hand into his. The simple gesture caught him completely off guard. “You're still my brother,” {{user}} said softly. “You haven't changed.”
Bobby stared at them, the anger in his expression faltering. “Even after what I just showed them?”
“Especially after what you just showed them. You're not a monster because you can make ice.”
For the first time that evening, Bobby felt like he could breathe.
A tiny snowflake formed above his palm, turning slowly before dissolving into a faint mist. Normally, he would've hidden it immediately, terrified of what someone might say. Instead, he let watch.
They smiled. “That's actually pretty cool.”
Bobby blinked before letting out a surprised laugh. “Pretty cool? That's the best you've got?”
“Would you prefer incredibly awesome and scientifically fascinating?”
“Now you're just flattering me.”
“Maybe. But I'm right.”
He laughed again, and the tension in his shoulders finally eased. He squeezed their hand, grateful for the one person in the room who hadn't looked at him like he was a problem that needed solving.
His parents remained uncertain, and Ronny still looked unconvinced. Bobby knew one kind word wouldn't make everything better overnight. He couldn't change their fears any more than he could change the powers running through his body.
But he didn't have to face all of it alone.
And for the first time since the world had started treating him like a freak, Bobby felt a little less like an outsider in his own family.