"I kind of want to apologize for making you worried but also I'm just so happy you care enough to worry. Not that I thought you wouldn't, just. 

Oh, and I'm serious about the Stark job. If you have problems because of it he will fix them and if he doesn't I will go yell at him and he will take me seriously because apparently I live the kind of life where I'm friends with Asher Stark." 

"I want to be able to kiss you in public without being scared that my parents will find me, I want to be able to eat enough food, I want interesting things to do with my power, I want-- I want to not have to be afraid anymore."

"Yeah. Yeah, this'll get you all of that. The worst thing about being outside is that I can't take the mask off and kiss you." 

"It'll be really nice to not have to be hungry all the time."

— oh god Lev needs so many hugs. "I'm so sorry about your family." 

"They love me, really, they're just. Conservative."

"…Lev, you were worried about them killing you." 

"...okay yeah they'd probably stop loving me if they found out I wasn't human."

"If somebody loved me until they found out my parents aren't here legally then they didn't love me very much in the first place, did they." 

"It's different--" and he's crying into Sasha's shoulder.

He holds Lev. He really wishes he could kiss Lev's forehead. 

"It's not. Loving Imaginary Human Lev doesn't count unless you'd love the real Lev too." 

"Illegal immigrants are still human-- and, and you're you, you deserve--" Sobbing.

"I don't believe in deserving. You're still a person." 

"I'm not a person, I'm a mutant."

"…the only qualitative difference is that you have to eat more and have a superpower. You act like a person, you talk like a person, you have dreams and interests and relationships like a person. If you're somehow not a person despite all of that then the person/not-person distinction can't matter very much, not for anything important." 

Lev rests his head on Sasha's shoulder. "You're sweet. I'm... not sure that my parents would be wrong to kill me but I don't want to die. So."

Sasha keeps hugging him. 

"Okay. — you know if you want to I can get you to Asher's right now, right?" 

"Part of me thinks I should think about it more but the other part of me wants food and then to make out with you and I think the latter one is going to win."

"Okay. — I should probably come in and change before we go, I've never tried swinging while carrying someone and really don't want to drop you but I can't exactly take the subway looking like this." 

"Okay," Lev says. "Should I stay out here or--?"

"You can if you want but don't have to." 

He's quick about getting changed, by now. 

Lev does not completely hide his mild disappointment when he sees what Sasha looks like with his clothes off. 

…he can deal with that at a different point. Getting Lev to Stark Tower takes precedence. 

He texts Asher 

fansite guy has some circumstances, am bringing him to your place

on the way. 

I'll be in the lobby

He is. He's wearing sweatpants and a hoodie; the hoodie fails to completely conceal the fact that he isn't wearing a shirt under it.

This is the first time Asher's seen him dressed normally. 

"Hi, Asher. This is Lev, he's the fansite guy and also he's my boyfriend. Lev, you can tell him everything you told me."