Shawn had learned Addison liked to have time to process things, or he got easily frustrated. He’d provided the information, the full information about who his dad was, with helmet set on the kitchen counter as some evidence, then let Addison have the space to work his way through it. He’d done the same with punishments, letting Addison think about what he’d done wrong before they talked about it. He’d done it when Shawn’s dad had died. He’d really fucking wished Jennifer had done it when dropping the news about the divorce, but there was nothing he could do about that.

The issue was, the approach had a way of moving things to the far other extreme of the spectrum of reactions. Addison seemed disconcertingly calm about it all.

“Okay,” Addison said. “I understand why you lied.”

“For the record,” Shawn said. “I didn’t lie. When I told you I had paperwork, I was telling the truth. When I said I’d be late, I wasn’t mentioning I was busy wearing a costume.”

Addison nodded.

“I felt it was important not to lie to your face.”

“Okay,” Addison said. “Thanks, I guess. I understand why you did it.”

“Okay,” Shawn responded. He felt very aware of the pause. “Any questions?”

“When you said I should be careful about if I inherit Mom’s whole…” Addison gestured at his head.

“That wasn’t Mom’s whole thing,” Shawn said. “It was one part of your mom, that wasn’t in the top three defining qualities about her, just so you know. She was luckier than some, but even if she wasn’t, it wouldn’t be her in whole.”

“Bad word, sorry,” Addison said. He seemed to ruminate for a second before asking, “It wasn’t code for superhero stuff?”

“No. But you might get powers, because I have them.”

“Wow,” Addison said, voice dry. “Whichever parent I get something from, it’s going to be interesting. Fuck.”

“Could be neither.”

“Could be both.”

“Could,” Shawn said, feeling that nervousness again.

“I looked you up. Dauntless.”

“And?”

“And there was this interview question. It’s on video—”

Addison turned the laptop ninety degrees. Shawn approached his son, one hand touching his back, and leaned down to better see. It meant a hell of a lot that Addison didn’t shy away or react to the proximity or the touch.

One of the school events.

“I heard that you get powers from being awesome,” a girl on the screen said, the camera struggling to find her, focusing in only as she finished saying ‘awesome’. “Can you tell us what you did?”

The question evoked a lot of defensive squabbling, some students protesting that you couldn’t ask that sort of thing. Even some teachers were ready to protect his identity.

“I can’t tell you the exact details, but I saved a life,” the Dauntless on screen said. “One that meant everything to me.”

Addison glanced from screen to his dad.