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Captain Man gasped to catch his breath as he watched the police take Dr.Minyak into custody as they roughly escorted him into the cruiser. Rescuers were helping and checking up on any injured bystanders— thankfully very few since Kid Danger had successfully evacuated the building before the explosion, a few scrapes and bruises, a twisted ankle at most—
he did one more once over of the crowd to make sure he wasn’t needed before sprinting towards the rubble of the building.
See, Hyper-motility has been a game changer for Captain Man and Kid Danger. Henry got hit a lot less since the development and that meant Ray spent less sleepless nights worrying about the boy in the bedroom down the hall.
It meant less time off school, failed grades, less agony. Less reasons to worry about Henry being taken away from him.
It boosted Henry’s confidence in a way that made Ray’s heart smile, he was less hesitant in his moves — less dependent on Captain Man for his safety. But that made the kid cocky. A little too confident.
I-can-totally-escape-the-building-after-getting-everyone-out-safe-before-it-explodes levels of confidence. God, what was that Kid thinking? What was Ray thinking?
Captain Man crouched down next to Kid Danger. His Kid. And brushed away the bits of rubble that fell on him, creating small tears in his uniform.
To the Kid’s credit; he did sort of make it out.
The building collapsed when he was just a few feet away from “the safe zone” but he just wasn’t fast enough.
If Captain Man wasn’t so distracted with Minyak this wouldn’t have happened— if he bothered to help evacuate the building instead of trusting a sixteen year old to do it himself this would have all been fine.
Henry looked at him with a mildly dazed expression and offered a weak smile. Henry’s eyes were full of fear but there was something about the way they moved that made Ray feel like he was being looked through rather than looked at.
Captain Man forced himself out of his thoughts—he could not afford to become emotional out on the field— and pulled Kid Danger close.
His skin felt alarmingly cool for how much effort he put into the fight. Kid Danger hugged him back—very tight— not that Captain Man minded. He was shaking so hard it made Ray question why the fuck he brought a sixteen year old Kid— a sixteen year old who he was legally responsible for no less— into a situation like this, superpowers be damned that was fucked up.
Ray didn’t let himself think about the time Henry was thirteen, and didn’t have any powers to keep himself safe.
He felt Henry bury his face into the side of his neck and felt more then heard him mumble something.
Right, comforting. . .
Truth be told, that was usually Kid Danger’s job, but Ray Managed to become a foster parent (by making Schwoz fake some paperwork), so he could Manage this too. Probably.
“Yeah Kiddo, I’m here, you’re okay.”
Henry mumbled something else into his shoulder, the inflection made it sound like the unintelligible mumbling might have been a question but before Ray could ask he heard sirens and rapid footsteps approaching.
Captain Man urgently waved the paramedics over— feeling the way Henry tightened his grip.
Ray shushed him softly. Stroking his hair— which was wet with sweat by the way. Gross.
Captain Man turned to the paramedics to give them a rushed explanation of what was going on, ignoring Henry’s death grip or the way he shivered and felt cold despite the amount of exercise. Captain Man tapped Kid Danger’s back,
“Hey Kid, you gotta let go, let them check you out.” Henry’s grip didn’t falter. Captain Man gave an awkward glance to the paramedics who seemed a bit at a loss but remained professional. Ray supposed that they probably didn’t deal with superheroes often.
“He uh, he’s had a rough day that’s all.” Captain Man muttered to the paramedics, a silent plea to be careful with his Kid.
One of the medics nodded and stepped forwards, resting a careful hand on his back.
“We just need to make sure you’re not hurt. Just an IV and a check up and we’ll see if there’s anything else you need.”
Kid Danger wasn’t listening, at the mention of the IV his grip on Captain Man tightened ten fold and Ray could feel his heart rate go up. As he whined softly into him.
“Ah fuck,” Ray muttered, mentally chastising himself for cursing in uniform. “He has a needle phobia, uh, it’s pretty bad.” He gave the paramedic an apologetic glance. She bit the inside of her lip in confusion, Ray could see the confusion in her eyes. People never seemed to realise that under the mask, Kid Danger was well- a Kid. Honestly Ray had a habit of forgetting sometimes. Henry was one hell of a Kid, and he deserved so much better than Ray.
Captain Man sucked in a breath and tapped Kid Danger lightly on the shoulder, “hey Kid, Kid look at me.” He kept his tone firm but gentle.
Hesitantly Kid Danger pulled away from his chest and looked him in the eyes. Even with the direct eye contact he seemed unfocused, confused, paralyzed with fear. Captain Man glanced at the paramedic who was crouched next to them. Kid Danger followed his gaze and immediately clocked the needle in her hands connected to a portable IV setup, without letting go of Ray he leaned away from her, almost knocking Captain Man off balance.
Henry’s attempts to get away were clumsy at best and part of Ray hoped that the stress of it all would make him faint— and immediately hated himself for the thought.
He brought a hand up to Henry’s jaw and turned his head to look at him, and moved his arm to block his view of the medics when he tried to peek back at them.
Captain Man strained his ears to eavesdrop on the medics, couldn’t make out much but something along the lines of “risk of hypovolemic shock” was said. Ray didn’t know much about medicine— being indestructible, it wasn’t really something he needed to know— but he was pretty sure that was something like bad dehydration or something.
The medics looked like they were getting impatient, Henry was still scared out of his mind. Ray improvised the best he could.
“Kid. Do you trust me?”, Kid Danger looked at him confused,
“Do. You. Trust. Me?” Captain Man asked again, firmer this time. He didn’t have time for the gentle approach, and right now he cared more about his Kid being okay.
“Um, I guess—wH” Captain Man braced the back of Kid's head from the fall as he pushed him onto the ground to immobilise him, taking advantage of Kid's shock to pin the arm by his side with his knee, while using his other leg to trap Kid's thighs.
Once safely landed, the Captain rolled Kid's head onto the ground and used that hand to block his view, while manoeuvring Kid's free arm to the side for IV access.
Henry could hear commotion around him— emergency responders weren’t used to Captain Man’s. . . Unorthodox ways of dealing with civilians in distress (much less superhero sidekicks slash foster Kids).
But after a simple wave of his hands and a stern glance everyone quieted down.
Henry briefly saw Captain Man give a nod to someone he couldn’t see before he felt a hand on his wrist, removing his glove, removing his arm braces, pulling up his sleeves.
He was powerless to struggle as he felt the cold antiseptic on his arm.
All Henry could do was squeeze his eyes shut and pray no one noticed the pathetic tears rolling down his face. He let out a strained yelp when he felt the sharp needle prick his skin, and the gross sensation of the IV fluid filling his veins. God he felt pathetic.
Stupid hyper-motility gave him stupid hypermetabolism. This wasn’t the first time he Managed to dehydrate himself just from sweating and exercising. Sometimes his heart felt like it would beat out of his chest, and sometimes it would suddenly feel slow. And then he’d feel like he couldn’t breathe and his vision would get spotty.
Usually he could just ignore it, drink extra water, try to stay upright instead of lying down after patrols and a Tylenol here and there to cope with the dehydration headaches and heat exhaustion. But that didn’t work so well when you had an overbearing foster-dad-slash-boss-slash-superhero-mentor. Henry felt Ray—Captain Man— slowly ease his immobilising grip on him, not letting go of his IV arm.
“Kid, you gonna cooperate now?”
Captain Man’s words were gentle on a surface level but Henry felt like he was being talked down to, he wasn’t some afraid little Kid! He just didn’t like needles very much! He wasn’t afraid just . . . Didn’t need that. He was a superhero god damn it, he wasn’t afraid because he wasn’t allowed to be. Why couldn’t Captain Man see that? He was so more trouble than he was worth.
What kind of piece of shit sidekick couldn’t handle a little needle poke?
While he was lost in his thoughts he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.
“Dude, you good?”
Shit, he must have taken too long to respond. Henry tried to speak but his throat was too dry. He was thirsty as fuck and his head hurt. He nodded and the Captain helped him sit up. Before he could even ask, a paramedic shoved a bottle of water in his hand. He doesn’t think he’s ever had water that tasted that good, he finished the bottle in what felt like seconds.
He rubbed the side of his head like it would remove the pounding pressure in his skull, the medics were asking him things but he wasn’t listening. Ray seemed to be answering for him anyway. He ignored their hands patting him down as he downed another bottle of water.
He wanted to go home so bad. Maybe he could talk Ray into a hot chocolate and movie night, he knew he could if he pulled the ‘I almost died’ card.
A little guilt tripping never hurt anyone.
The paramedics kept checking him over and flashing obnoxious lights in his eyes, their hands wandering from his pelvis and down to his bruised knees.
He felt a stabbing pain once they reached his ankles.
Water splashed him as he tightened his grip on the bottle and bit his knuckles to resist screaming. Captain Man rubbed circles in the back of Kid Danger's hand with his thumb, a weak attempt at soothing.
The medic gave him an apologetic look, clearing her throat before speaking,
“Your ankles sprained but it should be okay, rest it, ice it, keep it compressed and elevated. Take a Tylenol if you need it.”
Henry noticed she seemed to be directing her words at Captain Man instead of him, but he didn’t have it in him to care at this point. He finished his water and steadied himself with his newly freed hand, waiting for the stupid head-rushing-dizzy-headache to go away. Maybe Ray would be nice enough to give him hazard pay— probably not. He really shouldn’t have agreed to do this for minimum wage.
“You’re still a bit dehydrated, take it easy, drink something with salts and electrolytes in it. But you should be okay,” she turned her attention to the Captain,
“he got out of this really lucky, if any of the rubble hit his head he could have gotten a bad concussion.”
Henry scoffed at her words, why did everyone think he was so incompetent? Lucky? He was a superhero— he had training, not luck, thank you.
And the implication that he needs Ray of all people to keep him safe? Ugh. Part of Henry wanted to give her a piece of his mind but he just wanted out of this situation. He settled for glaring at her, hoping he got his point across.
Henry watched Ray share some hushed words with another paramedic who was busy handing things to other emergency responders while the woman went through the process of removing his IV.
Pressure, cottonball, pull out, medical tape, and it was done. The medic made a point to cover the needle with her gloved hands but Henry still got a glimpse of the light hitting the metal of the thing. He steadied himself with his hand as he processed that thing was inside of him.
He slowly stood up as he watched the medics pack up and leave, wincing at the throbbing sensation in his ankle.
Ray walked over to him after finishing his conversation (which was apparently more important than the monumental task of IV removal), and let Henry lean on him to support as he limped.
Once they were safely in the ManVan Henry spoke up,
“what the fuck was that for? You tackled me dude!” Henry’s voice cracked a bit at the end, his throat still dry despite the water he’d been chugging.
“Uh, saving your life! Not my fault you can’t handle a little needle. Dude.” Ray tacked on the end of the sentence with a playful amount of sass. Putting the key in the ignition and starting the van.
“That was so unnecessary!”
“What? Saving your life?”
Ray couldn’t help the grin on his face, this Kid.
Henry couldn’t think of a good comeback for that one so he settled for empty threats instead.
“If you weren’t Captain Man I’d break your nose right now! Asshole!”
Ray burst out laughing, Henry tried to hide his own smile behind his hand. He liked that, that Ray wasn’t serious about stuff. He knew he should be upset, angry, but he couldn’t bring himself to be. Not with Ray.
“Oh yeah? I’d love to see you try.”
Ray breathed deeply, catching his breath. The van got awkwardly quiet for a few minutes. Ray cleared his throat.
“You scared me there Kid, I’m glad you’re okay.”
More silence. Henry considered pretending to fall asleep but knew Ray wouldn’t buy it. He didn’t like when Ray spoke seriously about things like that, it made things feel all too real.
“Oh uh, thanks.”
---------------------------
Henry let the silence wash over them the rest of the ride back to junk’n’stuff.
Once they were safely in the privacy of the store they let themselves transform into their civilian clothes. Ray helped Henry to the elevator and they went their separate ways to get cleaned up and changed into something more comfortable than jeans and sweaty t-shirts.
Once back in the main area Henry spoke up,
“Wanna watch a movie or something? Uh, I don’t think I can sleep after that to be honest.”
He kept his eyes fixed on the turned off TV screen, waiting for Ray’s reply.
“Yeah that sounds good, I’ll get us some hot chocolate— your pick tonight.
As long as it doesn’t suck.”
Henry smiled as he flicked through the channels, glad Ray understood the post adrenaline insomnia. Glad he could have someone to spend the restless nights with.
It was almost like having a proper family, and for a moment as he flicked through the limited late night TV selections, he almost let himself pretend.