Chapter Text
(i)
Freddy cursed as his crutch slipped on the ice, wincing when his leg twisted. “Oh, look at the little cripple kid trying to walk down the road, hahaha, it’s like the circus came to town,” he muttered under his breath. “Let’s not help him or anything, it might be contagious.” He tried to find his footing but this time, his right leg went out from under him. He caught himself before he could faceplant, sweating from the exertion and frustration. “Fuck,” he said under his breath when he saw how much further he had to go down the road that was literally a sheet of ice.
He debated sitting down and waiting for the ice to melt. It might take a few weeks but it wasn’t like he would hate to miss school. He was pretty sure Rosa would bring him meals here. The people walking down the street had the all-too-familiar look on their faces, where they were trying not to see him and thinking they were doing him a favour. Freddy hated that look. Almost as much as he hated when someone actually stopped to offer help.
Suddenly everyone was holding their phones out and aiming them at the sky, chattering excitedly. Freddy brushed a sweaty lock of hair off his forehead and managed to straighten up, dreading his next step.
“Citizen!” Freddy startled at the booming voice and turned. Billy was diving out of the sky, heading straight for him. “Captain Sparklefingers needs you! Will you aid me?”
Freddy stared at his incoming friend. “Dude, what—hey!” Billy scooped Freddy up and arced back into the sky. Freddy shivered when an icy blast of wind met them, and he pressed closer to Billy.
“Hey!” he shouted, grinning up at him. He pressed his hands against the lightning bolt on Billy’s chest. “It’s warm!” He pushed his cheek against it and sighed. They landed in the park near their house, Billy setting Freddy down carefully. He immediately touched the lightning bolt and frowned.
“It’s not warm!” he said accusingly. Freddy frowned and put his hand back on it, arcs of lightning leaping eagerly to his fingers.
“Dude, feel my hand,” he said, tugging it away and holding it up to Billy. Billy grabbed it and looked confused.
“I dunno, it doesn’t feel warm or cold to me. It just feels like a hand.” He shrugged. Freddy leaned back, considering.
“Do you feel cold right now?” Billy shook his head. “Huh. I need to try something.” He limped over to a large oak and slipped behind it after a subtle glance around. “Shazam!” He strode back out to Billy and held his arms out at his side. “I’m not cold anymore, either.” He looked down at himself appreciatively. “I guess it’s like being fireproof or having bullet immunity; it’s not the suits, it’s us.” He touched his own blazing lightning bolt. “It’s not warm to me,” he said, bewildered. “Let me touch yours again.”
“I wanna feel yours!” Billy said. They patted each other’s chest when a voice interrupted them.
“Uh, Red Cyclone? O-other dude?” They both looked up to see a man standing watching them. “What…what are you doing?”
They jumped back from each other as if electrocuted. “Superhero handshake,” Freddy said at the same time that Billy blurted “checking for ticks!” Freddy glared at him, mouthed what?? Billy shrugged, eyes wide. The man didn’t look convinced.
“Uh-huh,” he said and slowly backed away. Billy gave him a cheery wave. Freddy smacked his hand out of the air.
“Dude, could you be any creepier?”
The next day at breakfast Billy spat out his cereal when Mary dropped the newspaper on the table in front of him. She snickered at the look on his face, and Freddy curiously tugged the front page over to see what they were on about. His jaw dropped when he read the headline.
Red Cyclone Suspected in Child Abduction.
There was a picture of Billy and Freddy in the park with their hands on each other’s chests, Billy frowning and Freddy looking excited. Freddy bit his lip and looked at Billy, who was sitting in his chair looking like a cat had just given birth in front of him. He couldn’t help it; he burst out laughing, ignoring the murderous look Billy threw him.
“Dude, this is your own fault,” Freddy wheezed. “If you hadn’t swooped outta the sky and grabbed me like some hopped-up pedophile, this wouldn’t be an issue.”
“How am I supposed to help people if they all think I’m a criminal?” Billy demanded. Mary shrugged, leaning against the counter, sipping from her mug.
“Well, you stole Freddy, right? So, bring him back.” Billy stood and jabbed a finger at Freddy.
“Right now. Let’s go.”
“But my bagel—” Freddy’s protest fell on deaf ears as Billy hauled him to his feet, thrusting his crutch at him.
“You can eat when you’ve been found.”
So it was that Freddy was once again held close against Billy’s chest, keeping his hands warm on the lightning bolt on his suit, and soaring through the sky to the police station. They were noticed quickly by passersby on the street, and a few officers wandered out when Billy landed on the steps out front of the station, carefully setting Freddy down.
“Well!” he said, looking awkward. He’d refused to brainstorm a reason with Freddy as to why he had ‘kidnapped’ him, too busy sulking, and now that they were here, Freddy could tell he regretted that. “Thank you, young man, for your help with that…mission. I don’t know what I would have done without your help with…that.” His eyes bugged out at Freddy, begging him to take over.
Freddy sighed. “It was the coolest experience of my life, Captain Sparklefingers,” he intoned. He twirled his right hand above his head. “Yee-haw.”
“Are you all right, son?” asked an officer, moving forward, giving Billy a wary look. He looked at Freddy’s leaning on the crutch, and crouched close, asking in a low voice, “did he do that to you?”
Billy’s jaw dropped in outrage and Freddy had to fight back a laugh. “N-no sir, he didn’t.” His expression turned mournful. “You see, I have terminal cancer…”
Oh my god, Billy mouthed, covering his eyes with one broad hand as Freddy was surrounded by the sympathetic crowd.
“And you kept him from his doctors? From medical care?” a woman demanded of Billy, hands on her hips. Billy looked thunderstruck, his mouth gaping. He looked helplessly at Freddy.
“I have none of that,” Freddy said sadly. “There’s nothing they can do for me at this point.” The woman’s eyes watered and she covered her mouth with one gloved hand.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. Freddy shrugged, giving her a small smile.
“It’s okay,” he told her. “I’ve learned to keep my chin up and—” his stomach growled loudly.
“Are you hungry, son?” a cop asked, moving forward. Freddy nodded eagerly.
“Starving! I didn’t get to eat this morning, so I—”
An old woman smacked Billy on the back of his head with her purse. “You didn’t feed the dying boy?” she screeched. Billy winced and backed away from her.
“No! I mean, I had to bring him back, so—”
“Come with me, son,” said the officer who had approached Freddy. “We’ve got doughnuts inside the station. Help yourself while we call your parents and get this sorted out.” The crowd broke out into applause.
“The police are the real heroes,” Freddy heard someone say appreciatively as he was led inside.
“Okay,” Billy called from outside before the doors closed. “I’ll just…yeah,” and he flew off, dodging a wild umbrella swing from that same old woman. Freddy beamed at the officer who sat him down in an armchair and brought a box of doughnuts over.
“What would you like to drink, son? We have milk or apple juice.”
“Juice please,” Freddy said through a mouthful of heavenly éclair. This was so much better than that bagel he had been chewing on at home. The officer nodded.
“I’ll be right back with that, and then we’ll call your parents, all right?” Freddy nodded and crammed a small honey doughnut in his mouth. He stopped chewing, mouth bulging.
“M’ prents?”
The officer nodded, smiling down at him. “I’m sure they’ll be very relieved to get you home.” He strode off down the hall, leaving Freddy in the bustling lobby.
He’s going to call my parents.
That means Victor and Rosa.
That means they’re going to find out I said I have cancer.
That means they’re going to kick my—
“I need the bathroom!” Freddy yelled. He stood, icing sugar falling from his lap. “Miss police officer?” he waved down a female officer passing by. “Can you tell me where the bathroom is, please?”
“Just go past the break room,” she pointed. Freddy nodded and hurried down the hall, slipping into the bathroom. He went to the end of the room, closest to the window that stretched over the sinks, glancing at the stalls to make sure they were empty. He leaned as close to the window as he could and shoved it open, hoping for some sort of aim.
“Shazam,” he said meekly, screwing his eyes shut. Beyond his eyelids, the lights in the station flickered. He heard the hand dryer turn on and with an angry hum, pop and fizzle. The bathroom was quiet. He opened his eyes and heaved a great sigh of relief when he saw his plan had worked. The lightning struck through the open window, so now the only physical proof something had happened was…the entire station being without power.
Oh crap, what about the cell doors? Are they gonna open? Freddy panicked, envisioning the small jail in the basement of the station being overrun by criminals busting out past their powerless cell doors. Abruptly the emergency lights came on, and the bathroom was dimly lit. He let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, grabbed his crutch, and flew out the window, hunching his shoulders in as he went out the narrow exit.
Unbeknownst to Freddy, Billy Batson was running into the police station through the front doors at that moment and came across the officer who had bribed Freddy with doughnuts, standing in the lobby of swarming people, looking around.
“Officer!” Billy hurried over, making a show of catching his breath. He looked down at Billy.
“Can it wait a minute, son? I’m trying to find—”
“I just brought my brother out to our parents,” Billy panted. The officer frowned.
"Your brother?"
"Yeah, the kid with the doughnuts and the...cancer..." he cleared his throat. "We heard about him being here so came right over."
“I’d better go talk to them, get some things sorted out—”
“No!” Billy blurted. “Uh, they already left. My brother, he wasn’t feeling so good and they wanted to get him home, uh, to the doctor right away.”
“Oh,” the officer said. He stared down at Billy, features hard to make out under the emergency lights. “And they left you here?”
Billy froze. Why would they leave me—his eyes fell on the box of doughnuts abandoned on the armchair. “They wanted to see if I could bring him the rest of the doughnuts! He said they made him feel a lot better so we thought maybe I could take the rest to the…hospital, where they went.”
The officer’s eyes misted over and he shoved the box at Billy. “You take them all,” he said, clearing his throat roughly. Billy smiled and nodded in thanks, and turned to go. “Wait!” He stopped, tense. A bottle of juice was placed on top of the box. “Bring him that, too,” the officer said. “Such a brave boy, fighting cancer, escaping from that red menace—”
“He didn’t escape,” Billy said through gritted teeth. “He wasn’t abducted in the first place.” The officer just shook his head and walked away, still muttering to himself. Billy rolled his eyes and hurried back out the front doors, glancing surreptitiously up and around for Freddy. He jogged to the back of the police station, saw the coast was clear and changed. “Shazam!”
Freddy watched Billy fly up and he waved his arms. “Billy!” Billy turned and saw him sitting on the roof of the police station and flew towards him.
“What the hell, Freddy?” Billy said, landing next to him and glaring. “I didn’t realize your price was doughnuts.” Freddy shrugged and snatched the box from Billy, picking out a jam-filled pastry.
“You dragged me out of the house before I was done breakfast to fix your mistake, so,” he paused and bit into the doughnut, groaning when a burst of heavenly sweet strawberry coated his tongue. He chewed in rapt delight for a minute, eyes closed, savouring the taste, and slit one eye open to see Billy watching him, hands on his hips. Freddy sighed. “Okay,” he said after swallowing, “can I have the juice please?”
“Freddy!”
He snickered at Billy’s outraged tone. “Look, it was funny. Everyone thinks you stole a kid, and then badly brought him back. You got beat on by an old lady, and I got to make up for the breakfast you made me miss. I think everyone won here.” Billy didn’t look convinced. Freddy looked in the box of remaining doughnuts and sighed, then held them out. “Why don’t you take these? They’ll help.”
“I don’t want—” Billy cut off as Freddy jammed a chocolate doughnut in his mouth. “Omigawd,” Billy said, eyes wide as he chewed. He pointed at his mouth. “Disses amazhing.”
“See?” Freddy crowed. He shoved the box into Billy’s arms. “You finish them. I’m gonna find somewhere to puke cause I just ate four in less than a minute.” He took off and was gone in a flash. Billy chewed his way through the doughnut, enjoying every second of it, and swallowed mightily.
“Hey,” he said, belatedly noticing Freddy’s crutch on the roof. He grabbed it and tucked it under his arm and hovered up, floating away slowly, looking through the rest of the doughnuts in the box. He had just started across the street, cape brushing against the top of a street lamp, when he heard a shout from below.
“He stole that kid’s doughnuts!”
“What?” Billy looked down, a honey pastry halfway to his mouth. The officer from inside the station was glaring up at him. “Oh!” he gasped. “Oh nononono, it’s not what it looks like—”
The old woman who had clocked him with her purse squinted up at him. “He took his crutch, too!” Billy looked at the crutch under his arm. He looked at the box in his hands. He looked down at the crowd who glared up at him.
He barely dodged the umbrella thrown his way as he took off.