Chapter Text
Patton almost screamed as he saw his quickly shot burst of panic smack into Shadow with an unintended amount of force that knocked the villain off the mighty swirl of air they were propelling themselves on. The deep crackles of thunder and painful flashes of white hot lightning that had been bursting steadily from the bruised purple clouds, sharply twisting around Shadow like a tornado, dissipated within moments of the hit landing painfully to the middle of their creator’s chest.
Shadow sank like a heavy stone and Patton felt fear tear apart his stomach as the villain plummeted through the air. He used everything he had in him to reach the law’s frequent offender, before they reached the unforgiving pavement of Toby Street. The looming skyscrapers blurred into harsh grays and the bright blue sky received no attention as the hero kept his eyes trained on the falling black hoodie. The garment that completely swamped the villain, always having kept Shadow’s identity dutifully hidden, came within ten feet of reaching the ground, along with the person who wore it.
He reached his arms out and for a moment he saw Shadow fall in to them and was relieved.
And then Sentiment was weighed down harshly, into the rough cement by an armful of tiny villain. He felt the wind puff out with a “whoosh” from his deflating lungs. His head whirled. Everything was blurry. The scratches on his back stung from road rash but not enough, however, for the cold silent tears he was feeling on his skin to be his. He lethargically raised his head from the ground and looked down at the person on his torso. For a minute all Sentiment registered was utter shock. Palace City’s newest and scariest threat was… a teenage boy. A panicking, harshly breathing, crying teenage boy. Uh oh.
“Hey hey sweetheart calm down, calm down. You’re ok I got you.”
Patton tried to use his softest voice possible, which was easy since he was still having a hard time getting air and yet, the boy’s head snapped up with a snarl. It had previously been resting on the hero’s stomach, as was the rest of him, but now he had shot up and scrambled a good ten feet away from the superhero. Patton pushed himself up fully into a sitting position and they studied each other as a cool breeze wafted through the partially destroyed street. As the kid’s eyes scrutinized him, Patton took the time to notice a full head of loose black curls, smooth skin contrasting against dark coal that had been smudged liberally over two misty purple eyes, and a thin mouth that belied grinding teeth in it’s jumping jaw muscles.
The boy wasn’t thin but he was rather short and stocky. Nonetheless, the hero’s fatherly side urged him to feed the kiddo and hopefully fill out his haunted, gaunt face.
Perhaps feeling Sentiment’s gaze upon him Shadow jumped upright and stumbled over weary feet as he fought to put distance between himself and the man who had nearly killed him. Patton shoved off the pavement harshly and followed in a passionate pursuit. The poor baby needs my help. The poor baby needs my help. Shadow whipped his head around as he heard the supers’s winded breaths behind him. He hissed and created a snowball by crushing his fist. Flurries surrounded him as he pelted the frozen object at the man behind him. Patton gasped as slush splashed over his blue spandex tracksuit. Ok, the angry baby needs my help.
Inevitably, after three right turns into trash ridden alleyways, Shadow found himself caught between a chain link fence and a gasping, pink faced man. He snarled and desperately sought an escape, because as afraid as he was of superheroes, he really didn’t want to hurt this freckled, innocent looking man. He was decked out in powder blue and heart shaped glasses for heaven's sakes! Finding nowhere to go he began to prepare himself for a painful defeat. Pressing against the shadowed brick wall to his left he couldn’t help but fearfully watch as his enemy came closer.
Sentiment felt his eyes begin to burn at the sheer terror the young kiddo clearly tried to keep off his face. He didn’t ever have to be scared of nice ol’ Patton.
“Hey kiddo.”
“HISS!”
Well gosh diddly darn it.
“It’s alright love, I just want to make sure you’re feeling ok, that was quite a fall.”
Shadow’s face morphed into indignation, albeit still cautious.
“You were the one who threw me from the sky.”
Patton winced. He awkwardly adjusted his heart shaped eye mask.
“About that… I wanted to say sorry! It was an accident and I’m really sorry if I hurt you!”
The kid looked at him in disbelief. The hero was apologizing? For attempting to take out a villain destroying his city? Sounds fake.
“You’re not hurt are you?”
Shadow shook his head no, slowly, still not believing he got an apology and wasn’t on his way to prison.
“Well buddy, you look pretty young to be a villain, why don’t you tell me how you got in to that?”
Shadow gave him the most unimpressed look he could muster. As if he would tell this man anything! He saw now that the kindness was a tactic, a trick!Wasn’t it always.
“Ok, ok, I can see you don’t want to answer that.”
He looked around for anyway out of the situation but promptly flicked his eyes up in a suspicious glare at the next question.
“Can we still be friends?”
The hopeful look on the man’s face caused him to automatically nod his head but immediately regret it. He growled to himself. What was he thinking!
“Great! Here’s my phone number! Call me if you ever want to hangout!”
Patton hoped by becoming buddies with this young man, eventually, he would save him from this villainous life and help him find something safer to do with his powers and time. The boy probably just needed a mentor!
Shadow took the number with numb hands and a cautiously warmed chest. A hero wanted to be friends? He felt a smile reach across his face at the curly numbers and heart at the end of them. He shook his head. That was quite enough interaction with superheroes for one day. As Sentiment turned around to put his pen back in his pocket, he felt a whoosh of cold air.
He snapped his head up but Shadow was already gone.