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Henry had been acting strange the last few days.
Or at least stranger than usual.
Outside of missions, he'd been trying to avoid Ray like a plague, and when he happened to be in the superhero's presence, he'd been asking him strange questions. What do you like best? What is your favorite color? Do you have a dream you'd like to fulfill, one that wouldn't be too expensive?
Many, if not all, of these questions revolved around lifestyle, and Ray couldn't for the life of him understand what his teenage sidekick meant. When he asked Charlotte and Jasper if they knew anything, they merely shrugged their shoulders.
He checked the calendar several times, thinking that maybe he had somehow magically missed his birthday or some holiday, but no. It was the middle of June, no holidays anytime soon, his birthday too far away. He frowned. What could it have been about?
Finally, he shrugged and decided to sleep it off.
***
Turned out that the answer came to him on its own.
He was awakened by a noise coming from the main part of the Man Cave. Without really thinking, he got out of bed and moved towards the sound.
"Fuck!"
He blinked a few times. Henry?
He found an interesting sight on the spot. His stupid dear sidekick kid crouching on the floor, holding his left ankle. He looked around. Inferring from the fact that the boy was crouching next to the stairs, Ray deduced that the blond must have tripped. He frowned. But what for?
His flurry of thoughts was interrupted by a bag that he almost stepped on. It was the bag they give gifts in. He tilted his head to the side. What is this for?
“Henry," he finally said, trying to get the teenager's attention.
Henry froze. After a moment, however, he turned his head toward his mentor, smiling innocently.
"Oh, hi, Ray!"
Ray looked at him confused.
"Henry, it's two in the morning, what are you doing here?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips.
Henry blinked a few times.
"Um..."
"No lies, Hen. I've had enough excuses for a while," he added before the kid could come up with a plausible lie.
Hen sighed.
"Ugh, okay. I wanted to leave you a...gift to open tomorrow when you get up, but I tripped on those fucking-.
" Henry ."
"- stupid stairs and something happened to my leg because I can't get up and I woke you up and now everything is ruined," he explained, grimacing.
Ray's gaze went to the bag again. So it was a gift after all.
He opened his mouth to ask what was the occasion, but seeing the pain on the boy's face, he decided it would have to wait.
He sighed again. He pushed the bag aside to avoid tripping over it and approached the teenager.
"Come on, Hen. Let’s see that ankle."
After hearing this, the boy turned a little pale.
"No, Ray, I-"
"Easy, you don't have to stand on it. Come on, let me help you."
He gently led his sidekick to the couch then crouched in front of him. He slowly removed the shoe from the injured leg, put it somewhere to the side and began to lightly touch the ankle, wanting to assess whether it was broken/dislocated, his gaze focused on the kid's face.
Henry squirmed through the pressure on the foot. Ray sent him an apologetic look.
"Sorry, sorry! I have to check if it's broken, but I think you just twisted it. Wait."
Ray got up, got a bandage, something to stiffen the leg and an ice pack. He quickly returned, took off his sock and began carefully wrapping the boy's ankle. Making sure everything was well braced, the man applied the cold pack to it.
Henry breathed a sigh of relief, although Manchester noticed that he was quite pale. He patted him on the knee.
"Hey, kid, stay with me. Don't faint," he added, forcing himself into a joking tone, even though he was a bit worried.
The teen shook his head.
"It's okay. I-I'm fine," he replied after a moment.
Ray rolled his eyes. Deeming the crisis with Henry averted, he refocused on the mysterious gift.
"Okay, what's the deal with that gift. What's the occasion?" he asked.
His sidekick took a deep breath and began to play with a piece of his hoodie.
"I know I've been acting weird the last few days, but I wanted to give you something cool, and I needed time to figure out how to do it and well, the plan was also to drop the gift off to you at night so you could open it in the morning because, after all, tomorrow is Father's Day...."
Ray felt like someone had just punched him.
Oh.
Right.
Father's Day.
He totally didn't notice because for a very long time he didn’t celebrate it
Wait…
Ray wasn’t-
"Yes, I know you're not my dad," Henry continued, as if reading his mind, "but I just thought...I don't know," he interrupted, his cheeks reddening slightly, "I don't know what I was thinking. It's stupid."
Ray smiled slightly. This kid.
Your kid. Something seemed to whisper in the back of his head, but he ignored it.
"Hey, no, it's not stupid."
Henry lifted his gaze.
"It isn’t?"
"It isn’t," he confirmed, "it's nice."
The kid laughed lightly.
"You say that, and you haven't even seen it yet."
Ray thought about it.
"You're right," he agreed, standing up. Henry sent him a wary look.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you mean what I'm doing? I'm going to open my present."
"What?! No, don't open it now!l
"Why not? It's already tomorrow," Ray remarked, to which Henry didn’t say anything else.
He walked over to the bag and picked it up. The first thing that caught his eye was a small card signed For Ray :D!!!
He smiled slightly. Mostly the gift consisted of some hair shampoo/cosmetics and some small things that he once mentioned and forgot until now. A couple of Marvel comics because both he and Henry had been fixated on that lately, a dagger that was most likely meant to refer to a time when Ray was nuts about that sword, a couple of gadgets and figures of Captain Man (one with Kid Danger ) but there was something that particularly caught his eye. A jam jar. Someone would say, what’s the fuss about, just a normal jar with jam. However, it was no ordinary jam because it had his mom's handwriting on the label, and how did Henry get my mom's number? And don't cry, Ray.
Nonetheless, he was ready to cry here and now before he saw the next paper, but this one was much bigger than the previous one, and it quickly occurred to him that it was a self-made card. He bit his lower lip and began to read.
Hey Ray!
Uhh, I don't really know how to get started because I really rarely write this kind of stuff (which I guess says a lot about me...) but nevermind
I know that this whole gift thing may seem weird to you because after all, you're not my father and something like this should be given to my biological father and clearly I gave him the best wishes and gave him something, but...I don't know. I feel like I should also thank you for being there, for raising me for these 3 years, for always taking care of me, taking interest in how I'm feeling, what I've been doing, what's been going on at school, etc.
Sometimes...
sometimes you are like my dad and parent to me more than my actual parents and it should hurt me, but it doesn't because I know I can always count on you and you won't let me down. I love you, Ray.
Seriously.
Thanks for being here.
Happy Father's Day, Captain Dad ;)
- Kid
What Ray was currently getting out of himself was no longer crying. It was sobbing, a waterfall of tears.
Henry really thought these things about him. He considered him family, a father .
Still crying, he turned back to Henry, who at that moment was panicking after seeing the state his mentor was in.
"Why are you crying? Was it that bad?" he asked quietly, as if afraid of the answer.
He shook his head, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt.
"No, Hen, it's perfect," he replied in a voice slightly hoarse from crying.
The boy still looked as if he was not sure if he should believe it.
"Are you sure?"
The man nodded, walked over to the couch and sat down next to his kid.
"I'm sure," he confirmed, "thank you, kiddo. I love you too," he added, pulling the teenager closer to him and kissing him on the head.
Henry closed his eyes and snuggled in.
"Yeah, of course. You're welcome, Dad," he replied quietly, and Ray felt a warm sensation in his chest upon hearing the term.
"Kid?"
"Hmm?"
After some time, the superheroes changed positions slightly, so that Henry could still lean against Ray, but also keep his ankle propped up on the pillow.
"How did you get in touch with my mom?" he asked.
"Well it wasn't the easiest task I had to do as your sidekick, but after a long time I succeeded and I'm quite proud of myself," he replied.
"How long did it take?"
"All the rest? Maybe a couple of days. The thing with your mom? Like a month, a month and a half," he confessed.
"And you did all this for me...."
"Yeah, of course!" Henry tilted his head back to send his mentor a big smile. "Besides, it was very nice talking to her. Hey Ray?
"Yes?" He will have to finally call his mom and make up with her.
"Can I reconcile you with your mom?"
The kid's definitely reading my mind today.
"Hen..."
"I'm serious! Since I'm officially your child that means she's now my grandma and I need to get to know her, and I can't do that if you're not talking."
Ray shook his head, smiling under his breath.
"Kid, officially , you have parents," he reminded.
"Pff, a minor detail" the boy waved his hand as if it was nothing important.
Ray sighed dramatically and ruffled Henry's hair at which he laughed.
"Okay, sleep my little Kiddo Danger because your folks will kill me if you come home looking like a zombie again."
"Okaaaaaay."
Henry repositioned himself as much as his sprained ankle would allow and snuggled in.
"Night Ray."
He brushed his hair off his forehead and smiled affectionately.
"Night Hen. Sweet dreams."
Thanks for being here, kid.