â´âž âcâmon, like i need an excuse to spend time with you.â ?
Henry leans back into the sofa, watching the kids frantically decorate the Man's Nest with hooded eyes. "You really don't need to hang around, dude," he says, leaning his head to the side without taking his eyes of Chapa with a glitter-gun.
Warm despite the snow outside, Ray snorts. "C'mon, like I need an excuse to spend time with you."
"Sure, but like. Aren't you dating someone...?"
Ray shrugs, gaze jumping to the kids just as Henry's turns to him. He scratches the back of his neck. "Ehhh. Kinda?"
The sofa cushions bounce as Henry settles even more deeply with a half-incredulous laugh. His arms spread out a little more, brushing against Ray's shoulder.
"'Kinda'?" he repeats, the beginnings of a smirk playing across his mouth when Ray darts a look. "Dang, does she know you're only 'kinda' dating? Becauseâwait, it's not Kim again is it, big dog?"
"Whaâno!"
Ray straightens up from his own slump, chocolate-induced sleepiness clearing away with a lightning bolt of offense. The kids quiet for a second, then pick back up even louder than before.
"Can't my former sidekick have a little faith in me?"
"Okay, first of all, you gotta stop bringing up the sidekick thingâ"
"âafter years fighting crime togetherâ"
"âbeen my own superhero for a few years nowâ"
"âstill a young man, I've got other options than Kimâ"
"âcounting in dog years nowâ"
"âpractically in my twentiesâ"
"âsuddenly a Benjamin Button situation, big dogâ"
"HEY!!"
Ray and Henry both turn to look at the kids, faces only inches apart. Chapa glares at them sternly.
"I get that the rituals are intricate and all," she says loudly, "but we're trying to hype Bosie up for his date. So could the rituals be a little quieter, please?"
"Aww, you got a hot date, buddy? Or at least a cute one?"
Ray watches Henry's face, soft and open and just a little bit flushed, as Sweet Bose demurs and the others rush to expound on his date's good qualities and how they all dovetail wonderfully with Bose's. He sits back to listen as well after a moment, settling back into the cradle of Henry's arm across the back of the couch. After another moment, Henry shifts too, so that the backs of his fingers brush absently up and down Ray's shoulder.
He looks at Bose, still weirdly shy and self-conscious about his date, Mika enthusiastically laying out the plan for their date, Miles sagely reassuring Bose that all will be as the universe wills, and finally Chapa, staring him down silently from the group. Her gaze dips pointedly to the hand toying with the soft material of his purple sweater, then to the way his and Henry's legs tangle together propped up on the coffee table, then over to where she saw him hide a luridly pink-wrapped present just before Henry made it to the Nest.
She raises an eyebrow pointedly.
Ray looks away and actually listens to what the kids are saying about Bose's upcoming date. He'll, uh. He'll get to it when he gets to it. Preferable when the kids have finally vacated the Nest and aren't around to heckle.
For now, he just enjoys the easy way Henry sits with them and makes a note to 'accidentally' dye more of his laundry pink. It looks nice against his skin and is guaranteed to get him to hang around more, if only to do something to get back at Ray.
Which isn't intricate, thank you, it's just thinking ahead. And they're always saying he should do that more.
