blood and dreams

Promise?

When they got back to the man cave, Ray had his arm over Henry's shoulders, and Henry looked so obviously upset. It wasn't like a sadness that you could hide, he looked like he was still pretty mad about what happened.  

"Woah, are you guys okay?" Charlotte asked, looking Henry up and down to see if he was injured. 

"No, I'm not okay actually." Henry said, now pacing back and forth. 

"Henry,-" Ray started. 

"-No, that was humiliating, Ray." Henry said, collapsing onto the couch. Ray said down next to Henry and tried to comfort him.

"Woah, woah, woah. What. Happened?" Charlotte asked. 

"Well..." Ray said. 

"You know that girl, Veronica, from the walldogs?" Henry started. 

"Ugh, not her." Charlotte said. 

"Yeah, well she was being extremely rude to me, so as you can see I am not exactly happy about that" Henry said, in his half-joking voice. 

"Wait- I thought she liked you?" Charlotte said, confused. 

"She did. Until she found out about-" Henry gestured to his arm, "-this." 

"That's horrible, I'm really sorry. Try not to think about it. Her opinion doesn't matter." Charlotte said.  

"Yeah. Thanks." Henry said in a monotone voice. That was easy for her to say. He knew Veronica wasnt the best person anyways, but it still stung to lose a friend. 

Ray looked at Henry, then at Charlotte. He motioned towards the elevator, trying to say "you should go" without actually saying it. He mouthed "I'm sorry.".  

Charlotte understood where he was coming from. She gave him a  thumbs up to tell him it was okay, then grabbed her stuff and started to head out. 

"I should get going, bye Henry." Charlotte said. 

"Bye." Henry replied. 

After she left, Henry let himself feel everything. He could feel a tear sliding down his face, and reached up to wipe it off. He saw his kid danger uniform on him and felt weak. He stood up to blow a bubble, and Ray joined him. He'd had enough of being Kid Danger for the day. He changed back into Ray's big gray hoodie and sat back down. 

"You wanna just go lay down?" Ray asked. 

"Yeah." Henry said. He couldn't stand the bright lights of the man cave, and needed to be somewhere dark. Ray walked in front of him, and Henry lifted up his sleeve to look at the thing that made everything change. Did he regret it? Yes. But also no. 

If I could go back all the way to the beginning I wouldn't do it for the first time again, but I don't wanna quit now. I'm too far in,  Henry thought. 

He pushed the sleeve back down. It was too long for him. Ray sat down on the bed and Henry climbed in next to him. It was still light out, but the blinds were closed so it was dark. Ray knew Henry didn't like the sun in his eyes. 

Henry pulled the hoodie up halfway over his face and leaned against Ray. He wanted to hide himself forever. It was hard for him to deal with anger; he didn't want to be like his father, but he couldn't calm down all the way by himself. He pushed his face against Ray's side, curling into a ball and nuzzling his nose against Ray. He wanted to make himself as small as possible. He pulled the hood over his head. 

Ray just held Henry, rubbing his back and letting him cry a little. There were tear drops on Ray's hoodie, but he pretended to to notice. 

"We're gonna be okay, Henry." Ray said softly. 

"D-do you promise?" Henry asked, barely lifting his head up. 

"I promise" Ray said.  Henry trusted him. Ray knew this, which is one of the reasons why he always made a point to be there for him. He didn't have a lot of family to fall back on, and Ray was one of the only people he trusted completely. He couldn't mess that up for his best friend. Henry needed him. He needed Henry too.        

(sorry this is short! i just needed an immediate aftermath of the last chapter cause it didnt feel complete and I didn't wanna start a new part of the story yet)