Sidekick

Lucifer

That night a huge storm started. Markus was always scared of storms; in fact, it was the reason I got to know the strange hero. He never really told me why he feared the storms, well he did, that night.

"Luce, I-" He started, his silhouette in my doorway to my dark room.

"Come here." I patted my bed and lifted the covers. I moved the tablet moved off my lap and onto the side table.

He shuffled into my dark room. I could see from his silhouette that his hair was frizzled from the constant tossing and turning. When I turned on the dimmers to be able to see him, without blinding either of us, he looked disheveled. His eyes were sunken and drained, the hoodie he stole from me reached his mid thighs and covered his barely noticeable shorts. By all accounts he was cute.

"The thunder was loud. I tried to sleep but every time I closed my eyes." He paused as he got into the bed and wrapped the sheet around himself as he scooted closer into my side.

"You saw him? The man that hurt you?" I finished for him, my heart hurting, a feeling I grew used to with his depressing past. I lifted his waist and felt as he wrapped his leg over my own while we laid down.

"Electro. He would come into my dorm room and shock me till I couldn't think straight. When we lived in the section that is. B-12 never watched over our actions, so they never saw him. That's why I never take off my shirt, the scars are too prominent, and they never stopped judging the scars thinking I was lazy and getting in the way at battles. Then I stopped training with them and moved into the basement." Markus fully vented.

I breathed slowly and my hand stopped tracing his back, a habit I always used when we laid together. I sat up fully and looked him dead in the eyes. I needed to comfort him and show him what I was truly like.

"You told me yesterday you wanted to know what my superpower was? I'm warning you right now that it's dangerous." I gripped his hand as I sat forward. I took a thick towel from a small basket beside my bed and placed it behind me. I squeezed from discomfort as black daggers cut through my back.

Soon once the daggers finished cutting black and orange mixed with gold feathers started to fluff out from the slits on my back. I could feel the bone joints in my skeleton start to click back into place as my wings took a fresh breath after two months of being contained. One wrapped around Markus protectively while the other curled at my side once I laid back into my pillows, the towel along my pillows soaked in all the blood.

"Can I touch them?" Was all Markus said as he stared at my wings in what looked like awe. It was weird to watch him reach for one of my feathers with delicacy. No one had ever looked at them that way, in fact when I was born my pastor of a father started to scream and grabbed his bible to pray the wings away.

"You like them? No one has ever liked my wings before. I've never liked them either." I confided in the hero tucked into my side, his fingers tracing the closest feather. I shuddered at the feeling trying to stop my wings from sharpening.

"They are perfect. Why would anyone hate them?" He looked back up at me, the feather still in his hold. My lungs burned as I watched him be so gentle with my curse.

"They can hurt people, when I feel joy, or any extreme emotion for that matter, my wings they can cut people." I briskly explained, my heart was speeding up while watching him. That unknown bubbly feeling surfacing again as I watched him be so calm about the whole issue.

"How did you find out? Did your dad. Sorry." Markus went back to silently tracing my wing like it was gold he could finally take home. His mouth slightly opened as he watched my wings twitch. I could feel the tips start to harden into titanium blades. My hands started to shake while I grew frantic that I would hurt him.

"Please back up. Please Markus. Back up my wings, they are sharpening." I shifted in the bed moving my wings back and away from him. My body trembled from what I learned at a young age to be fear.

"Hey, breathe, head between your knees. In your nose and out your mouth. You're fine." He guided me into the motions of calming down and as I did my wings grew more organic. I could feel the titanium shed away into my bones.

"You've had experience?" I joked once I calmed down, taking the older man into my arms. I closed my wings so I could relax more with the man in my arms.

"More than enough." He yawned, rubbing his head into my chest. I played with his hair till I could hear him snoring in my arms. Was this love? Was I feeling love for the first time?