Sidekick

A little while later

"Hey love! I'm back from work!" I called out placing my work coat on the rack as I walked up the second floor to the top floor of my penthouse. My work shoes clicked against the wooden floors as I made my way into the large kitchen.

"In my office dear! Just let me get up, I'll come join you in there!" Markus called back, his stubbornness apparent in his voice that he was trying to do that for the past few minutes or longer.

I made a worried groan as I rushed to join him in his office to stop him from falling out of his wheelchair again. After he killed Ethan all the electricity that was in his body left him mostly paralyzed from the waist down. With a lot of physical therapy, he can walk with help, but he has dizzy spells and still needs help to stand.

"You know you're not weak so stop being stubborn." I grabbed his shoulders and moved him back into his chair. I knelt next to him; my hands moved to his knees. I opened my wings and brushed his arms with my wing tips.

"I want to move, I'm going insane!" he complained, his hands tracing my wings while he vented. I could see the distraught look in his eyes as he tried to reason with me that it was a good idea.

"You promise me, you feel dizzy, you let me sit you down and, as you call it, coddle you?" I leaned my head into his knees and rested staring up at him. I could feel his hands dance along my feathers, holding some, playing with others.

"If I say yes, will you carry me?" He teased, his tired face easing while he joked, his eyes gray and dull. That was another issue we faced, he was half blind, the electrical waves completely breaking his vision from one eye, leaving the other to do all the work. He had trouble seeing me, so he used his hands to trace my wings and face to know I was there, and close by.

It was hard when we went out, I had to keep my wings tucked away, hidden. And he had to use his chair, which made dates and other things harder to do. We couldn't go to the movies; he couldn't see inside the dark rooms. We couldn't go to restaurants even when I could afford them, it would be too much of an issue to the staff.

In fact, I bought a new car just for him and his chair to make him able to get from his passenger seat into the chair without any issues. He hated it at first, but I think by now he tolerated it.

My favorite modification I made him was the ramps in and along the short staircases and the private elevator I made them installed for him to go to the basement and ground floors. We converted his old bedroom into a PT room where he spent most of his days, unless, like today, he didn't want to be reminded of his 'issue'.

"If you say yes, I will put you on my back and carry you yes. And you can have a full range of where I go." I hummed, standing back up to escort him. I grabbed his hands from my wings and placed them on my forearms, then I repeated the step with my own and started to count down before lifting him off the chair and into my arms.

What I didn't expect was for him to smile, a great big smile. And then he walked, he took strong, powerful strides across the room to the door before looking back for me. I raced to join him, probably sporting my own smile at how two years of his therapy had finally shown results.

"Hey, happy birthday Luce." Markus cupped my face and I rested into his hold. I kept my hands on his hips scared he would drop at any second, but he didn't. He only stayed firm in his stance.

"You do know this is a huge step right! You can take a few steps alone?" I constantly wanted to keep asking if he was ok, but I knew he would just laugh or smile and give me the same answer, with the same tone as always.

"It's not easy, a little weird since it feels like jelly. But my doctor said in a few more years I can make a full recovery, if I stay retired. But now I can prove myself. That I'm not useless and I'm healing." he leaned his head on mine and we sat for a moment, weighing our possibilities.

We hadn't talked about retirement since I had, and that was very much a solid decision we knew about. He wanted to be a proper hero, to save lives. But now he was ok with the words, he had saved so many lives. The corrupt heroes all over the world were being taken down by villains who were wronged so badly by them. I even think a hero joined a group after learning his father had made his friend try to kill him. I think the villain turned his father-in-law into vapor, or something like that.

People were revolting against the corrupt heroes they once feared and at this point, we have one name to thank for that. And he was going to retire the greatest hero ever. And I was sure as hell fine with that.

"Maybe a trailer and a dog or two, traveling the country while we never have to work ever again? Maybe finding a small lot to buy out and live the rest of our days in?" I offered, I loved living big, but shit. Mark me down for a one-way trip to a small town with small rv's and I'm there, as long as Markus was too.

"Time for our next adventure?" He nodded. Yeah, maybe it was time for our next adventure.