Shadowteer

Chapter 16

"Why me though?"

"Because we said so."

"Look, I get that something huge must have happened while I was sick for Princess Sunshine to look so sour but why do I have to go comfort her?"

"*cough* Because we ship you *cough*"

"What our dear friend Meera is trying to say is that you two must have gotten closer while you were akumatised and all. Don't you want to know what happened? Kemen and the twins refuse to tell us." Chris shrugged. Tyler did have a point.

"Well, why don't you tell us what happened between you and Ella then?"

"Classified information Freddie my boy. Move it Christopher." He sighed.

"Fine." The three walked towards the door. "Wh- you're leaving me with her?"

"Yep." They left. Just to let you know, they were at the Agreste's home. Adrienette had agreed that they needed Manon to babysit six year old Hugo and three year old Emma. Alya had suggested that Chris could help and they all agreed, unaware that her mind was on a certain ship the twins had introduced her to.

He walked over to Manon and sat down, wondering what to say. "...you know, I've been sick for a whole week after the whole akuma thing. Probably karma for scaring all those people."

"Bro, almost getting run over by a bus was karma enough. That was pure dumb luck plus virus." He chuckled. "And I couldn't come even if I wanted to. I was grounded."

"It's not like I expected you to come see me or anything."

"Ha! Liar. You totally did. A little birdie told me you were thinking about me so much you actually mumbled my name when she tried to wake you up."

"If you're talking about Alya, I only did that because you're the one person I thought was cruel enough to drag someone out of a dreamless sleep with a pillow attack. My mistake, I was wrong. You and Alya are so... so dam violent."

"You know it! We're like fire. Too hot to be messed with. Unfortunately, someone messed with me so... that sucks." He stayed quiet. "This is where you ask me what happened in a dramatic voice."

"Oh. Right. Oh Princess Unicornia my darling, what on earth could have happened to make your face so... crestfallen this cold afternoon?" She chuckled.

"Eh. Needs work. It's not that big a deal anyway. You were right."

"Ha! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it all along. I know this is quite cruel but I was right and you were wrong. Whatever it was anyway." She made a face.

"Would you listen? This... I think humanity sucks too. I mean, there are good ones... But they're mostly just awful."

"Tell me about it."

"Well... long story short, my 'friends'-"

"Ooh, this is gonna be juicy!" He glanced back at her, dragging his eyes away from the cartoon the children were watching. "Hehe. Sorry."

"You know what? Forget about it." She stood up and went to the kitchen.

"Wh- Manon-"

"No, it's fine. You obviously don't care enough to actually listen. Go watch your cartoon. I wouldn't want to bother you guys." He held her back from behind and wrapped his arms around her waist. She gasped, feeling slightly alarmed by the gesture.

"Come on Manon, if you don't get this off your chest, I don't know how you would cope. Heck, how would I cope? You're gonna kill me and yourself more importantly if you go on like this. It's messing with my head."

"You do still hate me right? Why do you care?" He straightened up, putting his hands at his sides.

"Right. I apologise. I'm not one to do something like that."

"I know. It's fine." Yep. She was definitely not going to admit that she liked the gesture. Neither would he. It would be awkward.

"You still need to talk."

"Because?"

"I said so. Let it all out woman. You'll feel better. What did the human race do this time?"

"Well... since you asked so 'nicely' Sir Hugs-a-lot, I'll talk." She rested her head on the counter and sighed. "First off, my mother is a... ugh. Second, my friends aren't true friends. They never were. Long story short, I told them I couldn't go somewhere with them at the parking lot and before I could say I was grounded they all just blew up in my face, talking at once about how ever since I had met that hoodie guy and gotten akumatised I had changed, I wasn't as fun as I used to and all that. They said I was boring just because I always try to talk about more deep stuff like life or political views or the local news for goodness sake instead of celebrity gossip and the latest-"

"Is this actually the short version of this event? Dang woman."

"Ugh. Let me finish before you complain dude. So then I was like if you don't want me to be here I'll leave and all if them were just like oh thank goodness and we're really glad you didn't take this too hard and I hope we can still be acquaintances I guess and all sorts of rubbish. But Kemen, Ella and Etta stood by my side I guess so... yeah."

"And your mom?"

"Oh, that's easy. She's cold and heartless. Like you."

"Ouch. You know, I'm not all dead."

"I do. I guess my warmth comes from my dad then. Go figure." She kicked air and sighed. "So... any advice?"

"Well, not sure what to do about your mom. But I guess the best thing to do for both situations would be to keep your head high, your anger low and your friends as close as possible. Your true friends though; me, the twins, Kemen, Meera-"

"Wait, we're friends?"

"Ye- wait. Ugh. Stop smiling you creepy little human girl."

"I can't. You finally admitted it. WOO! Manon 1: Shadow boy: 0!"

"Shadow Man." She rose an eyebrow.

"What was that?" He gulped.

"Nothing."