Henry Danger One-Shots

Too Much Game

Summary: Ray's thoughts when he watches Henry play basketball in the Man Cave at the end of "Too Much Game".

Warnings: mentions of child neglect

☉ ♥︎ ☉ ♥︎ ☉

Ray raised his eyebrows briefly and flashed a smile in recognition as Henry walked towards him with the basketball in his hands and a broad smile on his face. He'd just scored his nineteenth goal in a row in the Man Cave's hoop, which Ray only knew existed since yesterday morning. He watched as Henry retook his position of about twenty feet away from the hoop and prepared to throw the ball.

Ray couldn't help but smile fondly when the tip of Henry's tongue appeared in the corner of his mouth in concentration. He couldn't believe that this kid was thirteen already, soon to be fourteen. He looked like he was just ten years old with his huge mop of fluffy blond hair and big brown doe eyes. He was such an adorable kid. Not as adorable as Ray used to be when he was young, but he came pretty close.

Yet, Henry was surprisingly mature. Sure, he'd been sad and dejected after he got kicked off the basketball team, but he'd taken his failure in pride. Ray would've made a much bigger fuss about it if he'd been in Henry's shoes, and he was an adult. There'd been many other occasions where Henry had been the more mature one out of the two of them, especially concerning their media image as Swellview's superheroes. For example, Henry had simply frowned in disbelief when they'd played him off at their reward ceremony, which would have been his first official speech as Kid Danger, Captain Man's new sidekick. He hadn't made a fuss or tried to get more attention.

That was something Ray had noticed a while ago. Henry never asked for attention. Ever. Each time he seemed to simply accept that no one was interested in what he did and dealt with it in silence. At first he'd thought the kid was just in some sort of teenage mood where he wanted to mope by his lonesome, but soon he realised that Henry didn't even expect to receive attention in the first place.

He was convinced that it had something to do with his parents. He had yet to meet them, which he found very strange, given that he was their son's boss. He'd expected to meet them at some point in the first week or two after hiring Henry, but they never showed, nor did he hear anything from them. The only proof he'd gotten that Henry actually had parents was their signature on the employment contract, which they'd had to sign as Henry was still a minor. After the kid's parents had remained no-shows even after three whole weeks, the alarm bells in his head had gone off for the first time.

The second time they went off was when he discovered Henry's resigned acceptance of being ignored.

The third time was today. This basketball game had been pretty big for Henry, since it had decided whether or not he stayed on the team, but neither of his parents had shown up. It was a Saturday and he knew for a fact that neither parent had a job that required them to work on weekends. Even Piper, Henry's annoying little sister, had come to the game (he'd also noticed that Piper called Henry frequently to talk about her problems. Usually, listening to a child's problems was the parents' job, not the older teenage brother's. Siblings normally didn't do that).

But not his parents.

Normally, he wouldn't have thought much about it. It was very much possible that they had an important appointment or something similar that had gotten in the way. But Henry would have mentioned that. Since he hadn't addressed his parents' absence, it was all the more obvious that he hadn't expected anything else to be the case.

Truth to be told, it made Ray's heart clench.

Henry deserved so much. He was the nicest kid he'd ever met. Not the brightest of them all (that would be Charlotte), but he made up for that with his bravery, on-point gut feelings, determination and loyalty. He was sweet, innocent and altogether good.

Henry was a wonderful kid.

And Ray was fairly certain he was being seriously neglected by his parents. As was his little sister.

With Henry it manifested as overjoy when he got attention, resignation when he didn't and overall his determination to help others. With Piper it did as anger outbursts and the search for attention on social media.

He still couldn't properly wrap his head around the fact that the beautiful, attractive and stunning Kris Hart (of whom he'd only seen a picture until now) would neglect her children.

That any parent would.

Henry's whoop of joy ripped Ray from his thoughts. He just scored his twentieth goal with Schwoz's unfashionable super sleeve. Ray's lips stretched into an annoyed smile. Anything Schwoz-related annoyed him these past few days.

"Oh, yeah!" the kid yelled and stepped towards him. He then drummed his hands on Ray's abdomen and kicked his leg up in the air with another whoop. Ray glanced down at him and saw Henry's smile fade and it being replaced with a slightly uncertain expression. Ray immediately changed his annoyed smile to a genuine one to prevent the kid from thinking he was annoyed with him. The smile returned to his kid's face as he went to grab the ball.

Wait, his kid?

Eh, might as well. He was his sidekick, he could call him "his". He spent enough time with him anyways, probably more than the people that legally had the right to call him "theirs".

He kind of liked the ring of it, too.

His kid.

Not that he would call Henry that out loud, but he liked the idea.

He'd just keep that little thought to himself.