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queen-of-writing-bad-things · 1 year ago

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Henry Danger Reader Insert | Captain Man x Reader: SEASON 4

Episode 18: Up the Stairs!

Oh, Charlotte.

She was the long-suffering smart one in the Man Cave if you didn't include (y/n) on the list of sane people against not so sane people. It was hard being the only responsible helper when the heroes were out doing whatever heroes do; Schwoz was smart but often too weird to be classed as "normal" and Jasper, well, he was Jasper.

That meant that the girl was often left to work alone when Ray, Henry and (y/n) went out to fight bad guys and bring home the bacon, all that jazz and because the woman was in a similar situation, she often understood how she felt. Sorry not sorry, but for the most part, it was always like Miss Danger was Captain Man and Kid Danger's carer, y'know, she cared so they didn't have to, she always paid attention to the small things and listened to her gut when it sensed there was peril, and that had gotten them out of a few scrapes.

But that didn't mean that her role on the team was easy, taking care of a man-child and a still-developing teen made her want to tear her hair out at times like when shit happened, they received texts and failed to relay the information to her, y'know, the other smart one. And that brought them onto Exhibit A...

The boys came down the tubes with huge grins on their faces, (y/n) bundled up in Ray's arms with a whole load of Inside-Out Burger takeout in hers. They were joking about this, that and the other, the other being some funny thing that had happened to them whilst they were out on their mission, and as a reward for saving the day yet again, they'd picked up a few burgers, fries, onion rings, sodas, you name it they bought it.

And why the hell not? They were oblivious to anything else apart from their rumbling tummies and for two, the need to make up for time lost during Ray's jaunt to California. Yeah, it had been a tough week for him; Minyak had been insufferable, his back and butt were aching, his heart was hurting and by the end of it, the Man Cave had never looked so welcoming.

"Hey! You guys are back here already?" Charlotte asked the heroes as they walked down from the tubes, Ray's arm firmly around (y/n)'s waist with no intention of letting go as she carried their food close to her chest, a mix of their favourites that she had no intention of losing it now that she had it. "What happened out there?"

"What do you mean?"

"We just went to Inside-Out Burger." Henry and Ray had blank faces as they gestured to their purchases, (y/n) shaking her paper sack full of greasy goodness that was gonna be in her tummy soon enough. Henry was sipping his soda too as the woman painted a soft smile on her face, thinking that all was well in the world because as always, her doofus and friend had failed to tell her anything that Charlotte had alerted them about, things like emergency texts just as a random example.

"Did you guys not get my text messages?" Charlotte asked sternly, making focusing on Henry and Ray since they were normally the guilty ones for not replying, (y/n) was pretty good about stuff like that, but for once, the woman was also guilty because she'd failed to read them, although to be fair, she did have a very good reason.

"Oh, no, I couldn't. I left my phone here 'cause it needed to charge but Ray had his and so did Henry..." She shrugged, feeling concerned but also guiltless since she couldn't react to something she didn't know existed and in all fairness, she'd trusted her fiancé to read what people sent him, the same with the kid, but no. If you want something done properly, charge your phone and do it yourself.

"Uhhhhh, text messages...I've seen it..."

"Uh, I got one from you, like, last week--oh no, here's one from you..." The boys muttered as they briefly scrolled through their test and yeah, there just so happened to be one from the worried teen, but neither could bring themselves to care now that they were old news.

(y/n) found herself perplexed as Ray guided her over to the table to start eating their burgers whilst they were still hot and if wasn't for the fact that she'd been distracted by the Ray had a picture of them together as his lock screen, then she would've concentrated a lot more on Charlotte's clear concern.

"Ugh! I texted you guys because I got a call on the emergency hotline from the Swellview Airport. Some five-year-old child climbed into the cockpit of a big jet aeroplane and drove it all the way to ToysPlus!" The girl exclaimed, trying to communicate her urgency to them and (y/n) gasped softly as she set the food down and immediately became focused. A child with a plane? Why was her life never simple?

"Oh god, is the child okay?" At least she understood the need to act and was fully prepared to ignore her hunger and the junk food that would inevitably go soggy and cardboard, and go out to save someone's life, once she got all the details, that was.

"Oh, yeah! You did send us a text! Hurry, child in danger, time's running out, blah blah blah, why aren't you responding? Are you seeing my texts? Hello?"

"Oh, yeah! I see it! That's exactly what you said. Hurry, child in danger, blah blah blah, why aren't you responding? Are you seeing my texts? Hello?" They read out together, their voices merging into one monotone blur as they finished the influx of worried texts Charlotte had sent and (y/n) quickly felt irritated at how they'd promised her going to Inside-Out Burger would be okay. Stupidly, she'd believed them, just like that because Henry was a starving boy in need of sustenance and Ray...Ray was cute. And she couldn't handle how cute he was.

"Ugh, you guys! When I asked you, you said everything was fine and that I was just hangry!" (y/n) gently thumped Ray's bicep and raised her eyebrows at Henry, causing both of them to give him a look of feigned innocence as if to say that they had thought it would all be fine because ignorance is bliss. Nothing can go wrong if you don't know about it, right?

"Sweet girl..." Ray mumbled, his bottom lip wobbling as she tried to be stern with him for thinking about food more than anything else, but it was the same cuteness that broke down her walls again. She didn't have the heart to stay mad, not when his enormous hand grabbed hers and held it to his chest as a silent plea for forgiveness. He wanted her love, he wanted that pride she felt when he gave Charlotte the win a few weeks ago.

Ugh, for the young girl, she knew that her complaints weren't gonna go very far and she wasn't gonna be the one to make them argue, lord knows that that was painful enough, so she'd let it go...at a price.

"Just forget it, (y/n/n). Can you give me an Inside Double?" Charlotte requested gesturing to the paper bag as (y/n) began gingerly pulling out her soda, fries, onion rings and a fucking huge burger from the bag, which left Ray's significantly smaller portion for him to take. Hell yeah, she was gonna eat all of it, although secretly, Henry would bet anyone one hundred dollars that at some point, the couple would swap food and feed each other fries. It was just one of their things.

"But, uh, I actually only got one of these and I was gonna eat it, so..." The man said awkwardly, tugging the paper wrap so the bun and patty were poking out for his first bite, which he'd been looking forward to ever since he'd placed the order with the dopey teen behind the cash register. This was his food, he'd ordered it, it wasn't nice for him to share unless the person asking was exceptionally pretty and had lips like honey, but right now, he wasn't gonna budge.

And Charlotte could saw that. She noticed that fact in the way he held the burger to his chest, shielding it away from her, even though she deserved it after panicking so much about an emergency they were never gonna respond to. So, as (y/n) nibbled on her first french fry, she did the only thing she could to assert dominance.

Ignoring her maturity, Charlotte blew a raspberry all over the sandwich, making sure that little flecks of saliva landed on the bun to accompany the sesame seeds, rendering it inedible since Ray wasn't about to eat a spit-covered anything.

"Here, I got you this..." He conceded in a strained voice, his mood now all grumpy since he was now left burgerless, his fries the only other thing he'd bought and he growled lowly as Charlotte took away his beloved Inside Double.

Henry couldn't help but laugh at his friend's loss, not in a mean way, more like at how the mighty superhero had lost out to a girl half his size but double his brainpower. Yet, it wasn't all doom and gloom, not for Ray anyway, no matter who laughed at him.

"Come on, doofus, come sit down. You can share my Inside Double." Someone pay Henry one hundred dollars because he was right. Without even a second thought, (y/n) warmly invited her finacé to sit with her, or rather snuggle up into her open side where his spirits would inevitably be brightened by her generous offer of giving him half of what she had to suit what he lacked.

It was a no-brainer for her, he'd go hungry otherwise and in her mind, fries weren't a meal, just the thing that accompanied the main event, so whilst he was sliding in next to her, she was already unwrapping her burger to split it.

"Awww, baby, you sure?" Ray's smile grew as he saw what she was doing and for a second, he wasn't sure if it was right to accept. He knew what the offer signified, (y/n) (y/l/n) didn't give out food lightly unless she was particularly fond of the person in question, so that warmed his heart when he realised that this was one of her ways of showing affection.

But then there came the hitch of him technically taking food away from her when she was hungry. That's why she had so much, she was starving, ready to chow down and he didn't want to take food away from her mouth when his protective instincts told him that she should eat more and he'd survive on the leftover scraps. Some stupid, prehistoric caveman gene telling him to provide for his family before himself, and it half made him want to turn down the offer, but (y/n) was way ahead of him.

"Of course, sweetheart." Her eyes flickered to him briefly, loving the way they instantly melted into each other as he got comfy; her leg over his, his arm behind her, bodies cuddling up to one another so they could be as close as possible.

It was cute but nauseating and Henry rolled his eyes at them when the woman awkwardly broke the burger into two rough halves. It wasn't easy, pickles and lettuce fell everywhere but she did it unapologetically and when she offered it to him, Ray accepted the bigger half like it was the most precious thing he'd ever received.

He couldn't help but tilt her head up and kiss her gently as Schwoz came out from the secret door. The kissing wasn't a new sight, but (y/n) seemed so flushed, breathless...what did he miss?

"Oh, hey, Schwoz..." Henry greeted the genius, who was singing some unknown song from his homeland as he carried something across the room. His phone was his main focus right now and he didn't look up from it whilst Schwoz ambled past, meaning he missed how Charlotte grimaced as she quietly took a seat next to Ray, who was still mid-kiss with (y/n), their movements passionate enough to make her roll her eyes. Didn't they need air?

"Hello, Henry...ooh, you guys got Inside-Out Byergurr!" The genius grinned once he got a whiff of the unmistakable scent of fast food and when he saw the logo, he knew that they'd made a little detour. That made the happy couple pull away, knowing that the aforementioned food was growing chillier by the second and that now wasn't the time or the place.

Still, that being said, nothing stopped them from giggling as they gazed into each other's eyes and nothing stopped him from placing another peck on her lips, one final taste of that honey before they straightened out to eat, although they were still pretty close.

"Burger." Henry corrected the genius, not seeing how in love Ray was with (y/n) at that moment, although no one needed to tell him that, he already knew it. And so did Charlotte, who was being reminded right now as she endured them being all cosy and icky right next to her.

"Heh?"

"Uh, you said--you said byergurr or something like that. It's pronounced burger." Henry told him, not realising that any attempt to steamroll Schwoz's Schwozian accent into an American one was futile. He was just Schwoz, odd with his funny pronunciation of English and he was never gonna change because he saw no point in it. He could put on an American accent if he wanted to, he just chose not to.

"It's pointless trying. Trust me, no matter what you do, he always says it like beyerrrgurrr." (y/n) piped up, slowly chewing an onion ring through her amused smile, watching as the kid tried what she'd attempted for the few months of her employment. Yeah, Schwoz would never change, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, he was goody and that was good.

"Beeyergurr..." The small man attempted again, prompting Henry to fall back into the role of teacher, an uphill battle that he'd eventually lose, so (y/n) left him to it. Being fed french fries by Ray was much more interesting, especially when his eyes softened at her pink cheeks. They didn't share food often, only with each other and she was more than happy to shyly give him one of hers.

"Nah, nah, nah, nah. Burger!"

"Bervurr!" This was going nowhere and Henry was starting to see that. For him, pronouncing the G wasn't so hard, but no matter how he stressed every syllable, Schwoz always arrived at the wrong conclusion. Dear God, it was frustrating and as a kid who already had enough on his plate what with school, puberty and being a goddamn sidekick, he decided that he didn't need that stress. "Yeah, you nailed it..."

"Okay!" Schwoz exclaimed gleefully, thinking he'd impressed his friends by excelling that their language, but deep down, they were just gonna let him think that. There was no need to ruin his happiness, not when they could just leave him alone and continue to munch at their burgers, fries, onion rings, whatever. For now, there was peace...and Charlotte. took the time to connect with the genius during said peace because he had a device he'd never seen before.

"Hey, what is that?" She asked, leaving her burger on the table and walking over to the genius as he fiddled about with something, plugging it into the supercomputer for some reason that was unknown to everyone except for (y/n). He'd told her about it, of course, he had, they were science buddies, but she was way too intrigued by the hue of Ray's eyes to be able to give a coherent answer.

"Oh, I'm optimising the power consumption here in the Man Coave," Schwoz explained nonchalantly, still adjusting all his wires and things as he prepared the system for the work and from what he'd described to his science buddy, she knew it was gonna be a big one.

"Cave. Man Cave" And here came Henry, still obsessing about the man's speaking abilities and it's like he hadn't learned his lesson before. The couple a few centimetres away from him shared a knowing look, aware that the kid couldn't help himself, which was honestly kinda funny but also irritating since they didn't want to go through that again.

"Uhhhh..."

"No! Please, we are not doing that crap again!" (y/n) protested, taking the first bite of her burger half after saying her piece. She just wanted to sit back, relax and be all mushy with her doofus as they ate lunch because it wasn't often that they had the time to just be calm and hang out, so she wanted to make the most of it and squeeze in as many kisses as she could too.

"Yeah, come on! Let's get this story going..." Ray argued too, although he said it through a mouthful of French fries. He wanted to know what was going on in his Man Cave because he could guarantee that if he had been told then he wasn't listening. Science, science science, he didn't care, only when his sweet girl was explaining something with that enthusiasm of hers that just made her seem so bubbly and gorgeous, he couldn't help but listen. And yet even then, he was too distracted by her to properly process what was being said.

"Wait, so, what does optimising power even mean?" Henry asked as Schwoz lifted the big battery-looking block bag thing over his head and plonked it on the supercomputer's console. Honestly, it was all pretty simple, but Henry and Ray weren't exactly scientists or intellectuals for that matter, so, he had to dumb it down.

"Oh, it just makes everything work better. And now, I'm going to have to temporarily turn off the electrical power that operates both tubes and the elevator." Schwoz explained in the simplest terms he could, but then Charlotte thought of something.

"So, you can say I'm going to have to temporarily turn off the electrical power that operates both tubes and the elevator, but you can't say burger?" She asked, knowing that there was a lot of complicated lexis and phonology embedded into that sentence, so he should've been able to say just one normal word, but nope. As always, Schwoz had some words he could say and others he couldn't.

"Gwaaaveuuurr..."

"Enough! No more about Schwoz's inability to speak, thank you." (y/n) butted in, raising the hand that wasn't holding her food so that they'd all be quiet, or at the very least move onto a new topic of conversation. They could go on and on about what Schwoz could or couldn't say, but they weren't going to, not on her watch, because it would just descend into chaos.

"You're so hot when you take charge, sweet girl," Ray whispered into her ear, making her blush and look down at her fries when his lips curved over her the shell of her ear and his hand briefly settled on her thigh to stroke at the smooth skin there. Anything to see her so flustered and ignoring the kids wrinkling their noses at them, he plucked one of the fries from her pile and lifted it to her mouth, chuckling when she shyly parted her lips to nibble the end. Why so shy all of a sudden?

"Okay, and..." Schwoz, ignoring the blatant PDA going on behind him (he didn't need to be a genius to know that it was), had finished all his setting-up and with a tiny flick of a switch and one hell of a button press, he killed the power to the Man Cave. All the lights dimmed and flickered several times once he did and until the generators kicked in, Ray happily used the darkness to return his hand to where it had been on his girl's thigh, causing her to squirm subtly since no one could see.

It was only a few seconds later that all the lights came back on, save for the tubes and elevator, which were lifeless, just as Schwoz had said. It all seemed to be going according to plan, things were going smoothly. Until they weren't.

Suddenly, just as (y/n) was about to feed Ray yet another fry in between the chomping of his burger half, the emergency alarm for Junk-N-Stuff sounded, making them all snap their heads up like meerkats. Oh god, Jasper was busy working up there and if he'd flipped the switch, it could only mean that some serious shit was going down. A robbery, an explosion, a fire, who knows?

"Uh-oh! Emergency up at Junk-N-Stuff." Charlotte stated as she abandoned whatever pickings she had left from her food and ran to sit in the computer's chair, Ray, (y/n) and Henry not far behind her. Schwoz was there too, wondering what the hell was going on as she pulled up the live camera feed and Ray pulled his girl's body back into his. Yeah, even in a crisis, he couldn't say no to holding her.

"All right, everybody, we're live in five, four, three, two..." The team's horror and concern faded to confusion as they watched jasper scramble to defend the store and the secrets that were hidden underneath it with whatever he could find. And his weapon of choice was a random bow and arrow, which he crossed and aimed to form a defensive stance so he could smite the intruders if they dared to come too close, but they were harmless. Less than harmless, wondrous rather.

"Hello, Swellview!" A guy appeared through the door of the store and immediately, Jasper knew who he was, everyone knew who he was. The best celebrity chef on TV, and the boy felt himself instantly hyperventilate at his appearance, the bow and arrow slipping from his hands as he gasped and felt his head spin. The excitement was the same in the Man Cave, everyone screaming at the guy who was in Ray's store--Ray and (y/n)'s store because it was so surreal.

"You're Morgan Maykew!" Jasper screamed, not believing that the happy, go-lucky chef was standing in front of him as it was so crazy that he'd be chosen as his guest on his amazing show. That's how it worked, the chef would pick a person, any person and then cook them the wackiest, but most delicious foods known to man and boy, it made for great viewing. Everyone wanted to be on the show, but there were millions of people in the city, so being picked was like winning the lottery, and it was jasper's day to win.

"That's right! And I'm here to Maykew a meal!" The chef grinned and turned around to gaze into the camera, making everyone in the Man Cave turn into jelly. Oh god, this was so insane, Ray could feel (y/n) vibrating in his arms as she excitedly jumped up and down on the spot and the others weren't much better.

"That's--that's Morgan Maykew!" Henry reiterated, not because he was dumb, but because that's the kind of effect the man had on people. He took away their ability to form proper, relevant sentences and control their urge to scream.

"Yeah, he's my favourite celebrity chef!" Schwoz exclaimed and pretty much everyone was in the same boat as him. Morgan just had a quality that no other chef had, probably because he seemed so warm and kind and because he came with great food, so everyone liked him.

"Oh my gosh, I have all of Morgan Maykew's cookbooks."

"Oh my god, so do I!" (y/n) squealed at Charlotte as the girl revealed just how much she loved the guy. To be honest, the younger girl wasn't into cooking that much and (y/n) normally just stuck to cookies and cakes, whatever her and Ray's sweet tooth were hankering for, but for Morgan, they'd make anything. All his recipes were too good not to make and Ray was certain about that because he'd had the delight of sampling whatever his girl made for him and holy shit, it was great.

"You do?" Henry asked the girls. He knew about (y/n) and her culinary escapades, he'd sampled her brown soup and oat raisin cookies more than enough times to know that she dabbled in it, but he did not know that about his other best friend. Huh, you learn something new every day, Charlotte likes to cook...

"Yeah! I have Maykew lunch! Maykew say yum! Maykew drool!..." The girl listed, proving that she was an aficionado and (y/n) nodded along with her. Yeah, those were the good ones, but in her opinion, the best one was...

"Maykew fatter!" (y/n) exclaimed, adding her favourite, most prized cookbook with an excitement that made Ray smile at her cute, happy face. He liked seeing her happy, it felt right and just for a brief second, he tore his eyes away from the idol on the screen to kiss her temple, which he just couldn't help when his heart was bursting with so much love.

"Okay, today, we're here at a store called Junk-N-Stuff and--love the energy, it's great... We're here at Junk-N-Stuff with---" Morgan Maykew tried to explain where there were and what was happening to the unfortunate souls at home who had to sit in misery and see the lucky kid get fed, but there was one small problem. Jasper couldn't contain his excitement and every time Morgan said something, he screamed throatily. Okay, keep cool, keep cool, no screaming...

"We're here at Junk-N-Stuff with--"

"Morgan Maykew!" Yeah, that kept happening. The viewers knew who the host was, his name was in the damn title, they just wanted to know who the kid was, although it was understandable as to why he was acting like that. Sure, it was a bit extreme, but hey, Morgan was a celebrity and he was used to it.

"Right! But what's your name?" The man asked, circling the counter so he could put a friendly arm around Jasper's shoulders, and that was a good thing. Y'see, the boy was so nervous, so eager to impress in front of the chef (he'd had the same problem when he'd been just a mere fan of Captain Man, not his employee), he just said the first thing that came to mind.

"J-Master Boogie the Third!" Oh god, that was embarrassing. The boy looked up in terror when he'd realised what he'd said, an old online nickname that had haunted him since he was, like, twelve years old. Y'know, the sort of age when you're a bit cringey on the internet.

"That really your name?"

"No. It's Jasper. Jasper Dunlop." The boy replied honestly, Morgan having seen through his humiliating fuck-up with a kind smile and like a true professional, he moved the show on to spare the kid's blushes.

Meanwhile, back down in the Man Cave, the family were still watching eagerly, hanging onto every word, which seemed a bit weird when Ray took the time to mull over it. For one of the few times in his life, he was using his little grey cells and worked out that rather than being spectators, they could be on the show with Jasper if they just went half a mile up and walked in his store. He was the goddamn owner, (y/n) was very nearly, practically already his goddamn wife and the others were like family to him, so why shouldn't they go and enjoy some incredible food?

"Why are we standing down here when Morgan Maykew is up there making a big delicious meal?!" Ray questioned in a squeaky voice. He too was unable to contain his need to yell and run all over the place with exhilaration, grabbing onto (y/n)'s hand as she giggled at his goofy but adorable face.

"Because we're idiots!"

"Come on, let's go!" Henry exclaimed and Charlotte was quick to shout the command to run to the elevator, all three of them eager to get upstairs as quickly as possible. They ran to the elevator, leaving Schwoz and (y/n) standing there in confusion as they collided with the wall, mashing the button to get the damn thing to work. But that was the thing and it was why the clever ones were trying to get their attention; there was no way upstairs right now, Schwoz was rebooting the system, how could they forget?

"Guys? Guys? Guys? Guys..." Schwoz piped up in a voice that was just a tad too quiet and submissive for them to hear as they bickered about pressing the button properly because that must've been why it wasn't responding immediately like it normally did. There were just too many fingers trying to reach it at once, it was fine until (y/n) grew impatient and dug deep to find her loudness underneath her instinct to stay quiet and observe.

"YOU GUYS!" She yelled at the top of her voice, ignoring how the sudden, sharp use strained her vocal cords a little bit. Because she never raised her voice in that way, unless she was angry with Ray about something serious, they all listened and stood to attention like she was their general and they were her soldiers. Well, that had been a lot more effective than she had thought it would be.

"Schwoz told you! He turned off the power to the elevator for his system update thing!" The woman reminded them and suddenly, they were feeling a bit dumb. Oh, her doofus looked so cute, another time when she was distracted by that stupid face he pulled when he didn't understand or know what to, but she folded her arms and remained strong anyway. Yeah, it was disappointing that they'd have to wait, but sometimes, life is unfair.

"Well, turn it back on, man! Come on!" Henry protested, thinking that this was just a simple fix and if they just flicked the right switch, they could pop up to Junk-N-Stuff and he could just resume whatever techno bullshit he was up to. But if only it were that simple.

"I cannot do that until the system update is finished!" The genius explained, gesturing to his fancy machine that was still whirring away, transferring new software into the system. He didn't want to get too technical, but that was a very delicate process and turning it off would be a disaster, so it was tough shit for all of them.

"The tubes!" Idiots. They worked with idiots. Thinking that they were being clever or maybe they just hadn't listened, the three idiots sprinted to the tube pads, believing that they would be able to lift them upstairs, but that was a no-go too. They had been switched off, didn't they remember? There was no technological way upstairs and honestly, the queen of the spelling bee should've known that because she was meant to be a smartie too.

"Up the tubes! Up the--up the tubes! Tubes!"

"Guys. Guys...Guys....guys, guy--gu..." Again, Schwoz found himself in the same situation as before. Full of knowledge but not enough power to be the voice of reason, so he turned to (y/n) when they wouldn't listen to him. Nudging her arm, he gestured for her to speak up and she sighed at how obvious this all should've been.

"YOU GUYS! DOOFUS ONE, TWO, AND THREE!" (y/n) shouted and they turned to face her again, listening intently as she deemed them all the adorable idiots that she often saw Ray be. It wasn't the same; she always said it with so much love when it typically concerned him, but this time, she was annoyed, evident by the way she folded her arms and raised her eyebrows. Yeah, she wasn't being that affectionate right now...

"He turned off the power to the tubes too! Remember?"

"The elevator!!" Oh dear lord, was it her? Was it them? Were they the dumb ones or were this lot just a different type of thick? Partially absorbing the "new" information, Ray, Charlotte and Henry stumbled down the steps and back to the still dead elevator, which was still in the same condition as when they had left it ten seconds prior. No matter how many times they pressed that button, it still wasn't gonna work, not that they were open to rational reason.

"What do we do?" Schwoz asked the woman, observing the obsolete rush to cram into the elevator with one eye and studying her facial movements with the other, a feat only Schwoz could pull off. Hmmm, she was thinking, analysing her fiancé and the teens with careful eyes until she came to one conclusion. The only conclusion she could think of when they were riding the wave of insanity.

"Well...I say we go eat some Inside-Out Beyergurr." (y/n) grinned down at him and they chuckled as they walked off to go and eat the rest of the food the others had left behind. She still had plenty left and Schwoz wasn't the kind of guy to have any shame about eating someone else's leftovers, so they happily went to sit down again.

Henry, Ray and Charlotte would calm down eventually, in predictable stages where the smartest, Charlotte, returned from her craziness first, and the stubbornest, Ray, was left kicking at the elevator door in the hopes that the kinetic energy would turn into electric.

Yeah, that's not how it worked, poor doofus, he was so done with all this science malarkey, but at least he had his sweet girl to feed him French fries and smother him with kisses until all that confusion faded into obscurity. Some things weren't so bad...

"So, Jasper. You like appetisers?" Morgan asked the boy as he got started on his first creation of the day and no one could take their eyes off his hands. It was like they were creating magic and they sort of were; he turned the culinary arts into wizardry and he didn't use pots and pans, he used cauldrons and spells to perfectly sizzle, fry or bake masterpieces that melted in the mouth.

"Sure! I'll eat whatever you say!" He replied eagerly, desperate to try anything that Morgan Maykew could make because it had been one of his dreams for years, just one small taste of his enchanted delights. Plus, he didn't want to be the first guy on TV to insult the loveable chef by turning his nose up at an offering. That would be social suicide.

At least it made him laugh, and was that a blush Jasper could see? Aw, he was such a nice guy, so it was easy to just breeze the conversation on like it was the most natural thing in the world. They were old friends just cooking some grub, not a randomer and the guy who'd been to red carpets and award shows. "And you're making a sushi appetiser?"

"Well, it looks like sushi but inside, it's actually filled with macaroni and cheese!

"Oh, dang, Morgan!" Jasper said it. This was what Maykew was known for, taking a well-known, well-loved dish like sushi and adding a twist that seemed a bit odd at first, but he always made it great in the end. People like sushi, people like mac n' cheese, it just made sense to mush them together, and the temptation was too much for those still down in the Man Cave, especially now that they'd all calmed down.

"Why, Schwoz?! Why would you trap us down here?!" Charlotte screamed at the small man, grabbing onto the lapels of his jacket so she could shake him in a violent fit of rage. It wasn't like her to do that, the girl seldom lost control and looked at life with a rational mindset, but come on, Morgan was up there cooking for Jasper of all people. But here she was with a crummy, common burger, life was so unfair.

"I told you I was turning off the power to the tubes and the elevator! You know, everybody knows!" Schwoz snapped back, finally finding the strength inside him to defend himself. To be fair to the man, he had given them a heads up and it was only due to a cruel twist of fate that they found themselves stuck at precisely the wrong moment.

"Okay, okay, you 'Lil coconut, calm down." (y/n) instructed him, placing a soft hand on his shoulder as he wildly jerked his body in frustration. She could understand why he was mad, they were being so difficult, but there was no incentive to work himself up into a fit, that wouldn't solve anything, especially not Henry's relentless need to get moving.

"Can you at least turn the tubes and the elevator on for, like, ten seconds?"

"Yeah! Just long enough so we can get up there and be on the show!" Henry asked and Charlotte was quick to join in, bringing a level of enthusiasm and giddiness as she smacked her hands together and jumped on the spot. What part of no power didn't they get? No, the tubes nor the elevator could be turned back on, not even for a little bit, otherwise, Schwoz, being the genius he was, would've done that by now. Sheesh.

"I can't interrupt the system update!" Schwoz insisted, causing the teens to groan in frustration because it seemed like they were stuck downstairs and destined to watch Jasper being fed with burning jealousy. No ideas, no plans, no way up, or at least there was nothing that (y/n) could think of right now and when she was stuck, there was always one person she turned to since his goofy smile always sparked inspiration in her mind.

"Okay, right, Ray, what do you think? Can you think of any other way to get upstairs because I'm-- Wait, Ray? Wha--?" (y/n)'s deep thought was interrupted when her brain triggered an alarming realisation. She was thinking, she was being smart and for her fiancé, her being smart equalled her being hot, no matter if she was in her Miss Danger costume or in her civilian clothes like she was now. Being hot equalled getting handsy, getting handsy equalled lips on her neck and hands on her butt and yet she found her body cold. Huh?

The stark contrast between what she was experiencing now and what she normally experienced when her loving doofus was around made her eyes snap around the room, worried that something was wrong since he never missed an opportunity to hold her hand, sneak her kisses or get close enough to smell her perfume.

And then she spotted him, right above the tubes pads, in a position that would be impossible for anyone else, but this was Ray and he had the determination to defy the laws of physics and as such, he was attempting to make the climb to the store above their heads via the tube. Oh, what a brave, adorable and yet so dumb doofus.

"Uh, Ray, sweetheart...what are you doing?" She asked, calling out to the legs that were dangling from the mouth of the right tube and Henry followed after her. Jeez, this guy was an idiot, he could barely hold himself up on the first metre, how would he feel when he made the half-a-mile mark?

"I wanna meet Morgan Maykew and be on the TV show, sweet girl!" He answered, the effort of the climb colouring his every word with grunts and moans from how his muscles were starting to burn. It was tough holding up his body weight because he was a wall of solid muscle and therefore not very light, not that it was gonna stop him. That was his store, his junk, his stuff, he wanted to get fed some nice food and cherish the memory of it with his darling girl later on.

"So you're gonna climb...half a mile...up the tube?" Henry asked, gazing up at his boss as the man's legs kicked around for some kind of friction that would make his biceps hurt less, but there was nothing. All he was doing was making himself look desperate, nothing more.

"It can happen!" Could it though? It was a hell of a long way up and he was already struggling. Not to mention the fact that it would probably take him about two hours to make it even if he could hold on for that long, he'd probably end up getting his (y/n) withdrawal symptoms again and give up when the pining got too bad.

"Okay, handsome, whatever you say! We'll be waiting down here for you!" The woman shouted to him, knowing all too well that he'd never make it, so she wasn't gonna pout about not getting a goodbye kiss just yet. He'd be back the moment he saw sense or more like the moment he slipped and fell when his muscles gave up or he put a foot wrong.

"No, I'm doing it!" They turned their attention away from the man-child and back onto Morgan, who was ready to serve his starter to Jasper. The boy couldn't stay still and was literally jumping for joy as a plate of macaroni sushi was pushed into his face. "Okay, Jasper, you wanna try my special susharoni-and-cheese rolls?"

"Morgan, may I?"Jasper felt it was only right to be so polite with the man since he was like a god, offering him food that he didn't deserve but he sure as hell was gonna eat it anyway, especially when the chef gave him his enthusiastic permission.

"Hit it!" And with that, Jasper picked up a sushi-mac-cheese-whatever roll and rammed it into his mouth so he could start chewing immediately. Okay, maybe it was a bit animalistic the way he wolfed it down but he honestly didn't care, not when so many flavours burst across his tastebuds at once. There was the cheese, there was the macaroni, but then there was the rice and it all worked so well together, this man had some serious skills.

"Don't know what you just said but you better swallow that 'cause in a few minutes, I'm gonna make you a lot more of my funkalicious dishes right here on..." Morgan exclaimed chirpily, moving on from Jasper's incoherent mumblings with his mouth full. He pointed to the kid, who'd quickly swallowed his food and it was pretty obvious what Jasper needed to say to complete the sentence, but he wasn't the brightest at the best of times, let alone when under so much pressure of not screwing up in front of millions.

"Television!" The kid had heart, just not a lot of brains.

"On...Maykew A Meal!

"On television!" Well, at least Morgan knew which show they were doing, and the reminder of Jasper being the one to eat all of that glorious food was enough for the team down in the Man Cave to grumpily turn off the monitor as the TV cut to a Fred Lobster commercial. They should've been up there, but they couldn't, they just had to sit downstairs and tolerate the torture...

"Okay, okay, you hear that? Now, Morgan Maykew's making Jasper a bunch of awesome snacks!" Henry complained over Ray's grunts as the man tried to shimmy his way to the store, which was still impossible, but whatever. What was more important was that they were going hungry and all they had to eat was crappy, average food from the auto-snacker or the culinary abominations they could whip up themselves. Nothing would ever match Morgan's food and that was the sad truth.

"Yeah! And all we get to do is stay down here and stare at 'em!" Charlotte grumbled too, looking at the monitor with a sad expression, but then, her words prompted something to spark in Henry's mind. Stare...Stare...Stair...Stairs... Holy shit he was a genius, that's how they would do it.

"Stairs!" He yelled, spooking the three standing with him into falling onto the floor because his voice was just that loud. (y/n) and Charlotte looked up at him with moody stares, wanting to know why they'd been scared into collapsing onto the dusty tules but he offered them a hand up, so they didn't snap too much. Henry was a gentleman to the end.

"What are you screaming about?" The woman asked as she dusted off her ass and tilted her head in confusion. It wasn't so bad for Schwoz since he'd fallen onto the chair but she and Charlotte hadn't been so lucky, not when Henry was out here and making their hearts race.

"The stairs! We can take the stairs up to Junk-N-Stuff!"

"Yes! Yes!" Schwoz was quick to agree with the boy's theory, thinking that he must've been picking up on his brainwaves because that plan was genius. Of course, they could take the stairs, they were there for that very purpose and the only reason why they were never used was that it was the mother of all workouts trying to reach the top floor. And that was what the girls picked up on, taking the time actually think the enormous challenge through before they went galavanting off to give themselves coronaries.

"Dude!" Charlotte exclaimed, causing Henry to pause for a moment and turn around to look at her again whilst Schwoz was tootling away to get a head start. The sooner they got moving, the sooner they'd be eating with Morgan, a fact that meant Henry couldn't wipe the dorky smile off of his face. "We're half a mile underground!"

"Right!

"Hen, there's got to be, like, two hundred floors between us and Junk-N-Stuff. Do you really think we can climb all of those stairs?" (y/n) questioned, not trying to be the Debbie Downer who ruined that rose-tinted view of his on the situation, but she was being realistic. They were superheroes, they did cardio and exercise things every day but even still, this was gonna be a serious test of their physical fitness and truthfully, she didn't feel up to it.

"Sure! It could be fun, it sounds fun! Let's go, let's go!" Henry grinned at her, leaving the girls where they stood as he and Schwoz ran off to get to the door behind the tube area, but there was one guy they couldn't forget. Ray.

He'd be up for it, Henry was sure of that, and he was Captain Man, the greatest fighter in the world so this would be just a light workout for the likes of him, he probably did it every day as a warm-up. They'd be fine, stairs weren't that bad, it's just y'know, up and stuff, much better than crawling up the tube or sitting on the couch with a crappy burger whilst Jasper of all people eats the best food in the city.

"Hey, Ray! Come on, come down! We figured out a way to get up to Junk-N-Stuff!" Henry shouted up to the legs and the person they belonged to, not that Ray could understand him due to the tube's closed casing and his sounds of effort. Still, for (y/n), the prospect of seeing her doofus was a happy one because it meant she'd be getting kisses and hugs and his goofy smile back, even if it was for only a little while. There was no way she'd follow him up the stairs, not even for Morgan Maykew's food or her unending love for him.

"What?! I can't hear you!"

"Uhhh, all right, come on..." Henry sighed and deciding that his boss wasn't gonna come down without some serious encouragement, he took matters into his own hands. Grabbing one of his boss's flailing legs, he used all of his weight and all of his muscle to yank Ray's body out from his hiding place, the man unable to hold on after the second pull. He fell from the tube, landing on the tube pads with a thump that made his sweet girl cringe and recoil at the force of it, but he was okay. After all, he was Captain Man.

"Hey, doofus. You okay?" (y/n) asked him cutely as she dashed over to help him to his feet, ensuring that she distracted his mind from the brief ache by brushing the floppy hair away from his eyes. Ray quickly straightened up at her concern, silently preening at how her hands instinctively searched his chest for injuries that were never there, or maybe it was just her way of feeling his muscles ripple under that stupidly hot shirt of his, who knows. He liked it---he loved it, he knew that much. He loved her.

"Yeah, I'm okay, sweet girl. You worried about me?" Ray shot back cockily, smirking when her nose wrinkled and a blush dusted her cheeks, not that she was embarrassed about loving him, more like shy that he'd picked up on it. Her fingers froze against his pecs, suddenly aware of how they'd rested there without her giving it a second thought and he smiled kindly when he saw her hesitate about whether it was okay or not.

"No...yeah...a bit." (y/n) bit her lip, feeling her cheeks grow warm as he chuckled and brought her hands away from his chest. For a moment, she thought he was pushing her away and for some unknown reason, he didn't want to feel her touch on his body, but no. Ray brought her wrists close to his face, pressing a kiss to each as his eyes crinkled with happiness, an action that caused her to melt and Henry to barf internally.

"Ughhh, gross..." He muttered, screwing up his face as the woman stretched her neck to place a delicate kiss on her fiancé's lips. It was cute, really cute, but seriously, come on! They were on a mission here and they weren't gonna find a taste sensation inside Ray's mouth. (y/n) begged to differ.

"What was that?" Ray pulled back from the gentle exchange with a pointed gaze, prickling at how his sidekick was always teasing them, not that the couple ever took it to heart because they knew that the moment Henry had a girlfriend and got all smoochy, they'd be the first to do the same. It was only a matter of time before the shoe was on the other foot and Ray would be the one making vomit noises for a kid who'd fallen in love.

"We're gonna take the stairs." Henry recasted, knowing that Ray was just getting grouchy because his kissy-kissy time had been interrupted, but he wouldn't go any further, not when he had (y/n) resting her head on his chest and her arms around his lithe waist. That was his happy place, a moment where she was with him and nothing was wrong; plus, he was gonna be blown away from his anger when he finally heard about his great plan.

"Oh, yeah! The Man Stairs!" Ray exclaimed, grinning at his sidekick as he realised that his Man Cave was equipped with multiple ways of getting around the place, although some were more strenuous than others. Henry laughed excitedly and skipped off to go and find Schwoz, who'd been waiting at the stairwell for his friends since he wasn't gonna walk into the store alone. He was too weird-looking for that.

"Please stop calling every Man. They're stairs, doofus, stairs!" (y/n) whined, pulling at the man's shirt since she found his incessant need to "man-ify" everything so cute and yet so annoying. Sure, they lived in the Man Cave, they flew in a Man-Copter, he had so many things named Man-something that she let slide, but some just got under her skin. Like the stairs; why put the Man there? Next, he'd have a Man-toothbrush or a Man-Toilet, hell, maybe she'd become his Man-wife when they got married, or maybe she'd be the one to draw a line somewhere.

"Okay, stairs... Come on, let's go, sweet girl." Ray rolled his eyes playfully at her pouty lip, fully aware that this was the quirk that mildly bothered her. His was how she stole his food and drinks, hers was his need to make everything fit in with his theme, they were even and so, he had no problems in tugging her by the hand towards the door. He wanted to make the trip with his girl and taste the food with her, but (y/n) had made up her mind and he wasn't gonna make her budge.

"Nuh-uh, doof, no way." She told him, digging her heels in against the metal of the tube pads so the friction would leave her stationary...and a heartbroken pout on Ray's face when he learned that she wasn't gonna follow him on this one, not when she still had food leftover and a system update that was one-quarter of the way to being complete. Of course, she hated seeing him so gloomy at the thought of leaving her behind and she reached out to stroke his cheek lovingly, but her judgement hadn't changed.

"But baby...we can be on the show if we go now."

"Ray, I know that but the probability of us reaching the top is pretty low considering how hard it is to run when having a heart attack. And I'm okay waiting for the elevator to work again." (y/n) smiled, watching as he toyed over her reasoning and sank lower into his pouting. Yeah, sure, she could look at it logically and notice that judging by the download speed, the power would be back on before they'd made it to the top, if they ever did, but that was so boring. And lonely. (y/n)-less, that's what it was or what it would be for him.

"You sure? 'Cause I don't want you to miss it." Ray countered, although what he should've said was more along the lines of "You sure? 'Cause I don't want to miss you." It was a struggle, a real struggle for both of them confessing how much being apart sucked, probably because they'd kept silent for so long before, back when they repressed anything that reared its ugly head when the other smiled, laughed, loved with someone else.

But it was fine, they were getting over it. Another thing they had to learn as they navigated the relationship that they were sure was going to last a lifetime; how to take a step back and still be okay, how to put things into perspective. They'd be fine if they didn't do everything together, they'd be fine if Ray made an ill-judged comment about a mom, they'd be fine if the boys never stopped chasing Miss Danger, it was just about knowing that at the end of the day, when all was said and done, they loved each other. Enough to survive one afternoon apart, surely.

"Go on, doofus. I'll be cheering you on from down here and waiting for you to come back." (y/n) giggled softly, standing on her tippy toes to press a goodbye kiss to his lips, well, more of a see-you-later peck since she wanted to give him another reason to come back in addition to the pile he already had. No doubt, he'd return sweaty, dehydrated and cursing the day Schwoz built those damned stairs but she'd be there, just like always.

"'Kay, sweet girl, I'll be back before you know it... I love you." Ray whispered back, carefully guiding her neck into bowing her head so he could place yet another kiss on her crown. Vaguely, he was aware of Charlotte still in the background, watching with sharp eyes and knowing yet soft smile at how for a guy who was often loud, brash and insensitive, he could be a real sweetheart, one who knew exactly what to say and how to say it.

"I love you too, handsome. Now, go on, get going." She smirked at him, pushing him away slightly by his shoulders, watching as the childish grin reemerged on his features when he broke into a sprint.

That made him seem younger, that energy; you'd never think he was a grown man on the verge of permanently settling down into a stable relationship nor would you think that a domestic life suited him. Not when he barrelled past Henry like a stamping herd of elephants, loud and clumsy. The boy had grown impatient with his boss's absence and ventured back into the room to see what the hold up was.

"Hey, you comin'?" He asked the girls, the older of them slowly stepping away from the tubes like a sudden wave of tiredness had overtaken her. Ray's energy could do that to a person and she was anticipating the rest of her tasty burger, which wasn't a patch on Morgan's but it would do, especially when paired with Ray's leftover fries. Yeah, that would generate an eye roll later when he realised that she'd scarfed the packet but eh, it wouldn't keep. He found it endearing, like most things she did.

"Oh, yeah!"

"You lying?" Henry questioned further when Charlotte gave him a dry, sarcastic drawl that sounded like it bothered her to say. Jeez, was the effort that bad? Kinda, well, only because he was expecting her to start climbing when she actually had a similar ethos to (y/n), wait for the rational solution to materialise.

"Oh, yeah, she is." The woman replied, releasing a sigh of relief as she plonked down and found her burger still there in a state of cold loneliness. There wasn't much, it wasn't going to be a five-star meal, but it sure as hell beat exercise any day of the week. A girly afternoon with Charlotte sounded much nicer too.

~The first flight of stairs~

This was it. The big climb. Man, boy and coconut-head versus the stairs. And they were ready, starting from the bottom, floor numero uno.

Ray, Henry and Schwoz were limbering up for the task ahead because y'know, they couldn't make the journey without a few stretches first, just their thighs, arms, calves, hamstrings, that sort of thing. And it was worth mentioning that they were also going to a place of mental tranquillity, calming their thoughts before they started climbing because this was a battle of the mind as much as it was a test of their physical endurance.

They went to their happy places; Henry's was quite vague, probably just him relaxing since he never got to do that these days what with school pressure mounting and his sidekick duties getting hectic too. Schwoz's was undoubtedly a lab filled with weird and wacky experiments that probably weren't legal but were fun nonetheless. And Ray, well, no surprises with him, he was thinking about a pretty girl with smiling eyes and soft lips, the one who'd be waiting for him when he crossed the figurative finish line. Yeah, that calmed him down and settled his nerves.

"All right, boys. We got a half-mile journey ahead of us." Ray grinned at his friends as he tried to inspire some energy in them. Getting pumped up made sense since they had a gruelling slog up to the top and none of them was prepared for it, no matter how much they brushed off the enormity of the mammoth task. Ray could clap his hands and smile all he wanted but this was gonna be hard, for him, for Schwoz, for Henry, for anyone stupid enough to attempt it.

"It's exactly two hundred and forty-two flights!"

"We got this!" Schwoz and Henry exclaimed, stamping down the slight fear in their stomachs at how they were ever gonna manage this. Still, they didn't let Ray see it, they knew that once his mind was made up and he'd made a show of his strength and manliness to (y/n), there was no backing out and no way he'd accept their failure. They'd be fine, right?

"The key to not getting tired is to not stop!" He advised them, thinking that if they just skipped up the steps and ignored how their muscles begged for the oxygen that their lungs couldn't provide, then they'd be at the top before they knew it. Because that's obviously how biology works.

"Not stop!"

"See you at the top, boys!" Ray shouted like a battle cry, prompting them all to roar with him as he took the first few steps, running speedily as if nothing could stop him. Okay, he felt good, they felt good as Schwoz and Henry raced after him; nothing was burning, they still had air circulating around their bodies, and nothing was aching. Yet.

Floor two came quickly and still, nothing was wrong. They were still shouting, still full of fire and still thinking that running all the way up was a good idea because their bodies could take the strain. Hell, even Schwoz was feeling good, of course, he was no hero, he didn't work out for hours on end and fight bad guys until the sun came up but he had this peculiar fitness about him that gave him the strength to climb walls and scurry about the Man Cave like a goddamn ape. So, as they approached floor three, he was still going strong.

Floor four was when the first sweat broke, Ray's stupidly hot shirt sticking to his skin and making it look even tighter as his brain ignored the messages coming from his legs. They were feeling a bit numb, nothing major, just the start of the buildup of lactic acid that would eventually make him cave but for now, Captain Man wasn't giving up, not when Jasper was up their scoffing his susharoni-and-cheese.

But his resilience was waning and even if he could go on for another few flights, not that he could, Henry was ready for a breather, finally admitting that he wasn't the gym bro he thought he was as they stumbled up to floor five.

It was an impressive feat that they'd managed to run up five flights of stairs at full speed, but they definitely needed to stop, Ray calling for a time out as he collapsed against the steps and his sidekick clung to the rails. Schwoz looked like he was gonna vomit and cough and sneeze all at once as he trailed behind, limping up the last two steps whilst Henry struggled to stay standing.

"Oh, I think I'm gonna die! I'm pretty sure I'm dying, guys..." The teen groaned dramatically. Jeez, he'd thought he'd been fit, but clearly, he wasn't, or maybe he just wasn't a machine, that was more like it. Ray was, like, the fittest guy in Swellview, he'd been working out every day since...forever and he was feeling the same way like his stomach had been pummelled like a punching bag and his legs were made from ramen noodles.

"Oh, I'm going to vomit..." Schwoz added too, in equal pain to Henry, more so since he wasn't a fitness guru. This wasn't part of his job description, in fact, he was certain that the exercise wasn't doing him good, it had probably knocked at least ten years off of his life because he was feeling like pure crap. Why didn't his clever little brain tell him to back out when he had the chance? Why didn't he listen to his gut when it asked if he was sure he could do this? 'Cause he wasn't built for this shit.

"How many floors have we climbed so far?" Henry gasped with the others, not even having the strength to throw them an understanding glance. Honestly, he hadn't even been looking at the numbers as they ran because everything had felt like a testosterone-fuelled blur, a desperate charge to get to the top because that was their mission, counting what floor they were on wasn't.

"Five." Ray punched out, his face feeling scaldingly hot as he pressed it into the cool metal of the handrail. God, now he knew why his sweet girl didn't want to do this, now, he knew why she'd had that mischievous glint in her eye when he ran off with so much excitement, now, he knew why she was probably sitting five floors below them having a good old natter with Charlotte with oxygen in her lungs and legs that weren't dead. Now, he knew all too well why she'd refused.

"How many more to go?" The boy asked further. His mind was like one big jumble of facts and opinions, nothing was working, his synapses wouldn't connect and he didn't have the willpower to do some quick mental math. They were on floor five, surely it couldn't go on for much longer, surely to god. The air seemed so thin up here, he was certain that they were near the top because there was no way he'd be feeling this crap without making some serious ground on these goddamn stairs. They must've made some decent progress, they must have.

"Two hundred and thirty-seven." Or not. Schwoz's brain was grasping at straws, working with whatever it could to carry the one, subtract five from forty-two and smush it together into one tidy sum, and the revelation was devastating. The air wasn't thin because they weren't at a high altitude. The three were very much still deep underground, with little progress to show how much work their bodies had put into a very short distance and in comparison to what lay ahead, five floors were pathetic. Measly. Not even worth the sweat, tears and vomit that were threatening to make an appearance.

And all the while, above their heads, Jasper was tucking into yet another delicacy. This time, it was spaghetti tacos, something that Morgan swore was his own creation, although some would say that they could swear they'd seen it before, it didn't matter. Jasper was loving them, the audience at home was loving his reaction to them, all of them wishing that they had been chosen to taste them. However, the pleasure was all his and being able to stream the show on their cell phones didn't make the pain any easier for the boys.

"Ohhhh, this is the best!..." Stupid Jasper.

"Ohhhh, this is the worst!" Henry groaned, not realising the irony of it all. This was their choice, their pain, and maybe in the future, they'd appreciate going up to Junk-N-Stuff to give Jasper a hand. After all, all the best things seemed to happen to him in that funky little shop.

~Meanwhile, back in the Man Cave~

"So, have you and Ray thought any more about the wedding?" Charlotte asked (y/n) as the woman carefully swallowed the last bite of her burger. It didn't really hit the spot, not when it had grown cold and limp after being left alone for too long, but she wasn't about to waste it, Ray's cardboard-like fries too.

They were done, finished, scoffed with a hunger that set at the moment they'd sat down to continue watching the show and currently, all her attention was on the girl, who sat on her left, coating several screws that had been jammed into a long strip of wood in red paint. She didn't know why she was doing the task, maybe it was a favour for Schwoz or Ray, she honestly couldn't say, but that was irrelevant right now. Obsolete. Because the mention of the wedding caused a shit-eating smirk to grow on Charlotte's face.

"Well, we know we want it to be small, y'know? I don't like the idea of inviting hundreds of people to the happiest day of my life just for them to treat it like a free-for-all." (y/n) answered, rubbing her hands together in an attempt to remove the grease and flecks of salt that stained them, but she stopped when Charlotte's brushed paused and she looked at her with a curious face. Huh, she was a superhero who hated the attention and the woman could see that she was waiting for her to elaborate.

"Well, I know loads of people who should be at the wedding, y'know people I've known since forever, friends that I had in college, family that I see at reunions, but honestly, I just want it to be the people closest to me. I don't want my wedding day to be an opportunity for people to have a free lunch and a free party," She confessed, flicking away the paper wrapper from the burger before continuing.

"All I need is Ray and my family at the wedding. I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not one for grandeur."

"Come on, (y/n/n), it's your wedding day. You're allowed to be the centre of attention for it." Charlotte argued, hating to see her friend put herself down because she was shy or feeling unworthy of everyone looking at her. That's what it was supposed to be like with brides, their wedding was a chance for them to shine and celebrate finding the love of their lives with their families, but for (y/n), it wasn't like that at all. And it wasn't because she couldn't stand the crowds and hundreds of pairs of eyes watching for her first mistake.

"I know, I know and I will be, I'm sure...just not in front of a huge crowd of people who know nothing about me and Ray, or what we've been through." She replied, giving the girl a soft smile to tell her that her mind was made up on this. Nothing extravagant, nothing spectacular, she didn't want that, after all, her and Ray's love had blossomed behind closed walls, not out in the open for everyone to pick apart.

"You want it to be small and...intimate," Charlotte said carefully like she was trying to find the right words to describe what she was picturing in her head. Right, right, parents, friends, immediate family, the people who mattered, those were the people she was talking about, the people she felt closest to for a romantic ceremony. Those were the ones who'd be there on the big day.

"Exactly...and that's why I want you to be my maid of honour." (y/n) turned to face her fully, rather than giving her the side-eye during such an important moment. This had been given a lot of thought, a lot of time discussing the pros and cons with Ray and herself to decide if it was the right choice. Of course, she was the only choice in the woman's eyes, there was no one else, but she wouldn't force the girl, whose mouth dropped open upon hearing her confession.

"What?!" She exclaimed, the only other accompanying sound being the clatter of the paintbrush onto the table.

"Y'know, my chief bridesmaid, well, my only bridesmaid so far. You don't have to if you don't want to, it's just all of my old friends kinda think I'm marrying a loser with a junk store, so I don't want them. I don't know, we've been the only girls in the Man Cave, so you're like my best friend--" (y/n) started rambling in an attempt to nervously explain her reasoning behind choosing a sixteen-year-old girl as the one to stand by her side when she made the biggest promise of her life.

Not her college roommates, not her family members, not her childhood best friend. Nope, she wanted Charlotte.

"(y/n)! I'd be honoured to be your maid of honour!" The teen grabbed onto her hand, ending her nerves there and replacing them with a bright smile as they revelled in the happiness that stemmed from Charlotte's acceptance. (y/n) quickly pulled her into a hug, muttering thank you's into her hair for being the nicest girl she'd ever had the honour of seeing grow up. Of course, she do it; she'd been rooting for her and Ray from the moment she met them, to be seen as family was a huge privilege.

"Oh, thank god for that, you have no idea how nervous I was to ask you that..." The heroine chuckled breathlessly as they pulled away into an electrically happy atmosphere. Charlotte started painting again, although this time with a huge smile on her face. Yeah, that sounded like her friend, skittish but always with the best of intentions.

"I can imagine..."

"Ooh, ooh, ooh, it's back on!" The pair fell into a comfortable silence as the ad break ended and Morgan Maykew's enormous grin reappeared on the supercomputer's monitor. Well, the moment was over but the feeling was still there and silently, they were both thanking their lucky stars that neither of them had decided to take their chances and run up the stairs.

"Okay, people of Swellview! We're back live, I'm Morgan Maykew and I'm here with..." The chef reintroduced the people at home with his trademark enthusiasm. However, he really needed to remember who he was working with and that leaving gaps for Jasper to fill was never gonna go in the direction he wanted.

"Me!" Poor Jasper, he was right but so wrong at the same time.

"Jasper!" Morgan corrected him, which only confused the boy more at hearing his name, but whatever. The chef moved past it, eager to get on with the show, his cooking and the conversation. "What's up?"

"Jasper, let me ask you something..."

"It's a real store!" Well, at least he was doing his job whilst he was eating, even if he was technically drawing attention to the secret when no one was interested in the first place. The first rule about owing a secret store that hides a superhero's hideout out, don't talk about owing a secret store that hides a superhero's hideout out. Well done for trying but come on, he was just being obvious that Ray Manchester, owner of junk and sometimes stuff, had something to hide.

"It won't be for much longer if you keep mentioning it, Curly." (y/n) muttered, crossing one leg over the other as she and Charlotte shared a look, knowing that the kid meant well and was a great shopkeeper, whose tendencies to freak out about the slightest thing had mellowed as he gained experience, but he still fell short sometimes.

"Got it..." Thank god, Morgan didn't register the significance of what he'd said. The last thing Captain Man and his sidekicks needed was a camera crew poking around the entrance to the Man Cave because otherwise, Swellview would be losing its most beloved chef. "Do you like soup?"

"Do I?" Jasper laughed at the question, not realising that Morgan was expecting an actual answer, not just a rhetorical chortle.

"Well? Do you?"

"Yes. That's why I said, do I?" He explained, looking into the camera with the same goofy, energetic smile that he'd given Morgan. Honestly, he'd thought it had been obvious what he meant, but clearly not.

"Well, you know wanna try some of my famous pizza soup?!" Morgan asked, gesturing to the enormous soup pot that was currently boiling away on the pop-up stove the crew had shoved into Junk-N-Stuff. How they'd managed to set up an entire kitchen in such a short amount of time and in such a tiny space, including a fridge, chopping area and eating counter, was incredible, just like that dang pizza soup. Dear God, it smelled and looked amazing...

"Ohhh, do I?!" Again with rhetorical crap, did Jasper never learn his lesson?

"Just say yes or no," Morgan told him, wanting a straight, simple answer. And predictably, Jasper wasn't gonna say no. He'd be a fool to turn down Morgan Maykew's cooking, in fact, he'd probably become a social reject if he did. The boy who turned down pizza soup and lost all his friends, how tragic.

~Back on the stairs~

For some, however, life was much worse. Try floor one hundred and seventeen worse. Ray and Henry were pretty sure that their bodies weren't even listening to their brains anymore as they robotically marched up the stairs without stopping.

By now, they'd fallen into a rhythm that meant they were still dying but their hearts and lungs were used to the strenuous activity, so their noodle-like legs just kept working, up and down, up and down, up and down. That was their job and they weren't gonna stop now that they had made some serious ground. Maybe it wasn't a lot compared to their end goal, but it was still admirable. Foolish but admirable.

"Argh!" The boys jumped when Henry's phoned began to vibrate in his pocket, the noise being a startling new stimulus after an hour of nothing but the sounds of their feet slapping against the floor and their ragged breathing. Jeez, who could this be? Didn't they know that they barely had the breath to survive, let alone talk?

"My phone...I got it..." The boy panted, stumbling to go and sit next to Ray on the first round of steps up to floor one-eighteen and they both looked terrible. The man had his head resting against the wall, drenched in sweat and thinking that when he died, 'cause it was gonna happen judging by the pounding in his skull, he wanted his sweet girl to move into a peaceful house in the country, have the life that he planned to give to her before death took him away so cruelly.

"Hello? What?" Henry barked into the speaker, causing the girls to smirk on the other end of the line because it was them who dared to break up their rhythm. Y'know, just to see how they were getting, learn how much pain they were in and to see if they were gonna give up. And maybe (y/n) just wanted to hear her doofus' voice and make sure he was okay, maybe...

"Hey... we're watching the show but we don't see you and Ray up there yet." Charlotte started with a smug lilt in her voice at how they knew that their big plan wasn't going so well and they didn't need to hear the wheeze after the boy's words to know that they were regretting their life choices. Aw, (y/n)'s heart squeezed at the thought of her adorable lover's pain, but there wasn't much she could do apart from giving him her love and support.

"Uh, yeah, we're still climbing up the stairs," Henry replied, eyeing the many more flights they still had left to go. He also didn't miss the way Ray perked up at the mention of "we" because that meant his fiancée was now speaking to him and he really needed to hear her voice if he was gonna get through this.

"Right, so...which floor are you guys on now?" (y/n) asked and Ray's heart quivered in his chest as it pounded and although he wanted to, he didn't have the energy to properly sit up. Not that it mattered, it wasn't like she was there next to him, her voice echoed with a metallic garble that only came from a phone speaker, so there was no point in getting excited. He could touch her, he couldn't kiss her and he sure as hell couldn't pull her body against his for the longest nap of their lives.

"One hundred and seventeen." The kid told them breathlessly and that made the girls sit up. Hold up, they'd been gone for ages and they'd only made up it that far? Jeez, it was worse than they thought.

"Whoa! You're not even halfway up yet?" Charlotte asked in shock, wondering if they'd been dragging their feet or something because that was still quite a small number. She got that it was a lot of work, that's why she was comfortably sat with (y/n), painting her nails and sipping bottled water, but seriously, she thought that Captain Man and Kid Danger would've breezed through the first one hundred and fifty by now.

"What? Yes, we are! We've only got, like, a hundred floors to go!" Ray's grumbles came through the speaker and the girl through (y/n) a teasing grin when a soft smile worked its way onto her face without her even knowing it. There he was, she'd been waiting to hear him and just like always, his baritone voice caused her tummy to flutter and her thighs to clench.

"No, doofus, if you guys are on floor one-seventeen, then you have one hundred and twenty-five more floors to go, so you're not halfway yet, sorry..." She explained, using her clever little brain, full of math and equations to point out that they hadn't made as much progress as they thought. Ray and Henry looked livid as they did a quick mental sum as she had, although much more slowly since they weren't scientists or even that brainy. Sweet cheese, she was right...

"You know what, sweet girl? You're just mean!" Ray whined petulantly, so petulantly that (y/n) actually laughed instead of feeling offended. Right, he was being moody because she was right and he was tired, not because she'd actually upset him and had it not happened before then her mood would've deflated instantly. The next time they were together he'd whisper a thousand apologies into her hair for saying such filthy lies and being a big baby, but for now, he was throwing a tantrum.

"Math can't be mean, sweetheart. It's immune to bias and misunderstanding." She replied with a smile audible in her voice, so Henry's muscles stopped being so tense when he realised that he wasn't gonna have to sit through another argument between them because they were agonisingly painful. Literally, he hated when they fought as much as they did, not that Ray was helping his case.

"Yeah, well, it's mean math, goodbye!" The man snapped, snatching the cell from Henry's hand so he could angrily press the red button, but the moment he did, he was left with resounding guilt and disappointment. He just hung up on his sweet girl, he just cut off the sweetest laugh he'd ever heard, he'd cut off his nose to spite his stupid face and now, he felt lousy.

"Dude, seriously? You complain about how you miss (y/n) and how you want to talk to her, but you just called her math mean and ended the call!" Henry stated dryly, looking at his boss with a tired expression. Okay, he couldn't complain about his heartache now because she'd just ruined a golden opportunity to let out some of his mushiness and all he did was give her a playground insult. Dear God, give him strength...

"I didn't even tell her that I love her..." Ray grumbled, knocking his head against the wall as he cursed himself for being the biggest moron walking the Earth. Damn his stupid, childish brain; now, he was doubting whether his sweet girl actually knew whether he loved her or not. Screw the hundreds of other times when he'd whispered it into her hair or shouted it from the rooftops, all he could focus on was how he'd left her on a sour note without reparation and that hurt more than the stair ever could.

"Your fault, man..." Henry muttered and he didn't care if he wasn't helping the situation, more like stirring the pot. The only way Ray would learn was if he got a taste of his own medicine, and understood how crappy he made other people feel when he was mean by feeling crappy himself. Therefore, if he wanted to act like a man-child, then Henry would treat him like one.

"Put the show on, I wanna see what's happening!" Ray snapped, moodily nudging the boy's phone into his hands so he could pull up the livestream and see if it was as good as the girls were saying. And he certainly wasn't happy with Henry's words; of course, he knew that it was his fault, he knew that he had no right to complain when he was the jerk who'd hung up, but damn, did he really have to rub salt in his wounds? Like, he was already debating running back down to apologise, he didn't need a reminder of what an asshole he could be.

"Here you go, here's the show..."

"So, to make pizza soup, we pour the pizza sauce in!" The hero and his sidekick groaned as they watched Morgan tip a bowlful of top-quality, homemade pizza sauce into his soup pot, prompting Jasper to grumble heartily at how good it looked and smelled. Jeez, they wanted to experience that, sitting over one hundred floors below that soup seemed criminal because they loved pizza and they loved soup. It was their perfect combination by Morgan Goddamn Maykew.

"Oh, that looks so good..."

"I know..." Ray wholeheartedly agreed with the kid as they drooled over the sight of Morgan stirring his soup, and a thought crossed the man's mind. The longer they sat down, the more time Jasper had to sip all of that tomatoey goodness himself and he couldn't let that happen. "Come on, we better get up there or we're not gonna get any pizza soup!"

"Come on, we gotta keep going! Schwoz, come on! Schwoz, let's keep--dude, where's Schwoz?" They were so ready to set off again, so ready to keep pumping their legs and complete their task but then, something became worryingly apparent. They were one man down. What had started as a trio was now a duo because the coconut-headed genius was absent, not above them, not hiding, not passed out, he just wasn't there. Oh, god...

"He was with us, he was right there!" Ray argued, thinking that he'd seen his handyman only a moment ago, but that was the problem with the stairs. The only distinguishing feature in that environment was the floor number nailed to the wall and truthfully, on several levels, he'd stopped looking at them, he'd just kept on going until they needed a break. And that meant that the last time he saw Schwoz could've been on floor fifty or floor fifteen because they all looked the same.

"No, he wasn't! Dude, I haven't seen Schwoz in ten minutes." Henry revealed this to his worried boss, who was now grasping the situation. The kid had been the one paying attention, sort of, and they realised one terrible detail. Schwoz had been left ten minutes ago, he'd fallen behind ten minutes ago, meaning that he was passed out or hurt or...dead several floors below them and they hadn't noticed. Well, there was only one thing for it.

"SCHWOZ!" Ray bellowed as he and Henry descended back the way they came, clearing three flights of stairs from their progress as they searched for their comrade. Floor one-fourteen was where he had collapsed, his arm and leg tangled into the handrail from how he'd tried to keep going in a desperate attempt to stick with his friends before his body gave up. Strangely, he looked quite peaceful in his exhaustion, eyes glazed over and begging to be left alone but they weren't about to let him do that. They started as a three, they were finishing as a three.

"Schwoz, hey, what you doing? What you doing?"

"Schwoz, come on, we gotta get up!" Ray and Henry tried to encourage him as the former shook his floppy body to try and get him to stand up, but no dice. Schwoz felt like shit, and the floor was beginning to feel like home, or maybe like the perfect place to just lie down and die peacefully because he swore that that's what was happening to him.

"I think dying...."

"You're not dying, man. You're not dying! We gotta go! Come on! Come on!"

"We're gonna meet Morgan Maykew in Junk-N-Stuff! Don't make it weird, Schwoz, come on..." The boys tried to haul him to his feet, mumbling anything that sprung to mind, no matter how cheesy it was, if it had a motivational tinge to it, they said it. Teamwork, live, laugh, love, the whole works, they said it all as they dragged his body towards the steps with the hope that his legs would start up the rhythm again, but no. Schwoz just wasn't having it.

"No man left behind!" Was the ironic thing because the moment Ray said it, he and Henry reached a mutual, unanimous agreement of "fuck it" and dropped his body back down the stairs.

Well, if he wasn't going to put the effort in then they weren't going to help him, to hell with their morals. He wasn't a man anyway, more like the body of a man when he was a little boy with a coconut for a head instead. They had places to be, Morgan Maykew to meet and Schwoz was just dead weight.

Ray and Henry had scampered up the floors they ran back down to retrieve Schwoz, and now that they had decided to leave him to his nap, they had to make up for the lost time. The walls turned into a grey blur as they pushed through the pain and continued their rapid movements over the next eighty or so floors.

One hundred and ninety-five, that was the one that left them crawling up with the last fibres of their strength and whatever resilience they could muster. Each breath was difficult and laboured, sweat was dripping from their hair and they fought to get up the steps like babies on their stomachs. And all the while, Henry still had the livestream up on his phone, using every word as motivation.

"Gimme some!"

"I'll tell you when I'm done!" Oh, sweet cheese, Henry knew that shrill voice that snapped at Jasper, he knew those petite yet rough hands that grabbed his bowl of soup and he knew that obnoxiously loud mouth that guzzled it down for herself. Piper.

What was she doing there? Well, like pretty much everyone in Swellview, she'd been at home watching the show as she studied, would you believe it, and the moment she saw that her brother's dumb friend was being made a four-course meal by the Morgan Maykew, she'd legged it over to the stupid junk store downtown. Obviously, the film crew didn't want someone just barging in, but this was Piper and what she wanted she got, namely she was able to force her way onto the shop floor and con Morgan and Jasper into thinking that she deemed the goofy boy as her family. Yeah, right.

"Like it wasn't bad enough that Jasper gets to be on the show and eat all of that delicious food, now they got some random little brat on there?" Ray questioned as he and Henry took their fiftieth breather against the wall and railing.

At this point, he was drenched in sweat and certain that he'd never be fitter after this, but that didn't excuse how he didn't recognise Piper. Come on, she was the girl that his fiancée liked to go watch movies with, she was the girl who'd snapped at him for the past few years that his sidekick had been his employee. How did he not remember her?

"That's my little sister. Y'know, the one who goes to the movies with (y/n)..." Henry told him, not believing what he was hearing. Jeez, his boss had a serious problem, everyone remembered Piper apart from him, how could they not? She was a shouter, mean and didn't care about idiots, a fact she made very apparent whenever someone annoyed her, so people always knew to stay away. Well, (y/n) didn't, she thought the girl was sweet, misunderstood, perhaps annoying in some ways but not deserving of some of the mean things people said about her. Henry, though, begged to differ.

"Whoever she is, she's eating my soup..." Ray argued in a throaty, bitter voice, just as the show was interrupted by the loathsome trill of Henry's ringtone. God, that cut straight their ears and made their heads hurt, more so when they saw that it was Charlotte's caller I.D. Great, that's all they needed, her smugness sprinkled in with what was starting to feel like the bitter sting of defeat, but there was a plus side. Ray could portray himself better this time, and perhaps end things on a better note with his sweet girl.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Hey, have you guys seen that Piper's on the show now?" To their surprise, it was (y/n) who answered the phone, although it was clear that Charlotte was still right next to her as they could hear the girl's faint, amused chuckles through the speaker. Well, that was irritating, but the soft sound of the woman's playful tone was enough to melt away some of Ray's annoyance. Some.

"Yes, we see that Piper's on the show now," Ray replied, his voice still containing his petulant quality but also tiredness that somehow took the edge of it. It was good to know that he hadn't totally screwed up again and that motivated him to limp across the platform to the next lot of stairs. However, the next bit of news was about to send his newfound chip of happiness into a nosedive.

"System update complete." The girls stopped what they were doing. Charlotte ceased painting her nails. (y/n) halted her teasing of her doofus because the computer had just said something very, very interesting.

Huh. The woman had been right, it had been more likely that the system update would be finished before they reached the top, (y/n)'s logical hunch had paid off. The elevator dinged as it slid open in all its glory, the tubes beeped as they came down to test the mechanics and Charlotte and (y/n) felt a swarm of excitement overcome them. They were free to leave, able to get upstairs and get in on the action, but did they dare tell that to the boys? Heck, yeah.

"Oh, yay! The elevator and the tubes are working again!" Charlotte announced in a cheerful voice, causing Henry and Ray to perk up as what was a splendid thing for the girls turned into a devastating blow for the hero and sidekick. What did they mean the what was what now? That meant all their hard work had been for nothing and if they'd had just stayed put, they'd be down there, not sweaty, and ready to just amble up to the store.

"Wait, what?! For real? The elevator and tubes are fixed?!" Henry asked in amazement, facing Ray, who looked like he could cry. Seriously? He could've had an hour spent downstairs, not moving, just making out and snuggling with his girl on the couch, then, they could make it up to Morgan in time for dessert, but no. He was Ray, he'd not listened because he always thought that he knew better.

"Yeah! So, we're just gonna head up to Junk-N-Stuff, so love you, sweetheart, b--"

"Okay, bye!" Henry didn't give (y/n) the chance to say goodbye properly, well, not nearly as properly as she wanted since she'd only managed to squeeze out one halfhearted proclamation of love before the end, but still. The race was on, no time for romantics now, even if it did make Ray's heart flutter, they had to make a very important decision.

"Come on, let's go!"

"Yeah, we better get there before the show's over!" Ray was quick to agree with his sidekick, giving him a bright smile at the thought of being so close to their goal, but there was still a risk of everything being for nothing. That's what they had to avoid, they couldn't let that happen, no way. He had to get into his damn shop, meet up with his darling girl, give her his best pouty face for snapping earlier and then they could eat one sundae with two spoons. Absolute perfection.

"Last one there's a rotten finger!" Henry giggled and to their mutual surprise, each set off in his own direction; Ray took the upwards approach, thinking that they'd come this far, what was a few more floors compared to all the work they'd undo by going down, which was Henry's plan. The boy had gone for the downward approach, not seeing the point in working harder when they could just run straight to floor zero and then take the elevator. Very different opinions, but equally stubborn wills.

It was less than a minute later that they both realised that neither had a shadow, they were running solo and for some odd reason, the other had chosen the "wrong" option. Where was Ray? Where was Henry? Why didn't they follow after them? This was the quickest way to get there...

"What are you doing?" They asked immediately upon reuniting, having gone back on themselves to see where the other had gone, not that they were gonna like the answers they found. Ray and Henry had started as a team and they wanted to finish as one unless the other was being a moron because that would mean chivalry and camaraderie would go out of the window.

"I'm going up!"

"I'm going down!"

"What are you stupid?" Well, stupid was the wrong word because both had their positives and both had their negatives, meaning either was a smart option, a fifty-fifty chance of making it in time if they pushed their bodies to the brink of peak human capability.

"Kid, it is stupid going down!" Ray argued, trying to make the younger boy see sense because he clearly had a lot of that. He was the eldest, they should listen to him, after all, he was the Captain around the Man Cave and these were his stairs. He knew what he was doing, why couldn't the teen see that?

"Man, it is stupid to go up!" Henry fired back, trying to make the older hero see sense because he clearly had a lot of that. Yes, he was younger, but that didn't mean Ray was wiser. Henry had been doing this job for a while now and had been chosen for his good instincts, (y/n) was always quick to remind her lover of that. He knew what he was doing, why couldn't the man see that?

"Okay, listen to me, okay, Junk-N-Stuff is up there, okay? It's up, up, up!"

"Yes, I know but the elevator's fixed now, okay? It's downstairs in the Man Cave, it's down! It's down, down!" They were like an old married couple bickering about what they should do and all the while, the clock was ticking. The show would be over soon, neither had the time to just stand around and debate which route was best they just had to take one and hope it lead them to the reward they were seeking.

"SO?"

"So, we're gonna go downstairs, we're gonna get in the elevator and we're gonna go up to Junk-N-Stuff, come on..." Henry had made his executive decision and believing that Ray would just trail behind him like a sheep, turned to start making his way back to where they'd started, but he'd forgotten how hardheaded Ray could be. It's why he and (y/n) had such vicious arguments at times, it's why they'd been at a standstill for two minutes, he just wasn't the kind of guy to change his mind when it was already made up.

"Dude, we're on floor one-ninety-five, we only have like fifty more to go!" The man bellowed back, his anticipation to just get running again bleeding into his vocal cords and making him scream. Why couldn't the kid get it into his head that they were so close to making it? Sure, fifty was a big number but they'd already done three times that amount and more. A few more flights wouldn't hurt, surely to god.

"Yeah, butt's way easier to go down than up!"

"You fool! You would rather go down one hundred and ninety-five floors than up fifty?!" When he put it into perspective, Henry's mind had to contemplate it for a split second. That ratio certainly was heavy on one end and he could kinda see why Ray would be deluded enough to attempt it, but when he factored energy and exertion into the equation, it became a no-brainer for him.

"Yeah! I would because it's easier and faster!"

"Why?"

"Because gravity! Yeah, gravity, man! Gravity's our friend!" Henry snapped back as their exchange started to teeter on the edge of being abusive. Had the guy not been listening during Schwoz and (y/n) semi-boring lectures on the basic laws of physics? Come on, Henry thought Ray listened to everything his girlfriend said, or at the very least absorbed the noise as he stared dreamily at her face, something must've gone in.

"Okay, well, good luck with you and your new gravity girlfriend! Me? I'm going up and I'll see you later when I get there before you!"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!" Henry kept chanting as Ray rambled on and on about how he was gonna be the first to cross the finish line, the first to taste that goodness waiting for them in Junk-N-Stuff and the first to feel the relief of relaxation when he reunited with his girl.

"Oh, wrong? Oh, yeah? I will bet you money, you won't make it before me!" This was getting into dicey territory. Ray didn't want to make any promises, he just wanted a simple afternoon with a belly full of delicious treats, one arm around (y/n) and the other nursing a soda as they binged movies. Giving away the money he was saving for the wedding wasn't part of that plan.

"Really?"

"I will bet you a thousand dollars! I'm taking the money out of my wallet right now!--"

"Okay, you're on--wait, wait, wait, shhh! Shhhh! Shhhhhh!" Henry's sudden one-eighty from shrieking with his boss as the man dug around for whatever cash he might have on him, jarred Ray into shutting his mouth for once. A remarkable feat but it only worked because Ray's curiosity outweighed anything else, it even got him to leave the precious bills that would go into purchasing flowers, a dress, a tux, a venue, catering, the ceremony and whatever else well alone.

"What? What, what, what, what?"

"Dude, keep your money for your wedding. You gotta make it perfect for (y/n)..." Henry began, trying to ease the blow that was coming in a moment so he could take his boss by surprise with his sneaky plan. Of course, he didn't want the money either, that was just Ray being stupid and he meant what he said about giving his friend the day that she deserved after years of patiently waiting for it to come, but still. That didn't mean he couldn't be a little bit cunning.

"You're right, kid..." Ray nodded, realising that he was letting his mouth run away from him again. It was true, he'd been saving for what was gonna be the best day of his life, no matter what happened, it would be special because he'd walk away with the girl of his dreams as his wife. But he was determined to not leave her disappointed and wanting for more, after all, he'd promised himself the day they revealed their feelings for each other that he'd fill the shoes of the man she deserved, not just the man she wanted.

"My school councillor, she taught me a way to stay calm in a high-pressure situation like this," Henry added softly, and this was where the trickery came in. Sure, he meant all of that crap about not allowing his friend to screw up the best thing he had going for him, but now, this was how he was going to play and Ray was hooked.

"...Well, what is it? Tell me."

"Here's what I do. Close your eyes. You put your thumbs on your temples and you go, lalalalalalalalalalalalalala...you should try it." Henry described, looking absolutely ridiculous as he did what he said, but miraculously, Ray seemed to fall for it. Maybe it was some kind of ancient meditation thing that soothed the brain and whilst he was certain that he'd discovered other ways of finding tranquillity amid a storm, mainly by clinging to the only person who ever seemed to know what he needed to not fly off the handle, this couldn't hurt to try.

"Close your eyes..."

"Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalala..." The moment Ray couldn't see or hear anything thanks to his chanting, Henry was off like a shot. A cruel prank, but an effective one as he raced down the stairs, smirking to himself at how he'd had the perfect headstart and whilst he wouldn't be getting a financial reward at the end, he'd still have the satisfaction of being right.

"Lalalalalalala---oh, oh! OH, OHHH!!" Ray growled and his muscles snapped into action after cracking open his eyes to see that his sidekick had pulled a dirty on him. He'd have to work extra hard to make up the difference, but he had something Henry didn't. Sure, the kid had the food waiting, and so did Ray, but the hero also had something else to run for.

His sweet girl and the kiss he'd be claiming as his prize for when he became the winner.

They ran and ran and ran like the devil himself was chasing them. In the time that Henry had descended five floors, Ray had sprinted up the same amount, which wasn't the best advertisement for Henry's gravity argument, but still, that man was on a mission.

It was surprising how quickly they could move when there was a mini, testosterone-fuelled competition going on between them and now, it was a race to see who'd be the lucky son of a gun who'd get to eat the last batch of food considering that with Charlotte and (y/n) heading to Junk-N-Stuff too, there'd be a lot of people around that table making grabby hands at whatever Morgan put in front of them.

Henry breezed down to floor one-one-four, the level where he and Ray had abandoned Schwoz to sleep off his exhaustion since he was just dead weight and technically, it was his fault they were doing this stupid fucking thing in the first place. Sure, he was begging for help and company since he'd been dying by himself for the last god knows how many minutes, but the kid didn't have time to stop. Like a true, focused champ he powered through the pain of hearing Schwoz's pleas and kept trotting down the stairs, praying that Ray's inevitable tiredness was slowing him down by now.

~Meanwhilein Junk-N-Stuff~

The savoury stuff had soon been wolfed down by Jasper and Piper, literally, they'd licked the bowls clean, meaning if anyone else had wanted a slurp of the pizza soup or a bite of the macaroni and cheese sushi, then they'd had to look elsewhere. That would be a disappointment for the heroes on their mission, but all was not lost.

"So good!"

"Look at that!"

Hope still existed in the form of ice creams sundaes, everyone's favourite kind of dessert and because they'd been made by Morgan Maykew, they were more than just sundaes. They were frozen, creamy deliciousness that came with customisable toppings. They could have sprinkles, chocolate syrup, nuts, and cherries, if Piper and Jasper wanted it, they could put them on top of Morgan's homemade ice cream and so could two new guests...

"Hey!"

"Hi, guys!" The girl panted as they burst through the beaded curtain, slightly out of breath from their scramble from the couch to the elevator and into the store itself but it was nothing compared to how Henry and Ray were feeling. Plus, despite their disorganised appearances, Jasper and Piper were delighted to see them and even happier to share what had so kindly been given to them.

"Charlotte! (y/n)!"

"Try our sundaes!"

"They're so good!" The boy and girl exclaimed through spoonfuls of ice cream coating the tastebuds and (y/n) and Charlotte would be lying if they said that they weren't tempted by the cream as it mixed into the slowly melting vanilla-honeycomb blend, the cherry on top and the chocolate syrup that was drizzled over everything.

They looked so good and they were offering them, enticing the girls in, but the eldest couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt for starting when her other half wasn't present. The ice cream was melting under the warm lights of the store, she had no idea where the boys were and she hated that they would miss it if they started eating, but would they be able to justify holding a grudge?

"Ooh, but shouldn't we wait for Ray and---oh, screw it! They should've gotten here sooner!" (y/n) caved when Charlotte tugged on her sweater sleeve and threw her a look that only meant "bitch, really?". Yeah, Ray would understand her motive when he crawled from wherever he and Henry were and she'd find a way to make it up to him somehow. In a way, she tried to think about what he'd do; like her, he'd seize the moment and not wait for anyone because time was passing by.

Well, there was no room for arguing then, as Morgan smiled at the girl and passed them a spoon each, welcoming them onto his show since they were clearly part of this wacky family of coworkers too. Charlotte dug into Piper's sundae as (y/n) tackled Jasper and they all but melted when the sweetness hit their tongues, agreeing that it was the best thing they'd ever tasted.

Ray was so close to discovering that sweetness for himself, assuredly about to discover a flavour that would rank itself second on his list of the best things he'd ever eaten because he was on floor two hundred and forty-one. This was it, the final climb to the finish.

He'd powered through the burn, the ache in his lungs, the begging of his body to stop and give up but he ignored it. Instead, his arms took some of the work, pulling his heavy frame up the last ten steps; one, two...a few more....six, seven...don't give up now, she's waiting for you...nine, ten! Ladies and gentle, we have a winner.

Ray panted as he made it over the threshold of floor two-four-two and to his sheer relief, joy, pride and shock, he found himself staring at a door that didn't have another carbon-copy door number on it, rather, it had a rather ornate "J-n-S" stamped on the largest, circular panel, indicating that he'd done it. Brawn had triumphed over brains and here he was, the victor over Henry because he'd made it to Junk-N-Stuff's floor just like he said he would.

"I did it! I made it! You lose, kid!" Ray shouted to no one in particular, not even Henry since his voice wouldn't carry that far down, but it was nevertheless nice to scream in delight.

Food by Morgan Maykew, here he came, the kiss of his sweet girl, here he came because he was walking to the door and...it wouldn't open. Oh shit. He rattled it, shoved it, thumped his fists against it, Ray did everything in his power to get the damn thing to open, but no matter how hard he pulled on the door handle, it wasn't gonna open.

"No, no, no, no, come on...come on! Hey! Hey, sweet girl, anybody, can you hear me?! No, come on! Come on!" Ray shrieked in anguish as he realised that no one could hear him, no one was coming and there was no way into Junk-N-Stuff from this door.

Of course, there wasn't; no one ever used the stairs, keeping that door unlocked was a safety hazard in case some randomer wandered through the store and somehow found their way to the Man Cave, but Ray didn't want logic right now. He wanted to cry and shout and tear his hair out because he'd worked so hard for nothing and there was a solid metal door blocking him from reuniting with his world and whatever she was eating. Life was so not fair.

"Nooo, man! Aw, there's no way I could run back down two hundred and forty-two flights of stairs before Henry--" Ray began to monologue, thinking out loud since no one--literally no one-- was around to hear him or see him cry or witness the way his shoulders sagged from the burden he was carrying. But then he had a thought.

There was a big difference between him and Henry and now that he recalled, there was something that his brain had processed when (y/n) was standing there looking all pretty when she was spouting physics and that gravity stuff. "--Hey, wait a minute...I'm indestructible! Ha, yeah!"

"Woooooo!" Without a second thought and not caring about how much it would hurt, Ray laughed as he jumped over the railing of the infinitely long staircase, looking straight down the middle. It was just one big hole from the top straight down onto floor zero and honestly, anyone else would think he was crazy because he kinda was. Then again, at the same time, he wasn't.

Ray knew that he'd taken serious falls before, he knew that he could survive it and the fall would only hurt whenever he clipped the walls and when he hit the ground. Henry was right about one thing, gravity was his friend; the man cleared forty floors in under thirty seconds as he yelled the whole way down, grunting only when his arm, leg or head hit the blue stair rail, but that was fine. He even got the chance to say hi to Schwoz as he dived past floor one-fourteen.

"Yes! Yes! I made it!...what's that noise? Is th--Oh my god!" Henry's brief elation at reaching the end of the stairs after circling his way to the bottom was over pretty quickly as he heard a far-off scream. Only, the scream was getting louder and louder and when he squinted at the sky, trying to see if it was Schwoz or maybe Ray had finally given up but no.

It certainly was Ray, but he wasn't groaning from exhaustion, he was coming in hot. Henry instinctively hugged the wall as his face paled at the sight of his boss's huge body hurtling down the centre of the stairs and just in the nick of time, the boy avoided his collision with the floor. In a puff of dust and flying debris, Ray's indestructible body cracked the concrete and bent the metal that was in his path as the meteoric sound of the destruction he cause reverberated up the shaft.

"Yes! Yes! Ha, I'm okay!" Ray's smile and legs were wobbly as he crawled from the pit in the shape of his Greek God body. The adrenaline rush that followed the excruciating pain made his head spin and his face turn silly. However, through the haze, he could still picture the goal that had spurred him to pull such a reckless stunt in the first place and it was enough to light the way for him.

"Did you just jump all the way--"

"Sorry, kid, can't talk, my wife's upstairs and I gotta beat ya!" Ray didn't have time for stupid questions nor did he have the time to properly connect his neural pathways and think about what he'd just said. Feelings were mixing with reality after the crash and he just had one thing on his mind; get to the food before Henry did, get to (y/n) before his heart burst and his legs gave in.

"What?! Raaaay! She's not your wife yet!" Henry yelled as he chased after him, scampering through the Man Cave and noticing for a split-second what Charlotte and (y/n) had left behind before he clawed to press the elevator button more times than Ray. The girls were already up there and the hero had no patience for anyone who would deny him what his heart so sorely desired, so he tried to push the boy away as the door took its sweet time. Well, they had a chance to breathe, that was nice.

"So?" Henry asked as they waited for the elevator to come down and he had to admit, he was curious as to why his boss was down here now. What happened to his big plan about the final fifty floors and all the hurrah he made about gravity being dumb?

"Door at the top was locked," Ray admitted, feeling a bit stupid at how after all of his boasting, he'd had to follow what his sidekick had been right about, but no matter. He'd corrected his mistake and he was now on his way to winning their semi-bet.

"Ha!" Okay, maybe he'd have to stop Henry's gloating before then, but they'd see who was the one laughing when the elevator finally did its job and he stormed his way into Junk-N-Stuff and shook Morgan Maykew by the hand. Yeah, that would be Ray Manchester, not Henry Hart and y'know what, just for tricking him, the man suddenly felt like a little payback.

"Shut up!... So, you got any weekend plans?" Ray asked casually as he leaned closer to the metal door and then he heard what he'd been looking for. Great, the elevator was coming down and there was no way he was gonna let Henry get in first, so as he'd done with him, Ray set up a small spot of sabotage.

"Uhhhhh..." Just as Henry took the time to think about what he could do outside of work, homework, seeing a movie, relaxing, the elevator dinged and no sooner than it did, Ray shoved the boy to the side. It opened a window for him to barrel in first since Henry stumbled to not fall over and whilst the boy was still able to recover quickly and get himself inside before Ray managed to shut the door again.

He mashed that button with everything he had left and they were quickly escorted to Junk-N-Stuff, where all would be decided.

"Okay, thanks so much for joining me for another fun and fantastic food-filled feast on...!" Morgan smiled brightly into the camera as he wrapped up the show, and that was the devastating detail. The show was over, the food was gone, nothing to show for any of it apart from the sugary taste that still lingered on (y/n), Charlotte, Piper and Jasper's lips, which meant that for some, the afternoon had been a satisfying success, whilst for others, it was just one big disappointment.

"The planet Earth!" Oh, Jasper. He would never learn. Obviously, the viewers knew that Morgan was talking to them from Earth because whilst his food was out-of-this-world, he wasn't an alien, silly boy.

"No, on..."

"Maykew A Meal!"

"On Earth!" Well, at least the girls got it right as they huddled up and grinned into the camera as best they could. They'd certainly enjoyed themselves and for Charlotte and (y/n), it had been nice to share a quiet afternoon together with a special treat to finish it off.

Normally, they were preoccupied with keeping the boys and their "bright" ideas in check, so they never had time to just chill and hang out together, so today had been good for them. The addition of Piper had made it perfect, considering that the tween saw them as normal gals that understood her level. How they tolerated her brother, his dumb friend and his even dumber boss were beyond her. Seriously, what did (y/n) see in that lump of a junk shop owner apart from how cutely in love they were?

"And we're out!" The cast, guests and crew broke into applause as the cameras turned off and they were left to thank Morgan for a great show and an even greater meal, only for two sweaty, panting, exhausted boys to come sprinting out from the back two seconds later. What a shame, they were so close and yet so far.

"And that's a wrap!" Jeez, the woman didn't mince her words and for Ray and Henry, clad in the sweat-stained clothing and with their skin flushed and in need of a long shower, they couldn't believe it. After all that, the running, the stairs, the determination, the goddamn competition, they'd missed the entire thing?! Screw the clapping, they wanted answers.

"What?!"

"No!"

"The show's over?!" The boy asked as (y/n)'s eyebrows flew to her hairline when she turned to her left and saw her hunk of a doofus putting off of his weight onto the pop-up countertop. Technically, she smelt the boys before she saw them, her nose caught off guard by the stench of a male gym changing room, but she masked her disgust when she saw how beat they were and instead, nudged closer to where he was so she could make a start and comforting him. Things had gone so wrong, he needed it.

"Yeah, the show's finished!" They all nodded and the ones who'd eaten felt guilt pool in their stomachs at how that simple fact seemed to break the boy and man who'd tried their hardest to get to the action, but it hadn't been enough. If they had worked harder or moved faster, they might have gotten a bite, but they couldn't rewind the clocks, they just had to deal with it.

"Wha-no! Well, what food is leftover!?"

"Yeah, is there any food leftover?!" Ray scrambled to check the empty sundae glasses himself, even though it was clear that all of the ice cream was gone. No matter how much he scraped the spoon against the sides, he was just digging for something that wasn't there, Henry too, and the sad desperation painted on his face was enough to motivate (y/n) into stepping next to him to take the bowl away.

"No, sweetheart, we ate all of it..." She told him, throwing Henry a sympathetic glance over her shoulder as she rubbed at Ray's tense bicep. Ignoring the sweat was easy, ignoring how much he needed a shower was a breeze, but getting over the heartache on his face was not. Suddenly, she wished that she had the talent to make an ice cream sundae the way Morgan could, but it wouldn't have the same value because the moment was gone and the pain had set in.

"Oh, Ray, Ray, you would've loved the pizza soup! Henry, spaghetti tacos!"

"Oh my god, that sundae though?! Too good!" Did they want a slap in the face? Seriously, did Piper, Charlotte and Jasper have a death wish or something because Ray and Henry didn't need to know how amazing the food had been. They couldn't taste it and find out if what they were saying was true so what was the point? Just knowing that they'd missed out on something so amazing was torture, so the boys could only do one thing as their friends droned on and on. Block it out.

"Lalalalalalalalalalalalalala..."

"Lalalalalalalalalalalalalala..." They started to chant above their voices, causing the teens to stop and look at the man and boy weirdly since they were now doing some kind of meditation thingie. Their thumbs were on their heads and they wouldn't shut up, god it was annoying and honestly, kinda concerning.

"Hey, is he okay?" Piper asked (y/n) as she poked Ray's arm to try and generate a response from him, but it seemed like he didn't want to feel anything right now or maybe that was a side effect from the all the running he'd done. Just because his body was immune didn't mean his mind was and knew that when Ray was tired, he got weird. Really weird.

"Eh, don't worry about it, I can handle it." The woman shrugged off the girl's concern certain that she had the right medicine for whatever wound he was hurting from. Henry was a different matter, she didn't know how to help him apart from letting time numb the pain, but for Ray, she could do many things to take his mind off it.

And she had experience, she knew how he thought, how he acted and what he liked, she hoped. So using what she knew and what felt right, she gently laid her hands on Ray's shoulders, making sure not to go too fast or be rough in any way since she didn't want to startle him.

Taking his continuation of the "lalalalalalalalala" as a neutral sign that he wasn't feeling bad but he still wasn't registering anything good, so she moved onto step two. Reaching up on her tiptoes, (y/n) placed a delicate kiss on her doofus' lips, catching him off-guard and swallowing his last "la" when he realised that he knew that sensation, he knew it very well.

After a two-second pause, the heroine pulled back with a soft yet curious expression on her face, glad that he had stopped doing whatever the "lalalalala" thing was, but she also didn't know if she'd improved the situation or just left him worse off.

That was what she didn't want, she never wanted to hinder rather than help, especially when it came to cheering up her fiancé, but he was difficult to read right now. The man had his thumbs against his temples, he looked like some dumb reindeer mutant, not what she was used to dealing with.

"Ray? You feeling any better?" (y/n) asked carefully, acutely aware that Piper was still keeping an eye on them, although she had also been swept up in prodding Henry until he broke from the trance too. Not having an audience was nice, and she could handle the girl's interest in romance, the only thing was that her heart sped up when Ray's lips parted in tandem with his eyes opening.

Watching his every move, (y/n) could swear that her heart wasn't beating as Ray's gaze stayed motionless, staring at the wall behind her head as his tongue darted out to swipe against his bottom lip. Was he okay? He was saying anything, just standing there like a gormless idiot as she debated whether she'd done the right thing because whilst it had gotten him to stay quiet as the crew packed away the refrigerator and stove around them, it wasn't a comfortable silence. At least not until...

"I can taste ice cream...and honey." That was the first thing Ray mumbled after snapping out of his sugar rush-induced daydream and coming back to reality. The moment her lips touched his, all Ray could taste was the remnants of the sundae plunge into his mouth, followed by the honey that he'd grown addicted to in the last year or so of having her as his lover.

Sweetness after sweetness that had made his already tired mind stop for a moment to try and overcome the high it gave him, which left y/n) standing there, wringing her hands together awkwardly, searching to twist the ring that reminded them of the most saccharine moment of all.

That's how he took her in, he saw how his lack of response had made her nervous and that didn't sit right with him, but when he finally did tell her the first thing that came to mind, she went from anxious to puzzled. Huh, she hadn't noticed how the ice cream lingered, but that wasn't what stood out to her.

"There wasn't any honey in the sundae..." She told him, her eyebrows twinging together as she mulled over his words to try and decipher the meaning behind them. Hadn't he said something about honey to her before? Maybe?

It sounded familiar but for the life of her, she couldn't remember what it was. That was annoying considering that her stupid brain could recall facts about the most complex chemistry and mathematics that an engineer would ever have to know, but when it came to a tender moment amongst the thousands she'd shared with Ray, it was struggling to locate the right one.

"No...there wasn't," Ray muttered in return, causing her to gasp when she too broke out of her trance to see that her synapses had been so focused on retrieving what she wanted to remember, she'd failed to notice that he was now right in front of her, hands ghosting over her hips so he didn't spook her too much when he grabbed hold of them. What was she trying to remember? Hone...honest...Honda...honour...ho...hon...ho...

Her thinking became obsolete when her mind was given something else to focus on, namely the way bubblegum became the thing she could taste, followed by mint as Ray took his time in catching her lips with his and plunging his tongue to chase the honey that eluded her thoughts but clouded his. Piper was smirking, the film crew were ignorant, Jasper, Charlotte and Henry were preoccupied, and that gave them the chance to just enjoy it, enjoy being together again.

And who would've thought it, Ray got to know what Morgan Maykew's ice cream sundae tasted like after all, although he would be quick to argue that the addition of his sweet girl's honeyed taste made it better.

He was stinky and sticky with sweat as his body curled over (y/n), but she didn't mind. Having him in her arms, having him like this, just being able to go slow and appreciate his softer than soft lips against hers made the sleepless nights, almost constant peril, the occasional heartache and years of waiting worth it. It made it better.

Sure, meeting Morgan Maykew and eating a feast would've been nice, perhaps even a privilege, but they were damn sure that if things had gone smoothly then this wouldn't have happened, they wouldn't have an excuse to stand in Junk-N-Stuff and kiss like there was no one else in the room.

This was better. So much better.

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