Shadow meets Manón
Shadow was sitting on a park bench, reading a book that he found to be quite enjoyable.
"Huh. So Tybalt killed Mercutio. It makes sense, but I still never would've guessed that someone like Mercutio would have so much courage." Shadow verbally commented.
"C'mon, Marinette!" He heard someone call. "I want to ride on the merry-go-round!"
The voice sounded like it belonged to a little girl. What really caught his attention was the name the voice mentioned.
"Please, slow down, Manón." Shadow heard Marinette's voice say in reply.
Shadow looked up and saw Marinette before him. In front of her, dragging her around by the arm, was indeed a little girl. She looked to be around Cream the Rabbit's age, only far more energetic. She pulled, hopped around and giggled… a lot. Shadow raised an eyebrow at this as they passed by him. Marinette didn't seem to notice him because her eyes were closed as she struggled to keep the little girl from getting to far ahead.
"Marinette?" He said, gaining both girls' attentions.
"Shadow!" She responded with a smile while the little girl ran behind her leg. "It's great to see you. What are you doing here?"
"Sabine said I could borrow this book," Shadow raised the book up for all to see, "so I came out here so I could read it."
"Oh, I love that book!"
"So far, so do I."
Marinette smiled in response to his complement, but then remembered something important.
"Oh, I almost forgot." She stepped aside and kneeled down to keep an arm around the little girl with her. "Shadow, this is Manón. Manón, say hello to Shadow."
Shadow stared at the younger human for a few seconds before she started talking.
"(giggle) You have funny hair." She giggled while pointing at his head.
"Manón! That is very rude! Say you're sorry!" Marinette told her as Shadow looked up, curiously.
"I'm sorry." Manón said to Shadow.
Marinette scratched her head in embarassment.
"Sorry, You know how kids are." She said to him.
Shadow, who had only ever been acquainted with children who were at least old enough to know how to tie their shoes in under two and a half minutes, just went right back to his reading.
Suddenly, a buzzing and a ringing came to their ears. Marinette pulled out her phone and saw an alarm on it that she had previously set earlier that day.
"Oh, no! I totally forgot about a delivery today!" She then started going into a nervous fit. "I need to go deliver it, but I can't leave Manón here alone and I doubt she'll want to come with me to make a pastry delivery!"
Just then, she remembered something and turned to her naturally super-powered friend.
"Shadow, I need to go off real quick! Can you please watch Manón while I'm gone!" Marinette put her hands together in a begging manor while Shadow just kept reading, only barely listening to a word that she was saying.
"Sure. Whatever." He said in response, not fully understanding what he had just agreed to.
"Great! Thank you so much!" She said before pushing Manón in front of Shadow and hurrying on her way. "Bye, Manón. Be good!"
"Huh?" Shadow said as the conversation finally started to sink in. "Hey, wait!"
"Bye, Shadow! I'll be back as soon as I can!" Marinette called before dissappearing from sight.
"Marinette, wait!" He called after her, getting up and moving forward a few feet. "I'm not… great with… kids!"
He shouted that, but it only grew more quiet as he started to realize that it was hopeless. And so, with a sigh of defeat and a drop of his head, Shadow turned around to face the little girl. For a few seconds, he just stared at her with a blank expression.
"Who are you? I want Marinette!" Manón declared.
Shadow sighed once again, thinking that this was going to be annoying… but then, he got an idea and perked up a bit before looking at her with a look of confident cleverness.
"Hey, Manón." She looked at him curiously. "Want to learn how to fly?"
She instantly perked up at this.
Marinette soon came back to the park in a hurry. She stopped before Shadow, who was still reading his book, huffing in exhaustion. She took a few moments to catch her breath before speaking.
"Shadow, I'm sorry I took so long. I locked myself out, and I forgot where I left the key and then I…" She stopped talking when she noticed something important. "Shadow, where's Manón?! You were supposed to watch her!"
Shadow stopped her by placing a single hand in front of her face and then pointing up. She looked up, and her face suddenly became the definition of the words "terrified" and "panic". Her face resembled that of Edvard Munch's The Scream, though all that came from her mouth was a loud gasp. She looked up and saw Manón in freefall, saying "WEEEEEEEEEE…" on the way down.
"SHADOW, ARE YOU CRAZY?! HOLD ON, MANÓN! I'LL CATCH Y—"
Once again, her outburst was stopped by Shadow with the raise of a hand. She blinked as Shadow got up, looked at the red plate on his wrist that appeared to be switched to some kind of stopwatch mode, and it was close to zero. Shadow then raised his hand, his palm facing the sky, and as soon as Manón reached them, she was caught by the suspenders of her overalls, resulting in her bouncing a few times as if they were bungee cords, before calming down.
"Again, again!" She said, bouncing a little by her suspenders as she kicked her legs and threw her arms in excitement.
"No, not again!" Marinette told her.
"Awwwww…!" Manón said in disappointment.
Marinette then turned her attention to Shadow, who just lowered his hand before dropping the little girl on her feet, giving him quite a glaring scowl,
"Problem?" He casually asked as if nothing was wrong.
"What were you thinking?! Did you teleport her 100 feet into the air?!"
"Of course not. A human her size couldn't handle that, and I wasn't teleporting… I just threw her about 30 feet into the air… a couple of times since you left."
"It was fun!" Manón added as Marinette's widened. "He taught me how to fly!"
Marinette then got all up in his face, her glaring scowl returning anew.
"You were using your powers in front of her?!" Marinette asked him incredulously.
"Relax." Said Shadow. "I told her to keep her eyes closed the whole time or else it wouldn't work. And even if she did see anything, it's not like she'll even remember it when she's older. If anything, she'll think she just imagined the whole thing."
His statement mixed with the casual grin that he gave her didn't really help calm Marinette's anger. She then took Manón by the hand and led her away.
"Alright, Manón, it's time to go."
"Awwww…" Manón whined.
"Say goodbye to Shadow." Manón turned around and waved goodbye to him as Marinette led her away. "C'mon, let's go on that merry-go-round."
"Yeah!" Manón's smile grew as she jumped up and down in excitement.
"Um, Marinette?" Shadow called to her as she walked away. "You know I would never actually hurt her, right? It was just a game."
She did not respond.
"Marinette?!"
Still, she ignored him.
"Hey, come back! I'm sorry! Really!" As he said that, he ran to catch up with her and Manón as they made their way to the merry-go-round.
The End.
