Hey. Well it's the day after my birthday, I was dreaming of dark heroes and wanted to write more Submissive!Kendall. I don't know, the kind reviewers of Monster said it was good, so here's another for another try, with Dominant!James...Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE PLOT OF THE ONE SHOT AND ANY OCS USED AND/ OR MENTIONED...Sorry if this sucked, was lame, too short, or all the above...! Sorry if there were any grammar mistakes made during the writing, creation, and polishing of this one shot...! Sorry for the James being a hero and stuff! I was raised with Batman and other DC characters taking a major part of my life and they are my greatest inspiration when depressed, so I hope that explains why! This is an AU, so expect some strange things coming into play because my mind is very unpredictable!
"Kendall, you done drooling yet?" Logan Mitchell teased his blonde best friend, mocha brown eyes gleaming in amusement.
Said fifteen-year old blonde blinked out of his trance and blushed a bright red, tearing his eyes from Sherwood High's almost barren schoolyard and turning to the brainy ravenette, clutching his school bag to his chest.
"Shut up, Logie. I wasn't drooling."
"So what were you doing, just mooning over James Diamond? Again, if I may add, for the sixth time in only today?" Logan asked with a grin, getting a punch from the slightly taller boy to the arm.
Kendall Knight sighed and looked from his and Logan's spot at the flagpole to farther down the schoolyard to the lonely bus stop, a bunch of Poetry Club kids hanging there like ants to an apple core. All were laughing or reciting pieces for the upcoming jam in a week, but the blonde was only focused on the leader, the top poet of the group.
James Richard-Samuel Diamond.
He was a tall brunette with big hazel brown eyes (which Kendall knew about very well, despite the dark shades over those deep pools at the moment) and the body of a war-god, something clear because of his skin-tight clothes: a black hoodie with a giant red X on his toned torso, a black jacket tossed over it with black skinny jeans hugging his long, runner's legs and red-and-black high tops. He had streaks of red (more natural looking though, not neon) among his chocolate locks and a single black diamond (Kendall didn't even know those existed; well the guy was filthy rich, his single mother Brooke could pull off miracles with the money she raked in from her famous cosmetics company) piercing in his right ear followed by a handmade (though it was so well drawn it could be mistaken for real ink) tattoo of an X over the number thirteen on the side of his neck in large smoky, red-and-black shapes.
He was seen as a troublemaker (a horrible stereotype by society due to his dark clothes and often anti-social personality) by the vice principal and some of his snooty classmates but was the popular guy in his Poetry, Guitar, Art, and Creative Writing Clubs. He was a solo singer for the school's Chorus concerts or dances, he was a mystery because he only had one close friend yet hung out with people who couldn't even scratch the ice of the armor he wore 24/7. He was something else, a something else that has held Kendall's attention for as long as he has known of the brunette's existence.
They've been in the same schools and classes since Pre-K; and not once, since the blonde could look back to childhood memories, have they ever talked.
Because Kendall always got all shy and red in the face when talking about the brunette, that even worse when looking at him directly in the eyes or to the side during school.
"You know you can go over there and talk to him right, it's not like he's a shark ready to eat anyone who comes near him." Logan pointed out, running a spidery hand through his spiky, dark brown hair; Kendall's bottle green eyes stared at him as if he had just grown two extra heads.
"Logan, are you crazy? I'm just a shy artist from his Art Club who's a Hockey player for his school, who is captain, but that doesn't even talk to those on his own team! I'm practically invisible to him, he's so cool and hot and I'm just plain, invisible Kendall Knight. Plus, he's not even in my range!"
"Just because you're a sophomore and he's a junior doesn't mean you can't be friends with him or something, really now those rules are so overrated. Come on Kendall, you've liked him since we were kids, no correction you've loved him since we were kids! He's a guy, a human being like us so what are you waiting for?" Logan asked as he crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently.
Kendall shot him an annoyed glare and pulled out his sketchbook, the weak breeze blowing back the dirty blonde hair peeking out from under his gray beanie.
"Dude, I'll take your advice when you decide to talk to Carlos Garcia, the only guy you've crushed hard on since I've known you, who if I may add happens to be James' only best friend. When you do that, I'll talk to my crush. Until then, I think I'll head home from here. Art Club didn't have a meeting today because Miss Stone was out sick, so I think I should just go now. See you tomorrow?" The blonde asked, buttoning up the loose gray plaid shirt he had over his plain blue tank top from the now upstaging cold; black, heavy clouds were filling the sky, meaning bad, long-lasting rain was to reign town soon.
Logan merely smiled and nodded, he and Kendall parting ways as he headed for the student parking lot toward his car; normally he would try to convince Kendall to let him give him a ride but knew the blonde liked walking home, walking was a way he got inspired for his awesome drawings and watercolor paintings.
Kendall waved at the straight-A student's retreating back before heading along on his way, bag slung over one shoulder while he flipped through the pages of his sketchbook, smiling with a dark red blush when he found the newest drawing he did of James.
It was beautiful but to the blonde, it could never do justice to the real thing: the brunette laying under a tree with his acoustic guitar, shades hanging from one of his many black hoodies (black and red seem to be his favorite colors, though his car was a forest green) while his hazel eyes sparkled in the light of the imaginary sun; he was smiling, not smirking his trademark smirk, but genuinely smiling a smile that exposed his sparkling white teeth while he stared up into nothingness, probably lost in his own thoughts. At least, that was what Kendall wanted to capture.
This was the only way the sophomore could admire the other without babbling around like an idiot at speaking his name or being a klutz on his own two feet when walking the same hallways; from afar and out of sight, never within reach.
Kendall sighed, one hand disappearing into the back left pocket of his light blue jeans.
"Why can't I be like this around you, all calm and chilled, instead of just watching from afar? I guess I'm just chicken..." He whispered, usually bright eyes now dim in sadness, the bottle green now close to a sickly sea shade.
He was soon out of the schoolyard, waving bye to Officer Wainwright who waved back with a fond smile, before he turned a corner when the traffic lights flashed red; he was just passing the grocery store where he worked at on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, minding his own business and trying to push the thoughts of James out of his head.
When it happened.
It was like everything was on fast forward on a DVD player; he was jumped on from behind by two taller, stronger guys (probably seniors since they didn't give off the air of being that much older than him) as rain started to fall and forced to the ground, one of them armed with a baseball bat while the other pinned him to the concrete and pressed a switch blade to his throat. He gasped and tried to scream but the dude with the bat, his hair brown but face hidden by the immense shadows of the darkening evening, soon stuffed a rag in his mouth to keep him quiet.
"Hush and just give us whatever you have on you. Money, a watch, whatever and we won't hurt you." The brown-haired guy snarled; the one with the switch blade, the one whose blue eyes gleamed in the strike of lightning now illuminating the darkness over their heads, barked a harsh laugh under his breath.
"Let's check his bag and get the hell out of here, we don't want the old fart running the store catching us on camera or something." He said to his partner, who nodded and kept the bat in Kendall's line of sight to warn him not to make any comebacks as he ripped the blonde's bag off his shoulder and start to dig through the contents.
Kendall threw out muffled screams and kicked at the wet pavement but only succeeded in getting the knife pressed into his skin to leave a thin red line of blood, tears threatening to spill down his pale, hallow cheeks.
'Damn it, why does this happen to me? Oh God, please help me! Send someone, anyone, please! Don't let me die!' Kendall thought, panicking as he thought about his baby sister Katie and his mom Jen; his dad died when he was very little, leaving him as the man of the house. If he died, they would be left alone, if he died Logan would lose his best friend and the blonde would leave behind his just blooming life.
If he died, so many things would be left undone and unspoken...
No, no, no! It can't end this way, someone has to help him!
"HELP!" Kendall spat out the rag and shouted with as much vigor and pitch as he could, getting a heavy blunt to the head by the guy with the bat; blood mixed in with the rain drops in his soaked dirty blond hair and he choked on a gasp of pain, but began wriggling fiercely in a desperate attempt to fight back.
"Quit it, idiot! My friend here won't hesitate to crack your skull open!" The blue-eyed mugger hissed, his partner shaking his head as he dumped the blonde's bag and all his belongings to the wet rock below them.
"He's got nothing on him, dude. I say we just teach him a little lesson, that's what he gets for walking around dry." He said with a chuckle, stroking the bat's head almost lovingly with his free palm; the one with the switch blade smirked and nodded, pressing the steel's tip to Kendall's tongue.
"Say nighty-night, blondie." Kendall's eyes went to the sides of saucers and his pulse leaped as he prepared mentally (physically would always be impossible for him; despite his lean muscles and Hockey training, he wasn't one to easily endure pain) for the beating he was going to get now.
Nothing came though; just a yell from the guy holding the knife to his mouth, followed by the shift of weight pinning him down suddenly off and away.
"What the hell! It's Shadow!"
Shadow, the town's own mild Jason Todd? The unknown teenage crime-fighter? That Shadow?
Kendall knew of him, what kid at his school didn't? He showed up once out of nowhere and has been a hot topic for Sherwood's papers and stuff ever since then, but to see him in person, in flesh and blood...
Kendall blinked the falling water of the angry skies and growing tears from his green eyes and sat up, pressing his slender frame into the body of a lone broken street light, eyes now on the lithe form moving among the blackness and...facing off against the attackers.
The guy was around his age and taller, well-built a bit more but still graceful like an acrobat, a grace rare in a guy; he was dressed in all black, a skin-tight full body suit and boots, gloves that reached his elbows with a steel-gray belt around his waist. He wore a domino mask over his eyes with a black bandana tied around one wrist, he hunched down low as he dished out a spin-kick to knock the boy with the bat off his feet.
"Ugh, it's him alright! It's Shadow, but come on we can still take him! It's two against one!" The mugger with blue eyes protested, though his face lost all color when Shadow pounced on his partner, slammed his feet so hard into his ribs that several cracks filled the air before grabbing his head and twisting it sharply to one side, the guy groaning as he went completely unconscious to the ground.
"I say, you guys suck at being baddies, you get my drift? You sure you can handle this, kid? If you can't pull off one little assault without getting caught, then you seriously need to work on those weak reflexes, man! You're not much of a challenge, I wonder why I'm even wasting my time with you bozos when the cops can work this out themselves! You're pretty pathetic if you ask me, now go running home to mommy and forget your little plan before I get really serious with you." Shadow's low, seductive voice broke through the roars of thunder ringing in Kendall's ears, he standing over the fallen brown-haired male with arms crossed over his chest; below that black-and-white mask, a devious and confident smirk pulled at those thin, pale lips.
The blue-eyed mugger growled and clenched his fists. "You think I'm scared of a costumed freak, well think again! You're about to get you ass beaten, real bad!" He shouted, running towards the still smirking hero and thrusting fists out in a storm of punches and jabs; Shadow merely laughed as he twisted out of reach and did a back-flip over the guy's head, throwing a quick wink at a bewildered Kendall before turning on his heels and intercepting a fist aimed for his head; he faked a yawn and smirked again.
"Dude, wanna try again? That was pretty weak. Let me show you the right way to do a fight." He said simply, ignoring the other's scream as he twisted the guy's wrist, pulled him forward and launched him single-handedly to the ground; he then grabbed the guy's ankles and yanked hard until the dude's feet was on either side of his head, he choking out in ache before a kick knocked the wind of him and reached far enough to break the joint in his right hip and a bone in his spine.
As the blue-eyed male faded out to a pain-induced nap like his companion, Shadow restrained their limp arms back with handcuffs, the masked heroic devil brushing back a lock of shaggy hair from his face; it was hard to tell what color it was, but it wasn't midnight black like the night was trying to convince Kendall of.
"I swear, they just don't give up. They know they can't take me on yet still try to cause trouble on my turf, so sad and stupid aren't they? Oh well, gives me something to do with all my free time." Shadow muttered with an indifferent shrug of the shoulders, back all prostrate as he now turned to face the blonde, a thin and tight line pulling at his lips at seeing the poor, shorter and younger boy so scared and in such a sad state; blood was flowing from a bad bruise to his head, his clothes were caked with rain and mud, eyes red and puffy while his stuff was dumped all around him.
Kendall slowly squirmed out from his tight fetal position against the pole and struggled to gather his things despite the hurt vibrating off and about his thin body, yet was stopped by a gloved hand; he looked up so that his green eyes met masked ones, Shadow's facial expression hard yet soft at the same time.
"Relax, hot stuff. I got you, nice and easy now 'cause it's all over..." He assured the other, Kendall soon losing consciousness as everything he experienced in the last few minutes began to fall on him hard; all he remembered feeling was strong, warm arms embracing him, then nothing at all...
...
Kendall soon blinked his eyes wide open, confusion settling in when he saw...the ceiling of his bedroom?
"W-Wha? What happened?" He groaned as he sat up, he noticing he was in a another t-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms and nicely tucked in bed; his ruined clothes were in his laundry basket, the lights were out while the now clear sky greeted him with a nice, full moon. He was dry, a little pale and shaky but okay, and a bandage was wrapped around his left temple where the bat had kissed his skin; the red line against his neck was patched up too, his bag and belongings dry and on his desk in the right far corner of his room.
What happened? Was that...all a dream? But his stuff, the bruises he's baring, they were real.
What happened?
"Feeling better now, hot stuff? You were out for most of the run over here, was I too much to handle or something?" The suddenly greeting low, seductive voice made the finally alert blonde jump back more against his thin sheets, his eyes on a masked sixteen-year old in all black and holding a small smile for him on his thin lips.
"S-Shadow? So all of that happened, everything was real? Y-You saved me?" He choked out, blushing for some unclear reason; Shadow just chuckled and nodded.
"Yeah, managed to sneak you in here after the whole ordeal without getting seen by anyone. Don't sweat it, your family's not in right now, a big plus for us since that made things easier on me on assuring your safety after what just happened. You feeling okay, Kendall?"
"Y-You know my name?"
"Duh, of course I do. We go to the same school silly, you've just never noticed me before now. So answer my question will ya, you feeling okay now or not?" Shadow said in a slightly annoyed tone of voice, arms crossed as he sat still at the other's window. Kendall, finding no more words to say, nodded numbly back. Shadow's passive face went away with another smile, uncrossing his arms as he looked out to the silent and calm night.
"That's good, it means I made it to you in time. You know, before those goons could really nail you. Don't worry about them, I've made sure to let them know not to mess with you ever again, and I left them where the cops can get them to juvie safe and sound by tonight. Well, I better head out; other people may need me, I have some patrolling to get done. Try to stay out of trouble, got me? Sleep tight, Kendall."
"Wait!" Kendall exclaimed, the masked hero pausing with the window half-opened for him to sneak out.
"What?"
"W-Who are you? You said I've never noticed you until now, so...I want to know who you are, who are you under that mask, Shadow?" The blonde said, green eyes searching that handsome masked face for any sign of change in expression; there was none, the smile still intact though now taking a sad tint.
"Like I said, some guy you have never noticed before just watching out for those who need help. Look I really need to go now, okay? Sleep tight, Kendall. See ya tomorrow at school..." With that Shadow was gone, Kendall scrambling to the window just in time to see a flirty wink thrown his way before the slender, graceful black-clad form was leaping over the rooftops and out of sight.
Kendall could have sworn...he saw familiar red-streaked chocolate hair glowing by the moon's faint rays, and a peek of hazel behind that domino mask.
"James...?"