This fic is more Ray being a dick than Hensper bc I love writing Ray but whatever have some fluff. The quality of this gets worse the further you read it so sorry lmao.
"You bruised my arm!" Jasper's yells filled the man cave, causing Charlotte to look up from her book with a sigh.
"Sorry Jasp, I'm just REALLY stressed out!"
Kid Danger let go of his grip on Jasper's arm, giving it one last pat while he stumbled out of the lift. Jasper followed behind him, looking slightly shaken up by his friend's frantic behaviour.
The sound of a rush of air resounded throughout the base and Captain Man was revealed by the tube. As soon as the glass cage released the man, he stormed towards the boys, almost tripping over his own feat the process.
"You've got him!?" The superhero grasped onto his sidekick's shoulders and shook violently, leaving Kid Danger wincing at the force.
"Yes. Dude, he's right there!" Rolling his eyes, the blonde gestured towards Jasper who waved half heartedly, still recovering from being dragged to the man cave by the two heroes.
Captain Man pulled his hands away from the boy's shoulders and instead began to pick at the skin around his fingernails in agitation. "Okay, okay." He finished ripping off a lose piece of skin and wrapped his hands around his tube of gum. A few seconds later Ray Manchester stood in the superhero's place.
Kid Danger followed and transformed into Henry Hart, his fingers running through his no longer gelled up hair anxiously.
"Okay... What's going on here?" Charlotte put down her book and raised from the sofa, shooting a quirked eyebrow at the trio while beginning to pace the floor.
"Jasper, here, got shot by a truth gun!" Ray gestured as he spoke, his hand flowing alongside his words.
"A truth gun?" The girl's eyebrow seemed to quirk even further as she stopped in her tracks. For a moment she just stayed in that position, then she put two and two together and her expression fell dark. "Oh God. They found out that Jasper knows you guys?"
"Nope!" Pivoting, he turned to face Jasper. "Go on, Jasper. Tell Charlotte why you HAD to be shot with a truth gun!"
"Oh come on, Ray. It's not his faul-"
"Ah ah!" Ray interrupted Henry's words with an aggressive noise. "Go on!"
"They wanted my pin for my bank card." Jasper mumbled, the words barely audible as he stared down at the floor.
"And tell us, Jasper, exactly HOW MUCH was in that bank account!?"
"Ray st-" It was Charlotte's turn to protest but, just like Henry, her words were cut short.
"$1.67" The curly haired boy let out another mumble, this one quieter than the last.
"$1.67! One dollar fucking sixty seven!" Ray repeated, considerably louder then the boy.
Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, why is this such a big deal?"
"W-" The man stuttered in disbelief before swinging his arms with over the top gestures. "Why is this a big deal? It's a truth gun! He can only tell the truth!" His gesture missed Henry by only a few centimetres, causing the boy to let out a squeak as he dodged the attack. "If someone walked up to him and said 'Oh hey do you know who Captain Man and Kid Danger are?' all he would be able to say is 'Yeah! Ray Manchester and Henry Hart!'"
"Ah." Charlotte bit her lip.
"Yes, Ah!" Letting out a groan, he ran his hands through his hair, pulling apart the knots in his fringe as he fought the urge to tear out a chunk. "Where's Schwoz? I need Schwoz! Where's Schwoz?! SCHWOZ!"
The trio exchanged concerned glances at their boss's actions but said nothing. They quite enjoyed being not dead.
Ray tapped his foot, the rhythm erratically increasing and decreasing in speed as he waited for the man to arrive. The air in the room suffocated the other three workers, leaving them frozen with their eyes locked on the floor.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Schwoz appeared from behind the secret door.
"What!? I was napping!"
"Jasper's been shot with a truth gun. Fix it." Ray practically spat.
"What? Why me!?" Schwoz began to protest but one look at Ray's face sent Schwoz immedietly backing down. Stress made Ray vicious. "Okay, fine. I'll do a scan." He muttered, the words becoming less and less clear as he turned around and left the room.
Less than an hour later the scan was complete and Schwoz announced that there was nothing they could do. On the bright side, the whole truth thing should wear off in a day so they simply had to wait it out.
But it was a lot easier said than done.
xxx
"Oh, Henry, check out this girl I met last night."
After several embarrassing hours of Jasper accidently sharing too much information about everything from his favourite song to his bathroom habits, the boy had decided that all he wanted to do was take a nap on the sofa and sleep away the rest of the day.
"Damn, Ray, she's FIT."
It was pretty difficult to do, though, when you were in the same room as Ray Manchester. As much as he idolised the man, man he was loud.
From the corner of the room he could see Charlotte roll her eyes at the pair, a gentle smile resting on her face as she rested her feet on the control panel.
"Jasper, come have a look too. She is SMOKING HOT."
Charlotte's smile dropped at Ray's words.
Jasper smiled sheepishly in an attempt to avoid the situation but before he could protest Ray shoved his phone screen against Jasper's face.
"Well? What do you think?" Ray lent forward, playfully grinning with pride as he showed off the woman he had managed to seduce this week.
"I, uh..." Just as he began to lie, Jasper's throat closed up, leaving Jasper gasping for air as he stopped speaking. At first he continued to say nothing, instead praying that the sensation would end, but instead it grew stronger and stronger until he gave in. "She's pretty but I don't... She's not my type." Jasper clutched at his sides, mentally begging Ray that he wouldn't dig further while trying to recover.
"What!? How is she NOT your type." Oblivious to Jasper's struggle and Charlotte's death glare, Ray dug further anyway.
"Ray, Don't." Charlotte's glare turned into a desperate plea as she tried to stop what was obviously going to happen next.
But he didn't notice.
"What is your type then? I bet you only like bucket collectors or something."
"Oh my God, Ray!" The girl rushed to Jasper's side as his body began to tremble.
"Dude? Jasp are you okay!?'' Henry followed her and grabbed his shoulder, trying to steady the boy as he stared a him with eyes.
Jasper's throat snapped shut once again just as he started to lie. The world began to spin but his body simply wouldn't let him pass out. Desperate, he continued to fight the force that tortured him as tears welled in his eyes. His eyes frantically darted over his co workers faces: Ray's confusion, Henry's concern, and Charlotte's sympathy. Still, they couldn't do anything. He felt like he was going to die.
Then the discomfort erupted into agony and the words just came spilling out of his mouth.
"I only like guys."
For a moment the sound of Jasper's sniffles and heavy breathing were the only sounds in the room.
"...You're gay?" Ray's face was blank as he realised what he'd just done.
Before he could say anything else, though, Jasper nodded and sprinted out of the room, Ignoring Henry and Charlotte's calls after him.
"Oh my god, Ray! You literally just outed him."
"I didn't know!" Ray
"I told you to stop!"
"I didn't know!" Once again, Ray protested, his volume increasing as he finished his words.
"You knew?" A dazed expression rested on Henry's face.
"I figured it out ages ago, but he was sad and I talked to him about it and he just came out to me." She placed her hand on her hip. "You guys are okay with it, right?"
"Yeah." Ray's eyes locked onto the floor from guilt as realisation of what he'd just done hit him.
"Obviously!" Henry bit his lip as he stared at the place where Jasper had stood only a few moments ago before abruptly turning around. "I'm gonna go talk to him."
"No, wait." Charlotte called after him, causing him to freeze mid step. "Let me talk to him first. I knew already so he'll probably let me."
With that she passed through the secret door and left to find Jasper.
xxx
Charlotte stared at the bathroom door, listening to the snuffles from the other side. Letting out a deep sigh, she brought her hand up and knocked the surface gently.
"I just want to be alone." A voice came from the other side of the door, muffled by the barrier that separated them.
"It's me, Charlotte." She picked a lose piece of skin near nail, wincing a little as it drew blood. Sighing, the girl trailed her eyes down to the floor. "Can I come in?"
Jasper said nothing, the click of an unlocking lock answering her words instead.
Carefully, she slid open the door to find Jasper on the floor, his trembling knees pressed firmly against his chest and his knuckles a ghostly white.
"Hey." She spoke softly as she looked down at the man, unsure whether to sit next to him or not. "You okay?"
"No." Jasper shook his head between sniffs. "They probably hate me now." As soon as the words escaped his mouth tears streamed down his face, turning into sobs.
"They don't. Neither of them care about it, Jasper. Come on, you need to talk to them."
"But Henry's probably going to be weird around me. I don't want to lose him Charlotte, I can't lose him. I wasn't ready to tell him this, Charlotte.
"I know. But it's happened now. You can't just hide here forever." Crouching down, she patted Jasper's head in an attempt to seem comforting. "Plus, you haven't lost Henry. Just talk to him."
"Fine. When the truth thing wears off."
Charlotte sighed and rose from the position. "Okay, I'm getting him right now and you guys are going to sit there and talk whether you like it or not."
As she left the room the lock clicked shut behind her.
xxx
"Come on, Jasper, open up!" Henry lent against the door,
"You can't stay in there forever." Charlotte rubbed her eyes with her palm, stifling a yawn. "You'll get hungry eventually."
"N- I feel of hungry right now, actually..." The voice behind the door admitted thanks to the effects of the truth gun. "But I'll be fine! I can last ages without food."
Henry latched onto Charlotte's arm as an idea formed in his head. "But we have fish sticks and peas right here!" He shot and exaggerated wink at Charlotte as he spoke, though the wink ended up looking more like a strange blink.
Despite this, Charlotte caught on. "Yeah! If you just open the door a tiny bit we'll pass them through!"
Neither side of the door said anything as Jasper pondered the offer. "Okay, fine." The boy mumbled as he unlocked the door.
Before he even had time to react, however, Henry threw open the door and slammed it shut.
"Hey!" Jasper yelled, though as soon as his eyes locked Henry's he backed into the wall, hunching up his shoulders in a desperate attempt to hide in plain sight.
"Look, Jasper." Henry lowered himself to the ground and patted the space next him, inviting Jasper to sit.
After staring at the space cautiously, scanning it for any potential danger, Jasper accepted the offer and slid down the wall, trying to control his trembling as he reached the ground.
"You know that I'm always going to support you, right? You're my best friend. Why are you so scared to tell me?"
"Because I thought you might be homophobic."
"Why did you think that?" Henry moved his hand to graze his friend's arm though Jasper jolted away from the touch.
Jasper shrugged. "I don't know, I just thought you were." Just as he finished speaking, his throat began to close again, forcing him to continue to answer Henry's original question. "I also thought you might be kind of uncomfortable around me. So we wouldn't be as good friends and we wouldn't have sleepovers and stuff anymore..."
"Jasper, I'm not at all." Henry's hand slid from Jasper's arm to wrap over the boy's shoulder, pulling their sides against each other and causing Jasper's breath to hitch. "It's not going to make anything different. I promise."
"I'm sorry."
"Why?"
"There's another thing." Jasper shuffled away from Henry and turned his head towards the ground. "I didn't want you to find out that I..." The boy paused and then sighed. "...That I like you. No I-" His eyes shut as he exhaled heavily, freeing the thing that had gnawed at his heart for so long. "I love you."
For a moment the blonde just sat there, wide eyed as the words replayed through his head.
Then he pulled Jasper against his chest.
"Really?" His voice was barely a whisper, shaky and distorted from the heavy breaths that left his lungs.
"I can't lie."
"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." Henry hid his face with his palm while mumbling the words over and over again til the point that they were only meaningless sounds.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, oh my god." Henry's hands trailed towards Jasper's face and cupped his cheeks, his fingers leaning into the warmth of the touch as he stared into his eyes. The two stayed like that for a while, Jasper's face coated in fear while Henry's mouth had split into a honest grin. Then Henry spoke, his voice barely a whisper. "Jasper, I like you too. Like, a lot."
"You're kidding." Jasper shook off the blonde's hands and backed away. Disbelief filled his eyes.
"I'm not."
"You've got to be."
"I'm not!" Henry grabbed Jasper's hand. "I promise." Ever so slowly, he entwined his fingers with Jasper's, smiling softly as he gently squeezed their palms together.
"...For how long?"
"Ever since you found out about me being Kid Danger." His cheeks tinted pink as he remembered the events. "You just.. Didn't even care that I had lied to you. You just put your hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye and told me you were proud of me. It was just amazing how good a person you are." The longer he talked the redder his cheeks became. They were no longer a pastel pink but instead a dark crimson. "There's no one else like you."
Jasper practically jumped on Henry, his face burrowing into his shoulder while his limbs wrapped around him like boa constructors. A soft chuckle could be heard emitting from the blonde as he returned the hug.
"I've loved you for so long, Henry. Ever since we were little kids I've kept having crushes on you and every time I forced them away.
"Well you better not do that this time."
"I won't. I don't have to. Oh my God, I love you, Hen."
"I love you too, Jasp."
I know I should be focusing on Pretty much a Phoenix but I've been feeling really self concious about and unhappy with my writing recently. I just needed to write something dumb as a break from it. Don't worry tho, I have started on my first draft of Chapter 8 of Pretty much a Phoenix!
Thank you for reading! Please follow my Instagram and Tumblr Bigpoppajasper!