Gill was very concerned when I told him about what had happened, and very angry. Even after I explained to him that I had told Steven to hit me, he was pissed that Steven actually did. He told me that the next time he saw Steven, if he ever did see him again, he was going to kick his ass. I just chuckled, knowing that Gill wouldn't have been able to beat up Steven, but I took guilty pleasure in seeing Gill be so passionate about defending me. I all honesty, me having to be in a cast didn't actually change a whole lot. All it really changed was that I didn't have to participate in gym, and I was aloud to wear baggy t-shirts because my school uniform wouldn't fit over the cast. Even after I told Gill the upsides, and assured him that I would be ok, he had fire in his eyes.

I smiled fondly at Gill, but then I remembered what Warren had told me about telling Gill how I felt. I wanted to, but, at the same time, I really didn't. Warren was right though, if I didn't tell Gill how I felt, and didn't find out if he felt the same way, I would be wondering about it for the rest of my life. Even then, I found myself frequently thinking about wether or not Gill could possibly like me in a romantic sense. Even if the answer was no, I had to find out.

"Hey Gill? Can I tell you something?" I asked, trying to summon all of my courage. You're Shadow-Man for fuck's sake. I thought to myself. You're a superhero, so fucking act like it.

"Of course. You can tell me anything." Gill told me with an encouraging smile, that somehow made what I was about to do harder.

"I-I gotta tell you something kind of important, and, um, I uh, don't know how you're going to respond." I said, Gill looked confused, and a bit concerned, but he sat in silence and waited for me to continue. I took a deep breath, and then began to ramble. "I, uh, I have feelings for you. Like-like, romantic feelings. I don't know if you feel the same way, like, at all, and it's totally ok if you don't because I love being your friend, but I just had to let you know an find out how you feel. Man, this might have been a mistake, I probably shouldn't have said anything. I mean, I don't know if you would even want to be with me, or anything. but, I had to tell you."

I was breathing deeply by time I had finally stopped talking, since I had said everything very fast, and in one breath. I looked at Gill expectantly, waiting anxiously to see how he would respond. I was expecting the absolute worse. I was expecting Gill to be disgusted with me, to stand up, and very loudly declare that I was a freak, and that he would never be interested in dating me. Realistically, I knew that that wouldn't happen, because I knew that Gill loved me, platonically of course, and that even if he didn't, he could never be that cruel. He just wasn't like that. I was expecting the end of the world, but what I actually got was the exact opposite of what I was expecting.

Without a word, Gill leaned forward and kissed me right on the mouth. My eyes were wide with shock, definitely not expecting Gill to kiss me. The kiss was sloppy, and not all that great if I'm being honest. Gill had his eyes closed tight, with both of his hands squishing either side of my face uncomfortably, and mine and Gill's noses were squashed painfully together. When Gill let me go, my nose and cheeks kind of hurt, and even then I was thinking that the kiss wasn't very good, but it made me very happy nonetheless. I smiled really big, and was feeling an overwhelming amount of relief.

"Thank goodness, I was afraid you would hate me." I chuckled.

"Even if I didn't like you back, I could never hate you." Gill told me. I just smiled fondly at him, hoping that that one smile would successfully convey the overwhelming amount of emotion that I was feeling.

***

"You know, for someone who has three broken ribs, you look pretty happy." Warren told me. I was honestly surprised when Warren and Steven showed up to pick me up, considering the fact that I wasn't exactly able to work on fight or my agility. 

"Thanks it's the happiness." I said, climbing into the back seat of Steven's car.

"Did something happen at school?"

"Yeah."

"Care to tell me what?" Warren asked. I did care, and I was honestly pretty excited to tell Warren about Gill. I actually wanted to tell as many people as possible.

"I told Gill how I felt. It went really well." I said.

"That's great. Are you two boyfriends now?"

"I think so."

"You need to be careful." Steven said, causing me to look at him, confused. "Gill knowing about you being Shadow-Man in dangerous as is, but you two being together is even more dangerous."

"I can protect him." I said, not wanting Steven to spoil my good mood.

"Not in that cast you can't." Steven responded.

"Try me." I glared at Steven. I was able to see Warren smirking in the rearview mirror, but Steven didn't look too pleased with me.

Instead of having me exhaust myself and torture my muscles doing what Steven and Warren called 'training' I was sat in a small library which Steven had in his house for some reason. I was surprised to see that Steven had a library wich had completely full, ceiling high bookshelves, because Steven didn't strike me as much of a bookworm. However, when Steven disappeared behind a bookshelf, and returned with multiple physics books, the library made more sense. Steven and Warren wanted me to read four physics books and take notes on all of them so that way I would be able to do flips, and jump from building to building, or whack people with the right amount of force, and stuff lack that better.

"So I have to read four books on physics just so I can do parkour?" I asked, picking up one of the books and flipping through it.

"Yeah, pretty much." Warren told me.

"Fair enough." I sighed, sitting in a plush chair in the corner of the library and opening the first book.

***

I was skateboarding away from school on day, keeping an eye out for Steven's car, when a woman ran up to me. I stopped skating quickly, almost falling as I did so, and looked at the woman. She was crying, and clearly distressed, but what I noticed most was that she was only wearing her underwear and bra.   

"Please! Please help me!" The woman begged, clinging to me.

"How? What do you need?" I asked quickly, wanting to help the woman.

"There's a man back there. He attacked me, and took my clothes. I managed to escape but not before he...he..." The woman let out a sob. I knew what she was implying, and I wasn't going to make her say it.

"Ok. It's going to be ok. You're going to be ok. I promise. Here, take this." I said, pulling off my black t-shirt, with slight difficulty, and slipping it over the woman's head. For once, me having broad shoulders and liking baggy t-shirts was actually useful, because the shirt was big enough on the woman to fall down to her thighs.

"Do you know if he was trying to follow you?" I asked the woman.

"I don't think so, but, I-I don't know." The woman said.

"If he tried to follow you, and he approaches us, I'll keep him away from you. Ok?" The woman nodded. "What's your name?"

"Jess."

"My name is Tyler. There are some people who are probably already waiting for me down the street. We'll help you. Come on." I led Jess down the street with me, keeping and eye out for Steven and Warren. The situation was far from ideal. Jess just came to me running from a rapist, she wasn't wearing pants, and I wasn't wearing a shirt, but everything was going to be ok.

When I rounded a corner and saw Steven's car, Steven saw that I had a person with me, he got into the front seat. I had Jess get in the car in front of me.

"Who is this?" Steven asked, looking back at Jess.

"And what happened to you gus?" Warren asked, showing concern.

"This is Jess. She broke free from a man who was trying to hurt her and ran to me for help. We're helping her now. Jess, these are my dads. Do you have somewhere you can go?" I asked. Steven looked at me like i was crazy, and I caught Warren eyeing me in the rearview mirror. I winked at them, telling them to just roll with it. I figured telling Jess that Warren and Steven were my dads was better than telling her the truth.

"No." Jess said, shaking her head, begining to cry again.

"That's ok. You don't have to worry. You can stay with us for a while, ok? We'll take care of you." I said. Jess just nodded, not saying anything else.

When we got back to Steven's house, we got Jess set up with a shower, and told her to take as long as she wanted. Then Warren went to go get some clothes for Jess, and I assumed it was from the same place that he got the clothes that I wore to fight Warren and stuff. I put on a baggy hoodie that was far too big. While Warren was gone, Steven glared at me, and a hushed argument had taken place in the library.

"She can't stay here!!!" Steven hissed quietly, clearly upset.

"She has no where else to go." I argued, equally as quietly.

"But she can not stay here. It's too risky. She could find out about Shadow-Man."

"I can't be Shadow-Man until I'm out of this cast, so it's unlikely that she'll find out. And, with the secret lab and stuff, we'll just have to be more careful."

"No. She has to go somewhere else."

"Where?"

"Keep her at your house if you want to keep her so badly."

"As far as she knows, this is my house. She clung to me, begging for help, with tears in her eyes and no clothes. Some guy raped her, and she needed help. We are going to help her."

"She's going to find out."

"So we should treat her the best we possibly can, so that if she does find out, she will be more likely to trust us, and keep our secret." I said.

"I'll be in the lab." Steven growled before leaving. Pretty soon, Warren walking into the room, just as I was sitting down to read the second physics book.

"Steven isn't very happy about this is he?" Warren asked me.

"Not at all. But he's going to let her stay." I responded, and Warren looked impressed.

"Most people, and definately not kids your age, are able to convince Steven to change his mind. He usually gets his way."

"Yeah, well, someone has to tell him no at some point." I began to read the book. Warren chuckled, then left the room without another word.

I knew that things were going to become a bit complicated since Jess was living there, but I was glad to help her anyway. I would probably have to spend a few nights at Steven's house, Warren and Steven would have to pretend like they were married sometimes, and I would have to pretend to be their son, and I don't think any of us were all that happy with any of those situations. However, I still thought it would be worth it to help Jess.