Shade and Shane drabbles- set 1

---------------Park meeting-----------------------

Shane had to wonder if he'd perhaps done something wrong.  He couldn't think of anything he'd done, he'd done his best to be polite and friendly after all, but the girl sitting on the other end of the bench didn't seem to want anything to do with him.  At twelve years old Shane was certain that girls were the most confusing thing ever.  It had only been a few hours ago that his friend Kit had called asking if he'd like to meet at the park to meet a friend of hers.  Over the past year Shane had been hearing about this new friend, and was happy to finally get the chance to meet her.  Since this was a friend of Kit's, the young boy had been expecting someone...well someone like Kit, cheerful and friendly, maybe a little odd.  What he got was quite different.  This was the day he met Shade.  

“So um...you like icecream?” Yet another attempt at small talk that Shane felt was going to be fruitless.  Kit has introduced the pair and then quickly darted off claiming she'd heard the icecream truck.

Shade looked back at him for a moment, her odd purple eyes set in an unreadable expression, before she simply gave a quick nod.  She turned away again a moment later, continuing to apparently watch the people in the park.  Shane sighed, trying not to make it too audible and disturb the girl.  She'd at least been slightly vocal when Kit was around, but she refused to speak a word to, or really even knowledge the boy before her.  

He had to have done something wrong, but what?  All he'd done was ask he a few questions and say hello.  In the distance Kit could be seen coming back with three icecream cones in her hands and Shane decided not to worry too much about it yet.  Maybe she was just shy?

--------------------------------------Snow day---------------------------------------------------

Something obnoxious was interrupting Shade's sleep, and she didn't like it one bit. She tried to ignore the irritating buzzing noise but it persisted, despite her grumpy growls and grumbles from beneath her blankets.  Eventually the black haired girl gave in and snagged her phone off the table by her bed.  She glared at the offending device, for all the good it did, and eventually answered it.

“What?!” she hissed tiredly.

“Shade! I'm soooooo sorry to wake you!” Kit's voice echoed out from the speaker.  “I know you sleep in the afternoon usually, but I really need your help.”

Grumbles and growls came out of Shade's throat for a minute before she managed to form a more coherent response.  “Where are you even..?”

A glance at the clock also on the bedside table told Shade it was indeed early afternoon, and the lack of any noise outside of her room told Shade she was likely alone.

“I'm out with my Uncles heading to see mom and dad remember?  But this huuuge snow storm is blowing in!” Ah.  That was right, no wonder it was so quiet, the Kleptos were gone for the weekend, so Shade was indeed home alone.

“Uh huh?  What's your point?”

“I'm worried about Shane.” Her friend admitted.  “There's been power outages and stuff cuz of the storm and I can't get through to him...do you think you could check on him?”

“Doesn't he have a father to do that?” Shade grumbled, but still began pulling herself out of bed.

“With all the power outages he's busy responding to calls in town, I can't get ahold of him at that station.  Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?” Kit begged.

“Fine, fine!”

With a click Shade hung up the phone and moved through the silent house to gather up her boots and coat.  It had been two year since she'd “moved” to this town called Gemstone, she was still getting used to shadow travel, but by now Shade knew the shadows of the town fairly well.  Moving carefully she stepped inside of the one nearest her bed and began navigating through, what would look to most like a black abyss.  It was tricky for the twelve year old girl to find the proper exit, but she found one close enough in short order, and pulled out of the shadow of a tree near Shane's house.  Snow blocked out her vision for the most part but it was still easy enough to tell that the house was completely dark.  A knock on the door proved  to give no response from inside.  Giving a quiet curse Shade stalked around the side of the house, looking for a window to climb in through.  

What she found instead was Shane, bundled up in a thick coat and hat, fumbling with a panel on the side of the house.  His gloves were off in an effort to apparently better operate the switches inside, but his fingers were rapidly turning blue.

“Idiot!” Shade yelped and grabbed him by the hood of his coat.

“Sh...Shade?” the slightly older boy blinked in surprise.  “Wh..what are you..?”

“What are YOU doing is the better question!” Shade snapped.

Shane must have been surprised, up until now Shade hadn't spoken to him much, only the odd comment here and there.  It's not that she disliked the cold boy, she just wasn't quite...sure of him in the beginning, and he seemed rather skittish around her.

“Th..the power went out so I...figured I'd check the circuits like dad taught me...”

“You're freezing yourself you idiot! Go inside I'll take care of it!”

“But-!” Shane tried to protest but Shade just shoved him toward the side door to the house.

“In!”

Without much choice Shane shuffled back inside.  A few minutes after that, filled with flipping random switches, Shade followed with the power now on and working.  She found Shane curled up in a chair bundled in blankets, his fingers still tinted slightly with blue.

“Dummy...”Shade grumbled and went over, pulling out her own dry gloves and offering them to him.  “Put these on and warm up.”

Shane seemed to stare at the gloves in genuine surprise for a moment, before carefully putting them on and retreating further into his blankets.  He nearly jumped out of his skin when Shade took one of his hands and starting rubbing it between her own to warm it, she would have laughed if he didn't look so miserable.  

“Shade...?” He spoke up carefully after a time of silence.

“Hmm?”

“Thanks...” Shane smiled at her, for the first time she could remember without any sort of nervousness behind it.

She smiled faintly in response. “Someone's got to look out for you or you'll turn into a Popsicle.”

-----------------------------------Are you ever careful?-----------------------------------

It was a nice summer night, so Shane decided to leave his window propped open.  It was warm enough that he wouldn't have to worry about getting a chill from the outside weather, and the gentle breeze coming in was quite refreshing while reading.  The fifteen year old fox hybrid sat home alone while his father worked a night shift, and took the opportunity to catch up on some of the healing magic books he'd recently picked up.

A loud thud broke Shane out of his his pleasant moment of reading, followed quickly by a string of irritated curses.  Adjusting his glasses Shane found the form of Shade half curled up on the floor just inside his window.

“....Hello Shade.”

“Quit with the pleasantries Popsicle, and help me up!” his friend hissed from the floor.

Shaking his head, Shane carefully got up and moved to help her up.  It didn't take long for him to notice the large gash on one of Shade's arms.  He paled slightly at the bleeding.

“What did you do this time?” He wondered aloud, quickly escorting her to a chair.

“I'm fine!” She snapped in return, trying to reclaim her arm and put more pressure on the wound.  “Just get me something to wrap this!”

With a sigh Shane went to retrieve the first aid kit he'd been keeping in the bathroom. “Shade please just let me heal that, it's going to need stitches without some healing magic.”

“It doesn't need healing I'm fine!” She jerked back from the fingers he reached out to heal her with.

Shane gave another quiet sigh, “Shade...please let me help.  It will scar if I don't see to it.”

His friend hesitated suddenly, looking at her bleeding arm.  “....fine...just this once.”

With a reassuring smile Shane let his hands glow with a faint blue magic and took up Shade's bleeding arm.  It took some time, but he was able to close the wound and Shad even stuck around long enough to help him wash her blood off his floor.