Chapter Text
It had been a couple of months since graduation and Marcus was settling into his new life in the city. He had gone home briefly to attend a family matter, but as things are tense he didn’t see it worth staying and potentially causing more issues. Tonight he finds himself at the Hellfire Club in New York.
He looks up at the doors, gaining the courage to enter, he heard through the grapevine that a good friend of his works here and well that’s the only reason he’s here. To find her. So he walks in, taking in the environment, he feels out of place, but that’s no surprise. This place is filled with rich, entitled, unsavoury men, who think they’re untouchable and well, Marcus is very much the opposite. He makes his way through the club and finds himself at the bar, he decides to order a drink. Nothing too extravagant, a simple old fashioned. Once he has his drink in hand he decides to take a wander around the main lounge, he can feel a few eyes on him as he makes his way through. He dismisses it for the fact he’s young compared to some of the frequent flyers. After a few minutes he finds himself a table that was near the back corner, hoping to stay out of sight. If she is here he knows she’ll sense him.
Meanwhile, Emma was in her room, preparing her persona for the day. Each small layer adds a little more to the mask until she can eventually bury any semblance of herself behind these walls of diamond. She’s lifting another one of her make-up brushes when she pauses, sensing a familiar presence. That can’t be right though, he went home, it was for the best. The last thing he needs is to get pulled into a place like this.
When she finally emerges from her room, she begins to do her usual wander. Giving her typical smile to some of the regulars, brushes the occasional hand over a jacket, till eventually she finds who she’s looking for and drifts in his direction. She sits down across from him, crossing her legs and leaning back in her chair.
“Well, I don’t believe I’ve seen you in here before.” “What are you doing here, Marcus?”
He shifts his attention to the familiar woman in from of him, he can’t help but smile. There’s a sense of comfort that he gets from her, something he hasn’t gotten the last few weeks.
“That is because I’m new to the neighbourhood.” "Well i came to see you, cariño."
His outward response being more well spoken and articulate than normal. He leans back in his chair, feeling less tense than when he first walked in.
“Is that so? And how exactly do you find an establishment like this?” She can see Shaw is watching her, but it won’t be hard to say that she’s just trying to encourage more regulars. But there’s only one question she really has for the man in front of her, “How did you find me?”
“Ah, well you see, my father is a member of the London branch.” “I asked around. It all seemed to lead back here. So I thought I’d drop by.” He pauses briefly before continuing, “I needed to see you.”
He keeps his response vague but believable, he did his research on this place before showing up. He knew it was a gentlemen’s club of sorts and was also aware there are different branches, such as one in London. So if he does get asked questions he can just tell a white lie about his family being tied there. However his telepathic response was also vague, he didn’t go into detail as to why he needed to see her, or what has brought him back to the US.
“I suppose that explains the accent.” “You shouldn’t have come here. Leave before people start asking questions.” She says almost warning him, as the tone of her words being a stark contrast to her body language.
He does his best not to keep a friendly smile, “That it would.” He says to keep the conversation going along side their telepathic one. “Emma, please, I’m not leaving. I can’t loose you too.”
It was easy for him to admit that, to her, she’s his best friend… at least that’s what he keeps telling himself, avoiding the truth. But after the loss of his mum he needed a friend, his only friend.
“Why don’t you come by for a more… private viewing later.” She suggests, keeping up her smile and looks him up and down. In her head she’s a little more concerned as she doesn’t know completely what’s going on with him. She can feel the complicated swirl of emotions.
“I look forward to it.”
Marcus nods, picking up his glass and taking a sip. He watches her leave, trying to not let his new persona slip down. If he has any hope of staying in her life he needs to be able to blend into this place and not raise any questions.
After a few hours, the club seemed to have gotten a little quieter whether that was because people left for the night or had gone to a more private room. Marcus had noticed that Emma had slipped a little card into his jacket pocket, it wasn’t anything too spectacular just an invitation to get him upstairs with no questions. So he makes his way to the stairs, seeing some sort of bouncer he just shows him the card. The guy then leads Marcus upstairs and tells him to wait to the side of the door. He doesn’t contest, letting the bouncer follow procedure. After a brief conversation with the woman in the room the bouncer just nods before leaving.
“So glad you could make it Mr…?” “We need to make this quick, there’s ears everywhere in this place.”
Her voice echoed his mind as she stepped aside to allow him entrance to the room.
Marcus walks in, giving Emma a polite smile. “Uh, Garcia.” “Well, there aren’t ears here. So I think we could stall for long enough.” He says before adding a short memory of the two of them when they were at university.
“Mr. Garcia.,” she repeats, as she shuts the door behind him, “I hope you’ve been enjoying your time with us.” “You’d be surprised, Sebastian isn’t fond of anything happening outside his authority.”
“I have. And I’m hoping I’ll continue too,” “Well, he sounds like a wanker.” He states rather bluntly.
“As do I,” she sits back on the sofa in the room, crossing her legs, “so; what exactly can I do for you?” “Maybe, but he’s the wanker holding my leash.”
It almost physically pains her to admit it, but it’s the truth. Without him she has no roof over head and no clothes on her back, not that she has much of those either way.
He takes a seat, he can’t help but feel a little awkward purely for where they are. As this establishment isn’t the type of place he’d usually frequent.
“I thought I’d let you take the lead,” “right, well he’s not what I want talk about.” he sighs internally before adding, “I’m going to be in New York indefinitely.”
“Good choice,” “What happened to going back to the UK?”
She questions, if memory serves he was supposed to see his family, he was looking forward to it in fact. She doesn’t know what could’ve changed any of that in the last few months.
He gives her a small smile, keeping a vague, flirtatious conversation going outside of their minds. He trusts her, and well if she says there are ears everywhere then he doesn’t want to risk her position here. But telepathically he chooses to jump straight to the point.
“My mum died… and nobody decided to tell me that she was ill to start with or that she had even died. I found out through a letter she had sent.”
He does his best to keep his composure, but he’s still angry and upset about how his family handled this. Emma walks over and kisses him on the cheek, a gentle and soft action.
“I’m so sorry darling,”
She knows how close he was to her. He deserved better than to find out from a letter, at least a chance to say goodbye.
He does his best to keep his new mask up on his face, mainly for himself as he hasn't had anyone to actually talk to about all this.
"Thank you, muñeca," but as he spoke to her his emotions did slip through, it was a lot harder for him to hide his emotions in his head. "but that is why I'm staying here a little longer."
She sits back down, this time in his lap to keep up the illusion, which Marcus follows that with resting one hand on her back. However with eyes and ears everywhere she very much does not want him getting pulled into the middle of this place, so she simple tells him,
“Well you can’t stay here.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’ve got a place, I just thought it might’ve been a good idea to reach out to my only friend.”
She does her best to keep her body language nonchalant, even though her heart hurts for him. Admittedly, she misses having someone to lean on, but she feels that she should spare him from this.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Marcus. But I don’t believe I can help you.”
That hurt him a little, only because he’s terrified of loosing yet another person he loves. But he’s not going to give up on them that easily.
“Em, please. If you think it’s because I would care that you here, I don’t. I just need a friend right now. So please don’t shut me out, don’t leave me alone…”
“Not everything is about you, Marcus,” she responds, which is less convincing than she’d like in their current position.
He can’t help bu sigh, he understands she’s moving on. He kind of always knew this would happen, but facing that reality was a little harder than he had initially though.
“You’re right. It’s not. But I’m not asking you to put your new life on hold for me. I’m just asking for some of your time as your friend, nothing else.”
She pulls back, as she stands trailing a hand down his sternum before pulling it back and returning to her seat. She looks over at his general direction, not being able to bring herself to make eye contact as she responds.
“You might want to consider finding some new friends.”
He takes a deep breathe before he stands up. He didn’t think it would be this difficult to get through to her, it’s only been a few weeks since graduation and her walls are already up so high.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around, muñeca."
He says with a more neutral expression on his face, almost unreadable, he then makes his way over to the door to leave. He might come back and try again, but it won’t be for a while so he doesn’t singe any last bridge he still has with her.
The End.