Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“We can dance to the radio station

That plays in our teeth

If you question what I would do

To get over and be with you 

Lift you up over everything 

To light up my room, my room.” 

Marvin bounced his leg up and down in the driver’s seat of his car. He wanted to go home. He wanted to put the key in the engine and run home and tell Charlotte and Cordelia everything, but he couldn’t. 

He didn’t want to leave because if he left Whizzer wouldn’t be there anymore. One part of Marvin wanted to run up to him and hug him and kiss him and the other part of him wanted to run away and hide. 

Whizzer had come up to him, saying the exact same thing he had said when they first met. It was horrifying. Did he remember? There was no way. Marvin didn’t say anything to him and ran down to the parking lot and hid in his car. 

He looked down to his fingers which were shaking tremendously. He was in a terribly weird state of shock. Whizzer was the gym teacher. He was going to have to see Whizzer every day. He couldn’t do this at school, he had students to attend to. 

Whizzer probably thinks Marvin is some kind of psycho for running off like that. He’d never want to talk to him. Marvin ran his hand through his curls, trying to calm himself down. 

He needed to take deep breaths. 

In for 4. 

Hold it for 4. 

Out for 4. 

Hold it again for 4. 

Repeating this process several times over Marvin had started to calm down. His ex (was it really a breakup? Marvin wasn’t sure) boyfriend was over on the baseball field in the job he was in when he had originally met Marvin before he had lost his memory. He was also the gym teacher now for some reason. 

Marvin sighed. 

He was going to have to work up the courage to talk to him eventually. He couldn’t just avoid him the entire time they worked together. Marvin pinched the bridge of his nose as hard as he could, trying to come up with some master plan that would fix everything. 

The best case scenario: Marvin goes up to Whizzer and charms him so hard that he regains all of his missing memories and they live happily ever after. 

The worst case scenario: Whizzer hates Marvin and they never talk to each other ever again. 

Marvin banged his head against the steering wheel, causing his horn to honk. 

He spent the whole two hours of Jason’s baseball practice going over his plan to talk to Whizzer. 

Step one: He goes up and grabs Jason’s bag because Jason sure as hell would forget it like he always does. 

Step two: Marvin goes back up to Whizzer and apologizes for running away, he just had busy things to do and he was under a time crunch, that’s all. 

Step three: be friendly, small talk, all that jazz. 

Step four: Whizzer and him are on good terms. 

Marvin watched as all the middle-schoolers left the field, that was Marvin’s cue to get out of his car. He walked through the group of kids and noticed that Jason had his baseball bag. Great, his plan was already failing. 

He waved at Jason who turned to him quickly and flashed a smile before turning back to his friend. Marvin walked up to the benches near the baseball field, hoping–praying that Jason left something . 

He scanned the benches five times over from top to bottom and he found absolutely nothing. 

Marvin groaned and sat down on the bench. His plan had gone to shit. Whizzer was nowhere to be found, he had lost him yet again. He put his head in his hands and sighed. 

“Rough day?” A voice asked from behind him. 

Marvin’s heart dropped. He didn’t dare to peek from behind his hands. He felt a weight next to him. Whizzer was sitting with him on the bench. 

“Dude, seriously, are you okay?” Whizzer asked, putting a hand on Marvin’s shoulder. 

Marvin looked at Whizzer through the cracks between his fingers, he looked sympathetic. He wanted to break down crying. 

“No, I’m not okay.” Marvin dropped his hands to his lap. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked. 

“Just,” Marvin trailed off. “I was reminded of an old memory.” Marvin looked at Whizzer’s hands, not daring to look him in the eyes.

“Oh that sucks. It happens to me all the time! An embarrassing memory or something along the lines of that.” Whizzer agreed. 

Marvin smiled. 

“That doesn’t really explain why you ran away from me earlier, I was just trying to be friendly, y’know?” 

Marvin looked up to Whizzer’s eyes and oh how he missed them. Those stupid honey-brown eyes that had kept him up at night. The eyes that had ruined his life. The eyes that had made his life ten times better.

“I had to get back to my house, I’m a busy man.” Marvin lied with a shrug. 

“That’s total B.S I watched you walk back to your car and sit there for 2 hours.” Whizzer poked Marvin’s arm. 

“Okay I lied, you just reminded me of an old friend.” Marvin raised his hands in defeat. 

“On the topic of remembrance you look really familiar but I can’t put my finger on it.” Whizzer scratched his chin. 

Marvin shifted in his seat. 

“Maybe it’s just some weird kind of deja vu?” Marvin offered. 

“Probably.” 

They sat in silence for a minute or so. 

“What’s your name?” Whizzer asked. 

“Marvin. Marvin, Gardens.” Marvin picked at his fingers. 

“Like the monopoly property?” Whizzer asked, raising a brow. 

“You know I’ve never thought of it like that.” Marvin looked at him and laughed. 

“Well, I’m Whizzer Brown.” He stuck out his hand. Marvin took it and they shaked hands.

It was so gross. 

Too formal. 

So awkward. 

“Aren’t you the new math teacher?” Whizzer asked, pulling his hand away. 

“Uh, yeah, 8th grade.” Marvin smiled. 

“Oh I’m the gym teacher! Maybe we’ll see each other around sometime.” Whizzer smirked. The same smirk he used when he first met Marvin. 

“Maybe.” Marvin chuckled, then turned to watch the setting sun over the field. 

The sky was filled with a mixture of oranges and pinks and reds and purples all mixed together like a painting. Marvin had seen a lot of sunsets, but very few had come close to being as beautiful as this one. 

Marvin had reached a state of calm for the first time today. He honestly was ready to fall asleep. 

Whizzer scooted a little closer, which was weird because Whizzer had only really known him for a few hours. 

“I’m sorry for running away.” Marvin said, keeping his eyes on the sunset. 

Whizzer turned to him. 

“It’s okay.” 

Marvin turned to look at Whizzer who’s smile had reverted to a soft, welcoming one. 

He was getting a terrible case of deja vu. 

He waited for Whizzer to suddenly stand up, to grab Marvin’s shirt and to tell him that he would destroy him if he ever came between him and his job, but it never came. It never came. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Gardens.” Whizzer stood up and grabbed his own baseball bag. 

“Yeah, tomorrow.” Marvin smiled, watching Whizzer walk away. 

He sat on the bench for a few more minutes. 

====

“How was practice, buddy?” Marvin asked Jason as he opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat of his car. 

“It was awesome! Did you know that Whizzer came back?” Jason beamed. 

“No I didn’t know he was back, what happened to him?” Marvin put the key in the engine. 

“Apparently he quit or something like that, but he’s back!” Jason explained. 

“That’s nice.” Marvin smiled, pulling out of the parking lot. 

“Weren’t you guys friends?”

Marvin took a second to respond. 

“Yeah, we were.” 

He wasn’t exactly lying. They were friends, and sometimes a little more than that, but Jason didn’t need to know. Not yet. 

“What happened?” 

“We had a falling out, or something like that.” Marvin drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. 

The rest of the ride home was filled with Jason and Marvin’s humming to the music that played on the radio. 

==== 

Marvin laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling, pondering what he should do. Should he tell Charlotte and Cordelia? What would they think? 

There was a knocking coming from his door. 

“Come in,” Marvin sighed. 

The door opened and Jason stepped in the room. Despite growing a few inches he looked small, like a baby animal looking for their mother. He had a sad look in his eyes. 

“Dad?” Jason asked, fiddling with his shirt sleeve. 

“Hm?” Marvin sat up. 

“Are you doing that thing where you sit in bed for weeks on end and I don’t get to see you?” 

Marvin frowned and patted the bed next to him, gesturing for Jason to come and sit next to him. Jason climbed up on the bed and sat next to Marvin, putting his back against the headboard and pulling his knees up to his chest. 

“No, I’m not going to do that anytime soon. I have a job now, new responsibilities I need to take care of; And then there’s you. I don’t want to leave your life for a long period of time again.” Marvin rubbed Jason’s back. 

Jason looked to Marvin then to his knees. 

“Kid, I love you, and I don’t want you to forget that.” Marvin softly smiled for a second, then remembered where he heard a very similar sentence come from Whizzer. 

“Are you sad?” Jason leaned against Marvin. They hadn’t shared a moment like this in a long time. 

“No, I’m not. Why?” Marvin asked, raising a brow. 

“You got all weird after seeing Whizzer and now you’re all sad and stuff.” Jason mumbled into his knee. 

“It’s just-” Marvin cut himself off. He couldn’t tell his son that he had a secret relationship with Whizzer but he got his memory erased so he doesn’t remember anything. He’d sound crazy! 

“I just miss him.” Marvin sighed. 

“Talk to him.” Jason offered. 

“It’s not that easy.”

“Oh.” Jason said, picking at his jeans. “He was being really weird today.” 

“How so?”

“I went up to him and was like: ‘Hey Whizzer! Where have you been? It’s been so long!’ and he was all like ‘I’m sorry I don’t remember you’ and stuff like that. Do you think he hates me?” Jason asked. 

“I don’t think he hates you, he might just have a bad memory.” Marvin shrugged. 

“Maybe.” 

The two sat together in silence for god knows how long. After a while, Marvin noticed that Jason had fallen asleep, but he couldn’t move his arm, which was falling asleep, in fear of waking Jason up. Marvin drifted off too at some point. When he woke up Jason was gone and it was close to 11:00 PM. Marvin left his room and walked over to Jason’s, slightly cracking open the door and checking to see if he was in there. He was asleep in his bed. Marvin quietly closed the door and shuffled over to the kitchen. 

He rummaged through the cabinets as quietly as he could searching for a bottle of whiskey he had hidden behind all the cups and plates and pans. He saw the glass glimmer in the dim light of the night. He wrapped his hand around the neck of the bottle and pulled it out of the cabinet. He looked down at it and leaned against a counter. He really shouldn’t be drinking. He had school tomorrow, and he was only allowed to drink if he was out with friends. 

He’d only have a little. A little then he’d be done. 

He took a sip. 

Then a gulp. 

Then a chug. 

And he kept drinking and drinking and drinking. 

He needed to stop, but he couldn’t . 

He couldn’t pry the lip of the bottle from his mouth. 

He wanted a release from all of this. 

From Whizzer. 

Marvin refused to believe Whizzer was real. 

A figment of his imagination from his brain used to torment him. 

All those nights spent together, 

Meant nothing.  

He meant nothing to him. 

He meant nothing to anyone . 

He threw the bottle at the wall with a loud crash, tears gushing from his eyes and his heart pounding out of his chest. He gasped for air. He covered his mouth with his hands, looking at the mess he’s made. 

He sank to the floor, sobbing into his hand. The whisky slowly trickled over to where Marvin was sitting, wetting his socks and the ends of his pants. 

He sat there covered in whiskey and his tears, trying to calm himself down. 

Deep breaths. 

In for 4. 

Hold it for 4. 

Out for 4. 

Hold it again for 4. 

In for 4. 

Hold it for 4. 

Out for 4. 

Hold it again for 4. 

It wasn’t helping. He wasn’t getting better. 

A door creaked open. 

Jason emerged from his room, looking around. 

“Dad?” He called out in a whisper. 

Marvin let out a loud sob. 

“Holy shit! Dad, are you okay?” Jason rushed over to Marvin, squatting down. 

Marvin couldn’t speak, and even if he could what would he say? 

Jason stood up and turned the light on. He frowned when he saw the broken bottle of beer, his face a mix of sadness and fear. 

“Were you drinking again?” Jason asked, turning to Marvin. 

Marvin couldn’t respond. 

“Dad, you know you’re not supposed to do that!” He scolded softly. 

Marvin tried to stand up, gripping onto the counter to try to gain his balance, but he couldn’t. He didn’t have any energy. 

Jason sighed. 

“You work on trying to stand, I’ll clean this up.” He said, turning to the pantry and picking up a broom. 

Marvin watched as Jason swept the pieces of broken glass into the dustpan. He felt horrible. Jason shouldn’t be cleaning the mess, it wasn’t his. What was he going to tell Trina? Marvin gripped the counters and pushed up as much as he could, and thankfully he was on his feet. 

Jason threw the shards of glass into the trash can. 

“I-” Marvin croaked. 

“Dad, don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of this, just go take a shower. You smell like whiskey.” Jason grabbed the roll of paper towels. 

Marvin did as Jason said and walked to the bathroom. He slowly took off his clothes one item at a time. He looked at himself in the mirror, at the state that he’s in. He had tears staining his cheeks and his hair was sticking out in all the wrong places. Whizzer would say something along the lines of “Did you even try to brush your hair today?” Marvin choked back another sob. 

He got into the shower and fiddled with the knobs until it was the perfect temperature. He felt terrible. His poor son had to deal with Marvin like Marvin was his kid. An 8th grader shouldn’t have to deal with these things. 

He put shampoo in his hair then began to wash his body. He got every place he could reach multiple times. He’d rub his skin with his hands full of lathered soap so hard it felt like his skin was peeling off. 

Steam began to fill the air and Marvin got out of the shower. He wrapped a towel around his waist and entered his bedroom. He threw on a random pair of old boxers, some pajama pants, and a sleep shirt. He went back into the kitchen but the light was turned off and Jason was nowhere to be found. Probably just back in his room. Marvin knocked on his door and Jason opened it. 

He looked down to his son, who looked more like him than ever. He wrapped his arms around Jason. Jason hugged him back. 

“I don’t know what came over me, I’m sorry.” Marvin mumbled into Jason’s hair. 

“It’s okay, I understand.” Jason said. 

“You didn’t have to clean up that mess y’know?” Marvin pulled away and looked at Jason and let out a small chuckle. 

“I know. You just needed a little help. Plus now you don’t smell like alcohol.” He smiled. 

Marvin ruffled Jason’s hair. 

“Just go to bed, okay?” He smirked. 

Jason laughed and closed his door. 

Marvin returned to his bed and fell asleep, dreaming of Whizzer.

Chapter Text

“ If you were a teacher, I would fail your class 

Take it over and over ‘til you noticed me

If you were a waiting room, I would never see a doctor

I would sit there with my first-ad kid and bleed

I wanna be the power ballad that lifts you up and holds you down

I wanna be the broken love song that feeds your misery 

And I can wish all that I want, but it won’t bring us together

Plus, I know whatever happens to me, I know it’s for the better.” 

Marvin woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. Partly from the whiskey and partly from being dehydrated.  He rolled out of bed and to the bathroom where he then took some ibuprofen. It would help with the pain for a little bit. 

He walked over to Jason’s door and knocked on it. 

“I’m up.” He groaned. 

Marvin let out a small chuckle and turned back to his bedroom. He rummaged through his closet, looking for something acceptable to wear. He decided on a light blue button up and some khaki pants. He looked at himself in the mirror, flattening out the wrinkles in his shirt. 

He returned to the kitchen where he quickly threw together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for himself. He threw an apple and a water bottle in his lunch box which he had bought just for school, since the lunches that the school provided for teachers were expensive. It’s not like he couldn’t afford it or anything, he just thought it was crazy to pay 6 dollars for a piece of “pizza” with a small carton of milk. Thankfully, the kids got lunch for free. 

Jason snuck next to him and grabbed a granola bar from the box on the counter near the sink. He opened it and shoved it in his mouth. 

“Slow down, you’re going to choke.” Marvin laughed, zipping up his lunchbox. 

“Thif if muh brkfst.” Jason mumbled, mouth full of granola. As he spoke a few grains fell out of his mouth and onto the floor. 

Jason swallowed. 

“Oops.” He shrugged. 

Marvin rolled his eyes and smiled. Jason reminded him of Marvin when he was younger. 

“Why aren’t you getting breakfast at school?” Marvin asked.

“They’re serving ‘breakfast pizza’s’ today,” Jason said, making air quotes as he spoke. “Those things are actually disgusting. I don’t know how people eat them.” He made a gagging noise.

“Alright, let's go.” Marvin laughed, grabbed his car keys off of the counter and pushed Jason out the door.

====

Marvin paced back and forth in his classroom. He was by himself since Jason’s friend was at school early today because he had some sort of band practice or whatever. Marvin didn’t know or care. He hadn’t seen Whizzer yet today. Was he going to try and avoid him the whole day? Was he going to go up to him and ask how he’s been? Marvin ran a hand through his hair, pushing back his messy curls. He hadn’t brushed his hair this morning but he wasn’t really supposed to anyways because brushes made his hair frizzy. 

Marvin groaned. 

He needed to distract himself, that’s all. 

What time is it? 

7:15. He had another 15 minutes until the first bell rang and his students would come to his classroom. He needed to stay busy. He walked over to his computer and turned it on, getting his plan ready for the day. Then, he walked over to the projector which he used to show his students said plan. 

Only a minute had gone by. 

He walked over to the desks and fixed every chair so that they were perfectly in line with the desk. Then he organized the books, then his desk. He was running out of things to do and he still had 10 minutes left. 

Marvin sat on top of one of the desks and put his head in his hands. It was going to be a long day. 

A knock came from the door. 

“Jason, you don’t have to knock,” Marvin said, looking up. 

Jason wasn’t standing there. 

It was Whizzer. 

Of course. 

“Last time I checked, my name’s not Jason.” Whizzer kid as he walked into the room. 

“Oh it’s you.” Marvin hopped down from the desk. 

Whizzer raised an eyebrow. “You don’t seem happy to see me.” 

“No it’s not that,” (It was, he was lying) “I just had a rough night yesterday.” (That wasn’t a lie.) 

“First day on the job and you already had a mental breakdown?” Whizzer teased. 

Marvin looked at him blankly. 

“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Whizzer rubbed the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed. 

Marvin let out a small laugh, which made Whizzer seem a bit at ease. 

“So, how’s your class been?” Marvin asked, trying to make conversation. 

Whizzer sighed then put his hands on his hips. “It’s alright, we haven’t really started any actual gym stuff yet. Just going over the syllabus over and over and over.” 

“I feel you there. I felt so drained yesterday.” Marvin scoffed. 

“Well I’m glad we have at least something in common.” Whizzer smirked. 

Marvin smiled back. They had so much more in common than Whizzer knew. 

“We probably have more in common, you just don’t know it yet.” Marvin shrugged. 

“Well then I’ll have to get to know you better.” Whizzer said slyly with a wink. 

Marvin felt his face flush. Was he flirting with him already ? 

“I- uh, I mean-” Marvin stuttered, picking at his fingers. 

Whizzer barked out a laugh. 

“Not like that, I was wondering if you wanted to go out for drinks with me and some friends.” Whizzer smirked. 

Oh. 

“Yeah I’d be fine with that, when is it?” 

“Friday night, to celebrate the first week of school being over.” 

“Are your friends teachers too?” 

“Yeah, I actually made a few friends here already.” Whizzer shrugged. 

“I don’t do well in groups.” Marvin shifted his stance. 

“You can invite some friends if you want. There’s not going to be a lot of us. Just me, you, and two others.” 

Marvin thought for a moment. How would he tell Charlotte and Cordelia that he was working with Whizzer now? He sighed. 

“If you’re bringing two people can I bring two people?” Marvin asked. 

“I don’t see why not.” 

“Okay. I’ll be bringing a few of my friends.” Marvin messed with his tie.

DING. 

Whizzer and Marvin’s eyes shot to the bell. 

“Well, I’ll give you my number after school, just stop by the gym office.” He winked, then left the classroom. 

He was probably as red as a tomato right about now. He needed to cool down before any of the students saw him and got suspicious. He walked to his desk and chugged the bottle of water he was saving for lunch. 

He would have to fill it up with the water from the water fountains, which was gross, but he’d rather drink that than die of starvation. 

The students started to slowly file into the room. Some holding breakfast and some not. Some students would greet him with a “Morning” and Marvin would say it back. 

The bell rang a second time and the principal came over the intercom, saying the pledge of allegiance and talking about upcoming events after school, like baseball practice and drama club. Marvin was interested in joining it as a helping hand. He didn’t really like musicals but it reminded him of Whizzer, so why not? 

The principal finished and the final bell rang. 

Marvin began his first lesson of his teaching career. 

==== 

Marvin was a little confused when Whizzer said the “Gym Office” because he had absolutely no clue what or where it was. He looked stupid pacing back and forth outside the gym in the hallway. A few students who had stayed after school most likely for clubs gave him weird looks. He was too scared to ask what it was because he didn’t want to seem like an idiot. 

He opened one of the many doors to the gym. Nobody was inside. He walked to the center of the gym and looked around, turning and turning, searching from head to toe where the supposed gym office would be. 

After a minute or two of repeating the same process over he threw his hands in the air and groaned. 

“What even is a gym office anyway?” He mumbled under his breath. 

“It’s the office I stay in for most of the day.” A voice said from behind Marvin, causing him to jump. 

“Jesus! How long have you been standing there for, Whizzer?” Marvin asked. 

“Long enough to see you clearly can’t read.” He snickered. 

“I can read! What do you even mean?” He huffed, putting his hands on his hips. 

Whizzer pointed behind him with his thumb at a door clearly marked: Gym Office. 

Marvin’s face flushed. 

He was so dumb. 

“It’s okay, I didn’t notice it for a bit on my first day.” Whizzer elbowed Marvin. 

“Oh my god.” Marvin mumbled, covering his face with one hand. 

Whizzer reached up and took Marvin’s hand away from his face. 

“I’m so stupid.” Marvin let out a chuckle. 

“Isn’t everybody?” Whizzer asked, shrugging. 

“I guess you have a point.” Marvin smirked. 

“Okay, come on, I still have to give you my number.” Whizzer gestured to the office. 

“Right, I forgot about that.” 

They walked in silence to the office, Marvin following shortly behind Whizzer. He pulled out a pair of keys from his pocket and opened the door. There was a window to the hallway which was nice. It was really crowded in the office. There was a small desk with a small computer and a small chair. The rest of the room was taken up by filling cabinets and a closet full of clothes students could borrow if they didn’t bring their own gym clothes. 

“It's definitely something.” Marvin laughed, picking up a piece of paper from the ground. 

“I hate it in here. I should just spend my time in your classroom. At least you can see outside.” Whizzer grabbed a notebook from off his desk and flipped open to a blank page. 

It took Marvin a bit to respond, he was still getting used to talking to Whizzer again, and here he was flirting like they hadn’t been apart. 

“That would be nice.” Marvin spoke softly, shifting his weight from one foot to another, obviously nervous. 

Thankfully, Whizzer didn’t see this because he was writing down his phone number. He ripped the chunk of paper from the page and handed it to Marvin. 

“Give me a call when you get home.” Whizzer smirked. 

“Yeah, uh-huh.” Marvin breathed. 

Whizzer snorted. 

==== 

“You’re home later than usual, what took you so long?” Jason asked Marvin as he opened the door to the apartment. 

“It’s only the second day of school, you can’t judge whether or not I’m home late.” Marvin huffed as he took off his shoes. 

“Yeah, but school for you ends at 3:30. It’s 4:15. It should take you about 10 minutes to get home, including traffic, so why were you late?” Jason nagged. 

“I had to stay after to get some important information.” Marvin groaned, taking off his coat. 

“And what’s that?” 

“Err-” 

“Just tell meeee!” Jason cried. 

“No, it’s my own personal business.” Marvin huffed. 

“Fine, but I won’t stop bothering you about it.” Jason smiled impishly. 

“I’m going to be in my room for a bit, leave me alone until I make dinner, okay?” 

“Whatever.” Jason rolled his eyes. 

When he had some alone-time he put Whizzer’s number into his contacts. He looked at his phone, his finger hovering over the call button. Whizzer had asked him to call him, but maybe he shouldn’t get too close this time. Maybe their relationship always ends up bad. Maybe Whizzer has a boyfriend already. 

Marvin held his breath as he hit the button. 

The phone rang once. 

Then twice. 

Then a third time. 

“Hello?” 

“Whizzer, hey. It’s Marvin, from school.” Marvin pulled at his collar as he spoke. ‘From school?’ What was he 13? He could just say from work. 

“Oh, Marvin! How are you?” Whizzer asked. 

“Well, I’m doing the same as I was the last time I saw you, since it was only about 20 or so minutes ago.” Marvin tried to joke. 

“Who knows? Maybe you would have received the most heartbreaking news in those twenty minutes, I wouldn’t know.” Whizzer sounded different on the phone. A little robotic. Marvin just wished he could see him in real life again. Yes, he did have to go to work with him tomorrow, but maybe he wouldn’t stop and say hi to him. 

“That’s highly improbable.” 

“That's highly improbable!” Whizzer mocked with a nerd voice. “You always use these big words.” 

“Hey, I like my big words, It’s not my fault you can’t understand them.” Marvin chuckled. 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night. Anyways, I’m bringing my friends Keith and Mary. They’re super nice so you’ll have nothing to worry about, I’m sure they’ll love you.” 

“Mhm.” Marvin mumbled into the phone speaker. 

“Who are you bringing?” 

Marvin’s eyes shot open. 

Shit! He had totally forgotten to ask Charlotte and Cordelia. 

“Uh, I’m bringing my friends Charlotte and Cordelia.” Marvin scratched the back of his neck. 

“Wow, what a ladies man.” Whizzer teased. 

Marvin let out a hearty laugh. 

“They’re lesbians.” Marvin smiled. 

“Oh shit, really?” 

“Yeah, and they’re super nice so you’ll have nothing to worry about.” Marvin said in a mocking tone. 

“Oh ha-ha.” 

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow. I have to go.” Marvin said, standing up from his bed. 

“Already?” Whizzer pouted. 

“Yeah, I have a kid whom I have to love and care for y’know?” 

Whizzer sighed obnoxiously.  

“Well, bye I guess.” He groaned. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Marvin smiled as he ended the call. 

Now all he had to do was talk to the Lesbians. 

That wouldn’t be that hard, would it?

Chapter Text

“I was sick and tired of everything 

When I called you last night from Glasgow 

All I do is eat and sleep and sing 

Wishing every show was the last show 

So imagine I was glad to hear you coming 

Suddenly I feel alright

And it’s gonna be so different when I’m on the stage tonight.” 

Marvin took a deep breath as he knocked on Charlotte and Cordelia’s apartment door. There was no immediate response, which meant that they were either not home, or doing something important. 

He waited outside the door for 5 minutes, knocking again several times to no avail. He didn’t have to tell them today, but Friday was in 3 days, he wanted to give them time to plan if they needed it. 

He sighed and turned to walk down to his apartment when he bumped into a woman and fell backwards onto the ground. Marvin sat up and rubbed the part of his head which hit the ground. 

“Oh shit! Marvin, I’m so sorry!” Cordelia apologized, reaching out a hand to help Marvin up. 

Marvin took it and pulled himself off of the ground. Cordelia had a few bags of groceries in her arms. There were a few on the ground with the contents spilling out of them. Marvin rushed over to pick up the groceries and put them back in their bags. He carried those bags for her.  

“I wasn’t watching where I was going, the stack of bags was taller than I could see.” Cordelia explained, pulling out a key from her pocket and opening the apartment door. 

“It’s okay, I understand. You didn’t drop anything fragile, right?” Marvin asked, looking through the bags he was holding. 

“No, all the eggs are in this bag.” Cordelia said, moving her arm so that the bag at the very bottom of the pile she was holding wiggled. 

Marvin walked into the apartment and set the bags down on the counter. Then he turned back to Delia and took a few bags from the top of her pile. 

“Thanks, I probably should’ve just taken two trips.”

“What's with all the groceries anyways? You never usually have this much.” Marvin pointed out. 

Cordelia dropped all the bags down on the kitchen counter and let out a large sigh, massaging her arms. 

“I have a big catering gig on Friday, a wedding.” She stretched her arms. 

Crap. 

“That’s awesome! Who’s getting married?” Marvin asked, trying to hide his painfully obvious nerves. 

“You wouldn’t know them.” Cordelia rummaged through the bags, taking out ingredients one by one and setting them up near cooking pans and mixers. 

“Uh, When does this gig end exactly?” Marvin asked, running a hand through his hair. 

“Err, like….. 7:30 I think. But I probably won’t get home till 8 because I have to help clean up.” She took out cans of pineapple rings from the paper bags. 

Great. Marvin facepalmed internally. 

“Why do you ask?” She looked over to Marvin. 

“I uh, um.” Marvin stuttered. 

“You’re being weird.” Cordelia put a hand on her hip. 

She took a step towards Marvin, raising her eyebrow. 

“Is there something you’re hiding from me?” She pried. 

“No! I just-” 

“You’re doing the thing with your finger again. You only do that when there’s something serious you need to tell me.” 

Despite being shorter than Marvin, she practically leaned over him as Marvin backed up into the wall. 

“What do you mean?” Marvin asked frantically, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. 

“What are you hiding from me, Gardens?” She poked his chest with her finger. 

Marvin gulped. 

“ApparentlyWhizzerandIworkatthesameschoolandhe’sthegymteacherandalsothebaseballcoachandhe’sbeenkindofflirtingwithmebutnotreallyIdon’treallyknowbutthefirsttimeIsawhimIpracticallyhadabreakdownanddrankatonofwhiskeybutnowI’mkindofusedtoseeinghimandhegavemehisnumberandheaskedmeoutfordrinkswithhisfriendsandheaskedifIwasbringinganyoneandIsaidIwasbringingyouandCharlottesoIwaswonderingifyouwantedtogowithmebutit’sfridaynightandyouseembusysoit’sfineifyoudon’twanttogo.” Marvin fretted. 

Cordelia looked at him in awe. Her eyes were wide and her jaw was practically on the floor. 

“I-who? What? Marvin holy shit you can’t just drop all of that on me I need time to process.” Cordelia faltered. 

“Sorry, I can say it again but slower if you need me to.” 

“No, I understood everything, well almost everything. I think.” Cordelia put her hand on the side of her face, still shell-shocked. 

She walked away from Marvin and flopped down on the couch, staring at the ceiling. She laid there for a minute or two. 

“So let me get this straight, you saw Whizzer?” 

“Yes.” 

“And you also work with him?” 

“Yes.” 

“Marvin, how long have you known this?” She asked, sitting up. 

“Since last afternoon.” 

“And you didn’t tell us? You should’ve come to us straight away!” 

“I couldn’t, you don’t understand.” Marvin muttered. 

“Marvin, honey, Charlotte and I are the only people who’ll understand.” Cordelia came up to Marvin and held his face in her hands. 

“You stupid idiot.” She shook his head. 

“I couldn’t.” Marvin forced Cordelia’s hands off of his head. “I had to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.” 

Cordelia sighed. 

“Can you tell Charlotte for me?” Marvin pleaded. 

Cordelia crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. 

“Please?” 

“Fine.” She gave in. 

Cordelia walked over to the kitchen and began to unpack all of the groceries again. 

“So what’s the thing about going out for drinks?” 

“He asked me if he wanted to get drinks together Friday in celebration of completing our first week of school,” Marvin explained. 

“Aww that’s cute.” Cordelia beamed. 

“But, he’s bringing two other people that I don’t know.” Marvin huffed. 

“Oof. You don’t do well with new people.” Cordelia snickered. 

“I know! And I told him! So he was like ‘You can invite some friends if you want’ and I said I was bringing you guys.” Marvin did an obnoxious Whizzer impression as he recalled what he said. 

“You told him you were bringing us without even asking us first?” Cordelia raised a brow at him. 

“I’m sorry! I was nervous!” Marvin cried, putting his head in his hands. 

“I’ll have to talk it over with Charlotte. I don’t think she has work, doctor or agent, friday. I might just be a little late.” Cordelia opened one of the cans of pineapple, pouring it into a bowl. 

“I wouldn’t want you guys to take two cars. We could all carpool and I’ll be the designated driver.” Marvin offered. 

Cordelia laughed. 

“What?” 

“Marvin, you’re seeing your ex lover who doesn’t remember your relationship at all for drinks, you deserve to get drunk and have fun, especially after all the shit you’ve been through. I’m also going to drink because I’ll be so tired after the gig that I won’t want to do anything. Charlotte can drive.” 

“I guess you’re right.” Marvin sighed. 

“So he’s been flirting with you?” Cordelia asked with a sly tone as she dropped a stick of butter into a mixing bowl. 

Marvin groaned. 

“What has he said? Was it like, super serious? Or was it a little flirt?” She asked, turning to Marvin. 

“Just… Just small things.” Marvin said, recalling his and Whizzer’s conversations. 

Cordelia gestured for him to continue. 

“He’d say these things that would remind me of the time we spent together in the apartment, or before then. Things that make my heart flutter. Like it’s our first time meeting again.” Marvin put his head in his hands.

“Well, it is kind of your first time meeting again, isn’t it?” Cordelia added some flour to the mixing bowl. “Well, for Whizzer at least.” 

“I just miss him.” Marvin’s eyes filled with water. 

“You have his phone number don’t you? Call him!” 

“It’s not that. I miss how we were . I miss being able to kiss him on the cheek and cuddle on the couch and just be around each other without it being awkward!” Marvin’s voice cracked. 

“Oh, Marvin.” Cordelia walked up behind him and rubbed his back in sympathy. “I reckon you’ll be able to get him back as fast as last time!” 

“That still took a while .” 

“Would you rather wait a few weeks or never see him again?” 

“I guess you have a point.” Marvin grumbled. 

“I always am!” She smiled. 

The door to the apartment slowly opened and Charlotte stepped inside, she was on the phone. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll just come to work early on thursday.” She said, putting the phone between her shoulder and her ear. 

“I’d rather do that than work overtime. I never get home until around 10:30 if I do that.” She grumbled, taking off her coat and shoes. 

Marvin cleared his throat and Charlotte’s eyes shot over to him. 

“Sorry, I’ll call you back.” She said, hanging up the phone and walking over to Cordelia and Marvin. 

“Marvin, what are you doing here?” She asked. 

Marvin looked at Cordelia with a pleading look in his eyes. Charlotte must’ve picked up on what was happening because she asked “Do you need to leave?” 

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” He muttered and left. 

====

Wednesday - 3 days to go (not counting today) 

Marvin tapped his pen against his stack of papers on his desk. He flipped through the answer sheet then through the student’s copy. He went through question by question seeing if they were right or not. Sometimes he didn’t need the answer key because the question was so obvious that he could do it in his head in a matter of seconds. He had given the kids in his class their first few pages of homework. Despite Marvin hating homework as a concept, he was still forced to give the kids some by the school. 

So here he sat in his free period, grading papers so he wouldn’t have to do it at home. The questions were fairly easy, mostly review from last year with a few new questions. He finished his first bunch of papers. He scribbled a 9/10 at the top of the paper and drew a smiley face. 

He put the numbers into the grade-book and picked up the next paper. But before he could put his pen on the paper to correct the first question his door flew open. Marvin’s head shot up. There stood Whizzer Brown, as cocky as ever. 

“Hi.” Marvin greeted him before burying his nose in the papers again. 

“‘Hi?’ That’s it? I thought we were friends?” Whizzer juts his bottom lip out in a sarcastic pout. 

“I’ve known you for three days, I’m not immediately going to be all ‘buddy-buddy’ with you.” Marvin huffed, correcting a mistake a student made. 

“Well, you could’ve at least tried to be a little bit nicer about it.” Whizzer smirked, walking over to Marvin’s desk and leaning over his computer, staring at the paper he’s grading. 

He stopped and stared at it himself for a moment. Analyzing what the student did wrong. All of the questions were multiple choice and this student, Janet, had shown her work. It looked right, but she picked the wrong answer. He assessed her work, trying to find where she messed up so he could point it out. 

“Oh she accidentally divided those two. It’s such an easy mistake to make. I feel bad for her.” Whizzer sighed. 

Marvin looked up at him, a confused look in his eyes. 

“What? I can be handsome and good at math.” He scoffed. 

“And yet you’re the gym teacher. Why didn’t you take this job?” Marvin asked. 

“Well, I only wanted to be the baseball coach, but they made me the gym teacher as well. I took the job because I need the money, and it pays enough.” 

Marvin made a “mhm” noise and his gaze fell back down to the papers. 

“Could you stop grading and talk to me?” Whizzer asked. “I came in here to talk to you. Not to watch you grade math papers.” He huffed. 

Marvin set his pen down and met Whizzer’s gaze. Whizzer’s eyes practically sparkled all the time. A glint of wonder and amusement that Marvin didn’t have. Marvin had examined his eyes in the mirror many times. His eyes were sharp and cold. He had deep eye-bags. When he was younger his eyes were a bright icy blue, but they seemed to fade to a dark blue grey over the years. Whizzer’s eyes, on the other hand, were beautiful. 

They stayed like that, staring at each other for a minute or two. Sharing longing looks, each their own reason behind them. Marvin’s was love, which was kind of obvious to himself. Whizzer’s looked like he was looking for answers, like he needed answers to this big mystery of his life and that Marvin was just the person to solve it. But for a split second, it shifted, or Marvin at least thought it shifted. For just a second Whizzer too had the same longing look of love on his face. 

“What do you want to talk about?” Marvin broke the silence. 

“What?” 

“You said you wanted to talk to me, I thought you might have had something you wanted to say.” Marvin raised a brow. 

“I, Uh. I need to go.” Whizzer shifted under Marvin’s gaze and gestured to the door. 

“Okay?”

Whizzer left the room, leaving Marvin with a confused look on his face. 

Thursday- two days left (not counting today) 

Thursday went by pretty quickly, nothing too interesting happening. Marvin finished grading all the papers and Whizzer stopped in before school to talk to him about where and when they were meeting up on Friday. Marvin told him that he might be a little late because he was car-pooling with Charlotte and Cordelia, and that Cordelia had work late tomorrow. He seemed fine with it. 

Their conversations had eased back into the normal way they had been. Marvin started to feel a lot more comfortable around Whizzer, and he was hoping that by the end of Friday night Whizzer would feel the same way about him. 

Marvin still didn’t know why he ran away Wednesday. 

It was odd. 

Friday- less than 2 hours left 

Marvin tightened his grip on the sweatshirt in his hand. He had spent the past 30 minutes trying to find the perfect outfit, but so far, he hasn’t found anything. He was starting to get frustrated. 

“This is so stupid.” Marvin huffed, throwing the sweatshirt he was holding behind him onto the bed. 

“Hey! Watch where you’re throwing your clothes!” Charlotte yelped. 

“Maybe don’t sit on my bed then.” Marvin rolled his eyes. 

“It’s not my fault you can’t decide on an outfit, don’t get angry at me.” 

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I just want to impress him. Whatever I end up going with he’ll still pick on.” Marvin sat down on the bed next to Charlotte. 

“It’s fine, Marvin.” Charlotte stood up and turned to the pile of clothes behind her. She started rummaging through it, throwing clothes on the ground, mumbling “no,” “maybe,” and “this is fine” as she sorted through his clothes. 

Quickly enough there were two piles on the bed. The “yes” pile and the “maybe” pile. 

“I was thinking this,” she grabbed a dark green button up from the ‘yes’ pile, “and maybe this.” She grabbed a pair of jeans from the ‘maybe’ pile. 

“If you were thinking about the outfit, why would you put the jeans in the ‘maybe’ pile?” Marvin let out a little laugh, taking the clothes from Charlotte. 

“You wouldn’t understand. Now go put that outfit on. I want to see how it looks.” She ordered, crossing her arms.

Marvin walked into the bathroom and quickly changed. When he emerged Charlotte looked him up and down, analyzing whether or not for him to wear it. 

“Hmmmmmm. I think it’s good. Hopefully Whizzer will too.” She smiled. 

“Phew, good. I hate trying on clothes.” Marvin laughed. 

“Now we just have to tidy you up!” She giggled and clapped her hands together. 

“What do you mean by that?” Marvin asked, starting to put all of his clothes back in his closet. 

“You’ll see. I’ll be right back!” She yelled as she ran out of Marvin’s apartment. 

Marvin scoffed as he hung another button-up on a hanger. Now that he’s realizing it, he sure does have a lot of button ups. But what else was a teacher supposed to wear? He can’t wear a Star Wars t-shirt or something like that. It would be unprofessional. 

Charlotte burst through the door holding a small bright orange bag. 

Marvin’s heart sank to his feet. 

“Please tell me that’s not makeup.” Marvin gulped. 

“Oh you’ll be fine. Now sit down.” She said, pushing him in his desk chair. 

She set the bag down on the desk and started rummaging through it. 

“Did you shave?” She asked, pulling out a square black object and a large brush. 

“Yes, I shaved this morning.” Marvin stated, picking at his pants, trying to distract himself. 

“Doesn’t look like it.” Charlotte muttered under her breath.

“I heard that.” Marvin shot her a glare. 

Charlotte opened the black box and covered her brush in the powder. 

“I have to use Delia’s makeup because mine is definitely not your shade.” She smirked as she began to pat Marvin’s face with the brush. 

“What is this?” He asked, closing his eyes as the brush passed over them. 

“Powder foundation, I’m not going to use a lot, but it will help cover dark spots and all that jazz.” She waved the brush as she spoke. 

Marvin didn’t understand a single word she said. When he was married to Trina she would talk about makeup sometimes but he had never bothered to ask her about it. 

Charlotte set the foundation box on the desk next to the bag and grabbed a tube. She unscrewed the top and put two dots of the serum on Marvin’s face just underneath his eyes. 

“This is concealer.” She spoke slowly like talking to a baby. 

Marvin rolled his eyes. She took out a rounded sponge from the bag and patted his under-eyes. 

“Why are we doing this again?” 

“You want to look good for Whizzer, right?” She asked. 

“Yeah.”

“Well then you need to be fancy!” She kept patting the sponge against Marvin’s skin. 

“It’s only out for drinks.” Marvin pointed out. “And I don’t usually wear makeup, seeing that I’m a man and all.” 

Charlotte took the sponge away from Marvin’s skin and shot him a glare. 

“Not that there’s anything wrong with men wearing makeup. I just don’t like it on myself .” 

Charlotte packed the makeup items back in the bag and zipped it up. 

“We’re done, go look at yourself while I run this back to the apartment.” She said as she left the room. 

Marvin got up and walked over to the bathroom and turned the light on, examining himself in the mirror. He didn’t really look any different. He looked a tad bit younger but that was about it. He put his fingers up to his cheek, feeling them. They felt a little more pasty than usual but Marvin would be able to deal with that for only one night. Marvin grabbed a comb off of the sink and ran it through his curls, straightening some of them out. After he had gotten all the knots out, he ran a hand through his hair just to make sure. 

There were no knots. 

Yay. 

Charlotte returned to the room and peaked into the bathroom. 

“You like it?” She asked, raising a brow. 

“Yeah, I look the same as I did before you put it on me though.” Marvin pointed out. 

“That’s the magic of it.” She smirked. 

…. 

….

“I'm nervous.” 

“I can tell.” She laughed. 

An hour left.

Chapter Text

“There’s glitter on the floor after the party

Girls carrying their shows down in the lobby 

Candle wax and Polaroids on the hardwood floor, 

You and me from the night before, but 

Don’t read the last page 

But I stay when you’re lost, and I’m scared, and you’re turning away. 

I want your midnights

But I’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year’s Day.”

Marvin watched out the window as they drove past other cars. There was a giant pit forming in his stomach, a tumor of worry. Charlotte was driving the car as they had planned and Cordelia was sitting in the back seat in the middle, attempting to put some final touches on for her makeup. She got home from the gig and rushed to her bedroom, throwing on a dark blue dress. 

They were running late. Marvin didn't want Whizzer and his coworkers to think he’s not good with being on time. He wants to make a good first impression. He picked at his jeans, and bit his lip. 

Charlotte looked over to him as she pulled up to a red light. 

“You’ll be fine, I’m sure they’ll love you. We sure did.” She smiled. 

Marvin sighed. 

“It’s not even that big of a deal anyway! You’ll probably just embarrass yourself somehow while you’re drunk.” Marvin looked in the rear-view mirror to see Cordelia holding up a tiny mirror and applying dark red lipstick to her lips. 

“That doesn’t really help me.” Marvin frowned. 

“Oh shit, I probably shouldn’t have said that.” She put the lipstick and mirror away and scratched the back of her neck. 

The light turned green and Charlotte took a left. They were almost there. He just needed to calm down, everything will be alright. Everything will be alright. 

He had managed to calm himself down so that he wasn’t sweating bullets, but it was still quite obvious that he was nervous. Marvin had a hard time masking his emotions, and Charlotte and Cordelia would let him know. Whenever they played Uno or poker they’d always know if he had a good card or not. He never ended up winning those games anyways, they’d just team up against him. 

Charlotte pulled into the parking lot. She found a spot somewhat close to the entrance to the bar and stopped the car. 

“Okay,” She announced to the car. “Before we go in, Marvin, you’re going to be fine. At worst it’s probably just gonna be really awkward.” She turned to Marvin as she spoke. “Cordelia, you’re not drinking too much, you have a low alcohol tolerance and you’re just going to end up falling asleep at the table or something, so limit yourself to one drink. Maybe a drink and a half, but that’s it.” She ordered. 

Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She groaned. 

“Alright, let's go.” Charlotte said, then opened the car door and stepped outside. 

Marvin got out of the car and began to frantically fix his hair, pants, shirt, watch, anything he could get his hands on. 

The trio walked to the front of the bar and went inside. 

This was a bar that Marvin had never been to. It was a lot darker on the inside and the walls were a dark navy color. There weren’t that many people there, which was nice. It would be like Marvin’s group would be the only group there. It made him a little more comfortable. 

Cordelia stood on her tiptoes surveying the area to see where Whizzer and his friends were sitting. 

“Found them!” She chirped, pointing over to the table the three were sitting at. They slowly walked over. 

“-and I told him, ‘If you ever say that to me again I will beat the shit out of you!’” The woman sitting next to Whizzer said. 

Marvin cleared his throat. 

All three heads shot in his direction. 

“Oh Marvin! You’re here! Come sit.” He said, gesturing to the empty chairs. 

Marvin sat down across from Whizzer and next to the man that Whizzer had brought along. Charlotte sat next to Whizzer and Cordelia sat next to Marvin. 

“Hi, I’m Charlotte.” She said, holding her hand out for Whizzer to take it. 

He shook her hand and turned to Cordelia. “So you must be Cordelia, I’ve heard so much about you guys.” He smiled. 

“What did you say about us?” Cordelia asked. 

“Nothing much, just your names and what you do and all that stuff.” Marvin shrugged. 

“Introduce yourselves!” Whizzer turned to the people Marvin didn’t know. 

“Uh, I’ll go first, my name’s Keith and I’m a global teacher.” He said, adjusting his tie. Keith was like if a turtle was a human, if that made any sense. He had a thick country accent and blonde hair. It was darker around his roots, meaning that he dyed his hair. He was wearing something very similar to what Marvin was wearing. A button up, dress pants and a yellow tie. He looked like he had just gotten back from his job.

“You didn’t need to tell them what you did for work, Keith.” The woman across from him playfully rolled her eyes. “I’m Mary, and since we’re saying what we do for work, I’m the school nurse.” She took a sip from the water in front of her. Mary had mid-neck length red hair. She had bangs, but not square ones you usually see, she had bangs somewhat similar to Marvin’s where they swoop off to the side. She had a few hair clips along the side of her head and she was wearing a long-sleeved light pink shirt. The sleeves had holes in them that made it look like she was wearing finger-less gloves. She looked pretty young. 

“Now that we got that part over, who wants to order drinks?” Whizzer asked the table and they all responded with something different. 

Marvin didn’t hear a word that came after Whizzer’s sentence because he zoned out. His vision tunneled and the only thing he could see was Whizzer. He watched as he moved his lips, talking to someone, with a smile on his face. His eyes squinted when he smiled, highlighting the crows feet at the corner of his eyes. He seemed to be really good with people and public speaking. Maybe that was a requirement for the CIA. Probably, you needed to play a different role for each mission. Maybe one of those missions was a public speaker or some- 

“Marvin, honey? Are you okay?” Cordelia asked, tapping him on the shoulder. 

“Oh yeah, I’m fine.” He said, finally being able to look away from Whizzer. 

She leaned in so that her mouth was near Marvin’s ear. 

“I know it’s weird, I’m trying my hardest not to freak out right now, but you’ve been staring at him like a lost puppy for the last 3 minutes.” She whispered sharply into his ear. 

“I have?” Marvin asked a little too loud, causing everybody except for Cordelia to look at him. “Sorry.” He smiled awkwardly. 

“Yeah, you have.” She said quietly, pulling away from Marvin and holding his hands in hers. “Cut it out.” She said, putting a smile on her face to not make the others think that Marvin was being lectured at the moment. 

“Aww you two are so cute together!” Mary cooed from the other end of the table. 

Marvin quickly pulled away from Cordelia and she did the same, letting out a pretty loud “Ew!” then covering her mouth with her hands. “No offense, Marvin.” She giggled behind her hands. 

“You’ve got it wrong, she doesn’t really swing that way.” Marvin explained, looking between Charlotte and Cordelia. 

“Ohhhh. I’m so sorry.” Mary flushed, obviously embarrassed. 

“No you’re fine, Marvin doesn’t swing that way either.” She smiled at him impishly. 

Keith stuck his hand out and Mary reached into her purse and handed him a ton of crumpled bills. 

“Knew it.” Keith chuckled. 

“You guys bet on whether or not I was gay?” Marvin asked, raising a brow. 

“When we had the first teacher meeting we were talking about all the new teachers, you being one of them. We had a conversation on if you were gay or not. It spiralled into an argument and we placed bets.” 

Charlotte let out a loud laugh into her water. 

There was a conversation going between Charlotte and Mary about working as people who have to deal with sick kids all the time and Cordelia and Keith would chime in every so often. But Whizzer didn’t speak at all, and when Marvin’s gaze was going from person to person as they spoke they landed on Whizzer who was staring at him like he was the world’s toughest math problem. 

Marvin looked to Cordelia then back to Whizzer, who was still staring. 

“You okay?” He asked quietly, not taking the attention from Keith who somehow changed the conversation to fishing. 

“You didn’t order a drink.” Whizzer said, his stern questioning face falling back to his normal joy-full one. 

“Oh yeah.” Marvin said, picking up one of the menus and looking through it. “I’ll probably just order a whiskey when the waiter comes around. Where are they? This place barely has anyone in it.” Marvin said, putting the menu back down on the table. 

Whizzer shrugged. 

“Well if they come, tell them I want a whiskey, straight. I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” He told Whizzer, standing up from his chair. 

“Bathroom’s that way.” Keith said, pointing near the main part of the bar. 

Marvin walked over and into the bathroom. It was clean, which was no surprise because nobody was at the bar, which was a little weird since it’s a Friday night. 

After using the bathroom he walked over to the sink and began to wash his hands. He fiddled with the water, trying to get it to be the right temperature. The door to the bathroom opened, and normally Marvin wouldn’t look up from his hands in fear of making unwanted eye contact with a stranger, but this time he looked up and Whizzer was staring at him, hands on his hips. 

“Do you need my help or something?” Marvin asked with a little chuckle. 

“Tell me about yourself, Marvin.” 

“Don’t you know enough about me? And the whole reason I’m here is so you can know me better.” Marvin said, dunking his hands under the water for a second time. 

“Yeah, but I like our one on one conversations better.” He huffed, leaning against the wall. 

“If you want to know more about me you need to ask me questions, Whizzer. I’m not just gonna dump my whole life story on you.” He laughed, turning the sink off and grabbing a paper towel from the dispenser. 

“How long have you known you were gay?” 

‘Since I met you.’ Marvin wanted to say, but that wouldn’t really make sense. He’d only known Whizzer for 5 days. Well, at least Whizzer thought that. 

“I met a really nice guy.” Marvin shrugged. It wasn’t a lie. 

“Why aren’t you with him now?” Whizzer asked, tapping his foot against the ground. 

“Some things happened, it just didn’t really work out. Why? Do you think you’re gay or something?” Marvin asked, knowing fully well that Whizzer was already gay. 

“No, I know I’m gay, it’s just you have a kid and an ex wife so I was just wondering.” 

Marvin went to reach for the handle of the bathroom, but Whizzer grabbed his wrist. 

“Don’t. Please.” Whizzer pleaded. 

Marvin pulled his hand away. 

“How would you act, hypothetically, if you were trapped together with a random person in an apartment together for a long period of time?” He asked, not meeting Marvin’s gaze. 

Marvin’s eyes grew wide, then he had to go back to normal. He can’t tell Whizzer, no matter how much he wants to. He would have to wait.

“Whizzer, what kind of question is that?” Marvin scoffed. 

“Just answer the damn question.” He huffed. 

“I guess I’d try to figure out how we got in there in the first place, then how long we would have to stay in there for. If it’s not long then we’d be fine, hopefully we could survive a couple days without food, but if it was for a long period of time I’d probably die.” Marvin scratched his chin, trying to make it seem like he was really thinking the question over, even though Whizzer wasn’t even looking at him. 

“You have food.” Whizzer stated. 

“Well, then I’d just wait it out.” 

“What if you-” 

“Whizzer, I’m not answering any more of these questions.” Marvin said, bringing his hand up to Whizzer’s face and making him look at him. “I’m here to have fun,” Marvin brought his other hand up to Whizzer’s face. “ We’re here to have fun. Just relax, we can talk about this later.” He smiled up at him. 

Whizzer leaned into Marvin’s touch. 

“Fine.” He said, the corners of his mouth just barely turning up into a smile. 

==== 

The rest of the night went pretty smoothly. Both Marvin and Whizzer lightened up and they finally got their drinks. Marvin really liked Keith and Mary, they were both really nice and super funny. Cordelia and Charlotte seemed to like them too. 

But, the time came for everyone to leave. 

It started with Keith and Mary. 

“I’m probably going to leave soon. I’m getting tired.” She said, yawning. 

“Me too, plus she’s my ride.” Keith took a sip from his drink. 

“Aww come on guys I don’t want to leave just yet!” Whizzer complained, slurring his words, obviously drunk. 

“I could drive you home.” Marvin offered. 

“I would like that.” Whizzer smirked scandalously which caused Marvin’s face to heat up. 

“Well then it all works out!” Mary giggled. 

“We’ll see you guys later!” Keith waved as they left. 

The second the door closed behind them Charlotte turned to Whizzer. 

“I’m actually the one driving, Marvin’s definitely too drunk to drive.” Charlotte laughed. 

“Am not!” Marvin countered. 

“Yeah sure.” Charlotte rolled her eyes and laughed. 

“We should probably leave soon, It’s almost one in the morning.” Whizzer said, looking down at his watch. 

“Yeah, and I don’t want to have to carry Cordelia and Marvin into the elevator again.” Charlotte crossed her arms. 

“Hey! I’m perfectlyyyy fine!” Marvin croaked. 

“Well, come on ‘Mr.Perfectly fine’ we’re leaving.” Charlotte said, helping Cordelia stand up. 

The four stumbled over to the car. The second Cordelia sat down on the passenger’s seat she passed out, leaving Marvin and Whizzer to sit in the back. Charlotte turned on the car and pulled out of the parking lot. 

“I don’t want to leave. You guys are so fun.” Whizzer sighed, laying down so that his head was in Marvin’s lap. 

“You, uh, you could stay in my apartment.” Marvin flushed. 

“Is Mr.Cohen trying to get in my pants?” Whizzer asked, turning over and running a finger down Marvin’s chest. He was awfully close. 

Charlotte barked out a laugh from the driver’s seat. 

“I uh,” Marvin stuttered. 

“I’m just joking, shut up.” Whizzer said, laying on Marvin. Marvin was sitting up, but turned so that his legs were spread out along the seats, and Whizzer was laying on top of him, chest to chest. 

It was kind of nice, and Marvin didn’t want to move an inch, but they soon pulled up to the apartment building. 

“Alright everyone, fun’s over. Get out.” She said, turning the car’s overhead light on, causing everyone to groan and wake up. 

Whizzer got off of Marvin and stumbled out the car door. Marvin followed him.

“Where’s your apartment?” Whizzer asked, walking into the building. 

“It’s pretty high up, we’ll have to take the elevator.” Marvin explained. 

He walked over to the elevator and hit the button, expecting it to take a while to reach the bottom, but it dinged and opened immediately. 

The two walked inside, and Marvin hit the button for his floor. 

It was a silent ride up and walk to his apartment. He unlocked the door and walked inside. 

“It’s probably a bit messy, but I’m too tired to clean it so I don’t care.” Marvin groaned, rubbing his eyes. 

“My bedroom’s over there.” Marvin said, pointing to his room and laying down on the couch. 

“You don’t have to sleep on the couch. We can share the bed. Have you ever been to a sleepover before?” Whizzer asked with a laugh. 

“I have, but I just don’t want to invade your privacy or something.” Marvin huffed, standing up. 

They walked to Marvin’s room and Whizzer flopped on the bed. He took off his shirt and pants and put on a t-shirt and sleep pants. Marvin looked over to Whizzer. 

“Aren’t you going to change?” Marvin asked, laying down on the bed. 

“I don’t have anything to wear.” Whizzer stated, looking around the room. 

“Just sleep in your boxers or something, I don’t care. I’m too tired to care.” Marvin pulled the blankets over himself. 

“Whatever you say.” Whizzer took off his clothes. 

He snaked under the covers next to Marvin. 

“Goodnight.” He smiled, even though Whizzer couldn’t see it. 

“Yeah yeah goodnight.” Whizzer laughed.

==== 

Marvin woke up in the middle of the night shivering. Whizzer had taken the blanket. He scooted up so that he was close enough to feel the warmth of his skin, but not touch him. 

He thought he would be fine, but he shivered. 

“If you’re going to get that close you might as well wrap your arms around me.” Whizzer croaked. 

Marvin jumped. Why was he awake? 

Whizzer turned to face Marvin. 

“Come on, I don’t bite.” He fixed the blanket so that it was covering both of them and spread his arms out so Marvin could climb into his embrace. 

Marvin wrapped his arms around Whizzer, not caring about keeping his love for him hidden anymore. He missed this. 

He sighed. 

“I missed this.” He said, rubbing Whizzer’s back. 

“Me too.”

Chapter Text

“Two-headed boy

There’s no reason to grieve 

The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves

Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow

And I will take you and leave you alone

Watching spirals of white softly flow

Over your eyelids and all you did 

Will wait until the point when you let go.” 

Marvin woke up and the first thing he noticed was that he was cuddling a man. The second thing he noticed was that the man was Whizzer. He had his head resting on Whizzer’s chest, and Whizzer had his arms around Marvin. It was nice, if he was going to be honest. But of course it was nice. Everything with Whizzer was nice. 

He tried to recall the night's events to see how they ended up in this position, but he couldn’t think of anything. He didn’t want to think about it too hard, but what if he said something he didn’t mean to? What if a certain something happened? Marvin lifted the blanket slightly. Whizzer was in his boxers and Marvin was wearing his normal sleep clothing, which means nothing (probably) happened. Did they kiss? Whizzer’s only (technically) known Marvin for a week! They couldn’t have kissed that quickly. Things were going too fast! 

Whizzer stirred in his sleep and Marvin froze. How would he explain the situation they’re in if Whizzer opened his eyes? It would be so awkward! Unless of course Whizzer was fine with it. Marvin needed to pull away from Whizzer, but for some reason he couldn’t. His brain kept yelling to pull his head off of Whizzer’s chest, but his heart wasn’t listening. 

Whizzer let out a small groan. 

“Oh, hey Marvin.” He croaked. 

Marvin’s eyes shot up to Whizzer’s. Whizzer looked pretty calm for waking up in his coworker’s bed. 

“Hi.” 

“So do you remember how we got here?” Whizzer asked, sitting up. 

“No,” Marvin sighed, taking his head off of Whizzer’s chest as he sat up, missing the warmth. 

Whizzer must’ve read his expression because he said “We can still cuddle if you want,” with a wink. Marvin used every bone in his body to try and not become a flustered mess. 

“That would be nice.” Marvin flirted back. 

“Oh? I see you’ve grown some balls, Gardens.” He smirked, leaning towards Marvin. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Marvin asked, leaning towards Whizzer. 

“I think you know.” 

For a split second Marvin could’ve sworn Whizzer looked down at his lips. He was probably just dreaming. 

“What do you want for breakfast?” Marvin asked, pulling away. 

“Marvin you don’t have to make me breakfast,” Whizzer said, throwing the blanket off himself and standing up. 

He looked down and realized he was only in his boxers. 

“What did we do last night?” Whizzer asked, raising a brow. 

“I wish I knew.” Marvin sighed. “But seriously, Whizzer, it’s my treat. What do you want for breakfast?” 

“Hmm,” Whizzer thought for a moment. “Maybe some eggs.” 

“I can do that.” Marvin said, getting up from the bed and stretching his back. 

“Why do you have clothes on but I don't?” Whizzer asked, shooting a smirk at Marvin. 

“I’m gonna go make breakfast.” Marvin said, pointing behind him at the door with his thumb. 

“You do that.” Whizzer said, putting his pants on. 

Marvin left the room and shut the door behind himself, giving Whizzer some privacy, even though he’s seen Whizzer without clothes on before, and that there was nothing to hide. He walked over to the oven and turned the stove-top on. He set a pan on the flame and waited for it to heat up. 

Whizzer came out of the bedroom and he looked as beautiful as ever. The morning sun hit his eyes in a way which made them practically glow. He ran a hand through his hair. It reminded Marvin of the mornings they would spend together in the apartment. He’d be absolutely lovesick. 

“Like what you see?” Whizzer smirked. 

“Shut up and grab me the carton of eggs, will you?” Marvin asked, failing to suppress his smile. 

He turned away from the fridge and to the pan on the stove-top. He heard Whizzer open and close the fridge. Marvin waited for him to hand him the carton of eggs, but he was taken by surprise when Whizzer’s arms snaked around his waist, hugging him from behind, no carton of eggs to be found in his hands. 

Whizzer rested his head on Marvin’s shoulder. Marvin let out a “mmh” sound as Whizzer wrapped his arms around him, then he settled into his touch. 

“Where are the eggs?” Marvin asked, softly, covering Whizzer’s hands with his own. 

“On the counter.” Whizzer mumbled into his shoulder. 

Marvin reached over and opened the carton with one hand and grabbed an egg. He cracked over the pan and watched as the egg hit the iron and began to cook. He grabbed another egg and repeated the process. 

“You’re awfully clingy today.” Marvin said, watching as the eggs fried. 

“You’re warm.” 

“Normally coworkers don’t hug each other like this.” 

“You’re more than a coworker.” Whizzer said softly. 

“What am I then?” 

“You’re special.” 

“Oh really?” Marvin smirked

“Mhm.” Whizzer agreed. 

Marvin finished making the eggs, Whizzer not leaving his embrace. When he finally had to pull away to eat, Marvin felt like a part of him was taken away, if that even made sense. 

They sat across from one another at Marvin’s small table, eating their eggs. They didn’t speak because what was there to say? He didn’t want to ask why all of a sudden Whizzer was feeling this way towards him since he didn’t want to ruin the mood. So he just sat and ate his eggs. 

Marvin finished his eggs and brought his plate over to the kitchen sink where he set it down, Whizzer close behind him. 

“Just tell me when you want to go home and I’ll drive you.” Marvin said, turning to Whizzer. 

“So you don’t want me here?” Whizzer asked seemingly half joking and half serious. 

“No, no it’s not that, I just don’t want you to stay if you’re not comfortable.” Marvin pulled at the collar of his shirt. 

Whizzer sighed and put his dirty plate in the sink on top of Marvin’s. He turned to Marvin and put his hands on his shoulders. 

“Marvin, who are you?” He asked genuinely. 

“I’m your coworker?” Marvin responded, confused. 

“No, not that, I mean…” He trailed off. “Just forget it.” Whizzer averted his gaze. 

They stood there in an awkward silence. 

“I should probably get going.” Whizzer sighed. 

So he drove Whizzer home. 

==== 

A day passed.

Then a week.

Then a month. 

Then two. 

Then three. 

Marvin sat at his desk, scrolling aimlessly on his computer for a good idea. He needed to start working on the kid’s midterms, and he sure as hell didn’t want to waste his time at home doing that, so here he sat in his free period. 

Whizzer and him had seemed to grow closer with each passing day. Marvin would hang around the gym a lot more than he used to, sitting in for some classes. Whizzer did the same, coming into Marvin’s room whenever he had a free period. They had lunch together, and they would spend it in Marvin’s room talking. They would talk about everything. The weather, kids, family, oddly specific things relating to their time in the apartment together (usually brought up by Whizzer), the upcoming holidays, what they were going to do for said holidays, and so on. 

Even when they weren’t at school they would spend time together. Whizzer would come over to Marvin’s house. Sometimes he’d come invited, others uninvited. He would show up, Marvin would let him in, he would spend the night and they would cuddle in bed. Totally normal guy things to do. 

Sometimes Whizzer would do or say these things that made Marvin think of the apartment, and every time he had a weird reaction to the things Whizzer would say Whizzer would give him a weird look, like he was analyzing him. 

Speaking of Whizzer, where was he? He normally came into Marvin’s room during this period, but he was nowhere to be seen and there were only 10 minutes left of the period. 

That’s when a knock came from his door. Marvin perked up, expecting it to be Whizzer, but one of his students, Gabby, stepped inside. 

“Oh, hey Gabby, what are you doing here?” He asked, closing his tab. 

“I was just wondering about my grade.” She said sheepishly as she walked over to his desk. 

“You know you can check it on your computer right?” Marvin asked, cocking his head to the side. 

“Yeah, but it’s just easier to ask you.” She said, fiddling with her fingers. 

Marvin stopped to stare at her. She seemed nervous. But why? 

“Oh-kay.” He said, suspicious. 

He pulled open the grading system they used and clicked on her profile. He opened her grades and she looked over his shoulder at the numbers. 

“Everything seems to be in order.” She mumbled. 

Marvin gave her a confused look. 

“Gabby, you never come in here to ask about your grades, why are you really here?” Marvin interrogated her. 

Gabby gulped and tucked a strand of bright blonde hair behind her ear. 

“My friends- I mean, I had heard from some students that there was something going on between you and Mr.Brown.” She said, suddenly becoming really interested in the floor. 

“What do you mean?” Marvin asked, raising a brow. He hadn’t heard of this at all before, so he was insanely curious. 

“Like, that you guys are, I don’t know… dating?” She squeaked. 

Marvin couldn’t help himself from dropping his jaw a little bit. 

“No, we aren’t dating. Why would people think that?” Marvin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. 

“Well, you guys kind of spend all day together, and Henry said he saw you guys at the park together.” She messed with her hair. 

Oh shit. 

Marvin had been so infatuated with trying to get Whizzer to fall in love with him that he forgot that he had a life outside of him. Henry probably did see Whizzer and him at the park because they went there together every Friday by themselves. No wonder his students thought this. 

“Well, we aren’t dating, so just tell them we aren’t, okay?” Marvin picked at his pants.

“Mr.Gardens, you don’t have to keep it a secret if you are, unless you’ll get fired or something.” 

If he were to date Whizzer, no one would bat an eye at their relationship in the workplace. 

“No, we aren’t dating, I’m being serious.” He wasn’t lying. 

“It seems like you’re hiding something.” Gabby said, studying Marvin’s face like it was a test. “Just tell me what you’re hiding, Mr.Gardens. I promise I won’t tell anyone.” She pleaded, sticking out her bottom lip. 

“I’m not going to tell you anything. You’re going to have to find out for yourself.” Marvin stuck out his tongue playfully. 

Marvin had a pretty good relationship with his students. When he’d walk in the hallways he’d overhear their conversations about how his class was “fun” and how he was “the cool teacher” and things like that. Marvin didn’t necessarily agree with all of these things, but it was nice to know that the kids seemed to look up to him despite his silly antics. 

Gabby groaned. 

“Not fair!” 

“It’s totally fair.” Marvin looked up to the clock. “You should probably get going if you don’t want to be late to your next period.” Marvin gestured to the clock.

“Oh shit you’re right!” Gabby gasped before immediately covering her mouth with her hands. “Pretend you didn’t hear that!” She said as she rushed out of the room. 

Marvin laughed. 

==== 

“Okay, so, the Pythagorean theorem is when the legs of the triangle, the shorter lines that make up a 90 degree angle, squared add up to the hypotenuse, the long line across from the 90 degree angle.” Marvin explained to his class, writing on the whiteboard as he went along. 

“This theorem only works with right triangles, so don’t try to use it on an equilateral or an isosceles. The equation for said theorem is a squared plus b squared equals c squared.” Marvin scribbled the equation on the board. 

“A and B are the legs, it doesn’t matter which leg is which letter for the legs since it’s not really that important. C is the hypotenuse. C will always be the hypotenuse and can’t be changed for A or B.” Marvin looked at his students who were all scribbling down the answers in their notebooks. 

“Is everybody done writing?” He asked, picking up the eraser. He was met with yes’ and nods so he erased the boards. “We’re going to walk through a simple problem.” Marvin drew another (sloppy) right triangle on the board. 

“Leg A will be 36,” He wrote the number 36 next to one of the legs of the triangle. “And in this case you won’t need to label, but on tests if they have a measurement after the number you’ll have points taken off if you don’t do it.” Marvin was met with groans from his students. 

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger! You guys will have to take the regents next year and they don’t play about measurements. I nearly passed my math one freshman year.” Marvin smirked. 

“Going on, leg B will be 22.” He wrote a 22 next to the other leg. “Now I’m going to write the equation and we’ll go from there.” 

He turned to the class after he finished writing. “Does anyone think they might know what to do next?” Marvin asked. 

A boy in the back of the class, a kid named Jeremy, raised his hand. 

“Yes, Jeremy, what do we do?” Marvin asked. 

“Substitute the numbers for letters.” He answered. 

“Yes! Good job! We’re going to put 36 squared in for A squared, and 22 squared for B squared.” Marvin wrote down the new equation. 

A girl in the front raised her hand. 

“Yes, Emma?” 

“What about C?” 

“Good question. We don’t know what C is yet. We have to solve for it.” Marvin smirked. “Now, someone take out their calculator and tell me what 36 squared is.” Marvin put a hand in his pocket. 

“1296.” A student answered. 

“Thank you, now we put that in the equation where 36 squared was. Are you guys catching on?” Marvin scribbled down the numbers. 

There was a chorus of “mhm”’s and “yes”’s. 

“Can someone tell me what to do next?” 

A girl raised her hand. 

“Millie, yes.” 

“We square 22?” 

“Yes! Someone tell me what that is please.” 

“484.” 

“Thank you.” Marvin said as he replaced 22 squared for 484. 

“Now we–” Marvin began before he was cut off by his door opening. 

Whizzer Brown peaked his head inside of the classroom, scanning the area for Marvin. When he finally spotted him at the front of the room he stepped inside. 

“Mr. Brown, I’m in the middle of a lesson.” Marvin put a hand on his hip, trying to seem like he wasn’t happy to see Whizzer. He had to beat the dating rumors. 

Whizzer walked over to where Marvin was standing and leaned in so that his mouth was next to Marvin’s ear. 

“Come outside.” He whispered. 

“Give me a second.” Marvin whispered back. 

He watched as Whizzer left the room and the students looked at him like deer in headlights. Some had stupid grins on their faces, some were whispering to their friends, and some looked genuinely confused. Marvin had to suppress the instinct to roll his eyes. 

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be right back. Don’t do anything bad.” Marvin said as he walked over to the door and stepped into the hallway. 

He closed the door behind him and turned to Whizzer. 

“What do you want?” Marvin asked quietly enough so that no one else would hear him besides Whizzer. 

“Can I come over to your place tonight?” He pleaded, putting on some form of puppy-dog eyes. 

“Are you serious? First off you’d come to my place anyway even if I said no, and secondly, you had to pull me out of my classroom, in the middle of a lesson, might I add, to ask me if I wanted to hang out tonight. You could’ve just texted me!” Marvin huffed. 

“Yeah, but I wanted to see your face.” 

Marvin rolled his eyes but couldn’t help himself from grinning. 

“Go back to the gym.” Marvin playfully pushed him away. 

“I’ll see you tonight.” Whizzer said with a wink. 

Marvin took a deep breath before he walked back into the classroom. 

==== 

Whenever Whizzer showed up to Marvin’s apartment (which was very often) he never had a set time that he’d come. Marvin would ask him when he’d get to the apartment but Whizzer always responded with something along the lines of “You’ll see” or “Soon.” 

It was currently Friday night at 10:30 PM and Whizzer hadn’t shown up yet. Marvin was starting to get worried. This was the latest he had made Marvin wait. He didn’t want to go to bed, even though he was pretty tired, because he didn’t want to fall asleep before Whizzer would get here, so he sat on his couch sipping coffee (even though it didn’t really have an effect on him) and watched the news. Well, only the weather part. He would skip through the episode(?) (did the news really have episodes?) and replay the weather part over and over again. It was going to thunder tomorrow and Marvin was excited. He loved thunder. 

Another 10 minutes passed and Marvin sighed. Whizzer probably wasn’t going to show up anyway. Marvin turned off the TV and shut the living room light off, turning to go to his bedroom. 

There was a loud knocking noise at his door. 

Of course. 

Marvin bit back a groan and turned the living room light back on, set down his cup of coffee, and walked over to his door. 

The second he opened it Whizzer fell on top of him, draping his lanky body over Marvin’s shoulders. 

“Hey,” He slurred. 

“Did you just get back from the bar?” Marvin asked, trying to help Whizzer stand up. 

“Yeah, it was so fun.” He giggled into Marvin’s shoulder. 

“You could’ve at least invited me.” Marvin huffed. 

“It was a one man mission.”

“Oh.” Marvin paused. “I’ll help you sit down on the couch then make a cup of coffee for you to help you sober up.”

“I don’t want to be sober.” Whizzer fought. 

“The only way I’m letting you sleep in the same bed as me is if you're sober, or if we’re both drunk.” Marvin sat Whizzer down on the couch and turned to the kitchen. 

“Then get drunk!” Whizzer pouted. 

“I don’t have any alcohol.” Marvin shrugged, putting an instant coffee pod into the machine. 

“Why not, you’re no fun.” 

“I used to be fun. I had too much fun to the point where I got addicted, you know this.” Marvin grabbed the mug he had bought especially for Whizzer and set it under the spot where the coffee was supposed to come out. It was a white mug with “mother of the year” written in white text surrounded by a red heart. It was a gag gift. 

“I do know.” Whizzer sighed.

The coffee began to pour into the cup, leaving the two in a silence. After it finished pouting Marvin grabbed the cup and poured some creamer and sugar into it, then handed it to Whizzer. 

“What did you do at the bar?” Marvin asked, sitting down next to Whizzer. 

“I drank, obviously.” Whizzer playfully rolled his eyes as he took a sip of his coffee. After tasting it, his eyes grew wide and he frowned. “This is so bitter! Did you put any creamer in this at all?” Whizzer gagged. 

“I did!” Marvin defended himself. 

Whizzer got up and walked to the kitchen where he poured in a lot more creamer and sugar. He came back and sat next to Marvin. 

“Well, I had a few drinks.” Whizzer trailed off. 

“Anything else?” Marvin asked, raising a brow. 

“I hooked up with a guy.” Whizzer sighed. 

“There it is.” Marvin smirked. 

“Oh shut up, I don’t hook up with guys that often, I just needed to take some of the stress off my life.” He said, hitting Marvin in the knee. 

“And what stress does a gym teacher have exactly?” Marvin asked, watching Whizzer take a big sip from his drink. 

Whizzer pulled the cup away from his lips and paused. His eyes looked determined, but also scared . 

“You’d think I’m crazy.” Whizzer shrugged and took another sip of his drink. 

“I swear I won’t.” Marvin put his pinky out. “Pinky Promise.” He smirked. 

Whizzer set his cup on the table and wrapped his finger around Marvin’s. 

“I’ve been having these really weird dreams.” Whizzer avoided Marvin’s eyes. “It’s the same dream over and over again every night.” 

“That’s definitely a little weird. You should probably talk to someone about that. My ex wife’s husband is a phsyc–” 

“No, Marvin, it’s not like that.” 

“What is it then?” 

“I’m in control of myself in the dream, but I can’t leave this place I’m stuck in. An apartment, and I’m stuck with this weird entity who claims to be my consciousness and also my boyfriend?” Whizzer looked down at his hands. 

“What does he look like?” Marvin asked, raising a brow. 

“I don’t know. His face is always blurred out and his voice is always distorted. I can see his features while I’m sleeping, but when I wake up I can’t remember them.” 

“That’s really weird.” Marvin looked at Whizzer with sympathy. 

“I know.” He laughed. 

They sat in a silence for god knows how long. 

“Marvin?” Whizzer asked, finally looking Marvin in the eyes. 

“Hm?” 

“What are you hiding from me?”

Chapter Text

“Sweet communist, the communist daughter 

Standing on the seaweed water

Semen stains the mountaintops

Semen stains the mountaintops

With coca leaves along the border 

Sweetness swings from every corner 

Car careening from the clouds

The bridges burst and twist around 

And wanting something warm and moving 

Bends towards herself, the soothing 

Proves that she must still exist 

She moves herself about her fist

Sweet communist, the communist daughter 

Standing on the seaweed water 

Semen stains the mountaintops 

Semen stains the mountaintops.” 

Marvin looked at Whizzer, his mouth slightly agape.

“I don’t know what you mean.” He said, shifting his weight from one foot to another nervously. 

“Bullshit.” Whizzer huffed, crossing his arms. “You’re doing that thing you do when you’re nervous.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Marvin could feel his heart beat a tad bit faster. 

“Then why am I having the same dream every single night? Why can’t I remember the person in that dream? Why can’t I remember anything that happened in the last two years! I wake up one day and all of a sudden I haven’t talked to my old best friend in two years and I have your name written on my arm?” Whizzer took in a sharp breath after he finished, like he had said too much. 

“Wait,” Marvin raised a brow. “What’s this whole thing about my name on your arm?” 

“I’m not going to tell you until you tell me what you’ve been keeping with me.” Whizzer bargained. 

“No.”

“Marvin,” Whizzer said, walking up to Marvin and putting his hands on his shoulders. “Please, just tell me what you’re hiding. You’re my best friend, we shouldn't keep things from one another.”  

What would he say? He couldn’t just dump everything on him in one sitting, that would be too much for a person to take in. Whizzer probably wouldn’t believe him anyways, so it didn’t matter. Marvin just didn’t want Whizzer to think he was crazy, because that could ruin their relationship. Friendship. They were just friends. Right? Do friends normally do the things they do? They haven’t kissed yet, but Marvin’s pretty sure friends don’t sleep in the same bed shirtless and chest to chest with one another. 

Marvin sighed. 

“Whiz, you wouldn’t believe me.” Marvin said, averting his gaze. 

“Marvin, I promise I’ll try to believe anything you tell me.”

Marvin took a deep breath. 

No getting out of this now. 

“There’s, … There’s a lot. I don’t think you’d be able to handle it all at once.” Marvin pulled away from Whizzer’s touch. 

“Just tell me, please?” Whizzer pleaded. 

Oh where to start. Would he start with the apartment? Before they met? Who knows. 

“Well, the reason you don’t remember the last 2 years is because you got your memory erased.” Marvin bit his lip after he finished, waiting for Whizzer’s reaction. 

Whizzer’s eyes shot open and his mouth parted a little bit, but other than that he didn’t say anything. 

“You worked with the CIA. I didn’t really know how long, but they erased your memory right before you got fired, so I’m guessing you worked with them for two years because they said they were going to erase your memory of working there.” Marvin scratched his neck.

“I know you probably think this is bullshit, but I don’t care what you think anymore, I just need to get this off my chest. I’ve been holding it in for 2 years.” 

Whizzer didn’t say anything. 

“You worked with Charlotte and Cordelia and it seemed like you guys were really good friends. They moved in next door about a year and 10 months ago, I became really good friends with them really quickly. Then you came along. You had gotten a mission to find and capture a drug lord who was drugging food throughout the city. You took a job as a baseball coach, the same one you have now, to try to get closer to me since the CIA thought the suspect was in my building. We got really close and stayed that way for a month or so before the ‘incident’ happened.” Marvin made air quotes with his hands when he said ‘incident.’ 

“What was that?” Whizzer asked intently. 

“You mistook me for the drug lord. You took my wallet and made me run after you for blocks to the abandoned side of the city. We went into an abandoned building and you pushed me down a chute where we landed in the apartment. There was a set timer or something, god, I can’t believe I’m forgetting, for a month so we were trapped in the apartment with one another. We fought a lot the first week, blaming each other for what had happened. But then…” Marvin trailed off, a small smile forming on his face as he reminisced on the time they spent together. 

“Keep going, Marvin.” 

Marvin was embarrassed that he had to tell Whizzer that they dated. He didn’t know why, it just irked him the wrong way. 

“We, uh… We got together.” Marvin fiddled with his fingers, not meeting Whizzer’s eyes. “It was really nice. We were able to spend time together without worrying about the world around us. I honestly forgot we were trapped in an apartment sometimes. But then the fateful day came when they had to come and get us out. You were tasked with catching the actual drug lord that time, and you needed me to help you. You caught him, but you weren’t out of the clear.” Marvin frowned. 

“You asked me to come to the building where you worked and we sat down across this lady who told you everything you did wrong while working there. They took you from me, saying that your time with them was over. I watched them erase your memory. It was horrible. I couldn’t get out of bed for weeks afterwards. The only thing that convinced me to do so was my son. I got the job as a teacher, and saw you, back in your old job, saying the exact same thing you first said to me. It freaked me out.” Marvin let out a small laugh. 

“Is that why you ran from me and hid in your car?” Whizzer asked, his face unchanging. 

“Yeah. It was so weird seeing you all the time, I got scared. Sometimes you’ll do things that remind me of the things you did in the apartment and It’ll freak me out.” Marvin confessed. “But, yeah, that’s pretty much it.” He finished. 

Whizzer didn’t move. 

He didn’t say anything. 

His face looked like how it did before Marvin started explaining everything, expression unchanging. 

Marvin stared at him, waiting for some kind of response. A noise, his eyebrows moving, his mouth moving, a sigh, anything. 

“Whiz, you okay?” Marvin asked, putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort. 

Whizzer didn’t say anything. He didn’t meet Marvin’s eyes. 

“Whizzer, I’m sorry.” Marvin bit the inside of his cheek, feeling his eyes water and his throat become dry. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Whizzer asked, just above a whisper. 

“What?” 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Whizzer asked a bit louder in a rage. 

“Whizzer I’m sorry, I couldn’t just dump all of that on you. I was practically a stranger to you, you wouldn’t have believed me!” Marvin defended himself. 

“What makes you think I believe you now?” Whizzer spat. 

“I don’t know, just please, Whizzer.” Marvin put his hands together, almost prayer-like. 

Whizzer didn’t say anything. 

Marvin sighed. 

“Whizzer, I really am sorry that I couldn’t tell you. The moment I saw you after you got your memory erased I wanted to jump into your arms and kiss you and tell you about everything you missed! I’ve been holding back on that for so long, in fear that you’d want to run away and leave me!”

Marvin was met with silence. 

“I’m going to bed. You can sleep in the bed, on the couch, anywhere I don’t care. Or you could leave. Do as you please, I’m tired.” Marvin turned and walked to his bedroom. 

Whizzer didn’t follow him. 

==== 

Marvin woke up the next morning in an empty and cold bed. He grumbled as he rolled out of it and walked to the kitchen. His eyes were glued to the floor as he walked. Whizzer had probably left the apartment and he was going to hate Marvin and they’d never get back together again. 

That’s when Marvin bumped into something and fell on his ass. 

That thing being Whizzer Brown, who was making breakfast.

Marvin rubbed his head and looked up at Whizzer, who reached out a hand for Marvin to take to help pull himself up.

“You need to watch where you’re going.” Whizzer said coldly. 

“Sorry.” Marvin croaked. “What are you making?” 

“Eggs and toast.” Whizzer said, turning over to the oven where eggs were cooking. 

“Oh. Cool.” Marvin said before he reached over to the pantry and took a box of a random cereal that was on the bottom shelf. 

He got out a bowl from one of the cabinets and set it down on the kitchen counter with a clink. 

Whizzer stared at him as he opened the box of cereal. 

“You okay?” Marvin asked, box in hand. 

“Why are you doing that?” 

“Making breakfast?” 

“I’m making us breakfast.” Whizzer said flatly. 

“Oh. Sorry.” 

Marvin wanted to bash his head into the wall or scream into a pillow. Everything was so awkward. He wanted it to stop. Nothing would ever be the same between them. Whizzer probably hated him and was going to poison his breakfast. He took a seat at the table, waiting for the breakfast to be served, not wanting to bother Whizzer anymore. 

By the time breakfast was one cooking 5 or so minutes had passed. Whizzer came into the dining area, setting Marvin’s plate down in front of him. Marvin looked down at his plate. There was spinach on his eggs, he looked up at Whizzer. 

“How did you know this was my favorite?” Marvin asked, grabbing his fork. 

“You mentioned it when we went to go get drinks.” Whizzer shrugged, sitting across from Marvin at the small table. 

“We get drinks a lot, you’re going to need to be a bit more specific.” Marvin took a bite of his eggs and his mouth watered. “This is really good.” He beamed at Whizzer. 

“The first time we got drinks together.” Whizzer said, taking a sip of his coffee. “Also thank you.” 

“That was a long time ago, Whizzer. How did you remember?” Marvin asked. 

“I guess I’m just good at remembering things.” Whizzer shrugged.

How ironic. 

They sat and ate in silence. 

“Would you pass the sugar please?” Whizzer asked. 

“What do you need sugar for?” Marvin asked, eyeing his breakfast which most definitely didn’t need sugar. 

“For my coffee.” Whizzer said like Marvin had just asked something extremely obvious. 

“Are you sure you need it? You always add a shit ton of stuff to your coffee, it’s barely coffee anymore.  

“Just give it to me, Marvin.” Whizzer huffed, annoyed. 

Marvin handed him the sugar, not wanting to make Whizzer more mad at him than he already was. 

He finished his plate and walked it over to the sink, rinsed it off, and put it in the dishwasher. He returned to the table where Whizzer was still eating. He was always so slow when it came to food. Taking what seemed like years to eat something small. He took the tiniest bites and when Marvin asked about it he said “At least I don’t inhale my food like you.” Marvin missed when Whizzer wasn’t mad at him. He missed the time before he found out everything he had told him. 

“Is there something on my face?” Whizzer asked, looking up from his mostly-eaten food. 

“No, why?” 

“You’re staring.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine.” Whizzer shrugged, taking another bite from his eggs. 

They sat in silence, Whizzer eating his food and Marvin trying to find something to look at that wasn’t Whizzer. It was too silent. They usually always had something to talk about, hell even arguing would be better than this sick silence. 

Whizzer banged his fork on the table and mumbled a curse under his breath. 

“Was it something I did?” Marvin asked, eyes wide. 

Whizzer sighed. “No, well yes, but also no.” He pushed the plate away from himself. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“I’m sorry for getting super angry last night, I had every right to be so, but it was bitchy of me.” Whizzer stared down at the plate of scraps of eggs and toast. 

“That’s not a real apology, though.” Marvin said blankly. 

Whizzer raised a brow. 

“You can’t say sorry then immediately follow it up with a passive aggressive comment, that’s not how that works. You’re not really sorry then.” 

“Marvin,” Whizzer took a deep breath, holding back either a furious rage or a wave of tears. “Just stop, I’m obviously not in the mood for this right now.” 

Marvin looked away. 

“I’m sorry.” He paused. “For not telling you, I should’ve done it a long time ago, but I was scared.” 

“Scared of what?” 

“ This. ” Marvin bit the inside of his cheek. 

“What’s ‘this?’” 

“You being mad at me. I thought maybe you’d never want to see me again or something, that you’d hate me forever.” 

Whizzer burst into laughter, taunting him. 

“Marvin, I don’t think I could ever hate you.” He smiled. 

What? 

“What?” Marvin asked. 

“I said I don’t think I could ever hate you. Sure you kept a really big secret from me for like the 3-ish months that we’ve known each other and I’m still really fucking pissed at you right now, but I could never hate you.” 

“Well that’s good.” Marvin said, the corners of his mouth slightly turning up into a smile. 

==== 

Whizzer said he was planning on spending the night again and going back home on Sunday. When Marvin asked what he was going to wear Whizzer responded with: “I’ll just wear your clothes.” Which made Marvin laugh hard because sure, maybe he would be able to wear Marvin’s shirts, but Whizzer fitting into Marvin’s pants would be impossible. Whizzer was so much taller than Marvin, which meant that if he were to wear his pants they would fall awkwardly around his shins compared to his ankles, where they should be. 

After raiding Marvin’s closet Whizzer was able to find two pairs of pants that fit him comfortably. A pair of sleep pants which Marvin had ordered the wrong size and forgotten to return, and a pair of jeans that Marvin had no memory of how they got there. 

So there they sat on the couch, at 9 PM, Whizzer wearing Marvin’s jeans and a graphic t-shirt which had the rebel symbol from Star Wars on it, Marvin wearing a random t-shirt he picked up and jeans, playing Uno.

 Whizzer was winning, he only had 2 cards left and Marvin had 5. He didn’t have anything besides numbers which didn’t help because in two-person Uno if you use a reverse, skip, plus 2, or plus 4, it gives you another turn. Whizzer was probably going to win. 

Marvin set down a red 5 and Whizzer put down a green 5. 

“Uno!” He celebrated. 

“Don’t get too cocky, you don’t know what cards I have.” Marvin smirked. 

“Knowing your luck you probably don’t have shit .” Whizzer grinned. 

Well, he wasn’t exactly wrong.  

Marvin set down a green 1, praying that Whizzer didn’t have a green or a 1 in his hand. Whizzer shot Marvin a glare and groaned, taking a card from the pile. Marvin looked down at his hand. He had a green 6 and two yellow cards, A 4 and a 9. He wouldn’t be able to change the color. He hesitantly put down his green 6. 

Whizzer put down a yellow 6, yelled “Uno” and Marvin wanted to cry, this was going to be a close game. 

He set down his 4 and yelled “Uno!” 

“It’s gonna be really close, Marvin.” Whizzer grinned impishly as he shot Marvin a glare. 

“No, I’m going to win because you’re stalling since you don’t have the card.” Marvin smirked triumphantly. 

“Maybe I’m just drawing out my victory, you don’t know.” Whizzer pointed out. 

“You could be, but that’s just cruel.” 

“Says the guy who kept the biggest secret of my life from me for months .” 

“You’ve got me there.” Marvin sighed. 

“I know I do, I win, by the way.” Whizzer said, putting down a yellow 2. 

“Damnit.” Marvin groaned. 

“Haha! You suck Marvin! I won!” Whizzer laughed as he stood up and did a poorly choreographed victory dance. 

“That’s the worst dance I’ve ever seen in my entire life .” Marvin laughed as Whizzer waved his arms around in his “dance.” 

“Oh please, you’re just a sore loser. Someone’s mad they can’t victory dance.” Whizzer smirked. 

“When I win I don’t do… that. ” Marvin gestured to Whizzer who was moving his hips in a circular motion like he was hula-hooping. 

“Whizzer wins! Whizzer wins!” He chanted, bringing his dance to an end. 

He sat back down on the couch and took a deep breath. 

“If I’m going to be real, I think I’m still in shock.” Whizzer laughed, merging the two piles of Uno cards together. 

“I told you it probably wasn’t going to be a good Idea to tell you all at once.” Marvin said. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Whizzer put the cards back in the box and closed it up. 

“Are you going to sleep in the bed with me? Or are you going to pout on the couch again?” Marvin asked. 

“Oh okay, where’s this ‘tude coming from, you really are a sore loser.” 

Marvin shrugged and stood up from the couch. 

“If you don’t give me an answer I’m going to go to bed.” Marvin said, slowly walking backwards towards his bedroom, not breaking eye contact with Whizzer. 

“Wait,” Whizzer said, walking up to Marvin and grabbing his arm, keeping him from walking any further. “I’ll sleep with you tonight.” 

“That sounds awfully sexual.” Marvin laughed. 

“Let’s go to bed, old man.” Whizzer said, pulling Marvin into the bedroom. 

==== 

Marvin couldn’t sleep. So he just watched Whizzer sleep, because Whizzer calmed him down. So if he was calm maybe he could sleep. He watched Whizzer’s chest rise and fall. Rise and fall. Rise and fall. 

“Marv, would you stop watching me sleep, it’s fucking creepy man.” Whizzer said, a small smile forming on his face. 

“How did you know?” Marvin asked, eyes growing wide. 

“I’m magic.” Whizzer turned to face Marvin, opening his eyes. “Why aren’t you sleeping?” 

“I can’t. I don’t know why.” 

“Same.” Whizzer agreed. 

They lay in silence, looking at each other. 

“Marv?” Whizzer asked, his face turning sad. 

“Hm?”

“So you said we were together,” 

“Yeah?” 

“Do you still love me?” Whizzer asked, averting his gaze. 

Marvin paused, his lips parting. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I think it’s a pretty obvious question, Marvin. Do you still love me?” 

“I- uh.” Marvin fumbled over his words. He wanted to make a big speech to Whizzer about how he’s never stopped loving him. How he’s yearned for him for months. But his mouth failed him. Like his body was falling apart. 

“Yes, I never stopped loving you.” Marvin managed to get out after a minute or so of stuttering. 

Whizzer’s expression changed from sadness to something Marvin couldn’t quite read. He sat up and rubbed his face. Marvin sat up too, confused. 

“Whizzer, are you okay?” Marvin asked, putting a hand on Whizzer’s knee. 

Whizzer pulled his hands away from his face and Marvin got lost in Whizzer’s eyes, even though he could barely see them. He finally looked away from his eyes and things seemed to slow down, the world around them shifted into a state of blackness, Whizzer and Marvin the only things being lit. 

Whizzer smiled at Marvin and leaned in so that their mouths were inches apart. 

“Marvin?” He asked, eyes looking down to his lips. 

“You don’t have to ask.” Marvin said, bringing his lips to Whizzer’s. The world seemed to explode around them, stars and color bursting to life. Marvin opened one of his eyes to peek and he was amazed. He pulled away from Whizzer, staring into the stars around them. 

“Marv, what are you looking at?” Whizzer asked. 

“Don’t you see that?” 

“See what?” 

“Nevermind.” Marvin let out a small laugh as he brought his lips back to Whizzer’s. He wrapped his arms around Whizzer’s waist and Whizzer wrapped his arms around Marvin’s neck. This was what Marvin had been wanting for the past however many months, he could cry. Not to mention that his imagination decided to make this the most beautiful moment he had experienced this year. 

Marvin fell asleep in Whizzer’s arms.