A/N: I watched "Why?" and after the scene where the police and Jimmy find Marco, this jumped up and bit me in the butt. Involves lots and lots of slash (yay!), mostly Jimmy/Marco and Marco/Dylan, some implications of femslash elsewhere (probably ellie/ash, maybe not, haven't decided). This chapter is all 3rd person POV, thoughts aren't really indicated by anything other than a switch to first person. Anyways, on with the fic!
Warnings: None really for this chapter. No slash yet (sorry!).
Story summary: Marco doesn't want to pretend, but he doesn't want to be gay either. Can that really work when he's got conflicting feelings for two different people?
Chapter summary: this one barely merits a chapter summary, it's just my take on the scene I mentioned in the author notes. It gets more interesting later though, I promise.
Why are they hitting me? Why? Why?
"Faggot!"
"Shitstabber!"
"See what happens when you say the wrong thing to your boyfriend?"
He heard a siren. Police. Please, please, please, please, let that be the police. Don't let me die here in the park, a victim of a gay bashing. All he could think was that he was about to become someone else's Mathew Shepard, someone's Sakia Gunn.
But then lights were shining on him, and the blows stopped coming, and the guys were running away. Two police officers ran after them, but one stopped, backtracked, and tried to calm him down. He was shaking and crying, but then locked onto seven simple words.
"We'll catch the jerks that did this."
We'll catch the jerks that did this. Yes, yes, catch them, send them to jail, anything. She helped Marco up and helped him sit on the hood of the police car while she checked out and cleaned his bruises and scratches.
Marco heard footsteps pounding towards them, and for a second he panicked. It's those guys, they're back to kill me! But then Marco heard Jimmy's voice, saying he was a friend.
"Jimmy!"
Marco threw himself into Jimmy's arms, and he hugged the shaking boy, rubbing and patting his back in a futile attempt to calm him. Marco was still shaking, crying, clawing at Jimmy's back, grasping at anything to bring him back to reality.
"It's okay, Marco, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, it's okay. You're gonna be okay."
Jimmy, meanwhile, was insanely angry. Only his conviction to comforting Marco was stopping him running after those guys and ripping them apart. Hell, he'd probably be ripping something apart later anyway. That a group of guys would beat up one of his best friends for being something he couldn't change was the worst crime imaginable to Jimmy.
Marco was laying in bed, thinking of every second he'd ever spent with Dylan Michalchuk, his new gay friend.
~"Meet Dylan, our chauffeur for the day."~
~"Don't drop anything in front of Homo-chuk." ~
~"You like the maple leafs? Your jersey." ~
~"You okay?"
A shake of the head. Dylan nodded. Tears filled Marco's eyes and he cried. Dylan sat next to him, a comforting presence, a respectful silence. After a minute or so, in which Ellie's guitar and the girls' laughing could be heard, Dylan spoke.
"I understand. Breakups are hard. No matter who they're with."
"You don't know what it's like to break up with a girl."
"Sure I do. I dated girls before I came out, mostly just trying to see if there was any hope I was straight. But even after I figured out I was gay, it was still tough breaking up with a girl, just like any breakup. Just don't let it get to you too much. Life goes on."
Sage advice, maybe put not-so-sagely.~
It's too bad, Marco thought. Dylan…I think I really could have been with him.
Too bad.
Warnings: None really for this chapter. No slash yet (sorry!).
Story summary: Marco doesn't want to pretend, but he doesn't want to be gay either. Can that really work when he's got conflicting feelings for two different people?
Chapter summary: this one barely merits a chapter summary, it's just my take on the scene I mentioned in the author notes. It gets more interesting later though, I promise.
Why are they hitting me? Why? Why?
"Faggot!"
"Shitstabber!"
"See what happens when you say the wrong thing to your boyfriend?"
He heard a siren. Police. Please, please, please, please, let that be the police. Don't let me die here in the park, a victim of a gay bashing. All he could think was that he was about to become someone else's Mathew Shepard, someone's Sakia Gunn.
But then lights were shining on him, and the blows stopped coming, and the guys were running away. Two police officers ran after them, but one stopped, backtracked, and tried to calm him down. He was shaking and crying, but then locked onto seven simple words.
"We'll catch the jerks that did this."
We'll catch the jerks that did this. Yes, yes, catch them, send them to jail, anything. She helped Marco up and helped him sit on the hood of the police car while she checked out and cleaned his bruises and scratches.
Marco heard footsteps pounding towards them, and for a second he panicked. It's those guys, they're back to kill me! But then Marco heard Jimmy's voice, saying he was a friend.
"Jimmy!"
Marco threw himself into Jimmy's arms, and he hugged the shaking boy, rubbing and patting his back in a futile attempt to calm him. Marco was still shaking, crying, clawing at Jimmy's back, grasping at anything to bring him back to reality.
"It's okay, Marco, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, it's okay. You're gonna be okay."
Jimmy, meanwhile, was insanely angry. Only his conviction to comforting Marco was stopping him running after those guys and ripping them apart. Hell, he'd probably be ripping something apart later anyway. That a group of guys would beat up one of his best friends for being something he couldn't change was the worst crime imaginable to Jimmy.
Marco was laying in bed, thinking of every second he'd ever spent with Dylan Michalchuk, his new gay friend.
~"Meet Dylan, our chauffeur for the day."~
~"Don't drop anything in front of Homo-chuk." ~
~"You like the maple leafs? Your jersey." ~
~"You okay?"
A shake of the head. Dylan nodded. Tears filled Marco's eyes and he cried. Dylan sat next to him, a comforting presence, a respectful silence. After a minute or so, in which Ellie's guitar and the girls' laughing could be heard, Dylan spoke.
"I understand. Breakups are hard. No matter who they're with."
"You don't know what it's like to break up with a girl."
"Sure I do. I dated girls before I came out, mostly just trying to see if there was any hope I was straight. But even after I figured out I was gay, it was still tough breaking up with a girl, just like any breakup. Just don't let it get to you too much. Life goes on."
Sage advice, maybe put not-so-sagely.~
It's too bad, Marco thought. Dylan…I think I really could have been with him.
Too bad.