A/N: AU idea completely belongs to bachaboska on youtube and livejournal for their video called "The Strangers", which I suggest you go watch: www. youtube watch?v=v1RQBXQoXTc (remove spaces).
The time period is ambiguous, but it's somewhere in the sixties to eighties? Something like that.
A chapter will be posted every other day.
Ciao!
~Webs
Bouncing his knees to the beat coming from the studio speakers, Marcus leans forward on his elbows and watches as a severe women with an entirely too-tight bun high on her head snap instructions to the line of girls and boys at the bar across the back wall, and Marcus certainly doesn't envy them. Nor does he envy the way they raise their legs so far above their heads.
Allowing a small snort to leave his chest, he draws the attention of both the instructor and a sandy-haired boy at the middle of the line, the latter of which sticks his tongue out at him behind the woman's back. Marcus waves apologetically to the instructor, but makes a face at the boy as soon as she's turned back around. Said boy ignores him to return to the drills, though Marcus catches the barest hint of a smile as he does so.
Marcus pulls his ski-cap down harder to cover his ears as he glances at the clock, waiting for the town bell to strike five so he can finally leave and get something to eat. The instructor is just getting into another set of commands when the bell goes off, Marcus jumping to his feet as the dancers disperse towards their bags. Marcus grabs his backpack and the small gray duffle under his chair, trotting across the floor towards the sandy-haired boy, getting a stern glare from the instructor for having his shoes on anything by the outer edge.
Esca grabs the duffle from Marcus and shrugs into his jacket after changing his shoes, before grabbing his arm and dragging the brunette from the studio with a harried smile to his teacher. "Esca, hold on." Marcus tries to free his arm, but Esca doesn't release him until they're well down the street, and even then, he spins Marcus around to face him instead.
"What was so funny?" he demands, tone curling with the accent he'd brought over from his hometown. Marcus grins and adjusts his backpack better on his shoulder, quite use to his friend's unbidden anger.
"Aw, c'mon, you kiddin'? You're all toothpicks in tights; what's not to be funny about that?" Esca's glare doesn't waver, until he turns and starts swearing in Gaelic, and though Marcus does understand most of it, he gets Esca's damnation of his soul, and nearly bursts out laughing again as he hurries to catch up. "I don't know how any of you keep a straight face in there."
"We take it seriously."
"I don't see how." Marcus continues grinning, tipping his head around to look at Esca's face, which is still in a stern frown, but his eyes are alight like he's about to start laughing himself; Marcus's grin widens. "Seriously. There's five guys in there parading around in tights and unitards, and you're telling me you 'take it seriously'?"
"I didn't ask for your input, Marcus," he says, voice even, but the punch to Marcus' shoulder tells otherwise of his expression. Still grinning, Marcus rubs his arm, before speeding up a step to tackle Esca into a headlock, pulling an indignant squawk from the other. "Hey!"
"You know what, Esca? I think you'd still be taking' art lessons if it weren't for me," Marcus announces loudly, Esca tugging at his arm in an attempt to remove it. "So, yes, you did ask for my input."
"I did not! Now get off!"
"Aye, you did!" A rather poor imitation of his accent draws a laugh from Esca as Marcus continues to drag him along the street.
"Remind me never to let you watch my class again."
"Who's going to walk home with me after school everyday then?" Esca goes quiet, and sensing the mood change, Marcus slowly releases him to walk side-by-side again. "What is it?" Esca shoves his hands in his pockets and is silent for a few moments.
"I have this audition in a couple of weeks. If I get in, I'll be moving back to England." Marcus slows his stride until he's at a full stop, Esca stopping as well a few paces in front of him.
"When?"
"The audition? Two weeks from tomorrow." He looks down at his feet as he shuffles them, hand tight around the strap of his bag. "They have a school in London, and my da thinks I can get in."
"So if you do get in, when will you move?" Marcus doesn't know what else to ask, watching as Esca won't meet his gaze.
"Within the month." They're both silent for a long few moments, then Marcus grins, closing the gap between them and tackling him into another hug.
"See, I told you you'd be goin' places!" Forced back a couple of steps, Esca quickly finds his footing and looks up at Marcus.
"You're not mad?"
"Why would I be mad? You've more than a good chance of getting into that school, and you've always hated the states, haven't you?" Esca shuffles his feet again, avoiding eye contact as the bridge of his nose goes pink.
"I dunno, they're not all bad."
"But you've missed England, and besides, we can be penpals now." Esca grins at that, headbutting him before twisting away out of Marcus' grip.
"You mean if I can even read your handwriting!"
"Marcus!" Marcus groans and pulls his pillow harder over his head, burrowing further into his blankets. Though it's already late in the day, he hasn't gotten up yet, quite content to sleep away his sunday."Marcus, Esca is on the phone!" He only slightly-grudgingly raises his head at that, looking at the clock before groggily swinging himself up to his feet.
"Coming!" the boy croaks, before splitting into a wide yawn as he pulls on a sweatshirt and pads down the stairs to the ground floor. Marcus' mother is hanging out of the kitchen doorway with the phone pressed to her chest, lips in a thin line as she takes in her son's state of disarray. He ignores her look and takes the phone from her, the cord stretching to allow him to stay in the dining room.
"Marcus? Were you seriously still in bed?"
"Don't judge me," he mumbles, yawning again and slumping against the wall, hearing his mother move around the kitchen, making lunch.
"Too late for that." Esca goes quiet for a moment, Marcus opening his eyes and straightening up a bit.
"Esca?"
"Can you meet me at the park in ten minutes?"
"Well, yeah, I guess—"
"Good. Make sure you bring a jacket; it's cold." He hangs up before Marcus can respond, pulling the phone away from his ear in surprise. He hangs it up with a frown, and tells his mother where he's going, before dashing up the stairs to get dressed, only grabbing his jacket as an afterthought as he darts out the door.
When he gets to the park, Esca is one of the swings with his back to Marcus, kicking at the bark chips under his feet so he slowly sways with the breeze that is indeed cold, Marcus pausing at the fence. After a long minute of steeling himself, Marcus walks over to join him, tapping Esca on the shoulder as he plops into the swing next to his.
Esca jumps and looks up, then snorts and shakes his head, eyeing Marcus' thin sweatshirt. "I said bring a jacket; it's supposed to start snowing soon." Marcus shrugs.
"I'm fine with this. Did you have something you need to tell me?" Esca's smile fades a bit at the corners, and he faces back forward again, kicking gently at the ground to start swinging a bit again.
"It's more of a request. Practice writing so I can actually understand it, okay?" Marcus' face splits into a grin.
"You got in! Esca, that's great!"
"I'm moving next week." Marcus' next words lodge uncomfortably in his throat, and he tries his best to keep his smile in place. He comes up with several things he can say to cheer him up, but what comes out instead is,
"So soon?"
"My da wants to get settled in as soon as possible, so we're going a bit early."
"What about your brothers?"
"They're coming too." Marcus looks up at the gray skies, and it really does look like it's going to snow soon. Marcus would sleep over at Esca's for a couple of days whenever the first snow would hit, that always being the worst; you could count on school closing, and the roads too caked to drive, and Esca had always had him over. It'd been that way for the past three years.
"You'll miss the first snow."
"I know." They're silent for a few minutes, Marcus starting to gently kick his feet as well, hands going numb where they're locked around the chains of the swing.
"I'll miss you." Esca stops swinging, getting to his feet after a moment and putting his hands on the chains of Marcus' swing, just above the brunette's own. Surprised, Marcus stops swinging and opens his mouth to question him, but Esca darts a rapid kiss to Marcus' cheek before he can.
"I'll miss you too. Promise you'll write?" After several beats of surprised silence, Marcus' trademark smile slides back into place.
"Everyday you're gone."
A/N: I had a lot of ideas running around for this, so I hope it isn't awful. I wrote this before seeing any of the movies whose clips were included in the video, so hopefully this doesn't seem too much like them, though the most obvious bits are going to be the correlations between Billy Elliot and this chapter, but that's only going to be for a very small part, since it's only the first chapter that they're kids.
The Seal prince is named Rònan in this, since I don't know his real name, and Rònan, as I understand it, means seal. Marcus is a solider as we'll see in the next chapter, and I've left the people he's fighting ambiguous at best, so take from that what you will.
Ciao for now!
~Webs