Marko Reborn
Disclaimer: I don't own The Lost Boys.
Author's Note: Happy Halloween! This is cannon to the story but can be skipped if you choose to do so, enjoy! Beta'd by exaigon.
Chapter 6: Halloween Snapshots
Michael was daydreaming.
Marko was distracted.
Sam was well… Sam.
Lucy knew something must've occurred at the boardwalk last night, though in Michael's case that something was obvious. Her eyes drifted to her youngest twin as she brought her coffee to her lips.
Call it mother's intuition but something more was bothering him.
She knew she'd not spent much time with her sons lately and that was even before the divorce happened. Lucy had thought she was keeping the family together then but now she knew better. The strain was more than noticeable.
Why hadn't she noticed it before then?
Marko's cereal was getting soggy. He would no doubt not be eating it now.
Michael didn't notice, too busy staring at his watch. A date? Already? Probably.
Her twins had a unique relationship but even now when her oldest was caught up in his own world they were closer than her and Marko.
If things were to get better between her and them then she would have to be the one to put in the effort otherwise she'd be lucky if Marko even called after he was able to move out. Michael would at least do that often… at least she thought so.
Her eyes went to Sam who was reading a comic at the table.
She should get onto him for it but… she'd let it go today.
Lucy still felt she had time with Sam and that their relationship had not suffered quite as much. Her oldest two would be leaving her soon though, she could feel it.
With that thought in mind she set down her coffee and pulled out a few pictures she'd found while unpacking the day before. They'd fallen out of an old fantasy book she'd once read to the twins.
"Look what I came across yesterday. Why, I haven't seen these pictures in years," Lucy told her boys while spreading the pictures in front of her.
Sam was the first to look up from his comic and he nearly let his cereal fall out of his mouth in laughter, "Oh look how cute you guys were!"
That got Michael's attention. "What!? Give me that." He snatched the photo Sam had just picked up.
Marko was still distracted.
"Yes, you too made the cutest little angels," Lucy agreed with a gleeful Sam.
The blonde twin's attention was pulled from stirring his soggy cereal as Michael nudged him.
"Do you remember this monstrosity?" He shoved the offending picture under the other's nose thus final pulling the teen from whatever thoughts had a hold on him.
Marko looked at the picture. Of course he remembered it.
"No, we were, like what, three in this," he lied as his mind drifted.
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This was humiliating. It didn't matter that he was psychically only two years old, this was outrageous. Frankly, he was pissed and making sure everyone knew it.
"Aw come on, Marko my little angel, smile for the camera!" Lucy told the angry little toddler with a coo.
Fat chance.
He glared which only made the other mother's at Lucy's book club coo about his 'adorable' grumpy face.
And now he was blind!? Oh, the flash was the camera… Damn her. Now she had photo proof of his mortification. The boys had better never find out about this or there'd be hell to pay! Especially Paul, he'd never hear the end of it.
Another flash had him throwing a temper tantrum like the two-year old he now was.
"No Marko don't pull at your wings!" Lucy exclaimed while making to pull his little chubby hands away, "Angels need their wings. Look at Michael, he's not messing with his."
Glancing over moodily, he noticed that Michael seemed more interested in playing with the other children than trying to remove his own wings. Stupid baby probably didn't even know they were there. Speaking of other children, he looked to the other babies and while some of them were unfortunate enough to be pumpkins and clowns there were also cowboys and monsters. Albeit not scary but still better than a frickin' angel any day.
Today was Halloween, the second one Marko had experienced since his rebirth, but the first one that Lucy, his now mother, decided to dress him up for. Both he and his twin, though he did not acknowledge baby Michael as that, were angels of all things. And Lucy, being the good mother that she was, thought that it'd be a good thing to get them to go trick or treating with the children belonging to her fellow book club mothers.
The children ranged from two- his current age- to six and if Marko thought that two-years-olds were a nightmare than six-year-olds were... well, what was worse than a nightmare? Oh yeah, his life because he still hadn't woken up and had, by now, accepted that he never would.
"Come on Marko go play with the others, then I'm sure you'll forget all about those wings, hmm?" Lucy smiled kindly at him but he stubbornly plopped down right there as a way to protest against 'playing' with those babies.
Lucy sighed, "Alright then."
Standing back up she went back over to the other mothers to chat. The blonde now-toddler looked over at the clock on the wall. Despite someone his age probably not being able to, he could read it. Though, given he was actually older than his mom that was a given.
He still had thirty minutes before they did their little mock trick or treating. It may have upset the six-year-olds, but he actually preferred not to go around the neighborhood dressed like this. Plus his legs were short and he tired easily so that was another annoyance.
He sighed and considered pulling off, or at least trying to pull off, the wings while Lucy's back was turned. He might not be strong enough but maybe if he plucked some of the feathers out it'd make the costume less of an eyesore.
With that in mind he started pulling out as many feathers as he could reach until a shadow appeared over him and he paused to look up. The curly-haired boy was expecting an adult coming to tell him off for 'ruining' his wings but instead it was one of the bigger kids and by bigger he meant this one probably ate another kid to get this big. Not that he was judging. He used to eat all kinds of people, though even his low morals wouldn't stoop to taking a bite out of a kid.
Marko waited for the other to tell him what he wanted and soon enough he did.
"What are you stupid or something?" The cowboy dressed kid asked.
The angel dressed toddler blinked up at him and decided right then and there to write him off as a bully going nowhere in life and turned back to his important mission of defeathering himself.
"Hey, did you hear me?" He said loudly to the smaller boy's irritation.
"You're too obnoxious not to hear."
The bully seemed taken aback by the words before replying, "I'm not an ox!"
Marko paused again to snort, "You said it not me."
The little budding bully grew red in the face, "At least I'm not so stupid that I'm destroying my costume like an idiot!"
The other's lack of decent insults was funny, but mostly this rhino like child was an annoyance and if he'd been a vampire he might've reconsidered his whole no eating children policy.
"I'm improving it not destroying it. I don't expect someone who doesn't understand the difference between an ox and the word obnoxious to understand though." He was content to end it there having the last word, but it didn't.
The bigger kid was not used to being talked down to like that, especially by a kid so much smaller than him, so of course he decided to do what it took to win and that meant showing the younger one his place.
He lunged at Marko and, taken off guard, the smaller boy ended up underneath his massive weight. He briefly wondered if he broken something as he'd heard a snap but besides the lack of oxygen and being more uncomfortable than he'd felt in this lifetime physically he didn't think so. Definitely bruised though.
That's when he heard the bigger kid laughing, "Not so smart now are you shrimp?"
He was taunting him? This was a fight… or something of the sort and he was losing. Losing to a kid?
Marko hated losing. And losing to a preschooler took the cake but he was smart enough to realize his own strength or lack thereof, so he decided to go with what works.
He turned his head to an angle where his mouth lined up with the kid's arm and then bit down, hard. The bully screamed and gained the attention of all the adults. He quickly tried to move away but Marko wasn't letting up. Might as well get some use out of his new baby teeth he figured.
"Marko!" Lucy rushed over along with ox's mother and it took both mothers to dislodge his teeth from the other's arm.
"Oh my god he's bleeding!" The ox's mother shouted shocked while ox bawled like a baby in his mother's arms.
Marko for his part just smiled innocently up at his mother. It was ruined by the blood on his lips.
Another improvement Marko thought. While the coppery taste wasn't appealing, it did bring him a sense of familiarity that he enjoyed. Lucy, though, was mortified by all of this and gathered up both Marko and Michael and left behind serval angered mothers and frightened children.
On the way home, the curly haired blonde finally figured out what the snapping sound was. His angel wings had snapped. Between his defeathering of them and his slightly bloody smile Marko was hoping for a retake of that picture but when he asked his mom to take another she just scolded him for his behavior.
She didn't even seem to care that ox had started it. Later she did ask why he called the kid ox though, and his response was a simple, "He called himself one."
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Marko had to hold back a smirk when he looked up at Lucy and wondered just how much of that Halloween she recalled herself.
"Hey, look at this one!" Sam called out turning it for his brothers to view.
Marko frowned and glared at his mom. "Really?"
"Oh, I think I remember that one!" Michael said with a laugh.
Marko snorted. He would. It wasn't him that was sleeping on his twin's shoulder… Why did Lucy only keep the awful ones?
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At three-years-old Marko didn't expect to be invited back to the book club Halloween trick or treat farce and was more than happy about it. Michael, on the other hand, had friends in the group and was sad not to be attending.
Instead, the two had gotten to pick out their own costumes much to Marko's relief and Michael's delight. Marko found the humor in dressing up as a vampire. At first Lucy protested this, afraid that he'd get worse with his biting habit and maybe even get into more fights but, for once, Jack did something the blonde twin appreciated. He bought it. Though his terrible reasoning was so he wouldn't have to hear his youngest whine. And Michael was a grim reaper -also to his mother's disappointment-. He hadn't originally been leaning towards anything scary but, as his twin usually ignored him, when Marko suggested the costume the oldest twin jumped on it.
Besides dressing up, they also got a few pieces of candy of their choice each and then they decorated a pumpkin with Lucy before settling in for children's Halloween Specials on TV.
Marko wished the movies were scarier as it was putting him to sleep. At six o'clock he yawned and before he knew it was out like a light.
Lucy continued to sit with her boys a while longer and watch the Halloween shows with Michael not noticing that her youngest twin had dozed off. Once her eyes drifted to him, though, she smiled and made to get up causing Michael to look over at her.
"Where you going?" He asked only half paying attention to her as he was invested in the show on the screen.
"Getting a camera. I'll be right back." As she stood up she quietly added, "Don't wake your brother."
Michael nodded and looked at his sleeping twin before turning his attention back to the movie.
Once Lucy located the camera she went back to the living room. This year she had had Jack take one of the three of them. She was dressed as a fairy, though her wings had to be removed to sit comfortably on the couch and watch TV with them.
Still, she hadn't meant to take anymore pictures as every time she did Marko would do his best to look scary or mad and even the angel photos from the previous year had a grumpy little boy in them. So this was her chance to catch him off guard and looking adorable. Not that he wasn't when he was angry, but she'd like a more peaceful picture of him for once.
Michael didn't have any grumpy ones whereas that seemed to be all Marko was willing to give her, so she'd take this chance while she had it.
Quietly she readied herself and the camera.
Michael was quick to notice and smiled brightly in her direction. She snapped the picture hoping that the flash wouldn't wake Marko.
His face twitched and he shifted until his head fell onto Michael's shoulder much to the boy's dismay. But just as he was about to push the other off his mom whispered, "Wait, let me get a picture first."
Michael frowned, not getting why she'd want one like this but muttered, "Okay."
He smiled again as the flash went off and somehow Marko was still asleep.
Then Michael grinned.
"Take another one!" He called out quietly and then proceeded to pull on the others face and laughing. Tugging of his face along with the snap woke him and he blinked before shoving the other boy away.
"What're you doing?" He demanded but Michael just giggled. Then Marko turned his sleepy glare at Lucy who tried to hide the camera behind her back. He saw it and huffed, thinking about burning whatever pictures she got devolved as a form of revenge.
Lucy smiled and was grateful that this Halloween was already shaping up to be better than the last. She only hoped that the future ones would be just as joyful as this one if not more so.
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"Anymore horrible memories I need to burn over there," Marko asked eyeing the photos.
Lucy just shook her head, "Don't even think about it."
"Great blackmail material you got there, Mom." Sam snickered.
Lucy sighed, "It's good memories is what it is and one day you'll understand when you have your own kids."
Sam nearly choked on his own spit at the thought making Michael laugh, "Don't worry Sammy, you couldn't possibly get a girl so that won't be a problem."
"I could so."
Marko eyed the two arguing teenagers before his eyes drifted back to the Halloween photos on the table.
This was no time to feel nostalgic.
Then he heard the words, "I'll bet she has even more embarrassing pictures of you, right Mom?"
Sam spluttered trying to convince their mom to not drag out such things. Lucy smiled and the two continued the good-natured teasing of Sam which, within no time, was turned back around on Michael who, of course, had to drag Marko in on it.
It made for a good distraction from his earlier thoughts but it didn't help that they kept bringing up old memories of his time with them.
Author's Note: If this is still ongoing next year at the same time I'll do some more of Marko's childhood Halloween times with his family and if not well, there's always Christmas ones to look forward to in a couple months! Thanks for reading the next chapter should be up soon!