Chapter Text
Mark was sure that the 'it's not you it's me' speech was never fun. He remembered when William had had that speech given to him a few years earlier, and his best friend had spent like two whole weeks moaning and crying about it.
Mark was very proud of himself for being a good friend at the time and just comforting William throughout the whole thing, and not saying what he really wanted to say, which was that the guy William was moaning over was a dick and didn't deserve William anyways.
So, yeah, he knew that talk was sucky. But he was pretty sure getting that talk from two of his-whatever Eve and Amber were to him- at the same time was a special kind of terrible.
And the claim that the two girls were falling in love with each other was, like...
He wasn't sure what to do with that.
"Oh," He ended up saying. "Well, good luck?"
"It's really not you, Mark," Eve said, shuffling her feet back and forth. "You've been great. It's just-"
"Yeah, I get it. Not me, it's you," Mark sighed. He couldn't even really be angry. Sure, he liked Amber and Eve. And sure, they were both super hot and smart and amazing. But they just looked so happy just to be able to hold each other's hand. "I'm happy for you two."
"Yeah?" Amber asked.
"Yeah," Mark smiled.
"Ok," Amber smiled back. "All right."
"I'll see you at training?" Eve asked, still a little hesitant.
"Absolutely," Mark hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged inwardly and pulled Amber and Eve into a hug.
"Ok," Eve hugged him back before stepping away with Amber. "See you soon, Mark."
"Bye," He waved his hand as Amber and Eve left the restaurant.
As soon as they were gone Mark moaned and slammed his head against the wall. He left a dent.
---
It made sense, of course, that Eve didn’t want to be with him anymore. Why would she want to? Mark was a murderer. Hundreds of people were dead because of him, because he wouldn’t do what his dad wanted.
He thought about them a lot. Went through the names of all the people who had died during Omni-Man's attack. One by one, scrolling down the list. Looking at their pictures. Thinking about the lives they had lived.
The elderly woman with four grandkids and one on the way she’d never get to see. The twelve-year-old girl who’d just won a dancing competition. The dad with two sons who’d grow up without him. The high school students, the college students, the babies.
He thought about their lives. Gone.
---
"Dude!" William yelped when Mark appeared at his window. "Freaky! Don't hover like that!"
He did open the window to let Mark in, though.
"Sorry," Mark winced, flying in and landing on William's bed.
William rolled his eyes, closing the window behind him and collapsing on the bed next to Mark. "Ok, what happened."
Mark grabbed William's pillow and slammed it on his face, "I got dumped."
"What?"
"By Eve."
"My man, you were never with Eve."
"God, I hate you sometimes," Mark reminded his best friend who he did, in fact, love. "I thought I could be with her, you know? But that's not going to happen now."
"Why? What did she say?"
Mark groaned, placing his hand on the pillow to push it closer into his nose. He could smell William's scent on the pillow, and for some reason that calmed him down.
"That she and Amber were getting together."
William was silent for a beat, and then he yelped, "I knew it! Huh! I fucking knew it!"
"What?" Mark threw the pillow off and grabbed William's hand, throwing him on the bed. "What do you mean, you knew!"
William laughed, his head hitting the dark sheets. He was smiling, bright and happy and Mark was suddenly transported to their days as kids, when there weren’t superpowers and evil dads and world ending threats to deal with, and it was just the two of them enjoying life.
"I dunno, I always had a feeling about Eve," He said brightly, and Mark rolled his eyes and collapsed next to William.
"If you really thought that, why didn't you tell me?"
"It was just a feeling, dude, I didn't actually know or anything," William waved his hands in the air. He propped himself on his arm, turning to Mark. "How are you doing with this?"
"They seem happy together," Mark mumbled. “It’s just...I dunno. I just lost my dad, and Mom-she's going through such a hard time and... I guess I don’t want to be alone.”
William placed a hand in Mark's hair, and Mark relaxed almost automatically at the familiar touch, "You're not alone, you know that."
"Yeah. I'm stuck with you, aren't I?"
"Dude, if you can find a better best friend, be my guest."
Mark snorted in amusement at the confident tone. He could never find a better best friend, and William knew it.
"We need to get away," He said, sitting up suddenly. "Just go on a vacation somewhere!"
William raised his eyebrow, "You mean in two weeks when school's done, right?"
Mark deflated a bit, "Yeah, in two weeks. But as soon as school's done, ok? I just...I need to get away."
His friend's expression softened and he said, "Yeah, as soon as school's done. We'll get away."
---
Mark sometimes walked around his house and thought he saw his dad. He’d walk into the kitchen and think he caught a flash of his dad by the sink. He went into his parents’ bedroom and saw a lump on the bed that he was sure was Nolan.
Turned out it was a pillow.
He could feel the prickle of panic every time he thought his dad was at home, the horror of thinking that the fight wasn’t over, that he was in terrible danger still. He wanted to get away. Somewhere far, where the shadow of his dad wouldn’t haunt him so very much.
---
The next two weeks went by horribly slow for Mark. There weren't really any exams left to do, and he wasn't involved at all with the end-of-the-year activities like the prom and school book. So he really was just floating through the days. He went to training with Eve and the rest of the Guardians, but found it hard to concentrate enough to do very good work.
Most nights he couldn’t sleep well. Sometimes it was hard to get to sleep, too much energy buzzing around him no matter how much he tried to tire his body out. Sometimes even when he managed to get to sleep, he’d have nightmares, and when he woke up from them, sleep wasn’t an option.
Sometimes he looked up on the sky and waited for Dad to come back and finish the job he'd started. Maybe kill more people to get to him. Maybe kill him himself.
Mom didn't seem to notice how distracted he was. She also spent a lot of time looking at the sky. Mark wondered if she was scared or hopeful for Dad returning. He didn't want to ask her.
Dad said that in five hundred years Mark would still be there and everybody else would be gone. Even if that was true, though, that didn't mean the people here and now didn't matter. And anyways, maybe it wasn't true. Mark wasn't fully Viltrumite, he was human as well. It was possible that he wouldn't age like one.
Mark didn't want to think about that. He tried to imagine himself, seventy years from now, still a young man at the prime of his youth, going to William's funeral to put him in the ground.
He wasn't going to think about it.
Mom was thinking about it, though. About Dad calling her a pet, about how he had never loved her the way he should have and pretended to. Mark watched her fall apart because of that betrayal and wondered if he'd ever end up like him, looking at his partner, at someone like William and thinking, what a cute pet, I like having them around.
He’d never end up like that, though. He was human, he wasn’t like his father. He wasn’t.
---
"Hey, Mom," Mark said loudly as he walked into the house at the last day of school. "Are you home?"
"In the kitchen."
Mark dropped his bag on the floor and rushed over to the kitchen. Mom was by the sink, washing dishes much slower than she normally would. She was doing everything slower these days.
Mom turned the water off and dried her hands before turning to Mark. She smiled at him, looking tired but very proud, and came over to give him a hug and kiss his cheek, "Welcome home, sweetheart. How did the last day of school go?"
"I can't believe it's over," Mark said, hugging Mom back. "I'm done with school! This is the day I've dreamed off since like first grade."
Mom snorted and let go of him, "Come on, Mark. School wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Not always. But I'm not going to miss Algebra and having to sit for hours at a time."
Mom smiled, "Fair enough. What do you want for dinner tonight to celebrate? Or are you going out with friends?"
“No, I'll stay in,” Mark sat down at the table. “William is going out with this guy and I don’t want to third-wheel.”
“Why don’t you take Eve with you?”
Mark winced, “Then I'll be fifth-wheeling.”
Mom gave him a puzzled look, “Explain?”
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. Eve and Amber got together," They had just grown closer and closer the last two weeks, until it was kind of hard to imagine one without the other. They really were disgustingly perfect together.
"Really?" Mom came to sit next to him. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."
"Don't be," Mark sighed. "I'm really happy for them. I just...kind of want what they have, you know?"
"I know," Mom said, caressing his hair. "I miss it."
"Miss Dad?"
"Miss the man I thought he was," Mom told him sadly. "I miss having a partner. I hope you find that one day, honey."
Mark smiled, "Well, I'm going on a road trip with William-what?"
Mom looked amused.
"What?" He demanded again.
"Nothing," Mom stood up. "I'm sure you and William will have a great time together. Just remember-"
"Not to drive drunk or when we're too tired," Mark recited dutifully.
"That to. But I was going to say practice safe sex."
"Mom!" Mark groaned.
"Sorry, honey. But you're still my son and it's my job to embarrass you even if you're not a high school student anymore."
“Well, when will you stop!"
"When you stop being embarrassed."
"Great. Never, then."
Mom snorted, "Will pizza be ok for tonight?"
"That'd be awesome, Mom, thanks."
---
Mark watched a silly romcom with Mom while they had the pizza for dinner, and then Mom went to bed. She was also going to bed earlier than normal. Mark wasn't sure if he should be worried or not.
He stayed up to watch another movie, hoping to get tired enough to be able to fall asleep. But he made the mistake of watching an action movie, and at the sight of the first punch on the screen all he could see was his dad's bloodshot eyes and all he could feel was a pounding pain all over his body and all he could hear was his dad, saying he could just make another kid.
Mark whimpered. His body was vibrating with an energy that made it impossible to sit. There was no way he would be able to lay down, let alone get to sleep. He might as well go flying.
He planned on just flying around for a while to clear his head, but without conscious thought he steered himself towards William's house. It was only eleven, so William was probably not home yet. Maybe Mark could say hi to William's dad, who never seemed to sleep and spent most of his time working on model toy cars.
Mark used to think that his dad was so much cooler. His dad was Omni-man, his dad could fly and saved lives, and William's dad owned a used bookstore.
William's dad was kind and intelligent. He supported William in everything he did, had supported him when he came out without question.
Mark's dad couldn't even support his humanity.
Right. No reason to think about that right now.
He swooped past a house to hover over William's window, planning to just give it a fleeting look to make sure William really wasn't there-
Except he was. And he wasn't alone.
There was a boy laying on William's bed. A stranger that Mark had never seen before. Probably the guy he had gone out with.
He was kissing William.
Kissing William on William's bed where Mark had sat probably hundreds of thousands of times.
He shouldn't be there. That place wasn't for him. William wasn't for him.
William's hand snuck up and tugged on the other's boy's hair. This was wrong, William shouldn't be touching anyone like that.
Mark took to the skies again. He shouldn't be watching William with his...with whoever that was.
Why was it even bothering him this much? Was he really that jealous of people in relationships?
Jesus. He needed a break....
---
"You look terrible," William announced the next morning when Mark opened the front door to find him there. "Did you get any sleep last night?"
"A bit," Mark mumbled, flushing silently. He had fallen asleep eventually, but woke up again from a dream that-that-That he couldn't think of with William right in front of him. He would explode of embarrassment.
"I'll drive first, then," William looked past Mark to wave at his mom. "Hey, Mrs. Grayson!"
"Hi, William," Mom came up and clasped Mark on the shoulder. "You two boys be careful, ok?"
"No worries, Mrs. Grayson," William said brightly. "We're just going to be hiking and things like that."
"Really? No plans for drinking or-"
"We'll be fine, Mom," Mark yelped before she could finish that sentence, grabbing William and dragging him to the car.
"Love you two!" Mom called out as the two boys got into the car.
"Love you back, Mrs. Grayson!" William replied, and the two waved at each other. Now they were just trying to embarrass him.
"Drive, William, please," Mark groaned.
William laughed, but luckily started the engine, and the two were on their way.
Mark took out his phone to look at Google maps, but William grabbed it and threw it on the back seat.
"Hey!" Mark complained.
"We don't need a map," William declared. "This is a road trip, we drive and see where we end up. This is an adventure!"
Mark grinned, "Ok. Sounds like a plan. Let's just drive."