A Tight-Knit Family // Falsettos AU

Whizzer and Mendel

Whizzer

"So, it's good that you and Marvin are still getting along. I thought I'd ruined something," Mendel says, apologetically. I'm hanging out at his apartment since we were both lonely. Marvin and Trina are visiting a doctor or something. 

"Oh, yeah. I made the decision to roll with this pretty quickly. In fact, I'm starting to doubt my certainty. But I love Marvin and I'd rather stay with him than not." 

"Yep," he agrees. "And I love Trina... similarly." 

I look at him. "Have you told her that?" 

"No, but I want to. I'm just afraid that it might be too soon. I mean, she just got out of a relationship before we got together..." 

"Well, Marvin was in a relationship when we got together." 

"I know..." 

"Anyway, I'm worried it might have been too soon to tell Marvin that. That's what I did, by the way. But I don't know if he loves me back, or..." 

"I guess it will always be a mystery," Mendel shrugs calmly. 

"Anyway... do you want to play a board game or something?" I change the subject. "What do you have?" 

"I have The Game of Life." 

We tried playing that, but we ended up getting into a fight because Mendel was supposed to get a daughter for his car, but he picked a blue peg. He said they were "just colours" but I argued that if the pegs weren't separated by gender (or sex), it wouldn't bother indicating your baby's sex on the board. 

"Settle for this," he says, "the peg colours are for gender, but I'm making my baby daughter blue because I don't know her gender." 

"Fine, but I thought they were 'just colours'!" 

"Well, you wouldn't let me have that!" 

"This is an old game! Of course there are going to be stereotypes! Pink pegs are girls in this!" 

"Well, why don't we just make it cisnormative, too?!" He replaces the blue daughter with a pink daughter. 

"No, you're just being ridiculous now!" 

"I can't please you!" Mendel flips the board. 

"You killed my family!" 

So we stop playing. Then he finds a whiteboard behind something, and we decide to play Pictionary. 

"Come on, Whizzer, you can get this. It's a musical," he prompts after drawing something I can't decode. It's a bee, the letter M, what I think is me, and a snowflake. 

"Beam...?" 

"No. Okay, fine. It's Be More Chill. You go now." Mendel erases the board. 

"Excuse me, how is M + me 'more'..." I go through possible syllables. "...are you calling me a whore?!" 

"You said that, not me." 

And then we start fighting again. 

"Fine, fine!" I try to stop the fight. "Let's just continue what we were talking about before. I have more to say on that." 

"The stereotype game?" 

"No, the thing about me and Marvin and you and Trina. You're Marvin's psychiatrist. Has he mentioned anything about our relationship to you? Like... anything?" 

"Nope," Mendel says immediately. 

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess he's not ready to say he loves me yet. He doesn't feel it, I guess. No shame." 

"Well, do you want him to?" 

"Of course I want my boyfriend to love me, Mendel! It's not too soon. It's never been too soon. It was like love at first sight," I admit. "For me." 

"Well, Whizzer, that's kinda cliché." 

"We played a stereotype game and you're complaining about a cliché?" 

"Make it realistic, at least." 

Marvin opens Mendel's door. "Hey, guys. How are you? Sorry I was busy." 

"Were you eavesdropping?" I ask. 

"Um... yes. But I'm glad I did, because I've been waiting to say this for a long time, and I need to get it off my chest." 

"This is really cheesy," says Mendel. "I'm sorry, but can I go somewhere else?" 

"Please do." Marvin turns to me. "Whizzer, I love you. I've known it since I met you. Don't listen to Mendel. Love at first sight is realistic." 

"You could've said that without being so cheesy," I mutter. 

"That's it! I try to do something nice!" 

"I was just kidding!" I assure him quickly. "Well, half kidding. But really, that means a lot to me. And I'm glad we love each other, because we have a future together. If a future that involves a child before marriage." I shrug. 

"Yeah. I'm kind of excited for the four of us to be a family." 

"Did you forget about me?!" calls a voice from behind Mendel's bedroom door. 

"I forgot about the baby. Chill, Mendel."