marvin and whizzer are so happy together!!

Whizzer and Marvin! (Part 2)

Weeks passed, and while the heaviness of grief lingered, it started to shift into something Marvin could manage. The pain was still there, sharp and constant, but he had learned how to move through it rather than letting it stop him. He returned to work, though the enthusiasm he once had for his projects was muted. Every day, he went through the motions, but it felt like a distant echo of the life he used to lead.

Jason, now a teenager, had grown quieter since Whizzer's death. Marvin could see it in the way his son avoided certain topics, the way his eyes glazed over when anyone mentioned Whizzer's name. Marvin understood; grief expressed itself differently in everyone. But he worried about Jason, worried that his son was internalising too much, just like he himself always did. One Friday evening, Jason came over to Marvin's apartment for their usual dinner. They sat at the small dining table, picking at their plates in an awkward silence. It wasn't like this before. They used to talk, joke even. Now, it felt like something unsaid was always hanging between them.

Marvin finally broke the silence. "You're quiet tonight," he said, trying to keep his tone light.

Jason shrugged, pushing food around his plate. "Just... thinking, I guess."

"About anything in particular?" Jason glanced up, meeting his father's eyes for a brief second before looking away again.
"Whizzer," he admitted softly, almost as if it was a confession. "I've been thinking about him a lot."

Marvin's heart clenched at the sound of his name, but he nodded. "It's okay to think about him. I do too, every day."

Jason was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you ever... do you ever feel guilty? Like, I didn't really know what to say when he was sick. I didn't do anything. I just — watched it happen." The words hit Marvin hard, because he had thought the same thing. There had been so many moments during Whizzers illness where Marvin had felt powerless. He was supposed to be strong, but all he could do was stand by helplessly, trying to control everything when the one thing that mattered the most was— saving Whizzer — was beyond his reach.

"Yeah," Marvin said after a long pause. "I feel guilty sometimes too. It's hard not to. But you were there for him, Jason. And there all that matters. You don't always have to know the right thing to say."

Jason seemed to absorb that, his brow furrowing as he picked up his food. Marvin could see his son was still carrying the weight of it all, just as he was. He wished he could take it away, but he couldn't. The only thing they could do was bear it together.

"Do you miss him?" Jason asked after a while, his voice barely above a whisper.

Marvin swallowed hard. "Every day," he admitted. "Sometime it's easier, and sometimes it hits me out of nowhere. But yeah... I miss him."

Jason nodded, his eyes glistening, but he quickly wiped them with the back of his hand. Marvin felt a surge of something unfamiliar — maybe it was gratitude, maybe it was hope. It was their first real conversation they'd had about Whizzer since he passed. and while it hurt, it also felt like a small step forward.

After dinner, they moved to the living room. Jason sprawled out on the couch, flipping through channels while Marvin sat beside him. The silence between them wasn't strained anymore. It felt comfortable, almost like it used to.

"Do you think you'll ever, like... meet someone else?" Jason asked suddenly, his eyes glued to the tv.

The question caught Marvin off guard. He hadn't thought about it — he couldn't. The idea of someone filling the space thet Whizzer had left felt impassible, even wrong.

"I don't know." Marvin answered honestly. "I'm not really thinking about that right now. But... maybe someday. It's hard to say."
Jason's nodded slowly and they left it at that.

Later that night, after Jason had gone home, Marvin found himself alone in the quiet of his apartment again. But this time, the silence didn't feel so unbearable. He thought about Jason's question, about the idea of love after Whizzer, and while it was difficult to imagine, it didn't seem completely out of reach. Whizzer would have wanted him to move on, the live. And maybe, someday, he would. But not yet. Not today.

For now, it was enough to just keep going, step but step, one day at a time. And in those small moments, Marvin could feel the beginning of something healing within him, even if it was slow. Whizzers memory would always be with him, but life, somehow, was finding its way back. And marvin wasn't alone. He had Jason, he had his friends, and in some quiet, unspoken way, he had a sense of peace beginning to settle into the cracks of his broken heart.