Angst and Maybe Some Fluff

One Thousand

Marvin sat at his desk nervously twiddling his thumbs, he couldn't sit still. 

 It was his and Jackie's 6 month anniversary next week and he still had not gotten him a present. He just didn't know what to pick, nothing he saw at the stores would show the amount of affection he had for Jackie. So, he decided to make something. 

 Everything he looked up online was either too hard or cheesy. He tried making a few things and they all ended up in failure. He was useless at crafts. 

Marvin got up to pace around to help his growing anxiety. He spent a few minutes going back and forth and paused when he saw the jar on his shelf.

 The jar contained tons of little paper cranes, a thousand to be exact. Marvin walked over to it and smiled fondly at the memory despite its rough backgrounds.

 A few years ago, Marvin was having his first bouts of depression. He would sit in his bed thinking for hours on end and the thinking eventually led to intrusive thoughts that wouldn't go away. He had remembered reading an urban legend that if you made a thousand cranes you would be able to make a wish. So, on nights he was doing particularly bad he would make cranes to keep him distracted from his thoughts. He would label each one so he would never forget how many he had made.

 Marvin opened the jar and grabbed one of the cranes, #76. That was early on, probably the third night he had done it. It was a particularly bad night because he had gotten in an argument with the others about how he thought they all deserved more screen time. Jackie had come to his room that night to check on him and caught him making cranes.

 Marvin had looked like a deer in headlights when he opened the door but he ended up explaining and the hero ended up staying up and helping him make the cranes. 

 Marvin's small smile grew wide as he figured oh what he would give Jackie. But, if he was going to get it done in time He had to start now.

Marvin grabbed a piece of paper and made the first crane and marked it 1 and wrote something he loved about Jackie on it. He did this a thousand times over the course of the week and finished the day before, staying up until 3 to do it.

 Jackie went into the living room that morning and found a sleeping Marvin on the couch and a jar on the table with a note. Jackie picked up the note and smiled. 

  To my fairest hero, Here is a jar of one thousand cranes. I remember you helping me that night years ago when I was feeling down. I was so happy you cared. As I told you, a thousand cranes makes one wish and my wish the day that I finished mine was that I could be happier. You have given me all the happiness I could ever hope for and more. You are my sunshine and my wish come true. So I made a thousand more, to give you a wish because I know it works.

Love you, Marvin 

P.s. I wrote something I love about you on every crane and I could think of a million more. 

 Jackie teared up and looked at his sleeping magician and simply wished that he could spend forever with his delightful boyfriend