I'll let you win (a falsettos x marvel au)

Chapter 10: the quiet before the storm

This isn't long, but this is probs my fave chapter. It was originally longer, but I decided I wanted to split it up because ✨CLIFFHANGER✨

There is always quiet before a storm, a stillness where you know something bad will happen, a tenseness in the air. The humidity causing everyone to get snappy and sweaty, hair frizzing out of control. But everyone savours the heat one final time before stepping into their home? After stubbing out their final cigarette, or as they feel the rush of air from the the subway as the  train speeds off again.

It had almost been a month since Marvin was shot and he could walk almost normally around people. He had an annoying scar on his foot that matched the one on his stomach, but the purple Ian red was beginning to turn into a softer pink, the jagged edges smoothing down and tightening. As they lay in bed, Whizzer would often trace his injuries, asking for war stories, and sometimes, just sometimes, Marvin would feel safe enough to relive them. He did not know how, but every time Whizzer touched a fleck of a white scar from a piece of shrapnel still lodged inside him, he felt it glow and tighten as though it was disappearing, only to feel it ache again as he stopped.

They spent all day in bed sometimes and the day it changed was spent the same way, Marvin leaning on Whizzers chest his pacer slightly digging in, although Whizzer never really minded. Whizzer had begun to mindlessly dug his fingers onto one of the sharp points of its points of its box, when Marvin finally asked him the question that had bugged him for a while.

"Whizzer?"

He hummed in response.

"Do you think my-" he gestured to his chest where the pacer was "- thing is weird?"

Whizzer thought for a second, trying to come up with an eloquent way to word it. "No, I think it's powerful and I think it humanises you." He quickly drew his hand away as a tiny bead of blood formed on his fingertip, and he sucked at it. After sex whizzer became very philosophical and artistic, becoming inspired to follow his true passion. Portraiture.

"Alright Marv- stay there." Whizzer got up, crawling to the end of the bed.

"Are you gonna draw me like one of your French girls?"  Marvin asked, a cocky grin on his face.

Whizzer stopped dead in his tracks, watching Marvin, "did you just quote titanic without me even forcing you to watch it!"

"Yeah baby! It was good, but that selfish bitch rose definitely had enough space on that door for baby Leo!"

"Jesus, I lov-" suddenly Whizzers mouth went dry and he floundered for a second "- I love to fuck." He finished. "Give me a minute." He ran out of the room to the living room, rooting through his coat pocket until he found his pack of cigarettes, even though he knew Marvin hated them, and shakily lit one, trying to find his sketchbook.

He had not uttered those three words since... he shivered as he thought back to the day and tried to calm his shaky breath, back pressed to the wall next to the door of Marvin's bedroom. He slowed his breathing, shoving his feelings down and plastered a smile on his face, bouncing back into the room. "Now you better sit still!"

They sat in the silence, whizzer letting the cigarette burn down in his mouth as his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Marvin just lay in bed, staring at Whizzer as he worked, realising it was probably a good time to bring up him being shot.

"Hey Whizz?"

Whizzer hummed again without looking up, cringing as he questioned whether Marvin would ask him about the 'L word' almost being said.

"I've got something to tell you and you can't freak out, alright?" Whizzer peered over his A3 sketchbook, fear In his eyes.

"What?" His voice sounded both puzzled and terrified as if he was scared of knowing the answer to his question.

Marvin quickly took a deep breath in, holding it in as he spoke, "I kind of got shot a month ago and my psychiatrist told me I should probably tell you..." he changed his expression into a playful smile, "but you look fucking gorgeous when you're naked."

Whizzer breathed out heavily.  "How?"

"People robbing a bank, I decided to be a hero."

"No, I did not mean 'how you got it', I meant how could you be so fucking stupid!"

"I've already been shot before baby, it's not a big deal, also it was only my foot, people have literally shot themselves in the foot!"

Whizzer crawled up the bed to sit next to Marvin, " why didn't you tell me?" He asked, taking Marvin's hands in his own.

"I didn't want you to worry."

Whizzer pulled Marvin into a hug, ignoring how they clashed together, "Marv, it's my job to worry!"

"Whizzer, I think. I want to tell you-" he took a deep breath and gripped whizzers shoulders, staring into his eyes, "- I... I lov-"

Whizzers phone rang and they both turned to stare at it on the bedside table. "Can you put a pin in that Marv?" Marvin let him go and Whizzer picked up the phone, "hello, this is Whizzer Brown." He smiled in pure and simple joy at Marvin, lightly brushing over his facial features with his finger. "Excuse me?" His smile dropped and Marvin suddenly felt something extremely wrong, "she's dead?" His phone dropped into his lap as he stared into the distance. His lip trembled and his eyes burned as he tried to keep the tears at bay.

"Baby, baby- what's wrong?" Marvin asked, still hearing the noise from the other end of the line. He picked the phone up as he held Whizzer, sobbing into his neck, "hello, this is his employer, what happened?"

"Sorry sir, but Mr Brown needs to pick up his child."