Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Okay, never have I ever tried to hit on Sitara."

Marcus takes a swig of his beer, slightly mortified, and only the tiniest bit embarrassed by Wrench's elated whooping. Which gets louder in volume the sooner Wrench realizes that there's an obvious story the two bastards have managed to slip on by him.

"When? How?"

"That night I got initiated into dedsec and we were all drinking on the beach." Also the same evening where he pissed on Dusan's shoes by some grand form of cosmic foreshadowing. "I was really fucking drunk and Sitara was nice enough to let me down easy."

Wrench gives him a skeptical side eye for that one before pillaging Marcus' beer, taking a tentative sip, before ultimately deciding it tasted like shit despite the overlapping buzz that should have convinced him otherwise.

"If it's any consolation, I've made the same mistake prior to you my friend."

Okay, that, piques Marcus' attention real quick. "So..?"

"She let me down easy, as in dog on its last leg kind of easy. It was only awkward for about the first week but after she gave me a box of illegal firework, I figured we were cool again."

The concession is almost difficult to process, especially when Marcus applies his prior knowledge in regards to Wrench's almost debilitating interactions with women whom he's interest in romantically.

Hell, he had to flirt with Naomi for Wrench in order for that thing to go anywhere. A subject he needs to check up on later because Wrench hadn't brought her up since their date three months back.

A topic he's almost afraid to touch if the alcohol is being any honest.

"Okay, I know we're playing never have I ever but now you got me curious about what type of girl you like."

Marcus can hear Wrench shuffling off to his right before settling back down again. The clicking of his bic a nice indicator that they're either about to hit a joint or Marcus is going to watch Wrench smoke a cigarette.

"Is this a sleep over now?"

Marcus laughs before throwing a playful punch at Wrench's knee. Wrench immediately retaliates by blowing cigarette smoke in his face, the asshole. "You do have that mattress upstairs."

"Grab the beer and I might even let you braid my hair."

Marcus hoots drunkenly before hauling up their beer and heading towards the stairs that lead up to the open loft of Wrench's garage. He almost eats shit trying to crawl over spare parts and a few dozen piles of dirty laundry before finally making it to the bed. Wrench finds Marcus laying face down in the bare mattress when he finally finishes off his cigarette, immediately kicking him off so that he can throw a clean sheet over the surface like a good host. It takes a few minutes of rearranging before they finally reach a middle ground of comfort. Wrench sprawled out on his back, right leg kicked out to hook over Marcus' own, while Marcus leans in close to rest his head in the crook of Wrench's arm and chest.

It's nice and just a little bit stupid when they're this loosened up by alcohol.

"So types?"

"Of pokemon?" Wrench tries not to disturb the maximum cuddle hold they got going while attempting to dig for another cigarette. Handing off his beloved bic on Marcus for the honor of lighting his cig. The thing is battered and has seen better days but Wrench just refuses to toss it since it's got the only copy of a purikura booth photo they took together. "Because I'm definitely a bug or electric types kind of guy."

"People," Marcus gets the flint of Wrench's bic to light on the first try before tossing the thing onto the bed. "If I take a guess and go by the current roster of your past and current crushes then I definitely know you're into brunettes."

Wrench's Mask is too far up his face to tell if he's on the right track but judging by the sudden episode of coughing, Marcus is getting there.

He tries to make correlations between Naomi and Sitara but the only similarities Marcus can manage to come up with is a similar style in color and hair. Sitara doesn't have any tattoos that he knows of and Naomi seemed a lot more soft spoken and shy than eccentric like Sitara.

There's the ass but Marcus is definitely not going to mention that to Wrench since she's his girl.

If Naomi is even his girl in the first place.

"Enough about my types what about you?"

Marcus almost slips up by saying Wrench and swallows that up by getting himself another beer. A decision that will probably bite him in the ass if he's going by experience. "Definitely someone that's not gonna make fun of my ass for liking geek shit. They got to at least be on my level and sacrifice themselves to the possibility of playing DnD or going to a comic convention." A tic mark lights up over Wrench's mask as he taps at Marcus's elbow to continue.

"Funny, no they gotta be hilarious, it's really fucking sexy when someone can make you laugh because it's not easy." Another tic mark goes off on Wrench's mask and if Marcus keeps it up he'll be hitting a home run in no time.

Marcus excitement dies down as he realizes he's heading down the dangerous path of outing himself. He doesn't want to ruin this comfortable comradery they got going, especially since Wrench is too good of a thing to fuck up over personal feelings so he takes the easy route. Switching topics over to the new Alien movie because he knows it'll distract Wrench enough to completely disregard whatever conversation they were having prior.

It's cowardly but Marcus really just wants to hold onto these moments. Where Wrench gives him shit about preferring "Aliens" to its predecessor and he can share the same breathing space without it being awkward.

So Marcus settles for the platonic cuddling, ignoring the way he really wants to kiss the underside of Wrench's jaw and just do this every other night. Wrench falls asleep first with his face tucked into his own elbow while Marcus lays awake on his chest.

If he can't have Wrench at least he can have this.

So Marcus takes a picture, hesitating for a moment between deleting the evidence or setting it as his home screen. He gets out of his wallpaper settings once he's decided on suffering just a bit further for the night before ultimately passing out.

Wrench doesn't see it, but Marcus also doesn't get to catch the way Wrench looks at him in the early hours of the morning. Bare faced and smoking a cigarette as he quietly runs his fingers through Marcus' hair.

They're even.