Chapter Text
Two days after Thanksgiving Marcy sat in the quiet of the house sewing up an old penguin. David and Patrick were at work- or should be just finishing, and Mark and Tim were meeting them there to come over for dinner. She had a lasagne in the oven at Patrick’s request, and she’d cleaned their house, baked cookies and done a grocery shop. Now she was fixing up an old penguin.
Marcy held up Peter, whose beak was now patched up with a little yellow square of fabric. And whose wing was now firmly attached to his body again, as was his foot. She’d also stitched up the hole on his back and fixed on his little tail. Though the back had a visible but colourful patch. Patrick had assured her Tim wouldn’t mind. She heard voices in the driveway as they all arrived back from the Store. She put Peter on the chair and went out to the kitchen to make some tea.
Noisy greetings and some chatter over tea-making later they were trooping into the living room, Patrick taking the tray of mugs from his mom and kissing her cheek. They heard a shout.
‘Peter!’ from Tim and Patrick turned to his mom who shrugged.
Tim was standing in the middle of the living room clutching his penguin to him and grinning.
‘Honey he’s fixed look!’ He held the penguin out to Mark and showed him, waving a wing and a foot, pointing to the beak, and turned him around to show the patch on his butt. Mark laughed, but took the penguin and admired it.
‘Well look at that, all patched up.’ he smiled.
‘Marcy did you…’ Tim took the penguin back from his husband and cradled it.
‘It was nothing sweetie.’ She said with a wave of her hand, sitting on the sofa. Tim came and sat next to her, penguin in lap.
‘Marcy he’s all fixed.’ he said softly, ‘He’s not falling apart.’
Mark sat next to his husband just as he started to cry.
‘Honey.’ Mark said, rubbing his back. ‘Thank you Marcy.’ he said while Tim sniffed a bit. ‘Did Patrick tell you the story of how he got that penguin?’
She shook her head.
‘On our first date, we went to Central Park Zoo. I was obviously trying to charm this beautiful young man I’d met a few weeks before. He had not, shall we say, had the best few years dating-wise, and I wanted to show him what a real date was like. So I picked him up from his apartment, even though it was thirty minutes out of the way for me, and we walked across the park to the zoo. It’s tiny really, Central Park zoo, but we spent two full hours there wandering around talking- this young man, it turns out, loves to chat to animals as much as humans, and I think he said hello to every animal there. There are however two animals in this world he loves most of all- penguins, and llamas. The penguin enclosure at the zoo is small but beautiful. You stand in this dark room and they’re all there on their little rock, or jumping in the water. We stood for ages watching them and it was the first time he was actually quiet.’ Mark took the penguin off him then, and held it, hands under its wings. ‘It was this beautiful young man kissed me for the first time.’
Tim wiped his eyes and smiled at his husband, with a nod.
‘Because you were awful at making a move.’ he smiled.
‘Romance my love, it's called romance.’ Mark leaned over and kissed his cheek. ‘I bought him this guy on the way out.’ He kissed the penguin’s head and handed him back.
‘We also met a llama that day. At the petting zoo.’ Tim added.
‘Yes that’s a vital detail.’ Mark rolled his eyes.
‘Here’s one you don’t know.’ Tim said, poking him with the penguin’s wing, ‘I already loved you that day. I know you’re the one who makes a fuss about not kissing someone until you had feelings, I had more feelings than I knew what to do with.’
That might have been news to Mark, it might just have been the holidays, life, or the love for his husband but he teared up then and Tim shook his head and kissed him, softly, holding the penguin between them. ‘One more.’ he said, kissing him again. ‘This one’s for later.’ he said kissing Mark again. Mark frowned and rubbed a thumb across his cheek.
‘I love you.’ Mark said. ‘I loved you then too.’ he added softly.
Tim smiled at Marcy, continuing his story of the penguin. ‘When I had my first surgery, I was in the hospital for a while, and Mark brought it in as a joke to cheer me up. But he became a sort of good luck charm. Or a bad luck one I don’t know. He’s been with me ever since, it’s silly someone my age with his toy penguin.’
‘Reminds you someone loves you.’ Marcy said. ‘Nothing silly about that.’
‘More than one someone loves you now.’ David said.
‘Very much.’ Patrick said, pulling David towards him. Mark kissed Tim’s cheek.
Tim nodded and stood up, Peter in his arms, and went to David, kissing him softly, once, then again. ‘Need to count those kisses up.’ he smiled, turning to Patrick who first pulled him into a tight hug penguin squashed between them, then kissed him softly. ‘Lose count of how many ok?’
He said to Patrick, kissing him once more. He hugged him again then saw his mom was crying. ‘Mom?’ he said, pulling away.
‘Oh no it’s fine.’ she waved her hand. ‘Just...you’re so…’ she gestured between them.
Patrick took a breath, and smiled, his mom could see it, what they all felt. He nodded at her, just as Tim thrust Peter into his arms and went to hug his mom, fiercely, as only Tim could. He let her go and sat, David and Patrick joining them on the sofa.
‘You know he looks more like you now.’ Patrick smiled. ‘All patched up. And just about holding it together.’
‘The nerve.’ Tim grinned, taking him off him and holding tight.
‘But still handsome.’ Mark said, kissing his husband’s hair. ‘And very loved.’
Tim leaned into his husband, and David perched next to Mark, Patrick holding the penguin’s wing. Patrick reached for his phone and handed it to his mom, she nodded and snapped a picture of the four- or five of them.
‘Get in too Mom.’ Patrick said. ‘Family photo.’