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The thing about hanging around Anti was that, no matter what, it could never be considered boring by any stretch.
Marvin loved his boyfriend dearly, and hanging around him sort of came with the territory of being together, but also he tended to spend a good deal of the time he hung around Anti outside the comfort of his own home wondering what the actual fuck was going on. This was especially true of the time he spent with Anti at his main base of operations. It was always a flurry of activity―people bustling about, someone shouting orders to someone else… You know. The sort of things one expected from a supervillain’s base.
And sometimes The Mayor was there, and that made things even more hectic because for someone so refined and stuck-up his lackeys sure were a rowdy bunch. A bunch who intersected with and got along with Anti’s people perhaps a bit too well. It was like a constant game for them.
And, sometimes, Mad was there. Marvin didn’t think he needed to explain why that one-man army of a villain had a tendency to “spice things up” when he was around.
Even more rare than Mad’s presence at Anti’s base, in the months that he and Marvin had been together or working together, was that of Anti’s brother, Jack.
Anti described Jack, when he could be persuaded to talk about him at all, as someone who was kind-hearted and excitable. Someone who, by all means, would get on all too well with the Mayor’s men as long as they weren’t doing anything too horrible. But that was really all he said, frankly, and Marvin had never once questioned it further. Neither had he questioned how infrequently Jack was around since making his own official debut as a villain some months after Marvin and Anti started working together. The way he understood it, Jack was off doing his own thing and flirting with the Mayor in his downtime. He was a busy man, just like the rest of them.
Today, it seemed, that all of the city’s big villains had simultaneously decided to be busy together.
Anti’s base was full to bursting with the presence of himself and his men plus Marvin, the Mayor and all of his competent workers, Mad, and, strangely, even Jack and two people who appeared to work for him. Marvin had seen them around a couple of times, before, and he hadn’t missed the way one of them had given him a good looking-at and seemed rather upset by his presence early on into his and Anti’s actual relationship.
He’d always wondered what he’d done to upset the guy. He seemed pretty nice.
Now, the thing was that, knowing how packed full the base was, Marvin was fully expecting for Jack and his two lackeys to be contributing something significant to the noise and bustle, but… Well, they really, really weren’t.
All three seemed focused and quiet, and every time he caught sight of Jack the younger man had a firm frown on his face and a thick cloud of magical power pulled tight around him. It wasn’t something anyone else would probably notice, admittedly. Gods knew Marvin only noticed because he’d been born with the Gift and had refined it over the years.
But the magic wasn’t necessarily the problem Marvin had with this situation―though it… Certainly didn’t help.
The thing was, Jack, today, seemed terribly out of character for how he’d been described by Anti. He seemed irritable and closed-off, not at all excited for anything and spending the majority of his time poring over something one of his lackeys was showing him. That firm frown on his face seemed near-permanent, only lifting in rare, brief moments when the Mayor would catch his gaze and nod to him. He would smile just the tiniest bit in those moments, but the quirk of his lips pulled back down as soon as the Mayor turned away.
Marvin had… Absolutely no idea what was wrong.
Granted, of course, that wasn’t saying much―Marvin’s only contact with Jack so far had been a painfully brief introduction by Anti when they’d run into each other in Anti’s base of operations, so it wasn’t as if he could reasonably even be expected to know anything about the younger male. Especially considering that the one time that they’d met was going on eight months ago, now. And, seeing as they’d only met once, Marvin had no business poking his nose into Jack’s affairs.
It was frustrating.
Eventually, however, after several hours of people-watching and becoming increasingly put-off by Jack’s current behavior, he decided he might as well at least try to find out what was wrong.
By then, Jack was simply bustling around, hissing quietly to his lackeys here and there and not bothering to watch as they hopped to whatever task he’d assigned. He seemed even more wound up than he’d been when he initially arrived, and Marvin wasn’t going to pretend he had the slightest inkling as to what brought the so-called Kings of the city and Jack to the same place to plan what was obviously a massive operation, but he knew it probably wasn’t helping Jack’s mood. There wasn’t terribly much he could do about that.
“Hello,” He greeted smoothly, sidling up to his boyfriend’s little brother. He did not elaborate. It was up to Jack whether this conversation continued or not.
“Hullo,” Jack greeted in turn, voice a tad bit gruff but not necessarily unfriendly. He swept his eyes over him, considering him for a long moment, before finally saying, “Marvin, right?”
“Right,” Marvin agreed, “Kinda surprised you remembered, to be honest.”
That got Jack to crack a smile. “I remember anybody Anti lets stick to his side the way he lets you. Shit’s rare ‘n he seems to like you a lot.”
“I sure hope he likes me,” Marvin laughed, “Seein’ as I’m his boyfriend.”
Something like surprise and respect flickered in Jack’s eyes, and he seemed to perk up a bit more, leaning toward him. “His boyfriend, eh? He didn’t tell me he finally got the balls to make it official.”
“It only took me locking him and my best friend out of the house for a week.” Marvin snorted, and that made Jack descend promptly into giggles.
He counted Jack’s amused smile as he sobered and the giggles themselves as a victory.
“You seem a tad nicer than his regular crowd,” Jack eventually said, quirking a brow and looking somewhat pointedly around them.
Marvin snorted again, nodding his agreement and puffing out a breath as he took another look around, himself. “We met because I was lookin’ for a spellbook that got banned from the general magic community some sixty-plus years ago because of its contents. Ran into him on the bad side of town, he laughed at me for my shitty attempts to blend in, and we went our separate ways.” He smiled wistfully and noticed Jack pressing his lips together and worried for a moment he’d upset him before he realized the corners of his mouth were turned upwards.
“And that somehow got him to like ya?” Jack’s brows quirked further.
“He didn’t start likin’ me until we met again a week later because he got in a fight with the Crimson Sentinel and I ‘happened’ to be nearby.” He rolled his eyes, “Leave it to Jackie to leave a lunch date with his best friend for some petty rivalry with one of the kings of the city.”
Jack choked on a breath, coughing. “You―” He coughed again, thumping his own chest once like that would actually help. “The Crimson Sentinel?”
When he said it, a flare went out from the thick cloud of power around him―strong enough even an untrained eye might see it. Marvin couldn’t help staring at it for a second, mildly entranced by the shifting colors and the thickness of the cloud. Jack must be new to controlling it, or aware others couldn’t see it… Marvin kept his pinned down under his skin, as did Anti (usually), but Jack just let his cling to him. It was usually, you know, less than this, but Marvin had always seen traces of it. He’d thought it was remnants of Anti’s power on him, at first.
He shook himself (metaphorically, of course) and managed a laugh, “He’s got to have someone he loves, doesn’t he?” He pointed out to the still somewhat star-struck villain next to him, “And we’ve known each other since we were kids―he knows better than anybody what I can take. Helps when his powers are flaring up and he’s too scared to touch anyone for fear of hurting them.”
“I guess I just―” Jack straightened up from his half-hunched posture and looked away a little sheepishly, “I forget that people have lives outside of this stuff.” Under his breath, he added, “Lord knows before you came around Anti sure as fuck didn’t.”
That came as something of a surprise to Marvin, who frowned, “Did he not spend time with you?”
The snort Jack gave in response was derisive, slightly annoyed, “Sometimes we ate dinner together,” He said in mock nostalgia, “And his room was just across the hall!”
Marvin winced.
Jack, seeing this, merely shrugged and rolled his eyes. “He’s been busy since our parents bit it. I learned not to take it personal.”
There was something left unsaid there, in all of this. Something he seemed to desperately want to say, but… Didn’t.
Learning that their parents were dead was not at all surprising to Marvin. He sort of assumed that they must be dead or gone if both of their sons were now powerful supervillains. But there was something else, something about Anti being busy. Him not being there… Marvin sensed something bad had happened to Jack because Anti wasn’t around, and maybe even that Anti didn’t know about it.
As if sensing that Marvin had picked up on that, Jack sighed.
“Don’t go looking too far into it.” The younger man said tiredly, “It’s best for everyone if what happened between our parents dying and me pursuing this line of work stays in the past. Where it belongs. ”
“But something did happen?”
Jack sighed again. “Several things happened.” He gave him a tired, but sharp look, “Don’t go digging. You may be his boy but I will make you regret it if you do.”
Marvin just nodded and raised his hands in surrender. “I believe you.” He said, “But it won’t stop me being concerned.”
Jack stared at him for a moment, looking very, very closely. He studied him. And then, slowly, his lips curved upwards again.
“I appreciate the concern,” He said, “But I promise I’ve got this covered.”
Marvin smiled in return, “I believe that, too.”
Jack laughed and looked out toward the others still bustling around. One of his lackeys caught his eye and waved, eyes crinkling with the force of his grin. Jack waved in return, fond exasperation on his face. This lackey was the one he’d always wondered what he’d done to make upset―and just as that thought crossed his mind the lackey saw him and, though somewhat startled, immediately waved at him as well.
Marvin, of course, waved back.
When he turned away to continue whatever it was he was doing, Marvin glanced at Jack and said, casually, “I’ve always wondered what I did to make him look so upset the first time I saw him.”
The younger man laughed again and crossed his arms, “Oh, Chase? He had a huge crush on you.”
Not expecting that (still kind of weirded out by Anti liking him, let alone anyone else), this time it was Marvin who choked on air. “He― Oh.”
“He gets crushes quick,” Jack explained with a sympathetic, but also teasing tone, “Gets him into trouble sometimes―he’s got his eye on one of the Mayor’s guys, now.”
The magician couldn’t help wincing at that. Getting crushes too quickly was like a curse. He would know, given his crush on Anti had developed over the course of exactly two meetings and only got worse from there. And for this guy to have it bad for one of the Mayor’s boys…
Oh dear.
Jack just laughed in response to the wince and his grimace. “Oh, don’t worry about him too much. He managed to get one of the nicer ones―Bing, I think he calls himself. Big doofus, he is―dangerous, sure, but still a doofus. Perfect fit for Chase, if I’m honest.”
A silence passed between them, and it was strangely comfortable.
And, sure, Marvin had more questions than answers from the encounter, but he felt as if he understood Jack a bit better as a result regardless. If not from what they’d talked about, or Jack’s outward reactions, then from being so close to his flares of power.
You could tell a lot about a person from their power.
No specifics, no deep details. But you could still tell plenty.
Mostly, from Jack, he’d gathered that there was something very dark underneath everything else. Something held back by, probably, little more than sheer force of will.
Like he said, more questions than answers.
But whatever―he had plenty of time to get to know Jack. He’d be with Anti for a long while yet.