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When Layla walks back into their apartment it’s around 10am. She’s been gone for around an hour to buy groceries while Marc and Steven tidied the place up. It was originally Marc’s turn to clean but Steven couldn’t bare the thought of Marc messing with his ‘system’ so to avoid unnecessary discussion they’d just simply shared the chore. Jake consciously decided to stay out of it to avoid having to join in on the cleaning party they’d held. However it quite surprised him when Marc turned on some music. He’d played jakes playlist with Spanish songs and all kinds of other music he enjoyed listening to. He stayed close to the front just for that reason.
Maybe Marc just really liked Jakes song compilation, or maybe Marc just wanted Jake to feel included. Jake didn’t mind what the actual reason was, both thoughts had him feeling…nice.
“Hey Marc.” Layla smiles as she walks over and kisses his cheek softly after placing the grocery bags down. Marc quickly turns his head to snatch a proper kiss from her, making her chuckle and playfully slap at his chest. It didn’t hurt at all. Marc smirks at her and continues hanging up the last pieces of wet clothing.
“There’s someone downstairs who’s apparently been looking for you, I said I’d let you know.” Layla tells him as she starts placing a few things into the fridge.
“Who is it?” Marc asks her, picking up the laundry basket and placing it below the drying rack to get it out of the way.
“I don’t know it was some woman, I told her to wait in front of the door” she mumbles while practically playing Tetris in the fridge. She had to make everything fit with minimal space, considering each shelf in the fridge was designated to another person and only a few things like milk and butter would go into a shared spot. Jake and Steven always added the most things onto the shopping list, Marc would sometimes have to share his fridge space. Layla was sure he didn’t mind though, she knew he was quite the softie for his alters.
Marc looks down at the drying rack, wrecking his brain about who would possibly be out on the look for him. He didn’t think any woman he knew that didn’t already know where he lived cared enough to find out or look for him in general.
“Maybe it’s gena?” Steven asked in their head. “Jake told us about her yeah?”
“Then she’d be looking for Jake don’t you think?” Marc rubbed his forehead.
“Maybe not, he said he told her about us so maybe she asks for all of us… not really easy to know whose name the apartment runs on yeah?”
“Grant. Like it says on the doorbell.” Marc says.
“Just check it out hermanito.” Jake suddenly pops up, figuring Marc could use all the support he could get. He knew how fast Marc would get anxious, especially about strangers apparently being out on the look for him. Understandable. “No estás solo, los dos estamos aquí para ayudarte. No te dejaremos”. Jake tries to reassure him and surprisingly it works.
Marc nods and walks to the front door and puts on his sneakers, he grabs their keys with the tricolored woven bracelet on it from the bowl and turns the knob.
“Be right back.” He lets Layla know, who was still focused on her logistical problems at hand.
Marc wipes his hair back as he skips down the stairs quickly. For a moment he considered if maybe he should’ve changed before going in front of the door. He was just wearing Stevens blue sweater, which him and Jake would constantly ‘steal’ because of how comfortable it actually was, which they’d never admit of course, and earlier he’d quickly thrown over some of his own black cargo pants.
The first few times Jake and Marc wore Stevens sweater he’d complained about how now ‘outside bacteria’ was on his pjs. By now he’d accepted that the times in which that blue sweater was just for sleep were long over… and that their habit of wearing his sweaters had exceeded to a soft light-grey and a black one.
He didn’t mind at all, in his mind, if it gives them comfort then they can wear them however often they want.
Marc pushed his necklace down under the sweater, the thin silver chain peaking out from under the collar and contrasting his warm tan skin as he steps down into the hallway leading to the front door of the house that they lived in.
“Check if my DVD came in the mail!” Jake suddenly exclaims, making Marc roll his eyes with a chuckle.
Suddenly he stops in the middle of the hallway.
He takes a deep breath as he stares out the window of the front door. Steven stirs in confusion. Jake is silent.
The glass was blurry, and quite frankly also pretty dirty but it was good enough to make out the person behind it. To be honest it probably wouldn’t have been as easy for them if it would be somebody else. Literally anybody.
On the other side of the door was a woman. Olive skin shimmers through the blur of the glas, brown flat hair, made into waves, falling over her shoulders. She was wearing glasses and looked around while shifting on the spot. It looked somewhat like a nervous habit that Marc was familiar with. He hated that.
“Is that…-“ Steven tries but suddenly he’s silent and Marc feels an intense throbbing pain from the inside of his temple.
The next thing he knows, Jake is in control and he’s in their headspace. Steven is somewhere else, far away, out of harms reach. Jake locked him out, somewhere safe.
Jake kept staring at the door for a moment, as if to make sure he wasn’t seeing ghosts, or to assure himself that he wasn’t hallucinating this and it might just be someone blonde, someone young. Maybe it was the mail bringing his DVD package.
No.
“No no no.” He shakes his head determinedly and grabs their keys. “Absolutely not.” He puts the key into their mailbox, his voice dripping in ignorance as he turns it to open the lid.
“Let Steven back out.” Marc says and Jake freezes. “We’ve been locking him out and keeping him away and lying to him all his life. He deserves to know.” Marc tries to speak to him as soft as he can, he knows Jake is stubborn. If he chose wrong words he’d just lock Marc away too and go about his day. Or who knows what he’d do. “He doesn’t want to be in denial anymore. You know that.”
Jake didn’t answer. He simply closes the mailbox again, only slightly disappointed that his order hadn’t arrived yet and then suddenly Steven was back.
“Oy thanks mate… if that wasn’t a completely pleasant feeling then I don’t know.” He quips sarcastically, Jake smirking only slightly at his sass. “Sorry.” He simply answers.
Jake turns around and makes his way to the elevator. “Let me go.” Marc interrupts quickly but Jake doesn’t stop walking as he simply shakes his head “no.”
“Jake we’re not little anymore. We’ve grown up.” Marc tries to reason.
“And you’re here.” He concludes after a moment “You’ll protect us.”
Maybe that had been exactly what Jake needed to hear, maybe he just didn’t want to argue with Marc later, maybe he didn’t want to make Steven sad. He didn’t know what it was that made him stop but he did. He considered for a moment and then Marc was back in the front, Steven and Jake both in the passenger seat, both to let him know he wasn’t alone and that they were there for him but also to not miss out on anything that would happen. Especially Jake felt very on edge, his attentiveness always seemed slightly obsessive to Marc but this was bordering on excessive. Not that he could blame him. Not that he minded.
Marc turns back around, takes a breath and walks to the front door. The figure behind it steps away, seemingly deciding she’d waited long enough and that nobody would show up anymore. Marc takes another deep breath, trying to keep himself calm and grounded. His heart beat against his chest like crazy anyways.
He opens the door and steps out, watching the woman walk away. Just a few steps separating them. Not even 15 feet he’d assume.
“Wendy.” He says without a clear emotion in his voice. More like a statement than anything else. He was glad about this amount of control. He wasn’t scared of her anymore. He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t.
At least she wouldn’t think that he was.
Wendy turns around quickly, looking at him perplexed for a moment before walking back over. “Marc.” She exclaims in surprise. She sounds relieved. She sounds happy.
Marc knew her better than this.
She walks over to him and he decides 6 feet distance is close enough. She comes too close. He takes a step back, not in fear, not in concern, just in pursue of a decision that he’d made for himself. She stops abruptly. “It’s so good to see you.” She says, offering him a nervous smile.
“What are you doing here?” He asks, ignoring whatever she was trying to do to get straight to the point.
“It’s been so long and… and I know why we haven’t talked or… or anything really but I thought that maybe we could now? I’ve been… I spent a long time in therapy by now and I thought maybe we could catch up a bit?” She looked at him hopefully, her eyes looked differently. He hasn’t seen them in 20 years. He remembers anyways. They looked different.
“Your call to make jefe” Jake supplies when he realizes that Marc is thinking for just a bit too long. Steven is quiet.
Marc thinks that he would like for Steven to get a chance to speak to his mom, to find out what she was truly like and to maybe get closure. He’d been thinking she was amazing his whole life and suddenly his bubble burst and he was expected to completely forget about her from one day to the other.
On the other hand he didn’t trust Wendy. He’d never trust her and he wouldn’t let Steven come close to her. Or, no. He wouldn’t let her close to Steven. Especially not the first time they ever saw her again after their last interaction 20 years ago was her trying to suffocate him with a pillow. Him or Jake. He didn’t know. It was blurry.
“Sure.” He says then, not sure where it came from, not sure how he felt about it. She smiles at him, he doesn’t care and moves to walk past her.
His dad would say he was holding too much of a grudge. He wouldn’t care. There’s not much else left for him to do either way.
Wendy follows him and he makes sure to keep as much of a distance between them as he could, walking as far on the left as possible without getting run over by a car. Jake didn’t like that a lot, he’d rather see them walk on the inner side of the sidewalk, he’d seen enough times of Marc’s intrusive thoughts winning. He kept quiet about it.
“Why did you move to London?” Wendy asks after a long while of awkward silence and she looks at the side of his head, just slightly struggling to keep up with his fast steps, he wouldn’t slow down.
“Personal connection. We stay in Brooklyn halftime, each year, go on vacation in Egypt.” He explains, he doesn’t want to answer too shortly since the intense awkwardness will make him uncomfortable and anxious and then he couldn’t protect Steven. Not when he was struggling himself. He also doesn’t want to answer too long, she didn’t deserve to know a lot, this seemed like a fair amount of information.
“Who’s we?” She asks. Shit.
“Me and other people.” He vaguely says.
“This woman I met?” She looks at him again, he nods, refusing to misspeak again. “She was really pretty, is she your girlfriend?”
“Doesn’t concern you does it now?” He decides he needs to keep Layla from her too, he needs to protect her from Wendy. Layla was the exact opposite from her. Gentle, loving, patient. She makes him happy and to be honest? Before Steven and Jake came closer Layla has always been the only feeling of comfort he’s ever remembered feeling. Just looking into her eyes could save him. Just the simple touch of her soft fingers against his rough skin or his wildly curly hair could calm him. Just her smile would make him happy.
He was scared that if Wendy was to meet Layla she’d infect her with this same poison she’d planted into him, she’d put a parasite inside her and change her. Make her eyes less sparkly, her skin less lively and more pale, her smile less wide. Just like how she’s done it to him.
He’d make sure Wendy stayed away. She wouldn’t ruin anything for him anymore and she would especially not start ruining anything for Layla.
Marc walks into a cafe, one that Steven really liked, he steps to the counter and orders Stevens usual favorite, an espresso for Jake and a lemon cake for himself. The espresso for Jake was more of an option just in case Jake would decide he had something to say to Wendy and wanted to front. The vanilla oatmilk-whatever-the-hell was more of an apology to Steven since Marc was very sure he would not get to speak with Wendy.
“Tell her I really enjoyed that one time I almost managed to drown her” Jake suddenly pops up.
“Jesus” Marc mumbles under his breath as he walks to the table, he realized that there were indeed a ton of things that he most certainly didn’t know about. Something about that scared him.
Steven was still silent, Marc reached out for him, just to get a feel on wether or not he was okay. Steven answered but stayed in place, close to the front but not too close. Further inside their headspace but not too far. He was okay, just listening, just watching.
“So… how have you been? Maybe you can tell me about your life? I know you’ve been in contact with dad but he says you’ve been ignoring him for a while now too… you’ve been in the army yeah?” She smiles at him, trying to let him know she was truly interested.
“Yeah, the marines. Been there for three years.” Marc states and eats some cake.
“And then?”
“Just worked elsewhere, been making money. Life works that way when you actually care about it and don’t just drink from morning to midnight.” He answers as he looks at her, a cold look in his eyes. Maybe his voice wasn’t that indifferent anymore either.
He couldn’t really help his emotions from taking over when he slowly but surely remembered her. Remembered how she’d been all those years, what she’d done. After all he was supposed to stop hiding his feelings.
Wendy nods as she lets her head hang in shame, her thumb rubs against the papercup of her caramel cappuccino. “I’ve been clean for 5 years now. I know it’s not much but I guess it’s a start. I went to AA meetings and to therapy and I’m… I’m not how I used to be.” She looks up to him again, Marc didn’t feel like that changes a lot. “It’s about what has been. Not about what you might or might not be doing now.” He says and takes another sip, watching her reaction and when her face scrunches up into a frown, her eyebrows pulling together he knows that maybe all of this wasn’t as sincere as she tried to fool him into believing it was. Maybe it was all just a mask that was about to fall right off her face. It would. It always did.
Don’t trust her, don’t trust her.
“Don’t you think the attempt matters? The thought and the effort… whatever you want to call it?” She asks him and drinks some cappuccino.
“It would have if it would’ve happened 25 years earlier.” He simply states, not even taking a second to think about his words. He didn’t have to.
“Everything was a lot harder 25 years ago… I was grieving and I didn’t know how to handle that.” She argues, voice staying soft but like she was hanging onto a thread and it was about to snap. Usually this would be where Marc would get afraid, he’d get up, scramble to get all his things and make a run for it. Maybe shove one of his alters to the front and just hide away. But he wasn’t scared this time. Truly not.
We’re grown up. I’ve grown up. We’re not little anymore. She won’t ruin anything anymore. ‘You’re not alone’., ‘We’re here for you.’ I’m tired of the power she has. I don’t need her.
“Yeah. I felt how you weren’t able to handle that. I felt it and then I felt it again. And again. And again. And again.” He leans back against his seat, relaxing his shoulders and loosening his jaw. He was proud of himself. He didn’t know why. He felt proud of himself.
“Look it was… it was a hard time.”
“It was. You were grieving. Dad was grieving. Everybody was grieving, including me. Not that you ever noticed though. Not that you cared that I was still there and that I needed my mom.”
“I know it must’ve been hard for you too but I just couldn’t forgive you. Not that fast anyways.”
There it was. Like a tight feeling in his chest, like he’d been shot but not really. Like he’d been kicked but not really. His chest tightened and the air got stuck in his throat as he looked at her. He was at a loss for words, not sure what to do or how to react.
Jake was fuming at this point, going on about how he was right, how they shouldn’t have gone to speak with her, how he was going to make her pay for this.
He shoved Marc out of the front quickly, not really meaning to be so forceful but his emotions got the best of him.
Jake intended to take Marc’s place but when he went to take his spot in the ‘drivers seat’ as he liked to say he couldn’t. Steven was there already, staring at his ‘Mum’.
“Steven?! ¿Qué demonios estás haciendo, idiota?!”
“Steven, seriously get away from the front!”
Marc and Jake now suddenly both feel rather elated. Not in a good way.
All this time they’ve been okay, Jake was even slightly surprised of how well they were handling this but this was by no means the plan anymore.
Steven didn’t answer as he simply picked up the cup of coffee Marc had ordered for him and stared their mother down.
Jake placed himself in the window next to Wendy and he thought that Steven actually looked really damn intimidating right now. It took a lot to get Steven to a breaking point, in terms of anger and especially hatred.
Marc came to in the reflection next to Jake. Both of them watching Steven in surprise.
“Hello mum.” He simply states and watches her reaction. He knows that she must know him. He has memories that both Marc and Jake confirmed to be true. She knows him.
Her face turns into a mix of surprise and confusion before she quickly recollects herself and her mouth lets out a silent “oh”.
“Yeah it’s me, the imagination that we need to get rid of or what else will the neighbors say.” He says calmly, Jakes and Marc’s eyes go wide. Jake knew about how their parents had talked about him and Steven. Neither of them knew that Steven knew it as well.
Too be honest? Not even Steven knew. He’s been working on letting go of all the denial. Calling nobody and pretending it was mum. Telling himself he has a sleeping disorder. Pretending his parents were normal and loving. Refusing to believe his mum was a mon-… was horrible.
“The name is Steven though, with a v. The other reference is quite a mouth full.” He takes another sip and places the cup down on the table as he adjusts in his seat. “I was the only one of us who truly wanted to give you a chance, do you know?” He asks.
“Your teachers always said you were quite polite.” She answers awkwardly, like she was speaking to a stranger but also somewhat not. However by now Marc was a stranger to her too after this much time.
“I was thinking maybe some of this illusion that I had of you was real, that I didn’t make it all up completely.” Steven starts and leans in to her a bit closer, propping his forearms onto the table. “But now you sit here, talking to Marc about how you’ve changed, and-“ he chuckles coldly “I really gave you far enough time to apologize but you never did, did you? Not once did I hear anything close to a ‘I’m sorry that I beat you ever since you were 9 years old and made your life a living hell Marc’ or a ‘I’m sorry that I’m the reason for so much pain in your life and that I didn’t treat you right.’… not even a ‘I’m sorry that I’m such a horrible mother.’ I heard none of that.”
“He’s more scary than you when he’s protective.” Marc whispers to Jake inside the window and Jake snorts, punching his shoulder lightly, not entirely convinced of his own protest, because yeah… Marc was kinda right.
“Why is that?” Steven asks in mock interest.
“I already said that it was a really hard and horrible time haven’t I?”
“That’s your justification?” He scoffs out a laugh, venom laced into his voice and Wendy looks at him with a frown. “And what was that I heard just now? You didn’t forgive him? Forgive him for what exactly?” Steven raises an eyebrow. He knew the answer. He wanted her to say it. Wanted to hear it from her mouth. Not from some imaginary person in the duat or a memory from Marc’s consciousness.
He gently reaches for Marc, apologizing in advance but he had to do this.
“For being the reason that Randall died.” She says matter of factly and he feels his chest tighten. Not in sorrow, not in shock. It suffocates him in anger.
“Do you wanna know what it was?” Steven asks her coldly, slowly, dangerously.
“It was all. Your. Fault.” He makes sure to emphasize every single word, turning her own weapon against her as he stares into her eyes threateningly. He leans over the table more, to make sure she’d get a proper look into his eyes as well. “You’ve been ignorant and let your children play in a creepy cave as it was raining, didn’t care if they’d be safe, didn’t care if they’d listen to you. You didn’t even go to check on them when the thunderstorm started. Marc told me everything. How they were calling for you, how they begged you to help them, to save them but you didn’t listen. It was all your fault alone.” Steven tells her determinedly. “He’s dead because of you. You killed him.” He finishes.
Jake looks over to Marc, he puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer comfort and warmth. Somehow Marc felt fine. Steven had just said all of his trigger words basically all at once but somehow it felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest. Like it was something he had been wanting to tell his mother himself for a long time already.
Wendy just stayed silent, looking at Steven, her face unreadable as her shoulders slumped down more than they were before and she stopped nervously wiping hair out of her face.
“Thank you for reaching out to us.” Steven leans back and grabs his cup of coffee, he empties the rest of it before putting the cup down on the table. He stands up and grabs Jakes espresso.
“However we can clearly see that despite your claims and promises you’ve NOT changed at all. I had hope that you did but you haven’t and we can’t do anything more than what we’ve already done for you, you should be grateful that Marc decided to even have a coffee with you in the first place. In fact, you should be proud of how bloody good of a person he is to do this. With you of all people.” Steven shakes his head in disbelief and steps out of the booth. He’s finished with her now. He’s seen what she’s like. He knows now, for sure, who she is.
He stops at the side of the table and looks down on her, Wendy still looks ahead, at the seat that he still sat in a few minutes ago.
“We will never forgive you… not like you’ve asked for it, even though you should be begging on your knees for it, but I just want you to be aware. I will never forgive you for what you’ve done to Marc and Jake. Marc will never forgive you for blaming him and ruining his life and everything else that you’ve done. Jake will never forgive you for never knowing what a home is and for teaching him nothing but pain and danger. Neither of them will ever forgive you for hurting them in the way you’ve done. Every. Single. Day.
You chose to abandon Marc all those years ago and now we abandon you. Never reach out to us again, never look for us again, never come to our house again and stay away from Layla.
Marc doesn’t want you near her so if you still have a bit of dignity left you will respect his wish and leave us alone. We have each other, so we don’t need you and I doubt that we ever truly did.” He finishes his speech and looks at her for a second longer, watches her swallow hard and stare at the fabric of what was his seat.
Then he turns to the door and walks out, the bell above his head singing him a friendly goodbye.
He walks a few steps and then surrenders the body to Jake.
Jake stops walking and looks down on the espresso that Steven made sure to take for him. He took a sip and started walking again as he shook his head and pulled their phone out of his pocket, placing it gently against his ear. “I think I’m in shock.”
“Me too buddy… me too.” Marc answered speechlessly.
“…was that too much?” Steven frowned unsure “I mean… I didn’t want to speak for you guys of course I don’t, never do, but I kind of felt like we were in agreement there weren’t we? Oh god were we?! I’m so-“
“Steven!” Jake laughed, acting like he was on the phone always proved to be a good cover up for trying to avoid looking absolutely insane for just yelling on the street.
“We’re in shock because we didn’t even know you were able to…get that way Steven…” Marc says, still sounding bewildered.
“Yeah hermanito, what was that all about? ¿Eres un gángster aterrador y no nos lo dijiste?”
“I mean… I Dunno I didn’t like how she was talking to Marc yeah?… and then you took Marc out of the front and the both of you were too distracted to keep me blocked so I took my chance to give her a piece of my mind… dunno she just made me so angry and I didn’t think either of you deserved that after what you’ve already went through because of her.”
“You’re crazy buddy” Marc says after a moment “… but thank you.”
“Estoy de acuerdo con la primera parte... y la segunda parte. Gracias”. Jake adds and crosses the street.
Steven knows that they mean that. Wendy has been somewhat of a sore spot to all three of them.
Steven was also aware how much it meant to both Marc and Jake to be cared for. How much it meant to them to feel protected too every once in a while instead of always being the ones to protect. They liked to protect the people they loved, probably even needed it, but they also needed to know that they were worth defending just as much.
And Steven would always take every chance to protect them anyways. They were his brothers and after finding out what they had to endure in all their lives already? He’d let nobody hurt them ever again. No way.
“Hey what’s up with Marc anyways? He went all big boy on her too didn’t he?” Jake smirks mischievously.
“Oh shut up, Jakob” Marc mocks him, knowing full well the name will annoy him. Steven laughs wholeheartedly as he watches Jake roll his eyes.
He decides to take a walk through some type of park that he doesn’t bother to remember the name of, all he knows is that when he’s on the other side of it the Buckingham palace is right in front of him and he could swear a squirrel has been following him for the last 3 minutes.
They spend some time around the area, just enjoying the weather, each other’s company and Stevens rambling about various sights.
When they get back home Layla greets them with a happy smile. Jake hugs her and thinks that he’s so fucking happy Marc found someone who’s truly happy and glad when they came home to her. He didn’t think he loved Layla like Marc did but he loved the way she treated them, including himself. He holds onto her tightly for a moment, just slightly throwing her off before he hands control over to Marc.
Marc wraps his arms around her even closer and burries his face in her neck, her hair tickles his nose but he doesn’t care.
He kisses her neck deeply a few times before pulling away.
“Is everything okay?” She looks at him and strokes over his upper arms softly.
“Yeah… I’m fine.” He answers, his hands gently resting on her waist but she just raises her eyebrow.
“I’m honestly fine.” Marc chuckles and kisses her head softly. “That was… that was my mom.” He decides to share with her.
Layla tenses, her eyes growing wide. She knew the whole story by now. Of course she did. Marc never wanted to loose her so if telling her everything meant he’d get to keep her then that would be a sacrifice worth making. Sure Steven had to help and step in on a few occasions. Jake later told her some things that neither of the other two knew either. It was chaotic and confusing but they made it work. And now Layla knew. Layla knew everything and still, she stayed.
“Oh my god. I’m so sorry I-… my god what?” Layla shakes her head in confusion before looking up to him quickly again “Are you sure you’re okay? I know it’s still not easy.”
“Yes I’m perfect… and Steven kinda took care of the situation.” He scratches the back of his neck and Layla stops. “…Steven?” She asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Yep.” Marc answers, popping the p.
“Sweet Steven?!”
“Yeah Hiya… that’s me” Steven nods and waves at Layla awkwardly after he switched with Marc.
“What the hell happened?”
Steven opened his mouth but didn’t manage to get one word out before Jake pushed himself back into the front excitedly. He’d had too much espresso for sure.
“Steven shredded that bitch right apart!” He exclaims with a laugh as he grabs her wrist to pull her with him. “It was the best thing ever I swear to god, so good!” He pushes her down on the couch gently before plopping down with her and starting to explain exactly what had happened like an excited kid.
Marc just laughed in their headspace as he watched Steven blush furiously.