Chapter Text
When Martin was 5 years old his mother died due to complications derived from a terrible case of pneumonia. At the time he hadn’t really known why her cough eventually turned to her lying cold and stiff in a hospital bed, but he did know that he could not afford to pay for the apartment they lived in.
His dad had left a few months before his mother’s illness took a turn for the worst, and although Martin couldn’t say that he missed his dad too much (he yelled all the time and grabbed martin’s arms just a bit too hard) he thought it was rather inconvenient that he didn’t have any place to go. Well, other than the foster home he’d been placed in.
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. The family he was placed with were called the Price’s and they were rather nice all things considered. There were six kids living in the house, two of which were biologically theirs, another had been adopted and the other three were being fostered like Martin was.
At the time Martin didn’t really appreciate the family. He’d been more worried about how he wouldn’t see the neighborhood cat that visited his windowsill every so often or get to sit under his favorite slide again. Or, more pressingly, how what his mother had assured him was just a cold turned to pneumonia, which turned to sepsis, which turned to death.
There was a time when Martin had asked Mrs. Price about where he would go once she didn’t want him anymore, she’d gotten rather flustered at this question and explained that considering his ‘situation’ they were fully prepared to keep him for as long as he needed them and that he didn’t need to worry about them not wanting him anymore because he was ‘just a lovely boy’. Martin thought that sounded rather fake as neither his mother nor his father really seemed to want him but it was nice to hear anyway.
It took him about four months to get used to living with the Price’s, he got along with his foster siblings well enough (although within those four months one of his siblings, a boy named james, had left, so he didn’t get to know him very well) and had started going back to school where he’d made a couple of friends. He didn’t know if he really missed his mom, but he supposed that he was a bit sad he’d never see her again, even if she shouted at him quite a bit, she didn’t shout as much as his dad did so he missed her more than him at least.
It was about a week after Martin had gotten fully settled into living with the Price’s when he’d gotten back from school only to see his foster parents visibly upset. Mrs. Price’s eyes were even beginning to well up with tears.
Martin knew that when people looked like they were about to cry the polite thing to do was ask if there was something wrong. So he walked up to her, a bit tentatively, and pulled slightly on her skirt to get her attention (she always cooed at him when he did that, so maybe it would make her feel better?), “What’s the matter?”
Unfortunately, that only seemed to make things worse as her welling tears began to fall down her face, she looked rather embarrassed by this, and Martin wasn’t sure what to do.
“Hey, hey it’s fine.” Martin turned towards Mr. Price who’d crouched down to get his attention, “We just got some, uh, sudden news, and Mrs. Price is a little upset about it, ok?”
Martin nodded his head, he understood, when he heard upsetting news he’d cry about it sometimes too, “Is…is everything ok?”
“Yeah, yeah it’s fine. It’s just…” Mr. Price sighed, “We got a call today, someone’s decided to adopt you. Which is great! Really! It’s just that over the past few months we’ve grown to care about you a whole bunch, so we’re a little sad that you’re gonna be leaving so soon.”
“Oh…” Martin shifted around, he didn’t really want to leave but he didn’t think that decision was really up to him, “When am I leaving?”
Mr. Price clenched his jaw, “In about 45 minutes.”
Martin’s eyes widened, “Huh? Why so soon? I won’t be able to tell everyone bye, Jaime’s still at band practice.”
“I know, I know.” Mr. Price closed his eyes, “We just got the call about five minutes ago, that’s why we looked so upset when you came in. We…haven’t ever had someone have to leave without any notice.”
Martin thought that made sense, but he was also worried about packing his stuff super quick, and he was sad he wasn’t gonna get to say goodbye to his foster sister Jamie (he’d gotten to say goodbye to his dad when he left, even if martin didn’t particularly care. also he’d technically gotten to say goodbye to his mum, even if her eyes were closed at the time).
So he nodded, shifted back and forth on his feet, and then ran off to his room. He didn’t think he had enough time to pack all of his stuff so he just chose the things that were important. His favorite stuffed animals, a book he’d gotten that had a picture of a spider eating a bat which Martin liked to look at, and some of his favorite shirts.
Before he knew it he was being called downstairs and was looking up at the man who had apparently decided to adopt him.
Martin wasn’t really sure how to feel. His foster siblings that were home had all gathered around to say goodbye. Mr. and Mrs. Price both looked rather agitated but they still smiled at Martin and asked if he needed help getting his things to the car. He didn’t and before he knew it he was seated in the back of a car with a man whose name he didn’t even know.
It was a very nice car at least, the seats were soft and it smelled very nice. The silence was a bit uncomfortable though, and while Martin tried to figure out something to say the man decided to speak, “Hello Martin, how are you doing today?”
Martin was a bit thrown off by the question but responded how he always did when asked how he was doing, “I’m fine…um…”
“Hm? Do you have a question?”
“Yeah, um, how come I had to leave so soon? I didn’t even have time to pack everything?”
“Ah, well.” the man sniffed, “I just found your file today so I assume the process was a bit more rushed than usual. However, I’m going to be rather busy throughout the week, so today is the only day that I’m available to come to pick you up.”
“Okay.” Martin shifted around and the car fell back into silence for a moment, “Why did you decide to adopt me?”
The man tilted his head back and forth, “I suppose… I wanted to adopt a child and I just Knew that you would be perfect for my husband and I.”
Huh. Martin didn’t know that men could have husbands but Martin didn’t know a lot of things so he decided to move on, “O…kay? Um, I still don’t know your name though, and you know mine so…”
“Ah, well. You’re my son now so I don’t think my name is all that important, you’ll refer to me as ‘Father’ alright?”
Martin blinked, “But I don’t really know you yet?”
“Yes, and that doesn’t change the fact that I’m your father now. Understand?”
The man’s, er, his father’s tone wasn’t particularly harsh or anything, it’s just… Father felt both too formal and familiar for Martin’s taste, especially since Martin hadn’t even decided if he liked this man or not.
“Martin? I asked if you understood?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry!”
Martin’s new room was very big.
This wasn’t a surprise as on the walk up to his room he’d found that the entire house was big, and filled with incredibly fancy things. Martin wasn’t a fan of the decorations, there were lots of portraits and objects that looked to be as old as they were expensive. He felt rather out of place, to be honest.
Martin’s room was the same as the rest of the house. It seemed to be the same size as the apartment that he’d lived in with his mum if not even larger. His closet was filled with button-downs and sweater vests, his shelves were stacked high with books that he couldn’t even begin to hope to reach.
He didn’t like it.
He tried as best as he could to ‘Make himself at home.’ as he’d been instructed by this ‘Father’ figure, but it wasn’t working too well. As a last resort, he pulled out his favorite books and got lost looking at the pictures of all the pretty spiders. He’d just gotten to his favorite pictures when the book was yanked out of his hand and he looked up to see the ma- Father (that would take some getting used to) with a stern expression,
“We don’t need things like this in the house. If you’d like to read something I have plenty of books picked out for you on the shelves, you’re welcome to look at any of those.”
Martin didn’t even get the chance to respond before Father had turned and walked out of the room.
Martin missed the Price’s, he didn’t like it here.
“-honestly, I don’t understand what the point is of taking live statements if people like you are just going to come in and make a huge joke of it all and-”
Martin hated everything about the Magnus Institute.
He hated the location, he hated the ridiculous portraits that hung up everywhere, and he hated the vast majority of the staff.
But the new Archivist (or, new head archivist he supposed, Jonathan Sims wasn’t quite the archivist yet) was really making an effort to climb to the top of that list.
Martin had never particularly liked Gertrude Robinson. He’d met her maybe ten times in his life, the first time when he was around six and the last time had been just a few months ago. She’d never bothered with pretending to like Martin, and it wasn’t as though he could exactly blame her for that, what with his parentage and all that. But he would’ve preferred if she hadn’t made her clear suspicion and distrust obvious to him even at the age of six.
It also didn’t help that one day when he actually agreed to come to the institute with his father in the hopes of seeing his favorite archival assistant he was told while on the way that Gertrude had fed him to the Distortion.
So yeah, Martin didn’t like the previous Archivist very much, and he couldn’t say that he’d been too broken up about it when his father had informed him of her…disappearance.
He’d hoped that maybe the new head archivist would be a bit less suspicious of everything that Martin said, but that hope was completely crushed when as soon as Martin finished giving his statement (about a very strange dog he’d encountered whilst doing some field work for the story he was currently investigating) Mr. Sims had immediately began attempting to break the record for being the biggest cunt imaginable.
Martin could see exactly why his father chose him for the position, they were both unpleasant to be around. His father probably sensed their kindred spirits or something.
“-do I seem like a fool to you? That you’ll come in and tell a story about a, what did you call it? A ‘Dog-that-wasn’t-a-dog’ which what, ‘stole your field notes’ and I’d just take your word for it? With absolutely zero evidence? I have gone through quite a few obviously false statements but yours really-”
“Whatever, I don’t really care if you believe me or not. I came in, I gave the statement,” Martin looked pointedly into the eyes of the nearest picture he could find, “I did what I’ve been told to do whenever these things happen, so I’m just going to go. Congratulations on your promotion Mr. Sims, it really seems to suit you.”
“And what is that supposed to-”
“Martin.”
Mr. Sims immediately cut off what he was about to say, looking at the figure standing behind Martin with vague surprise, “Ah, um.” he coughed, “Hello Elias, did you need something?”
“Yes Jon, I did actually.” Martin could feel the gaze searing into the back of his head, “I needed to know why my son would come to visit my place of work and not even bother to say hello.”
Martin couldn’t help the feeling of satisfaction that came over him as Mr. Sims looked back and forth between Martin and his father, alarm starting to appear as he realized that the person he’d just spent the better part of five minutes berating just so happened to be his boss’s son.
Served him right, the pretentious ass.
Unfortunately, that feeling of satisfaction was quickly replaced by dread as his father continued, “And now you won’t even turn to look at me. Martin, I know I raised you better than this, and I’m still not hearing an explanation for you not even calling to let me know that you’d be here, what gave you the idea-”
Martin whipped around to look at his father and could feel his face burning. Martin could see the slight flicker of amusement in his father’s eyes and immediately knew that he was doing this on purpose. Elias Knew that Martin hated getting lectured, he Knew that it always made Martin feel about eight years old again, and he Knew that more than anything Martin hated it when his father would scold him in front of other people. It didn’t matter if Martin didn’t like who he was being scolded in front of, hell, he could be getting scolded in front of his dad, it didn’t matter, it was embarrassing, he wasn’t a child.
“I’m sorry, okay?!” Martin turned his eyes directly to the floor, “I figured you’d be busy, and I’m pretty busy as well so-”
“-too busy for a phone call, hm?” Martin could practically hear that eyebrow raise, “Too busy for a five-minute conversation? Too busy for-”
“Alright, alright!” Martin’s eyes darted over to Mr. Sims and then up to his father, “Can we please take this conversation elsewhere? I don’t think it’s really appropriate to have it in front of your employee.”
Martin’s father blinked and then gave a little cough, turning to look back at Mr. Sims, “Ah, I’m sorry Jon, that was rather unprofessional of me. Martin, go up to my office, I’ll be there in a moment.”
Martin took a deep breath, nodded his head, and forced himself to go up to his father’s office as though he were a child being sent to his room. He pointedly did not look at Mr. Sims as he passed.
There were times when Martin really disliked his father.
“I just don’t see why you felt the need to do that, I mean, you Knew that I was just about to head out, you could’ve just called me in when I passed by your office.”
Martin was seated across from his father as though he were receiving a performance review. The chair that Martin was seated in was just low enough to have it feel as though his father was looming over him despite only really having an inch or two on him in height, Martin figured this was probably purposeful to make whoever was seated across from his father feel small.
To be fair, it was working. In this moment Martin certainly felt about two inches tall.
“Well, Martin. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that you decided to take the time to have a full conversation with Rosie before giving your statement, and still had time to get into your little argument with my Archivist.”
Martin shifted a bit in his chair, “Well-that’s-I-”
“You were avoiding me.”
Martin began to thoroughly inspect the woodgrain of his father’s desk, “I wouldn’t say that I was avoiding you per se, but-”
“I’m not stupid Martin, and I don’t know what about my desk is so interesting. I expect you to look at me when I’m talking to you .”
Martin cringed as he snapped his head up to look at his father. It was hard enough to retain eye contact with regular people, with his father it was almost impossible, “Sorry.”
“...Why were you avoiding me?”
“Look, you already Know that-”
“ Martin, why were you avoiding me? ”
“... every time I come here and we have a conversation it goes just like this. I’ve never visited you without you lecturing me over something and I just didn’t want to deal with it. My experience with that dog thing upset me enough since it’s been a while since I’ve dealt with something like that so I was tired.”
There was silence.
“Too tired to speak with your father.”
“ Please don’t-”
“Your father, who housed you-”
“I told you it’s just-”
“Fed you-”
“It’s not personal and besides we-”
“ Raised you, but because every time we talk you forget how to behave you decided to ignore me.”
Tears gathered in Martin’s eyes as his gaze dropped back down to the desk, “...I’m sorry.”
“Are you? Are you really? ”
“...yes…”
“Hm.”
The silence was positively deafening,
“...”
“I suppose you’re forgiven.” Martin didn’t quite let out a sigh of relief but it was a near thing, “Well since you’re here there are a few things I would like to discuss with you.”
Martin tentatively lifted his gaze, “...What…?”
“Our archival team is a bit understaffed, Jon has been expressing that the work has been going rather slow, and given your knowledge and experience I wanted to-”
“No.”
“Martin honestly, if you would just hear me out then-”
“ Absolutely not.”
“I Know that you’re under the impression that working as an archival assistant would be dangerous but I absolutely would not allow any serious harm to befall you and you would really be an excellent addition.”
“Father. You did not make me get my Masters in Journalism only to give me a position, that has nothing to do with my degree, which I would receive through nepotism. ”
“Your work as an investigative journalist would translate exceptionally well down into the archives and you know it.”
“I also know that Dad would kill me if I accepted a position at the Institute, let alone in the archives. ”
Elias narrowed his eyes, “What, have you spoken to your dad recently?”
Martin sighed, he shouldn’t have said that, “No.”
“Of course you haven’t. He’s just a wonderful man, isn’t he? Can’t spare ten minutes to check up on his only son? Can’t muster up the time to speak with his husband?” he scoffed and fixed Martin with a stern look, “We’ll continue this conversation at dinner on Friday.”
Martin pursed his lips, “My answer won’t change.”
“We’ll see.”