Work Text:
“Mark, time for breakfast!”
After seeing Eve out and concocting a plan for her to show up at the door “randomly”, Mark went downstairs, trying to act as nonchalant as possible and not as if he had had his girlfriend stay the night secretly. But once he got down the stairs, he forgot all about his act when he saw something strange in the kitchen.
Okay, actually it was a strange someone in the kitchen.
“Rex?” Mark couldn’t believe his eyes when seeing the other hero in his kitchen. And Rex was acting like he belonged there too, helping Oliver set the table while Mark’s mom made pancakes. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, hey, Mark!” Rex waved at him happily. “Debbie, I mean, your mom invited me to come have breakfast.”
Mark looked over at his mom who nodded. “What?”
“He’s over here a lot. Why are you so surprised?” Oliver asked, tilting his head.
“What.” What.
“Okay, you know how you caught me hanging out with your mom that one time and we bonded over home decor magazines? Well, now we have a little club going on. Only 2 members. 2 and half if you want to count Oliver because usually he’s not into it.” Rex explained as if everything made perfect sense.
“He even likes to talk about real estate.” Debbie smiled.
“Why doesn’t anyone ever tell me anything?” Mark lamented. “It would be nice to know that one of my friends practically lives at my house now.”
“I wouldn’t say “lives” but-” Rex shrugged.
“He’s slept in your room tons of times.” Oliver supplied. “When you aren’t here.”
“Excuse me?” Mark couldn’t believe his ears.
“Did you have to say that, Oliver? I think Mark might want to kill me now.” Rex winced.
“I’ll protect you!” Oliver declared, puffing out his chest.
Just then everyone heard someone at the door. That someone being Eve, of course.
“Hey, Eve.” Mark said awkwardly. “What a surprise!”
“Why’d you fly out Mark’s window if you were just going to come back- ow!” Oliver yelped as Mark kicked him. He hoped his mom hadn’t heard any of what Oliver had just said.
“Oh! Well, hello, Mark. I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I would stop by and see you guys.” Eve said just as awkwardly as he invited her into the house. She also stopped short when she saw that Rex was there and turned to Mark with a questioning look.
“My mom invited him. Don’t ask.” Mark sighed.
“You know Mark’s mom?” Eve was going to ask anyway.
“Yeah, me and Debbie go waaaayyy back.” Rex boasted with a shining grin.
Eve looked like she was thinking, piecing things together and then she had her eureka moment. “It’s because she’s a realtor, huh?”
“It’s actually scary how fast you were able to put that together, but yeah, I freaking love houses and all that stuff.” Rex said. “Sometimes Debbie even buys some of my decor choices.”
Mark glanced around. “So you’re the reason why we suddenly have some ugly things decorating the house. I just thought my mom was losing it.”
“Rude.” Debbie and Rex scolded him at the same time.
“But where are my manners? Would you like to stay for breakfast, Eve? I had Oliver set out an extra plate.” Debbie smiled.
“Oh, um, lucky for me I guess, right? I would love to have breakfast with y’all, thank you.” Eve took her seat across from Rex who Debbie was giving as many pancakes to as she had just given Oliver.
Mark and Eve had a normal amount of pancakes.
Mark yawned, prompting his mom to ask him how he slept.
“Mark wasn’t sleeping.” Oliver declared confidently. “He and Eve had a sleepover!”
Rex almost spit out his orange juice, descending into a coughing fit.
“Oh dear.” Debbie commented.
“Oliver, what the hell!” Mark hissed, kicking his little brother under the table at the same time that Eve must have kicked Rex because both exclaimed “Ow!”
“Stop kicking me!” Oliver kicked him back. “They made too much noise playing and woke me up.”
Mark could have died on the spot. Rex snorted to hide his laughter and Eve decided her drink was the most interesting thing in the world.
“I uh, we were watching a movie! I didn’t know it was going to be so loud.” he lied through his teeth as Oliver glared at him, each refusing to give up ground as they mercilessly kicked each other under the table.
This went on for a little while and Eve made pleasant conversation with Debbie about the pancakes. Rex concurred, but still let out the occasional snicker.
Finally, the kicking stopped when Oliver got distracted by more pancakes and Mark was given a breather. But this also meant that someone had to keep up the conversation.
“Me and Eve, we’re thinking about getting an apartment together.” Mark said, picking at his plate a tad nervously as he shared his and Eve’s plan to the table.
“Really? So soon?” His mom seemed taken aback.
“Who’s going to play with me?” Oliver was put out too. As if he hadn’t just been fighting with Mark.
“I’ll be like 5 minutes away tops.” Mark promised. “I’m not going to be gone forever.”
“Still, we would miss having you here…” Debbie trailed off.
“I know but-” Mark began but he was interrupted by Rex who had just caught up with the conversation topic at hand.
“If it’s money you need for the apartment, I can get you Robot’s credit card numbers.”
“Rex, we are not teaching Oliver to steal.” Eve hissed at him over her pancakes, looking like she wanted to throw something at his head.
“Yeah, stealing is wrong.” Oliver said, almost exactly copying Eve’s frown at Rex.
“Okay, okay, geez, it was just a suggestion.” Rex held up his hands in surrender. “It’s not like he’s going to miss the money anyways…”
“And you know this from experience?” Debbie lifted an eyebrow.
Mark watched as Rex turned pale and began stammering.
“Wh- what? No, no way, I would never unlawfully take someone else’s money. It’s just that sometimes he buys stuff for me and uh, he doesn’t seem to care how much I spend, haha.” Rex lied unconvincingly.
“Smooth.” Mark smirked and this time Rex kicked him under the table.
“Anyway, we’re going to get jobs to pay for an apartment. You know as you do when you want money.” Eve deadpanned.
“I call dibs on crashing at your pad.” Rex said with his mouth full of food. He had even worse manners than the kid in the room.
“Huh? No way, it’s not like you’re homeless. We don’t need your level of mess at our place.” Eve frowned, rejecting that idea immediately.
“Actually, I am homeless, remember?”
“No, you’re an orphan. That’s different.” she pointed out.
“Don’t you have my room to crash in, Rex?” Mark reminded Rex he hadn’t forgotten about what Oliver had said.
“Okay, so I’m homeless, parentless, and now friendless? I see how it is.” Rex huffed. “Debbie, adopt me, please?” he made puppy dog eyes at her.
“I feel like I already have, minus the paperwork, of course.” Debbie smiled.
Mark rolled his eyes as Rex stuck his tongue out at him.
“Just try to remember we’re all friends here.” Mark’s mom chuckled.
“Yeah, when will you and Rex have a sleepover? Can I join?” Oliver piped up excitedly.
This time nothing could stop Mark from turning red and Rex from laughing out loud.
“What? What’s so funny?” Oliver didn’t like being left out of the joke.
“Maybe when you’re older…” Eve sighed wearily, putting her head on the table.
“Does anyone want more pancakes?” Debbie asked pleasantly as if everything was normal.
“Me!” Oliver declared.
“Me too!” Rex stopped laughing long enough to say that.
Mark just wanted to be excused from the table.