Chapter Text
A mural of Alll-Mer overlooks the boxing club. There are dim lights illuminating the ring. The building is clearly old, layers of white paint chipping on the walls. It had high ceilings. The boxing ring was dingy. Some of the ropes seemed to be held together with electrical tape. The Ref circled the pair in the center. Marcoh felt the sweat drip down his back, boxing itself made him sweat but the building’s stuffy interior wasn’t helping. The people from the crowd are throwing their trash into the ring. Marcoh’s opponent, Spider Rico, throws quick jabs at Marcoh’s face. Marcoh’s head rears back at the force, he faintly hears the crowd booing. The pair end up wrestling as Spider Rico has him pinned by the ropes. Marcoh faintly felt the electrical tape against his bare back. The referee, who was dressed in casual clothes, separated the two.
Marcoh took a few steps back before he was punched in the face by Spider Rico again. “Come on! Hit him!” A woman yelled. Marcoh was once again punched in the face. Marcoh grows tired of this abuse and rushes Spider Rico. He immediately has him pinned to a corner of the ring. Marcoh starts taking body shots, punching at Rico’s side. Marcoh switched between jabs to his abdomen and his face. The ref separates them again and the bell dings. Marcoh stalks to his corner and slumps down on the stool. The corner man takes the mouth guard out of Marcoh’s mouth as he pants. “You’re waltzing. Give the sucker some action.” The corner man instructs. The corner man places the mouth guard on a towel before glancing at Marcoh. “You’re fighting like a bum. You want some advice?” Marcoh huffs in exhausted annoyance. “Water.” Marcoh breathes out, voice gruff.
The corner man haphazardly poured water into Marcoh’s mouth. He swishes the water in his mouth, tasting iron, before spitting it out into a bucket. A man calls from outside the ring. He was old, his hair not yet graying but the wrinkles in his face prominent. His hairline receding. “Marcoh, should I bet the fight don’t go three rounds? You feel strong?” Marcoh huffs. “Absolutely.” The man nods and smiles at Marcoh’s confidence and unfurls the bills he was holding in his hand. He hurries off to go bet. The corner man glances at Marcoh again. “You want some good advice? You should–” Marcoh cuts him off. “Mouthpiece.” The corner man shoves the mouth guard into Marcoh’s mouth. The bell dings, Marcoh moves to stand up, his skin glistening from sweat.
Rico and Marcoh begin to circle each other again, Spider Rico holding his hands in front of his face, seeming to have the tension of a spring. Marcoh lazily holds one gloved fist in front of him, the other dangling by his side. Marcoh takes a step forward, fist by his side leading, but Spider Rico quickly takes a step back. Marcoh returns his fist to his side and they circle each other again. Rico throws quick punches to Marcoh’s face again. After the third punch, they begin wrestling until being promptly separated by the referee. The crowd continues to throw trash into the ring, yelling.
They circle once more until Spider Rico has Marcoh pushed against the ropes. He continues throwing quick jabs at his face. Rico then rears his head back and headbutts Marcoh. The referee quickly separates them, scolding Rico. Marcoh tries to hold onto his head through gloved hands. His vision blurry, his sense of balance thrown off. The referee quickly checks on Marcoh to ensure he’s recovered before backing away. Marcoh glances at Spider Rico before rushing him. Marcoh pushes Rico against the ropes of the ring. Marcoh uses his left arm to pin Spider Rico before punching him with his right hand. Rico’s head rears back due to the force. Marcoh is almost in a fit of anger as he continues to beat on Spider Rico.
He punches Rico’s face three times before he begins his slow descent to the floor. Marcoh follows with body shots as Spider Rico’s knees give out. The bell dings multiple times to tell the fighters to stop. Marcoh doesn’t let up on his assault on Spider Rico until he’s pulled away by the referee. Marcoh tries holding onto his face again while the referee lifts his right arm to tell the crowd he has one the fight. Marcoh’s left hand leaves his face as he looks up to look at the crowd. His vision is still blurry, but this could be due to sweat falling in his eyes.
The bell dings once, signaling the end of the fight. Marcoh holds the towel to his face. His hair sticks to his face, damp with sweat. The corner man helps Marcoh take off his gloves, Marcoh glances at him. "Thank you." The corner man's eyes widen at being suddenly spoken to but nods with a smile. After his gloves have been removed, Marcoh makes his way out of the ring. He tries to ignore the screams from the crowd as he's announced the winner.
"You're a bum!" One man yelled. Marcoh weaved through the small crowd before spotting a friend. Still holding the towel to his face, he taps him on the shoulder. "Marc?" The man asks, looking up at Marcoh. Marcoh gestures to the cigarette. "Can I have a smoke?" His friend nods and hands him the cigarette he was smoking. "Yeah, you can have this one." Marcoh takes it before a woman yells at him. "Hey Marcoh!" He looks over to her as he places the cigarette in his mouth. "You're a bum! You know that?!" Marcoh dismisses her as he heads towards the locker room. It wasn’t much of a locker room. There were about four lockers, school locker sized, pushed against a wall. The walls were white, more of an off-white yellow color due to years of smoke. There was a cabinet pushed against another wall that had been vandalized in sharpie. Marcoh never cared to read it.
Marcoh idly takes puffs from the cigarette as he walks. He opts to let the towel hang around his neck, satisfied as he is no longer bleeding. He glances at the bloody towel as he grabs his robe from the locker. He puts on his gray robe, the words "ITALIAN STALLION" embroidered on the back. He moves to sit on an old wooden bench in the middle of this tiny locker room. Marcoh takes one last puff from the cigarette before stamping it out before untying his boxing shoes. "Hey," Someone calls out to Marcoh from the corner, he turns his head to look at them. "You really got lucky tonight." Spoke spider rico before sipping in his beer. His face was badly bruised, Marcoh was almost tempted to apologize.
The promoter comes in and then begins fast-talking at the pair. Marcoh stares off as spider rico gets bombarded with information about his share. Rico ends the night with 17 dollars and 20 cents. Rico takes it without ceremony. The promoter then begins the whole spiel again at Marcoh. "Marcoh, you get winner’s share: $65, less $15 locker and corner end, $5 shower and %7 tax, comes to..." The promoter looks at the stack of cash before handing Marcoh his share. "$40.55" Marcoh continues undoing the laces in his boxing shoes. "When do I fight again?" The promoter flips through the money in his hand. "Maybe two weeks. Give me a call." He says quickly. "The doctor should be in— about 20 minutes." Marcoh takes the cash as the promoter leaves the locker room.
Marcoh, fully changed, leaves the boxing club, walking the streets home. Marcoh passes by the pet store. He stops in front of the window, a puppy comes up and paws at him through the glass. Marcoh smiles, whistles, and presses a finger to the glass. "Hey boy." He quietly coos. He leans down to be eye level with the puppy and whistles some more. 2 more puppies bound over to see Marcoh. He decides he's indulged too much and straightens up, before continuing his commute home.
Marcoh turns the key to his shabby apartment. He steps inside, wooden floorboards creaking underneath him, flicking on the lights. The apartment is bathed in an ugly yellow hue. Marcoh sifts through his fridge, looking for a beer. He decides to just drink the open, room temperature beer on top of the fridge. He quickly finishes it and tosses it by the trash can, not caring if the bottle made it in.
Marcoh takes off his fingerless gloves and turns on the record player. He glances at the small tank holding two pacman frogs. He walks over to the dingy tables, walking through a doorway that had an old mattress nailed to the wall, and leans down to be eye level with the tank. "Hey, your old man did pretty good tonight." He slowly drawls. One of the frogs, Cuff, blinks at him. Marcoh points an accusatory finger at the tank. "Why weren't you there? Should've seen me." The other frog, Link, hops away when his finger comes up to the glass. "You must be hungry..." Marcoh stands up and goes over to his fridge. He opens and grabs a container of worm bait. Marcoh makes his way back to the froh tank and opens the top.
He holds out a worm for Cuff to bite. "There you go..." Marcoh coos as Cuff bites the worm. Marcoh repeats the action for Link. Marcoh glances at the ledge holding his boxing memorabilia.It holds a few trophies, some scrunched up napkins, and above it is a peeling old picture of boxer Rocky Marciano. There is also a small bowl with a salamander. "You guys wanna see your friend Moby dick?" he calls out to the frogs as he places the top back on their tank. He walks over and grabs the small glass bowl with one hand. He places the small tank holding moby dick next to the tank holding Cuff and Link. Marcoh steps back to look at the two tanks. "If you guys could sing or dance I wouldn't have to do this."
Marcoh hangs his leather jacket in a hunting knife he had stabbed into the wall. A makeshift coat rack of sorts. He then stared at his reflection and compared it to a picture had of when he was just a kid. Marcoh currently had a bandage over the brow of his right eye. It was red and purple, bruised beneath the bandage. The picture of him as a kid had a similar bone structure. He wasn't smiling in the picture, just like how Marcoh wasn't smiling now as he stared at his own picture. Marcoh is thankful that boxing hasn't changed his facial structure too much. He remembers the painful swelling above his right eye and walks towards the fridge.
He grabs the ice tray and taps it against the top of the fridge. He doesn't care for the cubes that fall on the floor. He doesn't care to wrap the ice in napkins. Marcoh holds two ice cubes above his right eye and goes to sit on his bed. He doesn't take off his boots, just sits and stares off into the distance, focusing on the cold sensation in his hands against his burning injury.
A woman looks at her reflection as she gets ready for the day. "Hey, have you uh, have you heard the joke about frogs?" She murmurs to herself as she brushes her hair. "It's totally ribbiting!" She then stares at herself for a beat before groaning and holding her head in her hands. "No! That's stupid!" There is then a loud knock at the bathroom door. "y/n!" Her older brother, Pavel, yells. "Get out of there already!" y/n groans. "In a minute Pav!" He slams against the door again. "I pay for all the bills in this damn house! I should be able to use my bathroom when I want!"
y/n groans before cracking the bathroom door to peek at Pav. He looks at her, annoyed and unimpressed, shoving his foot between the crack. "Don't you dare try closing the door on me now." y/n scoffs but opens the door. "I was done anyways." Pav walks into the bathroom. "Brat." He mutters, shoving past her. y/n steps out of the bathroom, hearing the door slam behind her. y/n flinches at the sound but walks into the kitchen.
Pav was unfortunately right, he does pay all the bills so y/n feels a need to help him somehow. She checked on the lunch she made for Pav. It was a simple meal of rice, baked beans, leftover oven roasted chicken from last night's dinner. y/n woke up early just to make it for him, he never says thank you but he leaves the dirty tupperware in the sink so he at least eats it. y/n walks into her room, figuring she ought to get ready for work.
Working at a pet shop is fun, y/n supposed. Playing with the animals is nice, but Gloria, who owns the shop, loves making y/n clean up their shit. The pet shop had the constant drone of birds chirping. The building was small, with book shelves holding the merchandise. There were shelves behind and in front of the register. The place was drab but didn’t look too bad when sunlight came on through the floor to ceiling windows in the front. The name of the pet shop, “Animal Town Pet Shop” was painted onto the glass. y/n was manning the register when her favorite customer walked in.
He comes in occasionally to buy mealworms and such. He had a hulking frame, one that evoked power. y/n guessed he was about 6 '3, he had wide shoulders. He appeared muscular. Well y/n thought he was seeing his large biceps fill his leather jacket. The outline of his chest is visible through his shirt. y/n saw the bandage over his right eyebrow but chose not to comment on it. y/n leaned over the counter as she spoke. "How are you feeling this morning? full of life?" y/n spoke with a smile. Her beautiful, favourite customer, Marcoh, ignored her as she looked at the self behind her.
y/n wrote on a piece of paper by the register, pretending to look busy. "Fine." Marcoh finally replied. Marcoh glanced at the puppies by the window. y/n smiled as she watched him. "Hi killers!" She cooed to the puppies. Marcoh turned his attention back to her. y/n was aware how he was probably looking at the shelf again, but it felt like he was studying her. y/n cleared her throat. "Hey, it's a good thing you, uh, walk here, you know?" Marcoh ignored her yet again. He walked to the side of the counter, y/n followed to talk to him.
Marcoh stretched up to grab mealworms above y/n. The current position had y/n feel enveloped by Marcoh. She glanced at his face that looked up at the mealworms, he had pretty eyes framed with beautiful eyelashes. At least that's what y/n thought. Marcoh was still close but kept a respectable distance between them but he was so close, his body was all y/n could see. After grabbing the mealworms, he instantly backed away. y/n didn't notice his tight grip on the plastic container. y/n blinked owlishly at Marcoh, the tension was palpable. That was the moment Gloria, the pet shop owner, came by to restock the shelf. "Excuse me Marcoh." Gloria muttered as she brushed past him, Marcoh steps even farther away from the shelf to make room.
“Hey um, it's good you walk here cause–" y/n tried to interject, Gloria gave her a pointed look. "Cause if you parked out here your car would be–" y/n gave Marcoh a wry smile. "Toad." Gloria groans as she stocks the fish pellets she grabbed from this paper bag. "You're starting with bad jokes early, huh?" y/n glanced at Gloria before looking back at Marcoh, who had little reaction to her joke. "Inventing jokes isn't easy sometimes..." y/n said quietly, pathetically.
A dog in the crate starts barking, causing Marcoh to look over. "Hi Moonless!" y/n called. Marcoh took approximately two steps before crouching down in front of the cage. Moonless pressed her nose to the cage, her whole body shaking with excitement as her tail smacked the sides of the cage. Marcoh smiles at the dog, sticking his fingers through the cage. Moonless paws at the cage. "Give me a kiss, Moonless..." Marcoh coos at the animal. y/n eyes widened at his words, lucky dog, she thought angrily. Moonless enthusiastically licked at Maroch's fingers through the cage.
Marcoh stands up and looks at y/n, they stare for a beat until she realizes what he's asking. "Oh! You wanna check out? Here, I'll ring you up!" y/n spins on her heel, almost bumping into Gloria. Gloria glares at y/n. "...How about you make yourself useful and clean the cat cages..." y/n sighed but begrudgingly made her way towards the cat cages. Gloria walked towards the register. "That's it for today?" Marcoh nods at her. "Yes." Gloria gives him a small smile as she starts ringing him up.
y/n slides the latex glove over one hand, feeling it stretch and mold to her hand. y/n came in here to clean so often the smell doesn't even bother her that much anymore. She had her eyebrows furrowed as she slid the second glove on as she thought through that interaction. She was so awkward! Good thing you don't drive or else you'll get toad? She really was stupid! y/n grabbed and grabbed at her head in frustration before walking towards the storage closet where they keep the cleaning supplies. At least she got to be close to Marcoh for about two seconds. Those two seconds were heavenly, she thought as she crouched to begin scrubbing the first cat cage.