The Just Destiny of Fools: Chapter 3
[book cover by imera]
The Just Destiny of Fools
Summary: Smallville AU. Marcus is captivated by a visiting Luthor Corp. executive and her talk of Destiny. But is her not being a Luthor enough reason to trust her? And is Esca pulling Marcus way from or pushing him towards her?
Pairings: Marcus / Esca, Marcus / Tess. If you squint hard: Marcus / Placidus (aka Sid) and Esca / Liathan in their pasts.
Spoilers: Smallville seasons 4 - 10.
Word Count: 27.1 k.
Rating: Teen or PG-13.
Notes
Starts at Smallville season 4 where they are high school seniors and goes from there. The Seal Prince, I’ve given him the name Liathan from the book. As for Placidus, I renamed him Sid to sound more contemporary and modern.
[Warnings:]
Warnings
Rated for disability, ableism, kidnappings, dub-con and non-con sexual battery, D / s dynamics, sub drops, discussions of rape, self harm.
Tess x Marcus: No sex but psychologically D / s.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the ever loving sistermine for being the ever patient beta reader through many drafts, and imera for the beautiful cover.
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Chapter 3
A few months later under the summer solstice sun, Marcus and Esca stand on a hill and survey over the land that is theirs to till, plow, and farm - “cultivate” as Ms. Mercer would call it.
Below them, corn stalks lay flattened. Once vibrant and verdant stalks that leapt from the ground to the eye now sink and disappear into the ground as green meteor rocks assert their glow as toxic blemishes, their green pulse threatening to spread across even more land especially when Marcus passes by.
“Mr. Aquila? Mr. McCunoval?” A man has approached them from behind and he is backed by a van filled with men in blue heavy cotton jumpsuits, except for the one behind the wheel dressed in a black business suit. The man approaches Marcus with his hand out for a handshake but Marcus keeps his hand back behind his defenses.
“Are you the crew from Luthor Corp.?” Marcus asks.
“Yes, Sir,” the man answers. “We have orders to start with the plot of land behind the house. It’s top priority for Ms. Mercer.”
“Of course.”
“Reckon it’ll take a day or so?”
“Will you clear out all the meteor rocks?”
“We’ll clear out as much as we do,” says the suited man behind the wheel.
Marcus turns his back to them all. “I don’t mind you; you don’t mind me. You go on then.”
The men leave and once they are at the house - with Marcus and Esca out of their earshot - Marcus asks, “Is it wrong to want another meteor shower to rain on them if they don’t clear out all the meteor rocks?”
“More meteor rocks would only mean more power for Luthor Corp.,” Esca points out. “But don’t worry. We’ll pick up what they don’t. This land will be clean and spotless of meteor rocks before we start farming it.”
“And the plot for the greenhouse?”
“That little plot larger than the house’s plot, especially that. I promise you. What do I keep telling you?”
“ ‘Screw authority.’ ”
And with that, Esca smiles to himself.
❀
“So. You and Marcus settled into your new home yet?” Liathan asks as he and Esca walk down a street in town before he notices The Talon across the street. “Hey, wanna go into The Talon and get some coffee?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Okay.” Liathan shrugs. “And your new home?”
“Let’s be real. Marcus and I have a house - not a home.” Esca sighs. “Though I guess I like the change from old man Aquila’s house to Luthor property. I mean, I don’t think his old man ever stopped seeing me as the kid at the refugee shelter clinging to Marcus or as the kid who had unexplained nightmares for years. Oh. But then. Luthor property.”
“And here I was liking the symmetry of your living with Marcus and his old man because of the first meteor shower and you moving out because of this second one.”
“If you want symmetry, I’m moving to the new place because of Luthors - ”
“I thought you said she’s only a regional VP?”
“Yeah, but she high enough to directly work for the company’s interests which works for the Luthors’ interests.” Esca shrugs. “Anyways. Moving now because of Luthors. How about we find a way to blame them for the first one too? My dad swore Lionel Luthor was making deals left and right to bring the destruction of the town.”
Liathan laughs. “Dad does say that if your old man were still alive? Together they’d expose a bunch of Luthor Corp. crap.”
❀
“The greenhouse will be twice as big as the house?” Sid looks outside the kitchen window. “That says everything about what she thinks of you.”
“Yeah it does.” Marcus pours iced sweet tea for the both of them.
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say? ‘Yeah it does’?”
“If you have a plan any of us can execute against a multi-billion dollar family and their corporate empire worth dozens of times that, I’d love to hear it.”
Sid frowns. “What does she want you to do?”
“Take care of flowers for her.”
“That’s it?” Sid’s eyes narrow. “That sounds suspiciously easy.”
“Wanna hear how dangerous they are?”
“No. You’re gonna geek out on all that farming stuff I don’t care about.”
“Don’t get pricked by the thorns. Once won’t kill you but too many times could give you a heart attack.”
“Really? So . . . How will you not get killed by heart-breaking flowers?”
“Leather - thick hide - between me and them.”
❀
“You should leave him,” Liathan says as they walk back. “Leave him before you compete with her for him.”
“Why shouldn’t I compete with her? She has no chance.”
“Famous last words of everyone who dared challenge a Luthor. Or, well someone high enough at Luthor Corp. Aren’t you cocky.
“I’m cocky because Marcus is mine.”
“Whatever, she still sounds very powerful in her own way. Teaching Marcus to flip-off authority? No problem. Teaching him to flip-off power? No way, never.”
“Easier than teaching you to submit to me.”
“Screw you!”
“Nope. You never did.”
❀
“You know? Graduation was supposed to be about ascension,” Sid says while looking down to the bottom of his glass of almost finished tea. “And the irony of our graduation was that it got rained on by another meteor shower.”
Marcus raises an eyebrow. “The symbolism of our graduation is more important than the decade of rebuilding from the last one completely wiped out? and the lives lost?”
“You know what I mean. The point is - ” Sid gulps down the last of his tea. “Graduation should be about more than just moving on; it should be about moving on to better.
“Take me for example. Liathan and I are going to Metropolis U. where we’re going to major in business. After that, we’re going to some three-year grad program and get our law and business degrees.
“But what about you? You and Esca are gonna be stuck on a farm.”
“Wow, Sid!” Marcus pounds his fist on the table and Sid flinches - not enough for him to admit to it but enough for Marcus to notice. “Tell me what you think. Tell me what you really think.”
“I just think that you would be better off with someone else.”
“And that someone else would be you?” Marcus asks. And when Sid nods, he continues, “Ms. Mercer wants me to be here. So while Esca can sorta choose to be a farmer, you - who thinks farming is more painful than watching paint dry - would be completely stuck here . . . Unless you get a thrill out of matching wits with Luthor Corp. execs.”
“I’m a good tactician!”
Marcus shakes his head no. “You need a hell of a lot more than ‘good’ to go up against her.”
❀
“Esca!”
The sun is still high in the summer evening yet Marcus still recognizes the time for what it is - moments before the sunset. And as Marcus rushes over to the property fence, Esca takes in the sight of him with the new red jacket over his brown t-shirt. The new jacket is a lot like Clark’s red one, except a warmer, more subdued, and more earthy shade of red.
“Your hug’s a little tight!” Yet Esca hugs back just as tight.
Marcus breaks the hug but then runs his hands all over Esca’s blue t-shirt. “But I was out all day driving the new equipment to the farm while you were here doing chores ’n’ stuff. And then you were out today with Liathan. I’m allowed to miss you.”
“Of course you are.”
Esca grabs Marcus by the inside of his arm and pulls him into the house to the kitchen. Once seated at the table with slow-cooked barbecue beef and sweet tea served, Marcus looks into Esca’s eyes.
“Maybe, just maybe, I’ll love being stuck here with you.”
“Horrible sentences like that are why I don’t like you hanging out with Sid.”
“No, I mean it. I’m stuck here. Yet you’re here. You’re not somewhere else. Someone besides you isn’t here.”
Esca grabs Marcus’s hand and sits himself onto Marcus’s lap. One hand intertwines its fingers with Marcus’s and the other hand cups Marcus’s chin.
“Someone has to stop you from doing something you’ll regret. Not Clark. Dear God, not Sid. Me.” Esca stares into Marcus’s eyes blowing wide. “Me and only me.”
Pins and needles run down Marcus’s legs and with Esca’s heart beating steady yet stronger, Marcus can only nod before Esca leans forward for a kiss.
❀
On the dark grey cement foundation, the greenhouse is built. The black metal grids which hold glass panes in place are bolted down to the foundation. The black wrought iron fence - of bars which weave over and under and around each other in intricate floral patterns - is also bolted to the foundation and from its place it squeezes the greenhouse. Of the greenhouse’s two sets of doors - one at each end of the structure - only one is allowed to open with the fence’s only set of gates which face-off with the house’s kitchen door while the other set of greenhouse doors can open only to bars of iron flowers.
The vroom of a sports car can be heard announcing itself through the property gate and up the driveway. Then heels click across the wood floors from the living room to the kitchen and Tess emerges from the house - crisp dark grey linen suit over a dark purple silk blouse accented by dark grey gloves and black platform high heels which bring her eyes level with Marcus’s - and she makes her way to Marcus at the center of the greenhouse.
As she steps in, she pans her eyes up Marcus’s body before inspecting the empty space around him. “The fields out there, you can use however you wish to your own ends. But everything within these walls of glass and metal goes to my own ends as they belong to me.”
Marcus eyes the empty space around him. “Good to know. Care to put that in writing?”
“The deed already details what is my property legally.” Tess steps into Marcus’s space and pulls him into hers to whisper into his ear, “True ownership doesn’t come from between the lines; it comes from the agreement mutually placed between the lines.”
Tess breaks away from Marcus to leave and announce, “Next week, everything will be ready to move in. Do I have you for that?”
“Yeah, you got me.”
Tess gives Marcus one last glance over her shoulder. “That’s quite smart of you.”
❀
With another year, another summer solstice approaches and the fields which were a sickly spotted green are now a rich dark brown bed for newly planted seeds. The seedlings are less than an inch high - not yet tall enough to even peek out of the ground and Marcus passes through the rows of seedlings, his mind wandering to the future in the summer when the plants will be at their full height and the tassels will start to show. With a few more steps forward, Marcus thinks back to before the first meteor shower.
With the sun in the west back then as it will be in a few months, the cornstalks were so tall over Marcus but then his father lifted him up and carried him on his shoulders so Marcus could see everything. On top of the world, Marcus ran his hand across the tops of the tassels, letting them tickle the underside of his palm.
“I wanna go see tomorrow,” he told his father.
“Sorry, Son. Lots of big kids and big machines are gonna be here for detasseling. Don’t want you getting caught up in all that.”
“Then I wanna see harvest!”
“Lot’s of big machines there too.”
“But I’m a big boy!”
His father laughed. “Then how about on Homecoming Day, you show your mother and me how big you are. Show us you don’t need to sit on my lap or your mother’s lap to see the game. With each Homecoming, we’ll see how much bigger you’ve gotten.”
But the one day, a Mr. Lionel Luthor showed up on the farm and Marcus knew that day would not come as his father signed papers with a deep sigh and shoulders hunched forward.
And whatever hope Marcus saw in his mother and father in intimate whispered plans between them were, on Homecoming Day, outshone and extinguished by a hail of burning hot green meteor rocks.
❀
“Now that summer’s almost over - ” Cottia looks out the kitchen window to the greenhouse of small shrubs with purple berries. “How’s your uncle?”
“Going crazy at the idea of doing nothing.” Marcus lets out a little smile before turning his attention back to the slow cooker. “Have I ever stopped being that boy at the shelter?”
“Well, seeing a five year old boy in intense pain and clinging to his best friend was a very strong first impression. And - ” Cottia helps herself to the sweet tea and also pours into the glasses for Marcus and Esca. “I heard him tell Aunt Valaria that telling you your parents died must have been much more traumatic on you than him.”
“I know. It’s just . . .” Marcus fidgets with the kitchen mitten in his hands. “I think I would’ve been a lot happier if he’d done nothing. I know he thought he was doting on me, but . . .”
“You didn’t like doctors poking and prodding you and the million variations of ‘What do you feel?’ instead of ‘How do you feel?’ ”
“Both those questions lead to Esca’s secret.”
“And do they lead to Clark’s secret, too?”
“I don’t know.” Marcus grimaces at the slow cooker and its ten minutes left. “I really don’t know; he’s really different . . . Prolly.”
“It’s a slow cooker.” Cottia throws the other kitchen mitten and giggles when it thwacks Marcus behind his head. “Set it to warm and leave it alone already ’til Esca gets home. And speaking of Clark, you haven’t spoken to him since he got back.”
“Why is Esca late? He prolly stopped at the animal shelter again to peer into the windows.” Marcus joins Cotta at the table. “Where’s Clark been?”
“Who knows? Are you gonna see him?”
“Prolly not. Clark’s busy with Lana. I’m busy with the new farm. Esca doesn’t want me hanging out with Clark. You know - Luthors.”
“Lana?” Cottia raises an eyebrow. “Again?”
“Yeah. I see them together a lot.”
“Well. We know how that’s going to end - again.”
“And we know how that’s going to start - again.”
“I wonder if they’ll ever break that pattern.”
“How? It’ll take an act of God to do that. Like Lois Lane - even if they’d rather clean out a pig sty than admit all the time they spend together is like dating.”
Cottia laughs.
“Or maybe . . .” Marcus thinks some more. “Super-powered aliens if there is no God. Or the power of a Luthor.”
“Please. Lex being jealous of Clark and Lana won’t be any less creepy just because Clark and Lana are adults now.”
Marcus blinks. “I never understood if he was jealous of Clark for Lana, or jealous of Lana for Clark.”
“I think you know the answer to that.”
“Okay. Both. But I don’t understand how he’s both.”
“You wanna get inside his head?” Cottia asks. And when Marcus shakes his head no, she moves on. “There are gonna be two barn raisings tomorrow; Clark and his dad are gonna be at both. You should go if only to see how Clark’s doing. Somehow, you should let him know you’re still grateful for him keeping your secret.”
“Sure. Might as well go call Uncle; that’s something we can do together.”
❀
The first barn raising is a fast-paced event and Marcus and Esca focus all their attention to all the boards they have to nail to the support beams. And with Clark working on the other side, there’s no need to not give any attention to ignoring him.
But the afternoon starts off tense as they are given the same wall to work on. Maybe Esca hits the nails in harder, or maybe everything just sounds louder with the early afternoon sun beating down on them from high above. But definitely, Marcus can’t take his eyes off Esca - even with his head bent down to the boards, he sneaks quick and often glances to Esca through his lashes.
But working next to Clark, too, can’t be ignored. Clark seems smaller now with his head low and shoulder’s hunched but not with the insecurity he had growing up but instead with . . . the weight of the world? And somehow, because of his smaller stature, his presence is so much more pronounced.
At the end of the afternoon as Esca, Marcus’s uncle and Marcus head out to the road, Marcus feels a tap on his shoulder.
“Hey.” It’s Clark. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.” Marcus waves off his uncle and Esca and as they quicken their pace away, he swears Esca would storm off if he could as he eyes Esca’s clenched fists. As they go off, Marcus sets a slow pace for him and Clark.
“Maybe . . .” Clark shrugs but with his head down. “Maybe I was hoping we could be friends?”
“I’m going to be honest - but tacky.” Marcus keeps focused on the road they’re making their way towards to. “Luthor Corp. and Lex Luthor.”
“I know. Luthor Corp. is dangerous and Esca is important to you so you’re going to be loyal to him. And I get why you want nothing to do with Lex but he doesn’t have to be that way so I’m gonna still be friends with him even though it’s awkward between him and me.”
Marcus raises and eyebrow.
“And that prolly doesn’t make it better, huh?”
“Nope.”
“But speaking of awkward. Can I ask you another thing?”
“Sure.” What could be more awkward than I won’t be friends with you?
“You’re adopted right? Do you ever wonder if your uncle would love you more or less if you were different?”
“Really?” Marcus looks at Clark but at that sad face continues on. “Look. Just before my sixth birthday, Uncle and some accountant were going over everything - bank accounts, retirement accounts, the house’s value, the car’s value, even the value of stuff inside the house. In my parents’ will, Aunt Marti and Uncle Tullio were supposed to have custody of me, prolly ’cause Uncle Tullio’s rich. Aunt Marti wanted me but, turns out, Uncle Tullio didn’t.”
“Huh.”
“Uncle Tullio doesn’t matter at all. The point is, Uncle Marlo would’ve given up everything for me. And I think your parents would do the same.”
“Yeah they would. But . . .”
“But what? No matter what you do or who you are, would they give up everything for you? If yes, then that’s all that matters.”
Marcus and Clark are about to reach the road when they see that Esca and Marcus’s uncle are already there, waiting in the car. Esca yells from the backseat window, “Your uncle wants to buy us ice cream before we go home!”
“Great! Just a sec though!” Marcus yells back before turning to Clark again. “So. We won’t be friends, but I’ll still care about you.”
“You will?” Clark’s eyes widen. “Oh wow! Thanks! That means a lot!”
“Marcus!” Esca yells again. “If you don’t hurry up, your uncle and I are gonna buy lots of caramel praline and lots of mint and absolutely no rocky road!”
“Gotta go. But you take care.” Before sprinting to the car, Marcus lands a heavy pat onto Clark’s back - heavy enough to startle Clark forward.
“What did Clark want?” Esca asks once the car moves forward.
“I told him his hanging out with Lex makes people not want to hang out with him. Also, he’s feeling insecure about being adopted.”
“Still?” Esca rolls his eyes. “A lot of things were my fault and I eventually stopped worrying about being adopted.”
“Nothing was your fault,” Marcus’s uncle says. “Whatever happened, nothing is the fault of a child - especially a five year old.”
“Huh.” Marcus sulks into his seat and reaches for Esca’s hand; his hands are hot and sweaty with the leather work gloves still on and he wonders if Esca’s hands are the same. “I wonder how Clark is so different that he’s so insecure.”
❀
In the early evening when Esca, Marcus, and his Uncle walk into the kitchen, the first thing Marcus notices is a lavender notecard sticking out from one of the shrubs in the greenhouse. Marcus makes his way to the greenhouse and says, “I’ll be back in a few minutes, I wanna check the shrubs real quick.” Once inside, Marcus reads the notecard with a printed message:
Did you make contact with Clark?
“So.” Esca stands outside the closed iron gate. “What does she want?”
“Clark.”
“Does he know why we’re here?”
“Shouldn’t. No one’s asked. Not even him.”
“So. No Clark to save us. Well, that’s the downside to not being his friend I suppose - we’ll just have to save ourselves.” Esca eyes Marcus as he brushes his hand across the leaves. “Starting with saving you. What are you doing?”
“I’m careful. A single prick won’t kill me; my heart’s too strong for that. Are you worried?”
“No. But you are.”
“Cottia brought over some chamomile tea. Let’s have some of that tonight.”
“So you are worried.”
“What if I won’t be loyal to you?”
“I’ll always help you be loyal to me. And if you don’t, then I’ll make you - as long as you want to.” Esca opens the gate and turns back to the house. “Your wanting to is key.”
Marcus drops the berries into the potting soil and follow Esca back into the house closing the gate behind him.
❀
Their first harvest is anemic which is no surprise with the late planting. But the next two summers, the fields grow luscious green and the harvests earn them top dollar for quality and it seems the most exciting things the winter brings them are the chores of fixing the machines and planning out the next planting and maybe even some stables onto the land. And these are all they want to plan out.
The sun is almost level with the horizon when Marcus arrives at the house, but the silver Porsche blocking the house’s front door casts an even darker shadow.
“Marcus,” Lex is already inside and he greets Marcus as he steps in. When Lex offers his hand for a handshake, Marcus steps back from the bare hand almost stepping back outside the house.
“Of course.” Lex grins and presses forward. “Why go through all that for just a greeting?”
“You stay away from him!” Esca pulls Lex back.
“You’re not in a position to dictate anything to me.” Lex presses forward never mind Esca pulling him back. “Accept my offer; or else.”
“What offer?” Marcus asks.
“It seems that you think that profiting off these 1,500 acres for merely managing a 1,200 square foot greenhouse is a fair exchange. I’m here to make you work for it.”
“Hmph.” Esca lets go of Lex to put up air quotes when he says, “ ‘Fair’ and ‘work’ aren’t what Luthors are known for.”
“Just bring Lana Lang back to me,” Lex says. “Shouldn’t be too difficult of a task given her condition.”
“Is that . . . ?” Marcus realizes. “Wow. No. I hope you don’t think that she belongs to you just because she was once married to you. Are you mad at her because she obviously wants nothing to do with you? You’re even more creepy than all her other stalkers combined.”
“Just the contrary, Lana has been even more obsessed with me since the divorce. She’s a danger to herself and everyone around her and I am looking out for my own good.”
“Just like you were looking out for my own good when you kidnapped me!”
Just then, Marcus feels a gloved hand inside his elbow.
“Let me talk to him,” Tess tells Lex as she pulls Marcus back outside. “I can reason with him.”
“I’d love to see how you do that.” Lex smirks for just a briefest split of a moment and Marcus wonders uneasily what Lex is trying to not betray about himself.
Once Tess and Marcus are a dozen yards from the house, Marcus can’t help but look over the two Porsches blocking the open front door and trying to peer in but Tess gets down to business.
“I’m going to suggest another plan to Lex,” Tess begins. “And it’ll be in your best interest to cooperate with mine.”
“No way!”
“Keeping you here was about keeping you quiet. Lex already has everything he needed from you. However, with Esca . . .”
“Don’t you dare!”
“I don’t want to hurt Esca.”
“As in you don’t want to hurt him more than you hurt me?”
“Believe me, I have no interest in Esca - ”
“Just me.”
“Lex wants to use him as a guide into some caves nearby.” Tess moves into Marcus’s space. “But trust me to prevent that from happening. You know that I of all people have the most power and influence on him.”
“And on me.” Marcus stands his ground even with Tess encroaching in. “You know too much about me.”
“You’re right, I do.” Tess brings a hand up to Marcus’s face and lets it linger just shy of his skin. “It’s why I appeal to your feelings for Esca instead of putting a gun to your head. Now, do you trust my influence and power to make an appeal for Esca?”
“You see,” Tess continues as her hand traces a shield above Marcus’s skin. “There are a number of expeditions Lex is planning and I want in with a minimal entourage of minions all vying for attention and credit.”
“And what do I have to do?” Marcus asks as the musky scent from Tess’s leather glove wafts into his headspace and he can’t help but breathe in.
“Your physical therapist’s office is a few blocks from the hospital. Just bring flowers to Lana once a week.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt Clark before meeting him.”
“I didn’t mention Clark.”
“Oh please. I don’t know if they’re dating again or not but it’s obvious they’ve loved each other for years. So. Why go after Lana if not Clark too?”
“I have no intention of hurting Clark. I said I wouldn’t hurt him before meeting him; that’s still on the table.”
Tess presses further into Marcus’s space but Marcus pulls away and pushes away her hand.
“You’ll want to do this for me and not for Lex.”
“He thinks the farm is his.”
“It’s a Luthor Corp. resource; but the deed is in my name.”
Once again, Tess presses into Marcus’s space and brings a hand up to Marcus’s face, tracing a barrier of air above the curves of his face before breaking through and letting her hand settle on Marcus’s cheek. Leather musk wafts and wraps around Marcus’s headspace as he breathes in the scent and Tess positions Marcus to focus on her.
“You can kidnap Lana for Lex. Or, you can send her flowers for me. I think you know what you want to do.”
Marcus leans into Tess’s hand and nods yes.
Tess releases Marcus and beckons over Lex who looks impressed.
“He’ll agree to my plan?” Lex asks.
“No. But he’ll agree to mine.”
“Well then. Aren’t I glad you got here too fast?”
“I keep a very close eye on my assets.” Tess smirks, spying from the corner of her eye through the open door on Esca.
“And you took initiative - without my telling you.”
“Do I have to learn everything from you?” And with that, Tess smirks at Lex and then gets into her car and drives off.
“No you don’t,” Lex muses to himself as he gets into his own car. “Big things will happen to you.”
With the cars gone and with an unblocked path to the house, Marcus stomps in.
“What did Ms. Mercer mean by ‘keeping an eye on her assets’?”
Esca says nothing but stands his ground.
“Esca. When she said that, why did she glance at you?”
Esca shakes his head no but doesn’t budge from his position.
“Esca. What did you do?”
“I report to her what happens in the cornfields.”
Marcus clenches his fists and looks away from Esca and starts eyeing the walls around him. “That’s not all is it?”
“Nothing escapes the greenhouse - or this house - without her knowing.”
“These three years? . . . Everything? . . . THESE THREE YEARS?”
“She had to know you weren’t betraying her.”
“No she didn’t!” Marcus looks back at Esca. “Not that way! You gave her so much of me - of us. AND FOR WHAT? What do we have of her?”
“Everything I have done, I have done for us. For me! For you!”
“For what!? For us to be assets for her to own and use?”
“You! You’re upset that we’re property and assets when you were the one who accepted her land. What did you think would become of us?”
“I thought Ms. Mercer and I had a fair deal.”
“There is no fair deal with her because she’s a Luthor!”
“That doesn’t matter!”
“I think it does. It does when she deems Lana’s safety a fair trade for Clark’s safety. When she deems our safety a fair trade for land. And when she dictates these terms of fairness to us and disregards our opinions.”
Esca reaches for Marcus yet stops just shy of touching.
“Marcus. You know she’s a Luthor.”
Marcus pulls Esca’s hand in to touch and lets himself collapse onto Esca as the simmering blood rushes through his body.
“I just wanted Clark to not be treated like a freak.”
“I should leave you.” Esca turns to step towards the bedroom as he carries Marcus’s weight and keeps his hand tight around Marcus’s wrist, trapping Marcus to him. “At any point, did you think of me?”
“Let me do this,” Marcus says as he lands onto the bed. With the windows open, the warm air is a cool relief as the heat from Esca’s anger leaves with Esca’s touch. “So long as I do this, you’re safe.”
“Because she said so.”
Esca climbs onto the bed and onto Marcus to sit on his hips and puts his weight through his hands onto Marcus’s shoulders to hold him down with only the strings of a well-worn and thread-bare t-shirt blocking Esca’s touch from Marcus’s skin.
Marcus looks up at Esca and into his eyes. Marcus nods yes and that is all the permission Esca needs to run his hands up Marcus’s bare neck. Esca hears and feels Marcus’s gasp for air and it’s what Esca needs to feel from Marcus who is burning from hot blood pushing madly through arteries and veins and the muscles clenched tight to hold and possess.
It’s not until Esca exhales and relaxes that he realizes that Marcus has presented more of his bare neck and pressed his cheeks into Esca’s hands - more skin, more touch.
“Someday. Marcus. Someday everything you do will be for me and I’ll take you yet and you’ll be mine yet. I promise you.”
Esca stares down at Marcus and into his eyes when Marcus nods yes again. With that from Marcus, Esca rushes down to steal a kiss.
❀
The week passes and Marcus and Esca go about their days the same. Esca spends the early mornings planning out the workload for the day ahead while Marcus tends to the greenhouse. Then it’s a quick breakfast together before the long day ahead in the fields.
But when Thursday daybreak comes, Marcus lingers in the greenhouse just a while longer. He stands in a sea of green - light green calyces swelling as they cover the flower buds within ready to burst and blossom. And next to him in the center is a cart of the shrubs which have already blossomed; in a sea of green, a spot of purple.
Outside the closed iron gates, Esca keeps himself. “Are those the flowers you’ll bring to Lana?”
“No. I’ll just buy a bouquet from Nell’s - or whatever that store is called now.”
Esca eyes the sea of green and purple that surround Marcus as he tests and notes the dark soil from which the flowers grow. As the breezes flow through the doors from one end of the greenhouse to the other, dark petals sway in almost black waves creeping around Marcus.
“Do you even know anything about these flowers?”
“Be careful and mind your heart around them.”
“Three years and that’s still all she trusts you with?”
“It’s all we need,” Marcus says but Esca shakes his head no.
“Marcus. Come to me.” Esca, with bare hands, grips the iron bars between himself and Marcus. As Marcus approaches the gate, Esca wants to reach out to Marcus but then Esca peers at Marcus’s gloved wrist and sees another glove’s wrist peeking out from under and sees Marcus shake his head now and Esca has to will himself back.
“Come home as soon as you can,” is all Esca can say to Marcus from inside the gate. “Come home to me as soon as you can.”
❀
It’s that time of day when the shadows begin to grow longer when Marcus approaches the hospital. Inside, long corridors harbor a litany of reunions, prayers and cries.
When Marcus reaches the closed door to Lana’s room, he pauses to take in a deep breath and then knocks. With no answer, he cautiously pushes himself in. Crossing the threshold and closing the door behind him, he is now face to face with her backlit, earth-brown, long, straight strands of hair.
Marcus presses himself further into the room and places himself between Lana and the window. With Lana in front of him to his right the sun beats down unobstructed over his right and onto Lana’s face, Lana’s unblinking trance-grey eyes.
With the flowers in his hands between himself and Lana, he begins, “I’m sorry.”
With no response from her, Marcus looks down into the flowers, and among them propped up on a stick, the tiny black box no larger than the meteor rock necklace she used to wear, its frontside housing a lens and a sensor.
“All I wanted to do was to keep Clark safe. I never thought about hurting him, about hurting you.”
Marcus looks to his left, looks away from Lana. With his eyes closing, a tear drops down his left cheek.
“You need to know I’m doing this for Tess Mercer and only Tess Mercer.”
Marcus sets the vase of flowers down on the nightstand to his left and clears some of the flowers’ stems, leaves, and petals so that the tiny black box would see and sense the room unobstructedly. Then he places a pink card behind the black box.
“About Ms. Mercer. She’s not a Luthor . . . Except she is.”
Marcus glances over his shoulder to see Lana there, her eyes still unblinking and grey. With no response, he turns his attention back to the black box to press the top button. A tiny red dot, no larger than a period shines on the button’s face, shines through what Marcus had thought was solid metal.
If that side isn’t solid metal after all, then any of its other sides, too, might not be solid, Marcus thinks to himself. But oh well, the pink card is there now just as any bouquet of flowers should have a get well card. At least the flowers aren’t fake.
❀
Over a month of Thursdays go by uneventfully - as uneventful as the delivery of a camera and motion sensor can be - until one afternoon when Marcus comes out of his physical therapist’s office and, amidst the flow of nondescript trucks and sedans with windows rolled down to let the heat escape from inside, sees a windowless black van driving towards the hospital.
Marcus races down the street after the van but when he gets into the hospital, Tess intercepts him, stepping into his space; her bare hand pulls him aside from the inside of his elbow below the hem of his t-shirt’s sleeve. At the touch, the pain freezes his legs; and his heart, which has been beating fast and strong from the run to the hospital now beats even stronger yet slower and more steady.
“What are you doing?” Marcus asks. “And how are you so calm?”
“My dear Marcus,” Tess says not so quietly as she presses Marcus up against a wall. “Are you feeling weak? We don’t have to see Lana if you’re not up to it.”
“I . . . will . . .” With his knees buckling, Marcus struggles to at least stand even if only to stand in place.
“Someone!” Tess yells at the people passing by while keeping her grip on Marcus. “Someone! Help! He’s losing his strength!”
“Oh my god!” A doctor rushes up. “It’s the Aquila boy! Nurses!”
“No wait!” Marcus pushes back against Tess but his knees are buckling and despite his efforts collapses onto her. “Wait! I have to see she’s okay!”
“You need to calm him down!” Tess shouts at the doctor. “He’s very stubborn!”
“Yes, yes. I know!” The doctor says. “Let’s get him into ER!”
“Wait!” Marcus yells as hospital staff rush up - some to hold him up, others to help him to a nearby bench. As more hands hold him, Marcus’s heart races with theirs, all theirs, and the asynchronization tires his heart out until -
One last look at Tess as she pulls him into her embrace and she says, “You’ll be okay; I promise you.”
Then blackness.
❀
When Marcus comes to, the first thing he sees is Esca peering over him. Behind Esca, the window frames the horizon under a low moon.
“You’re fine now. Or so say the machines,” Esca informs Marcus.
“Huh?”
“Your heart gave out.”
“Never been touched by so many people; wow that was wild.” Marcus looks up at Esca. “And Lana?”
“Missing.”
“Oh.” If only Marcus could sink back further into the bed.
“Has been for the last hour. Ms. Mercer was questioned since the whole hospital knew the two of you were here for Lana. The police might not question you. You were out when Lana disappeared and Ms. Mercer has the police and doctors convinced you were hysterical.”
“Of course she does.” Marcus looks up to the ceiling and replays the day’s events in his head. “And she probably has everyone thinking I’m hers, doesn’t she?”
“That wouldn’t be untrue, would it?” Esca asks and Marcus can see Esca’s brows furrowed and eyes widened in anger. “Ms. Mercer and I exchanged words over her staying by your side all afternoon and evening and holding your hand the entire time.”
“Esca! Wait! You know I’m yours!”
“Don’t talk to me about your being mine. Not when we’re her property - especially you.”
Marcus reaches for Esca’s face and stops close to his skin. But then Esca grabs Marcus’s hand and holds on tight, and it’s as if Marcus’s whole body is being squeezed; yet instead of feeling suffocated, he feels only hugged by Esca’s hold.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A nurse rushes into the room. “Oh no! His heart! Young man! You need to leave!”
“You can’t make me leave!” Esca yells as Marcus says, “No. Wait. I want him here.”
“It’s five minutes to visitor hours ending. You might as well leave now.”
Esca leaves but only after grudgingly checking the clock on the wall and giving the nurse a glare. Once gone, the nurse turns to Marcus. “And I’ll ask the doctor what she wants to do about your heart.”
“No drugs!”
“I’ll mention your request.”
“Please?”
“But no matter what happens tonight, we’ll need to keep a close eye on your heart.”
“I’ll mind my heart real careful tonight.”
Once alone, Marcus puts a hand over his heart. Although the warmth from Esca’s hold has faded, Marcus’s heart still beats strong from Esca and it’s the last thing he feels as he drifts to sleep.
❀
“Dr. Patel thinks I should see some PT halfway between here and Metropolis.” On the way home in the car’s passenger seat, Marcus twiddles his thumbs and yet the smile on his face rivals the sun in the sky. “His name’s Ulpius . . . I think.”
“You think. Oh.” Esca laughs. “Should I tell Dr. Patel you might not have been listening?”
“Or . . . you could tell her I might have been listening.” Marcus giggles and Esca rolls his eyes. When Esca glances back at him, Marcus continues, “He’s some cardiovascular / pulmonary PT or something. But I dunno. He’s all the way out there.”
“Is that your best reason for not seeing him?” Esca rolls his eyes again.
“I like Galarius! Don’t see why a sports / orthopedic PT can’t help me here.”
“And with Galarius threatening to fire you as a client at every other appointment, it’s good to not have other options.” Esca nods, then giggles and shakes his head no.
“I’m not very reckless.” Marcus pouts. “Just only a little bit reckless.”
“Sure . . .”
“So find me a better reason to stick with Galarius. And not that he and Uncle were awesome friends in the army.”
“That’s your reason - not mine.” Esca glances at Marcus, then focuses back to the road ahead of them. “I wonder if he’s the guy Galarius talked about - the guy who showed up to a 9 a.m. appointment obviously hungover.”
“What!? Wow. If that’s true, then no.”
“We should talk to Galarius, see what he says. But first, we should check insurance to see how much they’ll cover.”
“Let’s not talk insurance.” Now Marcus rolls his eyes. “I wanted my first day back to be a fun day - before we’re back in the fields doing catch-up work on everything I didn’t do.”
“A fun day, huh?”
Marcus leans in towards Esca and whispers into his ear, “Faster, Esca. Faster.”
“Are you . . . ?” Esca begins to ask but stops when he notices Marcus’s pupils dilating. “Wow, you are! We don’t even have step one of your recovery figured out and you’re already being reckless.”
“But Esca,” Marcus continues to whisper. “What goes on in the bedroom stays in the bedroom.”
“Hm . . .”
“Me. With you. And only you.” Marcus flutters his eyelashes and at that, Esca blinks before staring at the road ahead of them not passing them by fast enough and presses his foot just a little heavier on the gas pedal.
Once the car is outside the house and in front of the door, they rush out of the car and stand close to each other. Marcus has his hands up, wanting to put his hands on Esca but is indecisive as to where on Esca. So Esca just grabs Marcus by his belt buckle and pulls him closer to demand, “You. Bedroom. Naked. Now.” And with a nod, Marcus rushes into the house.
Stopping to check the mailbox, Esca pulls out a pink notecard. On one side in dark purple ink in Marcus’s best textbook cursive hand:
Dearest Lana,
Get well soon.
Love,
Tess Mercer
And on the other side, in a brilliant turquoise ink and a round and loopy hand:
Dearest Tess,
I am feeling much better now. Thank you for all the flowers and the notecards.
Most sincerely,
Lana Lang
Oh Marcus. Did you dare risk crossing Ms. Mercer? Esca thinks to himself. Guess we should soon expect visits from Ms. Lang or Ms. Mercer - or both. But for now, the pink notecard goes into the mail basket on the kitchen table because Ms. Lang and Ms. Mercer can have Marcus’s attention later.
For now, only Esca should have and command Marcus’s attention; Marcus is Esca’s and only Esca’s to take.
❀
The Just Destiny of Fools
Summary: Smallville AU. Marcus is captivated by a visiting Luthor Corp. executive and her talk of Destiny. But is her not being a Luthor enough reason to trust her? And is Esca pulling Marcus way from or pushing him towards her?
Pairings: Marcus / Esca, Marcus / Tess. If you squint hard: Marcus / Placidus (aka Sid) and Esca / Liathan in their pasts.
Spoilers: Smallville seasons 4 - 10.
Word Count: 27.1 k.
Rating: Teen or PG-13.
Notes
Starts at Smallville season 4 where they are high school seniors and goes from there. The Seal Prince, I’ve given him the name Liathan from the book. As for Placidus, I renamed him Sid to sound more contemporary and modern.
[Warnings:]
Warnings
Rated for disability, ableism, kidnappings, dub-con and non-con sexual battery, D / s dynamics, sub drops, discussions of rape, self harm.
Tess x Marcus: No sex but psychologically D / s.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the ever loving sistermine for being the ever patient beta reader through many drafts, and imera for the beautiful cover.
❀
- EPUB download (0.5MB)
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❀
Chapter 3
A few months later under the summer solstice sun, Marcus and Esca stand on a hill and survey over the land that is theirs to till, plow, and farm - “cultivate” as Ms. Mercer would call it.
Below them, corn stalks lay flattened. Once vibrant and verdant stalks that leapt from the ground to the eye now sink and disappear into the ground as green meteor rocks assert their glow as toxic blemishes, their green pulse threatening to spread across even more land especially when Marcus passes by.
“Mr. Aquila? Mr. McCunoval?” A man has approached them from behind and he is backed by a van filled with men in blue heavy cotton jumpsuits, except for the one behind the wheel dressed in a black business suit. The man approaches Marcus with his hand out for a handshake but Marcus keeps his hand back behind his defenses.
“Are you the crew from Luthor Corp.?” Marcus asks.
“Yes, Sir,” the man answers. “We have orders to start with the plot of land behind the house. It’s top priority for Ms. Mercer.”
“Of course.”
“Reckon it’ll take a day or so?”
“Will you clear out all the meteor rocks?”
“We’ll clear out as much as we do,” says the suited man behind the wheel.
Marcus turns his back to them all. “I don’t mind you; you don’t mind me. You go on then.”
The men leave and once they are at the house - with Marcus and Esca out of their earshot - Marcus asks, “Is it wrong to want another meteor shower to rain on them if they don’t clear out all the meteor rocks?”
“More meteor rocks would only mean more power for Luthor Corp.,” Esca points out. “But don’t worry. We’ll pick up what they don’t. This land will be clean and spotless of meteor rocks before we start farming it.”
“And the plot for the greenhouse?”
“That little plot larger than the house’s plot, especially that. I promise you. What do I keep telling you?”
“ ‘Screw authority.’ ”
And with that, Esca smiles to himself.
❀
“So. You and Marcus settled into your new home yet?” Liathan asks as he and Esca walk down a street in town before he notices The Talon across the street. “Hey, wanna go into The Talon and get some coffee?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Okay.” Liathan shrugs. “And your new home?”
“Let’s be real. Marcus and I have a house - not a home.” Esca sighs. “Though I guess I like the change from old man Aquila’s house to Luthor property. I mean, I don’t think his old man ever stopped seeing me as the kid at the refugee shelter clinging to Marcus or as the kid who had unexplained nightmares for years. Oh. But then. Luthor property.”
“And here I was liking the symmetry of your living with Marcus and his old man because of the first meteor shower and you moving out because of this second one.”
“If you want symmetry, I’m moving to the new place because of Luthors - ”
“I thought you said she’s only a regional VP?”
“Yeah, but she high enough to directly work for the company’s interests which works for the Luthors’ interests.” Esca shrugs. “Anyways. Moving now because of Luthors. How about we find a way to blame them for the first one too? My dad swore Lionel Luthor was making deals left and right to bring the destruction of the town.”
Liathan laughs. “Dad does say that if your old man were still alive? Together they’d expose a bunch of Luthor Corp. crap.”
❀
“The greenhouse will be twice as big as the house?” Sid looks outside the kitchen window. “That says everything about what she thinks of you.”
“Yeah it does.” Marcus pours iced sweet tea for the both of them.
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say? ‘Yeah it does’?”
“If you have a plan any of us can execute against a multi-billion dollar family and their corporate empire worth dozens of times that, I’d love to hear it.”
Sid frowns. “What does she want you to do?”
“Take care of flowers for her.”
“That’s it?” Sid’s eyes narrow. “That sounds suspiciously easy.”
“Wanna hear how dangerous they are?”
“No. You’re gonna geek out on all that farming stuff I don’t care about.”
“Don’t get pricked by the thorns. Once won’t kill you but too many times could give you a heart attack.”
“Really? So . . . How will you not get killed by heart-breaking flowers?”
“Leather - thick hide - between me and them.”
❀
“You should leave him,” Liathan says as they walk back. “Leave him before you compete with her for him.”
“Why shouldn’t I compete with her? She has no chance.”
“Famous last words of everyone who dared challenge a Luthor. Or, well someone high enough at Luthor Corp. Aren’t you cocky.
“I’m cocky because Marcus is mine.”
“Whatever, she still sounds very powerful in her own way. Teaching Marcus to flip-off authority? No problem. Teaching him to flip-off power? No way, never.”
“Easier than teaching you to submit to me.”
“Screw you!”
“Nope. You never did.”
❀
“You know? Graduation was supposed to be about ascension,” Sid says while looking down to the bottom of his glass of almost finished tea. “And the irony of our graduation was that it got rained on by another meteor shower.”
Marcus raises an eyebrow. “The symbolism of our graduation is more important than the decade of rebuilding from the last one completely wiped out? and the lives lost?”
“You know what I mean. The point is - ” Sid gulps down the last of his tea. “Graduation should be about more than just moving on; it should be about moving on to better.
“Take me for example. Liathan and I are going to Metropolis U. where we’re going to major in business. After that, we’re going to some three-year grad program and get our law and business degrees.
“But what about you? You and Esca are gonna be stuck on a farm.”
“Wow, Sid!” Marcus pounds his fist on the table and Sid flinches - not enough for him to admit to it but enough for Marcus to notice. “Tell me what you think. Tell me what you really think.”
“I just think that you would be better off with someone else.”
“And that someone else would be you?” Marcus asks. And when Sid nods, he continues, “Ms. Mercer wants me to be here. So while Esca can sorta choose to be a farmer, you - who thinks farming is more painful than watching paint dry - would be completely stuck here . . . Unless you get a thrill out of matching wits with Luthor Corp. execs.”
“I’m a good tactician!”
Marcus shakes his head no. “You need a hell of a lot more than ‘good’ to go up against her.”
❀
“Esca!”
The sun is still high in the summer evening yet Marcus still recognizes the time for what it is - moments before the sunset. And as Marcus rushes over to the property fence, Esca takes in the sight of him with the new red jacket over his brown t-shirt. The new jacket is a lot like Clark’s red one, except a warmer, more subdued, and more earthy shade of red.
“Your hug’s a little tight!” Yet Esca hugs back just as tight.
Marcus breaks the hug but then runs his hands all over Esca’s blue t-shirt. “But I was out all day driving the new equipment to the farm while you were here doing chores ’n’ stuff. And then you were out today with Liathan. I’m allowed to miss you.”
“Of course you are.”
Esca grabs Marcus by the inside of his arm and pulls him into the house to the kitchen. Once seated at the table with slow-cooked barbecue beef and sweet tea served, Marcus looks into Esca’s eyes.
“Maybe, just maybe, I’ll love being stuck here with you.”
“Horrible sentences like that are why I don’t like you hanging out with Sid.”
“No, I mean it. I’m stuck here. Yet you’re here. You’re not somewhere else. Someone besides you isn’t here.”
Esca grabs Marcus’s hand and sits himself onto Marcus’s lap. One hand intertwines its fingers with Marcus’s and the other hand cups Marcus’s chin.
“Someone has to stop you from doing something you’ll regret. Not Clark. Dear God, not Sid. Me.” Esca stares into Marcus’s eyes blowing wide. “Me and only me.”
Pins and needles run down Marcus’s legs and with Esca’s heart beating steady yet stronger, Marcus can only nod before Esca leans forward for a kiss.
❀
On the dark grey cement foundation, the greenhouse is built. The black metal grids which hold glass panes in place are bolted down to the foundation. The black wrought iron fence - of bars which weave over and under and around each other in intricate floral patterns - is also bolted to the foundation and from its place it squeezes the greenhouse. Of the greenhouse’s two sets of doors - one at each end of the structure - only one is allowed to open with the fence’s only set of gates which face-off with the house’s kitchen door while the other set of greenhouse doors can open only to bars of iron flowers.
The vroom of a sports car can be heard announcing itself through the property gate and up the driveway. Then heels click across the wood floors from the living room to the kitchen and Tess emerges from the house - crisp dark grey linen suit over a dark purple silk blouse accented by dark grey gloves and black platform high heels which bring her eyes level with Marcus’s - and she makes her way to Marcus at the center of the greenhouse.
As she steps in, she pans her eyes up Marcus’s body before inspecting the empty space around him. “The fields out there, you can use however you wish to your own ends. But everything within these walls of glass and metal goes to my own ends as they belong to me.”
Marcus eyes the empty space around him. “Good to know. Care to put that in writing?”
“The deed already details what is my property legally.” Tess steps into Marcus’s space and pulls him into hers to whisper into his ear, “True ownership doesn’t come from between the lines; it comes from the agreement mutually placed between the lines.”
Tess breaks away from Marcus to leave and announce, “Next week, everything will be ready to move in. Do I have you for that?”
“Yeah, you got me.”
Tess gives Marcus one last glance over her shoulder. “That’s quite smart of you.”
❀
With another year, another summer solstice approaches and the fields which were a sickly spotted green are now a rich dark brown bed for newly planted seeds. The seedlings are less than an inch high - not yet tall enough to even peek out of the ground and Marcus passes through the rows of seedlings, his mind wandering to the future in the summer when the plants will be at their full height and the tassels will start to show. With a few more steps forward, Marcus thinks back to before the first meteor shower.
With the sun in the west back then as it will be in a few months, the cornstalks were so tall over Marcus but then his father lifted him up and carried him on his shoulders so Marcus could see everything. On top of the world, Marcus ran his hand across the tops of the tassels, letting them tickle the underside of his palm.
“I wanna go see tomorrow,” he told his father.
“Sorry, Son. Lots of big kids and big machines are gonna be here for detasseling. Don’t want you getting caught up in all that.”
“Then I wanna see harvest!”
“Lot’s of big machines there too.”
“But I’m a big boy!”
His father laughed. “Then how about on Homecoming Day, you show your mother and me how big you are. Show us you don’t need to sit on my lap or your mother’s lap to see the game. With each Homecoming, we’ll see how much bigger you’ve gotten.”
But the one day, a Mr. Lionel Luthor showed up on the farm and Marcus knew that day would not come as his father signed papers with a deep sigh and shoulders hunched forward.
And whatever hope Marcus saw in his mother and father in intimate whispered plans between them were, on Homecoming Day, outshone and extinguished by a hail of burning hot green meteor rocks.
❀
“Now that summer’s almost over - ” Cottia looks out the kitchen window to the greenhouse of small shrubs with purple berries. “How’s your uncle?”
“Going crazy at the idea of doing nothing.” Marcus lets out a little smile before turning his attention back to the slow cooker. “Have I ever stopped being that boy at the shelter?”
“Well, seeing a five year old boy in intense pain and clinging to his best friend was a very strong first impression. And - ” Cottia helps herself to the sweet tea and also pours into the glasses for Marcus and Esca. “I heard him tell Aunt Valaria that telling you your parents died must have been much more traumatic on you than him.”
“I know. It’s just . . .” Marcus fidgets with the kitchen mitten in his hands. “I think I would’ve been a lot happier if he’d done nothing. I know he thought he was doting on me, but . . .”
“You didn’t like doctors poking and prodding you and the million variations of ‘What do you feel?’ instead of ‘How do you feel?’ ”
“Both those questions lead to Esca’s secret.”
“And do they lead to Clark’s secret, too?”
“I don’t know.” Marcus grimaces at the slow cooker and its ten minutes left. “I really don’t know; he’s really different . . . Prolly.”
“It’s a slow cooker.” Cottia throws the other kitchen mitten and giggles when it thwacks Marcus behind his head. “Set it to warm and leave it alone already ’til Esca gets home. And speaking of Clark, you haven’t spoken to him since he got back.”
“Why is Esca late? He prolly stopped at the animal shelter again to peer into the windows.” Marcus joins Cotta at the table. “Where’s Clark been?”
“Who knows? Are you gonna see him?”
“Prolly not. Clark’s busy with Lana. I’m busy with the new farm. Esca doesn’t want me hanging out with Clark. You know - Luthors.”
“Lana?” Cottia raises an eyebrow. “Again?”
“Yeah. I see them together a lot.”
“Well. We know how that’s going to end - again.”
“And we know how that’s going to start - again.”
“I wonder if they’ll ever break that pattern.”
“How? It’ll take an act of God to do that. Like Lois Lane - even if they’d rather clean out a pig sty than admit all the time they spend together is like dating.”
Cottia laughs.
“Or maybe . . .” Marcus thinks some more. “Super-powered aliens if there is no God. Or the power of a Luthor.”
“Please. Lex being jealous of Clark and Lana won’t be any less creepy just because Clark and Lana are adults now.”
Marcus blinks. “I never understood if he was jealous of Clark for Lana, or jealous of Lana for Clark.”
“I think you know the answer to that.”
“Okay. Both. But I don’t understand how he’s both.”
“You wanna get inside his head?” Cottia asks. And when Marcus shakes his head no, she moves on. “There are gonna be two barn raisings tomorrow; Clark and his dad are gonna be at both. You should go if only to see how Clark’s doing. Somehow, you should let him know you’re still grateful for him keeping your secret.”
“Sure. Might as well go call Uncle; that’s something we can do together.”
❀
The first barn raising is a fast-paced event and Marcus and Esca focus all their attention to all the boards they have to nail to the support beams. And with Clark working on the other side, there’s no need to not give any attention to ignoring him.
But the afternoon starts off tense as they are given the same wall to work on. Maybe Esca hits the nails in harder, or maybe everything just sounds louder with the early afternoon sun beating down on them from high above. But definitely, Marcus can’t take his eyes off Esca - even with his head bent down to the boards, he sneaks quick and often glances to Esca through his lashes.
But working next to Clark, too, can’t be ignored. Clark seems smaller now with his head low and shoulder’s hunched but not with the insecurity he had growing up but instead with . . . the weight of the world? And somehow, because of his smaller stature, his presence is so much more pronounced.
At the end of the afternoon as Esca, Marcus’s uncle and Marcus head out to the road, Marcus feels a tap on his shoulder.
“Hey.” It’s Clark. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.” Marcus waves off his uncle and Esca and as they quicken their pace away, he swears Esca would storm off if he could as he eyes Esca’s clenched fists. As they go off, Marcus sets a slow pace for him and Clark.
“Maybe . . .” Clark shrugs but with his head down. “Maybe I was hoping we could be friends?”
“I’m going to be honest - but tacky.” Marcus keeps focused on the road they’re making their way towards to. “Luthor Corp. and Lex Luthor.”
“I know. Luthor Corp. is dangerous and Esca is important to you so you’re going to be loyal to him. And I get why you want nothing to do with Lex but he doesn’t have to be that way so I’m gonna still be friends with him even though it’s awkward between him and me.”
Marcus raises and eyebrow.
“And that prolly doesn’t make it better, huh?”
“Nope.”
“But speaking of awkward. Can I ask you another thing?”
“Sure.” What could be more awkward than I won’t be friends with you?
“You’re adopted right? Do you ever wonder if your uncle would love you more or less if you were different?”
“Really?” Marcus looks at Clark but at that sad face continues on. “Look. Just before my sixth birthday, Uncle and some accountant were going over everything - bank accounts, retirement accounts, the house’s value, the car’s value, even the value of stuff inside the house. In my parents’ will, Aunt Marti and Uncle Tullio were supposed to have custody of me, prolly ’cause Uncle Tullio’s rich. Aunt Marti wanted me but, turns out, Uncle Tullio didn’t.”
“Huh.”
“Uncle Tullio doesn’t matter at all. The point is, Uncle Marlo would’ve given up everything for me. And I think your parents would do the same.”
“Yeah they would. But . . .”
“But what? No matter what you do or who you are, would they give up everything for you? If yes, then that’s all that matters.”
Marcus and Clark are about to reach the road when they see that Esca and Marcus’s uncle are already there, waiting in the car. Esca yells from the backseat window, “Your uncle wants to buy us ice cream before we go home!”
“Great! Just a sec though!” Marcus yells back before turning to Clark again. “So. We won’t be friends, but I’ll still care about you.”
“You will?” Clark’s eyes widen. “Oh wow! Thanks! That means a lot!”
“Marcus!” Esca yells again. “If you don’t hurry up, your uncle and I are gonna buy lots of caramel praline and lots of mint and absolutely no rocky road!”
“Gotta go. But you take care.” Before sprinting to the car, Marcus lands a heavy pat onto Clark’s back - heavy enough to startle Clark forward.
“What did Clark want?” Esca asks once the car moves forward.
“I told him his hanging out with Lex makes people not want to hang out with him. Also, he’s feeling insecure about being adopted.”
“Still?” Esca rolls his eyes. “A lot of things were my fault and I eventually stopped worrying about being adopted.”
“Nothing was your fault,” Marcus’s uncle says. “Whatever happened, nothing is the fault of a child - especially a five year old.”
“Huh.” Marcus sulks into his seat and reaches for Esca’s hand; his hands are hot and sweaty with the leather work gloves still on and he wonders if Esca’s hands are the same. “I wonder how Clark is so different that he’s so insecure.”
❀
In the early evening when Esca, Marcus, and his Uncle walk into the kitchen, the first thing Marcus notices is a lavender notecard sticking out from one of the shrubs in the greenhouse. Marcus makes his way to the greenhouse and says, “I’ll be back in a few minutes, I wanna check the shrubs real quick.” Once inside, Marcus reads the notecard with a printed message:
Did you make contact with Clark?
“So.” Esca stands outside the closed iron gate. “What does she want?”
“Clark.”
“Does he know why we’re here?”
“Shouldn’t. No one’s asked. Not even him.”
“So. No Clark to save us. Well, that’s the downside to not being his friend I suppose - we’ll just have to save ourselves.” Esca eyes Marcus as he brushes his hand across the leaves. “Starting with saving you. What are you doing?”
“I’m careful. A single prick won’t kill me; my heart’s too strong for that. Are you worried?”
“No. But you are.”
“Cottia brought over some chamomile tea. Let’s have some of that tonight.”
“So you are worried.”
“What if I won’t be loyal to you?”
“I’ll always help you be loyal to me. And if you don’t, then I’ll make you - as long as you want to.” Esca opens the gate and turns back to the house. “Your wanting to is key.”
Marcus drops the berries into the potting soil and follow Esca back into the house closing the gate behind him.
❀
Their first harvest is anemic which is no surprise with the late planting. But the next two summers, the fields grow luscious green and the harvests earn them top dollar for quality and it seems the most exciting things the winter brings them are the chores of fixing the machines and planning out the next planting and maybe even some stables onto the land. And these are all they want to plan out.
The sun is almost level with the horizon when Marcus arrives at the house, but the silver Porsche blocking the house’s front door casts an even darker shadow.
“Marcus,” Lex is already inside and he greets Marcus as he steps in. When Lex offers his hand for a handshake, Marcus steps back from the bare hand almost stepping back outside the house.
“Of course.” Lex grins and presses forward. “Why go through all that for just a greeting?”
“You stay away from him!” Esca pulls Lex back.
“You’re not in a position to dictate anything to me.” Lex presses forward never mind Esca pulling him back. “Accept my offer; or else.”
“What offer?” Marcus asks.
“It seems that you think that profiting off these 1,500 acres for merely managing a 1,200 square foot greenhouse is a fair exchange. I’m here to make you work for it.”
“Hmph.” Esca lets go of Lex to put up air quotes when he says, “ ‘Fair’ and ‘work’ aren’t what Luthors are known for.”
“Just bring Lana Lang back to me,” Lex says. “Shouldn’t be too difficult of a task given her condition.”
“Is that . . . ?” Marcus realizes. “Wow. No. I hope you don’t think that she belongs to you just because she was once married to you. Are you mad at her because she obviously wants nothing to do with you? You’re even more creepy than all her other stalkers combined.”
“Just the contrary, Lana has been even more obsessed with me since the divorce. She’s a danger to herself and everyone around her and I am looking out for my own good.”
“Just like you were looking out for my own good when you kidnapped me!”
Just then, Marcus feels a gloved hand inside his elbow.
“Let me talk to him,” Tess tells Lex as she pulls Marcus back outside. “I can reason with him.”
“I’d love to see how you do that.” Lex smirks for just a briefest split of a moment and Marcus wonders uneasily what Lex is trying to not betray about himself.
Once Tess and Marcus are a dozen yards from the house, Marcus can’t help but look over the two Porsches blocking the open front door and trying to peer in but Tess gets down to business.
“I’m going to suggest another plan to Lex,” Tess begins. “And it’ll be in your best interest to cooperate with mine.”
“No way!”
“Keeping you here was about keeping you quiet. Lex already has everything he needed from you. However, with Esca . . .”
“Don’t you dare!”
“I don’t want to hurt Esca.”
“As in you don’t want to hurt him more than you hurt me?”
“Believe me, I have no interest in Esca - ”
“Just me.”
“Lex wants to use him as a guide into some caves nearby.” Tess moves into Marcus’s space. “But trust me to prevent that from happening. You know that I of all people have the most power and influence on him.”
“And on me.” Marcus stands his ground even with Tess encroaching in. “You know too much about me.”
“You’re right, I do.” Tess brings a hand up to Marcus’s face and lets it linger just shy of his skin. “It’s why I appeal to your feelings for Esca instead of putting a gun to your head. Now, do you trust my influence and power to make an appeal for Esca?”
“You see,” Tess continues as her hand traces a shield above Marcus’s skin. “There are a number of expeditions Lex is planning and I want in with a minimal entourage of minions all vying for attention and credit.”
“And what do I have to do?” Marcus asks as the musky scent from Tess’s leather glove wafts into his headspace and he can’t help but breathe in.
“Your physical therapist’s office is a few blocks from the hospital. Just bring flowers to Lana once a week.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt Clark before meeting him.”
“I didn’t mention Clark.”
“Oh please. I don’t know if they’re dating again or not but it’s obvious they’ve loved each other for years. So. Why go after Lana if not Clark too?”
“I have no intention of hurting Clark. I said I wouldn’t hurt him before meeting him; that’s still on the table.”
Tess presses further into Marcus’s space but Marcus pulls away and pushes away her hand.
“You’ll want to do this for me and not for Lex.”
“He thinks the farm is his.”
“It’s a Luthor Corp. resource; but the deed is in my name.”
Once again, Tess presses into Marcus’s space and brings a hand up to Marcus’s face, tracing a barrier of air above the curves of his face before breaking through and letting her hand settle on Marcus’s cheek. Leather musk wafts and wraps around Marcus’s headspace as he breathes in the scent and Tess positions Marcus to focus on her.
“You can kidnap Lana for Lex. Or, you can send her flowers for me. I think you know what you want to do.”
Marcus leans into Tess’s hand and nods yes.
Tess releases Marcus and beckons over Lex who looks impressed.
“He’ll agree to my plan?” Lex asks.
“No. But he’ll agree to mine.”
“Well then. Aren’t I glad you got here too fast?”
“I keep a very close eye on my assets.” Tess smirks, spying from the corner of her eye through the open door on Esca.
“And you took initiative - without my telling you.”
“Do I have to learn everything from you?” And with that, Tess smirks at Lex and then gets into her car and drives off.
“No you don’t,” Lex muses to himself as he gets into his own car. “Big things will happen to you.”
With the cars gone and with an unblocked path to the house, Marcus stomps in.
“What did Ms. Mercer mean by ‘keeping an eye on her assets’?”
Esca says nothing but stands his ground.
“Esca. When she said that, why did she glance at you?”
Esca shakes his head no but doesn’t budge from his position.
“Esca. What did you do?”
“I report to her what happens in the cornfields.”
Marcus clenches his fists and looks away from Esca and starts eyeing the walls around him. “That’s not all is it?”
“Nothing escapes the greenhouse - or this house - without her knowing.”
“These three years? . . . Everything? . . . THESE THREE YEARS?”
“She had to know you weren’t betraying her.”
“No she didn’t!” Marcus looks back at Esca. “Not that way! You gave her so much of me - of us. AND FOR WHAT? What do we have of her?”
“Everything I have done, I have done for us. For me! For you!”
“For what!? For us to be assets for her to own and use?”
“You! You’re upset that we’re property and assets when you were the one who accepted her land. What did you think would become of us?”
“I thought Ms. Mercer and I had a fair deal.”
“There is no fair deal with her because she’s a Luthor!”
“That doesn’t matter!”
“I think it does. It does when she deems Lana’s safety a fair trade for Clark’s safety. When she deems our safety a fair trade for land. And when she dictates these terms of fairness to us and disregards our opinions.”
Esca reaches for Marcus yet stops just shy of touching.
“Marcus. You know she’s a Luthor.”
Marcus pulls Esca’s hand in to touch and lets himself collapse onto Esca as the simmering blood rushes through his body.
“I just wanted Clark to not be treated like a freak.”
“I should leave you.” Esca turns to step towards the bedroom as he carries Marcus’s weight and keeps his hand tight around Marcus’s wrist, trapping Marcus to him. “At any point, did you think of me?”
“Let me do this,” Marcus says as he lands onto the bed. With the windows open, the warm air is a cool relief as the heat from Esca’s anger leaves with Esca’s touch. “So long as I do this, you’re safe.”
“Because she said so.”
Esca climbs onto the bed and onto Marcus to sit on his hips and puts his weight through his hands onto Marcus’s shoulders to hold him down with only the strings of a well-worn and thread-bare t-shirt blocking Esca’s touch from Marcus’s skin.
Marcus looks up at Esca and into his eyes. Marcus nods yes and that is all the permission Esca needs to run his hands up Marcus’s bare neck. Esca hears and feels Marcus’s gasp for air and it’s what Esca needs to feel from Marcus who is burning from hot blood pushing madly through arteries and veins and the muscles clenched tight to hold and possess.
It’s not until Esca exhales and relaxes that he realizes that Marcus has presented more of his bare neck and pressed his cheeks into Esca’s hands - more skin, more touch.
“Someday. Marcus. Someday everything you do will be for me and I’ll take you yet and you’ll be mine yet. I promise you.”
Esca stares down at Marcus and into his eyes when Marcus nods yes again. With that from Marcus, Esca rushes down to steal a kiss.
❀
The week passes and Marcus and Esca go about their days the same. Esca spends the early mornings planning out the workload for the day ahead while Marcus tends to the greenhouse. Then it’s a quick breakfast together before the long day ahead in the fields.
But when Thursday daybreak comes, Marcus lingers in the greenhouse just a while longer. He stands in a sea of green - light green calyces swelling as they cover the flower buds within ready to burst and blossom. And next to him in the center is a cart of the shrubs which have already blossomed; in a sea of green, a spot of purple.
Outside the closed iron gates, Esca keeps himself. “Are those the flowers you’ll bring to Lana?”
“No. I’ll just buy a bouquet from Nell’s - or whatever that store is called now.”
Esca eyes the sea of green and purple that surround Marcus as he tests and notes the dark soil from which the flowers grow. As the breezes flow through the doors from one end of the greenhouse to the other, dark petals sway in almost black waves creeping around Marcus.
“Do you even know anything about these flowers?”
“Be careful and mind your heart around them.”
“Three years and that’s still all she trusts you with?”
“It’s all we need,” Marcus says but Esca shakes his head no.
“Marcus. Come to me.” Esca, with bare hands, grips the iron bars between himself and Marcus. As Marcus approaches the gate, Esca wants to reach out to Marcus but then Esca peers at Marcus’s gloved wrist and sees another glove’s wrist peeking out from under and sees Marcus shake his head now and Esca has to will himself back.
“Come home as soon as you can,” is all Esca can say to Marcus from inside the gate. “Come home to me as soon as you can.”
❀
It’s that time of day when the shadows begin to grow longer when Marcus approaches the hospital. Inside, long corridors harbor a litany of reunions, prayers and cries.
When Marcus reaches the closed door to Lana’s room, he pauses to take in a deep breath and then knocks. With no answer, he cautiously pushes himself in. Crossing the threshold and closing the door behind him, he is now face to face with her backlit, earth-brown, long, straight strands of hair.
Marcus presses himself further into the room and places himself between Lana and the window. With Lana in front of him to his right the sun beats down unobstructed over his right and onto Lana’s face, Lana’s unblinking trance-grey eyes.
With the flowers in his hands between himself and Lana, he begins, “I’m sorry.”
With no response from her, Marcus looks down into the flowers, and among them propped up on a stick, the tiny black box no larger than the meteor rock necklace she used to wear, its frontside housing a lens and a sensor.
“All I wanted to do was to keep Clark safe. I never thought about hurting him, about hurting you.”
Marcus looks to his left, looks away from Lana. With his eyes closing, a tear drops down his left cheek.
“You need to know I’m doing this for Tess Mercer and only Tess Mercer.”
Marcus sets the vase of flowers down on the nightstand to his left and clears some of the flowers’ stems, leaves, and petals so that the tiny black box would see and sense the room unobstructedly. Then he places a pink card behind the black box.
“About Ms. Mercer. She’s not a Luthor . . . Except she is.”
Marcus glances over his shoulder to see Lana there, her eyes still unblinking and grey. With no response, he turns his attention back to the black box to press the top button. A tiny red dot, no larger than a period shines on the button’s face, shines through what Marcus had thought was solid metal.
If that side isn’t solid metal after all, then any of its other sides, too, might not be solid, Marcus thinks to himself. But oh well, the pink card is there now just as any bouquet of flowers should have a get well card. At least the flowers aren’t fake.
❀
Over a month of Thursdays go by uneventfully - as uneventful as the delivery of a camera and motion sensor can be - until one afternoon when Marcus comes out of his physical therapist’s office and, amidst the flow of nondescript trucks and sedans with windows rolled down to let the heat escape from inside, sees a windowless black van driving towards the hospital.
Marcus races down the street after the van but when he gets into the hospital, Tess intercepts him, stepping into his space; her bare hand pulls him aside from the inside of his elbow below the hem of his t-shirt’s sleeve. At the touch, the pain freezes his legs; and his heart, which has been beating fast and strong from the run to the hospital now beats even stronger yet slower and more steady.
“What are you doing?” Marcus asks. “And how are you so calm?”
“My dear Marcus,” Tess says not so quietly as she presses Marcus up against a wall. “Are you feeling weak? We don’t have to see Lana if you’re not up to it.”
“I . . . will . . .” With his knees buckling, Marcus struggles to at least stand even if only to stand in place.
“Someone!” Tess yells at the people passing by while keeping her grip on Marcus. “Someone! Help! He’s losing his strength!”
“Oh my god!” A doctor rushes up. “It’s the Aquila boy! Nurses!”
“No wait!” Marcus pushes back against Tess but his knees are buckling and despite his efforts collapses onto her. “Wait! I have to see she’s okay!”
“You need to calm him down!” Tess shouts at the doctor. “He’s very stubborn!”
“Yes, yes. I know!” The doctor says. “Let’s get him into ER!”
“Wait!” Marcus yells as hospital staff rush up - some to hold him up, others to help him to a nearby bench. As more hands hold him, Marcus’s heart races with theirs, all theirs, and the asynchronization tires his heart out until -
One last look at Tess as she pulls him into her embrace and she says, “You’ll be okay; I promise you.”
Then blackness.
❀
When Marcus comes to, the first thing he sees is Esca peering over him. Behind Esca, the window frames the horizon under a low moon.
“You’re fine now. Or so say the machines,” Esca informs Marcus.
“Huh?”
“Your heart gave out.”
“Never been touched by so many people; wow that was wild.” Marcus looks up at Esca. “And Lana?”
“Missing.”
“Oh.” If only Marcus could sink back further into the bed.
“Has been for the last hour. Ms. Mercer was questioned since the whole hospital knew the two of you were here for Lana. The police might not question you. You were out when Lana disappeared and Ms. Mercer has the police and doctors convinced you were hysterical.”
“Of course she does.” Marcus looks up to the ceiling and replays the day’s events in his head. “And she probably has everyone thinking I’m hers, doesn’t she?”
“That wouldn’t be untrue, would it?” Esca asks and Marcus can see Esca’s brows furrowed and eyes widened in anger. “Ms. Mercer and I exchanged words over her staying by your side all afternoon and evening and holding your hand the entire time.”
“Esca! Wait! You know I’m yours!”
“Don’t talk to me about your being mine. Not when we’re her property - especially you.”
Marcus reaches for Esca’s face and stops close to his skin. But then Esca grabs Marcus’s hand and holds on tight, and it’s as if Marcus’s whole body is being squeezed; yet instead of feeling suffocated, he feels only hugged by Esca’s hold.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A nurse rushes into the room. “Oh no! His heart! Young man! You need to leave!”
“You can’t make me leave!” Esca yells as Marcus says, “No. Wait. I want him here.”
“It’s five minutes to visitor hours ending. You might as well leave now.”
Esca leaves but only after grudgingly checking the clock on the wall and giving the nurse a glare. Once gone, the nurse turns to Marcus. “And I’ll ask the doctor what she wants to do about your heart.”
“No drugs!”
“I’ll mention your request.”
“Please?”
“But no matter what happens tonight, we’ll need to keep a close eye on your heart.”
“I’ll mind my heart real careful tonight.”
Once alone, Marcus puts a hand over his heart. Although the warmth from Esca’s hold has faded, Marcus’s heart still beats strong from Esca and it’s the last thing he feels as he drifts to sleep.
❀
“Dr. Patel thinks I should see some PT halfway between here and Metropolis.” On the way home in the car’s passenger seat, Marcus twiddles his thumbs and yet the smile on his face rivals the sun in the sky. “His name’s Ulpius . . . I think.”
“You think. Oh.” Esca laughs. “Should I tell Dr. Patel you might not have been listening?”
“Or . . . you could tell her I might have been listening.” Marcus giggles and Esca rolls his eyes. When Esca glances back at him, Marcus continues, “He’s some cardiovascular / pulmonary PT or something. But I dunno. He’s all the way out there.”
“Is that your best reason for not seeing him?” Esca rolls his eyes again.
“I like Galarius! Don’t see why a sports / orthopedic PT can’t help me here.”
“And with Galarius threatening to fire you as a client at every other appointment, it’s good to not have other options.” Esca nods, then giggles and shakes his head no.
“I’m not very reckless.” Marcus pouts. “Just only a little bit reckless.”
“Sure . . .”
“So find me a better reason to stick with Galarius. And not that he and Uncle were awesome friends in the army.”
“That’s your reason - not mine.” Esca glances at Marcus, then focuses back to the road ahead of them. “I wonder if he’s the guy Galarius talked about - the guy who showed up to a 9 a.m. appointment obviously hungover.”
“What!? Wow. If that’s true, then no.”
“We should talk to Galarius, see what he says. But first, we should check insurance to see how much they’ll cover.”
“Let’s not talk insurance.” Now Marcus rolls his eyes. “I wanted my first day back to be a fun day - before we’re back in the fields doing catch-up work on everything I didn’t do.”
“A fun day, huh?”
Marcus leans in towards Esca and whispers into his ear, “Faster, Esca. Faster.”
“Are you . . . ?” Esca begins to ask but stops when he notices Marcus’s pupils dilating. “Wow, you are! We don’t even have step one of your recovery figured out and you’re already being reckless.”
“But Esca,” Marcus continues to whisper. “What goes on in the bedroom stays in the bedroom.”
“Hm . . .”
“Me. With you. And only you.” Marcus flutters his eyelashes and at that, Esca blinks before staring at the road ahead of them not passing them by fast enough and presses his foot just a little heavier on the gas pedal.
Once the car is outside the house and in front of the door, they rush out of the car and stand close to each other. Marcus has his hands up, wanting to put his hands on Esca but is indecisive as to where on Esca. So Esca just grabs Marcus by his belt buckle and pulls him closer to demand, “You. Bedroom. Naked. Now.” And with a nod, Marcus rushes into the house.
Stopping to check the mailbox, Esca pulls out a pink notecard. On one side in dark purple ink in Marcus’s best textbook cursive hand:
Dearest Lana,
Get well soon.
Love,
Tess Mercer
And on the other side, in a brilliant turquoise ink and a round and loopy hand:
Dearest Tess,
I am feeling much better now. Thank you for all the flowers and the notecards.
Most sincerely,
Lana Lang
Oh Marcus. Did you dare risk crossing Ms. Mercer? Esca thinks to himself. Guess we should soon expect visits from Ms. Lang or Ms. Mercer - or both. But for now, the pink notecard goes into the mail basket on the kitchen table because Ms. Lang and Ms. Mercer can have Marcus’s attention later.
For now, only Esca should have and command Marcus’s attention; Marcus is Esca’s and only Esca’s to take.
❀