Something Only Those with Eyes Can See
Title: Something Only Those with Eyes Can See
Pairing: Eduardo/Mark
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Written for this prompt in the kink meme: "Eduardo treats Mark like his girlfriend. Everybody notices except for Mark."
Warnings: Eduardo came out a little more "momish" than I wanted, but...
Story:
I-Dustin
Dustin has never been under the disillusion that he is quick to notice anything. One does not have to be quick, however, to notice that the way Eduardo treats Mark is not the way most people treat their friends. It’s not even the way Eduardo treats any of his other friends.
“I got you food,” Eduardo announces unceremoniously as he enters their dorm without knocking, breezing past Dustin and Chris battling loudly on the Xbox. He drops a dining hall bag onto the desk next to Mark and goes to sit on the edge of his bed, pulling out his phone to look at something.
Mark doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even seem to notice Eduardo has entered his bedroom. Eduardo finishes what he’s doing and shuts his phone before asking, “How long has it been since you ate?”
He sees Mark’s chin dip slightly to read the clock in the right-hand corner of the screen. “Fourteen hours,” he answers flatly, not looking up at the noise of exasperation Eduardo makes. “I’m almost done, Wardo, I’ll eat when I-”
“I will shut it off,” Eduardo says in a clear, serious voice. “Eat now.”
Dustin doesn’t expect him to, but Mark does. Pausing his work on the computer and digging into the bag, pulling out a Styrofoam box with a burger inside. As he takes a bite out of it, Eduardo gets to his feet and goes to the mini fridge, pulling out a beer and opening it, setting it down wordlessly next to Mark.
Mark doesn’t say anything, but a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth as he swallows the bite of cheeseburger, and Eduardo seems to take that as a thank you and smiles back, sighing exasperatedly.
“What did you eat fourteen hours ago?” Eduardo asks after a moment.
Mark hesitates before answering, “Cheese Its.”
Another sigh, and then Eduardo pats his shoulder, calling out behind him, “Go to bed when you’re done with whatever the hell you’re doing,” and walking into the kitchenette.
Eduardo pulls out a few pots from under the sink and says, “Chris, I’ll replace it all, but I’m going to use some of your food.”
“Kay,” Chris answers, and Dustin doubts he even really heard him. Not that he would mind, either way. Eduardo has used their kitchenette and food to cook before. Dustin briefly wonders how clean and unused Eduardo’s dorm room must be, since he spends all of his time here.
Still, it’s eleven-o-clock at night. “What’re you making?” Dustin asks.
Chris and Eduardo speak in unison: “Meals for Mark.”
Flabbergasted, Dustin waits until Eduardo is too far into cooking to hear him whisper to Chris, “What?”
Chris shrugs. “He makes Mark food every few weeks and sticks it in the fridge so that Mark’ll eat. You know how he forgets to.”
Dustin looks incredulously at Chris. “Yeah, but…” he mutters, watching Eduardo busy himself about the kitchen. “Doesn’t that seem…?”
“Don’t bring it up,” Chris answers before Dustin can even finish the question. “I don’t want to have that discussion. I don’t care, you don’t care. It doesn’t matter.”
Dustin shrugs, agreeing, for the most part, though it seems, as always, he’s the last to find out after all.
After a while, he hears the kitchen noise wind down. He watches Eduardo stuff butter noodles, garlic potatoes, chicken, tuna salad and scrambled eggs into separate tupperwares - all ones that had Mark’s name on them - and stacking them in the fridge before walking past them again and ducking his head into Mark’s bedroom.
“Sleep,” he says flatly before bidding the other two goodbye and leaving the dorm.
Dustin looks at Chris.
“Don’t bring it up,” Chris reminds him sternly.
II-Chris
Chris first notices it when they are freshmen. Mark has only known Eduardo for about a month, maybe more, when one weekend Dustin goes home and leaves Chris to be their third wheel for a few days. Chris doesn’t know Eduardo very well, he’s only met him a few times, and he mostly keeps to Mark’s room whenever he’s over, but he seems like a nice enough guy when he extends the invitation to go out and get some pizza.
It’s a cold walk to the nearest pizza place, but it’s only October, so Mark doesn’t bother with anything more than a T-shirt, shorts and his flip-flops.
The pizza is a little expensive for most college students, and how it accomplishes being the one closest to campus is a mystery to Chris.
Eduardo tries hard to include Chris into their conversation, but he has a bad habit of forgetting Chris exists if Mark pays too much attention to him in a short span of time.
When their checks come, Mark barely has time to pat himself down before Eduardo mutters, “You left your wallet on your dresser.”
“Thanks for reminding me to get it, then,” Mark snaps sarcastically, but Eduardo just smirks and sets down enough money to cover them both.
Chris looks down at his wallet, fingering out the necessary bills, and wonders if Eduardo would’ve done that for him, had he forgotten his wallet. He doubts it. In fact, he has a feeling that Eduardo made sure Mark’s wallet wasn’t in his pocket.
On their way out the door, Mark hesitates, shivering. It’d gotten quite a bit colder while the three of them were eating, and Chris looks up to see clouds that look alarmingly like they’re going to burst open with either rain or snow. “You’re an idiot for wearing shorts, anyway,” Chris grumbles, looking over to see Eduardo shrugging out of his coat and tossing it to Mark.
Mark stares at it. “This coat is ridiculous,” he says, glaring down at it. “It looks like something my high school principal would’ve worn.”
Eduardo shrugs. “Don’t wear it then. Catch Pneumonia. Whatever.”
Mark looks back at the coat and then huffs, slipping it on. “You’re half a foot taller than me. I feel idiotic.”
“You look fine, princess,” Eduardo tells him teasingly. “The hoodies you wear are three sizes too big, anyway. Stop complaining.”
Chris notices Eduardo drop back; keeping two steps behind Mark so that he can’t notice him shivering.
Part of him wants to ask Eduardo why he’s doing all of this, but at the same time, he knows the answer. He doesn’t know Eduardo well enough to be comfortable asking, and he certainly doesn’t want to make Eduardo feel awkward having that discussion.
He decides to leave it be.
III-Sean
“Did you-did you slip him something?” Eduardo asks Sean, kneeling next to Mark, who is sitting cross-legged on the floor staring at the ceiling.
Sean laughs. “Not on purpose. He must’ve grabbed an unopened drink. He should know better than to do that at a party, after all.”
Eduardo turns on Sean. “Hey, shut the hell up, you fucking-he’s not used to having to worry about illegal substances in his beer,” he defends sharply before turning back to Mark. “Hey, Mark, you okay?”
Mark finally meets his eyes, his face lighting up in a way that Sean notices makes Eduardo smile despite himself. “Wardo, hi! You’re here! I didn’t think you’d get here.”
“Yeah, I’m here,” Eduardo says gently. “Mark, did you-what’s the last thing you remember eating or drinking?”
Mark ignores him, getting to his feet and grabbing Eduardo’s hand. “Here, I wanna show you The Wall!”
“You wanna-what?” Eduardo asks, his voice a tad breathless as he stares at their hands.
“He’s added a new code to Facebook,” Sean explains, “A sort of personal message board for each user.” He watches Eduardo swallow thickly before nodding. He smirks.
Having his surprise explained, Mark loses interest in showing it to Eduardo and turns to face him. “I’m glad you’re here, Wardo. I missed you. You’re gonna stay here, right? You should stay with me.”
Sean’s smile snakes farther across his face as he watches Eduardo’s eyes widen. “Y-yeah, I know, I um…I’m going to stay here for the weekend, Mark, you know that. Do you remember what you had to eat or drink last?”
Mark avoids his question again. “No, you should live here with me. I want you out here. I need you out here. Stay out here. Please?”
“Mark…” Eduardo starts carefully, but suddenly Sean is behind him, his hand patting his shoulder condescendingly.
“He needs you out here, Wardo.”
“Don’t call me that,” Eduardo says automatically at the same time Mark looks up and glares at Sean.
“Don’t call him that.”
Sean smirks, as if he did it on purpose, and Eduardo turns his face from Sean, unintentionally showing how bright red the nape of his neck is.
“C’mon, Mark,” he says gently. “Let’s get you to bed, okay?”
Mark protests, but follows anyway.
Sean just grins and sips his beer.
IV-Christy
If she hears the words ‘Palo Alto’ one more Goddamn time, heads are going to roll. “Why do you keep going down there?” she asks furiously, stabbing with unnecessary force at her salad.
“It’s where the business is, Chris. I’m part of the business.”
“Are you cheating on me?” There’s no hesitation, no preamble. To be honest, she doesn’t even have to ask.
“The only people I see when I go up there are old, graying investors and Mark,” he answers flatly.
Christy glares at him, as if she doesn’t want to take that as an answer, but doesn’t want to say anything. After a moment, she goes back to her salad. She rolls several possibilities over in her mind. He could be lying, or he could be telling the truth. If he’s telling the truth, though, she knows, he’s only lying by omission.
Later in the night while they’re cuddling in bed, Christy brings it up again, her voice pouty. “Why do you always need to be there? Why can’t Mark do anything by himself?”
“He can,” Eduardo argues, sounding vaguely offended. “I’m CFO, Chris. I need to be involved.”
“You’re involved an awful lot,” she says pointedly, emphasizing the word ‘involved’-telling him through his own word choice that she knows. He shouldn’t bother lying to her.
“Christy…” Eduardo says exasperatedly, “I have to be. It’s already bad enough that I’m all the way here in New York.”
“Move out there, then,” Christy snaps. “Just move out there and don’t bother coming back. It’s not like there’d be any difference in either of our lives.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eduardo asks, trying to keep from sounded wounded or angry.
“You know what it means,” Christy grumbles under her breath, turning out the light and facing away from him.
V-Eduardo
“Mark,” Eduardo whispers, shaking his friend’s shoulder, “Mark, you fell asleep at the computer again.”
Mark mumbles something incoherent and snuggles further into the arms he has crossed under his head as a makeshift pillow on top of his keyboard.
Eduardo tries to remember the last time Mark mentioned getting any sleep, but he could barely remember forcing food down his throat earlier this week. He cringes. He really should’ve been making sure Mark was okay, but it’s been such a busy week with finals that Eduardo had forgotten to take the time to take care of him.
Mark shivers slightly, bringing Eduardo back to the present.
“Mark, come on. You’re not going to get any good sleep like that-it’s cold. And that’s bad for your back…”
Mark makes an odd purring noise in his sleep, and Eduardo smirks. “All right,” he sighs, tucking his arms under Mark and heaving him into a sitting position. “C’mon.”
Eduardo tips Mark gently towards him, and Mark, some miniscule portion of wakefulness stirred by the movement, mumbles slightly and automatically takes hold of Eduardo’s neck, nuzzling slightly into the warmth of his chest.
Eduardo’s breath catches, and for a few minutes, he remains frozen, soaking up the unfamiliar feeling of holding Mark to him. “Mark,” Eduardo tries again, but his voice is hardly even a whisper at this point. He knows it’s ridiculous, but he wants to stay like this. He considers moving into a sitting position and just falling asleep leaning against Mark’s desk. It’d be a strange thing to answer to in the morning, but right now, it feels like it would be worth it.
With a sigh, Eduardo hoists himself up, carrying Mark over and dropping him gently on the bed. Mark rolls onto his side, facing the wall and drawing up into a fetal position. Eduardo carefully tugs the comforter out from under Mark’s body and pulls it over him, making sure he’s still before reaching over and running a hand over his hair.
“I shudder to think what you’d do with do without me,” Eduardo says, and then hesitates, as if waiting for some sort of response. He looks quickly at the door before leaning forward and placing a kiss on Mark’s temple. Then, as if it were no different from any other night, he turns on his heel and walks out the door.
“Good night, Mark.”
Pairing: Eduardo/Mark
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Written for this prompt in the kink meme: "Eduardo treats Mark like his girlfriend. Everybody notices except for Mark."
Warnings: Eduardo came out a little more "momish" than I wanted, but...
Story:
I-Dustin
Dustin has never been under the disillusion that he is quick to notice anything. One does not have to be quick, however, to notice that the way Eduardo treats Mark is not the way most people treat their friends. It’s not even the way Eduardo treats any of his other friends.
“I got you food,” Eduardo announces unceremoniously as he enters their dorm without knocking, breezing past Dustin and Chris battling loudly on the Xbox. He drops a dining hall bag onto the desk next to Mark and goes to sit on the edge of his bed, pulling out his phone to look at something.
Mark doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even seem to notice Eduardo has entered his bedroom. Eduardo finishes what he’s doing and shuts his phone before asking, “How long has it been since you ate?”
He sees Mark’s chin dip slightly to read the clock in the right-hand corner of the screen. “Fourteen hours,” he answers flatly, not looking up at the noise of exasperation Eduardo makes. “I’m almost done, Wardo, I’ll eat when I-”
“I will shut it off,” Eduardo says in a clear, serious voice. “Eat now.”
Dustin doesn’t expect him to, but Mark does. Pausing his work on the computer and digging into the bag, pulling out a Styrofoam box with a burger inside. As he takes a bite out of it, Eduardo gets to his feet and goes to the mini fridge, pulling out a beer and opening it, setting it down wordlessly next to Mark.
Mark doesn’t say anything, but a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth as he swallows the bite of cheeseburger, and Eduardo seems to take that as a thank you and smiles back, sighing exasperatedly.
“What did you eat fourteen hours ago?” Eduardo asks after a moment.
Mark hesitates before answering, “Cheese Its.”
Another sigh, and then Eduardo pats his shoulder, calling out behind him, “Go to bed when you’re done with whatever the hell you’re doing,” and walking into the kitchenette.
Eduardo pulls out a few pots from under the sink and says, “Chris, I’ll replace it all, but I’m going to use some of your food.”
“Kay,” Chris answers, and Dustin doubts he even really heard him. Not that he would mind, either way. Eduardo has used their kitchenette and food to cook before. Dustin briefly wonders how clean and unused Eduardo’s dorm room must be, since he spends all of his time here.
Still, it’s eleven-o-clock at night. “What’re you making?” Dustin asks.
Chris and Eduardo speak in unison: “Meals for Mark.”
Flabbergasted, Dustin waits until Eduardo is too far into cooking to hear him whisper to Chris, “What?”
Chris shrugs. “He makes Mark food every few weeks and sticks it in the fridge so that Mark’ll eat. You know how he forgets to.”
Dustin looks incredulously at Chris. “Yeah, but…” he mutters, watching Eduardo busy himself about the kitchen. “Doesn’t that seem…?”
“Don’t bring it up,” Chris answers before Dustin can even finish the question. “I don’t want to have that discussion. I don’t care, you don’t care. It doesn’t matter.”
Dustin shrugs, agreeing, for the most part, though it seems, as always, he’s the last to find out after all.
After a while, he hears the kitchen noise wind down. He watches Eduardo stuff butter noodles, garlic potatoes, chicken, tuna salad and scrambled eggs into separate tupperwares - all ones that had Mark’s name on them - and stacking them in the fridge before walking past them again and ducking his head into Mark’s bedroom.
“Sleep,” he says flatly before bidding the other two goodbye and leaving the dorm.
Dustin looks at Chris.
“Don’t bring it up,” Chris reminds him sternly.
II-Chris
Chris first notices it when they are freshmen. Mark has only known Eduardo for about a month, maybe more, when one weekend Dustin goes home and leaves Chris to be their third wheel for a few days. Chris doesn’t know Eduardo very well, he’s only met him a few times, and he mostly keeps to Mark’s room whenever he’s over, but he seems like a nice enough guy when he extends the invitation to go out and get some pizza.
It’s a cold walk to the nearest pizza place, but it’s only October, so Mark doesn’t bother with anything more than a T-shirt, shorts and his flip-flops.
The pizza is a little expensive for most college students, and how it accomplishes being the one closest to campus is a mystery to Chris.
Eduardo tries hard to include Chris into their conversation, but he has a bad habit of forgetting Chris exists if Mark pays too much attention to him in a short span of time.
When their checks come, Mark barely has time to pat himself down before Eduardo mutters, “You left your wallet on your dresser.”
“Thanks for reminding me to get it, then,” Mark snaps sarcastically, but Eduardo just smirks and sets down enough money to cover them both.
Chris looks down at his wallet, fingering out the necessary bills, and wonders if Eduardo would’ve done that for him, had he forgotten his wallet. He doubts it. In fact, he has a feeling that Eduardo made sure Mark’s wallet wasn’t in his pocket.
On their way out the door, Mark hesitates, shivering. It’d gotten quite a bit colder while the three of them were eating, and Chris looks up to see clouds that look alarmingly like they’re going to burst open with either rain or snow. “You’re an idiot for wearing shorts, anyway,” Chris grumbles, looking over to see Eduardo shrugging out of his coat and tossing it to Mark.
Mark stares at it. “This coat is ridiculous,” he says, glaring down at it. “It looks like something my high school principal would’ve worn.”
Eduardo shrugs. “Don’t wear it then. Catch Pneumonia. Whatever.”
Mark looks back at the coat and then huffs, slipping it on. “You’re half a foot taller than me. I feel idiotic.”
“You look fine, princess,” Eduardo tells him teasingly. “The hoodies you wear are three sizes too big, anyway. Stop complaining.”
Chris notices Eduardo drop back; keeping two steps behind Mark so that he can’t notice him shivering.
Part of him wants to ask Eduardo why he’s doing all of this, but at the same time, he knows the answer. He doesn’t know Eduardo well enough to be comfortable asking, and he certainly doesn’t want to make Eduardo feel awkward having that discussion.
He decides to leave it be.
III-Sean
“Did you-did you slip him something?” Eduardo asks Sean, kneeling next to Mark, who is sitting cross-legged on the floor staring at the ceiling.
Sean laughs. “Not on purpose. He must’ve grabbed an unopened drink. He should know better than to do that at a party, after all.”
Eduardo turns on Sean. “Hey, shut the hell up, you fucking-he’s not used to having to worry about illegal substances in his beer,” he defends sharply before turning back to Mark. “Hey, Mark, you okay?”
Mark finally meets his eyes, his face lighting up in a way that Sean notices makes Eduardo smile despite himself. “Wardo, hi! You’re here! I didn’t think you’d get here.”
“Yeah, I’m here,” Eduardo says gently. “Mark, did you-what’s the last thing you remember eating or drinking?”
Mark ignores him, getting to his feet and grabbing Eduardo’s hand. “Here, I wanna show you The Wall!”
“You wanna-what?” Eduardo asks, his voice a tad breathless as he stares at their hands.
“He’s added a new code to Facebook,” Sean explains, “A sort of personal message board for each user.” He watches Eduardo swallow thickly before nodding. He smirks.
Having his surprise explained, Mark loses interest in showing it to Eduardo and turns to face him. “I’m glad you’re here, Wardo. I missed you. You’re gonna stay here, right? You should stay with me.”
Sean’s smile snakes farther across his face as he watches Eduardo’s eyes widen. “Y-yeah, I know, I um…I’m going to stay here for the weekend, Mark, you know that. Do you remember what you had to eat or drink last?”
Mark avoids his question again. “No, you should live here with me. I want you out here. I need you out here. Stay out here. Please?”
“Mark…” Eduardo starts carefully, but suddenly Sean is behind him, his hand patting his shoulder condescendingly.
“He needs you out here, Wardo.”
“Don’t call me that,” Eduardo says automatically at the same time Mark looks up and glares at Sean.
“Don’t call him that.”
Sean smirks, as if he did it on purpose, and Eduardo turns his face from Sean, unintentionally showing how bright red the nape of his neck is.
“C’mon, Mark,” he says gently. “Let’s get you to bed, okay?”
Mark protests, but follows anyway.
Sean just grins and sips his beer.
IV-Christy
If she hears the words ‘Palo Alto’ one more Goddamn time, heads are going to roll. “Why do you keep going down there?” she asks furiously, stabbing with unnecessary force at her salad.
“It’s where the business is, Chris. I’m part of the business.”
“Are you cheating on me?” There’s no hesitation, no preamble. To be honest, she doesn’t even have to ask.
“The only people I see when I go up there are old, graying investors and Mark,” he answers flatly.
Christy glares at him, as if she doesn’t want to take that as an answer, but doesn’t want to say anything. After a moment, she goes back to her salad. She rolls several possibilities over in her mind. He could be lying, or he could be telling the truth. If he’s telling the truth, though, she knows, he’s only lying by omission.
Later in the night while they’re cuddling in bed, Christy brings it up again, her voice pouty. “Why do you always need to be there? Why can’t Mark do anything by himself?”
“He can,” Eduardo argues, sounding vaguely offended. “I’m CFO, Chris. I need to be involved.”
“You’re involved an awful lot,” she says pointedly, emphasizing the word ‘involved’-telling him through his own word choice that she knows. He shouldn’t bother lying to her.
“Christy…” Eduardo says exasperatedly, “I have to be. It’s already bad enough that I’m all the way here in New York.”
“Move out there, then,” Christy snaps. “Just move out there and don’t bother coming back. It’s not like there’d be any difference in either of our lives.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eduardo asks, trying to keep from sounded wounded or angry.
“You know what it means,” Christy grumbles under her breath, turning out the light and facing away from him.
V-Eduardo
“Mark,” Eduardo whispers, shaking his friend’s shoulder, “Mark, you fell asleep at the computer again.”
Mark mumbles something incoherent and snuggles further into the arms he has crossed under his head as a makeshift pillow on top of his keyboard.
Eduardo tries to remember the last time Mark mentioned getting any sleep, but he could barely remember forcing food down his throat earlier this week. He cringes. He really should’ve been making sure Mark was okay, but it’s been such a busy week with finals that Eduardo had forgotten to take the time to take care of him.
Mark shivers slightly, bringing Eduardo back to the present.
“Mark, come on. You’re not going to get any good sleep like that-it’s cold. And that’s bad for your back…”
Mark makes an odd purring noise in his sleep, and Eduardo smirks. “All right,” he sighs, tucking his arms under Mark and heaving him into a sitting position. “C’mon.”
Eduardo tips Mark gently towards him, and Mark, some miniscule portion of wakefulness stirred by the movement, mumbles slightly and automatically takes hold of Eduardo’s neck, nuzzling slightly into the warmth of his chest.
Eduardo’s breath catches, and for a few minutes, he remains frozen, soaking up the unfamiliar feeling of holding Mark to him. “Mark,” Eduardo tries again, but his voice is hardly even a whisper at this point. He knows it’s ridiculous, but he wants to stay like this. He considers moving into a sitting position and just falling asleep leaning against Mark’s desk. It’d be a strange thing to answer to in the morning, but right now, it feels like it would be worth it.
With a sigh, Eduardo hoists himself up, carrying Mark over and dropping him gently on the bed. Mark rolls onto his side, facing the wall and drawing up into a fetal position. Eduardo carefully tugs the comforter out from under Mark’s body and pulls it over him, making sure he’s still before reaching over and running a hand over his hair.
“I shudder to think what you’d do with do without me,” Eduardo says, and then hesitates, as if waiting for some sort of response. He looks quickly at the door before leaning forward and placing a kiss on Mark’s temple. Then, as if it were no different from any other night, he turns on his heel and walks out the door.
“Good night, Mark.”