Reconciliation
Fandom: The Social Network
Characters: Mark, Eduardo, Erica, mentions of Sean Parker
Warnings: Slashity slash, swearing, angsty fluff(oh the fulff!)
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Notes: Unbetaed; I've tried catching all those niggling little mistakes, but please do tell if you find any more
Summary: Erica sighed, leant against the door and closed her eyes.
“Don’t fuck this up Mark. He’s was never just a friend to you, even if you’re too dense to see it.”
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“Go on then. He’s waiting for you”.
Mark turned to look at Erica, trepidation building in his chest as he thought about the man waiting for him behind the door.
“You didn’t tell him it was me did you?” he asked. “Honestly Zuckerberg, I never knew him, he knows me through you, I have no reason to contact him and he’s no idiot. Pity the same doesn’t apply to you.”
“But you didn’t tell him”, Mark said again, all nervous eagerness and fear and vulnerability shining through his usual douche-ness. Erica’s eyes softened. “He’s waiting Zuckerberg. Go on.” Nodding fervently and wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans, Mark opened the door and went in.
Erica sighed, leant against the door and closed her eyes.
“Don’t fuck this up Mark. He’s was never just a friend to you, even if you’re too dense to see it.”
She pushed away from the door to her apartment and made her way to the Starbucks three streets ahead. Her part was done, now it was Mark’s turn.
“Hi.”
“Mark”
“I um… I asked Erica to speak to you.”
“I figured.”
….
“So? What did you want? Have to dilute my stocks but decided to ask me first?”
“No! No, fuck… no. I just… I just wanted to talk.”
Eduardo stared at his one time friend, so restless and distracted, pacing through the room, and yet, seemingly undistracted by anything else except the here and now. It threw him off kilter, this version of Mark. Over the years he had come to accept that he had never really known the boy he had befriended, financed, shared almost everything with, lov- lets not go there.
“Talk then.”
The minutes ticked by, the silence only disturbed by Mark’s pacing and muttering. After waiting for nearly half hour, Eduardo made to get up. He had waited enough for Mark, and a lifetime ago, he would have continued to wait. Not now though.
Just as he got up, Mark was there, pushing him back down and kneeling in front of him.
“You can’t leave!
Please… just…. Give me a moment. Please.”
How curious, Eduardo thought, that Mark Zuckerberg, emotionally stunted douche of the millennia would plead. He didn’t think Mark had it in him to look so desperate and wild and… capable of feeling at all.
“I was an idiot”, Mark blurted out, looking to Eduardo for a reaction. Eduardo looked back passively. Turing away, Mark continued, wanting, no, needing to get it all out before he choked up again.
“I was an idiot,” he repeated. “No wait, I am an idiot. I’m pathetic and hopeless and I don’t deserve you here listening to me but you are and I need to apologize because,”, Mark’s chest heaved as he fought to speak past the lump that had formed in his throat for the first time in a long time. “Because I'm sorry and god I didn’t mean to hurt you and you’re my best friend, and you’ve always been and I didn't know and I still don’t. I don’t know business and money. I know cool and awesome and programs and those three words together and I wasn’t thinking and I shouldn’t have, never should have let Sean push you out and I’m sorry! Fuck, I want you; I need you back with me, because you’re the only one!”
Mark turned his wild desperate eyes to Eduardo’s again, finally dropping his cocksure smart alec defense mechanism as Erica liked to call it and looking as hopelessly lost as his rant indicated. He hadn’t moved from his position on the floor, and his knees were beginning to hurt but it didn’t matter right now because it was only Eduardo who did and how could he have not seen this before?!
“The only one for what?”
“Huh?”
“The only one for what Mark?”
“The only one… the only one I love. The only one I have ever loved.” Mark turned shocked eyes to Eduardo, who was looking back with the same incredulity.
A litany of denial ran on repeat inside Eduardo’s head. He couldn’t, Mark couldn’t do this to him. Not right now…not- fuck… not after everything. In a sudden fury he grabbed Mark by his collar and crushed his mouth in a bruising heated angry parody of kiss, pouring out all his anger and frustration in a mash of teeth and lips and skin and saliva and blood. It didn’t change anything.
Suddenly furious, Eduardo ripped his mouth from Mark’s and punched him viciously.
“Fuck.You. You don’t… you have no right to do this to me now Mark. None.”
He made sure to slam the door as he walked out, leaving a shocked Mark still lying on the floor.
He had… he had kissed him. He loved him.
Suddenly the reality of the past hour crashed down on Mark. He had loved Eduardo, and he’d betrayed him. He’d tried to make up for it, but it couldn’t, it would never be enough. And Mark didn’t know what else to do. He curled up in a ball of absent misery.
When Erica returned, it was to the pitiful sight of Mark Zuckerberg, programming extraordinaire, and billionaire curled up on her floor like a lost puppy that had just been kicked. Sighing, she sat by his side and put her hand on his head, gently caressing his curls. She had cared for him as a lover once, and hated him for what he had done to her. But now, now they were both grown and she was adult enough to let the past lie. He had made clumsy attempts at amends and she had seen what she couldn’t then- an emotionally stunted genius who could program with the best of them but couldn’t figure out relationships to save his life. She had forgiven him, but she supposed it was too much to hope that Eduardo would forgive Mark as well… there was too much broken between them.
That night Erica didn’t turn her biting sarcasm on Mark like she usually did, just stayed by his side and let him bunk on her couch. She didn’t speak much, but as she began bustling around her tiny kitchenette in an attempt to whip up dinner, Mark started talking, and as he told her everything, she felt her pity for him grow as well as her desire to shoot every single man alive for being so stupidly convoluted.
“What do I do Erica? I don’t know what to do.”
Mark’s quiet, miserable voice made Erica’s decision to not interfere any further waver. She slammed the knife onto the cutting board in frustration and turned to Mark, making no attempt to hide her irritation.
“You will do nothing. You messed up. Deal with it.” Mark’s face dropped further even as resigned acceptance began to creep into him.
“But,” Erica continued, rolling her eyes, “because you’ve managed to figure out what you feel without any help and there’s obviously some reciprocation, I will attempt to talk to him. Consider this a reward for good behaviour Zuckerberg.”
She returned to chopping *coughmutilatingcough* the vegetables for stew. She hated feeling anything close to compassion for the asshole behind her. Even if she was some facsimile of a friend to him. And cared about him. Just a little.
“Listen, Saverin. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I’m here, so let’s get this over with” said Erica as she unceremoniously sat down on the couch opposite Eduardo.
“I hated Zuckerberg, still do, actually. But even I know he’s mostly a douche because that’s all he knows to be. You were his best friend, and regardless of how he changed or whatnot, you still know him best. Which is why you should also know how hard it was for him to attempt to contact you at all. He hasn’t had a lot of practice with apologies, but he’s trying, and that in itself is a miracle.” Erica paused to take a breath. “Now I’m not here to tell you to bend over and let him fuck you at the next possible opportunity,” Erica rolled her eyes at Eduardo’s fish out of water look and ploughed on without missing a beat “but he’s useless with relationships. This much is as far as he’ll come out of his shell without any movement from the other end. Try and figure out if you want to give him a chance again soon so I can kick gloom and doom out of my apartment without feeling guilty.”
“Oh, and he never had anything for the Napster jerk. Ever.”
With that, she walked away. Hopefully, with this, her part was done.
Eduardo didn’t contact Mark. Not that week, not even that month. Mark had, by then, moved back to his own apartment, determined to move on. He loved Eduardo, and suspected he would for a long, long while, but he couldn’t dwell on what he had lost. He didn’t know relationships, and couldn’t be bothered to learn now. Not after Eduardo had so clearly rejected him.
On the fourth of February, Mark lingered in the office after the anniversary party, staring absently at one of his older business cards with 'I'm CEO...Bitch' stating his position.
“I see you decided to save one of them.”
Mark spun on his heels so quickly he got a little dizzy.
“Eduardo”
“Congratulations on your success Mark.”
“I... thank you. To you as well.”
“Polite? How unusual” bit out Eduardo. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. “ Do you still.. care for me?” he asked Mark uncertainly.
“… Yea.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I know.”
“It’s going to be hard.”
“I know.”
“We’ll need to talk. A lot.”
“Okay.”
“Especially about Sean Parker.”
“Alright.”
“I need to learn to trust you again.”
“Ill do everything I can.”
Eduardo opened his eyes and looked into Mark’s suddenly hopeful ones.
“One day at a time then?”
And in the next moment Mark was on him, clutching at Eduardo telling him over and over again how sorry he was, how thankful he was, how much he loved him and then Eduardo was kissing him and it was fierce and passionate and it continued till it slowed and gentled into the sweetest, most chaste press of lips on lips that made Mark’s toes curl and smile into Eduardo’s mouth.
“One day at a time.”
~Fin~