who: Neal Cassidy & Marceline Abadeer when: July 27th, morning, before the camping trip where: Neal's Apartment / The Ugly Pink House What: Neal offers Marceline a gift, accidentally tells her something Baelfire hadn't. warnings: Marceline being a rabid Emma / Neal shipper but otherwise no. status: Complete.
Neal had gotten everything he had purchased for Gideon donated to Fort Neill by this point. There wasn't much that was left that had been intended for others. His gifts had been largely relegated to his younger brother, but there was one or two things he had gotten for Belle. He didn't see any need for them to be donated to the bureau though. If anything, he was going to give them to goodwill and have that be the end of it.
However, there was one piece that he wasn't so certain about tossing in a charity bin. He took a picture of a locket and sent it as a text message to Marcy with the added note of, 'Do you like this?'
Marcy was in the kitchen staring between an apple and red jello packs when she felt her phone squirm. It was pretty simple for a cell phone, despite being from Ooo and technically alive. The maw of the amphibious bug-like creature opened as the picture Neal sent loaded slowly.
» Sure. » Who’s it for? » Check this out.
Marcy took a picture with her phone of the halfway constructed pool that now made up the majority of her backyard. (Thanks to the abilities of Gansey and Ronan, the actual construction was the most difficult part.) The picture was small and the quality of the photo was poor, but it didn’t look like a complete wreck.
» Wanted to know if you wanted it.
He didn't really think it was Emma or Regina's style. He didn't know Marcy's style enough to say one way or another as to whether she'd like it for herself, but it had definitely been something that he'd felt Belle would have liked. He pushed the necklace back into the drawer for now as he waited for the picture to come in from Marceline.
He raised his brows in surprise once he saw the actual pool. When she'd been talking about one, he figured it was a whim and that would be the end of it. Apparently not.
» I'm impressed.
Marceline narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her phone. Neal wasn’t acting Nealish exactly, but sometimes it was hard to tell.
» Yeah okay. » Thanks.
If it was a friend gift, he would have just given it, right? Neal was awkward but he wasn’t that awkward usually. Marceline frowned thoughtfully.
» Are you ok?
He was probably going to say fine regardless of if he was, but as her friend, she had to at a minimum ask.
» Yeah? » Good. » Didn't want it to go to waste.
He shifted, sitting down at his desk chair, tapping the edge of the phone against the arm of the chair until he felt it vibrate in his palm. He turned it over and read.
» Yes.
Marcy read the replies.
» Go to waste? » You didn’t have to buy it? » DID YOU BUY IT FOR EMMA? » ARE YOU BACKING OUT? » DUDE » ASK. HER. OUT.
» What? » No. » Why would you think it's for Emma? » It was for Belle but since she went home before I could give it to her, I thought maybe you might want it.
A pause.
» I'm not asking Emma out.
Marcy tried to give Neal a look through her phone. It only had one camera that wasn’t great for taking selfies. He would just have to feel it in spirit or something.
» Who’s Belle?
He hesitated for a moment. Did Baelfire not tell her about Belle? He was raising an eyebrow at the message before breathing in.
» Dad's wife.
Marcy decided the rest of this conversation needed to be over the phone. It was late for her. She was in bed but not asleep. Bae was working. Besides, she hadn’t bothered Neal in a while. Marcy was coping in Tumbleweed the best she could which mostly meant keeping her head down and building things.
But despite calling so they could talk rather than text, Marcy began the conversation with: “Explain.” Her voice sounded half asleep on the other line.
He shifted, kicking his feet up on his desk and pushing back in his chair to recline, as he tucked the phone between his ear and his cheek. "Well, see, there is this thing called marriage..." he began, with a slight smirk, knowing full well what type of reaction to expect.
Marcy grumbled into the phone, smooshing her face against her pillow until she was over his dad level joke. “I thought your relationship with your dad was worse than my relationship with my dad. And my dad is a deathless being of chaotic evil that rules the Nightosphere.”
"That isn't untrue," he agreed as he folded his hands over his chest. He hadn't actually talked to Marceline much about his Father, but he suspected Baelfire had. And he knew Baelfire's relationship with their Father was likely far kinder than his own. Even with the differences that had come because of him spending three years in another universe, Neal did not believe his younger self actively wanted to kill their Father in the way Neal knew he would should the man ever arrive.
"But that's him, not Belle. Not her fault she fell for his charm," he explained. "Doesn't matter though. She and Gideon are gone now."
“Wait, so who’s Gideon?” Marcy asked with a tired groan. Had he said before and she was just half asleep? If Bubblegum were here she probably would have already had notes. Marcy raked a hand down the side of her face in a feeble attempt to wake up a little more.
Neal frowned, shifting to sit up completely, and he hesitated. There was a lull of silence. "Did Baelfire not tell you about him?"
“No…” Marcy’s eyes narrowed. She wasn’t sure who she was supposed to be annoyed with, Bae for not telling her anything or everyone else or not telling her anything. At least Neal was maybe telling her now? “...Who’s Gideon?”
"Huh," he made, as a noise, as he went over in his head whether he should answer the question or not. Marceline was an individual who sought answers. If he didn't tell her, she was just going to go to Baelfire anyway, wasn't she? But he'd known that Baelfire had been actively avoiding Belle. He just hadn't realized the boy hadn't spoken about her at all. "Suddenly thinking I shouldn't be having this conversation, kid."
“I know, riiiight?” Marcy said sarcastically. “Too bad you already started it. So who’s Gideon?” The vampire queen sat up in bed and decided she was going to forgo sleep for the night. “You’re my friend, even if you do call me kid, so basically you have to tell me. It’s like what friends do. They talk about stuff. So… talk.”
"Yeaaaaaaaah, but he didn't tell you," he pointed out, literally pointing to articulate the fact, even if she couldn't see it. "And it'd be different if this was just my fucked up life and not mine and your boyfriends."
He sighed. "No chance of you just forgetting it, is there?"
“Nope,” she said matter of factly. “You two have different lives now, even if you have the same family life. You talking about your life is not Bae talking about his life. I can’t make Bae talk about anything he doesn’t want to, and he clearly didn’t want to. That doesn’t mean I can’t talk to you.”
Marcy paused and added, “I know it sucks when people disappear. So…”
"Mmm," he made as a sound against the phone before shutting his eyes and shaking his head. He had a feeling this was going to come back and bite him in the ass. Likely soon. "We're not talking about people disappearing, Marcy," he said, not with any heat, but more sadness in his tone than anything else. He didn't want to talk about it with anyone. It just made him feel tired or angry.
"Gideon's my brother."
“Oh snap,” Marcy said. Even though Neal said he wasn’t talking about anyone disappearing, he’d just admitted that his brother had disappeared. Marcy wasn’t exactly sure what to say. Bae not bringing up his brother at all was one thing. Neal was the one on the phone. “It’s pretty cool you have a brother though, right?” she offered lamely. She was, at least respecting the fact Neal didn’t want to discuss people disappearing. There were plenty of things Marcy didn’t want to talk about.
She decided to change the subject: “So you’re asking Emma out tomorrow, right?”
He brought his hand up to press fingers against his temple, gently circling them back and forth, as he shut his eyes. "Yeah, cool," he said, automatically, but there wasn't any actual emotion there. It was reflexive and as if there was far more to that subject than Neal was willing to delve into.
It touched dangerously close to the feelings of anger that sprung up when he thought about his younger brother and the world his Father had thrust him into. Then he huffed, a hint of a laugh attached at the end, "Get some sleep, Marceline," he said instead, because it was late for her and he'd noted the tired sound of her voice. Plus, he didn't really want to talk about Emma with her or anyone else.
“Nah, I’m awake now.” The vampire yawned. Marceline heard the smile in his voice, however, and considered it a victory. “You deserve to be happy, you know that, right? Like with someone you can grow old and wrinkly with? Cuz you’re not getting any less wrinkly.”
Marceline had subconsciously buried her feelings and anxieties about her relationship with Bae in that middle of that half awake teasing she’d intended for Neal.
"Yeah, well, appreciate you thinking that but that's not really what I'm trying to get out of life anymore," he said, with a bit more honesty than he'd normally share. "I get to be in Henry's life. That's all I need." He'd been ripped from peace and thrust into even more pain all at the hands, even if indirectly, of his Father. With that reality, he just focused on Henry.
"I'll save you the locket," he then said, smiling before, "Gonna go now, 'k?"
“Yeah, okay,” Marceline relented. “Talk to you later, Neal.”
After Marcy hung up she stared at her phone. Bae would be off work soon. Maybe she could rest her eyes for a little bit and then give him a call. It wasn’t an emergency, but she wondered if maybe they did need to talk. Maybe.
Marcy laid back down on the bed and let her eyes flutter close. Just for a few minutes.