WHO:Martin and Fabian WHAT: a birthday drink (played out quick and dirty over messenger) WHERE: the fire pit outside Martin's winnebago WHEN: the evening of 23rd november, after this owl RATING: surprisingly PG
Fabian is red. Martin is blue.
Fabian got his note and the food/drink. he would have stayed home for the first while and then been all..."well this is depressing." and then headed over to see Martin.
The marten sees him and scampers up to greet him warmly, like a cat.
When the Marten greets him, Fabian is going to pick him up and nuzzle him without thinking. And then realize what he was doing and awkwardly put him down.
Martin will take that as a green light to go for a hug after he turns back. He only hugs a few people and not very often, but he’s full of oxytocin from marten cuddles.
He has chairs around a fire pit that he keeps going when he’s outside at night. After he hugs him he says "happy birthday, d’you wanna sit?”
And the hug and everything would confuse the hell out of Fabian. He has no idea where they stand and Martin is still hugging him and they've shagged and yeah....it's a mystery.
Martin sometimes smokes weed now and has a pipe and a jar by the chairs, if Fabian would like to notice that. Amsterdam was a very good experience for him.
He'd raise an eyebrow and maybe comment about how Martin traded up.
Martin says he's a man of the world now.
One trip to Amsterdam and suddenly he's a man of the world.
Martin points out that he's also been to Taiwan and China.
Well, it's further then Fabian's ever been.
Martin then pulls a half drunk bottle of wine from behind his chair and says “anyway I didn’t trade, I’m supplementing.”
Which would make Fabian laugh and demand he share.
"The wine or the weed?"
"Wine."
Martin passes him the wine and says “I guess I should go get glasses? I don’t care if you don’t.”
Fabian just shrugs and takes a swig. "not like we haven't shared before."
“good, I don’t have real wine glasses, it would have been mugs"
"and none of them are clean anyway, right?"
He laughs and says “you know scourgify takes less than a minute. I wouldn’t be gone long.”
Fabian smirks, "you understand in saying that, you've just given away that I was right."
"Of course you're right, you know me."
Fabian gives him a sad look before staring down at the firepit.
Martin feels awkward and also stares into the fire. After a moment he points at a maple that’s not far from where they’re sitting and says “I’m building something up that tree.”
Glad of the distraction, Fabian looks over his shoulder to where Martin points. "A nest or a tree house?"
A treehouse. Well, a platform.” Then he concedes “the den isn’t up the tree… it’s under the tree. I like that tree.” He didn't mention it, but Theo picked the tree.
"Course you do, it's a nice tree."
He nods because it is a very good tree and Fabian gets it. He takes the bottle back and takes a swig.
"Thanks for the cake and the whisky," he comments to break the silence between them.
Martin nodded. "I couldn’t just let today pass, we always spend your birthday together.” He paused then, “and I care about you, I want you to have a happy birthday.”
"you only spent it with me because no one else was willing to put up with my surly arse." thinks for a second, "Did Molly put you up to it originally? she's always been paranoid of me being on my own for my birthday since I tried to off myself that one year."
“Molly only told me where to find you. I didn’t really understand the full significance of the day at that point. I just wanted to be with you on your birthday. I knew it was a tough day but I didn’t know everything.”
"It's always going to be a tough day but spending it with you helps." gives a small, shy smile. "so thanks for that."
“Anytime.” He takes a swig and passes it back and thinks for a minute and says, “d’you remember what you said to me the night I came back? When I was still confused and trying to tell you what happened.”
Fabian thinks for a moment, "that was so long ago. I don't really remember."
“I know. I don’t remember all of that night but I remember this… I was telling you that I was safe and happy while I was missing and you thought I was breaking up with you." He'd been chewing on this for awhile, "I been thinking about that night because when you thought—well, you you said we could still be friends. But we aren’t.”
Fabian swallows the lump in his throat. "Yeah, well...I said a lot of things that apparently aren't true."
Martin says “can we be, though? I want to be your friend, Fabs. Can you let me have at least that?” He didn’t mean to get confrontational, but here he was.
Fabian takes a swig of the wine as he thinks on this. After a couple minutes says, "I don't get it. I'm honestly confused as hell." Looks at Martin finally, "what you want and what's been going on between us, they don't add up, Martin."
"I don't see what doesn't add up. I want you in my life... I miss you, man."
"What doesn't add up is you not wanting to me around one day and the next telling me to come over." Fabian runs a hand through his hair in frustration, "I mean, we broke up but then we ended up having sex again. I feel like I'm getting mixed signals."
Martin dragged a hand over his face, trying to form what he wanted to say. “I’m sorry about that. I needed you—I needed someone, and I didn’t really think about how you felt.” He took another swig and said “I’m weak, I don’t have a better excuse.” He sighed, “I don’t know how to send signals, if I’m being honest, I’m just flying by the seat of my pants. “
"Aren't we all." Huffs a breath. He's a bit hurt by the fact Martin didn't care who is was as long as it was someone. "Glad I could be of assistance." He mutters bitterly.
“I’m glad it was you. I…” He crossed his arms and slumped down into his chair, conceding again, “if I’m being honest, It had to be you, you’re the one I came home for when I got lost in the woods.” Martin stared off at his maple tree to avoid meeting Fabian’s gaze. “You prince-charming’d me.”
Fabian lets out a sharp laugh, "Prince Charming'd you? Don't think I've ever been called prince charming before." he shook his head, "No, it was me because I was convenient and you knew if you pressed hard enough, I'd come."
There was a pause. "...I'm still glad it was you. I'm sorry."
"so you're glad it was me and that's it?" he only waits a second before continuing, "what is this Martin? You say you want to be friends but then you don't even tell me you're going to Amsterdam. You want to be friends but you also want to have sex."
“Well, see, Amsterdam was more of a hostage situation. I was moping about and making Luna depressed so she made me pack a bag.” He sat himself up in his chair again, “and… I don’t know, we used to be friends who had sex. Would that be so bad?”
"I don't think I can go back. Not after everything that's happened between us." Fabian looks defeated, "I can't go back to casual like it was before because my feelings have changed and I can't put them back in the box as easily as you seem to be able to."
“Yeah it was really easy,” Martin rolled his eyes. “I disappeared so far into the marten I wasn’t sure if I was going to come back. I was under for over a month. Then I came out for a few hours and decided I couldn’t handle it, went back under.” He pulled another bottle of wine from somewhere and pushed the empty one aside. “Turns out you can go on a bender without any alcohol at all.”
"Are you trying to tell me you went on a shifting bender?" Fabian raises an eyebrow having no idea what that would be like.
“Yeah. My friends missed me but the marten doesn’t really care about that stuff. He’s good like that.”
"He is. Tenacious little bugger." Fabian says fondly.
“I moved the camper here so them at the house can check I haven’t gone missing again," he gestured vaguely in the direction of the Black house. "I wasn’t checking in often enough.”
"So wait...you mean after we broke up you went Marten to deal with it and couldn't find your way back?" Fabian frowns "so you weren't avoiding me?"
“I wasn’t stuck, I was isolating on purpose… I can’t pretend I wasn’t avoiding you, but I wasn’t coming out to talk to anyone else either.” He was definitely avoiding you, Fabian.
"I guess I can't really blame you, since I was doing the exact same." He snatches the bottle from Martin now that it's open and takes a swig.
“I’m sorry about the mixed signals. We don’t have to have sex again. “ He took the bottle back, “I didn’t invite you here to seduce you.”
Fabian isn't sure that's the outcome he wanted. "I know. I didn't come here to be seduced. I came because you're about the only person who wants to be around me in any given capacity."
Martin sighed “heaven help me, I can’t help but enjoy your sorry company.”
Sly smile, "no chance you were dropped on your head as a kid?"
“Nope, hopeless since birth. It’s a gen-et-ic condition,” he said the muggle word carefully.
"A what?" Fabian raised an eyebrow. "Generational condition?"
“Is that what it means? I thought it just meant it was deep in your bones and you can’t change it. I’m hopeless, and I can’t shake it. I’m drawn to all the wrong people.”
"So I'm the wrong people?" Raises eyebrow.
"Isn't that what you've always told me?"
"Yeah but I never expected you to believe it."
“I never did. Not until—“ he cut himself off, “I don’t want to start a fight.”
Fabian just nods and leans back to look up at the fading sky. He doesn't want to fight about it either. They've said their pieces and neither were going to change so why bother fighting about it anymore.
Martin sighed, relieved that he didn’t have to scratch at wounds that were just starting to heal. After a pause he said, “I’m getting a job at the bar the Order is opening up.”
"That weird dress up muggle bar idea that Black had. He's actually going through with it?"
Martin laughed, “that’s the one. It opens New Year’s Eve. Some people have too much money, but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I can’t wait to open the doors and interact with people I don’t already know.”
"Are they going to serve Wizarding liquor or muggle stuff?" He asked out of curiosity.
“Muggle I think, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we have some off-menu items.”
"Stuff that's still magical but not attention grabbing." Nods, "so what will you be doing? Mixing?"
“Yeah, mixing drinks and tending bar. I’ll be in a stupid little outfit, you should come by and see it.“
"With blacks whole gang there? Not sure I'll make an appearance." Shakes his head, "though might be worth it to see your outfit. What are you dressing as?"
“He won’t be there every minute we’re open. Anyway, I’ll probably be a highwayman. I’m still building my costume, it might change depending on what I find in charity shops between now and then.” He smiled, “you’ll have to come by if you want to see it. No private fashion shows.”
"Ah, come on. I should definitely be the first person to see your costume. I'm a fashionista. I could probably help and give you some pointers."
"Ha! In what way are you a fashionista?"
"I'll have you know I've always been the most fashionable of the order. Moody used to make fun of me all the time for following muggle fashion trends."
“You dress well I guess I just don’t think about it.” He shrugged, “it’s just a hand-me-down waistcoat right now. Maybe I’ll show you when I have more pieces.”
"That's because you don't think about me with my clothes on." Fabian smirks, "I could help you get the pieces if you want."
“I think of you in your Molly jumpers with your hair mussed up.” He paused when Fabian offered to go shopping with him, “I guess we could. I’ve missed going wherever we want cause you’re an auror… That doesn’t confuse things? It sounds like a date.”
"it's not a date. It's just two blokes going shopping for a specific purpose." Fabian points out.
Martin thought about times they fooled around in fitting rooms, but chose not to bring it up. “Sure. Yeah. So we’re going to go for it then? Being friends.”
A branch cracked in the distance and Martin snapped to attention. “Hold that thought,” he said, standing pulling his jacket off, “I need to check something.”He glanced over his shoulder at Fabian and smiled before shrinking into his smaller, sleeker form and dashing off into the underbrush.
Fabian falls asleep by the fire when he takes off..
When the marten returns to find Fabian sleeping, he curls up on his chest and sleeps until the other man gets up to leave. The marten missed Fabian every bit as much as Martin did..