Chapter 2
Omyx smiles, then leans against the counter, almost nervous.
"Listen," he says, and Marvin - detecting the change in the atmosphere almost immediately - sobers up, takes up a similar position, and waits to hear whatever this is - maybe the evening didn't go as well as he thought and he overstepped with the homework thing.
"I'm sorry about kissing you on the head," Omyx says.
"I do it with Remy when he's upset, and I was on autopilot.
It was inappropriate of me.
I'm sorry."
"It wasn't inappropriate," Marvin says, flustered for a number of reasons (one of them being that he has never once in his life used the word "inappropriate" in conversation).
"I liked it.
It was nice."
Once realising what he said, he promptly starts praying for the ground to open up beneath him and swallow him whole, preferably for eternity.
He's twenty seven and admitting he likes being kissed on the forehead.
Fantastic.
"Oh." Omyx smiles.
"That's... good then?" He looks a little awkward.
"I just didn't want you to be uncomfortable."
"I'm not.
Wasn't."
Omyx laughs.
"You look pretty uncomfortable, Marvin."
It's true.
He's wedged himself into the corner counter with his hands deep in his pockets, makes a conscious effort to relax.
"I thought I was in trouble," he admits.
"For what?"
"I don't know, something?"
"We gotta stamp that out of you," Omyx sighs, but his eyes are warm and face affectionate.
"C'mon.
You owe me a rematch."
~*~
It's sort of a habit after that.
They have some bad calls.
Someone drowns, and Marvin - who jumped in and pulled the guy out - shivers in the back of the firetruck in midwinter Foghaven temperatures until they get back to the firehouse.
Omyx sits with him, puts a blanket around his shoulders, and presses a soft kiss to the side of his head.
Steven's eyes just about bug out of his head, and Marvin is almost ninety percent sure that Alex snapped a sneaky picture to show Teo and Mary, but he's cold and wet and miserable and doesn't really care.
They send Omyx into the change rooms with him, because he's near hypothermic and they're worried about him collapsing.
He gradually turns the water temperature of the shower up until it's scalding and stands there until his skin turns red and the shivering stops, and when he exits the showers, Omyx is there.
"You waited?" Marvin asks, surprised.
"The last thing I want to have to tell Remy is that his Marvin died falling over in the shower because I wasn't paying attention."
Marvin gets dressed, sits down on the bench, and sighs heavily.
Omyx sits next to him.
"You okay?" he asks quietly.
"I just... wish he'd made it." A lot of things don't make sense to Marvin after the tsunami.
Why he lived even while cut and bleeding and on blood thinners, barely a month out of a pulmonary embolism that also should have killed him, and so many others died.
"Doesn't make sense."
Omyx sighs, puts his arm around Marvin's shoulders again, and draws him in close, until their thighs are pressed together.
Omyx's lips press into his temple again, and Marvin sighs at the contact.
"Easy, cariño," Omyx murmurs into his skin.
Marvin weighs his options.
No one is looking for him because Omyx is here with him, and he wants so badly to snuggle down into Omyx's warmth, but he also knows the guy isn't necessarily as tactile as him and almost definitely straight - he had a wife after all - but it's been a long time since someone held him, and not the other way around.
He takes a chance, nudges closer and down until his head is mostly tucked under Omyx's chin.
Omyx, for his part, just raises his head to make more room for Marvin.
Someone will look for them eventually, Marvin knows.
Still, he waits for Omyx to end their half-cuddle.
"If you get lonely tonight," Omyx says, quietly, "there's a spot for you at my place."
Marvin doesn't believe him now, when it's light out and he knows where he is, but later - when it's dark and he's woken from a nightmare - believing Omyx or not won't matter.
~*~
"Remy!"
He's sitting up, nightmare fading, panic whirling through his mind like a twisted merry go round.
There's water, he's breathing it in, and everything is upside down and he can't breathe.
"Remy, Remy-"
He's out of bed, going God knows where, makes it halfway down the stairs before he slips and falls.
He crashes to the bottom, and the impact serves only one purpose - waking him up.
He finds his phone, dials Omyx.
It's the only action his brain is capable of taking, even as he hates himself for waking the man up.
"Hullo?" Omyx's voice, sleepy, comes.
Marvin tries to take a breath, but it catches.
He feels cold.
"Marvin?" Omyx asks, his voice sharper.
"Are you alright?"
"Remy?" Marvin asks, shyly, feeling suddenly very stupid for panicking.
"Remy is okay," Omyx says, calm.
"Are you okay?"
He hesitates.
Omyx breathes on the other end of the line, grounding him.
"I had a nightmare," he says, gulping, "about the tsunami.
Fuck, Omyx, I'm sorry, it's late-"
"Come over," Omyx interrupts.
"What?"
"Come over.
You need sleep and you aren't gonna do that alone."
"Omyx, it's... well, I don't know what time it is, exactly, but-"
"Come over, Marvin," Omyx says, and the line cuts out.
Unsure of what else to do, and honestly a little soothed by being ordered around, Marvin packs a bag of his things and heads to Omyx's.