Work Text:
“Hook!”
Martin looked up from his work in confusion in the direction of the whisper-yelled voice. What in the–
“Hey! Mahtin!”
He didn’t have to search for too long after looking up, immediately spotting the figure standing in the dark, gloomy hallway. He squinted his eyes, only to recognize the shady figure as Jon when he began to whisper-yell at him again.
”Mahtin! Come here!”
Martin squinted his eyes at the hallway in absolute befuddlement. Jon, however, looked serious enough that Martin reluctantly got up from his desk and made his way over to where Jon was standing.
”W-what is it..?” Martin questioned him back in a similar, hushed voice as he carefully approached Jon. He wore a very concerned face, growing more nervous the longer he stared down at Jon’s wide, shining eyes.
Jon grabbed his sweater sleeve and pulled him farther down the hallway. After they were far enough into the gloom that nobody in the adjacent room could possibly see them, Jon let go of Martin and looked up at him with a carefully practiced smile.
“Would you like to come to my flat after work today to watch the news with me?”
Martin’s eyebrows furrowed for a slight moment before his gaze softened at Jon’s words, confused at why the man had practically dragged him into this dim hallway for such a simple request.
“Y-yeah… of course,” He responded in a calmer voice, still slightly concerned with their current setting.
Jon’s smile grew even wider. He seemed to vibrate on the spot for a moment before surging forward to give Martin a quick hug. Then, just as quickly, he hurried off farther down the hallway, leaving Martin standing there dumbfounded.
—
Tim and Sasha hadn’t bothered staying past 5pm and instead decided to join the comfort of their homes. Martin, however, still found himself trying to wrap his head around the files when the clock read 7pm. He was unexpectedly interrupted by Jon entering his peripheral vision and beginning to speak.
“Are you ready to go?” Jon was practically beaming, holding his bag in front of him like a twentieth century nanny.
Martin quickly glanced at the clock on his desk before looking back up at Jon.
“O-oh right! Yes, just give me a minute.” He stood up from his chair and began clearing some of the files from his desk and into his drawers.
Jon smiled even brighter, thrumming with energy that he was clearly trying to keep in for Martin’s sake. He slowly approached him, watching Martin pack his stuff patiently.
By the time Martin was done packing up his stuff, Jon had come right up beside him and was still looking up at him with those wide, gleaming eyes. Martin wasn’t sure if he had blinked throughout their entire interaction. He only tossed Jon an awkward smile before heading towards the door with Jon following close behind him.
As they walked towards the station, the sky was already beginning to grow dark and the streets were calming from the recent rush-hour. When they had left the institute, Jon had grabbed Martin’s hand and begun excitedly leading him down the street.
“We don’t want to miss the news! Hahhahahahha!” Jon exclaimed when he saw Martin looking at him strangely. This, of course, did nothing to soothe Martin’s nerves.
“Um… D-doesn’t the news start a bit earlier than this?”
“...No.”
Martin decided against making any further comment as they descended the stairs into the station. He wasn’t aware of where exactly Jon lived, so he let himself be led to the train.
Jon sat opposite of Martin despite there being free seats beside him. Martin did not find this overly abnormal until he noticed that Jon was once again staring directly at him without saying a word, a small, almost artificial-seeming smile never leaving his face. He continued for the entire fifteen minute ride, not blinking once.
“This is our stop!” Jon rose from his seat suddenly and reached for Martin’s hand again.
Martin didn’t have the chance to react with words, only making a quiet sound of surprise as he was pulled out of the train and up the stairs.
Jon seemed even more excited now, almost trembling with energy while speed-walking down the road with Martin’s hand in his.
After ten minutes of walking, Martin being too nervous to say a word the whole time, they reached a door. It was painted a yellow that reminded Martin of an old person’s home and equally a children’s hospital. It was decrepit, with the paint peeling at the edges from what looked like scratch marks, long and thin and places a regular human person would not reach for. It filled Martin with a feeling of dread so palpable he could feel it filling up his lungs, muddling his thoughts until all that was in his mind was–
“Here we are!” Jon gestured to a door five feet down the road from where Martin stood. It looked aggressively normal.
He caught up with Jon to be let inside of his flat. His senses immediately filled with a pungent, metallic odour.
“Here, take off your shoes and come in, the news starts at 8:00, we’re right on time!”
Jon went into his living room, presumably to turn on the news, and Martin followed slowly, taking his time to study the decorations in the narrow hallway attached to the door. There wasn’t much; a few printed pictures of a younger Jon and a woman, some old looking paintings of landscapes and boats. A small painting of an eye? There were four doors leading off to different rooms, one of which was where Jon disappeared.
Another door happened to be open as well, leading to a dimly lit room which looked like the kitchen. Something in the room caught his eye, convincing him to approach the door for a closer look. Martin’s eyes squinted in confusion at what he saw spread out on the kitchen table.
“Uhm… Jon?”
He called to the man in the living room, concern and confusion in his voice.
“Yes? Are you going to come and watch the news with me?”
“Well.. y-yes of course. But uhm… what is this?”
Martin stepped closer to the table to take a closer look as he heard the other’s footsteps getting louder from the hallway.
Jon peeked his head in the room, still with that stilted grin on his face. It slipped only slightly when he saw what Martin was looking at.
The wooden table was covered with a thin, white tablecloth, half of it littered with several polaroids, some of which were slightly bigger. Once Martin had taken a closer look, he noticed that some of the photos were of houses, or specific locations, while others strangely happened to be of very familiar faces.
Martin had to squint even more just to be sure what he was seeing was right. He didn’t bother giving Jon another glance, still staring in bewilderment.
“Have- have you been taking pictures of us?”
“... I am your boss! It’s my responsibility to look after my employees! Come watch the news, it’s starting in two minutes.”
Jon grabbed Martin’s hand again and started dragging him back to the living room, slightly more urgently than he had before.
“W-wait, Jon, uhm.. I could make us some tea?”
Jon stared at him for a moment, blank faced.
“...”
Martin gave him a desperate little smile.
“Alright. Be quick though, you shouldn’t miss any more than the intro to the news.” Jon scampered off back to his living room.
Martin let out a sigh of relief, returning to the dim, silent kitchen. Upon spotting the kettle, he grabbed it and filled it with water, setting it to boil. As the white noise of the kettle filled the kitchen, Martin could not help looking back at the table with all of those polaroids.
He approached the table once again, this time from a different angle which gave his vision access to several more photos which he noticed were of himself. He scanned the spot on the table, noticing that there seemed to be significantly more photos of him than there were of the rest of his coworkers.
His eyebrows furrowed and expression twisted in worry.
“W-what..?” He whispered to himself, deciding to move some of the polaroids to better observe them. His eyes became wider and wider with shock the longer he looked.
A picture of him waiting for the bus…
Working at his desk…
Unlocking the door to his flat…
Reading a book in his own kitchen…
A picture of him sleeping?
Martin gasped, not noticing Jon enter the kitchen and walk up directly behind him.
“How is the tea coming Mahtin?”
Martin gasped harder. “What the– Jon! You scared me, Jesus.”
Jon just smiled and walked over to the kettle which had started boiling. Martin watched as he picked it up and tried to pour the boiling water into the two mugs Martin had put out on the counter, only for the kettle to slip out of his grip and smash into pieces on the floor.
“Oh! Jon a-are you ok??” Martin seemed to forget about the polaroids for a quick second as he ran over to Jon’s side to ensure that he was alright.
“Good lord, I knew I shouldn’t have bought that ultra modern fully glass kettle version 5.286 with 12k ultra HD 500fps!”
“I–”
“I knew it wasn’t worth it, it just looked so pretty!” Jon seemed to be getting upset, and Martin started picking the glass from the floor carefully.
“Hey, i-it’s alright!” he tried to smile between his words, “It happens.”
Jon kneeled down to help Martin. Together, they picked up all of the shards and dried the floor with paper towels very quickly.
Martin had entirely forgotten about the polaroids.
Jon took a deep breath, calming himself. “Ok. Let’s go watch the news, we shouldn’t have missed too much by now!”
Martin let himself be led all the way to the living room this time. It was small, which was standard for it being in London, and had a gray couch pushed up to one wall and a television on a small table against the other wall. There was very little decoration other than several potted plants, varying widely in life content.
Before they sat down on the gray couch, Martin quickly checked over Jon to make sure he didn’t have any injuries from dropping the special kettle. He decided that everything was going to be fine, and that he should finally just sit bad and enjoy the news with Jon. Now that Martin thought of it, he was not sure why the other had been so unbelievably excited to watch the news, but he found himself pushing the thought away.
He watched as the screen showed a transition animation and then a tall man with brown hair, stubble, and round glasses appeared on the screen. He had an award winning smile and was staring intensely into the camera.
“HHHowdy folks! It’s Ded Mivison here with the Friday Night News, tonight you’ll be hearing about tax differences coming this November, a series of break-ins in the Southwark area, The Flesh’s latest attempt at securing an apocalypse, and so much more!”
Martin’s expression turned into worry and puzzlement.
“W-wait what– what did he say..?” he turned his head towards Jon, expecting him to resolve his confusion.
“Shhh,” Jon shushed him gently, grabbing Martin’s arm and fully enraptured by the news, “This is my favourite segment!!!!!”
Martin can’t help but smile at Jon’s ecstatic expression, watching his face for a little bit longer than is necessarily necessary. “You’re so adorable,” He muttered quietly.
“What was that, Mahtin?” Jon asked, not looking away from the television as the news began.
“N-nothing…” Fuck, he heard that.
Martin stared at the screen, his embarrassment turning to bafflement as “Ded Mivison” Started talking enthusiastically about the changes in the taxes of some place or another. Martin wasn’t paying too much attention.
I can’t do this sober…
Martin faced Jon once again, this time putting a hand on his shoulder with a defeated sigh.
“J-Jon.. Do you possibly have any wine we could… drink?”
“Yes, of course! You are my guest!” Jon smiled at him. “Would you mind getting it yourself? I normally would, but the news is on right now, so…It’s just in the cupboard by the door.”
“Oh! Perfect.. Thank you, Jon.”
Martin stood up from the couch, making sure he walked around the couch without breaking Jon’s intense eye contact with the TV. He made his way down the hallway and into the dimly lit kitchen in search of the cupboard Jon had described to him. Once finding it, he took the red wine and got some wine glasses from the cabinet.
Martin turned toward the hallway, holding the wine and glasses with hesitance. He looked back at the table littered with the polaroids, deciding to turn to walk towards it.
He examined the photos of himself which he, with an awful reminder, was not aware of ever being taken. Until now of course…
Unfortunately, Martin could not stare at the polaroid of himself sleeping for longer than 3 seconds before the nausea crept up on him and he began to feel the urge to just drink it off with the wine in his hand. He left the kitchen.
Entering the living room, Martin bumped his shoulder into the light switch to turn it off after Jon had forgotten to. He silently handed the wine bottle and one of the glasses to Jon, sitting beside him once more, this time the smaLLeST FracTION OF AN INCH!!!11!!!11!! Closer than before.
Jon took the wine bottle and poured them each a glass. He gave Martin his and then sat back down, taking several sips at once. Martin also started drinking his wine.
“As a special little bonus story, we have a representative from The Corruption here to tell you all about their upcoming campaign!” The man on the news continued. “This,” He held his hand up so that the camera could see a little grasshopper sitting on his palm, “Is Fiona. Go on, Fiona.”
Instead of returning to his confused gaze at the television, he instead sipped more of his wine before turning to Jon again to try to get his attention.
“Jon..?”
“Yes Mahtin?”
“...About those photos in the kitchen, do you actually have an explanation for them at all? Other than, uhm, ‘I’m your boss, I have to.’” Martin shifted an infINITESImalLY smALL FRACTION closer to Jon so that he could hear his concerns over the grasshopper now giving a speech (In a very distinctly not human language) on the news.
“I..I erhmm…”
“A-and also the fact that there seem to be… quite more photos of specifically me rather than your other employees?” Martin asked in a quieter voice this time.
In lieu of answering him, Jon shuffled closer to Martin on the couch, glancing up at his eyes after finally breaking his eye contact with the news. Jon’s eyes were still almost unnaturally wide. The news reflected in his eyes, making them seem even brighter than before.
“J-Jon…?”
Jon ignored all of his questions, looking back at the television as he took another sip of his wine.
I can’t believe I’m actually gonna fucking do this.
Martin hesitantly put his hand on the side of Jon’s face, slowly moving his head to face him again. He looked directly into Jon’s eyes as he spoke quietly.
“If you want to keep pictures of me I’ll let you come over and take some next time…”
Jon shifted towards him, bringing their faces closer. “Yes… that would be nice.”
Martin leaned in the rest of the way, connecting his lips with Jon’s before he had the chance to continue speaking. Jon let out a small gasp, but after a moment he relaxed into the touch. Martin brought his other hand up around Jon’s shoulders while simultaneously leaning back, causing Jon to fall forward almost onto his lap.
Martin felt Jon smile into the kiss before they parted to breathe. Jon hid his face at the base of Martin’s neck, giggling.
“I love seeing you happy,” Martin whispered, rubbing his hand up and down Jon’s back. Martin felt Jon relax even more, allowing himself to fully rest on top of him. A hand reaches up to feel Martin’s neck, Jon raising his head to connect their lips once more. Holding each other longer this time before having to part again for the sake of their lungs.
Martin smiled back this time, letting out a sigh of satisfaction as he gazed up into Jon’s eyes. They finally both seemed relaxed, tension finally shattered.
Jon rests his head on Martin’s shoulder again, wrapping his arm around him and closing his eyes. Martin felt Jon’s breathing begin to slow until he could tell that the man had fallen asleep on him.
He didn’t bother turning off the television, allowing the noises to fill the room as he drifted off himself, still embracing Jon while his consciousness faded.