#carshall

local mountport teens get a job at the short rest cafe… they are doing their best

stage manager vanessa who forgets to call cues bc she’s too distracted staring at… certain people

sound board op dylan who laughs at her despite not being any better

light board op marshall who finds himself helping out a certain lead with his mic all the time despite that Definitely being dylan’s job

he starts carrying a roll of mic tape in his pocket after the fourth time (he’s just like me fr)

carson and brittany (the main leads for… whatever show they’re doing. idk. unimportant) conspire backstage to fluster their friends

tyler (who has a crush on both of the people brittany’s talking about, as well as brittany herself, and knows carson from the fact he is at their house four days out of the week bc of jenny) tells them they’re idiots and then leans in to give them better advice

jenny’s here bc carson gave her the puppy dog eyes and she was screwed. she certainly doesn’t think the assistant stage manager is cute or anything that’d be weird

lake teens my beloved !! been a minute since i wrote them. this is um. definitely a thing i’ve written

Marshall is not a terrifying person. The first time Carson met him — properly, that is, not just staring across their shared math classroom — he was having a panic attack. It’s a little hard to be afraid after that.

Now, though. Now, there’s a glint in his eyes, bright and wicked, as he stares Carson down from across the room. Carson is being… very normal about this fact. Definitely. The sheer confidence — arrogance, really — Marshall has isn’t doing a single thing for him. Totally not.

In unrelated news, he kind of gets the whole Socrates gets on his knees thing.

“Marsh, I swear to God!” Kirsten swears next to him, reminding him that oh, yeah, the rest of his friends are here. He pointedly doesn’t look over at Jenny — he doesn’t need to see her expression. It’s not going to be good for him.

“Say your prayers, Kirs,” Marshall says without taking his eyes off Carson, which does make things a little confusing, actually, but Carson currently has other priorities. “Where’s your god now?”

Carson watches his lips form the words, curled into a sharp, acidic grin that he can’t tear his eyes from, even if it might slowly be poisoning him. It’s almost enough to make him miss the plus four Marshall lays in the center of the circle.

Kirsten groans, loud and overdramatic, as she reaches for the draw pile, adding another four cards to her already impressive collection. Jenny fully reaches across Carson to pat her shoulder, which he’s definitely going to make fun of her for later, but he can’t really process it over… whatever just happened.

“I’m going to kill you,” Kirsten mutters, shuffling her hand around. “Your blood is going to be on my hands.”

Marshall laughs, already back to his usual demeanor. “You can try. Carson’ll protect me.”

The girls both look at him in terrifying synchronicity, and he just blinks. Marshall watches him curiously, head tilted, but that ever present teasing gleam is still in his eyes, and one corner of his mouth lifts when he notices Carson looking back. As if he’s ever been capable of looking away.

“Right,” he says, voice strained, and he coughs over the sound of Jenny’s laughter. “Yeah. Anytime. Um. Wanna pick a color?”

“Red,” Marshall returns easily.

Oh. Perfect.

Carson studies the other boy for a moment, long enough it might be concerning and focused enough he nearly misses the look Kirsten sends across the circle to Jenny, and feels his own lips form into a grin. Casually, calmly, he places down his final card — a red seven.

Kirsten throws her entire pile of cards down on the floor. Jenny fully flops backwards with a groan. Marshall just stares like he can’t believe it, blank and wide eyed.

Carson leans forward — sue him, he’s feeling cocky — right into Marshall’s space. “What do I get for winning, mighty one?”

Marshall blinks, then smirks, leans even closer, to the point Carson has a moment of holy shit this is happening, followed by several confused exclamation points. He closes his eyes just in time to feel something cold and plasticky touch his lips, and he opens them to see Marshall holding a blue reverse to his mouth, eyes bright with mischief.

“Maybe later, golden boy,” he says lowly, which does something funny to Carson’s insides.

“Get a fucking room!” Jenny shouts from the floor, and Carson almost forgets the entire interaction in favor of kicking her in the chest — affectionately, of course.

Almost.

carson, coined “pining extraordinaire” by his friends, takes to discord to complain about his crush.

the problem? said crush is also one of his closest friends, also in the discord server, and also able to hear the entire conversation.

what’s a boy to do?

completed, 5k words

It doesn’t take long for Marshall to realize that Mountport is an incredibly large magical hotspot. The high school isn’t exclusively for fantastical students, but there’s enough of them for it to be noticeable . Of course, that might be the whole telepathy thing talking, but who is he to say?

or: it’s not that marshall thinks too much. it’s that everyone else thinks too much, and that’s somehow become his problem.

the sun shines down over camp mountport, and marshall’s crush feels as stifling as the summer heat.

(it shouldn’t. everyone else already knows about it.)

or: the one where marshall’s in a summer camp romcom he didn’t sign up for