They Call Me Fishbait

“shove it, ay. i had a rough workout yesterday.” came his reply, arms resting on his hips as he caught his breath. thin layer of sweat covered his skin and as soon as they were inside he pulled his shirt off over his head and tossed it towards the stairs. when marinus got ahold of him, kai took the offer to work out without hesitation. he’d been so caught up in his own shit and trying to keep his mind off of things, he hadn’t seen his best friend in a while. “never too busy for you, mate. how’ve you been anyways?” he questioned the other, picking two bottles of water from the fridge and offering one to marinus.

“Ahm, right! My bad, mate! Won’t heppin agin, ay!” He grinned mischievously, adopting a hilariously horrendous imitation of his friend. Fanning himself with the lower half of his shirt, he took the water with a grateful smile and word of thanks, chugging half of it down quickly. “You’re... gonna make me blush,” he gasped his joke out after finally setting the bottle down. “I’ve doing a lot better. I took a little trip back home just to get a break from school, been working on getting my grades back up, spending time on myself... but I’m okay. I wanna hear more about you, though, love!”

"Jealousy’s a good look on you. Speed up next time,” panted the young, grinning man, his usually carefully kept hair slightly matted with sweat, some of which he wiped from his brow as he followed his best friend into the latter’s kitchen. Having missed the redhead, Marinus had contacted him to see if he were free for a workout, which they ended with a jog - which ended up turning into a race that the younger boy had won. Obviously thanks to Kai letting him. “Thanks again for hanging out with me, I know you’ve been pretty busy lately.”

Anthony took in his words, easily understanding the reasoning behind his actions. If it had been Anthony, he would have not been so kind a person. Selfish as he was, he would never wait around as if he was anything other than the first and only choice. Not that he saw Marinus or Harriet as anything less and regardless of who he chose, he would never consider it settling. “I have missed you as well,” he returned, sounding more formal due to the tense situation. The manners and rules he had taught himself were much easier to fall back on when he was unsure of himself. “Yes, of course. Apologies for keeping you out here.” He removed his suit jacket, moving to wrap it around Marinus’ shoulders without thinking for an extra layer of warmth.

Hearing those six words from his sweet lips was much more soothing and warming than any jacket could ever be.  He’d been hoping to hear those words for weeks. The late night’s snowfall seemed to melt away, and Marinus gave Anthony such a smile one would think he was looking at the sun for the first time. With a nod of appreciation, the younger boy hugged the jacket closer around himself as he began leading him away from the party, as if he were pretending it were the other’s arms. “So... been enjoying yourself lately?” He asked - not even entirely sure what he meant by that himself. 

The time without the sea prince had been too short and too long. Too long because it made him realized how much he disliked being apart from him and too short because he still had no solution. “Marinus please…” He trailed off, hating how obvious it was that the other was forcing himself to be cordial. “I want to talk to you. You still feel the same, right?” If Marinus said he no longer loved him, Anthony knew the blame would lie solely with himself. Nobody should have to wait for a selfish, imitation of a royal that claimed to love no one but now had his heart split between two people who deserved much better. Anthony still loved them both but he knew that there was only one person he still had a chance at making happy. At least, he hoped the chance was still there.

Gods, the sound in Anthony’s voice... he sounded exactly as he had the last time Marinus had seen him. So full of hurt, worry, defeat - and his eyes were no better. It made the younger of the two want to take him into his arms again, and they began to act accordingly. Anthony’s question had Mar’s hand twitch forward slightly, as if to take the VK’s, but he held it to his side. He missed him so badly. “I...” he hesitated. Was it a good idea to answer? What if... what if Anthony had something to finally break things off? With a deep breath and shaky voice, he nodded. “I do. Of course I do. I love you, Anthony. I just... I wanted you to have some space. To figure out what you wanted. I’m sorry for, um... avoiding you. I really missed you,” he licked his lips, glancing up into the other’s dark eyes. Under the light of the outdoor lamps, framed by snowfall, he looked absolutely incredible. “Can we... have this conversation in my room? It’s a bit cold.”

😇 Fane loved making people smile, so when he gave her a tiny smiled, she beamed. “Yeah, I want Freddie, Dom, and I to match. I’m not sure if they’re up for it–especially Freddie–but planning is everything.” She sighed, a dreamy look in her eyes at the thought of her girlfriends. “But that sounds cool, too. I mean human food is amazing, so I have no doubt that your date will be splendid,” the blue-haired girl said.

Listening to the girl speak with such a bright happiness in her voice filled Marinus with warmth - and a little envy. He wished he had as much to be excited about. “That’s - that’s amazing. Sounds adorable,” he said truthfully, offering her another smile. “Uh, maybe. I don’t know if I’ll have a date... or if I’ll even go, to be honest. Maybe I’ll just go stag with some friends.”

Theo eyed the rather vibrant display with a hum, nodding. “Granted, it does seem a little… typical?” Auradon certainly had a flair for balls, dances, and the like - Theo supposed it came along with the whole royalty side of things. The introvert embedded deep within him usually cringed when catching wind of yet another event, but for the moment, the usual sense of dread was absent. “Then again, it gives some of the newer students a taste of, well, being young. Enjoying themselves instead of, worrying about whether or not they’ll have something to eat tomorrow,” Shifting attention to Marius’ tone, he tilted his head curiously in the boys direction.

“Not particularly excited about going to another dance?”

“... Mm,” was his simple response. The older male’s words acted like a splash of cool water to Mar’s face, snapping him out of his sense of self-pity. It really wasn’t like him to take out his bitterness on anyone or anything other than himself, and he was upset with the way he was conducting himself. “Yeah... you’re right. I’m sorry, I’m being selfish. It really is a good thing.” He slipped his hands into his pockets, feeling small under the gaze of his older friend. “Not really. I... I don’t think I’m even going to go, really. I had a bit of a falling out with the only person I’d want to go with, anyway.”

🔧 Dex nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Pulling his hoodie closer, the Boojiboo looked down at the spilled coffee. “You want me to replace that?” he asked. It was the polite thing to offer, even if it had been an accident.

    “No, it’s alright...” he shook his head, glancing down at the fallen cup as well.  “It’s about time I start to kick my caffeine dependency anyway. I’m pretty sure my growth has already been stunted thanks to that stuff, I’m tiny. I really am sorry, though, man, I should have seen where I was going, too. Dodged dramatically out of the way in slow motion or something.”

😇 Fane smiled at the thought of another ball. She had never gotten to attend them before being let out of Riley’s mind and had loved all of them that she had gone to since. “Well Grumpy-Poo, maybe some of us want to be able to coordinate our outfits with our girlfriends a month in advance.” The blue-haired girl looked at the boy as if he were crazy for not looking forward to it, not picking up on the cues of his negative feelings.

“... Grumpy-Poo?” He repeated flatly, though the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. It was difficult not to smile a little when the colorful girl flashed a bright smile of her own at him. It felt nice. “Well, yeah... that makes sense, I guess. I’d do the same if I had a girlfriend,” he shrugged, though he gave the poster a dirty look again. “But it’s all good. Like I was saying, that awesome food table is gonna be my date.”

“Because if I was only going to lie to you then I wouldn’t still be standing here.” Anthony had finally admitted to himself that he cared for Marinus far more than he had ever meant to. The only thing holding him back was that his feelings did not include him alone. “You’re not a plaything, Marinus.” His calm demeanor had vanished and there was anger in his eyes as he took another step towards the other male. “I’m a terrible person. My feelings for people have always been fleeting and shallow but I acted on them without thinking because I didn’t care about them. I still don’t. I have always had one goal in mind. I want to restore my family to their rightful place and the easiest way to do that in Auradon is to find a naive prince or princess that’s close to inheriting a throne.” The words came out like poison, the bitter truth finally given a solid form. The Tremaine had acted as a snake for most his life, cold and slippery when he needed to be. Now he was paying for it. “However, I love you and it has nothing to do with your royal status. I don’t care if you never want to see me again but you need to know that my feelings for you are not a lie. I do… I am in love with someone else as well. The pirate captain, Harriet Hook.” He let his confession settle for a moment before saying his final words. “I understand if you hate me but please, please do not cry over me. You know now that I’m not worth it and I doubt I ever will be.”

“Anthony... I love you, too.” It was probably telling how those were the first words out of his mouth after Anthony’s small speech had concluded. Despite the pain he was feeling, he hated seeing his love look so... tortured. It made everything worse. Learning of his plan, however, did stoke the fire of anger and betrayal in his eyes - he even took an instinctive step back when the older male approached him. He felt used, like some sort of tool meant to be discarded, and as if he were second best to a pirate captain. All this time he had believed he had finally found someone to love, and to love him back with no problem, but now... he couldn’t describe how frustrated he was. He wished he could just jump into the sea and swim back home. 

“I could never hate you...” he shook his head, finally looking up into the other’s eyes with his fists clenched tight at his sides. Despite how hard he tried not to, his tears were already flowing down his cheeks. “H-How could you say that? You mean the world to me, even if you wanted to use me for... that. You’re worth more than every treasure in the ocean and then some. You’re my dream come true, my prince. I love you, Anthony,” he wiped his face and sucked in a slow breath, looking away from him, out towards the water. “But... I just wish I was enough for you. I want to be, so badly, but I’m not. And I... don’t think it’s a good idea to be around each other right now. A-At least until you figure out what you want.”

“did you expect something less elaborate? this is auradon after all.” kai replied with a shrug. it was obvious that something was up with marinus, because this attitude was certainly not like him at all. he was used to positive, lovey, upbeat marinus and he wasn’t so sure he liked this version of his best friend. “what’s going on with you, buddy? something happen with anthony?” he asked carefully. the answer was obvious, but if it was a sensitive subject the last thing he wanted was to upset marinus.

The younger male gave his friend a shrug of his own, kicking aside a clump of dirty snow on the ground near the outdoor wooden notice board. He wasn’t surprised that Kai was easily able to pinpoint what was bothering him, and while he appreciated it, it didn’t necessarily make him feel better in the moment. “I don’t... okay. Yeah. He said he loves me, but... he’s in love with someone else, too,” he admitted, voice flat. No point in lying to his best friend. “Whatever, though. Not the worst thing that could happen to someone. Forget about me, how are things with your dad?”

Anthony winced at the sudden show of anger, knowing he had screwed up royally by not telling Marinus the truth sooner. His first mistake was letting his feelings grow enough to care about how all of this made the other male feel. On the Isle, he had never spared a thought to who he hurt once he was done with someone. But this was not the Isle and his own heart was far from done with Marinus. “It depends on the rumors you’ve heard,” he said, speaking a stiff and careful tone. “I-I… I’ll tell you anything you want to know, Marinus. You just have to ask and I’ll speak only the truth.” It was all he had left to offer, after all. “I admit, there’s a lot I have refrained from telling you.”

The younger of the two shook his head, his annoyance and hurt merely growing. He felt that much worse now that his tears were becoming more apparent, though he tried rubbing them away in frustration. “How will I know you’re telling the truth now?” He asked rather harshly, speaking more from the acute pain in his heart than from a place of actual understanding. In his mind, seeing Anthony exit the pirate ship was finally enough to connect the dots. “Don’t worry, I get it. I’m just some plaything to you or whatever.”

(&& marinus):

she looked down at his hand and stood up, taking it, sizing up the boy. her crew moved about absently on the ship and she huffed a smile. “Him? When ye say it like that, sound likes yer tryin’ tae not give power tae his name. Yer talkin’ ‘bout Anthony Tremaine. That boy is more fickle then a stormy sea. His collection of broken hearts grows ‘n grows ‘n grows. Is yer heart finally in there?” Harriet wasn’t trying to be mean, despite her tone. She had grown up dealing with Tony but she was really hoping he finally would stop that even if it wasn’t with her that someone would stop him. The sad little boy look so heartbroken. She wasn’t all that sure what to do. Tilting her head to the box next to her chair she indicated for him to sit. “Anthony–I did not know about ye. Ye ‘ave me word as a captain, Anthony has just been a staple in me life, no matter what one of us always starts the cycle over n over again. ‘e’s someone i’ve known foreva. Me, us.” She stumbled over her words. There were a lot of things about Anthony that she could say, that no matter how many times she tried to walk away that need to come back haunted her. She had to try know. “Did ‘e tell ye when ‘e was on the Isle, tried tae get everyone tae call him Lord Tremaine. it neva worked. lil chancer.”

She may have been joking, but her statement was actually factual. He really didn’t want to say his name, especially after she described how Anthony was - it made him swallow back the lump in his throat. “I-Is that... do you think that’s all I am to him?” He asked naively. When he learned she had no idea of his own involvement with Anthony, Mar straightened up a little in surprise; he had assumed they were closer than that. “But... why would you both be so willing to hurt yourselves like that, over and over?” He asked quietly, his gaze lingering below him on the box he was currently using as a seat. It was clear he had no idea of how the Isle’s ‘romantic’ customs functioned. “Um, no... I thought that was something someone made up to tease him...” he mumbled, glancing up at her; through his sadness was the briefest glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “I just... I don’t know what to do.”