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“Baby, you better pick out a damn shirt or we’ll be late.”
Marvin glances back to his bathroom mirror and spit out his toothpaste, ignoring Whizzer’s whining in the background about some fabrics and occasion settings.
Trina and Mendel invited them for dinner a few days ago, without giving much details other than it will be on tonight at a restaurant not too far from either’s place to celebrate Jason winning a science competition. Charlotte and Cordelia were also invited, and despite Cordelia offering to cook for them instead, they happily accepted.
If this was Marvin from two years ago, accepting any invitations from them would be the same as telling him to do a backflip with his legs tied, except one would end up with him at least amusing his son. But now, he and Trina’s relationship has mended enough they aren’t on edge with each other all the time, enough that they’re comfortable to invite the others to have dinners or stay over for coffee. Now, his biggest problem is to find out which tie he should put on that wouldn’t make Whizzer think he’s going to embarrass them.
He puts a towel around his hips and stretches a bit before he opens the bathroom door. Just as he reaches the door handle though, he feels a strange sensation from under his armpit, something stretching and pulling on his skin loosely.
“Damn it.” Marvin raises his arm to notice his tape peeling off. He groaned as recalled that the last time he put it on was almost a week ago, so perhaps they have served him well.
Marvin walked out of the bathroom anyways to get to his nightstands, however he was pleasantly interrupted by a half naked Whizzer who was comparing two different shirts in the mirror. Marvin will not lie if he was asked whether or not he let his eyes linger around his lover’s toned biceps for a second, or two.
“See, if you asked Trina for the interior of the place I’d decide if I should go turquoise or salmon real faster,” Whizzer complained before he glanced at Marvin and his frown got replaced by a sly smirk instead, “Why, hello gorgeous.”
“Hey, you.” Marvin laughed as Whizzer walked up to give him a kiss on his cheek, hand sliding to hold on his hips and rests on his love handles. Marvin pats him and gently puts Whizzer’s hand back to his sides so he can continue to walk, "Turquoise would look good.”
“Honey, everything looks good on me,” Now it’s Whizzer’s turn to chuckle, knowing Marvin would not even try to deny it, “Salmon it is.” He puts the turquoise shirt back on the hanger and hangs it in the closet.
Marvin rolled his eyes at Whizzer's purposeful disobedience, opening his nightstand and rummaging through the items.
Maybe he made enough noise to perk up Whizzer’s attention away from buttoning his clothes, “You need help with something, babe?”
“No. No, I just need to find my…ah-ha!” Marvin gathered up his roll of tape, scissors and ointment oil, “I need to replace my tape real quick.”
“Oh,” Whizzer replied, he waited if Marvin is going back to the bathroom, but saw that he’s already slowly peeling his old tape while sitting on the bed, “Um… do you want me to leave while you’re changing?”
“No, you just stay here” Marvin puts aside his old tape and rubs oil on his chest, letting it dry. He then pauses and looked at Whizzer from the mirror reflection, “Unless…. you’re uncomfortable?” Marvin’s voice dimmed.
“No! Not at all! I was just making sure you’re comfortable.”
“Oh… no it’s fine, I don’t mind.” Thinking back, this is the first time Whizzer is seeing Marvin change, usually Whizzer would come over when he’s already done binding or he’ll do it in the bathroom. For some reason, he just does not mind if he sees him, and for another reason he does not see it as a bad thing.
Whizzer goes back to buttoning his shirt, failing to hide his smile over the fact that Marvin feels safe enough with him to be comfortable changing his chest tape.
Marvin cuts up a few pieces of tape and is about to put them on himself when he stops and glances back at Whizzer, huh.
It’s not been too long since he switched from binder to tape, and even though it’s been doing great (minus the itchiness and blisters when he just started) for his chest he can’t say he’s the best at doing them. There’s many steps on it and you have to hold so many things at once and he struggles on dragging the tape towards his back he ends up with wonky tapes and aching arms.
At the very least it looks decent enough when he puts on clothes and the only person who’s seen him naked never comments about it, though he’s sure Whizzer would never comment about his chest tape even if it looks janky as hell. Still, putting it by himself can be a real pain in the ass.
“Hey, Whiz.”
“Yeah?” Whizzer was about to reach for his belt when Marvin called him, he looked back to see Marvin looking a bit bashful, “What’s up?”
“Uh, you don’t have to if you don’t wanna,” Whizzer raised his eyebrow, and Marvin chewed on his lip, “But… Can you help me bind? It’s kinda hard to do this alone.”
Whizzer almost dropped his belt, looking dumbfoundedly towards Marvin. But before Marvin gets the chance to regret his offer, Whizzer answered, “Oh, darling of course.”
Marvin blushes at the nickname, but quickly recovers, “Thanks.” Whizzer walks closer to him, sitting by his side waiting for instructions, “I’ve cut up the pieces, you just need to help putting them on.” Marvin makes a vague diagonal line on where the tape is supposed to go, hoping his Whizzer would get it.
Whizzer nodded and grabbed a strand, he stuck one end on Marvin’s chest. “Here?” He asked, unsure.
“Yeah, you can continue.” Marvin holds his chest in place as Whizzer slowly sticks the tape along the intended area, binding his chest in place but making sure it’s not too tight to the point it can hurt.
Whizzer finished putting on the first strand of tape, rubbing on it gently to make sure it sticks, “Is this okay? Too tight?” Still, he made sure to ask how Marvin feels, afraid that he could mess up anything.
“No it’s, um, perfect.” Marvin flexes, already feeling how much more precise and comfortable Whizzer’s work is compared to when he had to put it himself. He tries to not stare back at Whizzer’s happy face in response, akin to a golden retriever after being called a good boy, “Just do the same with the others, I’ll show where.”
And so Whizzer continues to put on other strands of tape on Marvin’s chest. Soon enough they fall into this perfect tandem where Marvin guides the tape placements and Whizzer executes it perfectly, his precision never faltering once yet he is still asking Marvin from time to time if he feels any discomfort.
Marvin doesn’t. In fact, he feels the opposite of discomfort. He never once thought that he would have the chance to do something he expected to be done in hiding forever with someone he cares for, much less his lover. Even when they were together before, when they were terribly toxic towards one another, Marvin didn’t have the bravery to expose himself like this to Whizzer. But now, he feels nothing but loved.
He felt so dumb, because who’s to think that Whizzer would be this gentle to him? All loving and treating Marvin like he deserved to be worshipped when he himself thinks he deserves the opposite?
“You’re doing a really good job, you know?” Marvin states, absentmindedly playing with Whizzer’s hair but still careful to not mess it up too much because he knows he’ll never hear the end of it.
“Yeah?” Whizzer looked up again, already working on Marvin’s other chest. Marvin nodded, and he could feel his heart flutter. He works on the tapes with a warm heart, flattered doesn’t even begin to cover how he feels knowing that Marvin trusts him to do something that many people consider very vulnerable. He would do anything to keep them like this forever.
“Well, maybe I can help you whenever you need to change again in the future,” Whizzer smiled, “If you want.”
“I’d love that.” Marvin accepts, and Whizzer’s smile grows brighter; he needs to check if he was blinded. The older man rests one of his hands on the other’s cheek as he rubs on the last piece of tape.
“And…. there, all done.” Whizzer moves back a bit to give room for Marvin to move his arms, in which he does so, “How is it? Anything uncomfortable?”
Marvin moves his arms up and down, flexes his muscles and stretches without any issue. He stood up and walked towards their full body mirror, pretending not to see Whizzer’s burning gaze on him as he looked at himself, looking at the strands of tapes lining neatly, stopping under his armpit, just about to reach to his back.
The tapes are firm, holding his chest in place but doesn’t pull painfully on his skin, he can breathe comfortably too, and the tapes are devoid of any lumps and unnecessary folds he often sees before.
“It’s… amazing, Whiz,” Marvin is still looking at his chest when Whizzer walks up behind and puts his arm around him. Marvin doesn’t budge, he holds his arms back, “I love it, I love you.”
“I love you too,” Whizzer hums, resting his chin on top of his lover’s head, “Thank you for trusting me.”
“No. I’m the one who should say thank you, for accepting this,” Marvin gestures vaguely on himself, his eyes gazing away “Or me, in general.”
“Baby,” Whizzer coos as he gently pulls Marvin’s chin towards him to chase his eyes, they’re ended up face to face, “The only thing I don’t accept about you is your fashion sense.”
At that, Marvin barks out a laugh, loud and hearty, “Geez, way to ruin the moment.”
“I’m serious! Your fashion is terrible,” Whizzer laughs as well, “Everything else, though, I accept wholeheartedly.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” Whizzer ducks down to press a kiss on Marvin’s lips, in which Marvin happily reciprocates. Whizzer then ducks even lower to trail soft kisses along Marvin’s chest, right in the middle where tape and bare skin meet. His kiss trails from the lower part of Marvin’s chest up until his collarbone, and he ends it with a final kiss back to his lover’s lips.
Marvin grumbled when Whizzer pulls away, fighting the urge to press himself further, “What the hell was that for?”
“Proving myself.” Whizzer winked, “Now come on, we need to leave at fifteen and you’re practically still naked.” He lightly pushed Marvin back, barely with any force but Marvin steps back nonetheless, because god knows Whizzer could bend and mold him into anything if he so desires.
Marvin rolled his eyes, smile still intact, “Oh no, how am I supposed to leave when I don’t have an hour to decide on what to wear?”
“Rude,” Whizzer glared, but didn’t hold any anger behind it, “Don’t worry, I've picked out your outfit too.”
And with that, what is Marvin supposed to do other than accept? "My savior."
"Always," Whizzer reminds, "Now shoo."