Chapter Text
“-With the person I hate the most!”
Tom felt as if his mouth was running faster than his mind. He just wanted to get that stupid ribbon, and finally be done with the “starter stages” of his anger management classes. He’s been taking the same beginners classes for over 2 months! It’s practically making him even more angry! And even though he was telling the truth- he had to spent time with a person he disliked and not be angry, it still felt strange to say it directly to Marco’s face.
Maybe it was because “hate the most” wasn’t the nicest thing to say. He may be a demon but he’s not a horrible person.
In a few split seconds after saying that out loud, he say the hurt in Marco’s face. Marco really had enjoyed himself. The tiger, the music, the dancing, the photo booth. And to have it all revealed as a trick wasn’t enjoyable for anyone.
Tom could have sworn he saw Marco’s eyes look a little wet for a few seconds, before Marco stormed off to kick open the door, chains and all. Marco was ranting about something (obviously involving Tom and his lie), but Tom didn’t hear any of it.
For a moment, he felt bad about missing his chance for the ribbon. This meant another two weeks of beginner stages before he could try again. But after his mind actually caught up with what was happening, he realized there was a more important deal at hand: Marco.
Tom would be lying if he said he didn’t have a good time. Sure, at first it was awful. Bringing Marco into his personal chariot, sharing his cereal and acting like he actually cared about some dumb kung-fu movie. But when Marco mentioned Tom’s favorite band, things got a little more enjoyable. Actually, they got a lot more enjoyable. And fast. Within probably 60 seconds, Tom went from “this is miserable how long do I have to do this?” to “Oh my gosh this is amazing I’ve never had more fun at this karaoke machine holy cow yes pour that cereal in my mouth yes ride that tiger”. But of course, Marco had to go and ruin it by trying to leave. Why couldn’t he just want to stay for four more minutes? Then Marco wouldn’t even have to know that it was a test and they would have had fun! But nooooo, Marco just HAD to leave.
“Marco, wait!” Tom shouted, running after him when his mind finally caught up.
Tom tried to explain as fast as he could, that he did have fun, and he really does love that band, even if he doesn’t like the movies!
And sure, serenading his “enemy turned possibly friend” while raising his movie star idol from the dead wasn’t exactly his plan for the day, but hey.
Thankfully, raising this “Mackie Hand” or whatever seemed to really help Marco, but there was a huge problem with that: Tom. See, using anything with magic took energy. But making small fire-walls or whatever didn’t take hardly energy at all. But literally raising the dead took a LOT out of a guy. He was hardly conscious when Marco started thanking him. Or at least that’s what Tom thought he was saying. It’s really hard to focus on words when your head is spinning.
When things started to clear up a little, and he only saw one Marco as opposed to three, he followed them to the movies. He felt kind of bad for literally tearing up the tickets, since that was literally their ticket in. Tom thought that human door-guard was pretty brave for denying a zombie and demon, but when security started attacking that crazy kung-fu zombie, things got really interesting. In fact, Marco seemed more interested in watching the half-alive version of this actor than the actual movies they were fighting for. So Tom decided to join Marco on the sidewalk curb, with some cereal.
“I still don’t like you,” Marco said, mouth full of cereal.
“I still don’t like you, either,” Tom agreed.
But “don’t like” is a lot weaker than “most hated”, after all…