Markus snickered, the snickers turning to that full blown laughter of his as Tessa shoved him. "I'm sorry! I couldn' help it! The joke was right there, doll! Woulda been a waste!" He said, in between rounds of laughter that had him leaning against the wall.
She sighed and shook her head, rolling her eyes. "You are impossible," she muttered, though there was humor in her voice. She stopped and leaned against the wall in front of Markus, arms crossed and a brow arched artfully. "Any other comments, or shall I inform you about how Nikolas is a total Top?"
That got him to stop laughing, instead turning to choking on the startled breath of air he took in sharply. His face was again that shade of red it seemed to turn fairly often at the mention of Nikolas, deeper at the subject. "I-y'know, I don' doubt tha' one bit."
She grinned triumphantly when Markus instantly reacted to her words—mainly the mention of the dreaded N name. Yeah, he's definitely into him. That's a Gay Panic right there. She leaned forward with a cheeky tilt to her lips. "And you like it," she said, then slipped away, cackling. She figured that Markus would go after her after he stopped choking on his own breath after that statement.
"No I don'-" He choked again, continuing to cough as he tried to follow after her, having to pause again to catch his breath. "I'm gonna kill you, Tessa!" He called after her, following as soon as he could. You knew he was a top, but having it reaffirmed-NOPE.
"That just means I'm right!" she called, heading into the kitchen and scrambling up onto the island counter. She was having way too much fun with this, but there was an ulterior motive behind all of her teasing. She was trying to get him more comfortable with his feelings towards Nikolas—and make him blush because that was new, but that was just a bonus.
He finally made it into the kitchen a few minutes later, still bright red and shaking his head. "I hate you. Like, one thousan' percent, an' I really hope ya know that. Ya suck." He said, huffing as he leaned against the counter.
She remained standing, afraid he was going to grab her again if she sat down. She put her hands on her hips and stuck her tongue out at Markus. "But do you really? You know you wanted that little fact confirmed. All the more fun for you," she added with a wink and smirk.
"I did not. Tha' was completely unnecessary, ya menace." He complained, the red in his cheeks just growing darker. Lifting a hand, he flipped her off, debating just grabbing her legs and lifting her. To mess with her. "Why the fuck would I want t' know that? Shouldn't I be findin' that out myself-" Fuck.
Her grin brightened as she took a slight step back from him, knowing he was going to hate her next words. "Awwwww, Markus wants to sleep with Nikolas~!" she cooed with a singsong voice, leaning down slightly to look at Markus better. "He wants to know everything about him~! Especially the nice bedroom stuff," she added, closing an eye cheekily and sticking her tongue out a smidge.
“Would ya shut-“ Markus groaned, pushing off the counter to stride towards Tessa, reaching out to grab her and pull her off the counter. “Be quiet.” He hisses pleadingly, turning to swatting loosely at her.
She danced out of his grasp with a laugh, not afraid of the height she was at thanks to standing on top of the kitchen island. "Why? Afraid Nikolas will hear?" she cooed, having far too much fun with this.
"Yes. Why the fuck else would I want ya t' shut up?" He leaned over the counter as far as he could to keep grabbing at her, muttering a string of curses under his breath. "What if he does hear? Fuck, Tess-I would die."
She giggled and continued to dance around his hands, now a game to her. "Well then he know what you like! I'm just helping speed along the process." She ticked off her fingers. "You like being the sub, which means being dominated. Tongue, from what I could gather from your reactions to Nikolas. Hm. Anything else, Markus?"
Yes. "No! Nothing. Absolutely nothin' else, and you'd do right t' forget about all o' this too." He could just climb onto the counter to get her back. But he wasn't thinking straight(ha) enough to even consider that an option, too flustered and focused on getting Tessa to be quiet.
"Oh?" Tessa grinned, folding her arms over her chest. "You're quite quick to deny anything, Markus. Should I get Nico over here to pry it out of you himself? Or maybe kiss it out of you…" She tapped her lips thoughtfully.
In the living room, hidden from view, Nikolas was sitting on the floor against a couch, grinning behind his hand. He's never heard Markus get like this. He was secretly glad of Tess for being the way she was.
“I’m gonna kill you, Tessa.” Markus threatened, putting a bit more effort into grabbing at her just to get her to shut up. If he’d known Nikolas was listening, he would’ve been even more mortified than he was now. “Ain’t nothin’ bein’ pried, or kissed, outta me. ‘Cause there’s nothin’ t’ pry.”
"Uh huh. I'm sure. If that's so, should I call him to prove it? If there's nothing to say, then you wouldn't mind." She let out a small yelp when he got dangerously close to her ankles, forcing her to stumble back to the edge of the counter. "Hey!" Nikolas, meanwhile, was dying of silent and happy laughter, though secretly hoping Tess didn't actually call him.
“Jesus-why the fuck would I want that?” He paused, brow furrowing for a second as he thought. He was already kind of halfway on the counter. Why not just climb all the way. Huffing at his ex foster sister, he crawled up onto the counter and shot her a Look. “For the love of god, Tessa, shut up. He could hear.”
She let out a noise of surprise when he climbed onto the counter with her. She only laughed and grinned up at him, arms crossed. "Aww. You're afraid of him finding out what you like? Hm? Don't you want him to know so he knows exactly what to do?" She did quiet her voice, dropping down to a dramatic whisper. "How bad is that?"
“Horrible, because those are things that-“ He waves his hands around, trying to articulate what he meant without actually saying it. “They make me-it’s mortifyin’.” He finally said, shaking his head. “‘Sides, that makes it sound like he would want t’ do anythin’ like that with me.”
Nikolas tipped his head to the side, listening carefully. His brows twitched together slightly, and he silently asked Tess to ask the question he was dying to know.
"And if he did," she said after a moment's consideration, no longer teasing. Instead, she wanted to sort through Markus's thoughts for him—and Nikolas, who she knew was listening. "How would you feel about that? Don't take it like a therapist question. Uh, fuck. Um, lemme rephrase it." She held her hands up. "If he did, would you want him to?"
“I… don’t know.” Markus said, furrowing his brows as he looked down at the counter. “You-you know I’ve only kissed a gal once, and never in a million years did I think I’d end up soulmates with a guy. But…I don’t think I’d be opposed.” An admission that took quite a bit out of him. He’d been raised on the idea that that was something so horrible it would for sure send him straight to hell, more so than the other things he’d done in his life. It had taken Tess and Lily to even make him realize it wasn’t anything demonic.
Tessa reached up to hug Markus, a small smile on her lips. Did you hear that, Nico? Your turn. "Alright alright, I'll leave you alone. That's all I wanted to hear." She smiled even more and stepped back slightly. "Trust me, you'll be glad you two are soulmates. I think you're good for each other."
Markus clung to her for a couple moments after she stepped back, finally letting go with an obvious amount of hesitance. "If ya wanted t' hear that, ya shoulda just said somethin'. Woulda taken some thought, but…" He shook his head, shooting her a small and slightly nervous smile. "Let's hope. It would suck if we still hated each other."
"I highly doubt you two hate each other. If you did, I'm pretty sure this house wouldn't be standing." She checked him over real quick, then hopped off the counter, landing in a crouch before standing up again. "Well, now that that's over, shall we go and do something actual siblings do, besides boy talk?"
"And what, pray tell, would that be?" He asked, arching an eyebrow as he sat on the counter and slid down to the ground. Dusting off his pants, despite the fact that they didn't have anything on them, he took a moment t collect himself.
"Oh, I dunno. Going out to get a cup of coffee? Hanging out at the park?" She laughed slightly, fluffing out her hair with her fingers. "Dude, I'm a foster baby. I know jack shit about sibling things."
“Then I guess we get t’ figure that out t’gether, huh?” He grinned, shoulder tapping her with the back of his hand. “Coffee and then park?”
Tessa grinned up at him. "Sounds good to me! C'mon, I know just the place." She tugged him towards the front door, eager to catch up with Markus.
| SKIP: That Night |
Nikolas was lounging on the couch in just some sweatpants, shirt lying on the opposite armest that he was leaning on. He was slightly busy today with a treat to himself, having been gone all day since the two ex foster siblings had wondered off.
On his back was a brand new tattoo that he had gotten while Markus and Tess were out. It trailed down his spine, depicting the moon and surrounded by little stars. It was still a little sore—curse his sensitive spine—but his increased healing had helped it somewhat, especially now that the sun was going down. The other tattoo he had gotten was on his chest, left pec. It was of similar style, portraying a dragon surrounding a moon. Both tattoos were in black ink.
He wasn't doing anything in particular right now, simply closing his eyes and letting his body heal, head tipped back as if looking up at the ceiling.