pushbackthedarkness | (no subject)

Things have been a bit odd at home lately.

It isn't due to anyone else in the house, Sabrina and Dan are both as wonderful as always, and Salem and Trass have an odd, yet respectable relationship. In fact, their home is as harmonious as Marcus has ever imagined one being and he knows he's extremely lucky to have this as his life.

But things have still been odd.

It had begun after the trip he had taken with Sam, Lisbeth, and Viktor to the strange island. Although they hadn't found anything particularly alarming on the trip, there had been some evidence of demonic activity, enough that Marcus has been careful to keep an eye on things since. Until very recently, things had been quiet and he had been hopeful that, whatever it was they'd found, perhaps it had been frightened away.

It's silly. He should have known better.

Sitting outside now, the air in the garden is still crisp, but spring is coming and the snow is nearly melted, and Marcus can see from his chair that the woods look different. He's drinking his morning tea, the mug cupped loosely between his hands, and he has every intention of getting up to investigate further, but he just wants to finish his tea before he does. Best to enjoy it rather than have it potentially interrupted.

And when the back door opens, Marcus doesn't turn. Without looking, simply knowing, he says, "Do the woods over there look strange to you, love? Like... there's something in the trees. Some shape forms from the bare branches and twigs?"

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Early on, Dan had to make a few decisions about living in Darrow, a place full of hidden hungry mouths and other, often invisible dangers. If the Overlook is a tangled maze, the predators focused on him, then Darrow is the vast rainforest-- more predators, less predictable.

What kept Dan on the wagon, so early on, besides his husband so casusally and carefully watching something predatory, is that here, those sharp teeth don't crave him.

He drops a kiss on top of Marcus's head, and stares out in the woods.

Only a second or two tick by before he walks back toward the house, uncoils the garden hose from where it hangs, and strides to the treeline. The icy spray mostly pelts one particular spot, but Dan's sure to give it a little distribution too. "Get the fuckk off our property," he advises it.

It's exactly what his father would have done and he's hard-pressed to care. God, it really is satisfying.

Marcus laughs, utterly charmed out of any disruption he's felt from whatever presence may be lurking, as Dan blasts the trees with water. If any human form was waiting out there, they'll be bloody freezing now.

"Are you sure you shouldn't have asked me to bless the hose first?" he asks, grinning.

Technically he's not able to bless anything any longer, but the demons of Darrow don't seem especially worried about the rules or constraints of the Catholic Church. Excommunicated or not, they're still rightly afraid of Marcus when they're not challenging him.

"God, I married some kind of nerd, didn't I?" Dan murmurs, as he feels the thing recede back into the woods. He's fine not knowing what's out there. He'd actually prefer not to give it any attention, too used to the hungry things that suck up any bit of notice and light.

He'd much rather make Marcus's chair squeal with alarm as he comes back to settle himself on his husband's lap. sure as only a psychic could be that it's not going to give.

All the better to soak up the sunlight that's settled into Marcus's clothes and skin. "But maybe the idea has some merit. Long distance baptisms, I'm thinking."

Their property is well protected, between Sabrina and Sam, but that doesn't mean Marcus isn't considering additional ways to keep everyone safe. If whatever lurking in the woods wants him, truly wants him, it might find a way around what they already have in place.

They can think about it in a moment, though, he decides, as Dan settles into his lap. Marcus shifts his mug and wraps one arm around Dan's back, the other draped across his legs, then smiles up at his husband.

"Yes, you seem very concerned right now," he says, amused.

"Whatever was out there will be back if it wants to be, regardless of how much I angst over it," Dan answers, leaning in to breathe in Marcus's sun-warmed skin. He's aware that this is not a small thing to say or feel, not for him; he might feel differently if not for the rather powerful trio he calls family, and their connections further.

There's time to soak up the spring before too much craziness.

"Do you think it's too on the nose if I plant pumpkins with the tomatoes and zucchini?" He's not terribly attached to the answer, mouth roving the well-known and well-loved territory of the underside of Marcus's jaw.

"I think, when you're kissing me like this, I'll tell you you can do anything you like, on the nose or not," he answers, his eyes fluttering closed at the touch of Dan's mouth against his skin. His hand slides up Dan's back, to his neck, then into his hair so he can hold him close.

This man, this lovely, incredible man, chose him. He chooses to be here, to fight whatever might come, and to enjoy the peace of the moments between.

"And I think anything that ends up with you muddy and sweaty counts among my favourite things in this world," he continues. "So I'm certainly in favour."

"We're already a regular Halloween house year-round," Dan says, working on leaving just a small mark on his husband's neck, the kind he could probably hide if he really tried with a collared shirt. Any kind of collared shirt, doesnt have to be something from Dan's particular fantasies. Could be a very business casual hickey indeed.

"Not that I mind the Halloween house," he amends, "but if we get much closer, we're going to become an attraction. Have to chase kids off the property as well as ghosts."

It's easy, and stupidly enjoyable to make jokes about it here, in Marcus's lap in the sunshine, one of the safest places he's ever been.

"We could get some land cleared for corn."

"You're such a strange man," he replies, clearly pleased by this. It wouldn't have made sense otherwise, Marcus is not a man who could have anyone but another strange person.

Who better to calm an exorcist than a psychic?

"Are you planning on a maze?" he asks. "In the corn? Shall we chase one another through it?"

Dan's mouth on his throat is heavenly and Marcus feels absolutely no guilt about the potential blasphemy. The world simply allows for heaven on earth to be possible every now and then.

"If it keeps drunk teenagers off the property, I'll plant five mazes," Dan says, a solemn oath. "Or maybe I just like corn." It is strange, as affectionate rambling goes, but he's always been strange. The difference rests in the man holding him, making it safe for Dan to be absolutely himself.

The ease with which the affection comes never stops surprising him either, like he's never known a world where he could so openly, almost thoughtlessly press into another person.

"I don't know if we need to become that couple," he finally decides. "And we still have a long summer between us and any of that." Pleased with his work on Marcus's neck, he rests his chin on his husband's shoulder.

"That we do," Marcus agrees, his hand moving slowly down Dan's back, then up again. They're quiet for a moment, soaking in everything they have here, their life together, even though Marcus knows he'll eventually have to break it.

"You're not worried about what's lurking in the trees?"

Whatever it is, he doesn't think it's there any longer, but he also doesn't think it's left for good. The spray of the hose isn't going to make anything truly malevolent go away forever, no matter how much they wish it might.