Chapter Text
Markus awoke, somehow, to the sound of someone clearing their throat. It was the most unobtrusive sound in the world, and he had to sleep through Leo doing pirouettes in his squeaky old bed every night. But he heard that.
Five minutes later he was out in the hallway, pulling on a jacket.
“You said midnight, didn’t you?” Connor whispered.
“Yep, I’m good.”
“If you don’t want to—”
“No, we’re good,” Markus said with a quiet laugh. “You’re just really punctual.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Markus grinned, and nodded. “Of course.”
“We could get in a lot of trouble.”
Markus made a face. “Not that much.”
“But—”
“You managed to escape the clutches of Amanda’s foster care.”
Connor nodded. “With your help.”
“And you want to make sure your brothers get away from her, too. You said you regretted letting them go.”
Connor nodded harder.
“So, we’re doing this.” He nodded down the stairs. “Let’s get out of here.”
They headed down the stairs, snuck past Hank’s room, and stole away into the night.
“I planned our route,” Connor said, taking out his phone to show the path he planned in a map app. “It’ll take a bit longer but this way we stick to the neighborhoods—”
Markus reached over and deleted the path. “Don’t make more evidence than you need to. You know where it is, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Me too. We’ll take the shortcut.”
“We can’t cut across 18th!” Connor protested. “This time of night?”
“Why not?”
“There’s addicts. Criminals. Traffickers.”
Markus shrugged. “I did it when I was fourteen. Besides, I’m a lot better at parkour now!”
“…Parkour?”
“Freerunning?”
“Those are two different things.”
“So you do know what it is!”
“What, so we’re…”
Markus sighed and pointed up. “No criminals up there besides Catwoman and Batman.”
“…We’re climbing up on the roof?”
“Less cameras, too. Come on.” Markus spent the short walk to 18th explaining the basic principles, how to pull yourself up, how to jump. Connor was a little hard to read in this light but Markus saw him in gym class and he could do pull ups and rock-climb all the way to the top, so he was probably most of the way there. They got to the first building, the Stratford Tower radio station, and Markus coached him on climbing up a pillar to the awning, then using a decorative drainpipe to pull himself up the rest of the way. Three basic moves and they were up there on the roof together. Markus stretched his arms toward a smog-covered sky, only a few stars visible and took a deep breath. “You ready for the fun part?”
Connor wrung his hands, probably worried about getting out his quarter this high up. “I’m having fun.”
Markus giggled, then waved him over to the roof’s parapet. “Look.” He pointed down to the at the building next door, which was a massive urban greenhouse. The panes of glass that made up the peaked roof were too steep and slick to climb down, but you could slide, so long as you dodged the few open ones. “It’s only about a three foot drop at the bottom,” Markus explained. “You ever played Uncharted? It’s just like—"
“I’ve never played any video games.” Connor had his ‘an A minus is unacceptable’ face on. “Video games rot your brain and—”
“—Whoa, whoa, they do not! Who told you that?”
“I read it.” Connor frowned. “And Amanda told me.”
“That’s just—” Markus forced another laugh. “That’s crazy!”
“This is crazy,” Connor replied.
“Come on, it’s safer than a parachute. Watch.” Markus eased over the parapet and started to slide down the greenhouse roof, picking up speed so that by the time he reached the bottom he had to run a few steps before he struck a pose (maybe he was just showing off, but he wanted to make sure it looked easy). He looked up at the little silhouette of Connor’s head against the moonlight.
“Okay!” he stage-whispered up. “Your turn!”
“Okay!” Connor whisper-shouted back. He didn’t move. “Markus!”
“Yeah!”
“…I actually think I’m afraid of heights!”
“Oh!” Markus blinked. “Crap!”
Connor laughed, and slid out of sight.
…Well, it took them an extra half hour for Markus to go back around and guide Connor down the safer way, but Markus decided it was worth it not to push Connor too far (and anyway, Connor grabbed his arms and shoulders a lot while they did which was an unexpected bonus). At least Markus convinced him not to retreat to the neighborhoods, where they’d show up on every single person’s Ring, and thus very much on Hank’s bad side. They didn’t meet anyone, but Connor kept a little closer than usual, and even made sure to walk a step ahead, constantly scanning the area for threats. It activated every cute-aggression impulse in Markus and he had to work hard to keep his hands to himself.
Thankfully they reached Amanda’s house pretty fast and any romantic feelings were crushed by the memories Markus had of the place. Markus blinked up at the diamond-shaped windows.
“Forget a haunted house,” Markus said. “This is the scariest place in the city.”
Connor’s face turned grim. “Are you sure? Amanda once called the cops on the other members of my group project for trespassing.”
“Too late now.” Markus pulled his hood up and tugged Connor’s up too, to hide their faces from the door camera while they sneaked around the side. Connor knew the combination for the gate lock. They stepped inside and Connor pulled him to a stop with a tug on his sweatshirt.
“Thank you. This—this really means a lot to me.”
Markus gulped. They were in a little alcove of darkness and Markus could just barely make out the moonlight in his puppy-dog eyes. “No problem, man.”
The eyes frowned. “Amanda’s not a good person. Or maybe she is, but she’s definitely not a good parent. I knew that from the beginning. I was just so desperate for a home I made us all put up with her. I’m not doing that anymore. We’re going to get my brothers out of this house, one way or another, and…that’s more than anyone’s ever done for me.' A hand reached out and squeezed the sleeve of Markus' hoodie. "So...thank you.”
Markus nodded, doing his best to look as serious and resolute (and maybe not quite as lovesick) as he felt. “I understand.”
“No, seriously—I couldn’t do this without you.”
“I’m sure you could,” Markus managed. If Connor kept this up Markus was gonna do something stupid like squeeze Connor's shoulder, or--
“Hmm. Not really.” He pointed up to the diamond-shaped windows on the second story. “Upstairs bedrooms.”
“…Ah.”
Markus had Ronan, the taller and shyer of Connor’s brothers, down on the ground in less than five minutes, and that included time to get the ladder set up. He tried not to feel too much like a knight rescuing a princess from a tower even if, let’s be honest, he totally was. He stood back grinning as Ronan and Connor vied for who could hug the tightest. When they parted, Markus pretended it was too dark to see the tears standing out on their cheeks. He hid a smile.
“Where’s Richard’s room?” Markus whispered, hefting the ladder.
Ronan grimaced, showing off the silver of his braces. “He’s—he’s not here.”
Connor visibly started. “What do you mean?”
“Didn’t Amanda tell you? She signed him up for military school,” Ronan insisted. “She—they shipped him off today, but…
The black look on Connor’s face told Markus that Amanda told him nothing about it. “What school?”
Markus gave a breathless laugh. “You want to break into a military school?”
Ronan looked aghast. “Connor—"
“I don’t care where he is,” Connor snapped—his eyes were suddenly a lot less puppy and a lot more full-grown German shepherd. “We’re getting him out! I’m not—”
“But he’s not there,” Ronan blurted. “He—they put him on the bus, but he snuck out the window while no one was looking. I saw him.”
Connor startled again. It would have been adorable if the situation wasn’t so serious. “He ran away?”
“It’ll be okay,” Markus said. Hell, two of the three people here had run away. Ronan looked on the verge of more tears, and since Markus couldn’t squeeze Connor’s shoulder, he squeezed Ronan’s shoulder instead. “We just need to figure out where he is.”
“Detroit is huge!” Connor hissed. “He could be anywhere! Where would he even go?”