#honestly before this i didnt really get the appeal of oc's but like...theyre so fun

[set-phasers-to-whump]

what are friends for?

this is for @not-just-fantasy who requested some marius getting beat up!!! i had a lot of fun writing this, especially developing the oc, which i’ve never really done before!! hope this is alright! (also sorry the con is like. barely described lol. its surprisingly hard to come up with a believable one)

It was a relatively simple con, as far as cons went. It involved posing as an accountant, and would result in a modest payoff, one which, hopefully, would fly under the radar until long after Marius had dropped off the grid. Well, Marius and his assistant.

He didn’t usually like to do serious jobs with people he didn’t know well, but he’d been training this person, whose name was Alia (though Marius’ ‘client’ knew them as Danny). Alia was a quick thinker, and a good deal taller and more muscular than Marius, which helped play them off as a bodyguard for a rather anxious accountant, who overvalued his safety (as well as his own importance). 

And so far, things were going great. Alia and Marius were staying in a cheap hotel in Hartford, meeting daily with their client, William Henderson, a CEO who had recently become concerned about the security of his accounts. It had been three days, and in another two, the job would be finished, and the pair would walk away a couple thousand dollars richer. That was the nice thing about the rich, Marius thought. You could take enough money from them to comfortably sustain yourself, and they wouldn’t feel the difference. 

Of course, they might notice the difference, and get angry about it anyway. So this operation had been a little more slow-going than one unfamiliar with the business might have expected, but overall it was progressing at exactly the pace that Marius knew it would. 

Marius himself, currently in character as Oliver Pierce, accountant and possibly the most boring man on the planet, was in a meeting with his client. He had elected to have Alia stay in the car, as today’s business was to be the most delicate work, which could easily end the whole con if it was not handled correctly. 

Alia had agreed to this, having never been in on any real sort of con before, and they were busying themself by sketching the alley the car was parked in on the back of a map they’d found in the glove compartment. Sure, it was boring being left in the car, but they were beginning to understand just how fiddly the con business could be, and were quite frankly relieved to have been excused from what was sure to be a high-pressure situation. 

Back in the office, the situation was certainly high-pressure. But not in the way that Alia would have thought. 

Marius was trapped. Literally and figuratively. The door was locked, his arm was pinned to the desk, and he’d been completely discovered-Henderson knew exactly what con he was trying to pull, he knew where Marius had been staying, he knew Alia was a con artist in training…the list went on. Marius was in deep shit, and for once, could think of nothing to say to keep the con going.

Henderson knew this, and was delighting in it. “You really thought you could pull one over on me? I thought something was up with you the minute I met you, and look at you now, proving me right with no help! You think you can install your creepy little...scanning device on my computer? You think you can mess with my computer without my knowledge? You think you’re smarter than me?”

“It’s not a scanning device,” Marius muttered under his breath, before he could think the better of it. 

“What did you say?” Henderson demanded, twisting Marius’ arm. 

“Nothing, nothing,” Marius said quickly. “Let’s just...let’s talk, right?”

But Henderson, apparently, had had enough. He slapped Marius across the face. “How about you shut the fuck up?”

Marius blinked. Fuck. He could get out of this...somehow. 

“I can see those little wheels turning in your pathetic brain, Oliver,” Henderson sneered, his voice full of contempt. “You get out of this one when I say you get out.”

Marius didn’t want to think about what that could mean. 

---

Alia, still sitting in the car, had finished sketching the alley, and had moved on to sketching the interior of the car. It was a very boring subject, as there was virtually nothing in the car to personalize it, but it was better than nothing. They wondered how Marius was getting on...he should be out soon, if everything was going to plan.

---

But of course, everything wasn’t going to plan. Henderson, after delivering his ominous statement, had said absolutely nothing as he slowly let go of Marius’ arm which had been pinned to the desk. 

Marius, naturally, sprinted for the door, though he knew it was locked. He glanced around for anything that he could use as a weapon-he had the distinct feeling that he was about to get seriously beaten up, and Henderson already had several inches and a considerable amount of weight to his advantage. 

But there was nothing. Henderson advanced on Marius, a truly dangerous smile on his face. Marius had backed himself up against the door, and looked frantically around, for what, he didn’t know-but it didn’t matter, anyway. The second Henderson’s fist collided with the side of his face, nothing mattered except survival.

Henderson hit hard, and accurately, the kind of punches which told Marius he’d been trained, probably in boxing, which was not an especially helpful fact. 

An uppercut to the jaw sent him crumpling to the ground, his ears ringing. He tried in vain to stand up, to attempt to hold his own somehow, but Henderson kicked his legs out from under him. 

He fell back to the floor, the back of his head connecting with a bookshelf with an audible crack. Stars swum in his field of vision, and he probably would have blacked out, had it not been for the sharp kick which was delivered to his stomach, which diverted his attention from the pain in his head and caused him to hunch over in an instinctive and futile attempt to protect himself.

Henderson grabbed Marius by the back of his suit jacket, hauling him to his feet, and pinned him to the bookcase with an arm against his throat. He punched Marius squarely in the nose, and it made a sickening crunching noise, and then Marius became dimly aware of the sensation of hot blood pouring down his face, making it hard to breathe, and his mouth was full of blood, and all he could register was pain, and he could barely breathe, and his head was spinning, and he was sure he was going to die…

And then the arm at his throat let up, and he slumped bonelessly to the ground. Falling hurt, but it hurt far less than everything else did, and he didn’t make a sound. 

Henderson was saying something to him, something which he couldn’t hear over the ringing in his ears. A smack to the face cleared that up well enough, though, and he could hear Henderson’s taunting voice asking if he’d had enough, if he’d learned his lesson. 

Marius nodded, or did his best impression of it, anyway, which was perhaps not the best idea, as his dizziness increased tenfold. He stayed slumped on the ground for several minutes, doing his best to stop the world around him from spinning, and to gain enough control over his limbs to stand.

Henderson, however, had apparently grown bored of this whole exchange, and pulled Marius to his feet once again, holding him upright until he got his bearings. “Be thankful I really needed to punch my anger out, or you’d be on your way to prison right now,” Henderson hissed, as he moved to unlock the door. “Now get the fuck out of here before you bleed any more on my carpet.”

Marius did not need to be told twice, and he stumbled his way out of the office, a shaking hand attempting to stop the blood that still flowed down his face. God, he was still so dizzy…

Somehow, he made it back to the alley without collapsing. He stood a few feet away from the car, suddenly realizing that he really couldn’t make it another few feet.

---

Alia jerked out of a light doze to the sound of approaching footsteps, which abruptly stopped. Curious, they looked in the rearview mirror...and nearly screamed at the sight which greeted them. Marius, conman extraordinaire, was beat to shit. His clothes were rumpled and torn in places, and splattered with blood. One arm curled protectively around his torso. The other was attempting to stop a profusely-bleeding nose, which dripped blood down his already-bruising face.

They jumped out of the car, hurrying to Marius’ side. Just in time, too, for they had no sooner laid a hand on Marius’ shoulder to ask what the hell had happened than he was collapsing onto them, unconscious.

Alia, fortunately, had quick reflexes, and managed to catch Marius before he hit the ground. They picked him up as carefully as they could (he was so light), and set him down in the passenger seat, upright, so that his nosebleed wouldn’t choke him to death, then backed up out of the alley.

Alia was panicking, just a little. Their first con was not supposed to have gone like this. What were they supposed to do? They doubted that conmen went to the hospital, but they had serious doubts about their ability as a makeshift nurse. “Marius? Please, wake up, I don’t know what to do.”

He stirred slightly. “Hm?”

“What am I supposed to do?” they repeated, panic edging into their voice.

“No...nothing...go...hotel...con-” he paused, coughing harshly and wincing at the pain that that brought to...well, everything. “The con...it’s over...he found out…”

“Shit,” Alia said, having suspected as much but having hoped for some other outcome. “You really just want me to drive back to the hotel?”

“Yes. I’ll...I’ll be fine,” Marius insisted, and closed his eyes once more, blood still steadily dripping down his face.

Alia doubted this, but Marius was their...boss, or something like that, in all of this, so they listened, and drove as quickly as they could back to the hotel.

Once they arrived, the pair faced the task of making it back to the room unseen, which turned out to be fairly easy, as there was almost no one in the lobby to witness the spectacle of Marius, who had woken up enough to insist he could walk, being heavily supported by Alia, whose clothes were now smeared with blood and who was doing their best to remain inconspicuous. The one man who noticed them seemed content to pretend like he’d seen nothing at all, and went back to reading his magazine after sparing them little more than a once-over. The perks of cheap hotels, Alia thought to themself, as they waited for the elevator. 

By the time the creaky elevator had reached the third floor, Marius had once again collapsed, and Alia had once again picked him up, flinging him carefully over their shoulder as they made their way down the hallway (which, fortunately, had a dark carpet that would hide the blood which dripped onto it). Finally, the pair made it back to their room, where Alia set Marius down on the edge of the tub and thought about how the hell they were going to do this.

Marius, fortunately, chose that moment to wake up, and muttered something about there being a first-aid kit in his suitcase.

It was there, and it was pretty well-stocked, too. Alia brought it into the bathroom, gathered all of the washcloths they could find, and got to work.

Fortunately, Marius’ nose had finally stopped bleeding, which was one less thing to worry about. He stared ahead at nothing, blinking sluggishly, as Alia gently wiped the blood off of his face. They had the feeling that this was normally something Marius would have loathed to have anyone do to him, for him, and they wondered briefly just how bad he must have felt in order to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being cared for. 

Apart from the blood, Alia quickly realized that there wasn’t a whole lot else they could do for Marius. They removed his suit jacket and button-up shirt, both of which were fairly unsalvageable, and examined his torso, which was already horribly bruised. There wasn’t much they could do about the injury that would make it feel any better, apart from some ibuprofen (and even that might not do much, they really didn’t know), but they wrapped the bruise in some bandages anyway, to at least do something. 

That done, Alia was well and truly out of things to do to help. They handed Marius two packets of ibuprofen, which he took quickly, and then stood up, fidgeting with a slightly bloody washcloth as they wondered what they were supposed to do next.

Marius interrupted their thinking. “You can...you can go, it’s over...won’t get any money…”

Alia looked at him, slightly bewildered. “You mean leave, right now? While you’re beat all to hell and might have a concussion or something?”

“You’re not listening, Alia, you won’t get anything, it’s finished.”

“I know I’m not getting anything,” they said, “but you’re...my friend, or something. I’m not leaving you here alone.”

“Oh,” Marius said, evidently startled by their reply. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

“No, you don’t,” Alia said, pulling Marius to his feet as gently as they could. “You have a perfectly good bed to sleep on.”

Marius made his way to his bed, painfully slowly, but mostly on his own. As soon as his head hit the pillow, his eyes fluttered closed, and Alia heard his breathing even out. Good, they thought, and then shit, there’s blood all over the bathroom that I’m gonna have to clean up.

---

Marius awoke with a pounding headache and a dull throbbing in his torso. He blinked his eyes open slowly, pushing himself into a sitting position and wincing as the movement made the throbbing in his torso spike into something more painful. He looked around. He was back in the hotel room...how had he gotten there? He mentally reviewed what had happened the past day: he’d woken up, had some breakfast, gone to the meeting with Henderson...after that, his memories became a jumbled blur of pain. Alia had been with him, he thought. No doubt they were long gone by now, now that their payoff had been ruined. 

The lock on the door clicked, and Marius started. Before he could do something to fend off whatever intruder this was, the door opened, and Alia, their hands full with plates of hotel breakfast, stepped into the room, smiling at Marius when they saw that he was awake.

“Morning,” they said, handing him a plate. “How’s...everything?”

Marius looked at them, slightly shocked.

“What’s wrong?” Alia asked, already beginning to worry. “Oh, I knew I should have just gone to the hospital…”

“No!” Marius interrupted. “No...I’m fine, I’m just...why are you here?”

Alia looked at him, clearly confused. “What do you mean?”

“There isn’t any chance of a payoff anymore.”

Alia sighed, and said, “I know that,” in the exasperated tone of one who has already had this conversation before. “I don’t care.”

“Why?”

Alia shrugged, and sat down next to Marius on the bed. “I dunno. I like you? We’re friends, or something? I mean, I think two people can call themselves friends after one of them has collapsed on the other one multiple times.”

Had he done that? He supposed there was time to think about that later. “Yeah,” he agreed slowly. “I guess we’re friends.” 

He was silent for a moment. Alia ate their breakfast. “Thanks,” he said finally.

“What are friends for?”

aaaaaaaaaAAAAAA i hope this was okay!!!! I had so so much fun writing it!! I tried to make it open to the possibility of anything happening after this, like romance etc, but i thought friends was a good endpoint for these two!! hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!!!!!