Thanksgiving morning, Marc and JD woke up pretty much at the same time, still on the phone with each other. This was happening every night that Marc didn’t sleep over. He had suggested sleeping apart to try and increase their quality of sleep between fires. It wasn’t working. It also wasn’t working to stop how Marc was feeling about JD.

After hanging up with JD, Marc stayed in bed contemplating something even newer than his feelings for JD. Marc had always been hyper aware of the people around him, and for a long time he attributed that to the physical abuse he’d experienced as a child. But, since Halloween, Marc was starting to feel people differently. At first everyone felt “white,” or ambiguous. As the feelings became stronger they changed colors. “Red” people were threats, like bullies at school, “white” was still ambiguous, but the people he cared about, those he trusted, were “greens” and “blues.” Strangers were almost always “red,” at least until he got to know them, and he didn’t have to see a person or otherwise know they were there in order to feel their presence. To top it off, JD was green, Marc’s favorite color. His mother was green as well but tinted with blue hues, and JD’s family was mostly blue with green tints.

Barring any calls for heroics, today would be a day surrounded by those greens and blues. After the divorce, Marc’s mother sort of became a shadow of herself. If she wasn’t at work, she was a hospice nurse, she was often found just sitting in the dark. She functioned well enough taking care of herself, but was much brighter when she remembered Marc. Usually, though, either he or JD had to be around for her to remember Marc. Holidays were spent with JD’s family, his mother, his sister, her husband, and their little girl. It was loud, and happy, and it was one of Marc’s favorite times of the year.

Marc finally got out of bed and went downstairs. He hugged his mother tight before stealing her coffee. He sat down beside her at the table and she took her coffee back after he had a gulp.

“Get your own!” She laughed at his playing around with her.

“Ah, but yours is already cool enough to drink, a fresh cup would be too hot,” Marc made his excuse. As a medical professional, she wasn’t usually off of work the whole day of any holiday, but today she was. Marc held her hand while they talked about the news, and school. She asked him if he had a boyfriend yet, and teased him for blushing. He asked her the same and she stuck her tongue out at him. These moments were most precious to Marc.

JD came through the backdoor straight into the kitchen with a plate of cinnamon rolls from his sister. He plunked it down on the table before he grabbed two mugs and made coffee for himself and Marc. “I hope y’all haven’t eaten yet because Tanya made enough of these to feed the neighborhood.” JD sat down and stuffed a roll into his mouth.

Marc grabbed one for himself and started unrolling it and eating it in pieces, licking his fingers after every bite.

“Ew, man, that’s gross!” JD wrinkled his nose. Marc just raised his eyebrows and wriggled his sticky fingers in JD’s face like a five year old. “TT doesn’t even do that!”

“Speak of the devil,” Marc replied as 7 year old Tasha came crashing through the door. She climbed onto Marc’s mother’s lap to give her a hand-made Thanksgiving card.

“DD,” as Tasha called Marc’s mother, “I made you a turkey!” she went on and on talking about tracing her hand and coloring the tail feathers. Deanne and Tasha had grown close when the boys were younger. They had nicknamed each other with “DD” and “TT.”

Marc washed his hands and then he and JD disappeared up the stairs. In Marc’s room they talked about school and super hero stuff while Marc changed from his t-shirt and PJ pants. JD had never purposely looked away while Marc was changing before so he didn’t look away this time either. When Marc mentioned picking up new burner phones he bent down to pick them up and then tossed them to JD without looking. JD caught the bag of phones as a reflex, but his eyes were on Marc. More specifically his bare torso and where it disappeared into the waistband of his jeans.

Before Marc could catch him staring, JD looked down and started to fiddle with the cheap pre-pay phones they used when calling authorities while doing their hero work. He kept turning over the thoughts in his head, the worries he had that maybe Marc wouldn’t feel the same way he did. He struggled because a part of him wanted to deny his feelings and just let friends be friends, but another part of him really wanted to be honest with Marc. He felt like a bad friend not sharing his thoughts like everything else. He knew Marc would notice too.

Marc finally chose a shirt and pulled it on, which knocked his glasses askew. He fixed himself and looked over at JD. He looked sad as he fiddled with the burner phones. Marc stepped over to where JD sat on the bed and he crouched in front of him. He looked up at his best friend’s face and asked, “You ok?”

JD looked up and into Marc’s eyes. His heart felt like it would beat right out of his chest. Marc tried to hide the blush he could feel on his cheeks. He flicked JD on the forehead and then flopped onto the bed beside him.

They sat that way quietly for a few minutes before TT came up to play video games. The trio was engrossed in their epic video game battles for a few hours, until TT decided it was time to check the turkey.