Work Text:
Mark Walker had a secret.
It was not that he helped to work a giant robot to save the city. Perhaps the local villains would put a bounty on his head if they found that out, but Mark’s real secret was even more life-ending. That is, social-life-ending, which was practically just as bad as the usual life-ending.
Mark Walker loved to knit.
He’d picked it up on a whim out of boredom one day. His mom had once intended to try it, but never got very far with the hobby. Mark had found her knitting needles lying around, and a couple of YouTube tutorials later, he had created a second secret life for himself. He now had three aliases to maintain: Mark the cool kid, Mark the superhero mechanic, and Mark the grandma. The worst part was he was actually good at it. He’d even perfected knitting designs like stars or flowers into his work. Mark’s gift for being good at everything he tried was both a blessing and a curse. Most of the time, it was a blessing; this one time, it was a curse.
If any of his old teammates found out, he’d never hear the end of it. If his new teammates found out, it would be even worse. He’d have no roasting leverage over those four freshmen if they could always use his embarrassing hobby as a comeback.
Despite the risks, Mark couldn’t stop. There was something therapeutic about knitting, and man, did Mark need a stress reliever. Trying to not fail his classes while the whole world unknowingly depended on him and his team to save it was a lot less awesome than it sounded. If knitting kept Mark from having a mental breakdown every week, then he wasn’t about to stop. He’d just have to keep stowing his projects away in his secret hiding spots- one in the robot, and one at home.
Mark’s current project was another hat. This one would have a pom-pom at the top when it was done, which he’d never tried before, but it seemed easy enough to make one and sew it on. He sat in a storage room on the robot. It was safe in there; since Mark was the mechanic, he was the only one who ever went in.
At least, he should have been the only one who ever went in. To Mark’s dismay, he heard the door open. He froze on his stool as Harris, Spyder, and Ryan entered the room.
“There you are, Mark. We were just looking for-” Harris began, but Spyder quickly cut him off as he registered the situation.
“Wait, Mark, are you...are you knitting?” he said, starting to laugh in gleeful disbelief. Ryan pushed his way past Harris and Spyder.
“Mark is knitting ?” he said, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
“No! No, I’m not!” Mark said, panicked, quickly throwing his half-finished hat across the room. The damage, however, had already been done as Spyder started to call for Veracity.
“This is too good,” Veracity remarked when she entered the scene, wearing that gleefully derisive grin of hers. Mark was not used to that grin being directed at him. He felt his face growing hot as his four teammates snickered in front of him. He had to get them to move on.
“So, what were you guys looking for?” he asked, not very subtly changing the subject.
“Don’t think we’re forgetting about this, Grandma Walker,” Veracity said, “but we just need a toolkit to fix some minor damage in the X-Deck.” Veracity shot a sharp side-eye at Spyder.
“They were new arm cannons! I wanted to see how they worked!” Spyder protested.
“You couldn’t have waited to go outside and test it?” Harris said, shaking his head.
“Curiosity waits for no one,” Spyder replied, suddenly switching to an oddly profound voice as he looked off into space. Harris rolled his eyes.
“Anyway,” Veracity cut in before Harris could start a debate about safety and destructive impulses, “we’ll just get a toolkit and be on our way. We wouldn’t want to distract you from your knitting, now would we?” Veracity walked past the boys toward the back of the room. Mark started to get nervous again. His secret stash of knitting projects was in a drawer on that end of the room.
“Be careful back there, Veracity, some of those tools are dangerous,” Mark said, hoping to discourage her from poking around. Veracity, of course, was not one to be discouraged.
“I know my way around tools, Mark. How do you think I won the science fair more times than Harris? Without a toolbox?” she said, continuing to look around.
“Hey, I was robbed of first place in fifth AND seventh grade, and you know it!” Harris objected, wagging an angry finger in the air. Veracity snorted.
“You keep telling yourself that, buddy,” she said, not even glancing at Harris as she continued her search. “Hey, Mark, is it in here?” Veracity asked, and before Mark could do anything about it, she opened the drawer that no one but Mark should have ever opened. Veracity let out a jeering laugh right away as she picked up a pair of mittens and a scarf. “Mark, what’s all this?” she teased as Ryan, Harris, and Spyder quickly crowded around the stash of projects. Mark groaned.
“Dude, how long have you been at this?” Ryan asked, pulling out an oversized scarf with a snowflake pattern knitted in and mockingly throwing it around his neck.
“Give me that,” Mark said, his face burning with embarrassment, as he stood up from the stool and took the scarf from Ryan. “Just drop it, guys, okay? Yeah, I picked up a random hobby. People do it all the time. Get over it.” It was all Mark could do to hide the shame from his voice. This could not be happening. His one weird hobby, and his whole team found out about it. Ryan would never let him hear the end of this.
“Yeah, but why’d you pick up knitting ?” Spyder asked, suppressing more laughter. Mark sighed and sat back down.
“I don’t know,” he said, looking down at the scarf in his hands. Did he really want to tell his team this? “I guess it’s a stress reliever. Sports used to take my mind off things, but I don’t have time for that anymore. I needed something.” Mark paused, still not looking at his team. “I mean, you guys get it. The whole city, and even beyond just the city, depends on us to save it. Have you guys ever thought about how many lives are in our hands? And like, I’m not even 18 yet, but here I am, with this responsibility to save thousands of lives. Including my family.” Mark looked right at Ryan. “What if something happened to you, Ryan? What if something happened to you on my watch, and we...and we couldn’t save you? That’s on me, right?”
There was silence for a few moments. Ryan, Harris, Spyder, and Veracity felt a tinge of guilt creeping in for having made fun of Mark.
“Mark, I-” Ryan started, but his brother cut him off.
“I know, it’s stupid. I chose the dumbest possible stress reliever. Go ahead, keep laughing,” Mark said, breaking eye contact again.
“No, I was going to say that I think I need a new hat for this winter. Red and blue, if that’s okay,” Ryan finished. Mark looked up at his younger brother, who smiled back at him.
“And I think I lost my scarf last year,” Harris joined in. Mark started to smile now, too.
“Ooh, I want a hat, too!” Spyder said.
“I might be in the market for some new gloves,” Veracity added, her tone friendlier now. Mark smiled at his teammates.
“I think I can make something work.”
Mark Walker had a secret. It was not that he helped to work a giant robot to save the city, and it wasn’t that he loved to knit. No, Mark’s secret was that he knew who the best friends in the world were- 4 loser freshman from Bay City High who were the greatest team a guy could ask for.