Chapter Text
William was getting ready for his next class when he was startled by a knock on the window. He looked over at saw Mark, peeking up.
"Oh Jesus, Mark!?" William scrambled to open the window for him. He crawled into the dorm room, and the first thing William noticed was…
"Mark what the hell are you wearing? No, wait, did you stop the meteor showers? What happened? It's been two months!" He wasn't sure what he wanted Mark to answer first.
"Meteor showers? Oh right um… Yes and no..? A lot happened…" Mark sounded tired, and he looked exhausted. William frowned, actually looking at Mark. He had deep eye bags, his skin was pale and he looked awful.
"Mark, what's-" William couldn't get his question out when he was interrupted by a gurgle… He looked own and realized something he'd overlooked while distracted by the ridiculously short toga… Mark had something wrapped around his neck, some kind of cloth that was holding something bundled to his chest… It looked like…
"Mark…" William started slowly, and Mark looked down at it. The thing in his arms.
"So much happened, William… I saw Dad…" He started, moving to his bed and sitting down. That's when William got a good look at it, and it was undeniably a baby. A purple baby with bright pink eyes and a little nose that looked just like Mark.
"Who is that?" William stared, he couldn't help it! What the fuck is his life??
"…This… Is my baby brother…" Mark mumbled. "Dad he- he um… God it's such a long story—" Mark's tired face scrunched up as he tried to think, and William could tell he was exhausted. The baby squirmed in his arms and Mark rocked him just a bit.
"Hey, if it's too much you can tell me later… But Mark, what are you doing with him…?" William frowned, watching the baby yawn.
"I… No I need to tell you," Mark bit his lip, and William sighed. He sat down onto his bed across from him. Mark clearly had to get it off his chest, and William would listen. He nodded to Mark, and so he began to speak.
William leaned back on the bed after Mark had finished telling his story. He stared at his ceiling, he wasn't even sure what he could say to all that. He sat up when he heard Mark sniffle.
"I don't know what to do, William… I- I can't leave him with Mom, she's barely holding together as it is, it's not fair to her." He looked down at the baby, who had fallen asleep.
"Mark…" William frowned, getting off the bed and moving towards him, but Mark shook his head.
"I know. But I'm all he's got. I can't make Mom take care of him, and I'd never let Cecil have him… So what do I do? He's an alien- he's purple!" Mark rubbed a hand down his face, his voice sounding tight, like a lump was forming in his throat.
William looked at him, it was painful, seeing his best friend look so disheveled. He'd seen Mark looking rough before, especially after what happened with his Dad the first time. It made William angry, how dare Omni-Man cause Mark to look this way again? And to bring a helpless, innocent extra life into the mix as well??
"He's— He's so small, William… He doesn't even have a name!" Mark sniffled, and William's heart clenched as those doe eyes filled with tears.
"How am I gonna do this? I-… I guess I'll could take some time off from college," His finger gently caressed the babies chubby cheek. Mark was scared.
William bent down in front of Mark, kneeling between his knees. He gently took Mark's hand into his and squeezed them, looking up at Mark with an intense expression.
"Hey, I'm the reason you even went to Thraxa, if it wasn't for me encouraging you to go with Nuolzot, you wouldn't have to even consider these things… Let me help you." Mark's eyes widened as he looked down at William.
"What? No- no William I can't ask that of you!" Mark shook his head, squeezing William's hand back. William frowned and let out a huff.
"You don't have to do everything on your own you know! I get you don't want to stress your mom out, and you don't want to involve the government, but you can't take this on by yourself! It's not fair to you either. It's not fair that your bastard Dad tricked you, it's not fair for Andressa to have put this task on your shoulders and it's definitely not fair for you to have to care of a baby all by yourself at eighteen! Mark, please, you already put all of Earth on your shoulders." Mark sniffled, and William watched sadly as Mark finally let a few tears slip down his tired face.
He moved to the bedside by Mark and wrapped his arms around him. Mark bent down to tuck his face into his shoulder, and William rested his chin on his head, rubbing his back slowly.
"How? You're in college, you're doing good, I can't just ruin that…" Mark mumbled into his skin, his tears making William's shirt collar damp.
How? That was a good question… William had no clue how to care for a baby, let alone an alien baby. And Mark was correct, he was doing good right now! He was doing pretty okay with his classes, and he really did care about graduating, but he couldn't let Mark take this on alone.
"Hey Mark, you remember when we were nine and we wanted to get a puppy together? Your Dad laughed at us, but your Mom instead went to the store and got us a house plant. She said if we could keep the plant alive then maybe we were responsible enough to get a puppy." William began, running his fingers through Mark's hair. Mark nodded against his shoulder before he pulled back a bit to look at him.
"We tried so damn hard to keep that plant alive, we named her Susie. Remember that?" William smiled as Mark groaned.
"I remember Susie… She was uh… Oh shit, she had those big green and like, lighter green or yellow lines? Right?" Mark wiped his tears as he tried to recall what kind of plant it was.
"Yeah! It had the name peacock in it, I remember that!" William grinned, satisfied as Mark smiled a little as well. "Anyways! We thought we did everything right, and then one day Susie was just dead! Poor thing, we totally forgot to water her and she withered away under our noses!"
Mark let out a tiny laugh. "Yeah, it was so sad too. You totally cried."
"Right… What I'm trying to say, is even though poor Susie did die, may she rest in peace, we both wanted to care for her. We wanted to both care for that hypothetical puppy too! Before you became Invincible, it was always me and you. We used to do everything together, planned to do everything together, go to college together, you used to rely on me, and you still can." He looked up at Mark, resting his hand on his arm. He watched a hundred thoughts pass through those expressive eyes before Mark hung his head with a breath.
"Are you comparing my baby brother to a puppy or a house plant?" Mark mumbled, a weak distraction, William knew. He frowned and poked him in the shoulder causing him to sigh.
"I know, William, I know. I'm sorry I haven't been around much… I know you'd help me, and I know I can rely on you but I don't want to burden you…" Mark looked down at the baby in his arms.
"Burden me? Mark, when I try to talk to you about hot guys and you roll your eyes, that's burdening me. But you leaning on me when you need to? Never." William responded, voice warm with ardor.
"I don't want you to give up college for this," Mark whispered. For me went unsaid.
William sighed, leaning back on his arms. He didn't want to drop out of college, and he knew Mark didn't either. So they circled back to the how, how are they going to do this? Babies need a lot of attention, even if this particular baby grew up quickly.
"Okay, well, plenty of stupid freshman have babies in college," William began, but Mark let out a dry laugh.
"What, like family housing? Will, he's purple! We can't let anyone here see him, or they'll know hes an alien and they'll wonder why I have an alien baby, and they could find out I'm an alien and then-" Mark was talking himself into a spiral.
"Hey, hey, okay, okay, no family housing." William sighed. Mark was right, that wouldn't work…
"We could just… not tell them?" William looked over at Mark, as his brows furrowed. Ever since becoming Invincible, Mark was developing a little crinkle between his eyebrows.
"William, how would we even pull that off? We both have classes, and what about the dorm checks? I'm pretty sure it'll be hard to hide him." Mark shifted the sleeping baby in his arms, luckily not disturbing him in the process.
"Well, we could take turns? Like shifts! And when it's time for dorm checks you could just fly him over to your Moms! Or maybe we could ask Amber or Eve to help us too, you know they would. I don't know Mark, but if you really don't want your Mom or Cecil to be looking after him then we gotta figure something out."
Mark bit his lip and looked down at his brother. He gently pulled the wrap down just a bit, his finger caressing his small chin. The baby shifted and a small, fat hand came up to push Mark away. Mark smiled softly at the act as the baby ended up wrapping his hand around Mark's finger.
"…Okay. Let's try." Mark looked back over at William with tired eyes. William gave him a confident smile.
"Hell yeah!"
"Don't sound too excited, this is going to be really hard, you know." Mark pointed out, but William waved it away as he got up.
"I know, I know! But a positive attitude never hurt anyone!" William made his way over to his own bed, plopping down onto it. Mark rolled his eyes but smiled at William anyways.
Mark took a deep breath, holding the baby close to his chest. William had to go to class and Mark decided to rip the band-aid off. He needed to tell his mom.
Somehow, the idea of telling his mom about everything that happened on Thraxa was more anxiety inducing than when he was fighting off those Viltrumites. Baby stretched and shuffled in his arms, not thrilled to have been waken from his nap by the flight there. God he needed a name.
He opened the sliding door and set Baby down, before he peeked around the corner where his mom was at her wine cupboard.
"Hey Mom," Mark said awkwardly.
She turned around and let out a gasp. "Mark!" She quickly made her way over to her son, wrapping her arms around him. Mark hugged back as she let out a relieved sigh.
"Jesus Mark, it's been two months! I try not to worry but even Cecil's been frantic and—" She was cut off by the baby. He let out a soft noise and she whipped around to see him standing there. Her eye's widened and she quickly made her way over to him, gently pushing Mark away in the process.
"Who is that!?" She crouched down in front of Baby, and Mark let out a deep sigh.
"Um okay, so we definitely need to talk." He shuffled awkwardly to the table. Debbie stared at the baby as it waddled around, exploring her kitchen before looking back at Mark.
"That… is my half… brother?" Mark said, his hands tapping on the table nervously as his mom let out a sharp noise. She put her face in her hands, and for a moment Mark thought she was going to cry. Fuck, maybe this was a mistake.
Debbie took a deep breath before she calmly made her way to her wine cabinet again, pulling out a glass and popping open a new bottle. Mark watched as she poured a glass before she made her way back to the table, bottle in hand. She sat down and took a sip.
"Explain." Was all she said. Mark pursed his lips, he couldn't tell what she was feeling. His mother was an expressive woman generally, but like this she was stone. She got this way when he was a kid and was disciplining him, or angry at him or his father… So it wasn't a great sign. But he listened.
"Okay… um, so I did go to that other planet, Thraxa, and it was in danger- but it wasn't from meteorites. Dad— he's alive, and he was there! He was like, their king? Anyways, he sent Nuolzot to bring me to the planet so I could help him defend that planet from Viltrumite's." Mark began to explain, rubbing his fingers over one of his knuckles.
"He… He was with another woman, a Thraxan. Her name is Andressa, and she's his mother," He looked over at Baby, who continued his exploring around the space.
"Anyways, Viltrumite's did come, and we had to fight them… it… it was kinda scary. They were so strong, Mom. I did my best, but so many Thraxan's died…They were able to rebuild afterwards, though. They age faster, their lifespan is only one earth year… Andressa asked me to take him with me so that he'd be around family that wouldn't completely out live him… So… here we are…" Mark awkwardly trailed off.
Debbie stared, the glass held to her lips. "I— I don't even have the words!" She set it down on the table, taking a deep breath.
"This morning I didn't even know if Nolan was alive, I- I didn't even know if I wanted him to be alive!And now he's left another planet in ruins and his- his kid is sitting in my kitchen!" She waved her hand as she spoke, looking over at Baby as he played with a baseball glove.
"The Viltrumite's took him, Mom… He didn't have a choice," Mark frowned, looking over at his mom.
"참나… The hell he didn't! He didn't have to go to that planet—" Debbie leaned back in her chair, waving her arm around in frustration. "—He certainly didn't have to find a new partner and have a new baby!" Mark looked down, hearing the way his mom's voice was getting tight near the end.
Mark looked away, his brow's furrowed. Debbie let out a deep huff, leaning forward onto the table and putting her head in her hands.
"He's never off the hook for the lives he destroys, he just leaves it for everyone else to clean up. Again and again and-"
"I know, I know…" Mark mumbled, leaning forward on the table, folding his hands together. His mom looked so stressed, Mark hated it.
"What are we supposed to do? Children that age needs constant care, I- He doesn't even have a name!" Debbie threw her ups up. Mark winced. Time for the real conversation…
"Well… He ages fast, he wont stay a toddler forever… I… I've decided to take care of him." He cleared his throat as Debbie blinked.
"Take care— Mark you are not dropping out of college, absolutely not! What about Cecil?" Debbie frowned, but Mark shook his head.
"No, no not Cecil. Besides, he's purple! I can't give him to a stranger and I don't want to leave college— I'm not leaving college I just…" Mark closed his eyes, shaking his head. "You're right about Dad leaving his problems for other people to fix…" He leaned back in his chair with a grimace. He rubbed his face with his hands, pushing his hair back before looking back over at Debbie.
"But he's my brother, and I can't just abandon him." He leaned forward and put his face into his crossed arms. Debbie was quiet before she ran her fingers through his hair.
"Well.. You must get it from my side of the family…" She tried to joke. At the sound of a Baby making soft, whining noises Mark shot up.
He made his way over to the baby, scooping him up into his arms and gently bouncing him up and down. He smiled softly at his small purple face as his distress was soothed.
He took a deep breath and looked over at his mom. "I'm not quitting college… I- we- Me and William are going to try and take care of him, y'know… Together."
"What? Mark, no, I'll take some days off of work and look after him for a few days." She moved closer but Mark shook his head.
"No. No, mom I won't do that to you. He is my responsibility! You just got back to work, you're so stressed and it's not fair to ask you to do this." Mark held Baby close to his chest. Debbie's face pinched up as she shook her head.
"You can't take care of a baby in college, Mark! How would you even do that?" She looked up at him, eyes full of worry and sadness. Mark had to look away.
"William's going to help out… I-… Mom I know it's going to be hard, but I really need you to support my decision. I…" He sat down at the table again, rocking Baby softly.
"I feel… so much guilt." He mumbled, his stomach turning. He used to tell his mom everything, and yet the thought of telling her his feelings now was making him ill.
"I know it's not my fault… Like, realistically… but all I do is feel guilty for everything. I feel like all of Dad's problems became mine, Earth is now mine to protect, the weight of his crimes are projected onto me by others and I know I can't do anything. Dad makes me angry…" His brows furrowed as he tried to find his words. "He make's me so angry and sick, and I miss him so much and seeing him again was the worst but It was also a relief…" he sighed, looking down at Baby.
"I'm not taking care of him for Dad's sake… I'm doing it for Andressa, for him," he brushed his fingers through his silky baby hair. "Because Dad is probably getting executed and Andressa will die of old age in the coming months and I'm all he has. Andressa looked at me, a total stranger to her, and trusted me with her child! This child is my baby brother, and I love him so much… I didn't expect to, I hated him when I first saw him… But I can't now. He's so small, so innocent. he needs me, Mom." He looked up at his mom, pressure building up in his tear ducts.
She bit her lip, her eyes watery. She walked over to Mark and hugged his head to her chest. Mark closed his eyes and inhaled the comforting scent of her perfume.
"I see this is very important to you, Mark… I've always treasured your big heart. Your kindness and empathy is everything a mother could ask for in a son. It's beautiful that you want to care for him, I just… I worry for you. You're only eighteen, a freshman in college, raising a baby is so difficult and mentally taxing and I worry that you'll be too overwhelmed." She spoke softly, drawing patterns into his scalp like she used to when he was a kid.
"I know, Mom…" He mumbled into her skin. "Will you support me, though?" He asked softly, his voice pitched with a bit of fear.
Debbie let out a choked noise, and took a shaky deep breath. She pulled back and looked at her son. Her son, her precious baby boy, holding another baby in his lap with a gentleness that hurt her heart. Mark was so gentle, always had been. Of course he'd want to care for his brother, it was the kind of man he was. Debbie was as proud as she was worried. She traced his cheek, biting her lip.
"…I'll always be worried about you. I don't want you to regret anything… But, if you're sure, and you're willing to deal with the risks and the consequences… I'll support you through this. I'll always support you." She kissed his forehead as Mark let out a wet sigh of relief.
"…Could you… Would you still be willing to babysit? When there are dorm checks, or me and William can't look out for him? We're going to ask Eve and Amber too but— I do want you in his life." Mark looked up at her with hopeful eyes. Debbie sighed and looked down at the baby.
"Well, he is cute… hmm… I suppose I can." She smiled softly, it wasn't a hard decision. She didn't like that Mark was doing this, but she would support him and the small thing that had just enough features that looked like Mark that Debbie's heart melted.
Mark smiled and wrapped his arm around her, the baby sandwiched between them. Mark felt a weight being lifted from his chest as the baby squealed with joy.
Mark entered through the window again, letting out a deep sigh. He needed a long, long nap. He set down on the bed and grabbed the pouch he brought with him full of the last remaining baby food given to him by the Thraxan's before he left.
Baby squirmed and Mark smiled as he puled out the small jar of whatever it was. He hadn't asked, but Baby seemed to like it. As he fed him, the door opened and William came back in with a groan. He tossed his bag full of books by his bed and face planted onto his mattress.
William turned his face to Mark's side of the room and sat up. "Mark! You're back!" He stretched and moved over to them.
"And look who's hungry!" William laughed as he watched Baby eat. His cute chubby cheeks gobbling up the sludge. It was kind of gross, but Baby was cute enough that it didn't matter.
"Yeah… He look's like an ube" Mark snickered.
"A what?"
"It's a type of sweet potato. It's a purple yam, y'know?" Mark finished feeding him the food and wiped off his purple face.
"Awe, he is a little sweet potato, isn't he?" William hummed as Mark tossed a cloth over his shoulder to burp.
"Mom agreed to babysit when we need her too, now we just need to ask Eve and… Oh shit Amber!" Mark gasped. He felt like shit, how could he completely forget to check in with his girlfriend??Once Baby was burped he set him down on the bed. He had a clean diaper, he'd been fed, he looked over at William and bit his lip.
"Okay, William can you look after him as I go tell Amber about all this?" He asked, and William scoffed. He scooped Baby up into his arms causing him to giggle.
"Go, I got this. Oh, and don't forget, you also need to see the dean."
"Fuck… okay, okay I got this." Mark rubbed his face and let out a sigh.
"Thank you William, you're the best— Oh and put all my posters back up! I'll be back later, bye!" He said as he made his way out the door.
He practiced what he wanted to say to Amber, how he was even going to begin explaining everything that happened, but he didn't get far when he was startled by Cecil appearing directly in front of him. Mark stumbled back, and Cecil crossed his arms.
"So, When were you planning on telling me you were back?" His face was hard to read, but the faint twitch in his eyebrow gave mark a suspicion.
"Well… It's not like you didn't already know." Mark's lips curled into a faint grimace.
"I ordered you not to go, you were gone for two months and now you don't even check in?" Cecil was doing it again, talking to Mark in that tone that made Mark's skin crawl. Not with fear, but just a discomfort, of guilt.
"I had people I needed to see first." Mark took a step forward, refusing to back down.
"We had a deal, Mark, I put you in the field and you'd follow orders, you don't get to pick and choose when that applies." Cecil's eye's narrowed.
"I saved millions of lives out there, Cecil! And looks like everything here was just fine."
"yeah. things were just peachy." Cecil leaned in a bit, his eyes narrowing. Mark shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. Cecil had an amazing gift of making super powered individuals queasy with just a look.
"The Guardians almost died saving the planet while you were off gallivanting with space bugs." Cecil continued, his tone getting sharper.
Mark felt his lips twitch and he fought off a sneer. Space bugs? Mark felt similarly when he first arrived on Thraxa, but the species were beautiful. They were so much more than just space bugs, they were people with a rich culture and history, not to mention his precious baby brother was half thraxan. Being a Viltrumite was nothing to brag about, but he can't wait to tell Baby all about his time on Thraxa.
"What I did out there, what I found was important!" Mark waved his arm for emphases, but froze when Cecil gave him a blank, disapproving stare. Ah, it all made sense now.
"You already know, don't you." Mark stated, it wasn't a question. There was a tense few seconds of silence before Cecil let out a deep sigh and shifted, putting his hands in his pockets.
"We keep an eye on Debbie for her protection. Passive monitoring, mostly. But certain key words trigger a closer listen."
Mark couldn't hold his scoff, his hands balled into fists. "Unbelievable. You're angry about me not reporting in? I don't need to! You got cameras in my Mom's house!"
Cecil looked almost taken aback, but Mark knew better. this was a look of condescension, not shock. "It's not cameras, we would never do that."
"Well, since you already know everything, I'll go see my girlfriend like I planned." Mark rolled his eyes and made his way past Cecil.
"Fine by me," Cecil said as Mark began to walk away. "I could always set up a team to pick up Nolan's kid." That made Mark stop in his tracks with a gasp.
"You can't." Mark said in a small voice. No, he couldn't lose his brother. He wouldn't let that happen.
"What are yo going to do? Actually go through with this ridiculous plan of raising him here? He's an alien! We're more qualified to take care of him."
Mark made his way back over to Cecil, his heart pounding. How dare he. "He's my brother not a science experiment! Call your people off." He got in Cecil's face.
"They're already on their way."
"What, you're just going to raid our college dorm room? Call them off! Now." Mark's voice was firm, angry. His fists clenched right. They stared for a moment before Mark shrunk back just a bit. "I'll check in tomorrow…"
Cecil narrowed his eyes before letting out a scoff and backing up. "Fine, I'm sure your teen roommate is excited to change your alien brothers diapers. Oh, and your mom, I'm sure shes happy to babysit her ex-husbands new kid." Cecil hummed before he teleported away.
Mark glared at the spot where Cecil had once stood before turning and making his way to Amber's dorm.
Mark made his way back to he and William's dorm, a deep frown on his face. Amber was okay helping them look after Baby, but he couldn't help but add another layer of guilt to himself at how neglected she had been feeling recently. He should've been there to support her! He felt like shit that she'd agreed to help him care for his brother when he couldn't even be there to help her through her grandfathers death. Some boyfriend he was.
He took a deep breath before opening his door, and even as guilty as he felt he couldn't fight off the smile when he saw William and Baby together. They were on William's bed, William seemed to be working on school work on his laptop. on his chest was his brother, seemingly asleep. It was a cute sight.
"Someone's comfy," Mark snickered as he made his way over to them. William's attention turned to mark and gave him a crooked smile and a huff like laugh.
"Yeah, he's clingy. he's definitely your brother." William teased, causing Mark to let out a gasp.
"I am not clingy!" Mark argued as he sat on the edge of the bed to lean over William and Baby.
"You so are. When we were kids your mom would call us each others 'leashes' because we were always holding hands everywhere." William grinned up at Mark, who huffed.
Mark knew he wasn't wrong. As kids, they were attached at the hip, even up until recently. Mark ignored the simmering guilt coming back at how little he and William had been hanging out recently to focus on the now. Where he's apparently… raising a baby with his best friend?
"Holy shit," Mark mumbled, causing William to raise an eyebrow.
"Sorry it just like, fully sunk in. Like, I've told Mom, Cecil and Amber—" Mark ignored William's surprised squawk at Cecil's name and continued on, "—But I think it just now hit me that we're about to raise a baby together."
"Whoa, yeah it definitely sounds more…. serious put that way?" William laughed as quietly as he could, trying not to disturb Baby on his chest. He looked back up at Mark who was still leaning over the two of them.
"don't worry about it though, Mark. We got this," William smiled. Mark smiled too, seeing the way William's right cheek dimpled.
"You sure?" Mark asked, just one more time to give William an out. William rolled his eyes with a scoff.
"I'm sure, Mark. It'll be alright, because we're doing it together. We're gonna raise the hell out of this kid!" Mark couldn't hold back the laugh that bubbled up. What a William way of comforting him. It was perfect.
"Yeah, we can do this." Mark murmured.
And the satisfied, confident grin William gave him paired with the calm, peaceful baby at his chest confirmed it to Mark that yes, they could do this.