marco waking up and realizing he's not at his hotel room or even vale's ranch, hes laying on a bed that's unfamiliar to him. then he turns around just to be frightened by the familiar naked body sleeping beside him. it can't be.
when the other guy turns around in his sleeps to hug marco, hairs and head's on bez's naked chest. he's even more shocked. its marc. as in marc marquez. the marc marquez. he wanted to rush to get all of his stuff and run away. but he cant anyways.
this is all bcs of that damn stupid drinks and late partying, yeah its definitely not because of the suppressed crush he has been keeping from the other rider. or even all of his friends. yeah its just the alcohol or the weed (he cant remember), not because of marc and his lovely smile that makes marco wants to do everything he said. yeah.
this is my first fic ive posted, so please give me feedback! Its also on ao3 if you want to read it there!
title is referencing Marquee Moon by Television
Bez, on all accounts, had a decent race. What he considered a “decent” race had previously been a “Bad” race, capital B. He has been struggling with the change from a top-five and highly competitive bike to a mid-field bike that has more issues than solutions. He tries to tell them what's wrong, what he's feeling. He stays longer in the meetings after races to learn the data, where he went wrong, why he isn't fast enough, and it's been piling on him.
He's been so unbelievably stressed out from trying to make the bike better he has hardly been aware of anything else. He still goes to the ranch in his free time, and he still hangs out with Pecco or Luca or Franky or whoever after a particularly bad race, but he just can't get his mind off the bike.
Maybe that's why he's so nervous to see if Pecco is willing to cheer him up. The race was incredibly boring and he only gained one position the whole race, finishing in an unimpressive tenth. Still, regardless of his nerves that feel like they're going to buzz right out of his skin, he knocks on the door of Peccos motorhome.
Bez waits for a minute. Maybe Pecco didn't hear? Bez’s heart thuds in his ears and he knocks again, harder and faster than he did at first. Still no answer. Bez can now feel sweat dripping down his neck, he feels like ice has been dumped into his veins and a fire was lit at his feet to counteract it.
He thinks for a second, maybe he's not here. Maybe he's out. Yeah. He's probably not back yet. So Bez stiffly spins himself around climbs down the stairs as fast as possible and walks swiftly to the side of the motorhome to get by, but he pauses just in the middle and looks up at the window to see if the lights are on inside.
Huh, they are.
Bez feels like he's going to pass out or vibrate out of his skin. Maybe he will do both. He sits down under the window for a second so that he can catch his breath when he starts to feel it. The tingly sensation that appears every time he needs to shift. Fuck. he doesn't want to shift outside, but Pecco isn't opening his door.
His breath quickens, panicked. The tingling spread from where it started in his chest and rapidly moved out towards his arms and to his fingers, as well as down his legs into his toes. His limbs feel incredibly heavy and his head is now feeling tingly and full of cotton when the switch happens.
In the blink of an eye, the once-human Bez now sits, panting. His now considerably smaller form sits in the middle of the walkway, a small and lean raccoon with a piercing in its ear.
Bez, now a raccoon sighs, grabs what he can of his wallet and phone, and drags them towards the stairs of Peccos motorhome. Even if Pecco doesn't want to see him he will at least house his raccoon form for a while until Bez is feeling good enough to shift back.
Dropping his things on the doorstep Bez stands up on his hind legs and reaches for the door handle, pulling down with all his might, and pushing the door open. To Bez’s surprise, the door opens with ease. Maybe Pecco oiled the hinges. Letting go of the door Bez leans down grabs his things and drags them in the door before dropping them again so that he can push the door shut. Or just closed enough that it looks shut.
Bez decides that he can leave the phone and wallet on the floor for now, and he can pick them up later when he needs to shift back. Walking into the living area he looks around and finds that it's both cleaner and dirtier than what Peccos motorhome looks like normally.
There is a bowl of something on the counter, from what Bez can tell, it smells like a bowl of cereal, but since its smell isn't too strong he assumes it's been eaten and left behind. Confused he keeps walking to the couch, where there's a pile of blankets and hoodies and something else he can't figure out.
Sniffing the air a bit doesn't help. It's a smell that he can't discern. A new smell. Which is odd considering he, as a raccoon, has smelt most things there are to smell. Climbing up the couch and onto the table, which he knows he's not supposed to do but does it anyways to annoy Pecco.
looking down at whatever is in this pile of comfort and is shocked when he sees a pair of wide green eyes staring up at him in the shape of a cat. This causes a very loud and scary chain of events.
The cat jumps up onto the floor and starts hissing, tail and fur standing on point. Bez, still on the table, hisses back. And just like how Bez shifted, in the blink of an eye The cat that was once on the floor now stands at a wide eyes and angry Alex Marquez. Bez pauses his hissing briefly as Alex scruffs him and tosses him to the floor, where he accidentally shifts back into human form.
Alex stutters, mouth gaping and moving like a drowning fish, and Bez makes a scramble for it. Trying to stand up as fast as he can and bolt for the door without being caught by Alex, in which he only partially succeeds to his distress.
In his fear, Bez had tripped over his own feet and hit the ground hard, laying halfway in the entranceway and halfway in the living space of the home. His prone and groaning form seemed to snap Alex into action. He took two quick steps over to the side of Bez and asked “Are you ok?” in a deadpan tone.
With Bez’s face still facing down, he nods and breathes in a shuddering breath. He cannot break down now in front of his sorta kinda enemy. There is silence for a second as Bez tries to steady his breathing when Alex asks the question Bez dreaded the most.
“Why are you in Marc's motorhome?”
Fuck. That's right. Marc is teammates with Pecco, of course. his motorhome would be right next to Marcs. Bez wants to bash his head into the ground and curl up in a ball to never be seen again. With a muffled and wavering voice, he responds “I was, eh, looking for Pecco?”
“Hm.”
This is where Bez dies, at the hands of Alex Marquez. he can hear a little voice in his head that sounds suspiciously like Vale saying “I told you those Marquezes are evil.”
He feels like he's counting the seconds until Alex cracks down an axe or starts torturing him for information. Maybe this is the payback to Vale for whatever happened between Marc and him, Bez doesn't know what happened but from what Vale had told him and the energy in the room when Marc is mentioned something bad must have gone down between the two.
He hears Alex move, maybe to grab a knife, but he feels a hand tap his shoulder a few times before Alex speaks up, “Can you sit up?”
Bez holds his breath for a second before taking a breath, gathering all his courage, and pushing himself upright so that he's sitting on the floor with Alex squatting in front of him. He tries to keep up his composure, controlled breaths, tapping a random rhythm on his knee, clenching and unclenching his jaw, anything to keep up this facade.
Alex studies him during this time, looking Bez in the eyes, occasionally flickering to his hands, observing Bez like a hunter preparing a strike on its prey. Alex blinks and some complicated emotions flick over his face far too fast for Bez to recognize.
Alex's mouth purses, like he is choosing his words carefully, “Are you…” he kisses his teeth, looks away briefly then looks Bez in the eyes again, “Are you ok?”
That was the last question Bez was expecting. maybe “Are you a shapeshifter” or “Are you lying” or anything other than “Are you ok.” He stares blankly at Alex for a second, eyes wide and burning while his lip wobbles dangerously trying to keep his emotions inside. though, Bez has never been the best at holding in his emotions.
It is then that Bez snaps, large hot tears finally break loose after he blinks and a choked-out noise is ripped out of his throat. He brings his hands up to his face either to wipe away the tears that are falling or to hide the ugly face he must be pulling.
After fruitlessly trying to wipe away the tears he can see the blurry form of Alex move, maybe to leave him sobbing on the floor or to grab a tissue, but instead, he shifts forward and softly lays his hands on Bez’s shoulder. Slowly and hardly with any power he pulls Bez's shoulders forward towards his body.
Then the hands shift. the right hand slowly moves its way to the base of Bez's neck while the other slides down to the spine, right between Bez's shoulder blades, and squeezes. Squeezes his neck softly and holds his back like his mother would, which probably isn't the connection Bez should make between Alex and his Mom, but the comfort is undeniable.
This soft but strong hold only shatters Bez further. He shoves his face into the crook of Alex's neck and shoulder and wraps his arms around Alex's torso squeezing an almost painful amount.
Bez is full-on sobbing, he's a blubbering mess occasionally throwing out a wobbly “Sorry” before it's shushed by Alex. Bez, rather than calming down keeps working himself up further and further, heaving and wheezing out sobs and apologys. He can hear Alex taking a couple of deep breaths before he hears him murmur “Deep breaths.” which Bez tries to do as best he can.
He pulls in a long, shuttering breath, before letting out a cacophony of sobs, “I can't!” he wails.
Alex shushes his again, “Shhh it's ok, just follow my breathing, ok?”
it feels like hours of breathing and tapered-off sobs before Bez is breathing calmer, but still stuttered breaths. After another deep breath, Alex pulled back a little bit to get a look at Bez before asking “Do you want to shift? We can move this to a more comfortable place, ‘cause I don't know about you, but my knees are starting to hurt.”
This startles an ugly snort out of Bez and he gurgles out a week and wet little “yeah.” Before Alex knows it his lap is full of raccoon that are clinging to his shirt. He stands, groaning at the lingering pain of being on his knees for a long period, and makes his way over to the couch where Alex grabs the blankets and hoodies with his unoccupied hand. The other supports the back of the now raccoon Bez on his chest.
Swiftly Alex makes his way into the Bedroom where he internally apologizes to Marc, placing Bez in the center of the bed. Alex shuffles the bedspread around as Bez curls up chittering sadly at having been let go.
Alex sets down the blankets and hoodies that were in his offhand around Bez like a little barrier to prevent him or Alex himself from rolling off the bed. Only after the circle barrier is set up does Alex relax a bit, shifting into his Cat form and jumping up onto the bed to join Bez in the Comfort Circle he has since dubbed it in his brain.
After he climbs the walls and enters the circle Alex trills at Bez to show him that he's there now. Bez chitters back quietly all while reaching for Alex's now smaller form. Flopping down on the wall and rolling onto his side, Alex raises a paw and trills again, signaling for Bez to come to him. and that is exactly what Bez does.
He throws himself at Alex's cat body and starts petting and grooming the fur on his back and sides. This goes on for a little while before Bez settles down and he shuffles himself to lay alongside Alex, before going to sleep.
Bez however doesn't sleep for long, waking up after 20 minutes and resuming his grooming on Alex. Having only just started picking and petting Alex, Bez is in the zone until he starts to get an itch.
Specifically that itchy feeling that happens he gets when he's being watched, so he looks up, hoping to quell the itch only to see him.
The man he has been trained to hate and destroy.
The only person who can cause him to crash at just a glance.
