𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 | 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 5

"You're doing a great job Marcus. You just need to remember, you matter too. You can be selfish sometimes, it's okay." He looked at you for a moment, you could see how broken he felt. His eyes were so comforting usually but in that moment, you could only see how much pain they've really been hiding. He looked down when he saw your face turn into one of worry. 

"How much do us Enforcers fuck up your lives in the Undercity?" He asked, a bit more aggressively than you expected.

"What?" You tilted your head, you were caught off guard by the question. He had never seemed to care about the lives of people in the undercity, you truly thought he just stereotyped them, not even thinking about their lives for a second.

"I'm trying to make the world a better place but one way or another, I'm fucking someone over. I see it as good to arrest burglars, but is it really good? People in the undercity are struggling and it's because of people like me. But I don't know how to stop that." His voice showed how he was mad at himself for not being able to fix a whole system that had oppressed people for years. It amazed you how he could blame it on himself.

"I don't think you can Marcus. You can't help both sides. There are truly horrible criminals in the undercity. Which is a lot of the undercity if I'm being honest. There are good ones too, who just want food. It's hard to tell which type." You told him. 

His voice calmed, "That's what she would say. I would never believe her because she's speaking from a place of privilege. She never stepped foot in the undercity." 

"Well now you know. I'm speaking from a place of growing up in the lower levels so I know what I'm saying."

He gave you a soft smile. He talked for hours about his life with his girlfriend and how her death affected him. You understood and talked him through the problems, empathizing with him. He talked about both the good moments and the bad. He talked about why he was the way he was, how he just wished people would understand he's not so so bad. By the end of your talk, it had gotten dark outside. Marcus wiped the tears off his face before looking right at you. "Thank you. This... has helped. Really. I think this is the first time I've really processed her death and how it's affected me."

"Of course." You looked at the sky. The only light you could see was the stars in the sky, everything else was dark. That was your message that it was time to go home. "Well I guess we should go. It's late." You stood up.

Marcus also stood up. "Yeah." He agreed. "So tomorrow, you need to talk about your problems. Where are we going?"

You were taken aback he wanted to really hear about your shit. "My apartment I guess."

"Not to a spot that relates to your problems?" He asked, a bit offended he had to but you didn't. He felt as though you were being a but of a hypocrite, not opening up but pushing him to. 

"I'm not ready to take a topsider to the Undercity." You laughed at the thought. "Maybe some other time."

He settled and you two agreed to meet at your apartment the next day. For some reason, you were unsure if he would actually care enough to show up. Maybe it was your anxiety but you couldn't help but think he would just not show up.

── ❖ ── ✦ ── ❖ ──

You were proven wrong when on the exact time you and Marcus said to meet, he showed up at your apartment. You opened the door as soon as you heard the man knock. "You actually showed up."