Seducing Marshall
Zombie Days ficlet // Rated for boy!crushing
[for Sam, because I can has zombies, again.]
When he thinks of it, he imagines Marshall seducing him.
He’s not experienced, himself, that is. He has had his hands on girl’s bodies before, at school dances, arms clumsily circling, while hands rest on backs, and he has fallen asleep next to Dylan more times that he can count on fingers and toes and cracks in the earth. Besides, Dylan doesn’t count.
His experience with boys totals a big fat zero. But, he knows that to be with another boy is what he wants. And, he thinks it just might be easier because he, himself, is a boy, and he knows what he likes, and it can’t be all that different from what other boys like. But, it doesn’t comfort him enough because Marshall is who he wants, not just any boy: Marshall, Captain of the Lacrosse Team, Popular, Beautiful, Straight, Marshall. He has little idea what Marshall wants, but he is sure it is not him.
Dylan, on numerous occasions, has told him that he should try his luck and declare his feelings, but he is sure he will take this secret to the grave. He isn’t afraid of Dylan telling anyone and hasn’t exacted any promises from her; he knows she knows how much it means to him to keep the silence, and that is enough between two best friends.
There are other obstacles that loom over a tryst with Mr. Popular. They are not friends, and what with the army of friends, teammates, and blonde girlfriend, that surround Marshall on a daily basis, Brian finds that there is little opportunity for him to get a chance to single out Marshall and declare friendship.
But, that was before the Invasion of Zombies. Now Brian is sure that there are far better things to be thinking about than planning out how to talk to Marshall Whelan. But at night, safe away from the undead, just before he falls asleep, he dreams of finding Marshall and them running away to Mexico together.
So, Marshall is not going to seduce him. He accepts that, though that hasn’t stopped him from denying his fantasies. What with Marshall never seducing him, there seems only one alternative; that is that he will have to seduce Marshall. It seems the most logical situation, after all. And, because of it, Brian has spent many a time in front of his mirror perfecting a pout into something irresistible in hopes that it proves incentive enough for Marshall to fall under his spell.
But he hasn’t really got anything like that in his arsenal, and he worries that his attempt at being the seducer will make him look like a bigger fool than he already feels. Brian feels at a loss with no form of reference; he has no one to practice it on. Even if he did, he wouldn’t because he doesn’t want anyone else, he wants Marshall. Which brings him back to the fact that if he has any shot at love, he is going to have to seduce Marshall. Only he is not so sure of himself, and just wishes he could be seduceable.
So, while Dylan makes plans on how to escape the basement they’ve been in since Zombies attacked, Brian makes plans concerning the kidnap, or really the rescue, of Marshall Whelan.
One day, playing chess with Dylan, he has figured it out.
He has a plan. A pretty good plan, if he says so himself. One without the possibilities of failure, at least on his end. The part he’s worried about is Marshall’s reaction. But living in the dark, separated from his family and his normal life, with the threat of total annihilation, has given him some boldness.
He tells Dylan his plan, then, and she laughs. She tells him it is perfect, and it is about time that he showed his colors or something a lot like that with more variegated language.
Two days later, Dylan and Brian are in his father’s Thunderbird spiriting down the highway. They are on their way to Sarasota Springs, with a hope and a prayer that someone will know what the hell is going on, and why the undead have taken over their little town. Brian is more a little worried about Marshall. He didn’t get a chance to enact his great plan of rescue. He has no idea if Marshall is even safe or alive. The thought of him dead has Brian immediately derailing that thought process and turning back to his favorite past time: the search and rescue and eventual seduction of Marshall Whelan.
If he were a girl, or really if he were Dylan, it wouldn’t be so hard. If he were a girl, he could give a look, or a flick of the hair, or a giggle, or even a compliment so show interest. But because Brian is indeed a male, he’s figured that he is going to have to spell it out pretty plainly, especially being that Marshall is the spitting image of the straight male. An image comes to his mind then, of him sticking his tongue down Marshall’s throat, but he knows he will probably never be that bold.
Brian figures that when he gets his chance to approach Marshall, he will just have to put the thought in Marshall’s head that he is interested, and, then, skirt the line of perfectly willing without falling over into the blatantly desperate.
He almost asked Dylan for advice on snaring Marshall but he has seen her strut her stuff, and her course of action is far too wild and shameless; Brian is sure that her style of seduction is not for him.
Now, he just has to wait and bide his time for the perfect chance.
Brian has no idea what happened to his plan, but it has deserted him in the face of funny, happy, hope. Marshall is alive. That alone thrills him. Not to mention that Brian has the means and opportunity to implement rescue operations that in his fantasies always lead to them sucking face thrills him as well.
They have let Marshall out of the cage he was being quarantined in, and even though he is covered in mud Brian thinks he has never seen anyone so handsome.
For a minute or so, Brian vacillates, shifting his weight from one foot to another. Finally, his body moves forward, and before he knows what he wants to say, his mouth speaks: “Hey, you.”
He is so close to Marshall now, closer than he has ever been to him. And, he knows now what he is going to do. He waits a moment for Marshall to refuse the close vicinity of their bodies. Neither of them move, and Marshall speaks at last: “I never…” Brian has a feeling that all his crushing is not in vain.
Brian grins, hoping that his expression is a sign that he comes in peace. Brian reaches up, bending a hand around the curve of Marshall’s neck, and presses his lips home.
Fin.
But yeah, because the point of the story is Brian's sort of disregard for 
