Work Text
“What do you want for Christmas?”They asked it every year on December 15th; Theo liked to wait for it and imagine all the sassy answers he could give.As a 12 year old, he had requested a “Lego airport”. (He was presented with a wooden plane that looked like it had belonged to one of the Dread Doctors once.)As a 13 year old, he wished for a dog. (They gave him a cat instead that got hit by a car three days later.)As a 14 year old, he told them he'd enjoy a day without them torturing anybody. (They didn't grant him that but they played Christmas music while creating another chimera.)As a 15 year old, he ignored the question. (They refused to celebrate Christmas that year and didn't show up on a frequency the human eye could process.)As a 16 year old, he yelled at them to shut up. (They told him he was a failure, he told them they were senile old idiots.)As a 17 year old, he celebrated alone. He wondered if this would feel less bad if he knew what to do on Christmas. It felt wrong, sitting alone in the fake house with a fake identity and fake parents, while every Christmas he could remember had been in a lab surrounded by the blurry doctors and sarcastic comments.Now, Theo was 18, it was the second Christmas without the Dread Doctors and it felt even lonelier than the first one.He sneaked out in the morning, hands wrapped around the first present he had ever gotten from them. It had snowed the other day, that's why his fingers felt like they were dying approximately two minutes after leaving the house. The town looked like everybody in it had decided to die spontaneously.Theo wandered through empty streets and enjoyed creating the first footprints in the snow. He didn't notice how cold he was, until he reached the lab. His whole body was shaking while he took out the key he hid in his jacket and tried to unlock the doors. It took him three attempts but once he finally did it, he stumbled into the dark and closed the door behind him.He could still see his breath in the air; the shaking didn't stop.Theo slapped the wall four times before finding the light switch. Shaking and, most importantly, feeling incredibly nostalgic, he stared down the hallway. The pipes on the walls and the flickering lights felt like home.Still, bad memories found their way to his brain. He inhaled sharply as the pain of the years started burning up in his chest. Theo had hated being here but he had loved it too - Stockholm syndrome much? Maybe. Mostly, he had liked the feeling that three mighty beings like the Dread Doctors didn't kill him once they found out he was a mistake.“Failure”, he told himself with a smug grin.The lab was exactly how he left it. How they left it. He walked around the two empty tanks and smiled at the universe, at love and life and death.The way the doctors had disappeared was iconic.Theo had always been against sorting them into any moral alignments. The doctors didn't have any moral standards; they were scientists with social skills on the negative part of the scale. Theo wasn't better than them, but he was charismatic and manipulative (and overall good looking, which was a perk they never learnt to value).The doctors had had one job, a job they finished - and a job that ultimately killed them. Not that they had minded. Theo hadn't seen anybody less afraid of death. Maybe that was something a mortal will never understand; being this stagnant wasn't possible for Theo.He was running out of time. Soon, he would be 19 on Christmas. 20. 21. He had no interest in becoming immortal, that's what he told himself. This was far from what he was feeling deep inside. If they were still present, Theo would ask them to make him one of them.Less ugly that is.Theo placed the wooden toy next to the first tank like someone would place flowers on a grave. The doctors had no grave he could visit, he realized; it had never bothered him up to his point, maybe because not having a grave made their death less real.Standing in the lab did it. Seeing the dust on the instruments, seeing empty tanks - this was the real sign that the doctors were dead.It was not like Theo was actively missing them. His life wasn’t bad… and after accepting he actually deserved friendship and love, Theo would go even further and say that he enjoyed life.But as much as he hated Stiles and made fun of Scott; it wasn’t easy to see them having good relationships with their parents. Theo was jealous of a lot of things, it had always been the emotion he felt and hated the most.‘Jealousy killed the cat, huh?’, he thought and finally stepped back.The operation table brought back even more memories, not the nicest ones but Theo didn’t shy away from them. He walked closer, touched the metal and the now useless medical supplies. When he pulled his hand away, it was full of dust. Theo decided that he didn’t care about it. The metal was cold and unforgiving as he climbed on the table. He accidentally kicked a bunch of tools to the ground, and touched some liquid that reminded him of mercury.Wiping his hand on his shirt - damn, it had been too expensive for this - Theo leaned back.“I wish you were here”, he said, looking up to the ceiling like he did when he was 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 and 16. The operating table pressed against his shoulder blades.For a second, Theo believed he might cry.The lights flickered. He heard the familiar clicking of a body not quite in sync with reality.Theo Raeken sat up and looked right at a steampunk-aesthetic-mask wearing scientist he missed so much.“Fuck you”, he said.I'm late, the Surgeon admitted.Theo jumped from the table and leaped forward, but stopped, only centimeters in front of the Surgeon. He didn’t dare to touch him, none of them genuinely enjoyed this, but he wanted to make sure it really was him.Theo?, the doctor asked.Theo noticed that he was fidgeting, that his blueish-greenish-greyish eyes teared up and that he bit his lip so hard it started bleeding.“How long are you waiting for me?”The doctor tilted his head, which had been the only way he communicated on some days. Theo knew exactly how to interpret it. It was self-explanatory, at least after living with the doctors for five years.“How should I know that you wait for me to tell you what I want for Christmas?”, Theo hissed. He spoke quickly and couldn’t understand half of what he was spitting at the Surgeon. He didn’t care much.“You are terrible!”, he continued, “You left me alone, you let me die, you didn’t show up for a fucking year-”Theo Raeken.The Surgeon moved his hands (quicker than Theo was used to, he must’ve gotten a younger body - finally), changed the lenses of his glasses and did something that looked suspiciously like taking a deep breath. Theo stared at him, thrown off by this human behaviour. This was the man he was used to but it also wasn’t.Theo went silent, not scared but speechless.“So… you’re back”, he said after a few seconds. “Why?”The Surgeon turned away from him and moved through the lab. Theo could see how he stopped at the toy plane, and even though he had never seen a smile on the doctor’s lips, he imagined him smiling at it.“Why?”, Theo repeated.The Surgeon took his time. Seconds flew by, grew into minutes. Theo could hear his own heartbeat. It was painfully familiar, existing next to each other in silence.I went to hell, the doctor finally explained. His voice was a faint roar between frequencies; Theo could tell how much the sentence meant to the Surgeon, because he had experienced the same.“But you couldn’t stay dead? Same. Who pulled you out?”The doctor turned to him again. He blurred in the air, his body clicked but other than that he seemed human to Theo.I did.‘Impressive’, Theo thought but kept it to himself.“Where are the others?”The Surgeon stayed silent. Theo sighed in frustration and looked around, stopping at the tank.They found peace.The Surgeon’s mask didn’t show if he was sad about this or not. There was only the blank emptiness of the metal. Theo wasn’t ready to ask him. Until he was, which turned out to be twenty seconds later.“You didn’t?”The Surgeon gave him one of those intense glares through the glasses that felt like a hit into the stomach.For a second, everything was fine.Then, Theo heard footsteps.“Liam said I might find you in h-”Scott appeared in the doorframe. The sentence he had started vanished into air, he canceled it like an useless draft, as he screamed "Step away from him!".Theo raised his hands and smirked."C'mon, let me celebrate Christmas with my dad..."Scott's eyes glowed red.Then he activated his claws, jumped and stabbed the Surgeon.××"Scott, you idiot!", Theo yelled. His voice cracked and shattered through frequencies.Marcel sunk to the floor, blood soaking his shirt and his coat. His hands were shaking as he took off his mask. He dropped it on the ground and pressed his hands to his chest.A blurry image drew attention to him.Marcel watched his reflection on the metallic door. His brown hair and the deep blue eyes irritated him for a second; it felt like the last 300 years were forgotten. Forgiven? Marcel wasn't sure.Strong as the light on a summer day, a silhouette joined him in the reflection. There had never been a man this beautiful on earth again.Hey, Marcel whispered, I'm coming home, my love.He remembered the man he had been before everything started. He remembered the man he had fallen in love with.He remembered three years of hiding and three years of shy kisses in the dark. Loving a monster was something nobody would understand now, but what else had a gay man been in the time he had lived?Lived. He laughed at the word.I'm coming, he promised.As he turned his head, Marcel could see snowflakes dancing in front of the windows. Theo had loved the snow.Sebastien's ghost disappeared as the name expanded inside his brain.No!, he said but it was too late.Reality was harsh and cold and painful (but Marcel could tell that the pain came from Theo slapping him). Blood started pouring down his cheek, Marcel inhaled shakily and caught himself cursing."Not on Christmas, you dick", Theo said.Marcel looked up to him and smiled a little.It's fine, he said."You don't get to decide that."Marcel lifted his arm to grab Theo's but the boy already jumped to his feet and walked towards Scott. Marcel cursed in French, grabbed his cane and forced his weak body to stand up. He stopped next to the experiment he had called “evil” a lifetime ago.To his surprise, Theo didn't attack the alpha. He pointed at the door."Leave", he said. His voice shattered again. "Leave before I kill you."Scott took a last look at Theo, then he glared at Marcel.“This isn’t over”, he announced like any teenager would.Sure, Marcel commented.He waited until Scott was gone, before dropping to the floor again. His heart was racing, his breath was shaking.“You’re a doctor, you should know how to do this”, Theo muttered.Marcel closed his eyes but caught himself giving orders.Theo brought him the tools he needed and forced him to take them. Marcel didn’t open his eyes get; but he could feel his fingers responding to the instruments. This was science. Science had always been his weak spot.Hold this, Marcel said and opened his eyes to see if Theo responded to this. The boy did, blue eyes filled with panic. Marcel could remember a hundred times of Theo being afraid of him. He closed his eyes again and opened his coat. It was easier to do it blindly and by telling Theo when to give him which instrument.It took a few minutes but once it was over, Marcel was exhausted. He took a deep breath and took the mask Theo had handed him without an order. He hesitated before putting it on. Being human, being fragile, was addictive.He forced himself to open his eyes.I will survive, he informed the boy.Theo laughed and sat down next to him.“Nothing can kill an old man like you.”Marcel gave him one of his famous glares that didn’t work without the mask. A small price to pay, he thought and dropped the supernatural device.The dread doctor that wasn’t one anymore looked up to the ceiling and chuckled.To recap, I almost died again, he said."But you didn't." Theo paused. "Speaking of..."The boy pulled his phone out of the pockets of his pants (which took a few seconds, why were those tight jeans so popular?), and held it in front of their faces.“Smile!”, he said sarcastically.Why?“Just do it.”Marcel turned his head to look at the boy.No.“Ok, now you’re being a dick. Enjoy a picture without a smile, then.”As Marcel glanced at the phone again, a light flashed. He blinked and flinched.What was that? How did you do that?“Whoops, the flash was activated. Now, smile.”Marcel gave the phone a forced smile that was rewarded with a clicking noise and a satisfied hum from Theo.“Liam will love this”, the boy said as he looked at the phone screen. Marcel leaned forward and squinted his eyes.The picture was nice, he supposed. Theo smiled the sarcastic smile Marcel was used to; his own expression was unmistakably nervous.This is terrible, he said.“Because you’re in it.”One could assume you should be better at this.“One could assume you should look less like you’re 400 years old and yet…”Fuck you.“Where did you get THAT from?”, Theo asked.I wonder.Theo sighed and got up. “I need a Christmas movie, will you join me?”To his surprise, Marcel could feel himself nodding.×× Theo sat down on the couch and clicked on the DVD-icon to start the movie. He muted the TV for the opening credits, which turned out to be a good idea because the Surgeon looked at him and opened his mouth. His blurry voice was melancholic.I don’t think I will be here next year.“But-”I wasn’t done.Theo fell silent and looked down on his hands. He had to claw his fingernails into his wrist to stay calm. He had already forgotten the movie.I’m not going to repeat this, so listen to me. I apologize for leaving this early. I apologize for ruining your childhood and for not being there to ruin the rest of your life.“What do you mean?”, Theo asked even though he knew exactly what he meant.Celebrate with your boyfriend next year.Theo didn’t ask how the Surgeon found out about this.“But we have today”, he said quietly.We do, the Surgeon said with softness to his voice.Theo looked at the wound in the doctor’s chest and smiled sarcastically. “Then, Merry Christmas, dad.”He didn’t have to look up to see the disapproving glare.My parents named me Marcel.This was without doubt the weirdest way to say it. Theo tested out the name inside his head and decided that he liked the French touch of it. Was Marcel a Frenchman? Maybe there was time to find out.“Merry Christmas, Marcel.”Merry Christmas, Theo. After ending: “This turned out nice”, Liam quietly said and looked at the Christmas tree.It was December 15th. Theo had stopped counting how many Christmases he had celebrated without the dread doctors.“Hey, Liam”, he said with a smile, “What do you want for Christmas?”