Doppelgänger
PODFIC ON SITE, PODFIC ON AO3.
Made on: 21 Dec, 2022
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 795 words
Relationship(s): Megan Ito & Parker MacMillan,
Characters of Focus: Megan Ito, New Megan Ito, Parker MacMillan,
Setting: Pre-History I,
Metadata: Angst
Prompt: Forgive and Forget
Warnings: Off-Screen Major Character Death (if whatever happened to Megan can be called that)
Summary: Parker attempts to apologize to Megan twice over agreeing to what they’ve been calling the Grand Plan.
Beginning Authors Note: As you may have noticed, there's a podfic avaliable for this that I made. You can get more details about that by clicking on either link!
It was only worth it in the moment that Megan slipped the sunglasses over his ears and smirked at him with all of their teeth. As soon as they turned away to prance back to their position, force field draped across their back, Parker felt the regret wash over him before the haze of romin' washed over that.
He ends up at Megan's terrible motel room at some point after that. Sprawled across the terrible yellowed couch that was probably originally white, the springs digging into his sides dragging him back into the world of consequences.
"Oh gods." Which is probably the most coherent thing he has said in the past couple of hours followed quickly by what was probably the longest sentence he has also said in the past couple of hours "We shouldn't have done that."
Megan snorts from where they're sitting on the coffee table, trashy room-complimentary magazine in hand.
"Welcome back to earth, space cadet." They try to poke at him, but their hand bumps against the force field.
"What. I-uh I've been on earth." He says before the joke registers.
Parker drags himself upright. The better view of the room also means that he can see the force field around Megan better, which also means that the vague sense of guilt actually solidifies.
"Sorry." He blurts, interrupting Megan's teasing that he wasn't really listening to. "Really— I'm really sorry Meg."
"Oh hush," Megan exaggeratedly rolls their eyes, "it's not like this thing will do anything to me."
They catch him mulling over his next words and adds, "and don't apologize about the instability. I'll be fine, it's all part of the grand plan."
They say it with their usual flourish, but unlike a week ago where he would laugh at their dramatics Parker instead says "You don't know that."
"Look, like I've said, if this thing can prevent you from your odyssey I'm sure it can prevent me from going to the trenches."
"It's not an odyssey anymore."
"I know," they whine, "it's a turn of phrase, Parky."
They scoot until their knees are touching the couch and they're barely on the coffee table. The blue of the force field washes over Parker's legs and Megan squeezes both of his hands.
"You always get like this." They say, staring at his rubbed raw wrists, another effect of force that he won't be missing any time soon, "you always get all freaked out as soon as we actually set something in motion. Always, but you're fine once it really gets going. This is just like that, you'll see."
They grin at him and lean in close, "Trust me on this, the look on her face will be great."
And, well, Megan's right that he always does get like this, and he agreed to the plan before they set in motion, was excited over it even. The exhaustion pulling on his bones doesn't lend itself to this sort of situation, never mind that Parker can feel that he's reaching the end of his word quota for the day.
So Parker sighs and ducks his head under the blue tint he's gotten way too used to to lean his head against Megan's shoulder.
"Always so dramatic, silly." They curl over him a bit, "I'll be fine, don't you worry your spacy little head about it."
Megan was right, after that night the feeling of regret waned and the force field did prevent Megan from being dragged to the trench.
Megan has always been better at teasing out the possibilities this game has. Still, the headline that Parker skims from the newspaper has them making a late night visit to their current hotel room the next time they're only a city or two away from each other.
"Hello?" He knocks on the door again, hopefully the schedule that they tossed over to him a couple weeks ago hasn't been deviated from. "Megan?"
The door opens a crack and—
The person peering out of the door looks like Megan, almost. Like a cousin of some type, except that Parker knows they don't talk to any of their family at all. That's it's been years since they last heard from them. The person who is almost Megan, but not quite, stares up at him, face twisted into a loss expression that Megan has never worn for a day in their life.
"Hello?" They say, hesitantly in a voice that is almost Megan's.
"I'm sorry." Is the only thing he can bring himself to say, "Gods, I'm so sorry Megan. I shouldn't have agreed to your stupid plan—"
"Do I know you?" Almost Megan interrupts, bewildered.
Parker cries on a strangers hotel doorstep that day.
(Seeing the expression on the coin's face wasn't worth it at all.)
Ending Authors Note: Thanks for reading!
This isn't my usual interpretation of what happened to Megan Ito and new Megan Ito, but it's a fun one to use none-the-less! (for a... certain definition of fun.)
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fan_flashworks over on Dreamwidth!PODFIC ON SITE, PODFIC ON AO3.