What is Normal? (Falsettos High School AU)

My Valentine

- "What is normal?"

"I don't understand why I really need the blindfold," Whizzer huffed.
"Oh, calm down. You'll understand if you just cooperate with me," said Marvin.
"I can't even see where I'm going!"
"That's why I'm leading you. You act like you've never had your eyes closed before."
Even after all the preparations, rehearsals, and questionable pep talks, Marvin was barely stable enough to walk outside, let alone lead Whizzer. He trusted Mendel to set up their staging area, and for Diane and Caroline to get the technical equipment, but he still felt nervous. As always, he thought to himself.
"Here we are. Have a seat." Whizzer sat down and started to take off the blindfold. "Hey! Not just yet. Give me a minute, alright?" Whizzer grumbled to himself before reluctantly sitting still.
"I lack patience, Marv'," he joked. "This better be worth it!"
"Oh my gosh." He shook his head and made his way over to the stage. He poked his head around the back corner and spotted Mendel. "Are you ready back there?"
He gave him a thumbs up. "All set!" Marvin smiled back and slowly walked up to the front of the stage where a few microphones were set up.
      "You can take it off now, drama queen," he called out to Whizzer. He huffed in reply and quickly untied the blindfold.
      "Why are we at the auditorium? School ended an hour ago."
      "I paid Mrs. Stocking. She said we could use it." Whizzer rolled his eyes.
      "You paid to come to school? Why would you do that?"
      "You'd understand if you would just listen."
      "Alright! Fine." Marvin tapped the mic before picking it up.
      "Welcome, Whizzer, to your surprise. I've spent the past two weeks working on this with a few helping hands. We hope you enjoy the show."
      "Show?" he asked, as Caroline ran over to him. She handed him a printed program with the words "Happy Valentines Day" across the top. Whizzer looked at the program and after reading the first few lines, jerked his head up. "What's going on, Marvin?"
"You'll see," he replied. The girls joined him on stage and grabbed their microphones. He turned to Mendel and gave him a nod, and he turned on the music before grabbing his own mic. Looking back out at the audience, (if you can call one person an audience), he spotted Whizzer's excited face, and mouthed a quick "I love you." He smiled in return before sitting back to enjoy the performance.

      As soon as the show was finished, Whizzer was up on his feet cheering. Marvin grinned and turned to Mendel and the girls. "Thank you so much for this."
      "Our pleasure," replied Caroline.
      "I actually enjoyed it," said Mendel. "It was a really great idea."
      "I'm glad to hear that-"
      "Marvin!" Whizzer wrapped his arms around his neck from behind him. "That was incredible. I don't even know how you learned all of that in like- what- a few days? That's insane!" He turned Marvin around. "I loved it so much."
      "Thank you. I'm glad you liked your surprise," he replied, and Whizzer's jaw dropped.
      "Right! Your surprise! I brought it in the car. You can open it there."
"Alright. I'll see you guys around." He waves a quick goodbye to his friends and they walked out to the parking lot, hand in hand.

      Whizzer smiled as soon as they sat in the car. "So I told you that I've wanted to give this to you for a long time, right?"
"Yes? I think you did," Marvin replied.
"Okay. Good, because it sure took me a long time to make it." He handed him a box wrapped clumsily in pink paper. "I know it's not the best presentation, but I hope what's inside will make up for that."
Marvin just laughed. "I'm sure it will." He tote the wrapping and opened the box to reveal a thick book. Confused, he lifted it and noticed the hearts along the spine, before shifting his gaze back to Whizzer.
      "Open it."
      He flipped back the hard cover and smiled. There was that photo from the football field, with his giddy grin and obnoxiously large instrument. Marvin flipped through each page finding more and more photos, done with captions, some with doodles around them. There were planned photos and unexpected snapshots and everything else in between. Whizzer leaned over to look through with him, both sitting in silence and letting the memories wash over them. Laughing at the diner with Charlotte and Cordelia, baking cookies for the holidays. The list went on. On the final page there was a note.
      "Happy Valentines Day. Love you lots."
      Marvin closed the book and hugged Whizzer as well as he could while in a car. "Thank you. I love it."
      "Thank God, I was stressing out all day," he admitted.
      "Weren't you the one who told me my gift would be perfect because it's from me? Doesn't that kind of sentiment go both ways?"
      "Touché. Still gives me a load of relief." Whizzer picked up the book and smiled. "I couldn't find one big enough to put all of my photos in there. I bet I could fill at least three more of these."
      "No trouble believing that. I feel like I'm a celebrity walking around with you when you whip out your camera." He took quick note of Whizzer's face. "I love it. It's very sweet."
      "Aw, thank you. Do you wanna head back home?"
      "Sure. We can watch a movie if you want," Marvin suggested.
      "Sounds good to me." As they drove, he reached over to hold Whizzer's hand. "So, Mr. 'I Can Wait For Valentines Day', did you enjoy yourself?" He smirked.
      "You know what," Marvin replied, "I did. And I was surprised, too. Everything went perfectly and nothing to crazy happened. It was nice for it to just be... normal, for once."
      "Believe me, this has been far from my normal way of spending it."
      "What's that supposed to mean?"
      "I don't know. I guess I just actually did something for once. And it was fun. Very fun." Whizzer squeezed his hand.
      "What a surprise, Whizzer Brown going against the norm, trying something new," Marvin chuckled.Whizzer just grinned.
"What is normal?"

1048 words

A.N.// oh boy. long time no see. this is about to be a bit of a long note whoops. this is the end of this story and i'd really like to thank all of you guys for your support, it really does mean the world to me :) and i believe me, i'm sorry for that very long break but when writers' block hits, it hits hard. i do want to keep writing more and hope whatever little story comes along after this will be enjoyed as much as this one has been (again, thank you <3) i'll see you in the next one!