Mark didn’t always like you.

You were a superhero like him, yet you were so… rude. He couldn’t explain, or even begin to fathom why you were rude, but he knew it upset him when he started as a superhero. You were like Rex, but considerably worse, and it made him wonder why you wanted to be a hero in the first place.

You mouthed off to Cecil, didn’t listen to orders, went off on solo missions, disregarded orders, cursed up storms— you were the antithesis of him. Mark wanted to be a good hero, someone that people looked up to, and that meant having a hero’s attitude.

Then he graduated, tried going to college, saved his Mother and brother from Angstrom— and realized you weren’t as bad as he thought. Given everything he’d gone through, he started to understand why you were so cynical about the Guardians of the Globe and Cecil.

And then he started ranting to you and, surprisingly, you listened.

That led to him seeing you often, and he quickly realized you were someone he could trust. It’s the fifth meet-up when he realizes his ‘liking’ towards you goes deeper. Mark couldn’t understand when the change happened, or why it happened, but he couldn’t help but wonder how different things would be if you two were dating.

“Mark? Are you even paying attention?” He snaps out of his thoughts, eyes flickering to you as he hums, a sheepish smile spreading on his lips.

“Yeah, of course! You were… talking about… something.” He mumbles the last part, laughing nervously as you glared daggers at him. Sometimes, he couldn’t focus around you, like right now because he was thinking about how pretty your lips looked.