The Diplomat - [Part II] Entreaty

[parallax23]

Entreaty
Part II of II

Episode: Post 4x11

Summary: Apologies are not in Ivan’s list of skills.  Can Marcos help him mend things with Roque?


“He wants me to apologize?” asked Ivan as he pulled on his shirt.  “That’s it and he’ll stop this nonsense?”

The boys were in their room preparing for dinner.  It had been a few days since Marcos’ conversation with Roque about forgiving Ivan, and Marcos had decided to speak to Ivan.  Since he was with Julia so much, Marcos had to wait for the right moment to talk to him.  Marcos found dealing with Ivan very difficult because his friend was such a lightning rod for drama.  After the incident with Tony, Julia’s stepfather and Maria, Ivan was hardly in a compassionate mood to know that he was being lied to for so long.

When Roque had left the room for dinner without them that evening, Marcos had seized the opportunity to tell Ivan what he needed to do to get his friend back.

Marcos rolled his eyes. “I think he expects a real apology that you broke your promise and went behind his back with Julia.  Not some stupid, ‘I’m sorry, but you’ll get over it’ line.”

“I know how to apologize,” Ivan said firmly.

“No, you know how to be sorry.  You don’t know how to apologize,” Marcos said.

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

 “Right,” Marcos said.  “Maybe you should practice on me?”

Ivan sighed.  “Fine.  Roque, I’m sorry.”

“Really?  That’s pathetic.” Marcos shook his head.

“Is this really necessary?”

“Do you actually regret how things went down?  Because normal people apologize when they screw up,” said Marcos.

Ivan gritted his teeth and nodded.  “Of course, I screwed up.  That’s what I do.  And it wasn’t like Julia was totally innocent in all of this, but somehow he’s forgiven her.  She was the one who kissed me first... Well, that was only the first time—”

“Okay, okay, I think we all know that you two can’t keep your hands off each other,” Marcos interrupted him.

Ivan grinned mischievously.  “Well, not just hands—”

“Ivan.  Your apology sucks,” replied Marcos.  “Now say it like you mean it.”

“Look, what do you want me to say?  I’m sorry that things got so screwed up, okay?  It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, but it did.  Roque and I have been friends since we were six, and we never had a fight, never until now.  I’m not even sure how we got to this point.  Every time with her was always supposed to be the last time, you know?  He wasn’t supposed to get hurt.”

Marcos nodded knowingly.  It brought back memories of his first kiss with Carol when she was supposed to be with someone else.  He and Ivan hadn’t really discussed what had taken place between him and Julia, since Ivan hadn’t been keen on talking about it until this moment.

Suddenly, it made sense why Ivan hadn’t mentioned hooking up with Julia to Marcos.  It was never supposed to have happened.   In order to deal with things he did not like, Ivan often pretended that it wasn’t happening.  It was the way Ivan had dealt with his father being an abusive cold-blooded murderer and Carol cheating on him.

“I was an idiot to make that stupid promise to Roque in the first place,” confessed Ivan.  “It was too late then.  But I think he already knew that.”

“So what?  You couldn’t have stopped yourself afterwards?” Marcos asked.

Ivan shrugged.  “If I could have, would we be having this conversation right now?”

“Somehow, it’s not hard to imagine that you lack any sort of control over your mouth,” Marcos replied dryly.  “Or any type of self-control in general.”

Ivan picked his towel off the bed and threw it at Marcos.  He caught the towel before it could hit him in the face.

“Seriously, just apologize to him.  I’m sick of seeing the two of you at each other’s throats,” said Marcos.  “You already got the girl.  Let him have this.”

Ivan paused.  Marcos was right, but he wasn’t quite ready to swallow his pride.  Why did he have to apologize?  Roque hadn’t listened to Ivan when he said that Julia wasn’t interested and that he’d make a fool of himself.  But Ivan had broken his word and that still needed to be rectified.  “Fine.  Now let’s eat.”

Outside of the room, Roque was eavesdropping on their conversation.  When he heard Ivan walking towards the door, he rushed off around the corner to hide.  Ivan and Marcos walked out of the room and toward the stairs to the dining room. He waited until they had turned the corner to let out a sigh of relief.

Ivan would apologize to him?  It must have been a sign of the apocalypse because Ivan never apologized to anyone.  Roque would have to see it to believe it.

When he got to the cafeteria, the others were already seated and eating dinner.  Julia was sitting next to Ivan, who had an open seat beside him.  It was Roque’s usual seat, but tonight it felt different.  He went quickly to get his dinner and join them.  Could Marcos really pull off the impossible?  Roque wasn’t sure after what he overheard in the room.  He took his seat next to Ivan as if nothing was unusual.

Ivan stopped eating and turned to face him.  “I’m sorry.”

And then he turned his attention back to his dinner. Vicky, Carol and Julia exchanged confused looks.  Marcos was grinning from ear to ear.  Roque couldn’t believe his ears and stared at Ivan for a moment.  Maybe when all this was over, Marcos would have a promising career as a diplomat.