Rating:

Mature

Archive Warnings:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

Gen

Fandom:

Heated Rivalry (TV)

Relationship:

Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau & Original Character(s)

Character:

Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau

Additional Tags:

Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Closeted Character, Panic Attacks, the joys of interacting with your bigoted and emotionally immature parents, Angst, i may have projected too much as this came out pretty viscerally upsetting, mention of the use of homophobic slurs

Language:

English

Series:

Part 3 of for years or for hours

Collections:

Anonymous

Stats:

Published: 2026-04-14 Words: 943 Chapters: 1/1

I don't know how you claim to love me

Summary

Cliff's family is...complicated.
He's probably not helping by acting out. But he also really doesn't want to be here.

Notes

The Marlow Family Dinner from chapter 7 of I Have Never Known Hunger. I elected to take this scene out of that fic and put it here to keep the tone consistant. Reader beware.

"Cliff!" Gayle raises a glass of wine as he comes into the living room. "My good bitch."

Cliff can't help cracking up. She's clearly already a bit messy, though her pale pink lipstick is still perfect and there's not a crease to be seen in her low-cut strawberry patterned dress. It has ruffles.

"Ma'am." he says, tipping an imaginary hat.

She stands to give him a tight hug, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he leans down into it.

"Haven't seen you in a while." Gayle scolds him, messing up his hair with both hands. "Too busy with your big fuckoff hockey boys to come hang out with us, eh?"

"Well, you know, they keep me occupied."

"Yeah, I bet. That Rozanov drags you around like a dog on a leash, doesn't he? You ever want to trade places for a day, I'm there."

Cliff snorts. "I'll keep it in mind, but I have a cozy spot by the end of his bed and a fridge full of lamb chops, so..."

"Alright, you two." Mom glares at them playfully. "Leave some room for Jesus "

Gayle gives his hair one last rough ruffle before pushing away.

"I don't think you can bring up Jesus unless you go to Church more than twice a year." Cliff jokes, crossing his arms.

"Well, it'll be three times in October." she says. "And speaking of that-"

"Yeah, I'll dig out my tux, don't worry."

"I meant, you should think about finding a plus-one." she says pointedly. "A nice girl this time, please."

"Right."

The rest of his night goes much the same. Cliff gets lovingly ribbed, he makes it into a joke, his parents insist that no, really, you'll start losing it if you spend all your time alone at home-unless you're still going to bars? Well then you need a hobby, Clifford, so how about we do something rugged about that this week, toss a football around-

"I have friends, you know." he points out. "Rozy's not just my Captain. I'm probably going to be his Best Man someday."

His Mom chuckles. "I can't believe you call him that. That's pretty gay, honey."

He shrugs. "It's a hockey thing."

"Hockey's a little gay."

Cliff swallows a piece of chicken. It goes down like sandpaper.

"Not like football." Dad says, his knife scraping against his plate.

"Yeah."

"People should keep their private lives private."

He nods.

"Seriously?" Patty snaps at him. "You agree with that?"

Oh. Cliff had actually forgotten she and Gayle were here.

He tries to say-something, but it catches. There's an animal crouched low to the ground, snarling until foam coats its muzzle, trapped in his chest.

"You don't mean it's bad." he says. "We have different points of view, Mom. I know that."

Mom rolls her eyes. "Nobody's saying it's bad, good grief. I don't care about what people do at home. I think announcing it is asking for a lot of attention and special treatment that's a lot of-I mean, come on."

Get me out, get me out, get me out, get me out. "Yeah, nobody reasonable is asking for special treatment. I agree. Scott Hunter agrees with that, I think."

"Oh, Scott Hunter." Dad makes a face. "You think that's not what he's doing?"

"He's a good guy." Gayle says.

Dad shakes his head. "He's asking for a lot of attention. It's unprofessional."

"No, he isn't."

"Yeah, honey, he is. He-"

"I think he just wants to be treated like a human being." Patty snaps. "Like everyone does."

Cliff's food is curdling in his stomach. It's not going to be a sleeping night.

"Sweetheart, nobody in their right mind makes that much of a fuss about their 'relationships'."

Oh. It's air quotes o'clock, everybody.

Under the table, he stealthily googles 'possible to have heart artack on purpose or aneurysm not fatal?'

Gayle bumps his shoulder with hers. Cliff takes in one singular breath.

He gets a text.

Roz: come back with cobbler marly or you are dead to us

"You don't fucking know his life." Patty snaps.

Marly: ill bring you mine im not hungry ever again loooooool

Gayle knocks their knees together.

Roz: ?

Marly: mom and sister fight lmao it's bad lmao

Roz: ah

"That's a fucking slur."

"No it isn't. We used to use it all the time, and nobody ever got upset."

Really? It's always upset Cliff. A lot.

"Cliff, people use words like that in locker rooms, right?"

There is no right answer to that question.

"I don't like this conversation." he manages.

Mom slams her fists down on the table. "Then just fucking go away!"

"Cynthia." his Dad says.

Cliff doesn't realize he's not at the table anymore for a few seconds. He's standing, chair scraped back, not looking at anyone or anything in particular.

He moves, eventually. And he's faster than everyone else, despite being taller, so it's easy to dodge all the bodies that lurch towards him.

Cliff grabs his keys, quickly quickly quickly unlocks the front door, and bolts for his car. He makes sure all the doors are locked before fumbling with the key.

His hands are covered in cold sweat. He grabs his pocket to make sure he still has his phone, peels off the itchy white sweater and chucks it into the backseat. His Bears T-shirt is sleeveless, which seems less restrictive for now. Maybe it'll help him breathe better.

He bites his tongue, starts backing out of the driveway. Gayle is watching from the front step.

Cliff drives as far away as he can get from that house. His phone starts ringing at some point, but he ignores it.