Chapter Text
When Nick had woken up that morning, he’d disliked Seiji Katayama and everyone had known it. So how had everything gone so sideways so fast? Nick couldn’t decide who he blamed more—himself, Seiji, or Jesse Coste. Because it had started like this:
Nick was late. He’d gotten lost and he couldn’t even blame Eugene for this one because he’d done it all himself. The Kings Row fencing team had been invited over to Exton for a friendly little meet and greet. Nick thought that sounded like a bullshit cover for posturing and smack talk, but since Jesse had extended the hand of friendship on behalf of his team, Harvard hadn’t ignored it. He was good like that. Nick would have told Jesse to piss off. But, as part of the team, he’d been dragged along and had been told, under no uncertain terms, that he was to behave. Harvard’s lecture and threats about what would happen if he were disobeyed in this had been as much for the other boys on the team as for him, which gave Nick no more confidence that this meeting was a good idea.
It seemed like an even worse idea when, halfway to Exton all piled into Coach’s van, Nick needed to pee. And Coach refused to make a pit stop, telling him you should have listened when I told you all to go before we left. She liked making him suffer like that. So, the minute they’d entered Exton’s campus, what was the first thing Nick had done? Dash for a bathroom. He’d thought it would be easy enough to manage. Find a bathroom, then head to the common room where they were meeting the Exton boys. But he probably should have gone to the common room first and then suffered the indignity of asking someone to show him to a bathroom. Because he got lost. And after he found a bathroom and finally got to pee? He got even more lost.
Coach was waiting in the car for them, napping. And no way was Nick dumb enough to wake her up for something like helping him find his way around this fucking school. So he'd called Harvard. And Harvard had told him to hang tight at the front office and they’d come rescue him.
And it turned out ‘they’ really meant ‘Seiji.’
“I’ve met five-year-olds brighter than you,” Seiji snapped the moment he was in earshot. “How hard is it to go to the bathroom alone?”
“This place is even more confusing than Kings Row,” Nick mumbled, even as he knew that Seiji had a point. So, more subdued and embarrassed than usual, he met Seiji halfway down the hall and followed a couple steps behind as they made their way to the common room.
“I can’t believe Harvard had to send me to come find you,” Seiji continued, sounding irritated to have been delegated to such a task.
“Sorry for making you go to so much trouble,” Nick rolled his eyes. Seiji was being a bit over-dramatic. “And why’d you get sent anyway? I would have preferred anyone else.”
“I know this school best.”
“Right. Weren’t you offered a full ride here?” Nick asked, remembering gossip from last year’s circuit. “Why’d you turn it down?”
“I’m sorry, are we friends?”
“What?”
“I can’t think of any reason I’d discuss my personal business with you unless we were friends, and I don’t think we are.”
“Whatever.” It was true that Nick’s relationship with Seiji wasn’t really a friendly one. Sometimes, he thought it could be. But the title friends just felt wrong, and even when they felt like they might be getting there, it was just too awkward or they started fighting and they fell back to this level of mutual dislike. Still, Nick couldn’t help but try to fill the silence. “It’s because of Jesse, isn’t it?” He asked, and Seiji shot a glare over his shoulder.
“I thought I made it clear that you should stop talking.”
“Everyone says that you hate Jesse so much you couldn’t work on the same team as him. Determined to get revenge for nationals.” This struck a nerve, and Seiji spun on him.
“My reasons for choosing Kings Row instead of Exton are entirely my own and I’d thank you to stop prying.”
“So it is Jesse.”
“If you’re so determined to talk about Jesse, why not tell me what your relationship with him is.”
“This again?” Nick narrowed his eyes at Seiji. “Give it a rest, I don’t even know the guy. You’re the one who’s always bringing him up.”
“I don’t recall being the one who started this conversation,” Seiji reminded him and Nick had to admit that he had a point there. Seiji knew it, and he dug in. “Tell me why you fence like him. What did you get from Jesse?”
“Nothing!” Nick said, and started stomping down the new hallway. Only, he realized he had no idea where he was going and had to wait for Seiji anyway.
“You know,” Seiji mused, “I could just ask Jesse. Since we’re already here and all.” Oh no. That was a terrible idea. Nick couldn’t let that happen, and he knew his face showed it—draining of color at the mere suggestion. It encouraged Seiji, and Nick didn’t think he’d ever seen the bastard looking so happy. Okay, happy was a stretch. Contentedly smug might have more accurately described the emotion on Seiji’s face. “I’ll ask Jesse, then.”
“No!”
Way to lose your cool, Cox.
“Why not? If you don’t know him, he’ll tell me the same.”
“I don’t know him,” Nick insisted. But he didn’t need Seiji pointing out his similarities to Jesse to the guy himself. Didn’t need Jesse paying a little closer attention to him. Maybe he’d see what Seiji saw. Maybe he’d see more. The last thing Nick needed was Jesse finding out the truth about them. And any hint to that, no matter how tiny, could be disastrous in the long run. He couldn’t let Seiji draw Jesse’s attention to him. No matter what.
“Then why could you possibly care about what he—,” Seiji cut off, and Seiji never did that. This couldn’t be good. “You like him.”
What?
“What?”
“I should have seen it,” Seiji said, quickening his pace. “It explains why you fence like him.”
“Does it?” Nick was pretty sure Seiji had cracked.
“Yes. I imagine you’d watch him very closely. Studied his fencing and emulated it on accident.”
“That doesn’t make sense and, anyway, it’s not true. I don’t like Jesse.” Seiji couldn’t seriously think that, could he? But as Nick caught up to fall in step next to him, he saw that Seiji’s face looked like that of a man who had solved a mystery.
Oh no.
No no no no.
“I’m actually on good enough terms with Jesse, despite what you may think. I could put in a good word for you.”
“Please don’t.”
“He’s generally the type to give everyone a chance, and he’s single right now. You might have a real—,”
“Seiji. Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t like him!”
“I think you do.”
“Only because you’re stupid.” And antagonizing Seiji just then was a bad idea. His face shifted and Nick knew he’d made up his mind about something. And Nick had a really bad feeling about what.
“Fine. I won’t put in a good word for you,” Seiji said, and Nick couldn’t believe his luck. Was Seiji really going to punish him by not helping him woo his half-brother? Nick could hear a burble of voices, could make out his fellow teammates’ voices within the burble. They were almost there, and everything was actually okay. But then, as they entered the room, “I’ll just tell him outright that you like him.” Just to be a dick. But Nick didn’t even spend much time considering the total asshole move that was because he was too busy freaking the fuck out.
Seiji was striding across the room purposefully towards Jesse. He was going to tell Jesse that Nick liked him. Romantically. And if Jesse were the type to give him a chance? Fuck. Shit. Fuck fuck shit fucking balls. Nick was panicking. He couldn’t date his half-brother. Oh god. How could he get out of this? His mind raced and he didn’t have a plan, really, when he opened his mouth. It just came out.
“Wait—,” he said, reaching out to grab Seiji, though he was already out of reach. Fuck. He followed after Seiji, desperate and panicked. “Seiji, I don’t like him because I’m in love with you!”
And that got Seiji to stop, all right. But Nick had timed it poorly, saying it a little too loud to begin with and right in the middle of a lapse of conversation to make it all worse. The room was silent. All eyes on him.
Oh, fucking hell.
And that was how he’d set fire to the notion that he didn’t like Seiji Katayama. Very publicly. And there was no turning back now.