Chapter Text
Despite Timmy’s best efforts and Riven and Actual Brandon behaving perfectly, by mid-week all of their professors have figured out something is wrong. Actual Sky is still pissy about Bloom ignoring him, and seems to blame it entirely on Riven and Timmy. Brandon seems to be avoiding the topic entirely while still trying to cajole Sky into acting like an adult, which means Sky point-blank refuses to speak to them unless necessary and Riven remains visibly pissed all week.
Codatorta is the one to act on it, though, which is…concerning.
Riven doesn’t want the faculty involved; Brandon had told them the faculty knew, and with everything going on with the girls - Bloom and Stella and everyone and Darcy and her sisters - Riven absolutely does not want the extra scrutiny on them, the extra eyes. Codatorta, well-known for living by the saying sink or swim, who had intentionally ignored all their bad blood last year up to and including all of the resulting near-death experiences it’d caused, stepping in now?
He’s doing it on Saladin’s orders. Which means that extra scrutiny is there. So. Any incentive he has to behave, and Timmy has to Team Mom, and Brandon has to try and stay neutral - go right out the window.
“Squads,” Riven says, and he gestures sharply with his sai towards where a senior squad are abso-fucking-lutely decimating another, “are about trust first and foremost.”
The freshbabies in front of him, a squad having a particularly tough time learning what the fuck teamwork is, stare wide-eyed and a little awestruck at him. Which is. Uncomfortable. But they nod, even if a couple of them proceed to shoot thinly-veiled glares at each other.
“If you can’t learn to trust your squadmates to have your back, to be where you need them to be, or to listen to what you have to say, you’re gonna flunk the fuck out and waste our time.” He sets his weapon on his shoulder casually as he speaks, and then swings his head around and bares his teeth in a not-very-nice grin at Sky. The fucker narrows his eyes, and gives the weird fishing-pole-like weapon he’s trying to untangle a savage jerk.
“Likewise, you need to uphold your teammates’ trust in you. If you ignore orders or run off on your own, you’re betraying them and you’re a liability. Trust is a two-way street.”
“Okay but that takes time.” The budding squad leader fires back, stressed and fed up and scowling, fingers flexing at his side. He’s a little too shy to command his peers’ respect, but he’s serious enough that Riven doesn’t doubt that the kid wants to give it his all. Kid’s from Harmonix, and while he’s got the same kind of restless energy Riven’s grown to associate with Musa, he’s a hell of a lot meeker than she is. It hasn’t served him well trying to wrangle his fellow idiots, even if he’s better at it than the rest of his squad.
“You can speedrun it.” Timmy says flatly from where he’s sitting cross-legged on the ground just behind Riven, pouring over schematics and code and whatever else he’s playing with today.
Codatorta might’ve been able to order them to help out, but he hadn’t been able to order them to actually try. Timmy had checked out immediately. So had Sky. Brandon’s got a neutral smile plastered on his face and an increasingly elaborate design drawn in the dirt at his feet. Riven’s actually talking to the kids mostly because Sky is slowly but surely tensing up behind him, and he’s a petty bitch at heart.
“How long did it take you?” The kid asks.
“With Riven? Uh, like a day. Took a couple near-death experiences and about a semester to get Brandon and Sky on board.” Timmy replies immediately. Sky shoots Timmy a dirty look, but Brandon’s mask slips up into something close to a grin. Riven clears his throat dramatically. He’s not pissed about the interruption and he takes pains to not sound it, because these kids are fucking skittish.
“More important than forming that trust is keeping it, though. You can all give each other the benefit of the doubt, but the minute one of you betrays the other, you and your squad are fucked.”
And Riven isn’t going to make the comment, but he gets another dirty look and he’s already pissed because Sky’s been dodging them and -
“Isn’t that right, Brandon?”
He gets a glower and the most obvious tongue-bite in history in response, and the real Brandon drops his head into his hands with a groan.
When he turns back to the kids, they’re all big-eyed and fuck, he’d forgotten about the audience.
“What’d he do? Did he steal your girlfriend?” One of the kids asks, a bleach-blond from Tides with a trident about double the size of his entire fucking body. He’s kind of an idiot, from what Riven’s seen, but generally good-natured.
Timmy snaps out of his work to stare owlishly up at the kids, and Riven can’t help but cackle at that because -
“I don’t know, did I? How’s Bloom doing, Brandon? You talk to her lately?”
“Shut the fuck up, Riven. It’s not your business.”
“Aren’t you - um. Aren’t they gonna start a fight?” He hears one of the kids whisper at Timmy, and Timmy lets out a derisive sound before ducking his head back into his nerd shit. Just in time to avoid the - that is a fishing pole, right? - thing Sky’s working on from clocking him in the head.
“I beg to fucking differ.”
“Riven’s seeing someone, Brandon.” Brandon says, and ordinarily Riven would be pissed at the idiot for ruining his fun, but he can see the two braincells in Sky’s head fire on full cylinders and come to the wrong conclusion in real time, and that’s so much more glorious than any bullshit he could come up with, and -
“See, kiddos, this is why you treat other people with respect and basic human decency and take responsibility for your actions.” Riven says, and he shrugs lazily, and then Sky tackles him to the fucking floor. Riven has the foresight to toss his sai to Brandon before either of them end up with a gut wound.
See, Brandon’s been stuck in a fucked up spot and knowing that isn’t really helping Riven be nice. Sky dodging them and flat-out refusing to talk unless it’s to bitch about Bloom knowing doesn’t help. He’s fixated, and Riven knows it’s probably to avoid dealing with the whole situation, but none of them have time for that and it’s so fucking immature anyway, and…
Timmy starts lecturing the kids, who watch on in horror while they writhe around in the dirt.
“You’re going to fight and get on each others’ nerves. That’s normal. This is not a normal fight, because presumably you aren’t going to lie to each other and hurt the people your squadmates care about for shits and giggles. You need to communicate if you want to get along; set up ground rules and expectations, and work with what each of you can bring to the table. And create consequences for breaking those rules and expectations, which we failed to do. You can see the result.”
Because he’s a nerd, Timmy’s already plastered a ten-foot-long chart to the common room’s fridge with various infractions and their associated punishments attached. Every day Sky ignores them adds another six hours of cleaning duty to his chart, not that the prince seems to care. Riven can appreciate the gesture, and the effort that Timmy went through in brainstorming it, but at this point it’s just - it’s getting closer to the point where he doesn’t even think it will matter. And it’s even worse than it was before he and Timmy talked to Brandon, because now, at least - that’s handled! It’s still a gaping wound between them but it’s not as bad. And that’s…something.
Riven manages to get his boot against Sky’s chest, and even if it takes more effort than he’d like, he manages to kick the fucker off of him.
Sky staggers back to his feet, still looking pissed, and this time when he charges, Riven’s ready for him. Sky’s generally a force all his own in combat. But not when he’s not thinking, not when he’s so pissed he’s not even going off instinct. Not like this.
And there’s something morbidly comforting, that Sky moves exactly as Riven expects him to. That he still knows the idiot, that that knowledge is correct, on some fucked up level.
“Not sticking my dick in Bloom, jackass.” He huffs, once he’s got Sky properly pinned, and the fucker goes still under him.
“And there is a lesson in why you get all the facts before charging into battle.” Brandon says, and Riven plasters on a sharp grin for the kids as Sky jerks a little, pissed again, under him.
“So you - you didn’t steal his girlfriend?” One of the kids asks hesitantly, and they’re all crowded in on each other, kinda spooked. Riven doesn’t remember being that jumpy. Saladin’s a dumbass if he put all the jumpy kids together this year, though - gotta balance it all out. Maybe Riven’ll put that in his lesson report to Codatorta, if the rest of the day goes smoothly.
“No one stole anyone’s girlfriend. Yet.” Timmy adds ominously, and it’s so fucking random that Riven can’t help but laugh, and he relaxes his hold on Sky.
That doesn’t stop him from grabbing the idiot’s wrist before he can stalk back over to his fishing pole thing.
“Call Musa tonight, and fucking fix it, or never bring her the fuck up again.” He says, and Sky’s expression hardens.
“I’m not -”
“I’m not hearing a yes Riven.” He says sweetly, and -
The fucker growls at him, but bites out a fine sharp enough to cut before stalking out of the arena.
“Pretty sure that made it worse.” Timmy says flatly, and the kids all jump - they’ve clustered just behind Timmy’s shoulder.
“Fucker won’t calm the hell down and talk to us ‘till Bloom tells him to eat shit. We’re fine.”
“You sound very confident about her breaking up with him.” Brandon says, a little sharply, and - Riven shrugs again.
“She’s got standards. Cheating’s a bigger deal on Earth. More personal.”
“It’s still punishable by law in some places.” Timmy says distantly, head buried back in his nerd shit, and Brandon kind of pales.
“That, uh. That bad?”
Riven drops his arm around the nearest kid, and grins a little when he gets a muted shriek and a jump.
“Lesson number two, kiddos. Don’t cheat on a fairy, especially when she’s friends with your squadmates!”
He can feel Codatorta’s eyes on the back of his neck. The man is probably stalking towards them by now. Maybe it makes his grin too sharp, but - helping the kids out means more than just shouting at them to get their heads out of their asses. Riven doesn’t like babysitting, but hey, maybe the kid’s will see what a disaster his squad is and resolve to at least not hit rock bottom.
“Isn’t there an earth saying for that? Bros before hoes?” Brandon asks.
“Yes. You two are the hoes in this situation.”
One of the kids squeaks at that, and Riven’s grin widens when Brandon pales again, because - well. Timmy’s laughing, which doesn’t help matters. Doesn’t matter what any of them say at this point anyway. Gossip has a mind of its own.
There’s a too-loud clearing of a throat behind him, and Riven does his level best not to tense up on instinct. Codatorta generally doesn’t try to sneak up on Riven, because usually he’s at least marginally polite.
That he is now tells him everything he needs to know about how the rest of the day is going to go, even before Codatorta speaks.
“Saladin’s office, now.”