Work Text:
Wednesday, April 10
“Okay but like if I ate coffee-”
“Ate coffee?”
“Shut up Monica. If I drank coffee three times a day technically I would be eating beans. Three times a day.”
Maeve looks up from the fries she’s sharing with Phoebe to give Jules a look. It’s lunch time, and, as usual, Jules and Monica are locked in a battle of… well, wits isn’t the right word. They’re in a battle of something alright.
“I agree with Jules,” a new voice says, directly to Maeve’s left. She looks over to see Luis crouched next to the table, at the same height as Maeve. “Coffee is a food group.”
“Thank you Luis,” Jules says calmly before sticking her tongue out at Monica.
In the past two weeks, Maeve’s friends had folded Luis into their lives like he had always been there. They did it with everyone’s - potential - boyfriends, but it’s a different, warm feeling when they do it for Maeve’s potential boyfriend.
Maeve herself is still hesitant. She adores Luis, she does, and their interactions had only gotten better after the most disastrous first date ever. But if Maeve’s being truthful, she’s terrified he’ll still walk away whenever he finds someone better.
She turns in her seat anyway, letting Luis put his elbows on her knees to balance himself. “What’s up?”
“Coop and I have a home game today, and Kris is gonna be there, so… want to come? It starts at four, so you and Kris can hang out beforehand if you want.”
Maeve takes a moment to consider this. She’s really not a fan of baseball, but Luis’s nervous grin is too much for her to handle. And the fact that Phoebe is poking her lower back incessantly, clearly a silent code for Maeve you’d be an idiot if you turned this offer down. Maeve doesn’t like that she knows what Phoebe’s thinking. It gives Phoebe too much power.
“Okay, yeah, sure. I’d be happy to,” Maeve says, with as much enthusiasm as she can muster. If worse comes to worse, she can just zone out or something. Luis grins at her, and taps his finger on her nose once before standing and sauntering over to his regular table. Bronwyn catches Maeve’s eye as Luis sits across from her. Bronwyn rolls her eyes at her, and Maeve grins back. One good thing about spending so much time with Luis is that it annoys the heck out of her sister.
Maeve is by no means happy to attend a baseball game. She treks after Cooper and Luis as they head to the baseball diamond, talking a mile a minute about fly balls, charge ups, and lord knows what else. Every so often Luis glances back to make sure Maeve hasn’t evaporated or self combusted or something. Two options that frankly sound better than spending an afternoon with Cooper’s intimidating boyfriend.
“Alright, well, there’s Kris,” Luis says as he and Cooper pause. Maeve, already having tuned the boys out, nearly walks into Luis, who catches her, his hands on her shoulders. “Whoa Maevey Laevey, lost you there.”
Maeve tries not to cringe at the nickname as she smiles at Luis. “Sorry about that. What were you saying?”
“Kris is here,” He nods his head at Kris, who is heading towards them, one hand up in a wave.
Maeve smiles a strained smile. “Great.”
They all stand in their spots until Kris reaches them. Kris is as tall and handsome as Maeve remembers him from the one time they actually had a conversation: the café under Eli’s office. His hair has golden glints in it now, and his face is a little tanner, but he’s most certainly still the same. When he reaches the group, he pulls Cooper into a deep kiss. When he pulls away he grins at them.
“Luis,” he says in his unaccented but formal English. They execute a perfect bro handshake, with backslapping and the works. It takes all of Maeve’s willpower not to roll her eyes. Especially since Cooper is looking at her sideways. He does that whenever she and Luis are together. Addy says it’s because he feels guilty for spending so much time with her and Jake and never realizing that Jake was a dumpster fire in human form and now he wants to make sure he’ll know the moment Maeve’s unhappy.
Not very reassuring but it’s sweet she supposes. Jules assures her that it’s a very older brother thing to do.
She’s brought back to earth by Kris turning his sharp gaze onto her. “Hi. Maeve, right?”
She’s surprised for a moment. No one remembers her name when they hang out with her once and Bronwyn multiple times.
“Yeah,” Maeve says, holding out her hand. He takes it.
“Bronwyn’s sister.” He says it as a fact, not a question.
And there it is.
He shakes his head quickly as he lets go of her hand. “I’m sorry. You two are separate people. I’d hate it if my sibling was always brought up when I was introduced,” he says before she can say something snarky back.
Wait what? Maeve blinks at him. “Yeah. Thanks.”
Cooper and Luis are grinning at each other over her head. Oh shut up she thinks. Luis catches her eye and winks. She’s too busy melting to roll her eyes back.
This whole “more than friends” thing might fall apart any moment, but god that boy is beautiful.
“So, we have to go warm up with the team, but you two should hang out,” Cooper says, his hand moving to Kris’s lower back as he looks past us to the dugout.
“Or you can avoid each other, that works too,” Luis teases. Maeve shakes her head at him in exasperation.
“Alright, well, see you later,” Cooper says like that settles it, even though Maeve and Kris haven’t said a word. He leans over to kiss Kris, and then nods at Maeve before heading off. Luis looks like he’s about to reach out to Maeve, but thinks better of it, using his outreached hand to punch Kris gently in the shoulder. He saunters off too, leaving Kris and Maeve to stand awkwardly.
“Well, how do you feel about ice cream?” Kris asks, hands stuffed in his pockets.
Maeve looks over at him, and shrugs. “Sure, why not.”
“So, how’s college?” Maeve asks as they climb into her car. It seems to be a reasonable thing to ask someone who’s in college. Kris grins at her as she lets the car warm up.
“It’s great. My concentration is leukemia this semester, so I’ve been in a lab analyzing…” he trails off when Maeve flinches. “Oh. Shit. Sorry.”
Maeve shakes her head. “No worries,” she says as she shifts the car into reverse.
They drive in silence. “I really am sorry,” he says as they approach the town center. Maeve’s house is only a block away, and she’s seriously considering ditching Kris and locking herself in the solace of her room. No potential boyfriend’s baseball game is worth the mental exhaustion she’s put herself through in the past hour.
“It’s okay, really.” Maeve drives past Thorndike street with a sigh. No ditching Kris for her.
“Yeah, Maeve, listen, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Cooper means a lot to me, and Luis means a lot to him, and you mean a lot to Luis so…” Kris trails off, letting Maeve revel in the sound of someone other than her deranged (no offence to Monica, Jules, and Phoebe) friends telling her she means something - anything - to Luis. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Maeve puts up a finger as she makes a tricky parallel parking maneuver, and Kris obliges. Once her car is securely nestled between the cars, she turns it off and turns to look at Kris. “You’re saying that through the transitive property, I’m important to you too.”
Kris blinks at her. “Did you just say the transitive property?” he asks.
“Yeah, the geometry rule. If A is equal to B and B is equal to C then -”
“I know what the transitive property is Maeve. I’ve just never heard anyone use it in casual conversation.”
Maeve grins, the tension ebbing away. “I am Bronwyn’s sister after all,” she says as she unbuckles and bounces out of the car. Kris follows suit with a chuckle.
“So how are you doing?” Kris asks as they slide into a booth, their ice cream in front of them. “With all the Simon stuff?”
Maeve stares at him. “What do you mean?” she asks, stabbing at her chocolate ice cream with venom. “I’m not the biggest issue.”
Kris shrugs casually. “I know. But you read all the 4chan threads and you were there when we figured out what Simon did. That must have taken a toll.”
Maeve shrugs casually, stabbing harder at her ice cream she never had the intention of eating.
Kris looks at her seriously. “Maeve. Don’t feel like someone’s feelings are more important than yours. Please don’t apologize for the way you feel.”
Tears spring into her eyes the moment he’s done speaking.
“Oh Maeve I didn’t mean to be harsh,” Kris says, reaching forward to squeeze her hand.
Maeve wipes at her eyes angrily with her free hand. “No it’s not you. It’s just… no one has ever said that to me.”
Kris let’s go of her hand to cross to her side of the table. He sits next to her, wrapping his arms around her. She sobs into his shoulder for god knows how long, even though she hardly knows him. That’s the Kris charm she supposes. His arms are around her back, holding her in place. “Don’t apologize for your feelings,” he repeats, whispering into her hair, “never those.”
Maeve stays in his arms for a beat, focusing on her breathing until she can sit up again. “Thanks,” she says with a watery smile. Kris gives her a crooked grin.
“Don’t mention it. Now come, let’s watch our boys play baseball, yes?”
Maeve laughs as they pick up their uneaten food and head towards the door. “Cooper is your boy. Luis and I are taking it slow, remember?”
“Oh yes,” Kris says with a grin. “Very slow.”
“Are you excited?” Kris asks a few minutes later as they settle into their seats overlooking the baseball diamond.
Maeve makes a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat. Kris looks at her sideways.
“It’s not soccer huh?” he asks, nodding at the hoodie she’s got on over her skirt.
“Exactly,” Maeve says. Kris smiles.
They sit in comfortable silence until the game starts. Kris leans his head down so he can whisper to her. “That was a curveball,” he says after Cooper’s first pitch, which lands squarely in Luis’s mit. Maeve glances up at him.
“Thanks.”
He winks down at her. “Coop’s planning on pitching a no hitter before the season ends.”
“That’s when no one hits the ball right?” Maeve whispers back.
“Yes Ma’am.”
After about four innings, Maeve ends up with her head on Kris’s shoulder, his arm around the back of her chair.
“Luis is really happy you’re here, did you know that?”
Maeve smiles. “Sometimes I can’t get over that this is my life you know?” Maeve has never been very honest with anyone, but there’s something about Kris that makes her want to tell him all her problems.
“I don’t think he can either, to be honest.”
Maeve laughs a little. Feeling as if she should return the favor, she says, “you know, Coop adores you.”
“I’m learning that.”
Kris puts his chin on Maeve’s head, looking over to the dugout, where they can just make out Luis and Cooper preparing to bat. “Can you believe that only a couple months ago we were sitting in a cafe and Cooper and I wouldn’t hold each other’s hands unless it was under the table?”
Maeve smiles. “I didn’t even like Luis back then.”
“We were so different.”
“Crazy to think we weren’t even involved but we changed too huh?”
Kris looks down at Maeve, an incredulous look on his face. “Girl what? We solved that thing. All Bronwyn, Nate, Addy, and Cooper did was look pretty.”
Maeve snorts, thinking back to a time she’d rather not remember. “You’re not wrong. Remember when Bronwyn thought their teacher did it?”
Kris is laughing too now. “God forbid they’re ever in a situation like that without us, huh Maevey?”
Maeve wipes a tear from her eye. “That would be a disaster.”
They laugh through the rest of the inning.
“Okay remember what I said about the grand slam?” Kris whispers to Maeve as Cooper and Luis approach them.
“The what?” Maeve hisses back.
Kris laughs as he gently pushes Maeve towards Luis, sending her stumbling into his open arms.
“Did you have fun?” Luis asks, his arm sliding down to her waist.
“Yeah! There was a…” Maeve trails off, glancing at Kris in confusion, who’s mouthing “grand slam” over and over as Cooper hides his laughter in Kris’s back. Maeve shakes her head. “It was fun,” she says finally.
Luis is too busy grinning at Maeve to notice that she changed her sentence.
“Good! I’m glad.”
“Care to talk more about the fun stuff Maeve?” Cooper asks. “Ow,” he adds as Kris elbows him in the stomach with a disapproving look.
Maeve glares at him. Luis, still oblivious, steers Maeve to the parking lot, talking non stop about all the things Maeve should have been paying attention to. Kris and Cooper exchange fond looks before following them.