Chapter Text
The first Rapidly hears about it is on Ruzzy's stream.
She's not the only League member to have started doing it during the off-season, and she's effortlessly charismatic enough to have gotten really popular. He'd started watching it on Coach Quickly's request, trying to scope out whether Ruzzy was dropping any hints about something exciting or just looking happier than normal, as she'd got it in his head that she was being swapped out for either Rozzy or Rizzy as a reward for her stronger 2022 performance. Why Quickly couldn't watch a 3 hour stream of Marble League Manager 2 by herself was beyond Rapidly- it was pretty much just watching someone else do her job- but it beat mid-winter outdoor track runs. He'd even started to enjoy it, though Ruzzy was pretty consistently mum on anything League related, and occasional cameos from the rest of the Racers didn't suggest much in the way of the internal collapse Quickly was probably hoping for.
He's sitting at the desk in his room in the repurposed Accellaise holiday cabin he shares with Speedy, watching her run through a joke tier list of Marbula 1 Safety Marbles, arbitrarily sorting the anonymous exospheres based on the criteria of "vibes". The chat has locked itself into a furious argument over whether you can actually tell them apart at all, which means she's ignoring them for the most part, just talking to herself. Rapidly restrains himself from joining in, though as someone who's been on the track, he's strongly in the camp that you can tell, but they swap the person inside each time.
It goes quiet for a little while as Ruzzy thinks a particularly difficult choice over, and Rapidly decides to get up for a drink break. He has coffee silently brewing in the corner before Ruzzy pipes up again, having been dragging out the silence to mess with her rowdy viewers. She puts Safety Marble No. 3 in B tier, citing "ambivalent but noble vibes" (bullshit), returning to check on a now cooled-down chat as Rapidly watches and waits for the drip filter to finish.
"From ooooooolongtea - wonder what team you support- have I seen the leaked photos?" Ruzzy reads. "What leaked photos? Is it the new Pokemon anime?"
Minutes pass. Ruzzy launches back into active conversation with the audience, and Rapidly finally gets the chance to pour his coffee into his favourite mug, the cheesy No. 1 Brother one that Speedy had gotten him for his 19th birthday. He doesn't think about the "leaked photos" at all- he doesn't care for Pokemon, never has.
"ooooooolongtea again- sorry if I missed an o there- "the league ones"?" Ruzzy reads, more tentative and with an edge of frustration at the end. "You know I don't usually want to talk about League stuff on my streaming days."
The mention of the League draws Rapidly into full focus. He trains his eye on the slowing stream of messages in the corner, reading them through individually as best as he can manage.
"Nothing of me though, right?" Ruzzy jokes, loading up a new tier list of various fruits. Out of the corner of Rapidly's eye, raspberries are immediately moved into S tier.
He keeps reading, most of chat speculating as to where limes will go or what outlandish things the press could have caught Ruzzy doing.
Then, ooooooolongtea sends another message.
ooooooolongtea: no
ooooooolongtea: rapidly and mandarin
Shit.
A heavy sense of cold dread fills Rapidly's stomach the moment he reads his name next to Mandarin's. He tries to breathe in deep, tries to not immediately start freaking out before he hears more. He struggles to imagine anything that could have leaked aside from photos of their- thing, that they have- but it's not definitely that, right? And if he's only hearing about a leak for the first time from a random stream-goer, it still might be controllable.
Ruzzy pauses again. She's reading, and judging by the quizzical expression that briefly flashes across her face, she's seen the exact same message.
"C'mon, we've already talked about this. Spreading rumours about other athletes in the chat gets you banned."
ooooooolongtea: not rumours
Ruzzy rolls her eyes. "Not rumours...? Ugh, just get this clown out of here."
Then there's radio silence. Berry mods it for her, and he's pretty quick on the draw when it comes to the banhammer. Rapidly can't even begin typing him a private message, though he reckons it'd be an awful idea even if he could. Some murmurs and sly references to the topic still fly about in chat for a while, but nobody says anything openly as Ruzzy returns to the sorting, albeit still clearly slightly bothered by the messages.
Rapidly closes the stream, coming briefly back to himself. His hands are shaking, and he can barely focus them enough to type a new search query in the Bingle search bar of his browser.
"rapidly mandarin photos"
He doesn't include any other details, though he has an awful feeling he knows exactly what he'll be seeing in them. He holds his breath as the first page loads.
Highlighted at the top of the results is a news article; some 2-bit O'Rangers coverage website he's never heard of. Its headline is in all-caps, a scream that reveberates throughout the hollow parts of Rapidly's body.
"EXCLUSIVE: LEAKED PHOTOS OF MANDARIN AND SAVAGE SPEEDERS MAROON MISSILE RAPIDLY PARTY KISSING?"
An impulse to find whichever washed up, creepy, SEO-addled fuck had written it and strangle them swamps Rapidly. Even the photo thumbnail makes it clear exactly where they've gotten their proof from; pictures of him and Mandarin coming out of a nightclub in downtown Vellis, where the Wisps had been hosting their annual champions-and-hosts only New Years party. They'd been the last ones to leave, on the brink of total inebriation, and on the dark back street they'd exited onto they'd made the (stupid, foolish, exhilarating) decision to kiss "in public" while nobody was actually around.
Someone had to have been. Judging by the angle in the photo, Rapidly guesses they were probably on the first or second floor of one of the nearby buildings, perhaps the bathroom of another nightclub. The photos themselves are blurry records of the moment of the kiss; of course, Rapidly doesn't remember it like that. Slightly blurry from the alcohol, sure, but passionate, and warm, and like being loved. Not the soulless subject of a scandal. That was his first mistake- getting sentimental, as if anyone but Speedy could read his mind and take pity on him. He wants to scream, but can't, Speedy still being asleep in the next room over. Instead, he reads the full article.
It's not good. Not for him, but it's also abysmally written, though that it was first in the search results probably means it's picking up traction regardless. Grammatical issues are littered throughout, and the final paragraph is a mish-mash of more SEO terms- discouragingly, including the names of the rest of the O'Rangers and Speeders. If the universe is really out to get him, Whizzy will find the article soon; he wakes up early and pretty openly searches his own racing name all the time. The rest of it is just slightly edited sections from Rollopedia about the long-standing rivalry between the O'Rangers and the Speeders; Rapidly skims it, he knows it all better than anyone.
There's no contact details at the bottom. Or anywhere, Rapidly finds out, despite frantically searching the site from top to bottom. He'd bribe the guy anything to shut up about it, beyond what he could make just from ad revenue and data sales, but there's no option for it. He wants to scream- it remaining up and getting popular is the only barrier between other, bigger tabloid outlets picking it up and plastering it over the front page of every social media website he has and hasn't heard of. Then he's fucked.
Nearly dropping it as he does, he slips his phone out of his pocket and immediately calls Mandarin. It's the early hours in Orlango- 5am, according to the World Clock widget on the front screen- but Mandarin would want to know as soon as possible.
The call goes through after a few seconds. Rapidly has his own ringtone on Mandarin's phone, louder than everyone but the other O'Rangers and set to always go through even while muted.
"Hi, Rapidly." Mandarin's voice is soft and groggy, but there's already an underlying current of anxiety to it. That doesn't surprise Rapidly- a call at 5am is rarely good news. "Are you alright?"
"We're fucked." Rapidly blurts, blunted. "Pictures are in the press right now. Some... idiot with a fucking RollPress, but it's not long before big names get ahold of it."
There's silence on the other end of the line, and Rapidly can hear Mandarin's breathing get faster in the absence of a response.
"I'll gather the O'Rangers press circuit. We'll do damage control. You're sure the cat's out of the bag?" Mandarin says, voice lilting and pitching in the awkward way it does on those rare, privileged moments where Rapidly has seen him off his mental A-game.
"We're kissing in the photos, Mandarin. The cat tore the bag to pieces and ran off with the shreds."
"Speedy still doesn't know, right?"
"No. What about Clem, Orangin and Tangerin?"
"Same here." Kinnowin had found out the first time anyone had found out, back during the latter half of the League. It had been unpleasant, but it had been reliably contained, and Kinnowin had begrudgingly accepted his brother's... entanglement. "You should tell him. I'll be telling the others."
"Good thinking. If you wake them up at 5am, they'll be too mad at you for that to even really process the relationship bit."
A thin chuckle warbles through the patchy line between Accellaise and Orglando.
"Rango puts them through worse." Mandarin jokes, rather matter-of-factly. "Don't say anything online. Probably don't go outside, either. Shut the curtains if you can. I'll make it clear to all the O'Rangers press that anyone who covers this is losing endorsement from the team and is banned from all future events."
Rapidly gulps a little. He doesn't see much of Mandarin's intimidating side himself, but there's a good reason he's seen as so formidable.
"Got it."
They could hang up now, and he could go and wake up Speedy now to have the most awkward conversation since the time he got called in after Speedy pulled the fire alarm at school to escape a test. But there's something missing, something burning on the tip of his tongue.
"I'm sorry." Rapidly says, tears threatening to build in the corner of his eye, "I'm sorry I did this to you."
"I love you." he hears in return. It’s the first time Mandarin has said it, and Rapidly’s heart jumps in response. "We’ll be okay.”