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Kevin is not quite sure how he ended up here.
“Slug bug!” Katelyn calls out and lightly punches Kevin in the arm startling out of his existential thoughts.
“What?” Kevin startles, “Where?!” He demands looking frantically around from the back seat of the Maserati where himself, Katelyn, and Aaron were sat. Katelyn on one side, Aaron on the other while Neil and Andrew sat up front as they drove along.
“Right there, in the grocery parking lot.” Katelyn points as they pass a bright green Volkswagen Beetle that was sitting ever so innocently in the parking lot of the grocery store.
“I hate this game.” Kevin grumbles, “It’s not fair when I’m in the center seat.” He adds.
“Do you want me to kiss it better?” Katelyn asks and once again Kevin is struck with the thought that he has no idea how he has ended up where he is.
Well, physically, he is in the middle seat of Andrew’s car because Katelyn had taken his hand after him and Aaron had finished making out. Then she had led him into the backseat and Aaron had climbed in after him before he realized that they had tricked him into the middle seat.
It wasn’t fair when he was in the immediate post-haze of getting to kiss one of them.
He still can’t believe that he gets to kiss them. Can’t believe that it’s been two months of relationship bliss with Aaron and Katelyn. Two months since a health scare while Andrew and Neil were gone on a road trip. Two months since Aaron and Katelyn had taken care of him and nursed him back to health. Two months since Kevin, sick with fever and delirious, had waxed poetic about Aaron and Katelyn not realizing he was...waxing poetic to Aaron and Katelyn.
The two had helped him through the worst of his sickness all while reassuring Andrew and Neil that he was taken care of so that they would continue their much needed summer vacation road trip. He had heard from Katelyn, during their wine night, that Aaron and Katelyn had spent so much time talking about him. That so much of Aaron's 3rd year had been him and Katelyn working through Aaron's intense internalized biphobia.
“Slug bug.” Aaron says fist bumping into Kevin’s shoulder with more force than Katelyn but still not with any real force.
“Fuck, where?!” Kevin demands.
Aaron smiles and pulls Kevin close and…
Yeup, sure is a red Volkswagen Beetle in the parking lot of the Hooters.
“Why were you looking at the Hooters?” Katelyn asks and Kevin tenses slightly but Aaron just laughs.
“You know how I feel about Hooters Kate.” he says and it’s easier to hear the teasing tone in Aaron’s voice.
“They do have great wings.” Katelyn nods her tone giving away her amusement.
Kevin settles back into the car and his mind wanders back to the conversation a month ago where him and Katelyn were sat out on the Cheer House’s porch.
“He figured it didn’t matter because we were together. Him getting his big crush on you sent him into a bit of a panic.” Katelyn says, sipping on her Rosé.
“He got a crush on me?” Kevin asks, refilling his glass from the box of Franzia between them.
“Huge crush.” Katelyn says conspiratorially. “You had that magazine shoot a while back. You know the one where you were shirtless?” she says and Kevin likes to think that the blush on her cheeks is not entirely from the Rosé they were sharing.
“The Nike one yeah.” he nods.
“Well, you’ve seen how my roommate had a bunch of copies of that on her side right?” Katelyn asks and Kevin still remembers walking in as Ashley was tearing down pictures of him shirtless.
“Yeah?”
“Well, we were having some fun in the room and I guess he was looking at you and got the K-names a bit confused. It was pretty sweet but he freaked out.” Katelyn says with a sigh. “So we talked about it, and we talked about you.” she says.
“Slug bug.” Neil says and is in no way gentle as he punches Kevin’s thigh from the front seat.
“Neil, what the fuck you’re not even playing!” Kevin squawks rubbing his thigh and only feels mollified as Aaron rubs it soothingly as well.
“Says who? I’m in the car also.” Neil says and Kevin can see his dumb smug grin.
“Yeah but why not punch Andrew?! Why do I keep getting hit??” Kevin demands.
“He’s driving.” Neil says.
“We are at a stoplight.” Kevin hisses.
“I’m still driving.” Andrew says as the light goes green.
Kevin scowls, “Well, where even-” before he can finish the question he sees the yellow Volkswagen Beetle on the other side of the road slowly moving past them. “Ok fine.” he huffs and flops back in his seat.
Kevin knows how his own feelings for the two developed at least. Aaron had always felt the most normal out of the Foxes for Kevin. Someone as removed from the life that Kevin had lived as humanly possible. Aaron had always been clear that he had plans after college and those plans did not involve Exy. Kevin, despite his love of Exy, had always craved normalcy.
Aaron was going to have 2.5 kids, a gorgeous successful wife, and a white picket fence and Kevin was a little bit obsessed with the idea of it all.
Then Aaron smashed Drake’s skull in with an Exy racquet to protect his brother and didn’t regret it for a second. "He was hurting Andrew." Aaron had said as if was truly and honestly that simple. As if brothers always protect one another. Kevin couldn't help but rub his left hand as Aaron had dismissed what he had done as anything great.
God damn was Kevin terribly relieved that Andrew was away for the crisis that followed. Andrew would have picked up on his insane crush on Aaron in an instant while Neil didn’t even know about his own crush on Andrew. Kevin had time to process his feelings, lock them in a box, and seem totally normal by the time Andrew was back from his rehab and he had gotten so good at putting those emotions away that Andrew hadn't even realized how much those feelings had grown after spending Winter Break with Aaron.
It had been Aaron who had taken care of him after Andrew had tried to crush his throat.
His thoughts derailed again as he saw a white Volkswagen Beetle pull out onto the road but he was immediately faced with indecision on who to slug.
Neil was the obvious choice but he couldn’t deny wanting to give a teasing ‘slug’ to Aaron or Katelyn.
His indecision, as always, cost him.
“Slug bug.” Andrew says but doesn’t hit anyone. “White one pulling out onto the road.” he adds after a moment.
“I saw it first!” Kevin argues.
“You’re the one always talking about slow reflexes.” Neil shrugs.
Kevin grumbles since he cannot deny that. He’d been the one to tell Neil that he needed to stop being racked by indecision and that his instincts were better than his brain.
He should have punched Neil.
“You’ll get it next time.” Katelyn soothes, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
Kevin is mollified.
He lets himself think again about how for a while…he had hated Katelyn. Hated watching Aaron kiss her and was even angry at Neil for having pushed the twin’s relationship to the point where Aaron and Katelyn could be out in the open.
Except that changed.
That changed a lot.
Andrew and Neil were often away and well…Kevin had never been good at being alone so he’d gone over to his old roommates and it was hard to hate someone as nice as Katelyn when he actually got to spend time with her.
It had felt worse because now he had a crush on two unavailable people who were absolutely going to go the distance together. And maybe he spent a bit too much time at the gym. Maybe he ran in the rain because Neil always said it helped him process his own emotions and somehow that had seemed like sound advice from Neil ‘I’m fine’ Josten.
Maybe he ignored the tickle in the back of his throat for a little too long.
Then he woke up from his fever with Katelyn and Aaron at his sides. Katelyn’s hand over his forehead as if she had fallen asleep checking his temperature and Aaron’s hand resting on his pulse point at his wrist.
What follows is two of the happiest months of Kevin’s life.
His eyes zero in on an orange Volkswagen Beetle up ahead as Neil and Andrew are talking to one another. Andrew’s focus was more on Neil than on the road while Neil’s was entirely on Andrew.
Aaron points to Neil’s elbow with a sly smile that Kevin wants to kiss but will do it later as he punches Neil (not too hard) right in his funny bone.
“Christ!” Neil shouts, shaking out his arm and rubbing it as he deals with his nerve having been punched.
He turns and kisses Aaron’s temple, realizing that kissing his mouth would involve more bending than he really wanted to do in the car.
It’s nice having two partners who are so well versed in anatomy.