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It was January in West Virginia and the three of them were free for the night. Relatively free, anyway, as free as one could be from the Nest. They didn’t have a plan, they had keys to a car Riko owned but never used, a full gas tank, and six Happy Meals because three wasn’t enough and Riko really wanted a Happy Meal.
Kevin grimaced from the backseat as he watched Jean hold french fries up to Riko’s mouth as he drove. Riko laughed around a fry, granules of salt falling onto his dark coat, but he took four at a time without hesitation. Jean had already talked through a half paragraph history lesson on why french fries were called french fries (something about Belgium) and Kevin had only corrected him once about a date Jean didn’t remember (short of a miracle, that was).
Riko caught Kevin’s eye in the mirror and opened his mouth, revealing a gnarled mash of previously crispy potato that had been a victim of his teeth. Kevin gagged and Riko chortled loudly, nearly choking on some damn french fries.
“Where are we going again?” Kevin asked from the back seat as he pressed his forehead against the frigid window. “Do we even have time for whatever shit is on your mind right now?
Jean snorted softly from the passenger seat. He reached into the Happy Meal box and threw a chicken nugget in Kevin’s general direction. “Enjoy the time away, Kevin. Stop your complaining.”
Riko opened his mouth but shook his head at the first offered fry. Jean offered him a nugget instead and Riko took that happily. “We’re going ice skating.” Riko said through a mouthful of pulverized chicken and breading and BBQ sauce.
“Ice skating? Why the fu-”
Jean hummed. “Riko has never been.”
“How different could it be from the training we usually do?” Riko flicked a hand to switch on the blinker and turned into a place that looked like it was closed.
Kevin eyed the darkened building in confusion. “It’s closed.”
“They’re open for us, come on.” Riko turned the car off and that meant they were definitely going inside…somewhere. Jean and Kevin huddled together for warmth at Riko’s back, pressing close to him. Riko was struggling to fit a key into the lock.
“Take your gloves off,” Jean prodded at him, their shared breath starting to fog up the glass door.
Riko scoffed. “Absolutely not, it’s f-fucking freezing-” As if to prove his point, his teeth started to chatter. “Fuck-fucking g-goddamn key!”
“Let me try-” Kevin ripped his glove off and reached for the key Riko was already pressing into his fingers. Jean took Riko’s shaking hands in his own to keep them warm.
The door creaked open a moment later and they all breathed a sigh of relief. The lights went on as a handful of staff members greeted them, no doubt sworn to some Raven related secrecy but also fawning over the three famous Exy players gracing their little rink with their presence. They signed autographs, declined pictures (because they really weren’t supposed to be there) and bid their goodbyes. They all had to sign an NDA and the cameras the the rink were turned off.
Three pairs of skates were waiting for them when they finally approached the ice. Jean had his on first, having spent years ice skating as a child when he lived France. Snow was rare in Marseille but neighboring cities had lakes that froze over enough for a boy sized Jean to skate on them. He stood at the edge of the ice watching Kevin help Riko into his smaller sized skates. He watched them knock into each other, quietly joking and laughing at something Jean couldn’t hear.
He couldn’t help the pull in his chest, something deepseeded and familiar at that point in their relationship. It had gotten better once the three of them shared their mutual feelings for each other but Jean felt like he intruded on a relationship that would have been fine without his presence, easier without it as well- they would already have the complication of being gay in the sporting industry but to add a third person to their relationship? It was unheard of.
“Hey,” Kevin’s fingers touched Jean’s jaw, pulling him from him thoughts with a warm smile. “Where’d you go?”
Jean shook his head slightly and held out his hand. “Nowhere, I’m here. Come on,”
Kevin took his hand if only to steady himself on the ice. He was a natural at anything he tried, Jean had no doubt Kevin would be skating circles around them before the end of the night.
Riko, however, was not. He reached for Jean’s hand and stepped onto the ice. He looked up to Jean with a grin and his feet gave out, knocking both of them onto the ice. Kevin let out a loud laugh as they came in contact with the cold surface that was meant for blades and maybe pucks, not asses. Jean sat up, chock full of nervous energy, and started reaching for Riko but his Captain swatted him away. Jean flinched at the action and Riko frowned up at him.
“Hey,” Riko’s tone was soft, something Jean had grown accustomed to early on in their relationship but had since dimmed when they were around others. “What was that?”
Jean cleared his throat quietly. “What was what?”
Riko’s frown deepened. ‘What’s wrong?” He held his hands out to Jean, urging him to help him to his feet. Jean obliged but Riko’s frown didn’t fade. He glanced at Kevin who was pointedly not looking at them. “What is happening right now?”
“Nothing, I apologize.”
“Jean, please. It’s me,” Riko slowly removed his glove and reached up to touch Jean’s cheek. Jean’s hand flew up to cover Riko’s and he tried to smile. “Are you good?” He meant are we good but didn’t say it. Jean nodded and Riko gave him a reluctant smile back. “Skate with me?”
Kevin watched as they started skating away, Riko on unsteady feet and Jean carefully guiding him, explaining quietly how to steady himself. Kevin took to the ice naturally, as he thought he would, and was skating backwards half an hour later.
Riko was…awful at it. He fell at least half a dozen times over that same half hour, Jean missing him each time, and Kevin watched on as Jean withdrew into himself even though Riko laughed off each misstep. He was low to the ground and spinning when Riko fell once more, that time taking Jean down with him.
Riko finally smacked the ground in frustration and even from the distance, Kevin could see how hunched Jean was. He was shaking, and not from the cold. He skated over and stopped inches from them. Riko was laughing, clearly frustrated, but still trying to laugh it off. He wasn’t quite used to not being good at something. Jean’s expression was pinched and he wasn’t moving, his chest stuttered with each intake of breath.
Riko’s smile faded when he saw Kevin’s expression and he sat up to look down at Jean. “Hey, what’s-”
“ Je suis désolé. ” Jean muttered, his eyes closed.
“For what?”
Kevin didn’t acknowledge Jean’s words, he reached for his hand instead. “Come on, get up. It’s fine.”
“ Je suis désolé .” He repeated.
“Jean, babe, what’s wrong? I’m fine- why are you- what is going on?” Riko got to his feet and took Jean’s other hand. Together, they pulled him to his feet and he finally opened his eyes.
“Shit,” Jean breathed, sucking in all the air he could. “Shit, shit-”
“He’s having a panic attack,” Riko whispered. He squeezed Jean’s fingers with one hand and guided him to the rink doors with the other, Kevin at his back. “Come on, let’s sit-”
Kevin went for water as Riko stood behind Jean, his hands gentle on Jean’s heaving shoulders. Jean gulped down a bottle and Kevin handed him a second. He drank half of that before slumping on the bench he sat on with a low groan.
“Shit.”
“What’s going on?”
Kevin glanced at Jean as Riko spoke, his lips curling into a frown. “He’s having a panic attack.”
“Why?”
“Because-”
“Kevin, don’t.”
Riko moved to sit beside Jean, swinging a leg over the bench so he could face him. “Don’t what? What am I not being told right now?”
“Just tell him, Jean. Get it over with. It’s affecting your health at this point-”
“Kevin!”
“No!” Kevin’s voice echoed in the empty rink, his eyes blazing as he yelled again. “No. Fuck that. You tell him or I will- I’m tired of this shit. I’m not watching you fall apart because you refuse to speak up.”
“ Merde , mind your fucking business. It has nothing to do with you!”
“There are three people in this relationship, it has everything to do with me.”
Jean stood as he cursed, stepping directly into Kevin’s space. “Fuck you-”
“ Stop .” Riko was between them, a hand against each mans chest. “Stop. Stop- you can’t- come on, you can’t talk to each other like that.” Kevin and Jean stayed silent, brooding separately but together.
“Both of you sit.” Though he was the smaller of the three by a significant amount, Riko was the glue that held the other two together. They likely wouldn’t be together without him. They felt like they were getting scolded, in a way, not just because he was their Captain: it was his presence.
“Talk to me.” His voice cracked, Jean and Kevin’s eyes snapped up at the break.
“It’s-”
“Don’t say it’s nothing. It’s obviously something. Something has been going on for a while but you aren’t talking to me- and you, you know-” He pointed at Kevin accusingly. “-and you aren’t telling me either. We either talk here or- or- fuck, I don’t know. When did you start lying to me?”
Riko’s cheeks were flushed, it complimented his dark features nicely, Kevin couldn’t help but think, though he generally preferred to see the blush when Riko was spread out underneath him. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and reached for Jean’s hand, squeezing it tight to offer courage he was clearly missing. Jean’s hand was limp in his own but he sighed in resignation.
“Riko, what do you think of me?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that, what do you think of me?” Jean sounded exasperated and Kevin couldn’t blame him. Kevin had seen it happening but knew it wasn’t his place to speak on Jean’s feelings.
“I don’t-” Riko threw his hands in the air, equally frustrated from something that was an apparent lack of communication that he wasn’t aware of. “You know how I feel about you, you’re my- you’re our boyfriend for fucks sake, what are you asking-”
“Then why are you different when we’re around the rest of the Ravens?” Jean’s voice was small and Kevin hated it. His words were tight and clipped.
“What?” Kevin glanced up at Riko and realized he genuinely didn’t know what Jean was talking about. His eyebrows had furrowed together in confusion, his lips parted in surprise at Jean’s omission.
Jean let out a frustrated growl and took his hand from Riko’s. Riko let his drop to the bench, landing against the padding with a quiet thud. “You act so fucking different in front of the other Ravens that it makes me wonder what you think of me- what you think of this. You are always so open about your relationship with Kevin in front of them. Then I came along and it’s- it’s like I’m some big fucking secret. Why am I even here?”
“Jean-”
“Shut up, Kevin, I know what you’re going to say and I don’t care. Just…shut up.” Jean continued. “When we’re around them, you don’t touch me, you know? Not like you do with Kevin. You don’t acknowledge our relationship in front of other people so I want to know what you think of me.”
“I- I don’t-” Riko couldn’t quite get the words out. “I’m- I don’t do that-”
“Please don’t try and deny it. I’m not stupid.” Jean glowered.
“I didn’t say you were! Jean, please, I genuinely don’t-”
“This is such a stupid fucking conversation.” Jean muttered as he stood, moving away from the both of them. “It’s no use going back and forth when things will continue as they have been. I would rather not waste my breath discussing this further.”
Kevin started to reach for him but pulled away when he realized Riko was already doing so. “Please, wait, wait- please, Jean. Talk to me- let me…let me talk to you. Please.” Jean paused at the strain in Riko’s voice, not used to hearing him talk in that tone. He turned and sat back down, staring at the rink. “I’m sorry-”
“You cannot be sorry if you do not know what you are sorry for. You cannot be sorry if you do not realize you are doing something. That would mean that you are sorry that I noticed.”
Riko ran a hand through his hand roughly as he groaned. “No- no, fuck, that’s not what I mean. I’m not sorry that you noticed, I’m sorry that I didn’t. I don’t know- goddammit, I fucking- I-” Riko got like that when he was upset, he would lose his words and turned into a bumbling mess of foul language. Usually Kevin would calm him but he knew what Jean was feeling and knew they needed to finally hash it out.
“Breathe.” Jean murmured, glancing at Riko in his peripheral. “Slow down.” Even when he struggled to voice his own feelings, he couldn’t help but comfort Riko.
Riko sucked in a breath and buried in face in his hands. “I’m so used to it being just Kevin and I. This is still new…it’s been- I’ve been with Kevin for so long that he’s like a second skin, he’s like a shadow- in a good way, not in a bad way. I- Jean, look at me-” Jean did. “I should have asked. I assumed that you weren’t comfortable with certain things instead of directly asking you and that’s my fault.”
Jean’s eyes glazed over at Riko’s words. Kevin grimaced. Jean’s past wasn’t something that they talked about regularly. He had experienced the harshness of the world before he entered Kevin and Riko’s lives. He had been assaulted in every way a person could be and it took months of friendship for him to open up about any of it. Kevin first, Riko second. They came together shortly after. It was Riko who brought up the possibility of the three of them to Kevin first (something Jean did not know).
Riko once found Jean on the court by himself, before they had gotten together, training to the point of pain as he tortured himself over memories of coercion, a lack of consent, and humuliation among many, many other things. Jean didn’t hear Riko when he first entered the court despite the amount of times Riko called out his name, only Moreau at first but softening to Jean when he realized his number 3 couldn’t hear him. His entire body recoiled when Riko’s hand found his elbow. He hadn’t even heard Riko open the doors to the court or walk up beside him.
Jean fell forward, cracking his helmet into the hard court floor. Riko rushed to his side, ripping off his helmet and not realizing the nightmare that Jean was trapped in. Jean started to scream, something guttural that Riko had never heard before and he never wanted to hear again. It wasn’t until sweat was dripping off of Jean’s chin as he clung to Riko, sobbing against his chest, that Riko finally wrapped his arms around him: tightening them until Jean stopped shaking.
“I’m sorry,” Riko whispered the words, letting them fall between them. “I am sorry, Jean. Listen to me, are you listening?”
Jean nodded. “Yes.”
“You mean the world to me. You have made me a better man, you mean everything to me. You and Kev- well, you know how I feel about Kev, he does too, but you… Jean, there’s nobody else in the world I would rather spend my nights with, okay? I’ll do better, I promise I’ll do better, just don’t-” His voice cracked again and Jean’s eyes were widened in surprise.
“Riko-”
“Jesus, this is cheesy,” Kevin commented as he turned away to wipe at his eyes.
“And you are a sap, mon cher .” Jean acknowledged Kevin’s attempt to lighten the conversation as Riko tried to smile, but failed. “I am notoriously bad at communicating.”
“Well, you’re-”
“No, he fucking sucks at it.” Kevin agreed, interrupting Riko and ignoring the sideways glare Riko gave him.
“I trust you is what I am trying to say, I hope you will trust me to know that if anything between us was ever not something I wanted, I would say as much.” Jean continued.
“I do, I do trust you.”
“Come here, then,” Jean reached for Riko’s collar and pulled him into a soft kiss, relaxing as Riko smiled against his mouth. He pressed his fingers against Riko’s cold cheek, opening his jaw to deepen the kiss. Kevin rolled his eyes behind them and went back on the ice. “Now let me teach you to skate, mon amour , you are so bad at it.”
Riko kissed him once more and pulled back to laugh. “I know, fuck, I know- this is hard. I don’t know how those puck-fucks do it. But you can help me, right?”
Jean’s smile was soft when he gave him a simple yes . He took Riko’s hand tightly in his own and they didn’t fall again. Riko didn’t get much better but he held onto Jean who guided him around the ice until he was skating by himself, Jean and Kevin close by. He was grinning and spinning, uncontrollably at first with both but he steadied himself before falling. The three of them skated together until the staff reentered the let them know their time was up. Riko was holding Jean’s hand tightly as they left the building, ignoring the whispers of the staff as they gleefully watched the throuple walk away together.
“Sit with me,” Riko tugged Jean into the backseat, a flush high on his cheeks as he sat with his back against the door, urging Jean to settle between his legs.
Kevin snorted at the action and slipped into the driver seat. Jean huffed out a laugh and started nursing in french again, something about the size of him versus the size of the backseat but he settled on top of Riko all the same. Riko pressed both of his palms against Jean’s cheek, hi fingers stretching out toward his ear lobes, and his thumbs caressing Jean’s cold skin.
“I’m sorry,” Jean’s eyes closed at the apology, letting it wash over him.
It wasn’t that he needed Riko to apologize, he just needed the man to acknowledge him as a real part of their relationship. The last thing to cross his mind was Riko taking his past into consideration because it was something Jean pushed out of his mind whenever confronted with it.
“It’s okay,” Jean whispered back, leaning forward to kiss Riko.
“Yes- yes, you say it is but-” Riko worried his lip as he looked at up Jean, still caressing his face with his fingertips. “You have to tell me things, okay? If i’m doing something you don’t like, please just tell me- i don’t care if it’s in front of everyone, call me out on my bullshit-”
Kevin snorted from the front seat. “ Please call him out on his bullshit.”
Riko glared at the back of the driver’s seat for a moment before Jean distracted him with his lips against Riko’s jaw. “Fuck off, Day. I like Jean better anyway, he’s more fun to torment with my love and affection.”
Kevin muttered something that neither of them could hear but they each knew it was some kind of insult. “Where are we going?”
“We clearly do not know, where are you taking us?” Jean murmured, his words muffled by Riko’s skin.
“To hell, probably.” Kevin responded, turning onto the freeway. “We’ve had McDonald’s, we’ve spent 2 hours watching him fall on his ass, we’ve had relationship revelations- what else does a night need?”
Jean hummed in thought. “Alcohol?”
“No, I think Kevin is turning into a drunk.” It was a joke between them but it would probably lead to another relationship revelation between the three of them. “Dessert?”
“Oh, dessert sounds nice.”
“It’s nearly midnight, where are we getting dessert?”
“The third place we see that’s okay.” Riko replied with a soft smirk.
Kevin’s eyeroll was audible from the front seat. “Because three is my favorite number .” His voice became high pitched as he mocked Riko.
“I don’t sound like that.” Riko pouted.
“He is a jealous asshole, ignore him.” Jean reached out to flick Kevin’s ear, earning a startled yelp in response.
“I am driving !” Kevin hissed back, reaching his right arm back to swat back at Jean.
“Please don’t kill us,” Riko laughed beneath Jean.
“Dunkin Donuts is the third place, congrats, you get coffee for dessert.”
“Or donuts.”
“Oh, I would love a donut. Or a croissant.”
Jean scowled and Riko and immediately withdrew from him, ignoring the whine of protest. “I have taught you many times how to say that and you are somehow still so wrong.”
“If it isn’t Japanese, Riko has zero concept of a foreign language.” Kevin pulled into the drive through and asked the tired teenager to give them a minute. “Please detach from each other for a moment to decide what you want.”
Riko craned his head back from where he continued to lay, his feet in Jean’s lap. “I want a Pink Velvet Macchi-”
“It is nearly midnight. No.” Kevin responded without hesitation.
Riko sighed loudly and dramatically. “Then I want a large frozen chocolate with a toasted white chocolate swirl.”
“You want a fucking what ?” Jean leaned over to see the menu. “What is a Coollatte?”
“It’s a Coolatta, you uncultured twat.” Kevin barked back. “Do you want one?”
“Yes, blue raspberry.”
“Figures.” Kevin muttered, earning another ear flick. He leaned closer to the window to order. “Can I get a small blue raspberry Coolatta and a-a-fucking large frozen chocolate with a toasted white chocolate swirl-”
“What size was that?”
“Large.”
“Ok a large blue raspberry Coolatta and-”
“No, a small.” Kevin corrected.
“A small frozen choco-”
“No, no-” Riko and Jean were snickering in the background. “A large frozen chocolate with a toasted white chocolate swirl and a small blue raspberry Coolatta.”
“Okay, cool, anything else?”
“Yeah, a small nonfat iced match latte-”
“We don’t have nonfat milk.”
Kevin glared at the speakerbox. “What do you have?”
“Whole, soy, almond, skim-”
“Skim milk then.”
“Ok so a large blue rasp-”
“I swear to fucking-” Kevin was muttering under his breath. “Small blue raspberry.”
“Large blue raspberry what?”
“If you make me say Coolatta one more time I’m going to burn this place down.”
“Sir, please don’t burn this place down, I’m saving for an Xbox.”
“I will buy you an Xbox myself if you can get this order right the next time you repeat it.”
“Really, dude?” His excitement would have been contagious if Kevin wasn’t so irritated.
“Yes.” Kevin’s jaw hurt from how hard he was clenching it.
“One small blue raspberry forbidden word-” A lot of laughing in the backseat. “-A large frozen chocolate with a toasted white chocolate swirl and one small skim milk Match- what was that?”
“I didn’t say anything.” Kevin seethed.
“Not you, bud, my boss- oh! Oh hey man, we’re out of Matcha.”
“I’m going to off myself.” Kevin said quietly.
“Over some Dunkin, man? Come on. At least don’t do it in my drive-thru, you’ll extend our close.”
“Jean, please take me out of my goddamn misery.”
“Of course, Kevin, you know I would do anything for you.”
“Can I do it? I always wanted to know what Kevin Day’s screams sound like.” Riko laughed loudly from the back.
“Did you want something instead of the matcha?”
Kevin sighed through his nose, long and heavy. “2 dozen donuts. Assorted. I literally don’t care what they are. Put whatever you have left in a box and give them to me.” With that, Kevin pulled up to the pay here window with a hundred dollar bill in his hand. The same teenager approached the window with tired eyes and raised an eyebrow at the bill. “Keep the change.”
“Do I still get an Xbox?”
“Did you repeated the order back to me correctly?”
“Techni-”
“No.” Kevin snapped back.
“Do not be mean to minimum wage workers, you classist.”
Kevin spun around in his seat and started attacking Jean. Riko laughed loudly as he pushed them apart, shoving Kevin back into the front seat and Jean into the furthest away back seat. The teenager popped up again and handed Kevin two boxes of donuts. Kevin looked back for the drinks and stared at them for one long silent minute.
“Do you want these or not?”
Kevin accept the large blue raspberry forbidden-word and the small frozen chocolate with a toasted white chocolate swirl with a placid smile. “Thanks.”
“Have a great night! Hope to see you again soon!”
Kevin stared at the teenager again. “Seeing you in 45 years would be too soon.” He drove away, a pair of laughing young men in the backseat that he proceeded to ignore. Kevin found a quiet park with an empty parking lot to stay in and he exited the car, to the surprise of the other two, though he left it running.
A few seconds later, he was at the backdoor, pushing Riko into the middle.
“Hurry the fuck up, it’s fucking cold as fuck!”
“What a beautiful sort of language you have there, it is a wonder that you managed to entice two men into a relationship.” Jean muttered as he adjusted to make room for Kevin.
“Like it was hard.” Kevin snarked back.
They each slurped on their drink, Jean more quietly than the other two because excuse them, he was French . Kevin had a bottle of water in one hand and a bear claw in the other. He realized when he opened the box that the teenage overseer at Dunkin gave him only specialty donuts so he wasn’t sure how much of that $100 was a tip and how much was given for the total. He was debating between a fritter and a bear claw when Riko started eyeing the bear claw. He had to get to it before Riko could get his grubby little hands on it.
He had half of it in his mouth when Riko raised an eyebrow at him. “I was going to be surprised but I’ve seen how much of Jean’s dick you can fit in your mouth, so I’m really not.”
So, Kevin started choking.
30 seconds and a slobbery coughed up piece of fried dough later, everything was okay again. Kevin’s head was on Riko’s shoulder as he chewed a second donut, though he shared that one with Jean. Jean’s head was on Riko’s opposite shoulder as they huddled together for warmth. At least Kevin had the sense to leave the heat going. They shared the silence together, something comfortable that had grown between them over time passed.
Jean didn’t feel perfect about it all but he felt better , he knew they had more talking to do though it could wait for another-
“Is there anything else we needed to bring up tonight?” Riko was looking at Jean with a hopeful expression on his face, guarded but hopeful.
Jean gave him half of a smile. “We don’t have to.”
“I want to,” Riko urged, placing his cup down on the center console in front of him. “Is there?”
Kevin turned to look at Jean as well and they caught each other’s gaze over Riko’s head. Kevin nodded slightly and Jean held back a breath, only for a moment.
“It’s- I just- I do want want to go back and things do not change…” Jean trailed off, not wanting to delve into it but at the same time know he needed to, for his own sake. “I do not want to make you do anything you would not want to do, even if that means changing for me.”
“Showing you affection I should already be showing you- affection that I want to show you isn’t anything you have to make me do, Jean. It’s not even something that I should need to be reminded of.” Riko muttered the last part in a self-deprecating way that was unheard of for their Captain though Kevin and Jean knew it stemmed from a lack of affection in his family over anything else.
“I do not know how to fully explain myself without sounding like I am- am desperate for your attention.”
“Be desperate for my attention! That’s totally fine,” Kevin snorted at Riko’s pleading and Riko elbowed him. “You’re the commodity here, not me, you’re my favorite human being- please fuck off, Kevin- you’re here for me despite my intricate and endless daddy issues. I’m probably unbalanced somewhere in here-” Riko tapped his head and Jean bit back a smile. “-and I’m almost always physically incapable of holding a decent conversation without the two of you around but- but- but fuck, I can’t leave you alone. I won’t leave you alone, and I am sorry.”
“Riko-”
“Wait, wait, let me-” Riko surged forward and kissed Jean on the mouth. He had to lift himself a little bit as Jean was still far too tall for the back seat but Jean met the kiss with his own forward lean.
“Jean is getting far too much affection tonight,” It was a joke, they all knew it was a joke, and Jean was happy to admit he pulled back laughing from the kiss without a heavy weight on his chest. He felt…warm. Comfortable. Safe.
“Kevin is a jealous bitch.” Jean whispered as if he and Riko were the only two there.
“He is, do you think we should indulge him?”
Kevin sighed very loudly behind them. “I hate you both.”
Riko grabbed the collar of his sweater and yanked him forward. “You do not,” He pulled Kevin into a gentle kiss, the way Kevin preferred it. He nipped at Kevin’s bottom lip and grinned at him. “You’re such a baby.”
“I am not.”
Jean pulled his collar next, leaning over Riko. “You are,” He stole a second kiss but pulled back with a grimace. “You taste like diabetes.”
“You like it,” Kevin’s eyes were hooded and his lip still parted as he closed his eyes for another kiss. They each gave in, as easy that night as it was any other. “And stop yanking on my fucking collar, you’re stretching it out and this is Gucci.”
Jean huffed out a laugh. “No shit, we couldn’t tell by how the insignia is plastered all over the material. You need better taste, you Queen.”
“I am a Queen. Don’t you forget it. The most important piece.”
“You really are,” Riko added. “Right now you’re the most important driver and I’m exhausted and my ass hurts from falling so much so let’s get going.”
Kevin smirked. “I mean your ass could be hurting from something else entirely, just give me like 10 minutes.”
“10? Feeling confident, are we?”
“Fuck you, Jean.” Kevin responded with narrowed eyes.
“Oh, we all know it’s you that prefers to have his face pressed into the mattress while I-”
Kevin’s face was flushed as he immediately exited the car and slammed the door shut. He was banging on the door a moment later after locking himself out of the car.
..••°°°°••..°°••....••°°..••°°°°••..°°••....••°°..
Their next destination was originally the Nest, but after Riko received a text from Master Moriyama indicating their practice would be moved to the evening, they took a detour. It was a quarter until 4 in the morning when they arrived at a 4 star hotel with two kind sized beds, one of which wouldn’t be touched. They weren’t tired, not with their 16 hour day type schedules, so they all laid on the bed in the afterglow of each other’s company, Riko in only boxers, Kevin in a tank top and boxers, and Jean in his signature long sleeve and briefs.
His thighs were marked with old scars and fresh bruises (the latter because Kevin was adorably handsy when he was between Jean’s legs) and Riko traced over a particularly deep scar that stretched up his inner thigh as he tossed grapes in Kevin’s general direction. He was paying far too much attention to Jean to actually hit anything other than his forehead, teeth, or cheek but Kevin still tried to bob and weave his head.
He cheered when one finally landed in his mouth. Riko burst into laughter from where he sat in Jean’s lap, him against Jean’s chest and Jean’s back against the headboard. Kevin laughed with them and maneuvered to lay between their legs, stretching his body upward like the cat he sometimes behaved like until Riko locked his ankles behind Jean’s lower back. Jean’s fingers carded through Kevin’s hair slowly, smiling as Kevin’s eyes fell shut and his cheek pressed into Jean’s palm.
I love you ’s flowed between them like water without any kind of blockage, washing over each of them alongside soft smiles, and gentle touches. It was all second nature to them. Kevin laid against Riko’s thigh, humming quietly as Jean continued petting him.
He jaw cracked with a yawn that was contagious to the other two. “How long do we have?”
Riko stretched for his phone that Jean eventually grabbed for him and checked the time. “6 hours or so.”
“We are spending it sleeping, yes?” Jean murmured, pressing a kiss to Riko’s shoulder.
“Fuck yeah we are,” Riko agreed. He nudged Kevin until he scooted onto their side. Riko took the middle and Jean’s arm looped around his waist, resting his hand on Kevin’s hip. Kevin scooted as far back to Riko as he could, until he heard the man wheeze. “I’m fine, I’m fine- I- Jesus, you’re both so big-”
“You’ve said that enough tonight, I think.” Jean’s lips were on his shoulder again and Riko pushed back against him.
“Go to sleep.” Riko was smiling as his eyes closed. He murmured another I love you as he slipped into unconsciousness.
..••°°°°••..°°••....••°°..••°°°°••..°°••....••°°..
Thankfully, Master Moriyama was not back at Edgar Allen by the time the three of them reentered the Nest. They made the wise decision to go for a run beforehand to at least appear they had disappeared all night to workout. Their sweaty foreheads and dirty shoes held the excuse together.
However, nobody paid attention to any of that, every other Raven’s eyes locked on Riko and Jean’s fingers laced together, Kevin trailing behind them as he scrolled through his phone. Riko’s head was held so high that he didn’t notice at first how ducked Jean’ was. It wasn’t until a third string freshman had the gall to fall into step beside Kevin and ask if he had been dumped that Riko turned to glare but noticed how hunched Jean’s shoulders were.
Riko stopped in the middle of the hall, causing Kevin (who wasn’t paying attention to anything other than his phone) to knock into his back. The freshman grabbed for Kevin’s dropped phone as he apologized profusely for something that wasn’t his fault. Jean stopped as well but didn’t look to see why Riko had stopped, he simply stood frozen in the hall, the world continuing around him. He did not like being the center of any kind of negative attention.
“Hey,” Riko squeezed his hand and Jean blinked down at him, a crease between his brows.
Jean started to release his hand, wondering if that was what was making Riko uncomfortable, but Riko gripped it tighter and Jean frowned.
“Hey!” Riko said more insistently. He reached up to tug on Jean’s collar and pull him down. Jean stumbled but Riko caught him. Jean opened his mouth to say something but Riko pressed his mouth against Jean’s, a rough meeting of their lips in the middle of the hallway, bringing conversations around them to a halt.
Kevin was still scrolling through short video clips on his phone, snorting at orange cats smacking their orange cat friends. “Can we go eat?”
Jean’s eyes were still closed when Riko pulled away from him, the smallest smile gracing his lips. “Yeah.”
Riko’s face morphed into something more sinister when he caught each Raven’s eye, one by one as he looked around the hall. He reached back for Kevin’s hand and tugged both of his boyfriends down the hallway. Kevin stuffed his phone into his front pocket and his free fingers slipped through Jean’s belt loops. Jean didn’t register any of the looks he received any longer, he only felt Kevin’s warmth and Riko’s positive energy as he followed him down the hall toward the Nest’s private cafeteria.
They shared chicken, salad, broccoli, and rice (the usual) huddled together despite the curious eyes of other Raven’s. Riko took Jean’s acceptance of physical touch to heart and was peppering his face with kisses between bites of food. Kevin shook his head, a smile gracing his face, and let Jean be loved on. If anybody deserved it, Jean did.