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Shieda Kayn considers himself good at a lot of things, including maintaining a cool, mysterious aura and keeping secrets. His boyfriend, on the other hand? Loud, overly social, chatty, and occasionally clumsy with both his actions and words.
But if Ezreal is the one who’s bad at keeping things discreet, how does Kayn end up being the one to expose the true nature of their relationship in a way neither of them planned?
As the fearsome (co)leader of Labrys Academy’s assassin club, Kayn had a certain reputation to uphold. Being head over heels in love with the golden boy of a rival school would surely destroy the intimidating persona he’d spent so many years building. But being the greedy and audacious young man he is, Kayn wants it all, so he made Ezreal promise to keep their relationship a secret— at least until they were both so untouchable something like that wouldn’t threaten their standings.
Ezreal had originally disliked the idea, and Kayn could vividly recall his “power of love and friendship” spiel about how there was no inherent weakness in loving and relying on others. Kayn reassured him then that he was far from embarrassed of being in a relationship with Ezreal (because even if he was silly, he was still the prettiest and most talented guy Kayn knew), he just didn’t want to deal with the hassle of dealing with other people giving both of them problems for it.
And so the boys decided to keep their Lord Dominik’s Regards (Long Distance Relationship) for each other a secret. Although, over time, it became more of a game to see who would slip up first than a practical promise.
“Hey Kayn, wanna make a bet?”
“You know I won’t back down from a challenge, blondie. Name it.”
“Whoever accidentally reveals that we’re dating to our friends first loses.”
“Oh please, you can’t keep secrets to save your life.”
“Can to! Anyway, aren’t you gonna ask me what I want if I win?”
“You won’t win, but fine, what do you want?”
“If I win, you have to buy me the extra large Yuuto plush we saw the other day. Aaand I want a piggy back ride on Rhaast.”
“Two things? Isn’t that a bit greedy, Ez?”
“Well according to you I’m totally gonna lose, so I should get a little extra for winning, right?”
Ezreal could be a bit of a clever, opportunistic smartass sometimes, but it was one of the things Kayn loved most about him, so he let it slide. (Not really)
“Alright then princess, you’re on. But if I win… you have to put on one of your school’s girl uniforms for me.”
Kayn relished the way the suggestion brought a pink tint to Ezreal’s cheeks. He’d be an even bigger liar than he already admitted to being if he said the thought of those short skirt pleats swishing around Ezreal’s legs didn’t entice him.
“Geez, Kayn, you’re such a perv. But whatever, it’s a deal!”
At first, Ezreal made poor attempts to try to sabotage Kayn with spontaneous questions while they were in public— the kind of stuff only couples would answer, but ubiquitous enough that one might blurt an incriminating response before thinking about it. Having been raised with the strict teachings of Zed, Kayn knew better than to fall for silly tricks like that.
Later on, Ezreal abandoned that method for “jokingly” flirting with him in the presence of their peers during school joint training events. That did tick Kayn off a tiny bit because Ez could basically say whatever he wanted short of, “Oh yeah, we’re an item,” and everyone would just excuse it as Ezreal-isms. Kayn, however, did not have a reputation for being a bubbly social butterfly who blew kisses towards his (alleged) sworn enemy. Instead, he had to let Ezreal get away with being a massive brat without putting him in his place by shamelessly flirting back or shutting him up with a stolen kiss.
Still, Kayn’s self-control persisted, and Ezreal stopped proactively trying to force his win aside from half-hearted jabs here and there. Kayn felt smug once he noticed the blond’s decreased attention to the matter. He had this in the bag.
At least, he assumed he did until that one fateful phone call…
Kayn and Ezreal made it a routine to call each other at least once a week to talk about homework and catch up. These sessions would always devolve into Kayn listening to Ezreal yap about random minor details in his day; Ezreal seemed to always have much greater responses to low-level stimuli than him.
“Oh yeah, remember Katarina, the president of our assassin club?”
“Uhuh, what about her?”
“Her brother, Talon, recently enrolled at Durandal from their family training unit. He kinda reminds me of you actually!”
What?
Kayn didn’t particularly care about new names and faces popping up in conversation, but the second sentence immediately set off the alarm bells in his head. Why was his boyfriend describing another man as similar to himself? Similar how? Similar in height? Maybe. Similar in power? Unlikely. Similar in how hot they were to a certain blondie? Absolutely not. If that were even anywhere remotely close to the truth this bird-foot-name-having ass jerk was gonna pay.
“Kaaaynnn, hello? Kayn, you okay? Can you hear me?”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry I got… distracted.”
“Right, but yeah, he’s got the whole edgy brooding assassin thing you do too!”
Kayn’s irritation grew stronger. Why were they still talking about this Talon guy?
“Well he’s definitely not better looking than me.”
Ezreal seemed to notice Kayn’s slight irritation and was quick to reassure his boyfriend.
“I mean, he wears a big hood all the time and doesn’t seem to want to socialize, so I haven’t ever gotten a good look at his face. Anyway, don’t worry, you’ll always be the best looking guy to me <3. Plus, he’s like, reeeeallly avoidant of people and super serious all the time.”
“And I’m…?”
“An adorable big sweetheart on the inside, obviously!” Ezreal laughed.
Kayn didn’t find it that funny though. Even though he knew Ezreal meant it in a nice way, he couldn’t help but think of it as a suggestion that Talon was cooler and more competent than him, which in itself had to do with Kayn’s own complex about needing to present as more nonchalant and serious than he actually was, but that wasn’t something Kayn wanted to work through at present. All Kayn wanted right now was another man’s name off Ezreal’s tongue.
“Ez, don’t you think it’s wrong to talk about other men while you’re on a call with your boyfriend?”
Ezreal’s eyes became filled with pure elation as a shit-eating grin spread across his face.
“Awww, babe, are you jealous?”
Ezreal only called him “babe” in that voice when he felt like stirring the pot, and Kayn silently cursed the fact that the feeling he hadn’t wanted to name was found out.
“I’m not jealous. It’s a matter of principle.”
“Pfft. It’s okay for you to be jealous. I am the most charming guy around after all.”
“Not. Jealous.”
“Right, right,” Ezreal didn’t sound convinced in the slightest. “I won’t talk about Talon anymore and focus all of my attention on my darling sweetie schnookums pookie bear. Better?”
Kayn cringed, hard. Yeah, he did want all of Ezreal’s undivided love and attention, but that was like, normal. Blondie just had to tease him by making Kayn’s totally reasonable request sound all gross and clingy by piling on a heaping spoon of god-awful nicknames.
“Do that again and I’m breaking up with you,” he deadpanned.
Ezreal let out that pretty little giggle of his, the one that always got Kayn messed up inside.
“You wouldn’t.”
No, he would never willingly let go of Ezreal. Especially not to some random guy Kayn hadn’t even met. But Ezreal didn’t have to know the severity of Kayn’s possessive feelings. At least, not yet.
…
Some time passed, and Ezreal really did avoid talking about Talon as promised. However, that didn’t stop him from occasionally getting inside Kayn’s head. The first major incident occurred during one of their regular weekend sparring sessions.
Ezreal had actually vaulted on Kayn’s scythe like a springboard instead of just arcane shifting like he usually did. When Kayn questioned him on it, Ezreal sheepishly admitted it was something he’d picked up from Talon. According to Ezreal, Talon had made a comment to him about the importance of maintaining a strong and agile core system during their class spars, and Ezreal ended up training to attempt vaulting as an escape measure outside of his blinking.
An ugly green monster was beginning to take hold, but Ezreal promised him it was just standard school regulated training and Talon had only meant it as an offhanded piece of peer advice.
Fine. Kayn was the definition of cool, he could live with that.
What he couldn’t live with were the comments on social media after Durandal released some of its sparring matches to the public.
Ezreal and Talon had been partnered up for a tag team training based on eliminating a threat and rescuing civilians. Blah, blah, blah, something about showing the public they’re in good hands with the heroes in the making, whatever. To be completely honest, their synergy was… not great. Talon treated the whole thing as a solo act at first, making cold and clean cut moves to destroy the simulated drake while leaving Ezreal to take care of the civilians.
Ezreal could be heard yelling at the other boy in frustration about how he was totally ignoring half of their task directives sporadically throughout the first parts of the video, and Talon made little to no effort to acknowledge his complaints at all.
But the Elder Drake was designed to be next to impossible for one person to take down by themself, and eventually Ezreal was the one who had to arcane shift both of them out of its line of fire once he secured the civilians. Finally, the two worked together in typical anime fashion to beat the beast.
Al0n3_on_T0P: Ezreal’s such a cutie
iPutTheMidinMidlaner: Ooh Talon’s kinda handsome behind the cloak too…
Jg_D1FF: Is it just me or do these guys have crazy yaoi potential?
Bot.Lamer123 @Jg_D1FF: IKR, rivals to lovers, opposites attract power couple core <333
Shurimas_weakest_warrior: Aaa they look so cool and strong together!
No, no, no! Kayn was filled with such uncontrollable fury he felt like throwing his phone across the room.
Kayn should be the one getting on Ezreal’s nerves and then fighting alongside him, not Talon. Kayn should be the one everyone commented about being a power couple with Ezreal, NOT TALON!
Kayn then began pausing and zooming in on the few shots where his one-sided love rival’s face was fully visible. The verdict? Talon wasn’t nearly as handsome as him. The only accurate comment was the statement that Ezreal was a cutie, that was just true. But said cutie was also his, so that commenter could piss off with the rest of them.
Overcome with his desire to remind Ezreal who the best hot-guy assassin was and cleanse away Talon’s touch (it was a handshake that Ezreal initiated), Kayn came up with possibly the worst mania driven idea ever. He was going to go all the way to Durandal’s dormitory to pay his lover a little visit.
…
It was around 9:00 pm on Saturday night, and Ezreal was relaxing in his single-occupant dorm room chatting with his friends on a video call. Lux was giving him instructions on how to use the skin care she’d given him while Gwen was in the back braiding Seraphine’s hair.
It felt a little weird at first, and Lux chastised him for slathering it on indelicately, but once he got the hang of it, Ezreal decided pampering himself was actually kinda nice. Just as he finished moisturizing his face, he heard a sharp knock at his door.
“Huh, I don’t think I’m expecting anyone tonight,” he mused aloud.
Leaving his friends on his desk, Ezreal got up to open the door. For a moment he thought he was hallucinating when he saw who it was. His boyfriend was standing there, holding a bouquet of roses as red as his hair.
“Kayn? What are you—mmph!”
Tossing the bouquet aside and slamming the door behind him, Kayn had pulled Ezreal into a rough kiss, one hand tangled up in his hair and the other gripping his waist.
It felt nice, but there was one teeny problem: Ezreal’s friends were still on video call a few feet away with a fairly good view of everything that was happening.
“H-hey, Kayn, wait a sec!”
“Why,” Kayn spoke into Ezreal’s neck as he very intentionally sucked hickeys into it. “Are you not happy to see me?”
“It’s not like that!” Ezreal tried to explain in between yelps and stifled whimpers. “It’s—mmp—my pho—ahh—ne!”
Kayn didn’t get it though, and those words worked more like a trigger than a stop sign.
“What about your phone, Ez? Who are you trying to contact? Talon?” he snarled.
“What? What are you talking about?” the blond choked out while Kayn continued to bite at his collar bone. It wasn’t until he felt a hand slink under his loose sleep t-shirt that Ezreal finally pushed Kayn off, panicked.
“I’M ON A VIDEO CALL WITH MY FRIENDS RIGHT NOW!”
“What?”
“I’ve been trying to tell you! My phone is on my desk! They’re right there!” Ezreal emphatically gestured to the desk in question, and Kayn finally realized his mistake.
The desk was directly across from the door. Ezreal’s girl friends had seen everything.
A string of curse words appeared in Kayn’s mind.
Shit. Fuck. Damn. And most eloquently of all, oughhhhhhh.
The room was still for a brief moment before Ezreal awkwardly shuffled Kayn towards his desk.
“Hi guys… haha. Uh, this is my boyfriend.”
Kayn snapped his head to look at Ezreal. “I don’t want to introduce myself to your friends after that, what the hell, Ez!?”
Ezreal elbowed him. “Kayn, be nice! You were the one who barged in here without thinking!”
Couldn’t argue with that one.
“…Hi.”
The Crownguard girl gave him one of those practiced noble lady smiles, as if the past 5 minutes had been entirely normal.
“I remember you, Kayn. I’m glad you and Ezreal seem to have worked out your differences. To be honest, I kind of suspected he was seeing someone, but it’s nice to get confirmation.”
Pleasantries. Kayn could tell she wasn’t one-hundred percent onboard with the fact they were dating (because as far as Lux knows, Kayn’s a massive red flag, and she’s probably right). Whatever, Kayn didn’t like her being close friends with Ezreal because of the rumors around their relationship too, so they were even.
“My reputation precedes me it seems. Ezreal talks about you a lot too, Crownguard.”
Sensing the very tense atmosphere, Ezreal was quick to retake the phone.
“Um, okay, well I’m gonna sort some stuff out with Kayn now! I’ll see you guys later!”
And then he promptly hung up. Kayn awkwardly lingered around the chair while Ezreal went over to his bed where Kayn threw the flowers. The assassin wasn’t sure if he should join him or stay put. Was Ezreal mad at him? Embarrassed? It made Kayn anxious.
Then Ezreal patted the bed next to him, and Kayn felt like he could breathe again.
“Com’ere.”
Obedient was never a word Kayn would pick to describe himself, but in that moment he simply did as he was told and took his spot next to Ezreal. The blond boy intertwined their fingers with his arm that wasn’t cradling the bouquet.
“Did you really get so jealous of Talon you came all the way here with roses?”
“…Maybe.”
“Do you wanna explain why you nearly jumped my bones in front of my friends?”
“I didn’t know they were there! And I didn’t try to jump your bones.”
Ezreal pouted.
“Kayn.”
“Okay, fine. I couldn’t stand reading all those comments about how good you two look together. I’m your boyfriend, but he gets to be around you when I don’t. Ugh, this is stupid but it pisses me off.”
Durandal’s sweetheart gently set the bouquet on his night stand.
“You are my boyfriend, and yes, that is stupid,” Ezreal replied. “Even if we don’t see each other every day, I’m yours and you’re mine.”
Kayn wanted to believe it when Ezreal said things that way, like they were the simplest, most organic things in the world. Absolute truths. Mutual belonging was something hard for him to come by, and Ezreal was giving it to him unafraid. It made Kayn feel a little more whole, but also a bit more ridiculous for the stunts he pulled. It was hard to keep his obsession in check sometimes because the only type of positive ownership in his life before Ezreal came from possession and conquest.
“I’m… sorry.”
Kayn cringed at how foreign the words sounded on his tongue.
“Hmm? What for? You don’t usually apologize haha.”
“For being kind of a dickhead about this whole thing, I guess. I know I can be a lot to deal with.”
Ezreal pulled them both down into a laying position so he could easily tangle all of their limbs together in a cuddle.
“You really are a big softie. But wanna know a little secret?”
“Uh, sure?”
“I’m not as innocent as you think. I was secretly really happy that you were jealous. I like it when you obsess over me, so I guess we’re both kind of red flags.”
Kayn buried his face in Ezreal’s hair.
“I knew it, you’re such a terrible minx.”
So he said, but Kayn loved him so much, he’d do anything for the boy in his arms.
“By the way…”
Wait a sec.
“You do realize this means I won the bet, right?”
Kayn groaned. “Fuuuuuhhhhhk.”
“You owe me~ One jumbo Yuuto and a piggyback ride on Rhaast.”
Truth be told, Kayn was planning to buy the plush for Ezreal anyway. The only real loss was that he’d have to figure out something else to get him for Valentine’s Day,
Fortunately for him, Ezreal was also going to give Kayn his request regardless of who won. Maybe neither of them were perfect individually, but they belonged together. So was there even a real loser here?
Yes. Talon DuCouteau. Because Kayn and Ezreal were in love, and bird-foot-name-having ass jerk had no one. Kayn allowed himself to at least feel smug in that as he and Ezreal enjoyed their sleepover.