#daylightficfest

[wesawbears]

At the buzzer, but here is my fic for the @daylightficfest! My prompt was: Character study of Kevin through the lens of his and Jeans relationship. Scenes from their relationship from the beginning in the Nest to their time apart at Palmetto and USC, playing pro exy and post retirement.

Enjoy!

--

“He won't last three months.”

Kevin turned to look at Marcus, disliking the mix of malice and amusement on his face. Thankfully he was a fifth year, with a pro contract to boot, and so wouldn't be around in three months to check on his bet either way. But Jean Moreau, with his guarded pretty eyes looked interesting at least, and he must be capable on the court– otherwise, the Master would not have taken him on. He at least wanted a chance to play with him before the rest of the Ravens got to him.

“He will have to,” Riko said at his other side, jolting Kevin back to attention. “The Master would not have accepted an investment that was not likely to pay itself off.” He grinned, a sharp-toothed thing that Kevin both abhorred and was drawn in by. It meant trouble, and where Riko is concerned, Kevin was bound to be caught in the crosshairs. It was his place and he knew it, but that wouldn't stop the pit of dread from settling in his stomach. He watched Riko clap his hands together. “Doesn't mean we can't have some fun in the meantime.”

Kevin followed as Riko walked up to their new charge, stopping a few feet away. He was taller than Riko, but that had never cowed him before. What did he have to be afraid of? He was King, and only the Master had dominion over him. As long as it did not affect their performance on the court, he would not intervene. 

“You are Moreau?” he said. 

“Jean-Yves,” the boy said, eyes hard and mouth set. Kevin inwardly flinched at the look of it.

Riko waved a dismissive hand. “You are a Moreau. You will learn your place or you will have it taught to you. Remember that.”

Moreau nodded and Kevin struggled not to let his relief show. He knew the time would come for Riko to take the full measure of the newest Raven, but Kevin wanted to postpone it as long as possible. 

“We'll have to see your skills on the court,” Kevin said, hoping to appease Riko. “We don't know how long it's been since you played. None of this means anything if you cannot hold your own.” The Court could hurt, but it was a cleaner pain. Different.

Moreau shot him a flat look, and Kevin did his best to match it. “I can play. Give me a racquet.”

He wasn't wrong. Kevin had to know about backliners– many Exy players made the mistake of only learning their own position, but understanding the role of each member of a team made your job easier. A good backliner had to be fast and ruthless, simultaneously focused on their mark and seeing the whole field at once. 

Kevin prided himself on knowing the measure of a player after one match. After playing Jean-Yves Moreau for the first time, he saw that he played not like he had either everything or nothing to lose. Rather, he played like it was the only thing, like he was willing to do anything to achieve his goal. He played like his body didn't matter. 

As they headed off the field, Kevin caught him by the arm. “You did well. They will do what they can to injure you. It does no good to play like that if you're only going to handicap yourself with injury.”

“Somehow I do not think it will matter if I am injured or not,” Moreau said, wrenching his arm out of Kevin's hold.

Kevin watched him walk away, unsure what he could say to contradict that.

–

Kevin glanced behind himself, checking once more that Riko was asleep. He had made this particular walk enough times to know it would be fine– Riko was a heavy sleeper, and he wouldn't be gone more than an hour. None of Jean's temporary partners, if they noticed, would dare to reveal his secret. Riko was King, but Kevin had enough standing that the other Ravens knew he could make their lives hell just as easily. So they turned away when Kevin slipped into Jean's room in the dead of night.

He sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to jostle Jean too much. He'd taken a considerable amount of hard checks at practice that day. Not that he ever didn't. Still, Kevin knew how much worse it had gotten now that they were full members of the team. 

It'd be worse if Jean indicated that any of it bothered him, but he woke without even a pained grunt, just soundlessly opening his eyes and turning to look at Kevin. The fight, the hard edge that had been there when they met two years ago was gone, replaced with flat, empty grey. Kevin hated it, hated his part in putting it there. Still, he was here, doing what he could to get some of the light back.

“So. Three words tonight?” he asked tucking his leg up underneath him.

Jean nodded and sat up, wincing a bit at the pull in his ribs. “It would be easier to learn if you were willing to try sentences.”

Kevin sighed. Jean was right, of course, as Kevin had mostly learned Japanese by being thrown into the deep end. But this was all he had to bargain with, to get these few moments alone with him, to see that he was okay. There was a smaller, buried part of him that could admit he just wanted the closeness, but examining that would open doors Kevin knows are better left closed. It wasn't an option, to be anything but what the public required of him. Desirable. Charming. 

Straight.

So he contented himself with the lilt of syllables on Jean's tongue, the way the sound sends a lick of something up Kevin's spine. And when he's learned his words for the day and exhaustion makes his pronunciation too egregious for Jean to bear, he can curl into the warmth by his back and close his eyes, feel the rise and fall of Jean's breath with his head resting on his shoulder.

It's too dangerous to stay, but he always waits until he's sure Jean is asleep to slip away, leaving the safety of dreams for the reality down the hall.

–

It was four in the morning and Kevin was half convinced that Jean was dead.

More than half sure, if he's being honest. It wasn't fair, what he'd done, but it was the only chance he'd had. Riko wouldn't have killed him, but Kevin isn't sure that what he's been left with is any better. He only half remembered the drive, hopped up on pain and adrenaline with his wrist cradled to his chest. It felt like atonement, though he didn't think Jean would agree with that assessment. Not when he was surely experiencing ten times worse. 

Kevin's name kept him insulated from the repercussions of his actions, but even if he had been able to take Jean with him, there's no guarantee that the Moriyama's wouldn't have had him killed. At least, that's what he told himself. Andrew called it equivocating.

So he paced the length of the room that's only been his for forty eight hours and tried not to panic as his phone refused to light up with an answer from Jean. The first thing Andrew had done once Wymack had passed him uneasily into the cousins' custody was sit him down and watch as he deleted every contact in his phone of the Ravens and blocked them. He had done it– shaking the whole time, but he'd done it, understanding that he had no choice. But as he'd stared down at Jean's name, he looked up at Andrew's placid smile and shook his head.

“He needs me,” he'd said.

“He needed you,” Andrew corrected. “You left him. He will not see it otherwise.”

“Then at least leave me the option to repay the debt I owe him,” Kevin said, appealing in a language he knew Andrew understood.

Something in the desperate glint in his eyes must have convinced him, because he handed Kevin his phone back, grin growing wide.

“Playing with fire. Maybe Dan is wrong about you being a Fox after all.” 

Half sick with desperation, Kevin clicked call before he could second guess himself and waited for the beep of Jean's voicemail. He knew he probably wouldn't be coherent, but the words had been choking for him for two days, and he felt like they were going to rip him in two soon.

“Jean. I-I know you hate me, and you should- I- fuck, I left you and I'm selfish, I'm so selfish that I have to know you're okay, that you're alive. Just tell me that and I'll never bother you again.”

 He doesn't mean the last bit– Jean is too much a part of his bloodstream to ever be able to stop checking for him, at every game and gala, in every shadow and tucked into his heart when he sleeps. But he was trying to be better and that meant letting the space close as long as he knew Jean was alive.

His phone chimed three days after he sent the voicemail, and the sound startled him so much he almost smashed it against the wall. But he opens it with a shaky hand and saw what Jean wrote.

I am alive. Never call me again. Coward.

–

Kevin visited California alone for the first time during the week between Christmas and New Year's. Andrew and Neil were headed up the coast, everyone else scattered to their various homes. He'd known that Abby had been genuine in her offer for him to stay with her and Coa-his dad. But he'd stayed there in the week leading up to the holidays, and through them, and it had left both of their nerves a little raw. Besides, he had put off seeing how Jean was long enough. It was best for him to have space to settle in with the Trojans, and he'd known he was in good hands with Jeremy.

He knew it was selfishness rather than altruism that made him want to visit. A horrible voice whispered and clawed in the back of his mind, wanting to know if he's been replaced, if the rupture between them is large enough that it can't be healed. Jean had certainly had nothing kind to say to him while holed up at Abby’s. But he hoped that time and distance had done some of the work for him. Now it was up to Kevin to do the rest.

Jeremy was the one to pick him up from the airport. “Jean's sorry he couldn't make it– backliners day for pre-semester physicals. He'll meet us at the house once you're settled.”

Kevin knew a practiced lie when he heard one– he'd told enough of them himself. Jean didn't want their first meeting in six months to be in a small car with no way out. “How is he really?”

Jeremy sighed. “He's doing as good as he can? Leagues better than he was in June.”

“But?”

“But you left a hell of a lot out, man.”

Kevin nodded. “It is…difficult to explain.”

Jeremy nodded. “I'm not angry. And…neither is he. I don't think. That's probably an overstep so don't repeat that, but…just give him time.”

When Kevin did finally get to see Jean later that night, he did look good. He was no longer ghostly pale, and more present than he'd seemed in a long time. He's gained muscle back, but it sat better than it had with the Ravens. 

Jeremy, Cat,  and Laila clear the table to give the two of them a chance to talk and Kevin feels all of the words he'd wanted to say flee him.

“You're alone,” Jean said to break the silence.

“Huh?”

Jean rolled his eyes at Kevin's ineptitude. “I meant that you came alone. I'm surprised is all.”

“Andrew wouldn't set foot in California if I paid him.”

Jean shrugged. “Or maybe you don't need him the way you think you did?”

“Maybe,” he answered noncommittally. He didn't know if Jean was really past the partner system or not, but it still bothered him to think Jean has freed himself from it far sooner than Kevin had managed to. “I think we're both pretty well adjusted. All things considered.”

The weight of names and bodies hang between them. So many Ravens dead or good as, and for what? He has asked Thea once how she had moved on and she dad shrugged and said she hadn't. She just kept moving. He supposed that without something to move towards, they had been lost. Kevin had his father, and Jean…

Jean had the Trojans now. 

He looked up as Jeremy tapped on the doorframe, looking apologetic. “I'm heading up to bed. You need anything?”

“We're fine. Good night, Jeremy.”

There was something in the look that passed between them and Kevin knew. It wasn't something yet, but it would be, and he would be happy for Jean when it happened. He owed him that much.

–

Three things were true: Kevin had just won his third gold medal, he hadn't had a drink in thirteen years, and he was in a bar.

He held his hand against the cold of his glass, full of club soda and ice. His hand cramped up after a game, and the cool felt nice against his palm.

He heard someone slide next to him and even after years intuited who it was. “How did you know I would be here?”

Jean snorted. “You are not difficult to predict.”

“I wasn't going to drink.”

“I know.”

His hand fidgeted on the glass as weighed his words. “Shouldn't you be celebrating?”

“I am exactly where I want to be.”

Kevin looked over at him. Years between them and so much changed, but not Jean's eyes. The same grey, the same kind look. Despite.

“I think this is it,” Kevin said quietly. 

“Your hand.”

 It was a statement, not a question, but Kevin nodded anyway. “The doctors wanted me to retire two years ago, but I wanted another Olympics. My coach signed off on it, with the condition that I was done after this.”

Jean nodded slowly. “You should talk to Jeremy. He had a hard time when his knee took him out a few years ago. He might have some suggestions.”

“I see a sports psychologist. I've been preparing for this for a year.”

“But it's different than you thought it would be.”

There was a ghost hanging between them, an unspoken absence no one else could see. “It's easier on the court. I could manage it there.”

“You will manage without it. It can't love you back.”

“You sound like Andrew.”

“Perish the thought.”

They chuckled and the tension broke, long enough for Jean to take his glass of melted ice away. “Come. We are going somewhere else.”

Kevin stood, confused but not concerned. Even now, he would follow Jean anywhere. “It's eleven at night.”

“There are streetlights.”

Kevin stopped short as Jean made his way over to a motorcycle, passing a helmet to Kevin. “I am not getting on that thing.”

Jean laughed. “Yes you are. You drive in a car with Andrew.”

“That's different. It has doors.”

“Do you trust me?”

Kevin faltered at that, feeling too much like an eighteen year old version of himself clinging to Jean in the dark. But he found that it wasn't a question at all.

“I do.”

–

“Dad!”

Kevin looked up to see Amalia making her way through the crowd. It still startled him every day to see how tall she was getting. Her features were all Thea, but the demanding tone was him.

“Yeah?”

“Uncle Jean is here!” 

“Can't really leave, honey. Let him in and tell him I'm back here.”

She ran off and returned, pulling 6’5” of backliner through the kitchen. 

“They trust you in front of a stove?” Jean greeted. 

“I'm learning,” Kevin said. “If you're going to make fun of me, you're going to help. Chop,” he said, gesturing to the vegetables to his left. 

Jean smirked, but didn't argue, taking the knife with an air of practice. “Glad to see you haven't lost your inexplicable need to boss everyone around.”

“It comes in handy,” Kevin said without heat. “Jeremy coming?”

“He got commandeered by your daughter. She wanted to show him the tricks she taught Lucky.”

Kevin chuckled. Amalia spoiled that dog, but then, she had caught Kevin giving her a pup cup, so he wasn't totally off the hook. “Losing your husband to a dog.”

“I accepted I would lose that bargain long ago,” Jean said with a laugh.

A companionable silence passed between them, the sounds of chopping and sizzling serving as the backdrop. 

“It's weird how normal this is, right?” Kevin said at last.

“I don't know– I tend to think everything involving you is made weird.”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

Jean hummed, wiping his hands and turning to face Kevin. “I think the feeling you're experiencing is happiness, Kevin.”

It was rare that he took the time to take stock of his life. The years since his retirement had passed in a sea of trial and error– of becoming a better father and husband, of trying on hobbies and habits, until the patchwork he'd cobbled together resemble a life. And he was, he found, happy, against all odds. He liked getting called old by Amalia, having to squint at her phone when she showed him TikToks, yelling at Neil over the phone after a match they'd both watched, quiet double dates with Jean and Jeremy, and feeling the weight of their history melt away with the years.

Kevin was forty, and Jean was in his kitchen, and they were smiling, and they were going to be okay.

“I think you might be right.

[fullyvisible]

Haunting Spirits

Title: Haunting Spirits

Author: fullyvisible

Words: 13,600

Rating: T

Summary: Kevin's life is going wonderfully until the fifth anniversary of Riko's death catches him by surprise, and he realizes his happiness--and his sobriety--may be more precariously balanced than he had thought. Kevin is desperate to keep it together well enough to prevent anyone from noticing, but Jean and Jeremy know him better than most.

My submission for Daylight Savings Fest Prompt #273: Kevin’s having a rough day where every little thing reminds him of his trauma from the Ravens, and his hands just itch for the familiar weight of a bottle of alcohol in them, though he’s desperately trying to stay sober, Jeremy and Jean catch him just before (or after..) he falls down that hole and help him back up.

Thank you @daylightficfest for organizing!! :)

Available on AO3 and ffnet

[fancifulpurposelesslovely]

I have 19 days left to get this kandreil Olympics fic written for @daylightficfest and I figured out the plot LAST NIGHT.

I have been doing tons of research including taking a tour of the US Olypmic and Paralympic Committee training center in Colorado Springs, but now I have a plot!!!

[o-vera-nalyzing]

anyone wanna help me brainstorm for this fic idea i have? it’s about kevin day <3333

[tara-the-star]

promises.

for @daylightficfest

gen, 1/2 chapters, 2094 words, in progress

Kevin visits Kayleigh's grave post-canon

daylight savings fic fest prompt #14 by @stabbyfoxandrew: "Kevin goes to his mom's grave for the first time."

[mostlymaudlin]

TWO.

rated t, ch 2/4

The Foxhole Court is the only place in South Carolina that makes sense to Kevin, but it lacks the discipline, rigor, and partnership that kept him grounded for years. Over four nights at the court in the spring of 2006, Kevin attempts to recreate the only life he knows how to live.

helloooo, here's the first half of my fic for @daylightficfest -- the rest will be posted in july, so stay tuned >:)

thank you to mari for running this much needed event!

Read it on AO3.

[stabbyfoxandrew]

link

Here's my fic for the @daylightficfest! Written with love and a lot of insanity. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! <3

[codename-adler]

Because, Despite, Still

"No matter what Jeremy thought he knew, no matter his meticulous observations and incessant pleas for Kevin to come and fix Jean, Kevin could see plainly that perhaps he should not have trusted the USC Captain on that one.  Every time you show up on TV or any of us talk about you, he shuts his eyes for a few seconds. Like … Like he’s looking for you, inside himself. There’s nothing… There’s nothing else I can give him. I swear to you Kevin, I would if I did. I’m well aware this is most certainly going to get uglier before it gets better, but that’s a knife I can’t remove myself. Only you, Kevin. Only you. Please come home to him."

Kerejean fic written for the @daylightficfest on ao3 💖 thank you @dayurno and all who promoted and wrote, we’re awesome guys 💖

Prompt 73: A very cathartic conversation/fight between Kevin and Jean post-canon. I want them to lay out their feelings, lots of angst, and then make up if possible. It doesn't have to be them as a romantic pairing, Jeremy could be the one to push them to have this conversation or not.

also comes with a playlist?

[billdenbrough]

THEY SHIFT IN THE LIGHT

aftg · kevjean / kevaaron · 4.4k, t kevin looks. jean looks at his looking. for @daylightficfest

“He watches you,” Jean says. Aaron looks up at that. “He has a staring problem sometimes,” he says. “Is he bothering you? I can tell him to fuck off.” This is a marvel to Jean, who has scowled at Kevin Day a thousand times and chased away his too-keen gaze on Riko’s court a thousand more, but has never known how to not want him within reach.

read on ao3

daylight savings fic fest prompt: 177. Aaron helps Abby take care of Jean, Kevin watches Aaron take care of Jean, and Jean watches both of them. Something old something new and something blue.

[merceyca]

Are you ever in the mood for 90s-core Kandreil witches with Jean cameoing as a cat?? I have good news, it now exists.

Here’s my entry for the @daylightficfest, a Practical Magic AU where Kevin gets to be the main character <3

READ CHAPTER ONE HERE

[foxhole-pipe-dream]

No Saints Here on ao3

Kevin Day, better known as the famed superhero Daylight, is co-captain of the Perfect Legion. He's tasked with tracking down the supervillain duo Blackguard and Red Rapid. Villainry hadn't been Neil Josten's first choice, but he'd been backed into that corner. When Blackguard extended a hand to him, he accepted it. Andrew Minyard grew up in an orphanage for superpowered youth. The odds had been stacked against him from the beginning. It's no wonder he turned to evil. It was inevitable they'd all cross paths.

Written for the @daylightficfest ! My prompt was superhero Kevin and supervillain Andreil. It evolved into Kandreil.

Chapter one is up! 🎉

[six-of-snakes]

the ghost of the nest

kevneil • 3.8k • 1/1 chapters

All the shoulds and maybes and not-that-bads don't mean anything, don't change anything, and Kevin knows that as well as he knows the pain that haunts his body, the ghost of the Nest and years with the Ravens.

or, Kevin deals with a bad pain day.

read here on ao3 - for @daylightficfest

[lizarb-writing]

In every universe

“Do you think we’d find each other in every universe?” Aaron asked. 

“Yeah. I definitely think so.” Kevin smiled, giving him a kiss.

Read here!

Word count: 1,729

thanks to @daylightficfest !!

[awildtei]

this growl in my throat (your unutterable name)

—Erika Meitner

To love Kevin Day is to live with a growl forever stuck in the throat, no swallowing it down, no letting it out. It is an exercise in futility, in stasis, in self-harm. Jean is more than used to all of that.

My first-ever Kevjean fic for the @daylightficfest is here! Thank you @stabbyfoxandrew for the prompt <3

[moondal514]

in your sad wound (my own guilt) (T), 3,164 words

Summary:

You are greedy. You have always been told so. You want more than you can be afforded, never satisfied with what you have and always wanting for more. Not an owner but a brother, a lover, a friend, a true partner. Someone you can stand by as an equal, someone you can feel safe having at your shoulder. Someone you know like your own heartbeat, like the breath in your lungs, with an absence of pain.

-

On the day Riko shatters his hand, Kevin starts coughing up white petals.

Read on ao3

Written for @daylightficfest for @fallenstarzz‘s prompt “Kevin has Hanahaki”

[tara-the-star]

some kayleigh art while my fic for @daylightficfest marinates :)