#did he watch riko push jean down the stairs

[foxstens]

did uh. did kevin have to hold jean down during the waterboarding

[jtl-fics]

In honor of April Fools day I will talk a bit about an AU with my favorite fool - (Redacted) Smith that I will probably never write fully but have thought about a bunch of scenes for.

I call it 2 Fluent Freshmen.

Due to a clerical error at both the school and during the local government's push to digitize their documents Smith is noted down as being 2 years older than he actually is and (perhaps a clerical error or maybe no teacher can say if they've had him in class or not) Smith also has enough credits to graduate. Gran has passed away early and there's nothing for him in Washington other than more anxiety.

Wymack & Dan come to Smith when he is 16 and Smith takes the chance to escape from his family IMMEDIATELY. Sure the Foxes are the worst team and sure there's some drama going on with Kevin Day having joined them after his injury but a full ride scholarship is a full ride scholarship!

Smith is rooming with 2 upperclassmen and his only other fellow freshman - Neil Josten. He is not hiding the fact that he can speak Russian, he is hiding the fact that he is 16. Smith ends up pretty close to Seth and Allison due to sharing a dorm / position respectively and just doing his best not to get to close to crazy Andrew Minyard. He does get a bit close with Neil but it's not something he's trying to do.

He's trying to keep his head down and get through the year.

It's a little hard when he is sat on the couch with the Kathy Ferdinand show. It's a lot harder when Riko Moriyama shows up and doesn't realize he's there and just...sits in Smith's lap?? Smith remains as blank faced as ever and what the fuck is Riko supposed to do? ADMIT HE FUCKED UP?

Do you know how hard it is to intimidate someone when you're sitting in the lap of some dude? The answer is VERY. Kevin can't take him seriously at all, especially after Smith made a comment that Riko's ass was bony.

Riko goes after them the same but Smith doesn't really get that his anger is at Kevin. "Hey, I'm sorry I called your butt bony on national television. That was rude of me. You should try some squats though." and like what the fuck is Riko supposed to say in the face of some dude genuinely apologizing to him.

It buys enough time that no one is grabbed or slammed.

Seth and Allison drag him out to the bar that night and after a few minutes sitting with Allison Smith realizes that he actually does have to pee and oh god someone's trying to assault Seth! Smith calls upon the powers of Gracie Hart and Seth has a black eye and a concussion but he graduates.

Neil wants Smith to come with him to the Thanksgiving because Neil has latched on a bit. Smith ends up going and also ends up going upstairs to go to the bathroom because oh god he cannot handle Nicky's parents hearing him take an anxiety shit. He's making his way to the end of the hall and sees a penny on the ground so he bends over to grab it.

And Drake Spears is unbalanced from missing his swing and falls right out the open window to the ground below where he breaks his neck. Naturally, Andrew is watching this scene unfold from the stairs and just starts to laugh his ass off. Smith turns around after flipping the penny over (it was tails side up and therefore not lucky) unaware of what has happened.

Smith asks if Andrew wants to use the bathroom. Andrew insists that Smith goes on ahead. The Hemmicks keep asking if they saw anyone upstairs and Smith has no idea what they're talking about, Andrew does but plays dumb out of spite. A day later it's wild that Nicky's parents got arrested. Like they seemed so normal, how did they kill someone and dump him in the side garden??

The Winter Banquet happens and well...it's dark. It's dark and Neil has brown hair and brown eyes and Smith has brown hair and brown eyes. Riko is not the best at judging heights so he calls Smith to threaten him and tell him that he's joining the Ravens for a Winter Break training camp. Jean is doing the most anyone has ever done not to laugh right now.

Riko only realizes his mistake when he's finished threatening Smith with his father and Smith ruins it. Smith is elated to have somewhere to stay over winter break. He can't mention he has nowhere to go so he'd thought he'd spend the break homeless. Now here comes Riko Moriyama inviting him to a camp where room and board will be provided?

What a nice guy. To thank him Smith compliments the gains he's noticed on Riko's ass. "The squats are really helping you, or are you doing something else?" he asks.

What the fuck is Riko supposed to do? ADMIT THAT HE FUCKED UP? Tell Smith that he's been doing squats and leg lifts before asking that he hand the tickets back and go get Neil???

Fuck that.

He'll just turn Smith against the Foxes and-

Well Riko kept talking about Smith's dead dad and so Smith may have a slight misunderstanding about the full scope of this training camp. He may think that there is some sort of seance element to it at this point and he's kind of excited at the idea of talking to his dad. "I've never spoken to a dead man before, this will be fun." and it's delivered flatly with no expression.

Riko starts to wonder if maybe Smith is the Butcher's son? Did the Butcher have two sons? He's sweating all the sudden.

It does not help that Smith brings a Ouija board to camp or that his dad was a legit Butcher before he died so Riko's tentative questioning only sends him further into an anxious mess about if Nathan had twins and Riko, due to being kept away from the family business, might just not be aware of it?

Smith has a nice Christmas break.

The last scene I've got dinging around in the noggin is in Binghamton. Smith has been left behind at many a stadium at this point. There's a solid and fast rule.

Neil cannot get on the bus without Smith. They are buddies. This is the buddy system. So when the riot starts and Neil seems to be getting pulled away in the crowd?

Well Smith grabs his hand and pulls him towards the bus, "Buddy system."

The bus starts and they're on their way shortly after. Neil's an anxious wreck but that next morning he wakes up to the news that the Butcher of Baltimore died in an FBI raid the night before as well as his men.

Smith watches the news with Neil, "Wow, that's scary." as he sips some orange juice.

[obsessing-over-fictionn]

pt. three of things i gathered while reading nora's extra content

parts one and two and four

[tws: non-consensual sex, torture, abuse, waterboarding, suicide]

- andrew's first consensual kiss happened when he was in juvie

- neil prefers fruits over vegetables !

- andrew likes eating things that can be eaten in small bites

- andrew went by 'aj' while living with cass

- the original andrew had a brain disorder that meant he could only remember things short-term

- renee first found out about andrew's attraction to neil, but kevin figured out neil's attraction and andreil's mutual interest

- nora believes that if andrew had named the cats, they would answer to "cat 1/ cat 2" and " stupid"

- nicky chose the name 'sir fat cat mccatterson' for one of neil and andrew's cats

- nora said that andrew forgot how to scream when he was a child

- in a previous draft, when nicky found out that neil and andrew hadn't slept together yet, he made them a how-to guide

- if andrew ever were to smile genuinely, it would only ever be in front of neil

- if ichiro ever killed andrew, neil josten would cease to exist and nathaniel wesninski would return

- if neil ended up dying under nathan's hand, especially if he hadn't gotten andrew to retract his protection promise, andrew would never let anyone in ever again

- he would be joyless, from neil's death to andrew's own and would spend his life watching out for kevin, but only because of the promises he made

- in the hypothetical that neil would die, jean would also return to the ravens after his injuries healed

- dan, riko, and neil are the only people who have stayed throughout all of the aftg drafts with the same names that they started with

- nora has a personal headcanon that andrew and neil learn russian to have their own private language that the cousins don't kno

- the foxes' harry potter houses according to nora would be

- dan, matt, allison, neil - gryffindor

- nicky, renee - hufflepuff

- aaron - ravenclaw

- andrew, kevin, seth - slytherin

- it took matt, renee, and wymack to pull andrew off of kevin after they learned neil had been taken to baltimore

- kevin likes history and classical music

- basically he's an old man /j

- kevin later learns how to play the piano

- kev's favorite color is red and his favorite season is fall

- "When Nicky picked up pints for everyone, he got Andrew whichever one looked like it had the highest sugar content, cookie dough for himself, mint chocolate chip for Aaron, vanilla bean for Kevin, and espresso for Neil. I can see Neil liking vanilla too because Neil likes boring plain things." - nora about the cousin's favorite ice cream

- dan and kevin were originally going to be bffs !!

- andrew would refuse to kiss beneath mistletoe

- the raven are even more gross than i previously thought and it turns out they often sleep with each other

- like. do the dirty

- it's gross

- foxes favorite music genres:

- nicky likes EDM(electric dance music), renee enjoys epic orchestral pieces, matt likes loud rock, seth likes NIN & Disturbed(whatever that is), allison and dan enjoy pop, though dan also likes nickelback, kevin likes classical, and andrew likes music that's too loud to think

- nora doesn't know what aaron and neil's would be

- "If I tried to list everything Riko did to Jean over the years, I’d never get to sleep tonight, so we’ll have to settle for some random examples. Here are a few numbers for you:

- Six: the number of fingers Jean’s had broken over the years. Three: the number he was ordered to break himself for Riko’s amusement. Zero: the number of days he was allowed to miss practice for these injuries.

- Four: the number of times Riko pushed Jean down a flight of stairs in Evermore. Two: the number of times Jean didn’t ball up fast enough and bashed his head open on the concrete.

- Two hundred and sixty-six: the total number of stitches Jean needed while under Riko’s supervision, not including the ones he received after Kengo’s death.

- Ten: the number of times Riko tried waterboarding Jean. Once to see if it was as effective and traumatizing as the news made it out to be. Nine more times because it really, really was.

- Sixteen: the age Jean was when Riko first ordered another Raven to fuck him. ((Riko will not engage in anything homosexual himself, but he is not above inflicting sexual trauma on others via others. See: Drake. See: Proust.))

- Five: the number of times Riko passed Jean around. “Only” five, because four: the number of times Jean whispered Please don’t do this to me; four: the number of times Riko hit him for insubordination and ignored that haunted look in Jean’s eyes. The fifth time Jean didn’t break his own heart by fighting back. The fifth time he let the other Raven into his bed without a word or token protest, and that was boring as fuck, so Riko didn’t orchestrate a sixth demonstration.

- One: the number of drafts in which Jean does not commit suicide.

- If Renee hadn’t stolen Jean from the Ravens & Neil hadn’t bought his safety: one hundred: the chance Jean would commit suicide graduation night." - nora about the abuse jean went through under riko's hand

[kevindayscrown]

The one where Kevin Day falls in love with an ice hockey player.

Part 8

Windows

(TW: Mentions of Riko and conditions in the Nest, slight angst)

Anything included in this head canon takes place the semester after the Foxes won the championship against the Ravens.

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about varsity teams in the United States so excuse any false information. Head over to the directory to find the previous parts.

Eric claimed he knew where to take Kevin. He said that he’d make up for the lack of privacy on the public rink, and Kevin let him drive them away. He was surprised when Eric parked outside of an old building. It still looked well preserved.

“This is sort of a hideout for the frats mostly,” Eric explained as he led Kevin inside. “It was found abandoned and they usually use it to throw parties. We got lucky that today is not one of those days.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow as he looked around. At least here, they were away from prying eyes and away from Andrew. He didn’t let himself think for too long that the only reason they were doing this pretend dating was that so people would watch them. Technically, neither of them had to agree to coming here.

He found a couch pushed back against the wall but before he could sit on it, Eric stopped him by standing in front of him.

“Not here. Come on.” He headed up the stairs. Kevin hesitated, and would have been suspicious if he hadn’t known that there was no way Eric hadn’t registered and taken Andrew’s threat seriously.

And so, he followed.

Kevin had doubts when he realized their new spot was in the attic.

But upon laying eyes on the mostly empty space, he halted.

It was small and yet big enough for just the two of them. There was a large window across from them, higher up, and when Kevin walked closer, he noticed that the only view through it was of the sky.

Eric sat down and pressed his palms down on the floor to lean on them, staring up at the window. Kevin hesitated before sitting down next to him.

“Sometimes, we come here with the guys from the team when we need a break, you know?” Eric started. Kevin scoffed as he kept his gaze outside of the window.

“So, you brought me on the same place you bring your teammates?” Kevin had loosened enough that Eric could tell he was teasing.

“Mm well, I figured we’d have some peace and quiet.”

And so, in silence they remained for a few minutes. The window was slightly ajar, so Kevin could listen to the sounds of the busy campus outside.

“Today was fun,” Eric said.

Kevin nodded slowly and brought one knee close to his body, hugging it.

“I suppose it was.”

Kevin could remember the feeling of Erik’s hand closing around his, the feeling of his breath against his skin, the goaltender’s laughter echoing even over the laughter of the children in the rink.

But he could also remember Riko. Riko and Tetsuji and their words. A good player was just that; a player dedicated to playing the game. Anything else did not matter. Especially things that could get in the way. Distractions.

Ravens did not care who they slept with in the nest. Gender did not matter, as long as they took what they wanted; meaningless sex. Riko however, would always tell Kevin that homosexuality was disgusting. It had no place in a world that belonged predominantly to men.

Kevin then remembered Jean’s screams and pleads.

He almost flinched, but Eric chose that moment to speak:

“You are always doing this.”

“Doing what?” Kevin asked, not looking at him.

“Get lost. In whatever it is that’s going on in there.”

Kevin didn’t respond.

“I know you’ve been through shit. I don’t know what that shit is exactly, but I’ve seen you face your demons. What’s holding you back now?”

Kevin had faced Riko. In the end, he’d won. But had he really?

“I’m tired.”

Was it the adrenaline from today’s excitement or the exhaustion itself that made Kevin say that? He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he was tired of carrying this weight. Riko’s ghost, memories from the Nest, guilt, his mother’s legacy, people’s expectations.

Was Kevin a person or was he a figure? A shadow of his mother’s decisions, an echo of her life? Someone that people looked up to who wasn’t even real.

Eric’s expression softened, but Kevin didn’t want his pity.

“I understand. I didn’t use to, but now I see it.”

Kevin attention was drawn by his words so he finally turned to look at him.

“You are too hard on yourself. You are cold and harsh with others, but only because you are so used to having high expectations from yourself, that you can’t help doing the same with everyone else.”

Kevin didn’t respond.

He wondered how he was so transparent when it came to Eric.

“And you?” He finally said. Eric raised an eyebrow, waiting for further explanation.

“Me?”

“Yes. You. You always have something to say, you are so calm and so fucking confident. What’s the catch?”

Eric hesitated and then shrugged.

“We all have our own weights. The question is whether you’ll allow someone to help you carry them. I have friends. A family who supports me. They help me through it. Who do you have?”

Kevin scoffed.

“You and your wise sayings,” he muttered. He would have looked away but Eric didn’t let him. He held onto Kevin’s chin and made him keep his gaze on him.

“If I am to pretend to be your boyfriend, I ought to understand you, don’t you think?” He asked.

Kevin had nowhere else to stare at but at Eric.

Eric noticed then, that Kevin had small tiny freckles sprawled all over his cheeks. They were tiny and almost invisible, but they were there.

“I suppose you are right.” Kevin said.

The thought of Eric ‘understanding’ him, terrified Kevin, though he didn’t show it. Opening up to someone, letting everything out. He’d never done it before. With anyone.

Their faces were dangerously close.

Kevin wasn’t sure why he didn’t pull away.

“You know, to sell the lie, we will probably have to kiss in public,” Eric’s voice was now a whisper.

Kevin froze at that moment, but all it took for him to relax was a brush of Eric’s thumb across his skin.

“We need practice. You know, so that it won’t shock you when we finally have to do it.”

It was a stupid excuse, but both of them used it to appease to their doubts and self-instilled restrictions, worries and no’s.

“Yes. You are probably right.”

Practice. This was a game. Nothing more.

And yet, as Eric pressed his lips against Kevin’s, Kevin felt a rush feeling of excitement, similar to scoring on court, his heart pounding.

His eyes closed and he leaned closer. Even kissing was like a banter, a competition between them. They enjoyed riling each other up, drawing reactions out of the other, pushing each other to their limits.

It became frantic, rough. Kevin’s hands gripped Eric’s shoulders and Eric’s hands went to his waist. They pulled each other closer and only pulled away when they had to catch their breath.

Kevin let go and panted slightly. Eric was the one who put distance between them and they remained silent for a moment.

It wasn’t awkward. But it was clear both of them had a lot to think about, for different reasons.

“Perhaps we need more practice,” Kevin muttered. Doubts and denial would come later. At the moment, Kevin was too focused on Eric, as the goaltender leaned in again and stole his breath away.

[ohsweetflips]

hawk in the raven nest, chapter six

A/N:  thank you for reading!!! as always, feedback is greatly appreciated :)

read on ao3 previous chapter chapter list

Kevin said it wouldn’t take long for the media to pick up on his whereabouts, and he was right. It took two days after Nathaniel’s talk with Andrew for the first report to be broadcasted. It was now officially two weeks since Kevin’s “hit and run”, and now May.

The report was broadcasted on the TV in the lounge of the Nest. At first, no one was paying attention to it. There was always a TV on playing sports news, it became background noise after a while. However, when the famous name “Kevin Day”, every Raven stopped whatever they moved and all pairs of eyes went the the TV.

“-quite a shame was happened to him, with that accident,” the newscaster said to her cohost. “And he had such a promising career ahead of him.”

“Yes, it is unfortunate. But, Kevin Day might have a new career ahead of him!” Every Raven went completely still. Riko, who had been lurking in the back, suddenly had an overwhelming presence. The co-host had a painted smile as he continued, “We’ve heard from various sources that Kevin Day, ex-striker for Edgar Allan’s Ravens, is now with the Palmetto State Foxes as an assistant coach. Despite the Foxes’... less than noteworthy reputation, many think that Day can be the one to whip the team up into shape and make them worthy of their Class I title.”

As one huge collective, all heads turned to Riko, who had not moved from the back of the lounge. His eyes stayed trained to the TV and his arms crossed over his chest. The look on his face was indecipherable, though Nathaniel noticed his fingers pressing into his biceps and how tight his jaw was. Nathaniel spared a glance to Jean at his right and Andrew at his left. Jean was the one to look back; Andrew just looked bored. Kevin wasn’t news to him anymore.

“If he thinks he can make that team anything better than a trainwreck,” Riko said to his audience though he made eye contact with no one. “Maybe the accident fucked up his brain too.”

Some Ravens muttered out agreements that the Foxes could get no better, others forced out laughs. But every single person in that room felt the tension thicken so much Nathaniel thought he would suffocate. The Ravens had officially lost their top striker two weeks ago. However, it was one thing to lose him to an “accident”. It was another thing entirely to lose him to the worst Class I team, the Palmetto Foxes. The former was an injury that caused his contract to be nulled. The latter was betrayal to his team at its finest.

If Nathaniel wasn’t preparing to destroy the Ravens, he would have been livid that Kevin left them for a team like the Foxes. But he already knew that that was a thing that happened, and he was already plotting the demise of the Ravens with Andrew. The only thing holding him back from sheer ecstaticness was waiting for Riko to explode.

Nathaniel, Jean, and even Andrew waited for Riko to flip his shit. They waited for shouting and throwing things. They waited for Riko to place the blame on everyone but himself, they if they had all just played harder Kevin would have wanted to stay and see them succeed. Nathaniel and Jean waited for blows, for kicks, for tugging and pulling and pushing and screaming and fighting and bleeding.

But as the three of them all watched Riko, none of that ever came. There was no shouting, no attacking, no explosions. Just a smirk on his lips and an evil glint in his eye. The red glow from some of the lights combined with the smirk made Riko look more devious than he did when he found out that Kevin escaped.

“Looks like we’ll just have to pay the Foxes a visit this season,” he said before turning and stalking out of the lounge. Nathaniel watched as he went up the stairs leading to the locker room, and he

“Kevin Day will die on that team,” Jean said to Nathaniel. “The Foxes breed no successes.”

Nathaniel wanted to tell Jean that Kevin Day was already dying on the Ravens, but he couldn’t do that. Not with this many people around.

Not yet.

When the evening came and the Ravens arrived to Castle Evermore, Tetsuji had them gather at outer court for a quick meeting. Nathaniel had Jean and Andrew at his side and Riko was across from them, shadowing his uncle. “I’m aware that you all saw the news earlier today.” When he was met with nods, he continued. “Kevin has signed a contract with David Wymack, coach of the Palmetto State Ravens. When he contacted me a couple nights ago, I debated whether or not to inform you all then. But I figured it might be better to not stack one tragedy on top of another, with Kevin having left so recently.” Nathaniel knew Tetsuji did not care that much about the well-being of his team to spread out delivering the news of Kevin being unable to play and then Kevin leaving for the Foxes. Perhaps, he just enjoyed seeing suspense and rumors plague his team.

Nathaniel’s eyes then went back to Riko, who did not look back at him but instead stared at his uncle. It was then that Nathaniel realized that this was also Riko’s first time hearing this news. Even when he went to speak with Tetsuji before, his uncle had not told him. Riko looked like he was considering speaking up, but Nathaniel knew he would never dare to interrupt Tetsuji.

“The next order of business,” Tetsuji said. “Is the matter of our district. We’re considering moving to the southeastern district this season.” It was all Tetsuji said, but he didn’t need to say anymore. The southeastern district was the Foxes’ district. That was what Riko had talked about earlier with Tetsuji.

It was easy for the Ravens to transfer districts. Being the only NCAA Exy team in West Virginia, they only needed a vote and some signatures to transfer. And Nathaniel couldn’t see why the ERC would even consider rejecting the change. In only the past couple of hours, every sports station had blown up with the news of Kevin assisting the Foxes. Newscasters were having a field day with the report and fans were outraged, switching districts would just add fuel to the fire and make the upcoming season even more worthwhile. The switch would answer the question that had already been posed a million-and-one times in the past couple of hours: with a team under the instruction of one of the sons of Exy, how will they do in a game against the Ravens?

It was the perfect publicity stunt, and Nathaniel was honestly surprised he never considered Tetsuji switching the Ravens to the Foxes’ district. He wondered how Kevin would react to the news. He left the Ravens only for them to follow him as his new rivals.

He also wondered what this meant for Andrew and Nathaniel’s plan. This could put them in the perfect place to set everything in motion if they just played their cards right.

Nathaniel let practice fly by him. Luckily, his body had finally recovered so that every hit didn’t feel like a gunshot.

When practice was over and the Ravens had returned to the Nest, Nathaniel felt the familiar tap on his shoulder and Andrew going past him. He waited a minute before following him into his room where, once again, only Andrew stood.

“Kevin won’t be happy with the district change,” Nathaniel said once the door closed behind him.

“He’ll have to deal with it,” Andrew said.

“I thought you were supposed to keep Riko from Kevin?” Nathaniel narrowed his eyes. “Have you suddenly stopped caring about him?”

“Every time you speak I hate you more and more,” Andrew said simply.

“So it’s true,” Nathaniel said. “You care-” before he could even finish what he was saying, Andrew closed the gap between them and pressed his hand against Nathaniel’s mouth to shut him up.

“Let me say this very slowly,” Andrew said, his voice low and full of bite. “I care about nothing. My deal with Kevin might as well be broken at this point. And I thought I made it very clear last time that I’m dealing with you now.”

Nathaniel took Andrew’s wrist and moved it away from his mouth; Andrew did not resist him, and instead dropped his hand down by his side. “Crystal clear,” Nathaniel said. He took notice to the way his heart pounded just a bit faster, and tried to equate it to something that wasn’t Andrew professing his loyalty. “So what do you want?”

“The district change makes gutting this place easier,” Andrew said, crossing his arms. “The Foxes have Kevin now. The Ravens  just have to face the Foxes in Championships, and the Foxes have to win.”

Nathaniel was about ready to laugh in Andrew’s face, if he wasn’t positive that that would be what gets Andrew to kill him. The Foxes were the most pathetic team in all of Class I Exy. He had seen enough tapes of them playing to see that they didn’t work together enough on the court to make a decent win. To think that Andrew, the man who couldn’t bring himself to care about Exy at all, now expected the Foxes to not only get to Championships, but to win?

“You think that they’ll win because they suddenly have Kevin? They don’t even really have Kevin, he’s just an assistant coach,” Nathaniel said, shaking his head.

“Get your head out of your ass and think for a minute,” Andrew said. “They’ll win because we’re going to lose. They just have to get there, and if Kevin holds to his words and gets them in shape, they will. The rest is on us.”

“How? The Foxes have to play well to get anywhere.”

“I told you to think, Wesninski. Do you know how?” Andrew bit. “For this to work, the Foxes just have to get to Championships. The rest is doing everything from in here. We are the ones who have to defend the goal, but this goes past just throwing games. That leaves too much room for error if we perform like normal in practice and not in games.”

“You’ve already thought a lot about this.” Nathaniel was honestly surprised. For someone who claimed that he cared about nothing, Andrew already had things planned start to finish.

“When you’re doing something like this, you can’t leave room for error,” Andrew answered. “We have to start now, and there can’t be any holes.”

“Seems like you have experience in destroying things and leaving no loose ends,” Nathaniel raised an eyebrow in silent question.

“Possibly.”

Nathaniel waited for an answer, an explanation, but then he remembered that he was talking to Andrew and realized that ‘possibly’ was as far as he was getting. He sighed and continued with, “So then what’s the plan? How do we get to meet the Foxes at Championships, lose, and not throw away any games?”

“Because this is when we start,” Andrew said. “We have the opening to begin our plan. And that plan starts with Riko and ends with him as well. Riko’s a power-hungry freak. If we want everything to fall into place, we can’t be the only ones to see that.”

“We have to destroy his credibility on the team,” Nathaniel said when the realization hit him. This plan started with Riko, as Andrew said, but it also ended with him. To tear Riko’s kingdom down, they needed to undermine the King first. “If he loses it on the Court where everyone is there to see, it’ll be easier to believe what he did to Kevin.”

Andrew nodded. “We go for Riko, Tetsuji, and the Ravens, and then we need Kevin to solidify everything. This has to get to Championships, because that is when everything comes together. If Riko loses his shit then, and certain people see a Moriyama losing it, and they see every other fault by the Ravens, led by two Moriyamas, then everything is complete. But there can be no mistakes.”

Nathaniel stared at Andrew. He knew that Andrew knew about the Moriyama’s business, everyone in the Top Five did considering one of them was a Moriyama, three were property, and the other was allowed in the inner circle. He just didn’t think Andrew’s plan would run that deep. The main Moriyama family always went to the Championships. If Lord Kengo Moriyama, leader of the gang and Riko’s father, and his heir and Riko’s older brother, Ichirou, saw that Riko was becoming a loose end, they wouldn’t hesitate to do what they had to do to secure their family.

This was a plan that needed to run perfectly. Andrew was right when he said that they couldn’t afford any mistakes. Dealing with the Moriyamas was dealing with life and death. They needed the plan to work out so that they see Riko as the loose end, and not Nathaniel, Andrew, and Kevin as the ones who undermined them.

“Everything will go according to plan,” Nathaniel said. He didn’t know if he was trying to assure Andrew or himself.

“Good,” Andrew said. “Now you can leave my room.”

“We work well together, Minyard,” Nathaniel said, throwing Andrew a smirk.

“Whenever you speak I feel a strong urge to kill you.”

Nathaniel let him have the last word and stepped out of his room, only to walk into Jean who was coming down the hall.

“Andrew’s room?” Jean questioned, following Nathaniel down the hall to their own room.

“He’s of the Top Five, we have to talk to him occasionally,” Nathaniel left it at that for the night, and fortunately Jean did too, for he wasn’t ready to drag Jean into what they were planning.

--

A week later, Nathaniel’s phone blew up with calls from Kevin. The first was just past noon. He had missed the call because he was in one of his classes, and Kevin left no voicemail. Nathaniel wasn’t able to call him back, so he called again two hours later, and Nathaniel couldn’t answer it because he was with Jean. The next time he called was when the Ravens were getting ready for their evening practice, the next when they were leaving the locker room.

After the fourth call, Nathaniel got a text:

answr yuor phone

Nathaniel, upon seeing Kevin’s lack of spelling and capitalization, now grew even more annoyed because not only was Kevin calling him at completely inconvenient times, he was apparently drunk while doing it all. In retaliation, he responded with:

do you not remember that the Ravens have a schedule that doesn’t coincide with talking to run-away teammates

Kevin’s next message, which consisted of misspelled profanity, caused Nathaniel to sigh and he informed the former striker that he would call later if he could.

Apparently Kevin forgot what the meaning of “I’ll call back later if I can” meant because in less than an hour Nathaniel’s phone was buzzing again. Fortunately, Nathaniel was in his dorm room, and alone. Jean had left only a couple of minutes ago to shower, so he had at least a couple more to himself to take the call.

His heart still pounded in his chest, despite the empty room. He always feared that people were listening in on him through the walls, that someone was able to know what their phone conversations held.

He answered with a quiet hiss of, “What do you want?”

“How could you let the Ravens change districts?” Nathaniel should have figured that that was what this was about.

Nathaniel could hear the alcohol in his voice. Kevin’s words slurred together and he was much louder than he needed to be. Nathaniel wondered how long he had been drinking for, but didn’t get the chance to ask since Kevin continued on with, “I left the Ravens to get away from Riko! And- And now they’re coming to this district?”

“This is how things are supposed to be going-”

“Supposed to!” Kevin was so loud that Nathaniel actually had to bring the phone away from his ear for a moment. “No, no, that’s not what this is! Things are supposed to be that I’m here and Riko’s there but now there’s a district change and I’m here and he’s here and-”

“Shut up,” Nathaniel said, making sure to keep his voice low, and was surprised to find that Kevin actually listened. “You’ve talked to Andrew, yes?” A noise of confirmation from Kevin. “Then you know what our plan is. What exactly has Andrew told you?”

“Everything. The fact that we’re fucking toying with the Moriyamas, which is a suicide mission all in itself. That I have to get this fucking team to Championships, how am I going to manage that when they-”

Nathaniel could sense that Kevin was about to go off on another tangent, so he cut him off with, “Me and Andrew know what we have to do. We are carrying this out from the inside, you have to hold your part there. Get your team to Championships, we’ll work on the rest. This district change just makes it easier for the three of us to work together.”

“Three?” Kevin questioned. “What about Jean?”

“Did you listen to anything I just said, or are you just worried about him?” Nathaniel asked, growing annoyed with Kevin’s drunk antics and ramblings.

“Is Jean in on this?”

“No,” Nathaniel sighed, finally giving in to an explanation. “I’m not getting him involved. He doesn’t need to get hurt because of us. Why do you care so much?”

“Because he’s already involved.” Nathaniel hated how Kevin still had a slight voice of reason when he was drunk. “Might as well be better to get him in on it now than wait for him to be dragged into all of this.”

“What do you know? You’re drunk,” was the only response Nathaniel could think of. He wasn’t going to tell Kevin that he was right. He had a big enough ego when sober. “But that’s not the point of this. The point is, everything will be going according to plan. Let us work from here, and you work there, and we’ll meet in the middle somewhere.”

“You two have really thought this out,” Kevin said.

“We have.”

“You’re unlikely partners, but you guys work well together.”

“You’re drunk,” Nathaniel repeated, though he didn’t stop his mind from wandering to the thoughts of how easily him and Andrew fell together in this plan. Apparently he and Andrew weren’t allies, and he didn’t know where they fell on the scale of friends or enemies, but they were working together in all of this, and working well. They were definitely “unlikely partners”, considering Andrew’s blatant apathetic attitude for Exy and the fact that he was brought into the Top Five because he was recruited. But Kevin, who wasn’t even with them, saw how they worked together. Nathaniel had said that to Andrew, a sarcastic comment meant to just rile up the goalie, but...

“I’m hanging up on you,” Nathaniel told Kevin. “You know what you need to do.”

Nathaniel didn’t give Kevin a chance to answer before snapping his phone shut.

[ohsweetflips]

hawk in the raven nest, chapter sixteen

A/N:  please message me if you have any issues with the upcoming chapters. i am not here to force anyone to read anything that could potentially trigger them or put them into an unsafe state of mind.

major tw: chapters 16-20 deal with sexual assault/rape

read on ao3

previous chapter

chapter list

On the day of Thanksgiving, Andrew received a call from Kevin. It was after their morning practice, almost twelve o’clock, and one of those times where Nathaniel found himself in Andrew’s room.

“What is it?” Andrew said when he brought the phone to his ear. He wore his normal bored expression. Nathaniel watched from sitting on Andrew’s bed. “And?” Whatever Kevin said next, however, caused Andrew’s jaw to tighten. “Why is she going to be there?” Andrew waited ten more seconds before hanging up.  Wordlessly, he yanked open his bedside draw and pulled out what looked like a small pick and a key ring. Shoving them in his pocket, he then walked past Nathaniel and swung open his door. Nathaniel, with furrowed eyebrows, stood and followed Andrew out.

“Where are you going?” he whispered as he followed Andrew down the hall.

“Stop talking.”

Nathaniel was about to object and demand an explanation when they came to the lounge. For once, the lounge of the black section of the Nest was vacant, meaning that most Ravens were congregated in the red lounge. At this time, Riko was at one of his classes with Jean; it was one of the few times that the Perfect Court did not have classes together. Even with Nathaniel and Andrew still around, most people only went to the “more superior” lounge if Riko was there.

Andrew walked to the stairs that led to the locker room, positioned in between the two dormitories, and Nathaniel followed. “Andrew-”

“Shut up.”

Nathaniel clamped his mouth shut and went with Andrew up the stairs. Andrew slammed the door to the locker room open and Nathaniel winced when it smacked against the wall. Nathaniel then expected Andrew to head to his locker. Whenever Andrew and Nathaniel decided to go up to the locker room, they went under the guise that they were going to do a one-on-one practice. However, Nathaniel found himself surprised that Andrew actually had the intention of practicing. He was more surprised when Andrew continued out of the locker room and to the court. He stayed silent as he followed, and realized when they were halfway across the court that Andrew planned on going to Tetsuji’s office.

The way that the Nest-locker room-coach’s office worked was that there was only one door that would let someone outside at all times. In the Nest itself, there were emergency exits that led to stairwells that only unlocked when alarms were triggered. The same setup was in the locker room. The only door that led to the parking lot outside was in Tetsuji’s office. For the most part, that door was off-limits considering Ravens were not allowed in Tetsuji’s office unless summoned, and Tetsuji had the tendency to almost always be in his office.

Fortunately for Nathaniel and Andrew, Tetsuji was not going to be in his office that morning. Castle Evermore was not just home to the Ravens, but was also a common meeting place for people affiliated with the Moriyamas. Rumor had it that Lord Kengo Moriyama’s health was declining, and therefore, after their morning practice, Tetsuji was beckoned to one of the upper floors of Castle Evermore.

Andrew pushed open the door leading to the hall where Tetsuji’s office was. Andrew tried the office door’s knob once, found that it was locked, and slipped the pick out of his pocket. It then dawned on Nathaniel that it was a lock pick. A thousand questions ran through his mind as Andrew picked the lock, but he had the feeling Andrew wasn’t in the mood to answer any questions.

When the door swung open, Nathaniel followed Andrew inside. Tetsuji’s office walls were bare besides schedules and lineups pinned to a bulletin board above the computer. The desk only had pens scattered about, a computer, and a printer. Locked file cabinets lined the walls, and Nathaniel assumed that the drawers in the desk were locked, too. With how Tetsuji ran his team, and who he was affiliated with, Nathaniel wasn’t surprised that he kept everything locked away. The thing that did catch Nathaniel’s eye, however, was the faint outline of a trap door on the floor. It was in the middle of the room, most likely unasked about because one had to know it was there to really be noticed.

Nathaniel had learned a long time ago from Riko and Kevin that Castle Evermore had a passageway running under the Court. That was not necessarily strange; many courts had underground hallways leading to locker rooms and rooms for away teams to sleep. The strange thing about this passageway was that it only led from the Nest, specifically a door in Riko and Kevin’s room, to Tetsuji’s office. The door in Riko and Kevin’s room was always locked, though he knew both Riko and Kevin had a key, and he had a feeling Tetsuji did too.

Nathaniel didn’t know the original intent of the passageway. He was only a child when he learned of it, and the only memory he had of it was Riko, Kevin, and himself racing up and down it, but that was a time before power and violence had come to destroy them. He first wondered if Andrew went through the court instead of there because he didn’t know the passageway existed. Nathaniel knew that he didn’t tell Andrew it was there. His next thought was that that passageway had to be the one Kevin took when he left Castle Evermore. He wondered if Kevin took the time to try to look through the file cabinets to find anything more from his mother besides a note stating who his father was, or if he just walked out the door to the parking lot and never looked back.

Andrew pushed the door to the outside open, and Nathaniel followed. The parking lot was bright in the morning light, except, with Andrew’s intensity, the morning did not seem as joyous. The late November air was chilly, and Nathaniel wished he had more than sweatpants and a t-shirt. Andrew, who had a similar outfit plus his black armbands, did not seem phased as he walked to the parking lot.

For a reason that even Nathaniel did not know or understand, Ravens were allowed to have cars. There were a good amount, all black and dispersed throughout the middle rows. Kevin’s was still parked next to Riko’s, so Kevin had to have taken a cab when he left. Nathaniel didn’t have a car. He had a license, which he thought was useless, since it would go to waste sitting in his wallet as he spent his days and nights in Castle Evermore. Some cars were parked along the curb, and as they passed Nathaniel checked to see if anyone was sitting in them, watching. Luckily, they were the only two in the parking lot, and no one could see them. There weren’t even windows facing the parking lot. Nathaniel wondered if that was just poor design choices, or if no one thought about people escaping.

“My old foster mother is making a visit to Nicky’s parents house for Thanksgiving to see Nicky and Aaron,” Andrew said, finally breaking the silence between them. “Kevin overheard them mentioning it.”

“Oh.” Nathaniel didn’t know much about the life Andrew had before the Ravens. He remembered a vague mention of Andrew going through multiple foster homes, and he knew that at one point Andrew stopped living in foster homes and lived with his cousin, Nicky Hemmick, and twin brother, Aaron Minyard. But after that, he came up blank. “It’s… nice that they’re close?” He didn’t know what else he could say.

“They’re not. She never met them. I’m seeing what she wants.”

Nathaniel furrowed his eyebrows. “Didn’t you say your cousin was from Columbia? In South Carolina?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s where you’re going?”

“Don’t ask a question you already know the answer to.” Two spaces down from Kevin’, Andrew stopped at the driver’s side of a black car. Nathaniel didn’t know names, but he knew an expensive car when he saw one, and Andrew’s was definitely expensive. He grew curious at the money Andrew had to have to be able to afford it.

Nathaniel made a decision and went to the passenger side. Andrew raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re coming?”

“I followed you out here, didn’t I?” Nathaniel replied, and then pulled on the handle, impatient for Andrew to open the car.

Andrew only stared at him for a moment longer before unlocking the car and getting in. “One-hundred percent, Nathaniel,” Andrew said as he started the car.

“Do I get a prize for reaching one-hundred?” Nathaniel asked.

“I will push you out of this car and run you over.” Andrew tore out of the parking lot, and that was when Nathaniel decided to put on his seatbelt. He watched Castle Evermore get smaller and smaller behind them in Andrew’s side mirror.

Nathaniel didn’t think leaving would be this simple. All Tetsuji had to be was gone, and any of them could have walked out. He wondered why no one had ever done this before, and then realized it was probably because none of them considered a life where they were not in the Nest.

“You plan to make this drive in a day?” Nathaniel asked as Andrew pulled onto the main highway.

“Five and a half hours without traffic,” Andrew corrected.

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have a GPS set up.”

“Excellent observation skills, Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel sighed and rolled his eyes. “Do you know how to get there?”

“Yes,” Andrew said. “I remember the directions.”

“Remember? Have you looked this up before?”

“When I first got here,” Andrew said. “Have to know all escape routes from a shit show like this.”

Nathaniel initially wanted to question Andrew’s memory and as to how he can remember directions to a different state so confidently, but he didn’t even know how to approach it. Instead, he shook off that topic and jumped to another. “So your foster mother will be at your cousin’s house? You said they never met?”

“She, Cass Spear, will be there. Kevin overheard Nicky and Aaron talking about how she wanted to see how I was doing, couldn’t find me, and went through them. I don’t know how much of that I believe, so I’m seeing what she wants myself,” Andrew said. He didn’t call Nathaniel out on forcing him to repeat himself. “And they never met because I didn’t go to the Hemmicks after I was with her. I went to Juvie, and then I went to live with Aaron and his mother.”

If Nathaniel was being honest, he didn’t expect so much information from Andrew without further prompting. But one thing he said caught his attention more than the rest. “Wait, you’re saying that Aaron wasn’t also in the foster system?”

“Aaron’s mother kept him and gave me up.” For such a fucked thing to do to twins, Andrew didn’t even sound spiteful for being the twin given away. He didn’t sound anything. “The only thing she was good for was her life insurance. It bought this car.”

“So she’s dead.” Nathaniel rested his head on the window, watching stores and cars fly by. “How’d she die?”

“Crashed her car. I lived, she didn’t,” Andrew said it so casually that it sent a small chill down Nathaniel’s spine. In the midst of working together, Nathaniel could forget Andrew’s bluntness and apathy. “But I think it’s time that I asked a question.” Andrew’s fingers were tapping erratically on the steering wheel. Nathaniel had seen Andrew do that enough to wonder if it was a nervous tick, but he didn’t think that should be sometime he asked about.

“What do you want to know?” Nathaniel asked. He felt no reluctance at allowing Andrew to ask him things. He found himself enjoying speaking with Andrew and whatever question game they had.

“Where’s your father? Your mother’s also dead, but he’s still somewhere working for the Moriyamas,” Andrew said, looking at Nathaniel out of the corner of his eye.

“He’s wherever Lord Kengo needs him to be,” Nathaniel answered, his eyes on Andrew. “His main residence is Baltimore, however. It’s where we all lived before I had to come here.”

“Do you see him?”

“If I ever see him, it probably means I’m about to be killed,” Nathaniel said, probably as casually as Andrew talking about his mother’s death. “The only reason he didn’t kill me when I was a kid was because I was good enough at Exy to pass Tetsuji’s test.”

“Such an Exy junkie.”

Nathaniel couldn’t help but smile at that. Despite the mocking intent the words were meant to have, Nathaniel couldn’t hear it.

As they approached the red light, Andrew looked at him. His eyes flickered down to his mouth and, just for a moment, his fingers stopped their drumming on the steering wheel. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said, turning back to the road.

Nathaniel did not wipe the smile off his face as he turned back to the window. “I’m not.”

“One-hundred-and-one percent.”

Nathaniel rolled his eyes but kept the smile on his face.

However, whatever calm atmosphere they had established was soon washed away by the tension Nathaniel could feel radiating off of Andrew. If it wasn’t for Andrew’s tapping fingers, he would have looked perfectly tranquil. But Nathaniel couldn’t keep his eyes off Andrew’s hands. His fingers tapped on the steering wheel constantly, only stopping to tighten around it when they were stuck in traffic. The car had fallen silent, and even if Nathaniel wanted to say something, he couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say. With Andrew, if he asked the right question, he could get the answer that he was looking for. But with this tension from Andrew, this thing that almost looked like nerves, he had a feeling that no question he could ask would be the right one. Or even if he did ask the right question, it didn’t seem like Andrew would give him an answer.

Andrew said the ride would take five and a half hours without traffic. By the time they arrived to Columbia, and having only made one stop, however, they had already been in Andrew’s car for six hours and fifteen minutes. Nathaniel was surprised that Andrew hadn’t snapped the steering wheel yet, or at least permanently dented it.

Andrew hadn’t said anything for the majority of the ride. Besides their first conversation, him telling Nathaniel to be quick at the one stop they made, and the occasional huff of a breath at a stop light that was taking too long, he was silent. When they turned onto a sidestreet in Columbia, he didn’t have to say anything, the sharp intake of breath was enough of an indication that Andrew saw their destination.

Andrew pulled the car in front of a house that looked like the ones Nathaniel had seen on TV. It was picture perfect. A white porch led to the house, two rocking chairs and a swing decorating it. Plants hung from the rafters of the porch, and a garden that was obviously well tended to sat in front of the porch. There were no chips in the paint of the house, and the colors were well coordinated. Nathaniel could see a candle lit in the front facing windows of the house. The lights that were on in the house gave it a warm and welcoming ambience.

From the way Andrew carried himself to the front door, Nathaniel got the feeling that the people who inhabited the house weren’t nearly as welcoming. When they got to the front door, Andrew tried the knob, found it was unlocked, and pushed the door open. Nathaniel was instantly met with the smell of cooking and candles.

There was no sound of chatter, but apparently Nathaniel and Andrew were not the only ones in the house. Once the front door closed, there was a pause before a confused voice from the kitchen said, “Hello?” It only took a moment then for Nicky Hemmick to appear in the doorway of the kitchen. He had an empty container in his hands that he fumbled with and almost dropped when he saw who the two uninvited guests were. “Andrew? What- what are you doing here?” His eyes flickered between his cousin and Nathaniel.

Nathaniel thought he heard another door opening from somewhere in the back of the house. Andrew either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “Where is she?”

“Where is-” Nicky faltered, furrowing his eyebrows. “Where is who? My- my mother?”

“You know who I’m-”

Andrew was cut off by a man’s voice. “Nicholas, who’s at the door?” Both Nicky and Andrew grew tenser than they already were at the man’s voice. A man that Nathaniel assumed to be Nicky’s father came behind Nicky. Andrew’s eyes hardened at seeing the man; if looks could kill, this man would have been dead where he stood.

The man looked just as displeased to see Andrew. “What do you want here?”

“Why is my foster mother here?” Andrew said. His voice was cold and laced with hatred. Nathaniel wondered what had happened between Andrew and his uncle.

“Your who?” Nicky’s father asked. While Nicky looked confused and then over his shoulder at his father, his father looked more agitated than anything. A bad feeling had settled in Nathaniel’s gut.

“Cass Spear,” Andrew said through clenched teeth. “Why. Is. She. Here.”

“She’s not the one who’s here.” At the initial hearing of Mr. Hemmick’s words, a spike of relief went through Nathaniel. He was ready to turn to Andrew and talk about the misunderstanding, how no one was here and Andrew and Nathaniel could return to Evermore before the day was over. And then Nathaniel went over Mr. Hemmick’s words again.

She’s not the one who’s here.

The one.