My Ryan/Esposito Ficathon Entry!
Title: "When did my life become a teen movie?"
Author: pure_mornings
Characters/Pairings: Esposito/Ryan, a little Castle/Beckett, Esposito, Beckett, Ryan, Castle, Lots of other people in small bits.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers/Warnings: Probably a few, in the form of nods to things from the show, but you won't know them if you haven't seen the episodes anyway.
Disclaimer: So don't own, not even funny.
Summary: High school AU based on this prompt from castlekink for ryanandesposito's ficathon. & Mad props to castlekink for helping me when I was stuck ;)
When Kevin Ryan had come out to the school, or at least stopped hiding his sexuality, he expected a little flak, some teasing, some more than cruel jokes, and maybe some annoying pranks.
He did not expect this.
He glanced over his shoulder as he flung open the door to the locker room he was being chased around by five of the sophomores and freshmen from the football team, of course it was the football team.
As he sprinted onto the fields behind the school he began to feel the heat of the day beating down on his long black clothes.
He looked over his shoulder and seeing he'd gotten a little distance, he couldn't help but call back, "you dost protest too much, methinks!"
As he glanced back he noticed this only spurred them on.
He cursed under his breath and ran onto the baseball field; barely paying attention to the practice that was going on by the diamond.
Now Kevin really did regret this whole all-black clothes thing he had started, Rick was right you get too hot.
He decided he was never going to wear these pants again when one of the hanging belts got caught under one of his boots and he tumbled to the ground.
He felt a shadow fall over him and he tried to push himself off the ground, but found his belts were still tangled.
He was about to cover his head, but instead of yells of fag, he heard, "need a hand, bro?"
He looked up. Standing over him was the pitcher for the school baseball team, he didn't really know his first name, everyone knew him as-
"Esposito!" the brutes had caught up, now his goose was cooked, they were all gonna beat up on him together, he was sure.
He covered his head and tried to curl into a ball protecting his vitals, ie his balls.
But the blows didn’t come, what did come was, “What the hell are you knuckleheads doing?”
Kevin looked back at the five orcs, ‘more like uruk-hai,’ he thought. They looked flabbergasted; the one in front was moving his mouth like he was trying to come up with something to say.
Eventually he just glared down at Kevin, “forget it,” and the others reluctantly trudged off behind him.
“Here,” Esposito pulled him up by his hand, and Kevin stared a little dumbfounded, before he mumbled, “thanks.”
“No prob, my sister likes that whole emo thing, I don’t really get it, but I don’t see why anyone should mess with you for it.” Kevin decided against correcting him.
“Yeah, they’re total creeps,” what do you say to a guy who just saved your scrawny ass, literally?
“Uh, so thanks, uh, Esposito,” he smiled awkwardly.
Esposito made a face, “my name’s Javier, nobody who’s met me calls me Esposito.”
“Oh,” Kevin’s cheeks were probably red, “um, I’m Kevin.”
~~~~~~~~~
Kevin plopped down on the grass next to Rick, Rick had his math textbook open, but he wasn’t doing any problems.
Kevin stared down to the football field where the girls’ track team was practicing; they looked like war hammer figurines from this distance.
“How can you even tell which one she is?” Kevin asked.
Rick pointed at them, “she’s the tall one,” before leaning his head back on his hand.
“Ah.” As if that cleared things up, he saw one girl with practical short dark hair running ahead of the other girls, that was Katherine Beckett, Rick’s crush since he had moved to their town in third grade. He only seemed to like her more each year, but he couldn’t seem to talk to her in any way.
If met with Kate, Rick would start an argument, tease her, make an inappropriate joke, or avoid her altogether. Naturally Kate more than disliked him.
The only way he could express any of his feelings for her were in his articles for the school paper where he always spoke very highly of her, and the fiction stories he wrote for the school’s literary magazine where he wrote about various girls who all possessed some quality of hers. He only published under the name Richard Castle though.
“You know it’s a little creepy how you watch them practice,” Kevin said mildly.
“I’m outside of the legal stalking distance for the state,” he replied without moving his eyes from Kate.
“You are such a stalker.”
“It’s not like I follow her home or anything… not since that one time in sixth grade, and it was just the once!”
“Creep~er,” Kevin sing-songed.
“Oh darling, don’t be jealous, you know I still care deeply for you!” Rick flung himself over towards Kevin dramatically, “we’ve talked about this, you don’t have boobs, and I don’t have…” he faltered.
“An attraction to men?” Kevin supplied.
“Exactly! See this is why I write, I’m terrible in conversation.” Kevin laughed at that.
“So I saw you running from those pissheads from seventh period,” Rick said casually after a long pause.
Kevin winced, “yeah I know, you were right, maybe coming out should have waited until after the gym requirement.”
Rick laughed, “don’t sweat it, getting chased by pipeheads is a good enough ‘I told you so’ for me.”
“Well I’m not done with being in trouble for the day yet…” he handed Rick his report card for the first quarter.
“Well this looks okaaah, how’d you get a D in Spanish?!” Rick finally turned his eyes away from cheerleading practice.
“Not everyone is good with foreign languages, you get B’s in Latin!”
“B’s are fine, and it’s freaking Latin, what do you think your mom will do?” Rick passed back the report card.
Kevin suddenly got a panicked look on his face, “never mind what Mom will do, what about colleges?! I’m going to have to get an A in Spanish next semester to balance this out!”
“Good luck with that.”
~~~~~~~~~
Of course his Mom wasn’t mad, but she was worried. She freaked out and insisting he see a tutor twice a week if he couldn’t figure Spanish out, saying, “I just want you to be able to get into the school of your choice, applications are this year, and they always look at your Junior year.” She would know, his two older sisters had already gone through the process and gone off to college.
Which is how he found himself greeting Javier Esposito and inviting him to sit in his living room for the first time of what would be many.
“Hey,” Kevin felt a little awkward; getting tutored by someone your own age was not exactly a confidence boost, especially someone who probably learned Spanish when he was a kid.
“Hey, so where do you usually study?” Javier however seemed completely comfortable in his skin, the lucky bastard. Then again, when you’re getting paid ten dollars an hour why wouldn’t you be comfortable?
“Uh usually my room but we can study in the kitchen,” the last thing he needed was his tutor thinking he was making a pass at him.
“No, we should study in your room,” at a puzzled look from Kevin, he elaborated, “if you study in the same place it helps with your memory.”
Kevin squinted at him for a moment before he shrugged it off, Javier was the tutor, he ought to know these kinds of things, and he showed him up the stairs to his room.
As they sat down at his desk (there was an extra chair usually for Rick when he came over) he got out his binder and flipped it to the section for Spanish.
“First let me see your last exam,” Javier started. Kevin pulled it out wincing at the big, bright ‘F’ on the front, but Javier didn’t seem phased. He was looking through it, when he suddenly said, “can you roll your ‘r’s?”
“Can I what?”
“Can you roll your ‘r’s?” Javier asked again looking up this time.
“Uh, I guess,” Kevin scratched his head.
“Say ‘boring’ in Spanish,” Javier said challengingly. Kevin grinned.
“Boring in Spanish.” Javier snorted but he cracked a smile, still looking over his exam, so Kevin said, “aburrido, right?”
“Good,” Javier said finally looking up, “you’re not hopeless, you can roll your ‘r’s. Now it looks like conjugation is your biggest issue, so lets start with some exercises.”
~~~~~~~~~
The cafeteria was packed, but Kevin and Rick had managed to find an abandoned booth near the back, it was a little rickety but they shoved a crumpled Styrofoam cup under one of the legs and they were fine.
Rick was hurriedly doing math homework for the next class, so Kevin was rereading Hamlet.
“Shouldn’t you be doing Spanish homework or something instead of reading for fun?”
“I did it already, I had my tutor yesterday,” Kevin replied earmarking his page.
“It’s not fair that only one of us has to suffer during lunch,” Rick erased a large portion of numbers and letters, “so who’s your tutor, some old guy? Or did you get the stereotypical hot girl tutor boys dream of getting? That’d be typical. Gay guy gets one on one tutoring with a hottie.”
“Actually it’s this guy in our grade, Javier Esposito,” Kevin replies, Rick finally looks up from his math homework.
“You mean the Javier Esposito who’s friends with Kate Beckett?” Rick was eagerly looking at him.
“uh are they friends? I didn’t know they were,” Kevin leans away from Rick’s gaze.
“Yeah, they used to date for a while in like freshman or sophomore year, they broke up and managed to stay friends,” see they’re sitting at the same table, Rick points.
Kevin cranes around to see the table where Kate and bunch of other kids are sitting, true enough; Javier is sitting diagonally from her, his back to them. Kate happens to notice Rick pointing, and glares at him.
Javier must notice because he turns around to see what she’s glaring at, he smiles when he sees Kevin, and Kevin smiles back before turning around.
Rick is giving him a slightly odd look when he turns around.
“What?” Kevin doesn’t even realize he’s still smiling.
“Do you…. uh like him?” Rick asks.
Kevin’s smile immediately drops, and his cheeks burn “I don’t really know him that well…”
Rick scoffs, “do you think he’s hot or cute or whatever adjective you judge guys with?”
Kevin feels distinctly uncomfortable talking about this; maybe Rick just thinks it’s okay because Kevin knows all about how he feels about Kate.
“Uh I don’t know, when I met him he sorta saved me from getting my ass kicked the other week, and he’s funny.”
Rick is grinning, “you like him.”
Kevin glares, “how can you know if I haven’t even thought about it yet?”
“I just know you.” Finally the subject seems to be dropped, and Rick goes back to hurriedly doing his math.
Kevin tries to go back to reading Hamlet telling Ophelia to join the cloisters, but he wants to turn around and look at Javier, as if looking at him now that he’s thought about him that way will answer this question.
He doesn’t, cause Rick is the one that creeps on his secret crush-not that Kevin has a secret crush.
~~~~~~~~~
Ever since Rick said that thing about him liking Javier, he’d been sort of dreading his next tutoring appointment. So, naturally, the three days until the next Spanish tutoring passed like lightning, and he found himself letting Javier into his house again, with a small amount of nervousness buzzing in his head.
When they get upstairs, Javier asks him, “so you’re friends with Richard Rogers then?”
“Yeah, we’re friends,” he realizes this might be a concern since Kate hates Rick, and she’s friends with Javier.
“And your boy has a thing for Kate, right?”
Kevin looks at him in what he hopes is complete confusion, “I never said that,” he says defensively.
“But he does right? I knew it,” Javier laughs, it’s like a wheeze sort of, Kevin kinda likes it, “he’s totally pulling her pigtails, it’s so grade school, and the way she goes on about how annoying,” he finger quotes, “he is,” he laughs again.
Kevin is truly confused; he shakes his head, “wait you’re saying she goes on about him?”
“Okay, so I have Math with Kate after Kate has English class with him, right? And she complains about what he did every day.”
“You’re serious.”
Javier grins, “From the moment we sit down to when we separate in the halls,” Kevin is reasonable astonished at this news, “either we talk about math, or about how much he frustrates her.”
“I don’t even know how to process this information,” Kevin says.
Javier snorts, “Just don’t tell your boy, I’m working on Becks.” Kevin doesn’t comment on that, but at least he’s not really thinking about Javier anymore. On that note they’re about to start the actual tutoring, when Javier spots Hamlet which is propped open on his desk.
“Man, what teacher do you have that’s making you read Hamlet?” Javier winces in sympathy.
“Nobody is making me read it, it’s one of my top ten Shakespeare plays,” Kevin replies enthusiastically.
“Seriously? I hated that unit on Shakespeare we had,” Javier said with an overdramatic shudder.
“No way, who did you have?”
“Ms. Karpowsky, we did Romeo and Juliet, it was terrible,” Javier replies, still overdramatic in Kevin’s eyes.
“That’s your problem right there, Mr. Montgomery is so much better to learn Shakespeare from,” Kevin is not at the desk anymore, he’s at his bookshelf getting down his book of Shakespeare tragedies (Hamlet is in it, but the book is heavy). Kevin is now officially on a mission to convert Javier to Shakespeare.
“What, no I really don’t need to hear more Shakespeare,” Javier says leaning away from Kevin and his big book as if it were a weapon.
“Look if you don’t at least try to appreciate Shakespeare, we can never be friends,” Kevin said in all seriousness.
Javier laughed, “fine fine, it won’t work.”
“I mean Shakespeare is so great, it’s about love, passion, murder, insanity in Macbeth’s case, cross-dressing, mistaken identity,” he pauses and looks up, “that one is really big-”
“What the cross-dressing or the mistaken identity?” Javier jokes.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” Kevin glared.
Javier snorted, “I distinctly recall rescuing you from getting your ass kicked, what happened to that whole emo thing anyway?”
Kevin looked down at his clothes, he was wearing normal jeans, he still wore combat boots a lot, and lots of black band t’s, it wasn’t that different except for the return to more sensible pants. He shrugged, “not practical for running away from sleestaks.”
Javier had opened his mouth to reply but Kevin silenced him with a, “found it,” he rounds on Javier, “okay first I’m going to show you that Shakespeare is funny, that’s the first thing to know.”
He starts in on the beginning of Act one, and when Javier doesn’t laugh at the innuendo between Gregory and Sampson he stops to explain.
Eventually he becomes sure that Javier is only laughing at the different way he’s making the voices sound, “well it’s really better if you see it preformed, and I mean preformed well, not terribly like they do in some of the movies.”
Javier laugh-wheezes again, and Kevin really does like that laugh by now, “okay, do you want to work on some Spanish tutoring in our last five minutes?”
Kevin glances at a clock, “well, crap.”
“Don’t sweat it, I’d stay longer so we actually have a proper session, but I have to go tutor this sophomore across town. Come sit with us at lunch tomorrow and I’ll give you a make-up tutoring session,” Javier suddenly grins, “bring Rick, that’ll be hilarious.”
~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks later something happens, Kevin isn’t really sure, but it was between Kate and Rick, and when he asks Rick, he just says, “it’s not really my place to tell you, let’s just say Kate and I worked some things out.” The basic outcome is that now he and Rick are regularly sitting with Kate and Javier and their friends, not just when Kevin and Javier can claim that it’s for tutoring just to see Rick and Kate flirt-fight.
This new development itself isn’t a bad thing. Except that now Kevin is seeing more of Javier, in a social context. Which means the little niggling feelings Kevin has been having towards him have exploded into full like. And liking a straight guy when you’re a gay guy is always a bad thing.
Not to mention the looks he gets from Rick whenever he is sitting next to Javier (which is surprisingly often). Plus he doesn’t know if they know he’s gay.
Okay so maybe the new lunch situation isn’t that great, but Rick and Becks (everyone but Rick and Lanie call her Becks) seem to have reached a point where the teasing is good-natured and Rick doesn’t act like a complete goof, and Rick had been his best friend for a while, so he was willing to put up with it until his own feelings toward Javier dissipated, Javier would be a really cool friend, if he could just stop liking him
One instance is when they all have to squeeze into a table because there aren’t enough seats and he’s pressed right up against Javier, Rick has somehow managed to work out the seating arrangement so that he’s next to Kate, and he’s trying desperately to hold back a grin. When he notices Kevin down the table scrunched in next to Javier, barely keeping on the bench, he raises his eyebrows at Kevin.
Kevin glares back at him, mouthing, “I blame you.”
“How is this my fault?” Rick says out loud.
Madison asks, “How is what your fault?”
Before Rick can say something embarrassing, Kevin interjects, “Rick here just sometimes thinks aloud, it’s just because he’s totally mad.” This makes Madison laugh and seems to end the conversation for the time being.
Another time Madison had asked him if he had a girlfriend, and he’d stupidly answered, “no I’ve never had one.”
And that started a whole spiel of her and Lanie suggesting girls he could ask out, until Rick finally said, “you won’t get anywhere, he already has someone on his mind,” he grins at Kevin. Kevin kicks him under the table.
Javier is even paying attention to this conversation at this point, throwing out reasons that he would never date each of the girls Lanie and Madison suggest.
Kevin replies, “it’s not really a big deal, it’s not like I’ve liked them for years or anything,” to which Rick kicks him back with a fake smile on his face, Javier laughs.
Later that day (which of course had to be a day for tutoring on top of that disaster of a lunch) Javier asks him about it, “So who do you pine for,” he says this with an air of mockery, “I hope it’s not as bad as Rick’s crush on Becks.”
“It’s not a big deal, Rick is reading into things and making stuff up,” Kevin evades.
Javier, master of torment, says something in Spanish he actually kind of understands, “no te creo,” Kevin thinks it’s a statement of disbelief, but he continues in English, “what? Is it someone at our table? You could tell me.”
“No es una de las chickas de,” here he falters, he gives up, “our, uh, mesa,” he ended it like a question, since he wasn’t sure he was saying it right.
Javier grinned despite what he was sure was horrible insult to the language of his ancestors, “that was pretty good for what you’ve been learning, it’s nuestro for our, in this case, and you could have said that in a little less round about way.” He pulls up a piece of paper and as they begin going over sentence structure Kevin feels a little relieved that the subject seems to have been dropped.
~~~~~~~~~
The second Friday following the new lunch arrangement, Kevin and Rick are playing Halo at Rick’s apartment, and Kevin finally says something.
“Can you stop leering at me whenever I sit with Javier? Seriously, he’s going to pick up on it, and ask me about it.”
Rick seems to give him a considering look, “how do you know he doesn’t already know you’re gay? I mean you said he defended you from a bunch of mopes that were trying to kick you ass cause you’re gay right?”
“Nah he thought they were doggin’ me because I was “emo” back then,” Kevin shrugged.
“Ah yes your foray into monotone; haha! Die Covenant scum, die!” he shouted at the screen as he went in shooting like a kamikaze.
Kevin carefully snipe shoots a few Kig-Yar, “hey, I got over it, at least I never stalked anybody.”
“You will never let that go,” Rick suddenly realizes something, “and you are never allowed to tell anybody about that, unless it’s when Kate and I have been happily married for years.”
“Of course not, I’d never inadvertently break your heart, you’d be insufferable,” they continue cursing and shooting at Covenant soldiers for a few minutes.
Kevin isn’t so lucky as to have the subject drop, Rick starts again, “but what if he does know?”
“Why, did you tell him? Did you tell Becks?” Kevin is sure she would tell Javier, they seem like that kind of close friends.
“No, I didn’t say anything,” he smacks him up side the head, presumably for even thinking he would, “I thought you weren’t hiding it anymore, what happened to being honest?”
“We started hanging out in a new crowd, I need to gauge the situation before I decide to declare it, but I’m not going to hide it,” Kevin shrugged, “what does it matter?”
“I don’t know, I just think people in the group would be accepting,” Rick shrugged.
Kevin decided there must be something he wasn’t telling him, but he let it drop; Rick was terrible at holding things in, he would probably just say it eventually, or else he might explode.
~~~~~~~~~
The next weekend Madison’s parents were out of town, so she was throwing a party, alcohol included.
Kevin was a little nervous about it, especially getting drunk around people he didn’t know too well, he tended to become extremely truthful when he was drunk. It’s how he ended up making out with his crush at sleep away camp, Jeremy.
Rick told him if he mostly laid off the sauce he’d be fine, and promised if he did get too drunk, he would call a cab to send him home.
He should have learned not to trust Rick’s assurances by now.
Kevin is starting to feel like his life is a teen movie, after everyone did tequila shots (courtesy of Javier) Madison took the empty bottle and she declared that they needed to play truth or dare or spin the bottle with it.
Kevin tried to say he was not going to play either way, but Rick vetoed him claiming everyone had to play. Surprisingly Rick voted for spin-truth or dare, although maybe he just didn’t want Kate to kiss anyone else.
So far Madison had removed her shirt (but left on her bra) for three turns, Ike had been dared to attempt to secretly undo as many girls’ bras as he could, Javier was owed one dare as Rick couldn’t think of one, Tom and Rick had had a beer chugging contest (Tom won), Lanie had admitted that she would go to second base with a girl but no further, and Kate had just been forced to say something dirty to Rick in Russian.
“So Kev,” Kate said with the warmth of a few shots in her voice, “Truth or Dare?”
“Uh…” truth sounded like a bad idea, he had a few things he really didn’t want to be forced to talk about, so that left, “Dare, I guess,” he shrugged and took a sip from his beer.
“Kay, I dare you to give Javi a lap dance.”
Kevin hacked trying to get the beer out of his nose, “what?” he rasped as he coughed. Rick reached around Becks to thump Kevin on the back a few times, and his arm remained behind Kate when Kevin waved him off.
“No, I’m not lap-raping Javi,” he didn’t know if he’d ever called him that before, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Javier was laughing next to him, that didn’t make him feel any better about this dare.
But Kate seemed determined, “Fine,” she turned to Rick, “hey Rick, Javi owes you a dare right? Dare him to consent to a lap-dance from Kevin.”
He didn’t even get a chance to glare at Rick, he immediately said, “Javier I dare you to accept a lap dance from Kevin.”
Kevin was going to have words with Rick later, words like, “you planned this!” and “whipped,” with a whip crack to go along with it. For now he took a big gulp of his beer. It emptied so he reached behind him for a new can.
Javier seemed to have stopped laughing, “oh c’mon, don’t torment him,” but his protest fell on deaf ears.
“I don’t even know how to give a lap dance!” Kevin tried.
“Just move your hips to the music,” Ike said, “y’know over his lap,” and he broke down into laughter.
“Oh, we need a good lap dance song,” Madison stumbled up to change the music on her iPod.
“Not “swing,” Kev hates that song,” Rick supplied.
“And maintain eye contact,” Lanie supplied from where she was leaning against Tom.
Kevin glanced at Javier, he’d just snorted at Lanie’s comment, and seemed to be totally okay with this development. And after finishing his fifth beer, Kevin was beginning to feel like maybe he could handle it if Javier could.
Since they were all on the floor it looked like he’d have to this kneeling over Javier’s lap, “fan-tastic,” he muttered sarcastically. The song came on as he was scrambling over to Javier, and he groaned, “seriously?”
“Closer is the best lap dance song ever, besides don’t you like Nine Inch Nails?” Madison said cheerily. He glanced down at his shirt, it was a Nine Inch Nails shirt.
With a final glance toward Kate, and a, “you’re evil,” he straddled Javier’s lap.
He tried looking at Javier’s face, but he couldn’t even manage to look him in the eyes, so he closed his eyes and concentrated on making a good show.
Javier’s chest was warm when he bumped it, which surprised Kevin based on how warm he felt; luckily his face had been flushed since his first beer.
Someone was occasionally making catcalls, which he was pointedly ignoring. He started a bit though when one of Javier’s hands rested gently on his back to steady him, but he just tried to work that into his ‘routine.’
He was trying to do something where his hips would get lower and lower without touching Javier’s lap when his legs finally gave out and he fell down and sprawled on his back in on the floor, his knees bent awkwardly under him like some yoga pose.
“I think I pulled something,” he said as he lay sprawled out, and everyone burst out laughing.
He smiled as he managed to awkwardly push himself up, but his grin falters when he realized Javier’s hand, which had been on his back, had now been covered by his ass.
He hastened to get up, trying not to show that his grin had faded a little as heat flared in his stomach.
When he was reseated he took another beer and had a mighty gulp, “Alright, a warning, whoever this lands on, you don’t wanna pick dare,” and with that, Kevin spins the tequila bottle.
~~~~~~~~~
On Monday Kevin manages to find Rick before school.
“You jerk,” he punches him in the arm, getting a yelp for his troubles, “so did you and Becks plan that whole lap dance thing or are you really just that whipped?”
“Uh, both,” Rick says rubbing his arm.
“Great so you did tell her,” Kevin says angrily, he’s beginning to feel that his best friend has gone to the dark side, “so you’re both trying to torture me?”
“No, that’s not it, I mean,” his voice drops, “did you look at his face at all while you were doing it?”
“No! I was trying my best not to have a panic attack!” Kevin whispered heatedly back, “what does it matter what kind of face he was making?”
Rick seemed to be just as frustrated, “Ahgg! It’s- just, um,” Rick rubs a hand over his face, “I’m not supposed to say anything.”
“Oh that’s just awesome, now you have secrets from me with your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my- Kev, wait!” Kevin was already walking away.
“I gotta go to class,” he waved at him angrily before heading into a stairwell.
~~~~~~~~~
Kevin knew that not showing up at lunch would probably be a red flag to the others, and they would just talk about it, about him, but at the moment he really didn’t care.
He was kinda regretting it when he answered the door and Javier was there.
“Hey.”
“uh, hey, I know we don’t have tutoring today, but I uh, needed to talk to you.”
Kevin felt his stomach drop, “Alright, come inside.”
“No,” Javier said, “I mean, it’s better if I just say this here,” he takes a deep breath, Kevin thinks he knows what he’s going to say, “I think you should get a different tutor.”
Kevin nods, he looks down at Javier’s shoes, sneakers, not converse, but actual athletic shoes, they’ve got dust on them, probably from the baseball field.
“I mean it’s just when you like someone, it’s awkward to have to be around them for school stuff, right?” His smile is awkward, forced; Kevin goes back to looking at his feet.
“Yeah, right,” Kevin mutters.
Javier laughs nervously, it’s not the wheezy laugh that means he finds the situation genuinely funny, he goes on, rambling now “I guess it’s not very professional, having a crush on your student.”
“Wait, what?” Kevin doesn’t even realize he’s said it out loud until he’s notices Javier’s face go from nervous to confused.
“Um, I said having a crush on your student, that’d be you,” Javier says, Kevin’s eyes are huge, he knows ‘cause they’re starting to hurt from not blinking enough, Javier seems to be making a connection, suddenly he looks a little smug, “wait, what did you think I meant?”
Kevin’s eyes finally get a break, he closes his eyes, but he’s smiling, “you’re really going to make me say it?”
“Yep, I said it, turnabout’s fair play,” Javier was grinning too.
“I thought that you wanted me to get a new tutor because I like you,” it actually feels a lot better to say it, even though Javier already knows.
“That is so awesome,” now Javier is just standing there grinning, and Kevin really wants to invite him inside so they can hang out and maybe mack a little.
“So now that we both know that, wanna come inside?”
“Why Kevin, are you asking me out?” Javier bats his eyelashes but he starts laughing halfway through, and it's his genuine wheezy laughter again.
Kevin snorts, and maybe if he wasn’t walking on air he wouldn’t have a good comeback already, “No I’m asking you in, lets play videogames or something.”
~~~~~~~~~
They end up talking a lot and not actually playing videogames, just sitting with controllers in their hands. Javier even tells him how he dated Kate until he realized he couldn’t lie about himself, even with or maybe especially with Kate. Kevin tells him that Rick and Kate have probably known the whole time and planned the lap-dance thing. Javier says they should try that again. Kevin tells him, okay, but Javier can give the lap dance this time.
They do make out, it is awesome, and they make plans to go on a date. Kevin’s kinda excited, he’s never really been in a relationship, but he really likes Javier so hopefully he won’t mess it up.
Author: pure_mornings
Characters/Pairings: Esposito/Ryan, a little Castle/Beckett, Esposito, Beckett, Ryan, Castle, Lots of other people in small bits.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers/Warnings: Probably a few, in the form of nods to things from the show, but you won't know them if you haven't seen the episodes anyway.
Disclaimer: So don't own, not even funny.
Summary: High school AU based on this prompt from castlekink for ryanandesposito's ficathon. & Mad props to castlekink for helping me when I was stuck ;)
When Kevin Ryan had come out to the school, or at least stopped hiding his sexuality, he expected a little flak, some teasing, some more than cruel jokes, and maybe some annoying pranks.
He did not expect this.
He glanced over his shoulder as he flung open the door to the locker room he was being chased around by five of the sophomores and freshmen from the football team, of course it was the football team.
As he sprinted onto the fields behind the school he began to feel the heat of the day beating down on his long black clothes.
He looked over his shoulder and seeing he'd gotten a little distance, he couldn't help but call back, "you dost protest too much, methinks!"
As he glanced back he noticed this only spurred them on.
He cursed under his breath and ran onto the baseball field; barely paying attention to the practice that was going on by the diamond.
Now Kevin really did regret this whole all-black clothes thing he had started, Rick was right you get too hot.
He decided he was never going to wear these pants again when one of the hanging belts got caught under one of his boots and he tumbled to the ground.
He felt a shadow fall over him and he tried to push himself off the ground, but found his belts were still tangled.
He was about to cover his head, but instead of yells of fag, he heard, "need a hand, bro?"
He looked up. Standing over him was the pitcher for the school baseball team, he didn't really know his first name, everyone knew him as-
"Esposito!" the brutes had caught up, now his goose was cooked, they were all gonna beat up on him together, he was sure.
He covered his head and tried to curl into a ball protecting his vitals, ie his balls.
But the blows didn’t come, what did come was, “What the hell are you knuckleheads doing?”
Kevin looked back at the five orcs, ‘more like uruk-hai,’ he thought. They looked flabbergasted; the one in front was moving his mouth like he was trying to come up with something to say.
Eventually he just glared down at Kevin, “forget it,” and the others reluctantly trudged off behind him.
“Here,” Esposito pulled him up by his hand, and Kevin stared a little dumbfounded, before he mumbled, “thanks.”
“No prob, my sister likes that whole emo thing, I don’t really get it, but I don’t see why anyone should mess with you for it.” Kevin decided against correcting him.
“Yeah, they’re total creeps,” what do you say to a guy who just saved your scrawny ass, literally?
“Uh, so thanks, uh, Esposito,” he smiled awkwardly.
Esposito made a face, “my name’s Javier, nobody who’s met me calls me Esposito.”
“Oh,” Kevin’s cheeks were probably red, “um, I’m Kevin.”
~~~~~~~~~
Kevin plopped down on the grass next to Rick, Rick had his math textbook open, but he wasn’t doing any problems.
Kevin stared down to the football field where the girls’ track team was practicing; they looked like war hammer figurines from this distance.
“How can you even tell which one she is?” Kevin asked.
Rick pointed at them, “she’s the tall one,” before leaning his head back on his hand.
“Ah.” As if that cleared things up, he saw one girl with practical short dark hair running ahead of the other girls, that was Katherine Beckett, Rick’s crush since he had moved to their town in third grade. He only seemed to like her more each year, but he couldn’t seem to talk to her in any way.
If met with Kate, Rick would start an argument, tease her, make an inappropriate joke, or avoid her altogether. Naturally Kate more than disliked him.
The only way he could express any of his feelings for her were in his articles for the school paper where he always spoke very highly of her, and the fiction stories he wrote for the school’s literary magazine where he wrote about various girls who all possessed some quality of hers. He only published under the name Richard Castle though.
“You know it’s a little creepy how you watch them practice,” Kevin said mildly.
“I’m outside of the legal stalking distance for the state,” he replied without moving his eyes from Kate.
“You are such a stalker.”
“It’s not like I follow her home or anything… not since that one time in sixth grade, and it was just the once!”
“Creep~er,” Kevin sing-songed.
“Oh darling, don’t be jealous, you know I still care deeply for you!” Rick flung himself over towards Kevin dramatically, “we’ve talked about this, you don’t have boobs, and I don’t have…” he faltered.
“An attraction to men?” Kevin supplied.
“Exactly! See this is why I write, I’m terrible in conversation.” Kevin laughed at that.
“So I saw you running from those pissheads from seventh period,” Rick said casually after a long pause.
Kevin winced, “yeah I know, you were right, maybe coming out should have waited until after the gym requirement.”
Rick laughed, “don’t sweat it, getting chased by pipeheads is a good enough ‘I told you so’ for me.”
“Well I’m not done with being in trouble for the day yet…” he handed Rick his report card for the first quarter.
“Well this looks okaaah, how’d you get a D in Spanish?!” Rick finally turned his eyes away from cheerleading practice.
“Not everyone is good with foreign languages, you get B’s in Latin!”
“B’s are fine, and it’s freaking Latin, what do you think your mom will do?” Rick passed back the report card.
Kevin suddenly got a panicked look on his face, “never mind what Mom will do, what about colleges?! I’m going to have to get an A in Spanish next semester to balance this out!”
“Good luck with that.”
~~~~~~~~~
Of course his Mom wasn’t mad, but she was worried. She freaked out and insisting he see a tutor twice a week if he couldn’t figure Spanish out, saying, “I just want you to be able to get into the school of your choice, applications are this year, and they always look at your Junior year.” She would know, his two older sisters had already gone through the process and gone off to college.
Which is how he found himself greeting Javier Esposito and inviting him to sit in his living room for the first time of what would be many.
“Hey,” Kevin felt a little awkward; getting tutored by someone your own age was not exactly a confidence boost, especially someone who probably learned Spanish when he was a kid.
“Hey, so where do you usually study?” Javier however seemed completely comfortable in his skin, the lucky bastard. Then again, when you’re getting paid ten dollars an hour why wouldn’t you be comfortable?
“Uh usually my room but we can study in the kitchen,” the last thing he needed was his tutor thinking he was making a pass at him.
“No, we should study in your room,” at a puzzled look from Kevin, he elaborated, “if you study in the same place it helps with your memory.”
Kevin squinted at him for a moment before he shrugged it off, Javier was the tutor, he ought to know these kinds of things, and he showed him up the stairs to his room.
As they sat down at his desk (there was an extra chair usually for Rick when he came over) he got out his binder and flipped it to the section for Spanish.
“First let me see your last exam,” Javier started. Kevin pulled it out wincing at the big, bright ‘F’ on the front, but Javier didn’t seem phased. He was looking through it, when he suddenly said, “can you roll your ‘r’s?”
“Can I what?”
“Can you roll your ‘r’s?” Javier asked again looking up this time.
“Uh, I guess,” Kevin scratched his head.
“Say ‘boring’ in Spanish,” Javier said challengingly. Kevin grinned.
“Boring in Spanish.” Javier snorted but he cracked a smile, still looking over his exam, so Kevin said, “aburrido, right?”
“Good,” Javier said finally looking up, “you’re not hopeless, you can roll your ‘r’s. Now it looks like conjugation is your biggest issue, so lets start with some exercises.”
~~~~~~~~~
The cafeteria was packed, but Kevin and Rick had managed to find an abandoned booth near the back, it was a little rickety but they shoved a crumpled Styrofoam cup under one of the legs and they were fine.
Rick was hurriedly doing math homework for the next class, so Kevin was rereading Hamlet.
“Shouldn’t you be doing Spanish homework or something instead of reading for fun?”
“I did it already, I had my tutor yesterday,” Kevin replied earmarking his page.
“It’s not fair that only one of us has to suffer during lunch,” Rick erased a large portion of numbers and letters, “so who’s your tutor, some old guy? Or did you get the stereotypical hot girl tutor boys dream of getting? That’d be typical. Gay guy gets one on one tutoring with a hottie.”
“Actually it’s this guy in our grade, Javier Esposito,” Kevin replies, Rick finally looks up from his math homework.
“You mean the Javier Esposito who’s friends with Kate Beckett?” Rick was eagerly looking at him.
“uh are they friends? I didn’t know they were,” Kevin leans away from Rick’s gaze.
“Yeah, they used to date for a while in like freshman or sophomore year, they broke up and managed to stay friends,” see they’re sitting at the same table, Rick points.
Kevin cranes around to see the table where Kate and bunch of other kids are sitting, true enough; Javier is sitting diagonally from her, his back to them. Kate happens to notice Rick pointing, and glares at him.
Javier must notice because he turns around to see what she’s glaring at, he smiles when he sees Kevin, and Kevin smiles back before turning around.
Rick is giving him a slightly odd look when he turns around.
“What?” Kevin doesn’t even realize he’s still smiling.
“Do you…. uh like him?” Rick asks.
Kevin’s smile immediately drops, and his cheeks burn “I don’t really know him that well…”
Rick scoffs, “do you think he’s hot or cute or whatever adjective you judge guys with?”
Kevin feels distinctly uncomfortable talking about this; maybe Rick just thinks it’s okay because Kevin knows all about how he feels about Kate.
“Uh I don’t know, when I met him he sorta saved me from getting my ass kicked the other week, and he’s funny.”
Rick is grinning, “you like him.”
Kevin glares, “how can you know if I haven’t even thought about it yet?”
“I just know you.” Finally the subject seems to be dropped, and Rick goes back to hurriedly doing his math.
Kevin tries to go back to reading Hamlet telling Ophelia to join the cloisters, but he wants to turn around and look at Javier, as if looking at him now that he’s thought about him that way will answer this question.
He doesn’t, cause Rick is the one that creeps on his secret crush-not that Kevin has a secret crush.
~~~~~~~~~
Ever since Rick said that thing about him liking Javier, he’d been sort of dreading his next tutoring appointment. So, naturally, the three days until the next Spanish tutoring passed like lightning, and he found himself letting Javier into his house again, with a small amount of nervousness buzzing in his head.
When they get upstairs, Javier asks him, “so you’re friends with Richard Rogers then?”
“Yeah, we’re friends,” he realizes this might be a concern since Kate hates Rick, and she’s friends with Javier.
“And your boy has a thing for Kate, right?”
Kevin looks at him in what he hopes is complete confusion, “I never said that,” he says defensively.
“But he does right? I knew it,” Javier laughs, it’s like a wheeze sort of, Kevin kinda likes it, “he’s totally pulling her pigtails, it’s so grade school, and the way she goes on about how annoying,” he finger quotes, “he is,” he laughs again.
Kevin is truly confused; he shakes his head, “wait you’re saying she goes on about him?”
“Okay, so I have Math with Kate after Kate has English class with him, right? And she complains about what he did every day.”
“You’re serious.”
Javier grins, “From the moment we sit down to when we separate in the halls,” Kevin is reasonable astonished at this news, “either we talk about math, or about how much he frustrates her.”
“I don’t even know how to process this information,” Kevin says.
Javier snorts, “Just don’t tell your boy, I’m working on Becks.” Kevin doesn’t comment on that, but at least he’s not really thinking about Javier anymore. On that note they’re about to start the actual tutoring, when Javier spots Hamlet which is propped open on his desk.
“Man, what teacher do you have that’s making you read Hamlet?” Javier winces in sympathy.
“Nobody is making me read it, it’s one of my top ten Shakespeare plays,” Kevin replies enthusiastically.
“Seriously? I hated that unit on Shakespeare we had,” Javier said with an overdramatic shudder.
“No way, who did you have?”
“Ms. Karpowsky, we did Romeo and Juliet, it was terrible,” Javier replies, still overdramatic in Kevin’s eyes.
“That’s your problem right there, Mr. Montgomery is so much better to learn Shakespeare from,” Kevin is not at the desk anymore, he’s at his bookshelf getting down his book of Shakespeare tragedies (Hamlet is in it, but the book is heavy). Kevin is now officially on a mission to convert Javier to Shakespeare.
“What, no I really don’t need to hear more Shakespeare,” Javier says leaning away from Kevin and his big book as if it were a weapon.
“Look if you don’t at least try to appreciate Shakespeare, we can never be friends,” Kevin said in all seriousness.
Javier laughed, “fine fine, it won’t work.”
“I mean Shakespeare is so great, it’s about love, passion, murder, insanity in Macbeth’s case, cross-dressing, mistaken identity,” he pauses and looks up, “that one is really big-”
“What the cross-dressing or the mistaken identity?” Javier jokes.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” Kevin glared.
Javier snorted, “I distinctly recall rescuing you from getting your ass kicked, what happened to that whole emo thing anyway?”
Kevin looked down at his clothes, he was wearing normal jeans, he still wore combat boots a lot, and lots of black band t’s, it wasn’t that different except for the return to more sensible pants. He shrugged, “not practical for running away from sleestaks.”
Javier had opened his mouth to reply but Kevin silenced him with a, “found it,” he rounds on Javier, “okay first I’m going to show you that Shakespeare is funny, that’s the first thing to know.”
He starts in on the beginning of Act one, and when Javier doesn’t laugh at the innuendo between Gregory and Sampson he stops to explain.
Eventually he becomes sure that Javier is only laughing at the different way he’s making the voices sound, “well it’s really better if you see it preformed, and I mean preformed well, not terribly like they do in some of the movies.”
Javier laugh-wheezes again, and Kevin really does like that laugh by now, “okay, do you want to work on some Spanish tutoring in our last five minutes?”
Kevin glances at a clock, “well, crap.”
“Don’t sweat it, I’d stay longer so we actually have a proper session, but I have to go tutor this sophomore across town. Come sit with us at lunch tomorrow and I’ll give you a make-up tutoring session,” Javier suddenly grins, “bring Rick, that’ll be hilarious.”
~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks later something happens, Kevin isn’t really sure, but it was between Kate and Rick, and when he asks Rick, he just says, “it’s not really my place to tell you, let’s just say Kate and I worked some things out.” The basic outcome is that now he and Rick are regularly sitting with Kate and Javier and their friends, not just when Kevin and Javier can claim that it’s for tutoring just to see Rick and Kate flirt-fight.
This new development itself isn’t a bad thing. Except that now Kevin is seeing more of Javier, in a social context. Which means the little niggling feelings Kevin has been having towards him have exploded into full like. And liking a straight guy when you’re a gay guy is always a bad thing.
Not to mention the looks he gets from Rick whenever he is sitting next to Javier (which is surprisingly often). Plus he doesn’t know if they know he’s gay.
Okay so maybe the new lunch situation isn’t that great, but Rick and Becks (everyone but Rick and Lanie call her Becks) seem to have reached a point where the teasing is good-natured and Rick doesn’t act like a complete goof, and Rick had been his best friend for a while, so he was willing to put up with it until his own feelings toward Javier dissipated, Javier would be a really cool friend, if he could just stop liking him
One instance is when they all have to squeeze into a table because there aren’t enough seats and he’s pressed right up against Javier, Rick has somehow managed to work out the seating arrangement so that he’s next to Kate, and he’s trying desperately to hold back a grin. When he notices Kevin down the table scrunched in next to Javier, barely keeping on the bench, he raises his eyebrows at Kevin.
Kevin glares back at him, mouthing, “I blame you.”
“How is this my fault?” Rick says out loud.
Madison asks, “How is what your fault?”
Before Rick can say something embarrassing, Kevin interjects, “Rick here just sometimes thinks aloud, it’s just because he’s totally mad.” This makes Madison laugh and seems to end the conversation for the time being.
Another time Madison had asked him if he had a girlfriend, and he’d stupidly answered, “no I’ve never had one.”
And that started a whole spiel of her and Lanie suggesting girls he could ask out, until Rick finally said, “you won’t get anywhere, he already has someone on his mind,” he grins at Kevin. Kevin kicks him under the table.
Javier is even paying attention to this conversation at this point, throwing out reasons that he would never date each of the girls Lanie and Madison suggest.
Kevin replies, “it’s not really a big deal, it’s not like I’ve liked them for years or anything,” to which Rick kicks him back with a fake smile on his face, Javier laughs.
Later that day (which of course had to be a day for tutoring on top of that disaster of a lunch) Javier asks him about it, “So who do you pine for,” he says this with an air of mockery, “I hope it’s not as bad as Rick’s crush on Becks.”
“It’s not a big deal, Rick is reading into things and making stuff up,” Kevin evades.
Javier, master of torment, says something in Spanish he actually kind of understands, “no te creo,” Kevin thinks it’s a statement of disbelief, but he continues in English, “what? Is it someone at our table? You could tell me.”
“No es una de las chickas de,” here he falters, he gives up, “our, uh, mesa,” he ended it like a question, since he wasn’t sure he was saying it right.
Javier grinned despite what he was sure was horrible insult to the language of his ancestors, “that was pretty good for what you’ve been learning, it’s nuestro for our, in this case, and you could have said that in a little less round about way.” He pulls up a piece of paper and as they begin going over sentence structure Kevin feels a little relieved that the subject seems to have been dropped.
~~~~~~~~~
The second Friday following the new lunch arrangement, Kevin and Rick are playing Halo at Rick’s apartment, and Kevin finally says something.
“Can you stop leering at me whenever I sit with Javier? Seriously, he’s going to pick up on it, and ask me about it.”
Rick seems to give him a considering look, “how do you know he doesn’t already know you’re gay? I mean you said he defended you from a bunch of mopes that were trying to kick you ass cause you’re gay right?”
“Nah he thought they were doggin’ me because I was “emo” back then,” Kevin shrugged.
“Ah yes your foray into monotone; haha! Die Covenant scum, die!” he shouted at the screen as he went in shooting like a kamikaze.
Kevin carefully snipe shoots a few Kig-Yar, “hey, I got over it, at least I never stalked anybody.”
“You will never let that go,” Rick suddenly realizes something, “and you are never allowed to tell anybody about that, unless it’s when Kate and I have been happily married for years.”
“Of course not, I’d never inadvertently break your heart, you’d be insufferable,” they continue cursing and shooting at Covenant soldiers for a few minutes.
Kevin isn’t so lucky as to have the subject drop, Rick starts again, “but what if he does know?”
“Why, did you tell him? Did you tell Becks?” Kevin is sure she would tell Javier, they seem like that kind of close friends.
“No, I didn’t say anything,” he smacks him up side the head, presumably for even thinking he would, “I thought you weren’t hiding it anymore, what happened to being honest?”
“We started hanging out in a new crowd, I need to gauge the situation before I decide to declare it, but I’m not going to hide it,” Kevin shrugged, “what does it matter?”
“I don’t know, I just think people in the group would be accepting,” Rick shrugged.
Kevin decided there must be something he wasn’t telling him, but he let it drop; Rick was terrible at holding things in, he would probably just say it eventually, or else he might explode.
~~~~~~~~~
The next weekend Madison’s parents were out of town, so she was throwing a party, alcohol included.
Kevin was a little nervous about it, especially getting drunk around people he didn’t know too well, he tended to become extremely truthful when he was drunk. It’s how he ended up making out with his crush at sleep away camp, Jeremy.
Rick told him if he mostly laid off the sauce he’d be fine, and promised if he did get too drunk, he would call a cab to send him home.
He should have learned not to trust Rick’s assurances by now.
Kevin is starting to feel like his life is a teen movie, after everyone did tequila shots (courtesy of Javier) Madison took the empty bottle and she declared that they needed to play truth or dare or spin the bottle with it.
Kevin tried to say he was not going to play either way, but Rick vetoed him claiming everyone had to play. Surprisingly Rick voted for spin-truth or dare, although maybe he just didn’t want Kate to kiss anyone else.
So far Madison had removed her shirt (but left on her bra) for three turns, Ike had been dared to attempt to secretly undo as many girls’ bras as he could, Javier was owed one dare as Rick couldn’t think of one, Tom and Rick had had a beer chugging contest (Tom won), Lanie had admitted that she would go to second base with a girl but no further, and Kate had just been forced to say something dirty to Rick in Russian.
“So Kev,” Kate said with the warmth of a few shots in her voice, “Truth or Dare?”
“Uh…” truth sounded like a bad idea, he had a few things he really didn’t want to be forced to talk about, so that left, “Dare, I guess,” he shrugged and took a sip from his beer.
“Kay, I dare you to give Javi a lap dance.”
Kevin hacked trying to get the beer out of his nose, “what?” he rasped as he coughed. Rick reached around Becks to thump Kevin on the back a few times, and his arm remained behind Kate when Kevin waved him off.
“No, I’m not lap-raping Javi,” he didn’t know if he’d ever called him that before, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Javier was laughing next to him, that didn’t make him feel any better about this dare.
But Kate seemed determined, “Fine,” she turned to Rick, “hey Rick, Javi owes you a dare right? Dare him to consent to a lap-dance from Kevin.”
He didn’t even get a chance to glare at Rick, he immediately said, “Javier I dare you to accept a lap dance from Kevin.”
Kevin was going to have words with Rick later, words like, “you planned this!” and “whipped,” with a whip crack to go along with it. For now he took a big gulp of his beer. It emptied so he reached behind him for a new can.
Javier seemed to have stopped laughing, “oh c’mon, don’t torment him,” but his protest fell on deaf ears.
“I don’t even know how to give a lap dance!” Kevin tried.
“Just move your hips to the music,” Ike said, “y’know over his lap,” and he broke down into laughter.
“Oh, we need a good lap dance song,” Madison stumbled up to change the music on her iPod.
“Not “swing,” Kev hates that song,” Rick supplied.
“And maintain eye contact,” Lanie supplied from where she was leaning against Tom.
Kevin glanced at Javier, he’d just snorted at Lanie’s comment, and seemed to be totally okay with this development. And after finishing his fifth beer, Kevin was beginning to feel like maybe he could handle it if Javier could.
Since they were all on the floor it looked like he’d have to this kneeling over Javier’s lap, “fan-tastic,” he muttered sarcastically. The song came on as he was scrambling over to Javier, and he groaned, “seriously?”
“Closer is the best lap dance song ever, besides don’t you like Nine Inch Nails?” Madison said cheerily. He glanced down at his shirt, it was a Nine Inch Nails shirt.
With a final glance toward Kate, and a, “you’re evil,” he straddled Javier’s lap.
He tried looking at Javier’s face, but he couldn’t even manage to look him in the eyes, so he closed his eyes and concentrated on making a good show.
Javier’s chest was warm when he bumped it, which surprised Kevin based on how warm he felt; luckily his face had been flushed since his first beer.
Someone was occasionally making catcalls, which he was pointedly ignoring. He started a bit though when one of Javier’s hands rested gently on his back to steady him, but he just tried to work that into his ‘routine.’
He was trying to do something where his hips would get lower and lower without touching Javier’s lap when his legs finally gave out and he fell down and sprawled on his back in on the floor, his knees bent awkwardly under him like some yoga pose.
“I think I pulled something,” he said as he lay sprawled out, and everyone burst out laughing.
He smiled as he managed to awkwardly push himself up, but his grin falters when he realized Javier’s hand, which had been on his back, had now been covered by his ass.
He hastened to get up, trying not to show that his grin had faded a little as heat flared in his stomach.
When he was reseated he took another beer and had a mighty gulp, “Alright, a warning, whoever this lands on, you don’t wanna pick dare,” and with that, Kevin spins the tequila bottle.
~~~~~~~~~
On Monday Kevin manages to find Rick before school.
“You jerk,” he punches him in the arm, getting a yelp for his troubles, “so did you and Becks plan that whole lap dance thing or are you really just that whipped?”
“Uh, both,” Rick says rubbing his arm.
“Great so you did tell her,” Kevin says angrily, he’s beginning to feel that his best friend has gone to the dark side, “so you’re both trying to torture me?”
“No, that’s not it, I mean,” his voice drops, “did you look at his face at all while you were doing it?”
“No! I was trying my best not to have a panic attack!” Kevin whispered heatedly back, “what does it matter what kind of face he was making?”
Rick seemed to be just as frustrated, “Ahgg! It’s- just, um,” Rick rubs a hand over his face, “I’m not supposed to say anything.”
“Oh that’s just awesome, now you have secrets from me with your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my- Kev, wait!” Kevin was already walking away.
“I gotta go to class,” he waved at him angrily before heading into a stairwell.
~~~~~~~~~
Kevin knew that not showing up at lunch would probably be a red flag to the others, and they would just talk about it, about him, but at the moment he really didn’t care.
He was kinda regretting it when he answered the door and Javier was there.
“Hey.”
“uh, hey, I know we don’t have tutoring today, but I uh, needed to talk to you.”
Kevin felt his stomach drop, “Alright, come inside.”
“No,” Javier said, “I mean, it’s better if I just say this here,” he takes a deep breath, Kevin thinks he knows what he’s going to say, “I think you should get a different tutor.”
Kevin nods, he looks down at Javier’s shoes, sneakers, not converse, but actual athletic shoes, they’ve got dust on them, probably from the baseball field.
“I mean it’s just when you like someone, it’s awkward to have to be around them for school stuff, right?” His smile is awkward, forced; Kevin goes back to looking at his feet.
“Yeah, right,” Kevin mutters.
Javier laughs nervously, it’s not the wheezy laugh that means he finds the situation genuinely funny, he goes on, rambling now “I guess it’s not very professional, having a crush on your student.”
“Wait, what?” Kevin doesn’t even realize he’s said it out loud until he’s notices Javier’s face go from nervous to confused.
“Um, I said having a crush on your student, that’d be you,” Javier says, Kevin’s eyes are huge, he knows ‘cause they’re starting to hurt from not blinking enough, Javier seems to be making a connection, suddenly he looks a little smug, “wait, what did you think I meant?”
Kevin’s eyes finally get a break, he closes his eyes, but he’s smiling, “you’re really going to make me say it?”
“Yep, I said it, turnabout’s fair play,” Javier was grinning too.
“I thought that you wanted me to get a new tutor because I like you,” it actually feels a lot better to say it, even though Javier already knows.
“That is so awesome,” now Javier is just standing there grinning, and Kevin really wants to invite him inside so they can hang out and maybe mack a little.
“So now that we both know that, wanna come inside?”
“Why Kevin, are you asking me out?” Javier bats his eyelashes but he starts laughing halfway through, and it's his genuine wheezy laughter again.
Kevin snorts, and maybe if he wasn’t walking on air he wouldn’t have a good comeback already, “No I’m asking you in, lets play videogames or something.”
~~~~~~~~~
They end up talking a lot and not actually playing videogames, just sitting with controllers in their hands. Javier even tells him how he dated Kate until he realized he couldn’t lie about himself, even with or maybe especially with Kate. Kevin tells him that Rick and Kate have probably known the whole time and planned the lap-dance thing. Javier says they should try that again. Kevin tells him, okay, but Javier can give the lap dance this time.
They do make out, it is awesome, and they make plans to go on a date. Kevin’s kinda excited, he’s never really been in a relationship, but he really likes Javier so hopefully he won’t mess it up.