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Kevin’s sole goals in life were succeeding in the war against Xandred with all of his team alive, and taking a gold medal in the Olympics for swimming.
He knew that after or during all of that, he’d meet a woman and they’d get married and have kids. That was just how things went. He had to continue the samurai bloodline, and anyway he liked kids.
Then he was called to the Ranger team, and he met Mike. Who was absolutely annoying. And he didn’t train nearly hard enough. And he liked video games- video games! The fate of the world was in their hands!
...And Kevin had taken a really long time to figure out why his attention had been so diverted that time that he’d soaked Mike with his symbol power, so Mike took his shirt off. And was dripping wet.
Seriously? He had a crush? On a guy? On Mike?
Crap.
“You didn’t need to be so rude to Antonio.”
Kevin’s grip turned hard on his sword, and he didn’t turn to acknowledge Emily. Easy for her to say. It wasn’t like Antonio was pretty much rubbing salt in her wounds, blatantly flirting with Jayden- who came in a suit and tie to join the team?!- and it wasn’t like she had to watch Mike flirt with her.
He was being petty and rude, and he knew it.
“What’s your problem with him, anyway?” Emily continued. “It’s not like you’re jealous of his friendship with Jayden, you’re not that close with him. You pay more attention to-”
Why had she cut herself off. Kevin finally turned around to see Emily slowly grinning.
He fought Nighlock daily, had trained himself to be one of the best samurai on the team, and worked hard enough at swimming to have potential for the Olympics. One tiny girl’s smile should not have filled him with such terror.
“You pay more attention to Mike,” Emily said, still smiling.
“Mike is actually on the team,” Kevin said shortly. "Antonio isn't."
“Kevin.” Emily put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. “I'm not stupid. This totally explains the awkward smile and then avoiding Mia during that whole wedding mess. Are you in denial or hopelessly pining?”
He was not having this conversation. Kevin turned back to the training dummy.
“Denial,” Emily said. “Not to worry, Mr. Too Macho For Feelings, I got this.”
Kevin whirled to get her to stop but Emily was already in the house.
...This was going to suck.
Kevin decided to go to Mia for help. Mia was sweet and stable and smart and she could talk Emily down from whatever plans she had.
He hadn’t realized that getting Mia’s help would require telling Mia.
“So you have a crush on Mike and you don’t want to talk about it, and Emily has some plan in motion that you’re nervous about,” Mia said.
“If she tells him-”
“She won’t.” Mia shook her head. “That’s outing, and Emily would never do that.”
Kevin should have been relieved about that, but there was a niggling part of him that whispered that Emily telling Mike would be easier.
“What is it?” Mia asked, scooting closer to him.
“...I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I’m glad that she won’t, but...”
“It would be a lot easier if she did the telling for you,” Mia finished. “I get that. But this is your identity, Kevin. We can tell for you if you want, but it has to be your decision.”
Kevin nodded.
“What do you want to happen, anyway?”
Kevin took a breath, avoiding looking her in the eye. “I- it’s not like we can do anything.”
Mia raised an eyebrow.
“We’re supposed to continue the bloodline,” he said, looking at the wall, which Mia had hung some pictures from her classes on. Apparently they gave her a lot of finger paintings. “It’s not like we can do that. And mixing them is a bad idea.”
“Well, you’re both guys, it’s not like that’s possible.” Mia shrugged. “And you can always hire surrogates to continue the line.”
Kevin blinked and then grinned at her. “How do you know so much about this?”
“I want kids one day,” Mia said. “I just don’t want the guy. I wasn’t comfortable coming out before.”
“Oh.” That explained why she hadn’t followed up on the whole “Prince Charming” thing. “Do you really think that will work?”
“I think you need to worry about dating him first.”
Kevin swallowed. Mia reached out and squeezed his hand. “The worst he can say is no,” she said gently. “Mike puts his foot in his mouth a lot, but he’s not a bully.”
“I know.” Kevin shook his head. “I just- I need to think about this.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to her.” Mia smiled and patted his arm as she walked away.
Dinner that night was still a pretty tense affair. Emily had that terrifying smile on, Mia looked calm as she was cooking, Antonio was flirting with Jayden, Jayden was smiling at Antonio, and Mike had yet to come to dinner.
“Mike is late,” Ji said, frowning. Kevin bristled at his tone- okay, so Mike didn’t have the best punctuality and sometimes the samurai lifestyle chafed at him. He’d still put all of his weight in for the team and he was a good fighter.
“He got held up,” Emily said, still smiling, and Kevin swallowed.
“How, exactly, did he get held up?” he asked, trying not to sound nervous.
Emily shrugged.
“Is this about what you pulled him aside for earlier?” Antonio asked, sounding amused, and Kevin’s blood ran cold.
“Sort of,” Emily said. “It’s completely not what you’re thinking, Kevin.”
“Tell me you two were not setting up any pranks,” Mentor Ji sighed.
Emily wouldn’t look anyone in the eye.
“I’ll go find him,” Kevin said, rising from the table.
“Why are you smiling like that?” he heard Jayden ask as he walked out the door.
Kevin found Mike fiddling with something in his room.
“You’re late for dinner,” he said, watching as Mike looked up and grinned. Going stupid over Mike’s smile was a really bad idea. “Antonio mentioned that you and Emily were talking earlier?”
“Yeah,” Mike said, stretching, and that was just playing dirty. "Not about much, really. Apparently I need better swimming gear. She didn't say why."
...That was actually really subtle. Kudos to Emily.
"I swim a lot," Kevin said, and that was stupid.
Mike grinned, and part of Kevin wanted to call that flirtatious. "You want to show me how a real man swims or something?"
Kevin shrugged and jerked his head. "Mentor Ji's only going to get irritated the longer we wait."
"I'm comin'," Mike said, still grinning, and got up, walking over to Kevin. "Is Mia cooking?"
"Yeah," Kevin said, trying not to let his gaze drop from Mike's face. He wasn't succeeding.
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Okay. Stand still."
Kevin frowned. "What-"
Mike leaned up and kissed him.
Kevin took a second to get his brain back in order after Mike pulled away.
"What brought that on?" he asked.
Mike shrugged. "You looked hot and you kept looking at my arms. Interested in going out later?"
Kevin blinked. "...Yeah."
"Great." Mike winked and walked off. Kevin stood still for a moment, processing.
That had been...surprisingly easy.