Chapter Text
The day that Kayleigh Day died was overcast with a chance of severe thunderstorms. It’s odd, how those are the things you remember when someone you love dies. You remember the words said, you remember the weather, you remember how you tried to rationalize why this happened. Kevin tried to rationalize why this happened. The official reason was just that someone else hydroplaned, that the rain was coming down too hard, and they crashed into her. It wasn’t even her fault, that’s what Kevin got from that explanation. That he lost his mother, the only parental unit in his life, and it wasn’t even her fault. She wasn’t recklessly driving, she didn’t put her life in danger. It was the unfortunate circumstances of where she was and when she was there.
If anything, he was more at fault. She was coming to pick him up from exy practice.
Tetsuji picked him up that day, sat Kevin down in the stands at Evermore, and told Kevin that his mother was dead and that he was going to live here from now on. Kevin didn’t understand it, he didn’t even get to see her. The next two weeks were horrible for him, because he kept waiting for his mother to walk through the doors and come for him, but she didn’t. He spent a lot of his time sitting on his bed, across from Riko’s in the underground locker room, knees to his chest and crying. It got to a point where Riko crawled onto his bed and pulled his hair and told him to stop. Told him that she was gone and there was nothing he could do about it, so he needed to get over it. Kevin didn’t know how he was supposed to do that. He didn’t know how he was supposed to stay here for the rest of his life like Riko promised when he didn’t even want to come for summers anymore.
He didn’t know why his mother left him to Tetsuji when she just agreed to not make him spend more time with Riko than necessary. Because Riko was a bully and he was mean and he hurt Kevin’s feelings everyday that Kevin stayed with him. She promised that he wouldn’t have to see Riko anymore, not if he didn’t want to, and now he was trapped there. Riko didn’t let him forget it either, telling him every night how happy he was that Kevin was his forever partner. Forever, Kevin was never going to leave, never again. A heavy burden for an eight year old with emotions too big for his body and too big for his mind.
After the first week, Tetsuji was done letting him mourn. Tetsuji had him on the court, told him that he was going to waste away all of his potential and amount to nothing if he didn’t pull himself together. People die, Tetsuji said, and we don’t stop moving just because they do. At least Kevin had a parent to love him, Riko said, because Riko had no one to love him. All of a sudden, Kevin was supposed to be happy that his mother was gone. He was supposed to be glad that he had any time with her at all.
Kayleigh’s funeral was beautiful but it’s not one of those things that Kevin remembers all too well. Everyone has moments of grief in which things are fuzzy, but he watched videos of it from time to time. The huge crowds all over the world who mourned her with him, who extended their support to Kevin, even though he didn’t feel supported. There was traditional Irish music at the funeral, men playing funeral tunes on bagpipes, people tossing flowers in the direction of the casket. Kevin was there in the front. He knew that even though he couldn’t see it in the videos. He knew that it was the first time he had seen his mothers body since the morning of the day she died. She looked peaceful, at least, but she was cold and felt like wax when Kevin tried to touch her. He remembered feeling tears well up in his eyes and then he scrubbed at them because Riko told him not to cry.
He remembered that because the next moment, there was a hand on his back and he looked over to see David Wymack looking down at him, a saddened look on his face. “You can cry if you want to,” he said and looked at Kayleigh’s body. “I cried when I heard too,”
David Wymack was a professional exy player of sorts. They didn’t have a professional league yet because they didn’t have enough professional teams but he was in one of the few that did exist. Most of the time, he played charity matches against the few other teams and he did a lot of teaching other people how to play. He was making a legacy of his own and of course Kevin knew him because of that. “You did?” Kevin asked softly and David nodded.
“Your mom was a wonderful person, a very good friend. One of my best friends,” he said and then wrapped an arm around Kevin’s shoulder and looked back into the casket. “She was really something special,”
Kevin nodded, he didn’t know what else he was supposed to say. But David offered him comfort and he took it, he drank it in, because he wanted it so badly. Because Tetsuji wasn’t going to give it to him and neither was Riko. Because he just wanted someone to be sorry about the pain he was going through. Kevin didn’t know how long they stood there but he remembered feeling confused on why no one had come to get him. Riko didn’t come to tug his hand and pull him away. Tetsuji didn’t come to tell him that was enough. And he cried, Kevin remembered that he cried, and David was an unmoving presence in that moment who just held him and let him and didn’t tell him to shut up. Didn’t tell him not to. Kevin thought he could see a tear of David’s own even but he couldn’t be too sure, memory was like that.
The moment ended, he sat back down with Riko, he wiped his face and refused to be seen crying anymore. He had already learned that much, not to be too emotional, not to give Riko or Tetsuji a reason to be upset with him. It worked for the most part. All he had to do was be quiet and do what he was told. A week after the funeral, Kevin was taken out of the nest by Tetsuji, who seemed more than displeased as he drove Kevin to some kind of doctors office. Kevin didn’t know what they were doing there, he elected not to ask, he did what he was told. He went into the office, went back with Tetsuji into one of the examination rooms when his name was called, and all that happened was a nice lady wiped a swab against the inside of his cheek and then another swab on the other side. Then she put them in a tube and he was done, taken back to the nest for a practice. Kevin didn’t ask what that was about. If Tetsuji thought he needed to know, then Tetsuji would have told him.
Kevin almost forgot about the doctors visit altogether but then a week later, Tetsuji came storming into him and Riko’s bedroom and told Kevin to get dressed in something nice because they had to go. Riko asked if he could come with and was met with a strict no and a look that told him not to press the issue if he didn’t want to be punished for it. Kevin frowned and changed into nice clothes, black jeans and a black shirt, he only wore black now. Riko asked if Kevin knew what this was about, Kevin told him no, Riko promised that if Kevin did and wasn’t saying anything, then Riko was going to hurt him. Kevin didn’t doubt that for one second.
What then started was a month of what Kevin could only seem as chaos. Tetsuji took him to a building he had never seen before, which David was waiting in. When David saw him, he smiled and greeted Kevin, gesturing for him to go inside while he spoke with Tetsuji. Kevin didn’t know what they talked about but David looked a little upset when he came inside. There was another lady in the corner of the room then were led into and for the next four hours, they just talked. David asked all kinds of questions about his childhood, about how Tetsuji treated him, and Kevin hesitated to answer but he felt like he could trust David so he was honest. Tetsuji and Riko could be mean sometimes, most of the time, and he didn’t like staying with them. Kevin told David that his mother told him that she wasn’t going to make him anymore but then she died.
It was at the end of the four hours that David placed a hand on his shoulder and told Kevin that the doctors visit was a paternity test, to see if Kevin was his son. Kevin almost wanted to cry when David told him that he was Kevin’s dad, and that he was going to make sure that Kevin could come to live with him, if he wanted to. Kevin nodded, because he thought anything was better than Riko and Tetsuji. Kevin didn’t get to go home to David that day, but he didn’t go back with Tetsuji either. In this case if a custody battle, the child is placed in a third party home, so Kevin spent the next month with entirely new people he had never met and he had to explain the rules of exy to. He spent a lot of time practicing by himself, except for the one time a week where David would take him to a park for a few hours and would play with Kevin, teaching him without yelling at him or hurting him. Then they’d go for ice cream and David would take him back.
He didn’t have meetings with Riko and Tetsuji. Kevin didn’t know why, but they didn’t come to pick him up.
At the end of the month, Kevin had to get dressed up in a nice shirt and then he had to go to the courthouse. A nice lady asked him if he liked spending time with David, which he said yes to. Kevin didn’t understand everything that was happening. All he knew was that when the judge said that he was going to live with David instead, Tetsuji just nodded with a stoic expression and Riko glared at Kevin the entire way out. Kevin didn’t know what he was supposed to make of that but then David approached him and smiled and said they could go home. Out of West Virginia altogether, they were going back to his home in South Carolina. It was a plane ride back and the apartment that they went into was less impressive than the nest but it was filled with color and it was cluttered in a way that was comforting and Kevin had his own room where he didn’t have to sleep with anyone else.
And David never raised a hand to him. David had his own set of issues, sometimes he got frustrated with Kevin, but he never yelled at him or refused to talk. It was weird to Kevin, who never had a dad before, who was told that he didn’t have one because his dad was busy with his own life. But there came a point when Kevin was ten that David was just dad. His dad who took him to exy games all of the time and let him play with all of the other professionals and learn from them. His dad who taught him and let him decide how much he wanted to practice. His dad who enrolled him in little league and then coached his team because no one else wanted to coach one of the sons of exy. His dad who didn’t make him see Riko if he didn’t want to, who happily told Tetsuji no every time he called to ask if Kevin was going to spending the summer with them as usual because Kevin didn’t want to go.
Kevin didn’t know how to have a dad as much as David didn’t know how to be a dad but Kevin knew this. He knew that he never felt like he had to hide how he was feelings. He knew that David never told him that he wasn’t allowed to cry or that he was being too much. He knew that he was an exceptional exy player for his age and it was thanks to his dad. He knew that he had fun getting to run on the court after charity matches and being hoisted up by his father for all of the cameras. He knew that they went out to dinner more often than they cooked because David was a bad cook but he was getting better about it. He knew that David took him on every first date because if anyone was going to be in his life, they were going to have to acknowledge his son as well, and he had no interest in being with someone who didn’t interact well with Kevin. Better to find out sooner rather than later. He knew that when he had questions, David always answered them. David told Kevin what he was doing for the first eight years of his life, he told Kevin about how he asked Kayleigh if Kevin was his when he found out that she was pregnant and she was just trying to protect both of them. He was always honest, which meant more to Kevin than he knew how to express.
David met Abby when Kevin was twelve. It was really scary when David fell during a match and broke his hip. It was terrifying to sit in the waiting room and not know if his father was going to be okay, if he was going to have to go back to Tetsuji after all. But then David was fine and the worst of it was that he had to go to physical therapy. His therapist was Abby Winfield, who would smile when Kevin sat on the sidelines of their sessions because he insisted that he could go too and then teach him the stretches too. She was so nice to Kevin that David started to like her too, and asked her out. She moved in when Kevin was thirteen and they got married when he was fifteen. And now he was eighteen and he was graduating high school. He was eighteen and he was spending all of his free time on the sidelines with his father, watching the Palmetto Foxes practice with each other. They always seemed to play nicer when Kevin was in the room, like he was some kid that they had to be good in front of, which was half the reason David let him come at all.
The other half was so he could throw on his high school exy gear and then get on the court when they were done, running extra drills with his father as his coach. Kevin didn’t remember so much about the nest but he remembered the eight Ravens drills that they all had to learn before they could get on the court, and he trained in them as much as he could to keep his precision as neat as possible.
People were already starting to speculate on the internet whether Kevin or Riko was the better player. Even the Foxes had a bet going on it, and the world was going to find out soon.
When Kevin was finished with his own drills, he ventured into the locker room. He had an honorary locker with his name on it, his dad already promised that he would tell all the future Foxes to leave it alone. Kevin’s own mark on this place. “So,” Dan came up to him in the lounge once he exited. She was a freshman and already she was the captain and he had a really hard time with the team this year and in the media. But Kevin went on to vouch for her and claimed that he would happily accept her as his captain and since then, the exy world quieted down a bit and Dan decided that she accepted Kevin as her little brother. “Ready to leave us all? California is a long ways away, are you sure you can’t join our line? Help us win?”
“Ah, yes, a shame my father who coaches the team won’t make an exception for me on the basis of giving me too good of a life,” Kevin said and then turned and looked at her. “A little bit ready, a little bit scared,”
“Hey,” she said and took him by the arms. “You’ll do great. You’ll come home during the holidays and we’ll see you,”
“I do feel better knowing that someone will be here to keep him young,” Kevin nodded and then moved, wrapping Dan into a tight hug. “Take care of my dad for me while I’m gone,” he said and Dan smiled.
“Thanks for sharing your dad with me,” she responded. Kevin was leaving for USC in three weeks but this was the end of the semester, which meant that for the next month, Dan was going to be traveling to North Dakota. Visiting her sisters and then also spending time with Renee and Allison, which was a shocking development to even Kevin. But they were getting along extremely well now, best friends. Kevin let Dan go and then said his good he’s to everyone else who stuck around for him. Then he went home to spend the last few weeks before he left with his family. He spent some of his time on the court because he didn’t know how to go without it, not really, but he spent a lot of his time just sitting on the couch and being lazy too. They’d moved into a house when Kevin was fourteen and since then, he’d led Abby teach him the art of relaxation. He read books in a reading nook they had in their spare bedroom turned library, he had a designated spot on the couch in which he could watch his history documentaries, he was learning how to cook from Abby and they had family game nights.
Kevin felt like his life was full. It was comfortable. It was admittedly even more comfortable when Dan decided to come back to Palmetto a week early so she could spend the week with Kevin before he left. That made family game night even more fun and competitive. “Are you excited?” Abby asked the night before his flight was set to leave. “USC,”
“Never did explain why he chose to go to California over everywhere else. We have an entire drawer filled with offers from schools,” David said and Kevin shrugged and smiled.
“Always liked them,” he said and picked at his food. “I am excited,”
“He’s finally going to meet Jeremy,” Dan said and then made obnoxious smooching noises which Kevin rolled his eyes at.
“It’s not like that,” Kevin defended.
“Which is why you hit the media so hard when his scandal came out talking about how we need to focus more on player mental health than worrying about their sexualities. And then started pointing fingers at his family for not supporting him during this time in any effective way. You went on a whole campaign,” Dan said and Kevin averted his eyes, feeling his face heat up.
“Well,” Kevin sighed. “His family was horrible during all of this. A kid died, their kid, and they were more concerned with doing damage control on Jeremy. They deserved it,” Kevin shrugged.
“Well,” David said and looked at Kevin. “Whatever happens, I’ll support you. But if the Foxes make it to the finals, be nice to us,”
“Oh I’m going to destroy your team,” Kevin nodded and looked at Dan. “Sorry, but that’s what you would want. You wouldn’t want me to hold back,”
“I would,” Dan nodded and grinned. “But you know, I think I’d be okay if we didn’t make it to finals this year if only to see the USC versus Edgar Allen matchup,”
“Don’t remind me,” Kevin sighed and Abby smiled sadly.
“Is Riko bothering you?” She asked.
“Not so much but he still calls every now and then,”
“You don’t have to answer,” Dan pointed out.
“I know but I feel like I should. I mean, I did kind of abandon him and now he’s getting all kinds of attention because people think I’m better than him. I just wish there was a solution to all of this but,” Kevin shrugged. “There’s nothing more I can do for him. I told him that he could apply for USC too if he wanted and he said that his loyalty is to the Ravens. He’s made his choice,”
“That’s right, and don’t you feel bad for it. You’re not responsible for his happiness,” David said and Kevin nodded. He felt like he was but there wasn’t anything else he could do for Riko. He got out and he wished that he could have pulled Riko out of the nest too but it was too late now and Riko was going to have to make that choice on his own. More than that, though, Kevin was worried about the newest addition to the Raven’s lineup. Jean Moreau just didn’t look like he was doing well and there was certainly something to say about whether it was okay to poach players from overseas. Kevin didn’t think that Tetsuji should be able to do that but he was the one at the head of the ERC so he got to make the rules.
For the rest of the night, they chatted about when Kevin would be coming home and how often he would call. And then the next day, they all took David’s truck to the airport to drop Kevin off. He hugged everyone goodbye and then said hello to his new life. He checked his bag, he found his gate, then he went and looked around the souvenir shops. He didn’t really need one but he picked up a postcard from Palmetto anyway and tucked it into his bag, as well as grabbing a bottle of water to drink while he waited. During the plane ride, he listened to music the entire time and tried his best to get some sleep, but he was wired. So when he landed, he was as full of energy as possible. He deboarded, walking to baggage claim and grabbing his bag. When he turned around, he came face to face with a man that could only be Jeremy Knox and Kevin would recognize him anywhere. “Jeremy,” Kevin said and then slowly smiled. “I didn’t know you were coming to pick me up. When Coach Rheeman said that he was going to send an escort, I assumed it would be him,”
“He asked me,” Jeremy nodded and then looked at Kevin’s bag. “Is that all you have?”
“Yeah,” Kevin nodded. “I figured that I can have other stuff shipped to me if I need it and I can always just grab more stuff when I go home for breaks. Plus, I’ll buy new stuff once I get settled in the dorms,”
“The dorms don’t technically open for the athletes for a few more days but they made an exception for you because you’re going to bring so much money to the program,” Jeremy said and gestured for Kevin to follow him. “How was the fight?”
“Long, boring,” Kevin sighed and followed after Jeremy. “It’s nice for them to open it early for me, I didn’t know that. When I asked if I could come a few days early to get used to the terrain and learn my way around the stadium, I would have been happy to sleep in the stadium lounge for all I cared,”
“We would not have done that to you,” Jeremy said and unlocked his car, opening the trunk for Kevin to put his bag in. “I would have snuck you into my house before we let you sleep on the floor,”
“Yeah would have been really nice but I am glad you don’t have to do that,” Kevin said as he slid into the passenger side. “So,” Kevin cleared his throat and looked at Jeremy. “How have you been? I know I haven’t been all that consistent with texting you and checking in these last few months, it’s been crazy,”
“I remember graduating so I get it,” Jeremy nodded and smiled, though it looked a little forced and Kevin didn’t like that. “I’ve been alright. I’m excited for summer practices to start for sure,” Jeremy said and Kevin nodded.
“I’m definitely excited to get on the court,” he said and Jeremy started taking them out of LAX. “I’m excited to be working with the vice captain of the Trojans,” Kevin said slyly and Jeremy glanced at him before looking back at the road.
“I’m honored by the position, but we both know it’s going to be an uphill climb to prove I deserve it,”
“I think you deserve it and I’m told that my opinion is the only one that matters because I own exy,” Kevin said, half joking, and Jeremy got the joke.
“You should probably be vice captain instead of me, everyone would listen to you easier,”
“I would say no if it was offered to me,” Kevin said plainly. “I don’t want it. Not vice captain, not captain, I don’t even share my dads dream of coaching. I just wanna play. But you, I think you deserve it. Vice captain this year, captain next year until you graduate. You’re someone for the Trojans to rally around, you’re evidence of their philosophy at work. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to want to be better today than you were yesterday, and willing to put your ego aside for it,”
“I’m not at all surprised that you know the meaning of our philosophy better than I do,” Jeremy said and Kevin laughed, an airy thing. “I wanna thank you, though, in person. For your support. I don’t think I could have gotten through it if not for you,” Jeremy said and Kevin smiled, looking out the window.
“You’re an amazing player, I just don’t think that you should be held back because of something in your personal life,” Kevin said and they fell into a somewhat comfortable silence. Without ever having to ask for it, Jeremy knew, and he drove Kevin to the stadium first. Kevin was happy to get out and stretch his legs, almost bouncing as Jeremy plugged in the codes to the building and then let them in. Jeremy turned the lights on and then turned to look at Kevin.
“I have been given permission to let you run free because your dad talked to Coach Rheeman. He’s not totally convinced on giving you a set of keys to the stadium for you to practice whenever you want but I think he’s coming around to the idea,” Jeremy said and then gestured for Kevin to explore. Kevin found his locker easily in the locker room, ten as his number, between Derrick Allen’s nine and Jeremy’s eleven. A good place to be, to be sure. Kevin opened it too look at his gear but he just examined it, he didn’t put it on, not yet. Then he smiled and ventured to the court, entering the inner court so he could stand on the Trojan in the center of the court and then, looking around at stands that seemed to disappear into the ceiling. “Is it up to your standards?” Jeremy asked and Kevin looked at him, grinning.
“I’ve been really nervous about the move but here, standing here, I don’t know what I was so scared of,” Kevin let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. “I can’t wait to play,”
“Everyone else will be here within the next few days,” Jeremy promised. “Come on, I’ll show you to your dorm. I got the key and the number from Rheeman,” he said and Kevin followed him out, watching him turn all the lights off. Then, Jeremy drove them to the dorms which were completely empty. Kevin took his suitcase with him up the elevator with Jeremy and let Jeremy lead him to his room, which was 1003, all the way on the tenth floor. Jeremy handed him his key and Kevin unlocked the door, pushing it open. Kevin went inside, setting his suitcase next to his bed and took in the room. He requested a single, willing to pay the difference from what his scholarships pays, so it was smaller than other rooms would be. But he had his own closet and his own bedroom and there was a common room on his floor where he would be able to cook something if he wanted something.
“Do you stay in the dorms?” Kevin asked.
“No,” Jeremy shook his head. “I don’t live too far so I drive home every night and drive back every morning. And then on weekends, sometimes, I get to stay with Laila in her off campus house. You could come over sometime. Actually, you have to, because they want to meet you so badly,”
“Then let’s go,” Kevin nodded and grabbed his keychain, putting his dorm keys on his chain and then gesturing for Jeremy to lead the way.
“Are you sure? Because I don’t want to overload you too early. I can take you to meet them tomorrow,”
“No, it’s okay,” Kevin said and smiled. “I’d love to meet your friends,”
“Okay,” Jeremy nodded and then smiled as well. “Just don’t let them freak you out too much. Cat can be a lot sometimes, not in a bad way, but she’s got a lot of thoughts all of the time and she will want your opinion on every single one of them. And for the record, she does have money on this being our championship year because she believes you’re better than Riko,”
“That’s nice to know,” Kevin nodded, even though it wasn't. Because he didn’t want to be pitted against Riko but there wasn’t another way to go about it. He didn’t have the best relationship with Riko, he didn’t know how to talk to him anymore. Kevin didn’t know if he ever did, because Riko only ever wanted him to be quiet. But now he called Kevin every so often because he needed to hear his voice and Kevin felt like he was missing something. At the end of the day, he didn’t want to hurt Riko. He didn’t want to be the one to end his legacy, to bury his claims of being the best. But everyone wanted that from him and Kevin didn’t know what else to do except play to the best of his ability, not betray himself for someone else. His dad always told him to always be true, Kevin had to do just that. For better or for worse, no matter the outcome, he couldn’t hold back this season. It was only now setting in that the beginning of the end was near. Riko and him would either survive this or they wouldn’t, and a question that was eighteen years in the making was closer now to being answered than ever before.