Work Text:
Equilateral
Chris was tired of the tit-for-tat scheme. She was tired of Kira wanting conversations to happen in the group chat, so everything would look open, honest, and above board. She was tired of going on dates together and feeling chaperoned. She was tired of Kira’s tension and Ty’s tiredness when a commercial for Kay’s, Jared’s, Zales, Say Yes To The Dress, or anything wedding related came on. It felt constraining for a relationship barely fledgling past a fling to be held up as equal to a multi-year, primarily long distance relationship. Chris had already managed to spend more time in Kira’s apartment than Ty had; she had already gone out for coffee with Ty often enough to remember how he liked his tea when Kira didn’t know. Kira’s plan to become a triad felt too boxy.
Sure, it was simple and easy. It looked good on paper to say that Chris and Ty were equals in their relationships to Kira, but the reality was a little less neat. Kira had been caught off guard by Ty listing Ricky as his emergency contact because she had known him the longest. She had been relieved to no longer need to worry about the marriage issue, but she had clearly not been prepared for Ty’s workaround to not telling her. (In hindsight, sitting in the ER with a 103 degree fever was clearly not the best time to ask Ty probing questions. I didn’t want another lecture about tomato-tivity.) She had balked at the glaring holes in their communication that led to Ty not feeling comfortable bringing the topic up and Chris going along with the radio silence challenge. (And Chris had to wonder if Kira was not, in fact, blindsided by the notion that Ty might legally marry a friend instead of a romantic partner. It looked a lot more amatonormativity weakening than insisting on a triad to reassure her that both of her partners felt adequately cared for.)
Isosceles
Yes, Chris was still dating Kira. She felt a giddy spark when meeting her for a drink, when a gloved hand was intertwined with hers at the award dinner, and when she remembered the little safety pin helping to keep a button in place (a trick that sober Kira was fond of) that had to be undone before she could slide a dress off. This relationship was heady like racing around Kira’s kitchen to get the fucking expensive organic apple back - we only bought exactly what was needed for your mom’s pie recipe - and she had already bitten into it. Breathless laughter, sweet juice on their lips, a fresh newness to kissing. Chris didn’t really know if it was New Relationship Energy that would fade in time, but Kira always brought a dash of excitement to the room when she entered.
For reasons that Chris couldn’t accurately guess, Ty was still dating Kira. He brought lunch by every other Friday at her work, adjusted calendar reminders so they wouldn’t be late to social events, and kept an eye on jackets she was wont to leave behind at bars. Their relationship felt orbital yet steady like Ty was a lighthouse for a returning ship. Kira minded the details of past relationships, or more accurately sexual exploits, but she never hid that they happened, or that she liked reading the menu (I’m not going to order, but there’s no harm in looking). LDR habits were hard to ignore in separate homes, so Ty had revived a schedule of movie synced nights and Skype calls with her. While he wouldn’t necessarily confirm it, Chris highly suspected that Kira had pushed back against said schedule of one-on-one communication while trying to date others, and it may have helped her pent up feelings about marriage to fester.
From the outside looking in, Chris thought she could catch glimpses of Stable (if not Old) Relationship Energy, and she couldn’t lie that it didn’t look appealing at times. Kira had an aura of fun, lightness, and casualness about her, even when she was trying to extend a relationship beyond the weeks mark. Ty was a little too polite over text and a little clingy to schedules, which had made it hard to read his willingness to try a relationship in the beginning, but he made up for spontaneity in consistency. Come hell or high water, he was there for a small chai or lunch, depending on if she had to work Saturday or had the day off. Part of his Cat Step-Dad duties involved cat-sitting Tiktaalik every other Wednesday. Even if Ty’s punctuality was a holdover from juggling a long distance (across multiple time zones) relationship with his painting classes, Chris couldn’t say it wasn’t nice to have that dependability after the stress of a shift with changes and surprises. But were they dating?
Scalene
The changes to how Chris had always assumed relationships went since she’d stuck around with Kira after the big reveal were enough to give her whiplash. It was light and fun with Kira - meeting in a bar, grabbing drinks, hooking up. It was familiar girlfriend territory. It was like decoding night vision to meet with Kira’s boyfriend, go out for lunch, go on group dates, and lose track of the next step. Should they go on dinner dates without Kira? Was Ty waiting for her to ask if sex was an option in their relationship, so she wouldn’t feel pressured or sister-wifey? Was Kira expecting, or hoping, to do that as a group as well? It didn’t feel quite like a friendship with Ty, but Chris had no idea if it was still in the metamour area. Was it way too early for her to have told her teammates that he was her boyfriend?
It was a puzzle, but not one of the impossibly difficult ones that had a front and back image or thousands of pieces. Navigating their polycule was just within her grasp, and Chris could feel that a few coffee chats kept on topic would probably clear up the confusion with calling Ty her boyfriend. (Or metamour, or partner.) It was geometry (creating a star inside an apple if cut just right), and it was deliciously sweet.