Chapter Text
Ever since their first Discord call promotion, Ezreal's been having a bit of an issue. It starts the moment the call is posted online. He regrets going back and listening, because at first he thinks it's a joke for the fans, and doesn't pay it any mind. Aphelios clears that misunderstanding up for him in record time, not wanting to be thought of as Ezreal's fanboy, and he's the only member of Heartsteel who's allowed in Kayn's room for longer than a few seconds. And then there's Kayn, who, despite being enough of a fan to have merchandise apparently, is still an asshole to Ezreal. Not that Ezreal had been expecting Kayn to start kissing the ground where he walked, but until then there had been no indication that Kayn liked Ezreal's old music, let alone liked it enough to have a poster of him above his bed in his room.
Obviously Ezreal hadn't known it was there. He'd never made any attempts to see Kayn's room. Kayn didn't even let Ezreal get a glimpse inside, let alone get near the door half the time. He valued his privacy, or something, Ezreal didn't really care. It was weird to think that alongside all the rock and metal shit Kayn probably had in his room there was a poster of Ezreal during his bubblegum pop glory days. Above his bed.
And here lay the issue he was having, because the thought of it made Ezreal feel kind of funny, actually, and why was he even thinking about this as much as he was? The past few days or so had been spent obsessing over it. And while Ezreal was confused, Kayn was his usual aggravating self. Ezreal had teased him about it after the fact to get even for all of Kayn's past teasing of him and had failed spectacularly. Sure, Kayn had gotten a bit embarrassed about being caught, but he'd played it off and asked for Ezreal's autograph on the poster.
"If I ever feel like selling it," he had said. And beyond that, he'd actually complimented the song too, in a way. Sure, he'd said it was crap to Ezreal's face over Discord, but he doubled down on it being catchy when Ezreal had approached him, which led to an awkward scenario where Kayn had to be defending Ezreal's own song to him. He'd even called himself Ezreal's fan. The whole thing still makes Ezreal feel unsettled when he remembers it.
This isn't normal behaviour for Ezreal, to be thinking about Kayn as much as he'd been since that call. They were just… well Ezreal supposes they're friends, despite how it looks from the outside. Although they do pick fights a lot, and insult each other, they also sometimes watch movies together or play games (which would then devolve into arguments about what to watch or getting physical if the game was competitive). Normal friend-enemy stuff. Up until this point, Ezreal definitely did not think about Kayn more than he had to, as friends. He had no reason to. He definitely didn't like to have his thoughts invaded by his asshole-friend-bandmate-housemate all the time.
But since the poster thing, Ezreal had definitely changed his tune. Sett called him a bit of a narcissist for this, but Ezreal had the bad habit of fostering affection for anyone that liked him or gave him attention, and fans were no exception. And if Kayn was a fan, even an irritating one, that meant that Ezreal would have to include him too, kind of. It was like a switch had been flipped overnight regarding his opinion of the guy. It felt good to think that Kayn, the guy that made it clear he'd rather chew glass than say something nice about Ezreal, actually really did like him deep down somewhere in that black heart of his. The thought of it made Ezreal feel giddy, like he'd just won an award. Maybe Sett was right about him after all.
"You're staring a bit too hard, don't you think?" Kayn says, his rough voice cutting through Ezreal's thoughts like paper. He sounds unimpressed, which he always is, but he's smirking at Ezreal, which he always does. Ezreal was lucky they were currently in the middle of dance practice, the exertion from the routine could explain the flush that donned his face at getting caught staring. And yet, he had a feeling Kayn could see right through him. He swallows.
"Because your form still sucks even after our fifth run through," Ezreal says.
It's weak bait, and Ezreal is too tired to want to fight Kayn right now, but it's familiar, so he sticks with it. Better than the alternative, which is admitting that Kayn has been on his mind since the poster incident.
Kayn frowns at the provocation. They both know its bullshit, Kayn is a strong dancer despite his music career background being centred more on being a rock band, not a boyband. Ezreal knows he'll get mad regardless.
And Kayn does. Ezreal can see his face getting darker. He'll never get used to this, because Kayn usually follows up with something mean, or unpleasant, or something that Ezreal would generally rather not hear, even if it's not true and solely for the purpose of getting under his skin and staying there.
But despite this, the response never comes. Ezreal waits, and Kayn looks like he wants to say something, but at the last second he seems to change his mind and scoffs instead.
"Whatever," he says. He turns around and walks off to the water station. Ezreal blinks, confused.
Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the others looking at each other in silent surprise.
What just happened?
💚
Later that evening, Ezreal finds himself alone with Kayn in the living room. Sett and K'Sante had decided that dance practice wasn't enough for them and had gone for round two at the gym. Yone had retired to his room, probably to work on music, and Aphelios had gone out with his sister for dinner.
They're watching a movie together in silence. Some horror action film Kayn had wanted to watch, and Ezreal had been too caught up in his own head to come up with his own suggestion. Kayn is curled up on one end of the couch, bowl of popcorn in hand. He's dressed down in sweats and an oversized black tank top. He almost looks normal, and not like the bloodthirsty piece of shit Ezreal knows him to be. The thought of talking to him is causing Ezreal's hands to clam up, which is new. Before he'd fire off a jab or something without a second thought, but the shift in Ezreal's perception of him has him nervous, and he doesn't know if he should bring up Kayn's behaviour at practice earlier. Part of him feels like Kayn is going to laugh at him for even caring, but he can't just leave it hanging. He doesn't want Sett or Aphelios thinking there's something wrong between the two of them, in case they get the bright idea of locking the pair in a closet again until they "sorted their differences". The first (and only) time had been a while back, shortly after Heartsteel had been formed.
That had also been the first time Ezreal had truly had to face the truth, the truth being that Kayn was undeniably hot. To be fair, they all were, that was kind of the point of being in a boyband (besides the music), but the other members at least Ezreal didn't feel guilty about finding attractive. Finding Kayn hot felt wrong, with how much of a bully he liked to be, but it was hard to think otherwise when he was smushed up against the other man in a musty old closet without any lights and… Ezreal decides to stop that train of thought. Better to not dig up old traumas. Better to prevent it from happening again in fact, by…talking about his feelings..with Kayn. Great.
Before he can open his mouth however, Kayn speaks.
"Quit thinking so hard over there pretty boy," he says, without looking away from the screen, "or you'll hurt yourself." It's not very threatening when followed by a mouthful of popcorn.
"What?" Ezreal sputters, flustered not only by the fact that Kayn called him pretty , but by the fact that he insulted him right after. "I'm not thinking at all!"
"Obviously, but usually you try to suggest we watch some boring romantic shit instead of just going along with what I want, so there must be something wrong with you. So spit it out."
Ezreal resists the urge to say something that will piss Kayn off, like "aw, are you worried about me?" like he usually would, in favour of saying nothing at all. He doesn't really know how to say Well I've been thinking about how you might be my fan and now I can't stop thinking about you.
Instead he picks at the sleeves of his purple sweater. The silence drags on for too long, which is the wrong move. Kayn clicks his tongue, and pauses the movie.
"What's up with you?" he says again, clearly irritated now. Ezreal thinks Yone must've put him up to this for him to even ask such a thing. Good to know they both feared being shoved back into the closet and forced to get along. "You're being boring. Even at practice today I could tell your heart wasn't really in it. And we both know my form is perfect."
Ezreal rolls his eyes. So it had struck a nerve. He latches onto it because it's familiar, albeit a bit cowardly. "So why do you care if I say otherwise?"
"It's no fun if you don't try," Kayn says. "You're supposed to get riled up. Fight back. So I can laugh at how pathetic you are."
"Have you considered that I just wasn't in the mood for your shit Kayn?" It comes out sounding kind of harsh, especially because Kayn hasn't really done anything more than his usual ribbing. He regrets it, but Kayn waves off that suggestion like he would a pesky fly,"If you weren't in the mood for my shit specifically, you wouldn't have been trying so hard to stare holes into me with those creepy gold eyes of yours during practice. Or now, seriously I can't focus on the movie, so cut it out, or I won't be the only one needing an eyepatch for the music video."
Ezreal hadn't even realised he'd been staring at Kayn again. He resists the urge to run his hands down his face, or just escape and lock himself in the closet by himself to get away from this.
"I'm just," confused, "always thinking about my fans. What can I say?" He winks at Kayn, and oh christ, what the fuck just came out of his mouth? That is not what he meant to say! Curse his popstar training making him default to flirting to get out of uncomfortable scenarios! It worked with interviewers and paparazzi (most of the time), but where his bandmates were involved being cute only ever worked with K'Sante.
Kayn manages to look even more unimpressed. "What, this poster bullshit again? If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're over the moon I like your stupid little pop song, Ez."
Kayn pauses. Ezreal watches in real time as something dawns on him. Ezreal's not sure what that something might be, but he's sure that it spells trouble for him. The closet is seeming more and more inviting with each passing second as Kayn focuses his full attention on Ezreal and smiles at him, with all his teeth.
"Why, Ezreal," Kayn says. He no longer sounds unimpressed, or irritated, in fact he sounds… Ezreal isn't sure, but it makes him shiver all the same. "I didn't know you wanted my attention that badly."
"What?" Ezreal nearly yells, he's that confused. "I don't want your stupid attention or whatever. And Sett calls me egotistical?"
But Kayn, to Ezreal's horror, isn't buying it. He gets off the couch, and walks over to Ezreal before sitting back down next to him, trapping Ezreal between the arm and Kayn himself.
"You could've just told me," Kayn smirks, ignoring Ezreal's horror. Ezreal leans back, out of Kayn's personal space. Thankfully his hoodie covers up the goosebumps rising on his arms and neck.
"I'll give you all the attention you want," Kayn purrs, voice low. Ezreal gulps. He has no idea what that even means, but can't deny that it's tempting to find out. It takes more willpower than he'll ever admit not to fall for it. He knows better.
"Shut up Kayn," Ezreal shoves Kayn away from him until he backs off. He starts barking laughter, obviously amused as he shuffles back down the couch and returns to his original spot.
"So much for thinking about the fans," he snorts, unpausing the movie. Meanwhile, Ezreal's heart beats unnaturally fast. By the time the movie finishes, he realises he has no clue what it'd been about.
💜
The state of Ezreal's mind is no better following that interaction, in fact, it had gotten much worse. He'd started reimagining how it went down in his head, his brain putting a rose coloured filter over it as if Kayn hadn't just been his usual irritating self. He'd just been so… so…Ezreal hates himself for even thinking it, but Kayn had been pretty hot. More so than usual. Had he become a masochist or something? Past Ezreal probably wouldn't have gotten as flustered as he did, he definitely wouldn't have been interested in Kayn's "offer", wouldn't have considered going along with it, but now even just the thought of what happened makes Ezreal feel like burying himself in a hole.
He frowns at Kayn's profile picture on his laptop screen. They're all in a Discord call, waiting for Yone to show up so they can discuss plans for their upcoming music video shoot. Like the previous Discord calls, this one was being recorded for promotions, so they probably wouldn't get too much done. He's muted, only half-listening as Sett, K'Sante and Kayn argue about chores or something. This makes him frown more.
Ever since that time on the couch Ezreal had been running away with his tail between his legs whenever Kayn got close. He wasn't proud of it, but it was the only thing he could think of to do with the way things were currently. It was fine, Kayn probably didn't even realise, as preoccupied as they all were with their debut coming up. Plus, there were four other guys around for him to harass, never mind the fact that he obviously loved pissing Ezreal off the most out of the whole group.
So yeah, he's kind of reaping what he sowed actually, because Kayn is ignoring him on the call right now. It's annoying him, being ignored, and the fact that it's annoying him is annoying. Never mind the fact that Ezreal is muted and also definitely overthinking it. When Yone joins and Kayn is still being noisy, Ezreal can't help himself.
"Shut up," he yells at Kayn, and ugh, he sounds so pathetic doing it but what's done is done.
Worse is Kayn's immediate response, as if he'd been waiting for Ezreal to talk the entire time.
"Make me," Kayn growls, and Ezreal flushes from his ears down to his neck. Why the fuck is this happening to him. He can barely even think of a response, and just opts to be silent instead for the rest of the call outside of a few responses here and there regarding the video. He doesn't even react to Kayn's mascot comment, scared of what'll happen if he does. He hopes his lack of a response goes unnoticed with how excited everyone is by Aphelios' idea (which is admittedly pretty sick). Everything seems fine in fact, as they wrap up the call and hang up. That is, until he notices a DM from Kayn on his screen.
Ezreal considers ignoring it, but gets the feeling that idea won't go down too well, especially with how close their rooms are. There is pretty much nothing stopping Kayn from barging in and killing him for ignoring him. They'd gotten into physical fights (not serious, mostly just shoving) in the past over less (video games). He clicks the DM.
It's a singular emoji: 🐶. Ezreal immediately frowns, groans even, both pissed at himself for getting so nervous over a DM and at Kayn for being fucking annoying. He types back "FUCK OFF" and gets up, now determined to go do something else with his day that isn't related to Kayn when suddenly, Kayn barges into his room.
Ezreal jumps a foot in the air, reflex the only thing stopping him from teleporting himself into the door.
"Should I have said boo?" Kayn says amused, crossing his arms and leaning back against the door, shutting it closed with the weight of his body.
"What do you want, Kayn?" Ezreal asks.
"Don't play dumb, you've been avoiding me all day, Princey. Pretty obviously too."
Ezreal laughs nervously, "No, I haven't."
Kayn rolls his eyes. "You quite literally got up and left when I showed up for breakfast earlier. Yone made me clean up your dishes too."
Ezreal feels kind of bad about that, he's not heartless. "Sorry," he says, sheepish.
This makes Kayn frown more. "I don't fucking care about doing your dishes Ez."
"So why are you bugging me then? Are you, like, obsessed with me or something?"
Kayn's eyes widen. "Obsessed with you? I'm not obsessed. Stop dodging."
"You are!" Ezreal insists, dodging, "Teasing me out of nowhere, having posters of me-"
"It's one poster, Ezreal, just one poster. Is that what you being weird all week is about? A poster? If it bothers you so much that I'm a fan of your song I can just fucking sell the damn thing."
Kayn calling himself a fan of Ezreal's, even if it's just the song he's referring to, gives Ezreal a rush. He almost doesn't realise what Kayn had said. "Well, let's not get too hasty, Kayn…"
Kayn squints at him, suspicious. "You know what, Ez? I really can't figure you out. One moment you're running from me, the next you're angry, and then the next you look like you want to jump my bones."
Ezreal chokes. "What the- gross! I-I don't want to jump your bones dude," he hisses, lowering his voice so that the others don't hear.
"You're doing an awful job convincing me otherwise," Kayn says, sarcastic. Despite the topic, he doesn't have his usual teasing smirk. In fact, Kayn looks deep in thought as he looks at Ezreal. He stalks forward, closing the gap between them, and fuck, maybe Ezreal should've teleported out of here the moment Kayn arrived. It's too late now to escape.
"Tell me Ez," Kayn drawls, jabbing a finger into Ezreal's shoulder, "why are you avoiding me? And cut the bullshit, I want a real answer."
What's messed up about this is Ezreal can't even give Kayn the real answer he wants, because he doesn't know what's even going on in his own head anymore. Kayn's always been sexy. Ezreal would be lying if he said he hadn't thought about sleeping with him before, but that's about as deep as it goes. Getting with a bandmate, even for a quick night of fun, just seemed like too much risk, especially when they hadn't even debuted yet. Sett and Aphelios' thing was a special case in this industry, and they'd known each other for forever, but Ezreal and Kayn hadn't known each other for more than a few months yet.
It's not even like Kayn had never flirted with Ezreal before, well, if threatening him with bodily harm or insulting him could be called flirting. Ezreal just kind of assumes threatening to kill you is Kayn's love language, honestly. This is pointless Ezreal thinks. He needs to just get over this already so that he can focus on Heartsteel's debut. He's about to apologise, just own up to his weird thoughts for the past few days even if he knows Kayn will make fun of him, but stops when he notices Kayn's expression. To the untrained eye, Kayn looks like his usual self, frowning like he doesn't actually care. But Ezreal can tell, he's not sure how, exactly, but he can.
Kayn is anxious . With no small amount of shock, Ezreal realises that Kayn is worried about what Ezreal is about to say. Ezreal suddenly feels guilty. He won't go as far as to think he's hurt Kayn's feelings too badly, but he's definitely caused the man some worry. The fact that Kayn even cares enough to confront him about it confirms it, which makes Ezreal feel worse. He just didn't think Kayn was the type to care.
It's then that Ezreal realises that his assumption is right. Kayn isn't the type to care. He says as much, all the time, about how little he actually gives a fuck about what people think about him. But the difference here is that Kayn seems to like Ezreal enough to confront him when he thinks he's done something wrong, or ask him what's up if Ezreal seems under the weather (even if he's severely lacking in tact). It's uncharacteristically endearing, so much so Ezreal can't help himself.
Before he even fully processes what he's doing, Ezreal leans forward and pecks Kayn square on the lips. It happens so fast it's almost like it didn't happen at all, but the look of bewilderment on Kayn's face says otherwise.
"Oh shit," Ezreal says, overcome with panic as he watches Kayn react as if in slow motion. The shock on his face is clear as day. Fuck. Why did he fucking do that? "I- I can explain," Ezreal starts.
"I knew it!" Kayn sneers, cutting him off. With that, he turns around and leaves Ezreal by himself. Not at all the reaction Ezreal had been expecting, (being murdered, and Sett and K'Sante tearfully cleaning up his remains was how he thought this would end). He's too confused to even consider following Kayn and asking what it is exactly he knows. He groans. How is this getting worse?
💚
They have an interview and photoshoot the next day. Ezreal inspects his dark circles and pale skin in the mirror as he brushes his teeth. Yone is going to kill him when he sees him. He'd been clear they all needed to get rest so their visuals were good for the magazine, and Ezreal had fucked it up by spending the whole night thinking about…well…who else? Oh god, Ezreal brushes his teeth faster, as if that would help scrub away the kiss from yesterday, and all of his regret with it. Not because it's Kayn but because it was such a creepy thing to do. Ezreal hates himself right now.
But man, admittedly, for someone with such colourful vocabulary, Kayn's lips were pretty soft. And even with how shocked he was, there had been a cute blush forming on his face. Fuck!!! Ezreal blushes hard at the memory and nearly chokes on his toothbrush. A voice rings out from behind the door.
"Jeez Ez," Sett says, sounding concerned, "if you're gonna die in there could you do it after I take a leak? I've been waiting out here for like, ten minutes already."
"Almost done!" Ezreal says, almost choking on his toothpaste in response.
In the van on the way to the photoshoot, Kayn doesn't say a word to Ezreal, which isn't cause for concern, they all usually prefer to do their own thing on the road. Kayn does, however, sit right next to Ezreal in the backseat, without prompting. Kayn's the kind of guy that complains if he doesn't get shotgun (he's not allowed to drive the van), even if the van's big enough where it doesn't matter who sits where, but today Yone doesn't even have to threaten him. He just hops in after Ezreal and smiles as if he's hiding something, before pulling out his headphones and putting on some music. In a way, Ezreal supposes he is hiding something. He didn't expect Kayn to tell anyone about yesterday, knowing Kayn he'd much rather use it to blackmail Ezreal for the rest of his life. Still, he wasn't expecting Kayn to be in such a good(?) mood either.
Yone gives Kayn a weird look, and then looks at Ezreal for an explanation. Ezreal does his best to look like he has no clue, but he doubts it's very convincing. He tries to focus on the window as they drive, Kayn's behaviour unsettles him. He's definitely up to something, of that Ezreal is certain, he's just not sure what.
The photoshoot and interview go on without any issues. As the visual of the group, (which was a Kpop concept only Ezreal was familiar with among the six of them), he had a few solo shots he needed to take, and then they were done for the day. Despite arriving together, they'd all decided to split up for the rest of the day and meet back up for dinner later. Ezreal was fine with this plan mostly because he didn't want the other guys waiting around while he modeled. Not that he'd ever admit it to anyone, but he was picky about how his photos came out, and he had no issue retaking something a hundred times if it meant he got the perfect shot. Somewhere in the back of his head he can hear Sett calling him vain but he ignores it in favour of checking himself out in the dressing room mirror instead. Not at all a vain thing to do, for the record.
The blue shirt he'd been given to wear looks good, not really his preferred colour (he has green hair for a reason!), but he can make anything work. He takes out his phone and snaps a few mirror selfies for his social media to post after the interview gets published. Thank god the makeup artist did such a good job, his dark circles are basically non-existent now.
There's a knock, and then the door is opened before Ezreal has time to put his phone away. Not that he's shy about taking selfies, but sometimes the others tease him about it and he's not in the mood to be too flustered. Unfortunately, he spoke too soon, because of course Kayn walks in, followed by the make up artist.
"Should've known you'd be in here preening," he says. Ezreal says nothing, just rolls his eyes. He tries, he really does, but it's impossible not to stare at Kayn. Sure, the styling was partially his idea, and Kayn was often given more revealing clothes for his image (being the "bad boy" type of the group or whatever), but Ezreal really had not expected Kayn to look as good as he did. He'd spent the entire photoshoot trying not to undress Kayn with his eyes, which would be ironic considering how much effort went into choosing the clothes that were on him. The cut of his shirt left very little to the imagination, but Ezreal hadn't let that stop him. He'd seen Kayn shirtless a thousand times already. Sometimes he tagged along when Kayn tagged along to workout with Sett and K'Sante, and you know, now that he recalls doing that maybe this sudden Kayn obsession hadn't come completely out of nowhere. But beyond that, he'd been the one to convince Kayn to wear a crop top for their upcoming video. He could supplement what he couldn't see if he needed to, as depraved as that sounded! Still, the peek of his abs under the shirt had Ezreal feeling like some kind of Victorian era noble looking at his beloved's ankles or something.
All this to say, he's staring at Kayn. Again. Kayn just smirks at Ezreal as he soaks up the attention, which is a welcome change over being directly called out about it.
Next to Kayn, the make-up artist can barely seem to hold back their excitement for some reason.
"Um, should I head back on set now?" Ezreal asks. He hasn't been in here too long, he hopes.
"Not just yet! Kayn gave us a great suggestion for the photoshoot, so we have to redo your makeup a little."
Kayn did? Well that's new. Not the suggestions, he has tons of ideas. Usually they're rejected though, either for being too violent or too dangerous or both. Ezreal is surprised to hear he came up with something that'd actually be used, let alone for a photoshoot that didn't involve him.
Ezreal tries to ignore Kayn getting even more smug, attention focused on the makeup artist.
"Well, let's hear Kayn's great idea," Ezreal says, making air quotes for the word great.
"I'll let him explain, he said you'd be fine with it while I go run an errand real quick! Do what he says, the director okayed it! I'm just here to give you these, but I'll be back for a final check." With that, they're back out the door, but not before they hand Ezreal a small tube of…lipstick?
"Wow Kayn. Lipstick was your great idea? I'm already wearing some, this exact shade actually," Ezreal says as he twists the stick and inspects the colour.
Kayn walks over and snatches it out of Ezreal's hands. "It's not for you, idiot, it's for me."
"Huh?" HUH?
Ezreal watches in horror, and well, yes slight interest too but who asked, as Kayn applies the lipstick to his mouth. He keeps eye contact with Ezreal the entire time, and Ezreal desperately wishes the make up artist hadn't left him alone with Kayn. His life feels like it's in danger.
"Since you love your fans so much, I thought you could give them a little gift for your solo shoot. Some fanservice. And we've gotta do something about your cute little prince image anyhow. Ruffle you up a bit."
"You think I'm cute?" Ezreal asks, to be annoying.
"Shut up. Now, stick out your hand," Kayn says. It sounds more like a demand than a request, and Ezreal, despite getting increasingly more confused about the circumstances, is able to tell that Kayn is testing to see how he'll respond. He'll be damned if he just plays along though. That's not how they work.
"Why should I?" Ezreal says. It's obviously not the right answer, and Kayn frowns. "I was being nice, but fine, we'll do it my way." He grabs Ezreal's left hand, and before Ezreal can even react, Kayn brings his hand up to his mouth and bites him.
"What the fuck are y-!?" Ezreal shouts, but he's cut off by what Kayn does next, shock killing the words in his throat as Kayn kisses where he just bit as if it didn't even happen. When he lowers Ezreal's hand there's a big, sparkly kiss mark there. It's a cute colour. Ezreal feels like he is having a heart attack.
He looks at Kayn as if that'll explain anything. Kayn holds up two fingers and says, "They want three for the shot."
"You- you are not kissing me again!"
"Oh?" Kayn crosses his arms, "you don't like my idea?" That is obviously not the problem and they both seem to know it. In fact, Ezreal does like the idea. He likes the idea more than he thinks he should.
"You didn't seem to have any issue kissing me yesterday though," Kayn says, stepping forward. Ezreal steps back and bumps right into the mirror he'd been taking selfies in. Kayn stops right in front of him.
"T-that was-" Ezreal tries. Kayn cuts him off.
"Just think how good you'll look with a kiss mark or two smeared on your face. You don't think your fans will enjoy the debauched look on you?" That shuts Ezreal up immediately, and he shivers, which is the most embarrassing thing to happen to him all day.
"Wow, that did it for you? Sett was right about you. Our little prince is so full of himself," Kayn sighs. He's trying to sound disgusted, but he can't hide the amusement shining through. Ezreal hates him.
"Shut up," Ezreal says through gritted teeth. He's so going to swap out Sett's protein powder again when he gets home.
"You're gonna have to make me," Kayn says, just as aggressively as he did yesterday. He grabs Ezreal's chin and tilts his head to the side to get a better view of Ezreal's left cheek.
"I think here'll do. Any objections?"
"Just…" Ezreal squeezes his eyes shut, willing his blush at being manhandled away. "Just don't bite my face."
"Obviously, but you just had to say it." There's silence as Ezreal more feels, than sees, Kayn leaning in. He's uncharacteristically gentle as he presses a kiss to Ezreal's cheek.
"Can barely see it, with how red you are. Look."
Ezreal doesn't want to look, not when Kayn is telling him to, but his burning curiousity at how he looks wins out. He turns around and faces the mirror, and Kayn is full of shit, but what else is new? It stands out perfectly clear on his cheek, even with how flushed he is. And he looks good, which is the worst part.
"This is so messed up," he says.
"Last one!" Kayn says, ignoring him and grabbing Ezreal by the shoulder blades. He spins him around to face him. "Where do you want it?"
Ezreal barely even hears him with how distracted he is looking at Kayn, or more specifically, Kayn's mouth. Having kissed Ezreal twice now, the lipstick was starting to smudge. If Ezreal had somehow miraculously not been turned on before, he definitely is now. He knows what he wants to say, where he wants this last kiss to be, but he'd rather do a two hundred pound deadlift than admit it to Kayn.
"I don't want it anywhere."
Ezreal, however, hasn't seemed to learn yet that Kayn has been reading him like a book.
"You just won't let me be nice will you." Ezreal resists the urge to roll his eyes at the idea of Kayn being "nice". They end up nearly crossing instead, as Kayn starts to lean in. He cannot stop looking at Kayn's mouth.
"Ezreal, Ezreal, Ezreal," Kayn tuts,"if you're going to lie, can't you at least try to look like you don't want it?"
"I don't."
Ezreal readies himself for it, he wants it badly, honestly, but in true Kayn fashion, instead of kissing him, Kayn places a kiss right on the corner of Ezreal's mouth just to troll him. When Kayn leans back, only Ezreal's last shred of dignity stops him from chasing Kayn's mouth with his own.
"Are we-" Ezreal's voice is thick, "are we done?"
Kayn studies Ezreal's face for a second. Despite the circumstances, Ezreal still welcomes the attention. Kayn uses his thumb to swipe the corner of Ezreal's mouth, smudging the lipstick further. If Ezreal were a braver man, he'd take Kayn's finger into his mouth and bite him as revenge. But he's not, so he just lets Kayn do what he wants. Just like how he's been letting him since he walked in the room.
Kayn removes his thumb, and licks the excess lipstick off his thumb with his tongue to clean it. Ezreal glares at him.
"There," Kayn says, his impossibly wide smile framed by smudged lipstick, "perfect."
💜
When Ezreal gets home, he makes a beeline straight for the bathroom to take a cold shower. He won’t lie to himself, he kind of wants to jerk off. He’s the only one in the house, which is both a surprise considering how late he’d gotten back from the shoot, and a blessing since alone time to jerk off when you live with five other guys is hard to come by. What stops him, however, is that he doesn’t know if he can bring himself to do it, considering what’s got him so hot and bothered in the first place.
It’s like a point of no return to jack off to your friend and bandmate, right? He’s already this fucked up over a poster, why make it worse? Ezreal groans and leans his head against the shower tile. Kayn had barely kissed him and he’s falling apart over it. He needed to get a grip. He stays under the cold water until he risks hypothermia.
When he gets out, he’s surprised to see there’s still no one around. He whips out his phone, (which he’d been using in the shower in one of those plastic bags that keep your phone dry, the kind of thing someone terminally addicted to social media would have), and is about to text K'Sante asking where everyone is when he notices a text from Aphelios.
bringing back thai, k'sante got you your usual 🫡. figured youd be tired from the extra work and convinced yone to let you go home instead of getting you to come meet us out here. and you looked tired earlier, so yeah
Well that explains it. Ezreal sends Aphelios a bunch of grateful heart emojis and heads down the corridor to his room. An idea occurs to him just as he gets to his door. He's the only one at home right now, and Kayn's room is further down the hall. What if he just took a quick peek?
Ezreal pauses. It's a bad idea, obviously, and also a major breach of Kayn's privacy. Despite that, his feet carry him to Kayn's door anyways, like they have minds of their own. It'll be fine, he thinks. Knowing Kayn, the door's probably locked anyway. He tries it and nope, it's open! This is his last chance to back out. He can just head back to his room and stare at the ceiling or something.
Instead, Ezreal opens the door and steps in, cautious like there are traps set up. It's dark, the curtains are drawn, so he flips on a light.
It's a pretty normal room. There are band posters, a guitar, a desk with a pretty impressive PC setup and some shelves of albums and vinyls. Ezreal is surprised to find it's not all that messy, there's stuff lying about the place, like clothes, but nothing too crazy. He pointedly avoids looking too much at Kayn's bed, but more important than the bed is the poster right above it. He'd seen it already, having signed it, but seeing it enshrined over Kayn's bed like this is more than a little strange. What's even stranger , is that there are not one, but two posters of Ezreal hanging there.
Ezreal's mind takes a while to catch up. The second poster had been very limited, only available to the first ten people at each retailer, in store and online, where his single had been sold. They were hard to come by now, and certainly not cheap. How did Kayn have this? Or maybe a better question to ask was, why ?
A hand grabs Ezreal and roughly turns him around and, oh shit, it's Kayn. He's wearing an oversized T-Shirt and some basketball shorts, his regular choice of loungewear, which meant he must've been at home longer than Ezreal had been. Where had he been until now? Ezreal hadn't even heard him come in, how- he can phase through walls. Right. A quick glance at the door, which was in the same position Ezreal had left it, basically confirms that's how Kayn had gotten in. Saying Kayn is mad would be an understatement.
"You have ten seconds to explain what you're doing in here before Heartsteel becomes a five man act. Ten." Kayn actually sounds calm, which is all the more terrifying considering how loud he usually was.
Come on Ezreal, think!
"Nine."
THINK!
"I wanted to talk to you!" Ezreal blurts, "but I thought you were out so I was going to wait for you to come back. In your room. Haha." An obvious lie. It's so obvious Ezreal winces once the words leave his mouth.
Kayn's frown deepens. "Five seconds."
"OKAY, OKAY, I'm obsessed with you because you have a fucking poster of me above your bed and I wanted to see it so I could go jerk off later or something. Happy now??"
The frown wipes itself off of Kayn's face and gives way to a startled expression. He straightens up. “Gross. TMI, Ez.”
Ezreal flushes so hard he feels dizzy. He can't say he likes being called gross (even if its warranted), and that being Kayn's response makes him want to run and hide.
“Yeah, well, uh, sorry for,” Ezreal gestures wildly at Kayn's room, “coming in here without your permission.” He pushes past Kayn to leave, but Kayn steps in front of him. He's frowning again.
“Come on, Ezreal, you've made it this far already. Stop being a coward,” he says. He seems impatient. Ezreal wants to ask what he means, but is cut off when Kayn leans forward and kisses him.
Oh fuck, Ezreal thinks, although his ability to think starts to dwindle when Kayn reaches his free hand up and starts roughly stroking the hair at the nape of Ezreal's neck. If Ezreal wasn't so turned on, he would've melted into a puddle on the floor. He's about to return the favour, put his hands on Kayn's waist, literally anything that isn't standing there like an idiot, but Kayn pulls away. He roughs up Ezreal's hair more.
“Been wanting to do that since earlier,” Kayn says, voice low, “You looked way too put together for my tastes.”
Ezreal doesn't respond, instead grabbing Kayn by the front of his shirt and pulling him forward to kiss him again. It's clumsy, and Kayn smirks against his teeth. They kiss again, and again, until Ezreal stops keeping track. I am sooo fucked , Ezreal thinks, because the longer this goes on the more he realises that he's falling for his stupid, shitty, edgelord bandmate. Where did he go wrong for this to be his life?
There's no time to think about it actually, now that Kayn, evidently impatient with how vanilla things have been up until now, starts licking at Ezreal's lips in an attempt to get him to open his mouth. He's like a big, slobbery dog. It's kind of gross, but Ezreal's into it, which says a lot about him. He dies inside a little.
He shivers, but he'd rather die than make this easy, “J-just ask.”
“No, now open up,” and well, maybe Ezreal is easy, or maybe he's just wanted this for much longer than he thought. He'll try harder next time, he thinks as he opens his mouth slowly, embarrassed. He's blushing so hard he must look like a strawberry with his green hair, but Kayn is flushed too. Kayn wastes absolutely no time, leaning in and swiping his tongue over the top row of Ezreal's teeth. Ezreal just lets him. Part of him wants to reciprocate, the other part just wants to see what'll happen if he just lets Kayn do what he wants.
“Have I ever told you how cute your teeth are?” Kayn asks. The compliment goes straight through Ezreal like lightning, and he bites back a small groan, trying to stifle it before Kayn hears it. It's a failed attempt, and Kayn smiles at him like he's just found gold.
“You liked that, huh?” The look in his eyes is bordering unhinged. Ezreal does not think it's possible for this situation to get anymore crazy.
“Shut up.”
He's about to shut Kayn up himself when a knock on Kayn's door sends Ezreal flying backwards, nearly tripping over himself to put some distance in between them. Kayn looks at him and rolls his eyes. He turns to the door.
“What is it, Phel?” His voice is thick, so he stops and clears his throat.
There's a ping, and then Kayn checks his phone. He hands it over to Ezreal, who reads, food's here. have you seen ezreal? thought he'd be back by now but his room seems empty.
Kayn is looking at Ezreal with a curious expression, that Ezreal doesn't really get, but what he does know is that he'd rather his being in here not be known to the others right now. Not yet. He shakes his head, and Kayn nods.
“I'm not his babysitter. He's probably napping or something.” It's Ezreal's turn to roll his eyes. Kayn glares at him. He calls out to Aphelios, “I'll go get him so you can go eat if you want.”
There's another ping and Kayn's phone lights up with a 👌 from Aphelios before the two of them hear him walk off. Ezreal releases the breath he didn't know he was holding.
“You owe me,” Kayn whispers. Despite this, he starts fixing Ezreal's hair for him.
Ezreal punches him in the arm, because if he speaks right now he's not sure he'll like what comes out.