au where riko is just a little less psychotic and nathaniel kills his father before the deal with the moriyamas can be finalized so he doesn’t officially belong to them but mary and stuart still negotiate to ensure that nathaniel will join the ravens after high school so he’s still pushed and pushed and pushed to do exy and he spends weekends and holiday breaks at evermore practicing with kevin and riko with their numbers written on their cheeks.
and riko grabs him one day with the marker and writes a 3 but nathaniel looks in the mirror and scrubs it off and he’s got the wesninski smile on his face as he takes takes the marker and writes a 4 in it’s place before riko can explode in anger. kevin stares at him and nathaniel looks at him and says ‘shi’. Four. Death.
(this got really long)
riko looks at this backliner with the feral smile and thinks he has to break him and bring him to heel but he forgets - he forgets that nathaniel knows knives and he finds himself on his back with a blade to his neck and nathaniel smiling at him and riko is pissed off and scared and pissed off that he’s scared and then nathaniel is laughing at him and letting him up and kevin is looking between the two of them, green at the gills even as nathaniel hands the knife back.
“I’ll make a deal with you” he says because he’s watched Tetsuji wield the cane on the college team, on Riko and on Kevin. He hasn’t felt it strike him yet, but he knows. He knows it’ll come when he’s put in the black and red officially.
Riko is watching him, cold fury and caution, and asks what Nathaniel is talking about.
Nathaniel taps the number on his cheek, 16 years old and near to graduating and officially joining the Ravens and says “Hands off your precious perfect court and I’ll be your Butcher.” His eyes are cold, cold and malicious and he sees a brief flash of hope on Kevin’s face.
Riko’s eyes narrow. “What about the rest of them?”
“Double digits are unimportant, remember?” Nathaniel grabs Riko’s jersey and yanks him down those two inches and whispers to him, “Fuck the main branch, ‘King’. You got your Queen and your Executioner, all you need is your knights.”
Kevin breathes Nathaniel’s name, terrified because you don’t just say ‘fuck the main branch’ but Nathaniel learned how to sharpen his fear and turn it against his enemies and hold control in an iron fist. He’s blushing too because Nathaniel had called him Queen like he doesn’t think Nathaniel has seen the way Riko touches him after Tetsuji gets through with one or both of them. Possessive, protective, defiant.
Nathaniel isn’t stupid.
Riko and Kevin get their numbers marked permanently and Moreau is the first of the ‘knights’ to get his, a dark and promising 3 because Nathaniel wants his 4. They’re paired, he and Jean, and Nathaniel is quick to remind Riko that even if Jean does belong to the Moriyamas in a way Nathaniel doesn’t, he made a promise and Nathaniel expects him to keep it. Or else. And Riko is King and he demands obedience but he knows that Wesninski is a wolf ready to slip his chain if he wants to.
and then there’s Doe. The goalie that pretends at apathy as he stands at the end of the court but Nathaniel can see the truth in those golden eyes. The violence and hunger and when Doe tells Riko and Kevin to fuck off and sneers at Kevin for being ‘second best’ (because he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know that Kevin is Queen and Riko won’t let anything take Kevin from him) Nathaniel finds the short statured goalie and offers him another deal.
He can get Doe out of juvie early. He can take care of that pestering uncle and the nuisance that caused the scars on Doe’s wrists and he can check up on that surprise twin if he wants.
And Andrew is intrigued. Interested. Those icy blue eyes and auburn hair and a smile that’s made for the violence Andrew still feels like a hungry dragon in his chest. His fingertips tingle but not for something sharp but because he wants to touch that mouth and see if it’s as warm as it looks.
Drake Spear is found dangling from a tie in his apartment. Luther Hemmick is told in no uncertain terms to back the fuck off and Aaron? Well, Nathaniel finds out very interesting things about Tilda Minyard and he offers to take care of her too but Andrew declines and makes his terms of the deal.
Let him go to South Carolina. He’ll deal with Tilda and Aaron and then he’ll put on the black and red and be part of Riko’s ‘perfect court’.
Riko, Kevin, and Jean are freshmen with their numbers 1 through 3 on their faces and the Ravens dominate. They always dominate. And then Andrew comes the next year (secured with scholarships to Edgar Allen for his brother and for his pain in the ass cousin) and the Exy world is abuzz because he’s not number 4, no he’s number 5.
Ichirou begins to suspect something is off when the long awaited number 4 begins his freshman year at Edgar Allen. He knows something is off when the Raven’s take the championship again and Tetsuji is found drowned in his own blood from his slit throat and the back of his head bashed in from what might, possibly, have been an Exy racket.
In Evermore Castle there’s the King and Queen, and the King’s Executioners whispering ‘yes yes yes’ in to each other’s mouths as their hands still soaked in Tetsuji’s blood pull spattered uniforms off each other.
