(My first thought from the prompt was angst but then I had a better idea hehe)
Relationship: Kaz (mighty med/elite force) x gn reader
platonic/sibling | romantic | parental | other
Summary: When Kaz doesn't know how to act around his crush, he sticks to his fool-proof plan: joking and "play" flirting
Genre: fluff, pining, basically they're both just so stupid someone save them
Warnings: none
Word count: 1,545
Masterlist
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You and Kaz were best friends. And definitely just friends. Despite what the rest of the team insisted.
The team was always stupid, yeah you and Kaz would play flirt all the time, but that's all it was; play flirting. I mean, friends do that all the time, right?
The others would always nudge each other or raise their eyebrows at us when we did it. That is so dumb, like they're so blind, obviously there was nothing there.
Okay, you had mayyybeee caught yourself looking at his chest too long in his mission suit, but could anyone blame you? The guy was muscular, you could respect that. Okay and maybe you had had a hard time breathing that one time you were on a mission and he pushed you out of the way of some debris and ended up on top of you, but you had gotten the wind knocked out of you, the shortness of breath didn't mean anything!
But you were surely looking too much into it, I mean you play flirted with the rest of the team too and that didn't mean anything! When you told Chase he had a nice ass and kissed Skylar on the cheek during Truth or Dare, that was completely platonic!
It didn't matter anyways, even if you did admit to your self you had a small crush on the boy with fire powers, there's no way he thought of it the same way. His play flirting really was play flirting.
This train of thought was brought about after a mission where you had had another one of those snap-out-of-it moments. The mission had just ended extremely successful and in celebration Kaz had picked you up in a hug and spun you around laughing.
This shouldn't have been jarring, you were his childhood best friend and he was a touchy guy, he hugged you all the time. But for some reason you just found your brain had completely shut off. You awkwardly laughed with him but you had already forgotten the mission and all that was left in your mind was radio static. Luckily Kaz hadn't noticed and had already turned to Chase to make a dumb joke, at which the bionic boy scoffed.
It was all you could think about on the way home. Bree gave you a confused look once, so apparantly your feelings were evident on your face, but thankfully didn't mention anything, likely just thinking it was mission fatigue.
After you had gone through this thought process, you officially decided that there was nothing between you and Kaz romantically, and you would just drop it. No matter what you felt, you did love Kaz and you didn't want to mess up your relationship.
Wanting to prove to yourself that you could drop it, you wandered to the game room where Kaz spent most of his time, especially after missions when he needed to cool down.
Sure enough, when you walked in the top of his spiky hair was visible above the large beanbag in front of the TV, an impressive feat considering just how far down he was slumped in it.
"Hey Kaz," You greeted casually, moving forward with your hands stuffed in your pockets.
He shuffled around in his chair and grinned when he saw it was you.
"Hey man! Wanna play?"
It was a 1v1 game the two of you loved to play.
"Of course," You laughed. You plopped down in the beanbag, which was large enough to hold like three people, next to him and grabbed the other controller.
You were a master at this game, you two had been playing since you were kids so you knew each other's favorite plays but you still usually won.
You soon found out that you could not, in fact, prove to yourself that you could drop it. As hard as you tried to stay focused, Kaz was still worn out from the mission and sometimes his eyes would droop, and he was so warm next to you, and sometimes his arm would touch yours when he moved and you would get goosebumps, and his laugh when he would get a hit on you was so cute, and once he stretched out and his leg ended up crossing yours and-
"YES I WON, IN YOUR FACE!" Kaz giggled and pointed at you with a wide grin.
"I like never win, you doing okay bro? Haha." It was a joke, but it still sent you into a small panic internally.
"Don't get too cocky about it, I'm still tired from the mission." You rolled your eyes at him endearingly.
He laughed and flopped back into his side of the beanbag. He then immediately leaned forward again, in that can-never-stay-still Kaz style.
"I was so cool that round, I think I deserve a kiss for that."
Considering your thoughts just earlier that evening, you should've been very flustered, but it was so easy to fall back into that flirty back and forth you guys did all the time. (Plus hey, it couldn't hurt to test the waters a little.)
You laughed and pushed his face back. "In your dreams, pretty boy."
He gasped, putting a hand to his chest. "Did you just call me 'pretty'?"
You did a little falsetto voice and shoulder movement. "You'll always be my pretty boy."
"You're so in love with me it's embarrassing."
"Kind of the pot calling the kettle black, ain't it dear?"
Neither of you could contain your laughter anymore, both bursting into giggles and falling over each other.
When he contained himself, Kaz threw your controller at you. You wouldn't have caught it if he hadn't been throwing controllers at your for a good part of both of your lives, you were used to it now.
"Okay okay, come on, best two out of three." He challenged.
Pushing your feelings out of your mind, you turned on your controller.
"You're on."
You were more focused that time, and ended up beating him by a long shot. He dropped his controller and pouted.
"HA! See, told you I didn't lose it, now wheres my kiss, huh?"
He crossed his arms like a child.
"No way! I said best two out of three. I won one, you won one, that's not two out of three. I say we go again."
"You're impossible Kaz," You laughed.
Kaz grabbed his controller. "Yep, but you love me anyways."
Another round started up. You won easily.
"There," You smiled, "That's two out of three."
"Okay fiinneeee," Kaz whined.
Part of you thought about the promise of a kiss to the winner, but that was obviously a joke. And it didn't bother you that it was, of course not.
Kaz smirked at you. "Maybe I just let you win cause you're so cute."
"I'm flattered," you joked. But the thoughts were getting to you again.
You sighed and let your head fall back into the chair.
Kaz sat up further and eaised an eyebrow. "Hey what's up?"
"Ah nothing," You said dismissively, "I love when we joke around like this, I just wish sometimes... some of them weren't jokes, maybe..."
Kaz looked at you like he was trying to figure you out. "You mean, you want them to be real flirting?"
You covered your face in embarrassment of what you had just admitted, but there was no going back now. "Yeah, I guess so."
"You know... not everything is a joke," Kaz said.
You lifted your head to meet his gaze. "Really?"
"Yeah," He shrugged, "I like you a lot, y/n, and as much as we joke around I don't want to lose you, and, I dunno, I never thought you would like me back cause you're all... you and I'm all... me. So I did the only thing I could, play flirting."
You were all the way sat up now, shocked as you looked at him, trying to find some indication that it was a joke.
"Seriously? So some of those weren't jokes?!"
Kaz huffed out a laugh. "Yeah I guess, they weren't."
You stayed silent a moment, processing that, and then you gave him a playful look.
"Does that mean I can't take you up on that kiss, since I did win best two out of three?"
Kaz gave you a lopsided grin and turned red. "I guess it means you can, if you want of course."
You laughed and nodded.
Slowly, as if unsure of himself, Kaz reached out his hand and gently slid it behind your head. He slightly pulled you towards him as he leaned forward himself and your lips met.
It wasn't just a peck, like would probably be appropriate for just winning a video game match, but instead it was slow and passionate, and perfect.
Kaz's free hand went to your waist to pull to pull himself closer to you, and your hands migrated from his chest to his hair where they tangled themselves.
When you pulled apart, neither of you knew what to say. The air was filled with tension.
And then you both burst out laughing. You fell against Kaz's chest with laughter and he buryed his face in your shoulder, muffling his giggles.
