Pearl, Etho, and Tango’s relationship started with the two men under the impression that all three of them were dating already while Pearl thought she was just hopelessly crushing on her fellow postal employees who were in a relationship.
Their communication probably could have been better but in Tango’s defense, he did literally refer to the fact that he and Pearl ate lunch together every day as “dates” to her face and she did end all of them with kissing him on the cheek or forehead. And in Etho’s defense, him and Pearl had taken up cuddling after they were done practicing for The Club That They Can’t Talk About, her face pressed up into his neck and his arms wrapped around her tightly, still breathing heavily from their dance with death. They thought it was pretty obvious that Pearl was their girlfriend. They hadn’t kissed her yet, sure, but maybe she just wasn’t all that into kissing. So much of what they did was touchy in other ways, casual clinging and cuddling and gentle touches, that maybe she just didn’t like that particular thing all that much. Most of the server had figured it out as well, and they took the way Pearl seemed to turn bright red at the mention of her ‘boyfriends’ to just mean that she was shy about it.
Needless to say, when Tango finally kissed Pearl on the lips at the end of lunch one day. It had been a particularly stressful day, and Tango had a habit of clinging close to her when he could tell she stressed. All morning he had stuck to his desk in the Post Office proper, occasionally reaching over to rub her shoulder while she did paper work or offer encouraging words while she painstakingly made new stamps (hand painted!). It wasn’t some grand gesture. She went to kiss him on the cheek as usual, and instead he turned his face to give her a proper kiss. A few seconds later he broke it off and with a “Keep it up, Pearlie. I love you,” and he was on his way to find Etho in the nether to do maintenance. Pearl thought she was about to be the reason her friends broke up. She was so shocked she couldn’t even say anything to Tango, just touched her mouth in disbelief like the kiss could go away at any second while he went back to his work.
Pearl hated it. She loved it. She had been crushing on Tango all season, yes, but she didn’t want this at the expense of Etho! She needed to tell Etho, she knew that. If he chose to break up with Tango over this it would be devastating for both of them, but it should be his choice.
So she invited Etho over to the brawlroom and after a couple of rounds (both of which he won, she felt bad going full tilt knowing what she was about to tell him), she sat Etho down in their score room and just said it.
“Tango kissed me today,” Her voice trembled slightly, her eyes locked on Etho’s. He just titled his head, looking for all the world like he was confused. “Like, on the mouth,”
“Oh, are you okay with that now? If not, we can talk to him,” Etho pulled down his mask to get a sip of water, casually, as if Pearl hadn’t just told him his boyfriend had kissed someone else. And wait. What?
“Okay with it? He’s your boyfriend?” It was Pearl’s turn to look very confused. Etho just shrugged, perplexing her further.
“He’s yours too, I know we don’t normally do the whole ‘polycule chat’ thing but if kissing is a boundary we want to respect it,” He looked so serious and so awkward and out of his depth that Pearl couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
“Sorry, what? Are we a polycule?” Etho’s eyes widened.
“You didn’t know?!?”
Needless to say, Etho and Tango did not break up. And Pearl got a lot of quality boyfriend time in compensation now that she actually KNEW they were dating. She could have been kissing them this whole time!
They really, really should have done more polycule chats. It's an impressive level of obliviousness by all parties involved and something they're going to laugh about for some time.
