HELL YEUH :DDD

1. Harry made the first move, and not too long after their partnership started.

They met, like, what? 5-6 years ago? Jean is also canonically ten years younger than Harry (despite looking the same fucking age) and looked up to him even as Harry sank to the bottom of a bottle.

So it starts when this older, decorated fucking detective gives Jean the once over (possibly during their first meeting), prompting a Late-20s-Sudden-Sexuality-Crisis. And then it escalates to “joking” passes made when they’re drunk. Harry laughing and slinging an arm around Jean’s shoulder, asking him, “do you really want me that bad, Vic?” Even early in their partnership, I imagine Jean would scoff and push Harry away when he’s single hand-on-thigh instance away from calling him fucking Daddy.

And Harry knows it. He’s been the younger man looking for someone to show him the ropes. He’s blushed when a more confident man winked and called him handsome. And then his goddamn partner starts acting suspiciously inconspicuous. And it’s just… it’s too easy. It’s too fun. So why not indulge? Fuck it. Jean isn’t Dora. Jean isn’t so fucking beautiful that the world stops. They’re also bound by their RCM partnership.

Unlike Dora, Jean can’t leave.

2. Harry and Jean broke up before Martinaise.

But of course, Harry can’t remember it. Like so much else, little pieces of Jean are returning to him, but not that. Not yet. His mind is too fixated on the much more devastating loss of Dora. She left in such a spectacular, unreachable way, but Jean is still here. Despite not dating anymore, they are (or were) still partners—the exact opposite of Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind.

Now, when I say “not that,” I mean the breakup. Exclusively the breakup. Harry remembers holding Jean in his arms - feeling a rough face pressed against his chest. He remembers that Jean has a favourite flower and the way he takes his coffee. It clicks that they’re romantically involved.

And Jean is left at the crossroads. Does he tell Harry they broke up? All the shit that’s happened recently is… god, it’s too fucking much. But this Harry, this new and lamb-like man, he’s trying. He smiles at Jean like the old Harry didn’t. He tries to hold his hand, even when they’re in public. He doesn’t drink anymore. He doesn’t call Jean in the wee hours of the morning just to scream at him.

This Harry doesn’t remember anything except how they loved each other. And that hurts more than if he’d forgotten him altogether.

3. Jean has a Daddy kink that he definitely didn’t have before getting with HDB.

Alright, I like a challenge!

1. Trant has been crushin' on Kim from afar

Okay, so, Trant. This fuckin guy, right? He loves obscure facts and trivia. He wants to be seen as a loser. For some reason, he has a gun??? This guy's a fucking weirdo (I love him for it).

So, he hears about Kim "The Kimball" Kitsuragi - a man who trained for nine months to infiltrate a pinball ring. A man who got fucking good at what he did and took it seriously. Trant starts imagining what this loose canon officer must be like.

Clearly, he's a man who volunteered for this. Clearly, he leans into his pinball fame. He's worked with kids - Trant has a kid!!! Oh, wouldn't that be the most beautiful picture, he thinks to himself. Little Mikael learning to play pinball from the Kim Kitsuragi. Before he knows it, he's constructed this image of Kim in his mind...

... And then he meets him, and Kim is nothing like Trant's mental image. At least not outwardly. But that makes it better.

2. Kim is deeply, deeply oblivious to Trant's attempt at flirting.

Which, really, is not his fault. Because Trant's love language is fucking info dumping, and that's... not a flirting method that Kim has been exposed to previously. That being said, he likes talking to Trant.

He enjoys their time together, but more or less assumes Trant is straight and probably still married. They're just colleagues. Oh, well, they're seeing each other outside of work. They're friends, then. Friends that go to the movies, and dinners, and trade books and... Okay, so they're close friends.

Close friends who gently brush knuckles and share shy looks and.

Oh.

Oh.

And suddenly Kim is staring off into space, only jostled from his thoughts by a delighted HDB telling him "Don't sweat it, I think you'll be a great step-dad!"

2. Kim is awkward as hell with Mikael, but it kinda works out?

Kim is sick to death of children, but that doesn't mean he isn't good with them. He talks to Mikael like he's an adult, and that charms the kid so fucking much. Kim thinks he's smart! So this shy kid comes out of his shell when Kim's around - talking to him about school, and what he's interested in, and and and...

And Kim is patient and asks him pertinent questions. He's brisk, but not unkind. All the adults around can tell that he's not super jazzed by these interactions, but Mikael just sees someone who doesn't talk down to him.

So, Kim's desk goes from a largely empty to largely empty... with the exception of a single drawing Mikael did of the Kineema.