#poor thea

Ahhh, tysm! 🥰 I’m so glad you liked it!!

And oh boy…*rolls up sleeves*…get ready for some ridiculously in-depth character analysis that I’m sure you weren’t looking for.

(Quick PSA to say these are *my* opinions only and are related to the specific AU I wrote. Folks are 100% welcome to enjoy and analyze any fictional character/relationship how they like! This is just my take on this.)

So Thea/Kevin’s relationship always raised red flags for me in the books - and it definitely played into the way I portrayed them in Dead of Night (as you’ve already read). So the way I break down the Foxes and their perceptions/assumptions about Kevin’s “relationship” is this:

Neil - let’s just start off with our infamous redhead bc he’s had the least amount of time to be able to think about and process that relationship. Freshman/Sophomore years? Neil has Zero Cares™️. Dude has enough on his plate to worry about, has his demisexual /Andrew tunnel vision on when it comes to romance, and does Kevin’s relationship relate to Exy whatsoever? Nope. So it simply doesn’t register for him. It’s only junior year where I think he starts getting comfortable and curious enough to look around at other relationships more and start asking questions (especially after the events in Dead of Night). But Andrew is there to bounce said questions off of so…we’ll get to him in a minute.

Matt/Dan/Aaron (& Seth RIP) - solidly in the don’t know, don’t care group, esp when they were in college and how they interacted with Kevin back then. They found the dude annoying, arrogant, and obsessive - they did not care about his love life. (Esp bc it was so public and a seemingly “steady” relationship - no “mystery” to be had.) If they ever did think about it, it might have been a fleeting, curious “huh, that’s kind of odd” moment before they simply moved on.

Nicky - so I think Nicky’s downfall when it comes to this topic narrows down to two specific things - how he tries to find the positive in all situations and his over-exuberant curiosity about other’s love lives. He wouldn’t look at Kevin’s/Thea’s relationship off the bat as wrong - I think he’d simply be thrilled for Kevin that he had it, esp with the horrors he hears of the Nest. He’d think of it as a “ray of light in a dark place” for Kevin - something that never should have happened but did. (Nicky is a total romantic.). But this happiness would be superseded by him asking Kevin 1200 questions about Thea, their sex life, what she’s like, how they got together, etc. - and I think this demand and pressure on revealing his private life would have made Kevin completely close off. So it becomes a topic that Nicky marks under the “don’t talk about it” file in his brain (where a lot of Andrew moments live) and he simply doesn’t - going about his day and only teasing Kevin about it once in a while for fun or when he’s annoyed with him.

Renee - Opposite to Nicky, Renee knows when not to meddle. Just as she knows there’s something about this supposed relationship that’s off. She doesn’t ask Kevin about it, though, seeing as she knows how he reacts to Nicky about it. And ultimately, it’s not her concern. Kevin is under Andrew’s protection, so it’s up to him to do something about Thea if need be. So in the end, she follows her newfound religion’s ask to not judge others and simply prays that if it is a legit relationship, Kevin is getting the love and support he needs. And if it’s not…Andrew will let her know. And they will take care of it.

So that leaves us with our two final foxes - Andrew and Allison.

Andrew - similar to his cousin, Andrew finds it strange that this supposed relationship was both born and approved of in such a corrupt, manipulative place. It reeks of deception. And Andrew’s smart - he adds the numbers up. He gets the age difference. He knows at its best, this is infatuation on Kevin’s part and tolerance on Thea’s, but is more than 100% likely manipulation on Riko’s or Tetsuji’s end. It makes him cautious and wary of the backliner, a solemn promise that he will not let that bitch touch Kevin if she dares step on campus. But over time, things don’t add up because Andrew is with Kevin pretty much 24 hrs a day…and Kevin never talks about her. He doesn’t talk about her, and they rarely text or call. And neither Kevin nor Thea has ever talked about going to visit the other - not once. If he didn’t know better, Andrew would almost label the calls obligatory for both parties. But Andrew’s deal is purely about Kevin’s safety. There is nothing he can do about the past, and unless Thea becomes an active threat, there’s no reason for him to take any action toward her. So when DON happens, things make a little more sense to the goalie but it still doesn’t answer every question. It still doesn’t explain Kevin’s reaction to the news. But at this point, Andrew and Kevin are estranged, so Andrew knows this secret won’t be his to uncover. He just has a small modicum of relief that Thea can no longer hurt Kevin, intentionally or not, once and for all.

Allison - Allison also thought Kevin and Thea’s relationship was bullshit, but this was due to two completely different factors. The first was her knowledge of PR and the fact that there’s no way in hell a well-known public figure who also happens to be a high school/college student would be “announcing” their relationship to the public. The violation to their privacy would be enormous, and Allison knows how hard she fought sometimes to keep her love life under wraps in the past (when she was still in her parent’s world). The second, however, was due to Kevin’s reaction to the exact same test she gave Neil when he first arrived at the Foxhole Court - and just like Neil, Kevin was completely disinterested. (To the point where the man actually got up and moved across the room - like she smelled or something. Complete ass.). So she knew something was up.

To Allison’s credit, though, I think she was the only one who ever confronted Kevin about it - in both a blunt and cryptic way. I think it would have been around the time that Thea came to visit Kevin on campus in The King’s Men. Like she would have seen the way they interacted leaving the dorm, would have noted the Raven necklace Thea still wore around her neck, would have watched the way Kevin was trying to plead with her. And I think, when she saw him come back later alone, she would have asked him something along the lines of, Is it love or fear that makes you stay with her? And, you are not a child anymore, Day. You can make your own decisions now. Don’t let anyone take that power away from you - especially when it comes to your own body.

But, of course, Kevin has bigger worries to dwell on then, and of course Allison is sticking her nose in other people’s business, and who the fuck asked for her advice anyway? So he ignores it and she never clarifies. (But she does make a bet with the other participating Foxes on how long they’ll last. And, as usual, she wins that bet.)

So, there you have it! That’s my thought on how each of the Foxes see Kevin/Thea’s relationship (and its issues). As you can tell, I’ve clearly put no thought into it at all 🤣😅

oh boy I forgot to check my inbox after I reblogged that game but here I am,  better late than never! This is hard because yikes I’m not sure I could handle Kevin or Andrew in any capacity but here goes

spouse: I was going to pick Neil but then I realized I’d end up with a useless best friend, so Kevin

best friend: Neil

sibling: Andrew