#trekei

they met bc cater was traveling through the garden kingdom for the first time and stopped at trey's bakery (it was still run by his parents at that point). trey had lived in the GK his whole life so was very interested in cater's travels and all the places he's been. cater invited trey to come over to wherever he was keeping his suitcase house at the time to see all the stuff that he's collected from his travels and they become friends. they start dating maybe after a year of knowing each other?

they broke up bc cater could never find the confidence to truly be vulnerable around trey, and he found it really hard to date someone and still try to mask his depression (along w his other issues). like, he desperately needed to be able to talk to trey and show him his true self, but was also terrified if he showed that to trey, trey wouldnt like what he saw. this was really caters issue he needed to overcome (he shoudlve either gotten therapy or not been dating) but trey wasnt innocent either. he 100% knew of caters issues but never really took the initiative to try and get cater to open up, not bc he didnt care, he just. felt like it was easier to not talk about it. he's fine w bottling up his own trauma so it didn't seem like it was that big of a problem (denial).

what cater really needed was someone who would show him that same vulnerability and really make him realize it's ok to show that side of yourself to someone you trust (and also not expect trey to read his mind). and trey needed a push to understand that a relationship is more than a friendship w kissing, it requires you to actually take an active role and put yourself in uncomfortable situations sometimes.

cater was letting all these feelings build up w no release, and so instead of talking to trey he felt it was better to just break up. trey really didnt put up any fight, just kind of shrugged and said "if that's what you want" (trey was also in the middle of taking over the bakery from his parents at this time so he was dealing w a lot more than usual) so that in caters mind was more than enough to feel confident in his decision. so yeah it was both their faults and they still majorly pine for each other.

also the BIGGEST victim in all of this is cay cay the carrot. he sprouted out of the ground while trey and cater were dating and cater jokingly named him cay cay and pretended he was like their kid. he is basically a child of divorce

nobody really knows the true details of their breakup and riddle and trey didnt really start reconnecting until afterwards. so riddle isnt really friends w cater, they are acquainted but riddle is under the impression cater just used trey for some fling so naturally he is pretty skeptical of him (cater is aware of this, he awkwardly tries to pretend everything is cool). but there would be some plot where they are forced to spend time together and their friendship really evolves bc i love love love cayrid friendship i have so many thoughts on them. cater never felt like he could talk to trey but riddle actually opens up to cater (whether willingly or in a moment of anger) and cater feels brave enough to talk about some of his own issues. riddle also tells cater he can call him by his first name (he usually goes by garden prince).

riddle learns more about what actually happened between them and offers a lot of insight (as best he can being a royal prince deprived of a childhood) to them separately. riddle's friendship w both is a major factor in them becoming friends again and actually feeling comfortable w each other (they are unaware he was playing both sides). eventually the whole HL gang is hanging out together often enough that it's like trey and cater are dating again. and then after a lot of honest conversation they agree to give it another try. (also this is all happening across multiple seasons while A+D still remain the overall focus of the show and the others slowly start getting their own branching plotlines)