All's Fair in Love and POW Matches

It was the day after Jean's time served as POW to Brandon Miller after their match, and Jean had headed to the gym to work off the soreness he felt from both events. Brandon certainly hadn't gone easy on him in either circumstance, but then again, Jean hadn't held anything back either. After eating breakfast with a new friend, he had come straight here. Brandon reminded him of Nero in a lot of ways, and he naturally had a lot of thinking to do. Nero no doubt had seen his match already and knew the outcome, so how was he to explain everything that had happened?

Telling the truth was his first and preferred choice, but did he really need to give all the details? Things between him and Nero were not quite ambiguous, not quite set in stone. They had joked about going steady, as very clearly there was something serious between them, but it was still left up in the air until it was said out loud, at least in Jean's opinion.

Jean was drawn back to present reality as the treadmill suddenly slowed and the program he'd set was drawing to a close. He reached for his phone and a water bottle, 2:30PM, he'd been here for roughly 2 hours. Jean slowed his breathing as he set his phone back down and toweled off his face and neck, he'd prolly spend another few hours here before heading home.

Nero was a flurry of mixed emotions, all things considered. Jean had agreed to a POW match -- but they hadn't really defined their relationship. But Jean knew how much he meant to Nero. Or did he? Nero didn't need a camera to know how things had played out when they got back to the other guy's place. Brandon. The guy didn't even know Nero had begun to try and pull Jean into a relationship -- did he even know his name? Brandon probably didn't even know him as Trojan. It was with this anger and hurt that he had woken up late, much later than he had wanted to wake. Nearly one. He pulled on some workout clothes and went to the AFW gym, in order to see if he couldn't weightlift his mood away.

Clearly, he couldn't. Because as he walked into the gym, the first thing he saw was Jean. Could he get away with working out, with trying to ignore him -- trying to make Jean come to him first? No, no he couldn't. The point was to get his mind off Jean. What he should do was walk away, try and figure out the rest of his emotions before he made any rash decisions. He couldn't do that either; before he could, his legs were pulling him forward, towards Jean, towards that discussion he was afraid of having. As Jean finished his workout on the treadmill, Nero pulled up to the side, leaning on the bar there.

"Jean. Did you have a good night last night?" Somehow, he managed to keep his voice level. He didn't know his emotions yet, so Jean shouldn't get to know them either. Not after what he did.

Jean had just started to put his earbuds back in when the devil himself showed up to visit. Or Nero, but hey, beggars couldn't be choosers. Jean smiled at him and set his headphones down, but the way Nero had spoken so evenly, that had Jean worried. As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, all the words he had prepared and the explanations he had brainstormed vanished from his mind, just like that. Instead, Jean managed an awkward laugh as he scratched the back of his head and hit 'STOP' on the treadmill.

"I did, in fact" Jean muttered out as he crossed his arms on the side railing and leaned over towards Nero. Honesty it was then. "H-how was yours? Do anything fun?"

Oh smoooooooth, Jean, just smooth.....

As Jean spoke, Nero felt his heart sink. Was he actually playing it off like it was nothing? Or worse, that he didn't know about it? Nero looked at him for a moment, opening his mouth -- and closing it again. How was he going to do this? "Honestly, it wasn't a very good night, and I'm sure you've pieced that much together already." He moved back as Jean leaned towards him, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm…going to hope that you're not pretending that I didn't see the match between you and Brandon. I'm going to hope that you're not…hoping that I don't know what most likely happened last night."

Nero looked away for a moment, then looked back down. He looked intimidating, imposing, just standing with his arms crossed and his legs spread a bit. He looked much angrier than he thought he felt. Perhaps he was angry. "Look, Jean. I'm gonna be honest. It's taking a lot for me not to just…hit you right now. To try and hurt you. So, do you want to try that again?"

Jean's smile dropped as Nero didn't take his nonchalant attitude very well. He could blame it on being tired or uncomfortable, but his poor choice of words had already had their maximal and irreversible effect. Nero was drawing away and closing off his body language, so it was best that he give him his full attention. The frenchman stepped off the treadmill as he looked up at Nero, who seemed much more like the fearsome Trojan than the sweet prince he knew.

"I'm sorry, Nero, poor attempt at humor. I didn't mean to dismiss what happened or try to ignore that it did either. It's just....it's not easy or fun for me to talk about either, alright?" he said as his expression soured and he looked away. Not exactly a solid follow-up so far either, but there was still hope. "Let's just....get it all out in the open first, alright? I participated in a POW match, and I lost....and then I fully participated in the aftermath....I had sex with another guy, Nero, is that what you want to hear?" he said more softly towards the end, reaching out to gently touch Nero's elbow, to try to soften his hard exterior.

"I don't know what we are to each other, not officially anyway. I care for you, a lot really...but I made a choice for my career, not one to intentionally hurt you....but I did hurt you, and I'm sorry Nero..."

Nero was in pain. That much was clear. Whether it was because of Jean entirely, or if it was because he didn't know what to feel about this situation…other than the fact that he was feeling angry at no one in particular. No one was at fault. Everyone was at fault. It was an incomprehensible situation, and Nero was in agony, trying to figure out how he felt about it.

As Jean spoke up to apologize, to explain that it wasn't easy or fun to talk about either, he looked at him for a moment, gaze almost steely. Jean at least got sex out of it. With a really attractive man, as well. What wasn't fun about that? But he didn't say anything, just let Jean speak. And with each passing word, he felt himself begin to soften. He let Jean touch his elbow softly, not moving to push it away.

Nero began to melt a bit. His pose relaxed, his eyes looked down, away; even his arms were loosening, before they eventually dropped to the side. Finally, he spoke up, his eyes meeting Jean's -- letting him see just how much he was hurting. "Jean…I'm sorry too," he murmured, those green eyes meeting Jean's. "It's…not what I want to hear, of course. But it is. I just want to know." He found himself focused on breathing for a moment. "I never…asked us to define us. You're right, you know. It was a choice for your career. How can I possibly be angry at you because of that? But I am angry at you. I'm angry at him, even though I'm sure he doesn't even know I'm in the picture. And that's why I'm sorry."

He released a breath, looking down again for a moment. "I…get possessive easily, when I really like someone. It's why I can't watch your matches live -- I'll just end up running in and getting you disqualified. But…we don't even know what we are right now. Do you want to see if this could work as a relationship? Or should we just stick to being friends?" He cleared his throat. "I'm sure you know what I want. But…see if you can just look at the facts. And how you feel, and decide from that."

Jean felt relieved as Nero's imposing figure started to soften at his touch, until most of the tension in his figure had drained away to reveal the emotion beneath it. Guilt started to set in as he saw just how much pain Nero was hiding beneath the surface, all because Jean wanted 15 more minutes of fame and a bigger paycheck. Great going there, rock star....

"Nero..." Jean said softly as Nero continued to spill his heart out to him. That was one thing he admired so much about him, how strongly and purely he felt about things. It made his heart both soar and plummet when Nero spoke about how much he cared for him as well, and Jean had to look away.

His face was heating up with a flush as many of his emotions bubbled to the surface. Joy, Guilt, Annoyance, Anger, Love, it was hard to make sense of so many conflicting emotions at once. At times like these, perhaps it was best to listen to those silly children's stories, and let the heart decide. And what Jean's heart decided was that he needed to re-assure them both.

Jean stepped forward and reached up to gently grasp the back of Nero's neck to pull his head down. He looked into Nero's eyes to see what he was feeling, to look for approval, before he stepped up on the tips of his toes to kiss Nero softly. Before he said anything, he needed to see if anything had changed between them. Had being with Brandon changed anything on Nero's end, or even on his own? Was that amazing spark still going to be there, even after the rift Jean had inadvertently created?

When it came down to it, Nero really did view his relationship with Jean to be something out of a disney movie; perhaps it's because those were the only real relationships he really knew how to work with and how to understand. About the girl who would whisk the prince away from his evil step-mother, or from a lifetime of loneliness. Sure, he tended to imagine it as a guy, but it didn't matter; that was what he wanted. Someone who would make him feel like he was more than just a prince, for a few moments.

And Jean gave that to him, time and again. Even when Nero fucked up, Jean showed him he wasn't just a prince, he was a person. So when Jean tugged Nero in to look into his eyes, what flickered was hope. Hope that perhaps, this wasn't the end. So when Jean stepped up on his toes, Nero leaned down to meet him halfway and kiss him, deeply. He didn't push too hard; he didn't try and open Jean's lips and shove his tongue in. No, he just wrapped his arms around Jean and kissed him, hoping to give him something, anything, to convince Jean to stay.

After a few moments, he broke the kiss. He pulled his head back reluctantly, opening his eyes to mean Jean's. "What do you say?" he asked quietly.

As Jean's lips met Nero's any doubts or confusion he had about his situation melted right away. There was no frenzied lust or awkward 'just friends' feelings, but instead that same perfect feeling that he first encountered. They parted after a few moments, but Jean didn't let go of the man's neck quite yet. Instead he just looked back into Nero's beautiful eyes.

"I want to be with you, Nero, for real" he replied slowly as the heels of his feet set back down on the ground. He unattached himself from Nero as he stepped back to reach for his towel again, he probably wasn't going to finish that workout anytime soon. "But Nero, if that's what we're going to do, I think we should talk about us...our boundaries I mean. POW matches aren't going away any time soon, but I don't have any problems with you or me participating. Sex isn't inherently special to me, it's what you and your partner bring to the equation that makes all the difference in my mind..."

Jean sighed as he moved to sit down on the nearby bench, wiping sweat from the back of his neck with a towel. This really didn't seem like the sort of thing you discussed out in the open, in a gym no less, but he felt like they still needed to clear that elephant from the room. Jean had fucked (or rather, been fucked) by Brandon, but he didn't attach any special meaning to it other than a great time. However, Jean had the inkling that his quite liberal view of sex might not be shared by his soon-to-be partner, and so there was tension in the air.

Nero held onto him tightly, even after their lips parted. Honestly, a piece of him wanted to throw him onto the nearby mats and ravage him, just to show him what he had missed out on. But he managed to keep his cool instead, meeting Jean's eyes, those last vestiges of the Trojan's armor crumbling completely to show Nero once more. He pressed his head against Jean's for a moment, but as Jean began to pull away, he let him. His hold loosened enough for Jean to step back, knowing that while Jean wanted to be with him, there was a "but" coming into play.

It would be a lie if Nero had said he didn't think about this. They were, in fact, part of an erotic league. This was a subject that they did need to talk about. He followed Jean to the bench, moving to sit beside him -- slowly moving to coil his arms around Jean and pull him in tight. "I know," he murmured softly. "I mean…I could just ask you not to do any hentai matches. I'm sure your career will be able to recover from that." He gave him a wry grin, clearly making a joke at his own expense. But then the grin fell, and Nero was serious -- perhaps Jean could even see the prince, and even the king, that he would become. "I think…if we're scheduled for something like this, we should give the other person a heads up. But…it is our job. It's how I ended up getting a crush on you. I can't tell you that you're not allowed to do stuff like that anymore. That's…not fair to you." He reached up, scratching his head sheepishly.

Nero paused for a moment, loosening his grip so he could look at Jean fully. "Look…it's not something normal for me. Even though I went…gallivanting around, sex does mean something to me, when it comes to you. It'll take a bit of time for me to adjust to. But I'm willing to try. For you."