Fair is Fair

It had turned out to probably be the high point of their relationship, because after that day Travis had never had a kind word to say to Kat again. It was a problem that spiraled forward over weeks and months leading to Kat, tossing and turning, lost in sleep soaked memory.

***

When Kat woke up the next morning her head was still a crowded place, full of jangling bits of memories from months ago, recriminations of her boyfriend, frustration with his roommate, and, most distinct of all, echoing in her mind with a metallic tang, "Fair is fair."

Fair is fair. A guy doesn't take advantage of me while I'm wasted, and for that he deserves sexual favors? Fuck that. Kat thought to herself as she slowly drew herself up from Luke's bed and got ready for the day. Approaching the door she heard the clang of dishes and the sound of running water coming from the kitchens. Kat scowled to herself. Luke was gone, meaning the only person who could be out there making noise was Travis. That left a particularly sour taste in her mouth because she had been planning to get in a yoga routine before she had to leave for the day.

If I leave in the next ten minutes, I can still get back to campus with enough time to hit the gym before class, Kat thought to herself, adjustments and calculations running through her mind immediately. And maybe just enough time to grab a breakfast bar or something- Another loud clatter of dishes interrupted her thoughts. Who the fuck does dishes that loud? Why is he even here right now? Shaking her head Kat went over to 'her' drawer, the section of Luke's dresser that she had swiftly colonized when she started sleeping there. She almost grabbed the things she would need for the short hike back to campus, she almost rushed off into an unnecessarily disrupted day, almost. At the last second however, her mind, or her temperament, rebelled. Another Scottish thing maybe, but the idea of ruining her day, running away like a kicked puppy because her pseudo roommate was an asshole, made her blood run hot. Fuck that. Kat thought again as she grabbed up a set of workout clothes and threw them on.

A few minutes later, a freshly dressed Kat pushed open the bedroom door, her heart already pounding a bit. The workout clothes she had stashed here had been brought over here with Luke in mind. A devoted fitness buff, Luke had genuine enthusiasm for working out with his girlfriend, and teaching her the ins and outs of how to optimize a routine. Kat on the other hand, had a genuine enthusiasm for teasing her boyfriend, and driving him to distraction while he gushed about isometric isolations. To that end, the workout clothes she was wearing now were some of her most revealing. Her shorts were so tight that they displayed every little curve of her tight body, including her prominent cameltoe. The thought of Travis seeing her, of her displaying herself to him, given everything that happened it should have revolted her but instead along with her nervousness she felt a faint fluttering arousal beginning to stir deep inside her. He wants me. Kat thought. All of this bullshit is because he thinks he has a right to my body. Fuck him. Let him look at what he can't have. And anyway, it's too late now, she thought as she stepped outside.

Travis was standing over at the kitchen, working his way methodically through the dishes that they had used last night. That surprised Kat a bit, because in the entire time she'd known them she'd never seen either boy who lived here do dishes when there wasn't an immediate need for them. When the bedroom door opened Travis paused in the middle of scrubbing a pot and his head turned in her direction. Kat felt his eyes wander over her casually and then, when his conscious mind registered what she was wearing, his gaze snapped back to her, blazing into her.

Kat said nothing to the young man, just gave him a small wave before making space in front of the couch to lay down her yoga mat.

"You are going to put that back when you're done, aren't you? It was ideally placed right there." Travis' voice rang out as soon as Kat had moved the coffee table a few inches forward. Kat rolled her eyes at him but said nothing.

Kat's yoga routine proceeded normally, except in the ways that it totally didn't. Every pose she struck was one that she did on a weekly basis, but the fact that Travis was there recontextualized everything. For all that he was in the kitchen area of the open floor plan, and still making a credible attempt at seeming focused on the dishes, Kat could feel his eyes on her the entire time; it morphed what she was doing from self-improvement into a show, and a pretty lewd one at that. Kat's own reaction to the whole thing was complicated. The blend of nervousness and that faint fluttery stirring of arousal remained, but the balance shifted. As Kat went through the motions of her routine, bending herself into a Dolphin pose and Upward Facing Dog, she could feel Travis eyes boring into her, like he thought he could develop x-ray if he stared at her hard enough.

To her own surprise, it excited her. Luke would say I told you so right about now, Kat thought to herself. It was a thing with him, and had been the entire time they'd been involved. Luke was a big believer in the principle of loving your body, and to him that meant being proud to show it off. Her party garb notwithstanding, Kat usually tended to comfort over risque aesthetics in her style, but Luke had been working on her, with pushes both subtle and not. Her visit with the landlord had been one example, and just like it had then the heat of Travis' gaze on some level thrilled her. She'd had power and she had power in this moment too. He can make all the shitty comments he wants, he can straight up hate me, but he can't keep his eyes off of me.

With that thought ringing in her head, the remainder of Kat's routine was, perhaps, exaggerated or accentuated. If she dipped herself lower so that Travis could see further down the cleavage of her sports bra or if she took her time straightening up out of a pose while savoring the feel of his eyes on her ass, who could say why she did it, or if the rising warmth emanating from her crotch was at all related. Normally after a yoga session Kat felt more clear headed, energized, focused on the day. That particular morning, with Travis having shifted from washing dishes to standing over the oven but still unmistakably paying rapt attention to her, Kat's head was awash in a tide of confusing thoughts, her focus scattered, and her energy rushing to an unproductive place.

Her heart racing and her body covered with a light sheen of sweat, Kat walked over to the kitchen area and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. After she'd closed the fridge door she looked over to the stove and saw Travis staring right back at her, a frown on his face. It wasn't the same expression she'd gotten all too used to over the previous months, it was softer, blended with a puzzlement, like she was a riddle he was trying to solve.

Kat arched an eyebrow at him. "Enjoy the show?" She didn't say the word pervert in the question, but her tone injected it all the same. She flicked her eyes down and while she didn't find the bulge she'd expected (hoped?) for, she did see his hands in his pockets doing a subtle shift that she definitely recognized. Raising her eyes back up she gave Travis a sugar coated smile.

Travis' confused smile morphed into a more familiar scowl. "I think I enjoyed it just as much as you wanted me to. I think-" Travis' normally pale features had taken on a red tint and his words built up in volume as he spoke but he cut himself off suddenly. He sighed, and turned away from Kat and back to the oven where, Kat noticed with a sudden interest, the smell of bacon and eggs was beginning to waft into the air. The abrupt end to his tirade threw Kat even further off balance because, she realized with a sour thought, that she had wanted the tirade, and had been trying to provoke it since she'd stepped out of her room. She opened her mouth to say something, to let loose another barb of some sort, but Travis spoke before she had the chance. "How do you like your eggs?"

The question was offhand, casual, as if it had been understood that he was suddenly making her breakfast.

Kat blinked slowly. "Over-easy." She said, cautiously.

"I'll say." Travis' response was immediate, delivered with a playful snort. Kat frowned, and when Travis looked over at her his snort turned into a full body chuckle. A mirthful laugh, devoid of the meanness that his 'joke' the previous night had had. Kat smacked him softly, a small smile worming its way onto her face. "Go, sit." Travis said, gesturing at the small kitchen table. "Eggs over-easy, coming right up."

Once Kat had taken her seat, the roles between her and Travis flipped. It was her turn to watch him, her turn to ponder him with a puzzled expression on her face. Was a little show all it took to wrench some decency out of the boy? Maybe I should have shown him some cameltoe months ago. Kat shook that thought away, not least because it seemed dangerously close to Luke and his 'fair is fair".

She didn't have long to ponder; a few minutes after she sat down Travis brought over two steaming plates of bacon and eggs and took a seat himself. She looked over at him, and down at the plate. It looked delicious and smelled even better.

"Thanks." Kat said, simply.

Travis gave her a wry grin, and then his face straightened into something more serious and awkwardly self-conscious.

"In a way, this is an apology breakfast." He began. "Luke and I talked last night after...after you went to bed. Well I say 'talked' but honestly Luke kinda went off on me."

Kat blinked at him silently, a forkful of egg frozen midway between her plate and her mouth. This was not where she thought their conversation would go. Luke had told her that he'd talked to Travis but the idea of 'going off' or really any genuine anger from her even keeled boyfriend seemed like a foreign concept. Travis spotted her confusion, and grinned again.

"Yeah it doesn't seem like Luke, does it? I've known the guy my entire life and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him lose his temper. And he doesn't get loud, or heated, he gets...chilly. Cold. He was downright freezing last night when he told me to watch my mouth about you." He paused to take a bite of his eggs, while watching Kat, gauging her reaction. Kat, who had no idea what to think at this point, stared back at him through narrowed eyes. "When a guy like Luke gets mad, that's a pretty good hint to sit up and listen. Upon some much needed reflection, I've realized that I've been treating you like absolute dogshit and I'm sorry."

Kat pursed her lips. "That's all well and good, but I don't believe for a second that you didn't realize that the way you've been treating me was shitty until Luke said something. You're a smarter, more self aware person than that, Travis."

Travis grimaced ruefully, and looked down at his plate. "Nah, you're right. I have known I've been an asshole, a 'sad-sack passive aggressive little bitch' is how Luke put it." Kat's eyes widened in surprise. Jesus, he really did go hard on him. Kat thought to herself, as the last of her lingering anger at her boyfriend dissipated. "I've known it," Travis continued. "But I dunno, something about you and being around you. My regrets, my insecurities, they just boil up slowly until I lash out. I do regret it pretty much every time, for what it's worth, and I promise I'm going to be better about it. Not least because if I cross the line again I'm pretty sure Luke would legit beat the shit out of me."

Kat smiled at that, the idea did have some appeal, though less than it would have even ten minutes before. "So what do you mean by 'cross the line', what does that look like?"

Travis shrugged. "Well that's part of the problem too. I'm naturally kind of an asshole. I've got a smart mouth and I'm bad at controlling it. Feel free to slap the shit out of me if I go too far. It's what my family has always done."

Kat bit her lip and nodded. Despite her lingering reservations, she could see the glimmer of a possibility of making everything work.

"Okay cool, slapping the shit out of you, can do. So if we were to move into the new apartment..."

Travis shook his head, frowning, causing Kat to trail off. "I'm sorry, but no. It does sound like a great situation that you guys have put together, but I think all three of us continuing to cohabitate would just be a recipe for misery. For me at least."

Kat's heart sank. "Seriously? Why? Is it really because you didn't get any the night we met? Is it because I didn't put out after our date? Are you really that gross?" She had gotten her hopes up. Fucking boys. The thought was heated in her head. Sacrificing affordable housing over a fucking blowjob.

Travis winced and put his hand up in a pacifying gesture.

"It's not," he said. "I swear it's not. It's..." He let out a puff of air from his nose. "The first time we met, the night of that party, it was one of the best nights I've had in years. I had been in a dark place that night, and for a while before that. I was miserable, sitting off in the corner trying to drown my sorrows there because going back to my apartment and drinking alone would have been even worse. And then, to my surprise, a girl approached. Pretty, sexy, smart, funny. She approached me, and talked, and we hit it off immediately." Travis' eyes were shining and his voice was packed with emotion. Kat got the feeling he'd been waiting to say this for quite some time. "That doesn't happen for me often. That doesn't happen for me like, ever. I've been hanging around Luke for most of my life, and Luke...well when Luke is in the room people just don't see me."

Kat knew that last comment was directed straight at her, and part of her desperately wanted to interrupt. It wasn't like that, she wanted to say. I was just super horny, and things spiraled from there. Instead she said nothing.

"So yeah, it hurts. I thought that night was the start of something potentially incredible, but it turned into the same story I've been living for years. I have been lashing out, and I'm very sorry about that, but continuing the situation wouldn't help anyone."

Kat stared at Travis, a slight frown on her face as she thought back on that night. Much of it was a hazy blur but, perhaps sparked by Travis' own recollections, she could picture the scene in her head: her in the corner with the cute sad boy, drinking and talking and laughing, more than an hour slipping away in a flash until her friends came and dragged her away. It had never occurred to her what that night might have meant from his perspective. She didn't know what she could say that would help the situation either. It's not that I don't like you, I just like your roommate better? Or maybe, it's not that our connection that night didn't mean anything, it's just that your best friend fucked me so good I forgot? Kat tried her best to banish those thoughts as she opened her mouth without knowing for sure what she was about to say.

"I understand." Kat began slowly and carefully. "Thanks for explaining that, it does help shed some light on the situation. I can't say I'm sorry about how things turned out, because I really like Luke but I am sorry that you've been hurting. For what it's worth I did like you, I do like you. I think you're a pretty cool dude when you're not being an absolute shit. If things had turned out different, well, who knows."

That got her a rueful smile from Travis. "Yeah, who knows? Anyway, I'm sorry again and again, feel free to slap me if you need to in the future. Even though we won't be living with each other I think there will be plenty of opportunities for me to put my foot in my mouth going forward."

Travis pushed back his chair, stood and started to gather up their dishes.

"I'll look forward to it." Kat said with a grin. She stood up as well and turned to leave.

"Hey!" Travis called out from behind her. Kat turned to look at him. "I almost forgot to thank you." Kat gave him a quizzical look. "For the show. It was a great way to start the day." The rueful expression he'd been wearing for most of the conversation was gone, replaced by a sly smirk. Kat blushed and swatted the air in his direction before turning away. Embarrassment flooded through her as she remembered the deliberately provocative display she'd put on less than an hour ago and her arousal, long forgotten in the emotional intensity of their talk, returned with a vengeance. As she walked away from the dark haired young man, once again giving him a view of her perfectly outlined ass, Luke's words entered her head again. What had just last night enraged her now put a small smile on her face. A notion entered her head, wild and thrilling. He's leaving anyway. It would be harmless. He loses out on the girl, but gets a fun night. Fair is fair after all.

"Oh one more thing!" Travis' voice rang out one more time just as she had reached the door of Luke's bedroom. Kat paused and listened. "Don't forget to move the damn table back!" Kat laughed and without looking raised a middle finger in his direction before slipping into Luke's room with the warm sound of Travis' answering guffaw behind her.

***

Kat didn't return to Luke's apartment for the next five days. The school term was coming to an end and Kat found herself busier than ever finishing papers and cramming for exams. Luke, as a senior, was even more busy. But over those days the idea, the wild notion that had taken root in her mind after her talk with Travis continued to linger in the back of her subconscious. Fair is fair. The words kept repeating in her head. It wasn't even that she particularly cared whether Travis would come and live with them. It would be convenient, it would make Luke happy, and if Travis weren't the intolerable dickhead that he'd been at his worst, Kat thought she could grin and bear it. But even if he didn't, even if Luke were wrong and her fucking Travis wouldn't magically solve all their interpersonal problems, the idea, once it had begun to sprout, simply would not go away.

It would rear its head at perhaps predictable moments, late at night after Kat had fallen into bed. Her solo stress relief sessions, usually filled by fantasies of her boyfriend, were now also occupied by a third party. The third was important: when she thought of just fucking Travis one on one, it did nothing for her. The idea of both boys however, was intoxicating. They would work together to worship her body, making her cum over and over. Or they would take her, using her body like a piece of meat, her holes just receptacles for hot sticky load after hot sticky load. Or both. I want both, Kat was able to admit to herself after a third consecutive night of reaching orgasm on her fingers while dreaming of being spitroasted by the two sexy young men.

Kat's reunion with Luke came on a Saturday night. Luke, apparently feeling bad about neglecting his girlfriend, had suggested he take her out for a proper date night. Dinner, the latest MCU offering, the works. Kat, pent up and desperately horny despite her nightly masturbation, had countered with a suggestion of take-out and him fucking her brains out. Kat's suggestion had won out and so Saturday evening found the couple in Luke's room, on Luke's bed, making out passionately. Kat had 'dressed up' for the evening in a black lace teddy that showcased her tits to their best effect and left her tight little ass almost completely exposed. It had been expensive, too expensive, but the hungry look it elicited from Luke thrilled her and made it almost worth it.