#it would give a certain symmetry for kevin to end up with both andrew and neil at his side in much the same way

[afurtivecake]

ok but, what if the day neil realized he wanted nothing to do with his father's business and that he just wanted to play exy was the day riko had his awakening to violent sadism? like, what if little baby-sadist riko was soooo excited to get nathaniel because he thought it was so cool that he got to have the butcher of baltimore as his dad. maybe he was really looking forward to asking nathaniel all about the cleaver and the knives, and did nathaniel know how to use knives? did he have any? has he ever watched his father work before? but then the next day comes and nathaniel doesn't show up and riko spends months deeply disappointed. it's made worse by the fact that no one will tell him what happened to nathaniel. when he talks to kevin about it, kevin says he thought it was probably good the kid never came back. and when he gets mad at kevin for saying that, then kevin's sorry. then kevin says they don't need him anyway. the two of them are going to be the best and they don't need a third - which... is true, so riko forgives him.

and then years later, he sees kevin talking up this newbie striker, which is bad enough in itself. but then riko does some digging and finds out that this guy kevin's gushing about is none other than nathaniel wesninski. the same guy kevin once dismissed as not good enough for them when he had been the one person riko had actually wanted to play with. and that's the guy kevin is replacing him with.