September 2014
The change happened so gradually at first that none of them even realised it.
Ever since Robert had fallen ill a few months ago, Keith and Christy had begun making more of an effort to watch over him.
They were careful not to be too overprotective, knowing that Robert would take offence to it, but they did what they could to look out for him anyway.
Robert had been seeing Dr Fletcher for nearly two months now, trying to heal from the damage done to him in his childhood and unpack his resultant need to be tough all the time and not be seen as weak.
Keith and Christy were proud of him for taking that step, knowing that Robert was uncomfortable at best letting himself be vulnerable. But they weren't going to leave him to work through his issues alone either.
Keith became more watchful over his partner, pulling him back if he started slipping into one of his obsessive moods and ensuring that Robert didn't take on far more than he was capable of handling.
Sometimes, when Robert was staying late at the office to work, Keith had to remind Robert to go back to his apartment and get some sleep. Robert resisted sometimes, but overall he was getting better about not working overtime as much as he used to.
Keith and Christy also started to invite Robert to hang out with them more often, ensuring that he took regular breaks to unwind and also making sure he remembered to eat.
Soon, they began to realise that they were beginning to be more accustomed to hanging out with him than without him.
They still had date nights, but more often than not, one or both of them would end up thinking about Robert and what he was doing at the moment.
It wasn't even a case of worrying about him anymore, at this point. They found that they simply missed him, and that they had more fun with him around than without.
It wasn't as though they were falling out of love with each other or anything though.
Keith was still as in love with Christy as he had been years ago.
It was just… He wasn't sure that Christy was the only person he loved anymore.
12 October 2014
7.56 pm
Keith was supposed to be going out on a date with Christy after work, but he decided to check in on Robert before he left.
Entering the office, Keith saw Robert's desk light still on.
With a sigh, he made his way over.
"Robert, are you still…" His words trailed off as he took in the sight before him.
Robert was fast asleep at his desk, head resting on his folded arms.
There was no rigid tension in his posture. Instead, his shoulders were slumped as the sound of steady, deep breathing filled the air.
His folded arms were resting on top of an open file, and there was a pen loosely clasped between the fingers of his right hand, looking as though it might clatter to the table and wake him any moment now.
"Robert, wake up," Keith said, shaking him by the shoulder. "You shouldn't sleep here."
Robert mumbled something incomprehensible, burying his head deeper in his arms.
Looking at Robert as he slept, Keith realised something he'd never really noticed before: Robert was actually rather adorable when he was asleep.
Granted, he had seen Robert sleeping before; sometimes during overnight missions, but chiefly during that night the latter had been ill with fever. He'd even shared a bed with Robert that night.
But Robert had been decidedly unwell and not at all peaceful in his sleep that night, wracked by fever and delirium as he tossed and turned, trapped in horrific nightmares.
Now, however, his face was almost serene, in a way that Robert himself never was while awake.
Finally, Keith came to a decision, cautiously reaching for the edge of the file Robert was sleeping on.
Taking care not to jostle his partner too much, he carefully slid the file out from under his arms and closed it, placing it at the edge of the desk beside Robert instead.
With steady hands, he gently reached over to pluck the pen from Robert's fingers.
As he did so, Robert began to stir slightly.
Keith froze, hoping he hadn't accidentally woken Robert.
But then, Robert seemed to relax, a small smile tugging at his lips as he settled into a deeper sleep.
Letting out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding, Keith hurriedly placed the pen on Robert's desk and took a step back.
His heart was beating a bit too fast, for some reason, and he decided not to push his luck much further.
Taking off his jacket, Keith draped it over Robert like a blanket, then shut off the desk light and quietly left the room.
As he did so, Keith couldn't help thinking that Robert was actually rather attractive when he wasn't being his usual grumpy self.
It was something he'd never really noticed before, but he couldn't stop himself from thinking about it now.
Feeling oddly guilty, he tried to put the thought out of his mind as he went in search of Christy.
But even going out on a date with Christy hadn't shaken the odd feelings that had been stirring within him.
He wondered whether it was obvious to Christy what he was thinking.
Evidently so, because she stopped mid–sentence to ask him why he was so distracted.
"I was…" Keith hesitated.
What was he supposed to say? That he was thinking about his partner while on a date with his girlfriend?
"Are you thinking about Robert?" Christy suddenly asked, as though she'd read his mind.
"How'd you know?" Keith was startled.
"To be honest, I've been thinking about him a lot recently too," she admitted. "Keith, can I ask you something?"
"What is it?" Keith replied.
"Do you have feelings for Robert?" She asked.
At that moment, something seemed to click in his mind, and the complicated feelings that had been boiling within him for the past couple of months resurfaced all at once.
"I don't know… Maybe," he admitted. "It's not that I don't love you, Christy… It's just…"
To his relief, Christy let out a laugh.
"I guess I was worrying for nothing," she said, to Keith's surprise. "I was worried I was the only one feeling this way."
"Christy, are you saying…?" Keith stared at her.
"I only started to realise recently," Christy told him. "I don't love you any less, Keith… But I'm beginning to realise that I've started developing feelings for Robert as well."
In hindsight, Keith wasn't sure how he could have missed it.
Their hangouts over the past couple of months had felt more intimate somehow; not in a sexual way, but with a closeness that almost went beyond mere friendship.
Sharing the same drink (straw and all) and bucket of popcorn when they watched films (movie food was expensive, after all)…
Teasing each other as their hands touched while they were grabbing popcorn to munch on…
The way that over time, they'd begun choosing their seats such that Robert was sitting in the middle, rather than having Keith and Christy sit next to each other…
The fact that one or both of them would always end up leaning against Robert by the time the movie ended (and the fact that Robert let them spoke volumes in itself)…
And again, there had been that night that they'd all shared a bed together.
Of course, it had just been to keep Robert calm while he was having fever dreams, but something about waking up in bed with Robert had been… Different, somehow. In a way, it felt almost right.
"Do you think he feels the same way? Actually do you think he's noticed as well?" Keith asked.
"Only one way to find out," Christy replied. "We'll talk to him tomorrow and see."
13 October 2014
12.36 pm
Crisis Agent Division Office
Robert looked up as Keith entered the room, with Christy in tow.
"Give me 5 minutes to finish up, and I'll join you guys for lunch," he said.
He'd woken early in the morning to find himself asleep on his desk, with his partner's jacket draped over him.
Despite his slight embarrassment at having been caught sleeping by his partner, Robert had been almost touched by the gesture.
Small and simple as it may be, something about the gesture felt comforting and tender, perhaps almost… intimate.
He'd tried his best to shake off his odd mood and focus on his work, but he'd nonetheless found himself distracted all morning.
"Actually, we want to talk to you about something," Keith said, taking a seat beside Robert as Christy did the same.
Robert blinked in surprise, reports forgotten.
"What is it?" He felt a sudden surge of nervousness within him.
"It's about the three of us," Christy explained. "I don't know if you've noticed, but… The three of us have been rather close recently, don't you think?"
As Christy spoke, Robert felt his heart sink.
Of course he'd noticed how their dynamics had begun to change. He'd have to be blind to not notice.
Increasingly, he'd found his mind wandering to his friends when he was supposed to be working. So far, it thankfully hadn't happened while they were out on missions.
But whenever he had a quiet moment, he'd found himself thinking about the fun they'd had the last time they'd gone out, and wondering when he would next get to hang out with them.
When they went out, just the two of them, on their date nights, he'd found himself feeling lonely, and maybe even a bit jealous.
He'd tried to bury his feelings, knowing that he had no right to demand that his friends spend all their free time with him, or to not have time to themselves as a couple.
But it hadn't stopped him from missing them.
The office gossip around the VSSE didn't exactly help either.
Giorgio and Evan were no fun to gossip about anymore now that the two of them were finally together, and so the most common topic of gossip nowadays was Keith, Christy and Robert.
The regular agents liked to giggle about how the three of them were increasingly seen together, even off–duty, and the way Robert's expression seemed fond and almost gentle in Keith and Christy's presence.
They'd even seen him smiling once or twice, some of them whispered; a rarity in itself for the famously grumpy agent.
And it was true. When he was with them, he felt lighter and happier than he ever was.
The past few months had felt different from the way it used to when he'd hung out with them in previous years.
There was a palpable closeness between them that felt somehow intimate, like the three of them were sharing a private moment together.
And now, Keith and Christy had noticed as well.
He knew what was going to happen now. They were going to pull away, redraw the boundaries and put some distance between him and them again.
"I'm sorry if I crossed a line," Robert said. "If you guys need some distance from me, I understand."
Despite trying to play it cool, he couldn't help feeling a pang of hurt and almost abandonment, knowing what was coming.
"What?! Robert, no!" Keith exclaimed, taking his partner's hand. "No, that's not what we meant at all."
"You mean, you guys aren't… You're not pulling away from me?" Robert asked quietly.
"Of course not!" Keith replied, looking surprised that Robert had even said that. "You're our best friend, and we're not gonna just abandon you like that."
"Robert, the two of us…" Christy took a deep breath. "We've been talking about it, and we started to realise that we've been falling in love with you, over these past few months. We wanted to know if you feel the same way."
…Oh.
"I…" Robert hesitated, stumbling over his words. "Are you guys sure about this? It's going to complicate things, you know."
"We talked about it, and we're willing to give it a try, if you are," Christy told him, placing a gentle hand against his back.
"I…" Robert tried to sort out his complicated feelings and put them into words. Not an easy task, given that he himself wasn't quite sure how to explain how he felt either.
Keith let out a fond sigh, then leaned over and gave Robert a quick kiss on the cheek.
Robert jumped, startled, hand flying to his cheek.
"What was that for?" He asked, blushing slightly.
Keith shrugged. "I just felt like it. Besides, it got your attention, didn't it?"
Robert thought about how happy he'd been over the past few months…
How he'd felt safe and warm that day when he'd woken up in the same bed as the other two…
The way Keith's gentle kiss sent a thrill running up his spine…
"Alright," he finally said, smiling a bit. "Let's give it a try."
Christy giggled and planted a kiss on his other cheek, and then his friends (his partners) took him by the hand, one on each side.
Looking at both of them, Robert felt a surge of joy, as though he'd finally found the home he'd been looking for after all this time.
Crisis Agents were not unobservant.
They simply chose not to comment on what they saw, most of the time.
Just as none of them ever spoke about Giorgio's (thankfully increasingly rare, thanks to therapy) nightmares, none of them said anything when Robert began going into Keith and Christy's apartment most evenings and not emerging till the next morning.
Nor did they comment when Keith and Christy inexplicably decided they needed a larger bed; one which was big enough to comfortably fit three grown adults.
And when the trio finally stopped hiding it and Robert officially moved into Keith and Christy's apartment, nobody was surprised in the least.
Notes:
I didn't even really ship this pairing at first, but the more I wrote Temporal Fates and saw the way that they interacted with each other (mostly in Keith's timeline, as well as a bit of the final one), the more this ended up seeming like a natural outcome to me.
[Exhibit A: Robert comforting Keith and supporting him after Christy breaks up with him in Chapter 16.
Exhibit B: Christy's protectiveness over Robert and their closeness after Keith accidentally shoots Robert in the same arc.]
Especially since "Falling" ended up with a rather shippy vibe once I wrote it.
This is my first time writing an OT3 pairing, so it might be a bit clumsy, but I'm pretty happy with the end result anyway.