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1.
Andrew enjoys seeing Neil like this. Not that he would say out loud, especially surrounded by other people like they are, but as time is passing, he is getting to a place where he can admit that to himself, at the very least.
He watches with some kind of contentment the scene unfold in front of him as Neil, Matt, Nicky and even Kevin - who has been getting better at engaging on the team’s activities that don’t involve Exy - prepare themselves to do a backwards run with obstacles and see which one of them were the most skillful. Everybody else was betting on Neil, but Matt was sure that with the obstacles he would have a chance because of his “abilities”. No one believed him even for a second.
But Andrew was paying him no proper mind to the race itself, more focused on Neil’s expression, relaxed and playful. It was becoming something usual, seeing the redhead like that, especially around the Foxes. Without death creeping in the corner, he was letting go more easily, permitting himself to live a little bit freely. It was a soothing feeling, knowing that Neil was no longer the boy from a year ago, who just knew how to run.
That’s why the blonde now hears as Dan blows Wymack’s whistle and sees the four men starting to run awkwardly, turning their necks behind to watch the path and avoiding the objects. Nicky is the first one to fall, laughing way too loud since the beginning to even attempt really trying.
Kevin is, surprisingly, the second, however only because Neil kicks one of the obstacles on his way to tangle in Kevin’s feet, making him fall with a groan and complains about Neil’s fair play, or actually, his lack of. Neil only grins and gives him a salute, now competing with just Matt.
When they are almost at the final line, which is close to Andrew’s goal, Matt turns his face to blow a kiss to Dan and, consequently, loses his balance, tripping in a cone and officially losing the race. Andrew is, even if he wouldn’t admit it, very amused to see his teammates making fools of themselves.
The moment he turns his gaze back to Neil, he already stopped running and is smiling at the others, savoring his victory. They look at each other and Neil starts walking in his direction, already opening his mouth to say something. For only at the last minute, his foot gets stuck in a laying racket and he falls to the ground right in front of Andrew. Everyone gets dead silent for a second, until Aaron, of all people, lets a huff out of his lips and all of the other Foxes lose their shit.
While Neil is getting up, Andrew lets himself show a smirk over the situation, and when the redhead is looking at him, he says
“Are you done being an idiot?”
With a playful smile, Neil replies “Probably not. I mean, it’s not like you are not enjoying it, I could hear you snorting all over the floor.”
Unable to deny it, Andrew rolls his eyes “One-hundred and forty-nine”
Neil just smiles softly and knowing, and Andrew realizes he doesn’t care that much being known if that means he gets to witness this kind of expression and smile from Neil.
2.
It was a fact that they were both truly exhausted due to the brutal game from hours before. With four yellow cards for the Foxes and two red ones to the other team, the Foxes had won fighting ruthlessly, and they were now classified to the semi finals of the championship.
Every single one of the Foxes had left court feeling high in adrenaline and fulfillment. Even Andrew was sensing a type of satisfaction over the result of the game. He had shot down the goal in the second half, and seeing the frustration of the other team of not being able to score on him was an undeniable good feeling. However, this didn’t change the heaviness and soreness that were settled on his bones. And, if the look on his face was anything to go by, Neil was feeling the exact same way.
But even with the tiredness, they didn’t waste the chance of going to Columbia by themselves, so as soon as they had left the stadium, they got into the Maserati, and now, after almost two hours on the road, Andrew was parking in the garage of the house and Neil was picking up their bags for the weekend.
They entered the house already aiming for the bathroom, since they had taken a shower in the locker room but it had been quick - them wanting to get to Columbia as fast as possible -, and now they could enjoy a bath in privacy.
While Andrew goes to the kitchen to stock the small supply of food they bought, Neil moves upstairs and Andrew listens to the water starting to run and reaching the bottom of the bathtub. Finishing putting the pots of ice cream on the fridge, Andrew checks if the door and the windows are surely locked and starts walking towards the stairs to join the redhead. When he is almost on the bathroom door, he hears a stumbling inside, together with a hit to a wall from where Neil is.
Tapping his knuckles on the door, Andrew calls for him “Neil? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. Actually, can you help me here, though?” He says with a muffled voice
Andrew pushes the door lightly, only to find Neil with his half torso uncovered, his arms up and his shirt along with his sweater tangled between his armpits and his head, covering his face.
The blond can’t believe the picture in front of him. It’s completely disgusting. Unbearable. Horrendous. It makes his heartbeat go four times faster. It just couldn’t be softer.
“Drew?”
“How did you manage to do that?”
“I think the hem of my sweater got stuck in the Foxes bottom in my shirt and everything came together when I tried to take off. Can you help me out?”
“Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
He hovers his hands over the mess of clothes and gently - more than he has ever been to anyone, including himself - unscrambles the clothes from Neil, passing over his head, revealing his face. His hair is sticking up to every possible direction while his cheeks look flushed and his eyes are sleepy, seeming like the true portrait of coziness.
Neil exhales and says “Thank you.”
Andrew rests his hand on the side of his face and rubs it slowly at the same moment they stare at each other. Neil tugs the sleeve of Andrew’s shirt, taking him off his tupor.
“C’mon, let’s take a bath.”
Knowing he would agree to follow him anywhere, Andrew hums in approval and he helps Neil out of his clothes so this time his junkie doesn’t get stuck again.
3.
Andrew doesn’t know when exactly he agreed to it. Actually, giving his perfect memory, he didn’t agree with this at all. Neil just came back from a run with two cans of paint saying they could make Andrew’s new apartment more personal with it. But the thing is that he didn’t want to make it more personal, this was only temporary.
He was going to begin his first year of pro Exy while Neil was finishing his last year at Palmetto, and eventually they would be on the same team again. When that happens, he could start worrying about turning their shared apartment into somewhere personalized.
However, Neil didn’t seem to have a part in his opinion, which brought him to this moment, where he and the redhead were in old clothes, with paint brushes in hand on his living room, covering the walls with a dark green.
Well, they were painting, until they got tired of it and Andrew pined Neil to the wall to kiss him senseless.
“Drew, we need to finish the walls.”, he says between one kiss and the other
Andrew drops his head on Neil’s shoulder, “Do we, really? I distinctly remember all of this being your idea alone” He receives a quiet laugh about it
“It’ll look nice once it’s over. We can’t leave the wall half painted.”
“Now you start getting a sense of fashion.”, he replies and steps away from the other man to pick his paintbrush discarded to the floor.
He watches as Neil goes walking to the other side of the room to probably do the same, but the scene that really gets to his eyes is Neil giving two steps and the third one consisting of his left foot entering all the way of the opened can of paint and making him lose balance, falling on the floor.
Dark green paint spills and spreads all around him, reaching even Andrew’s feet. Neil is half-sitting, half-lied down, looking at the mess beside him in mournly and little surprised way.
“Well, fuck.”
Andrew crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow, “That’s all on you for the whole painting thing. Hope you like cleaning the floor.”
Neil smiles at him knowingly while shaking his head. Raising his arms up, he looks at him and asks,
“Lift me? Yes or no?”
Wondering for a moment if he should keep enduring this, Andrew considers saying no and just leaving him to wash the mess he made alone. But. However. He is in a process of accepting his feelings and his wants, so he knows he doesn’t really want to say no to Neil. Not when they are involved in such a domestic atmosphere, where he can pretend this isn’t only his apartment, that he is not coming here alone when summer ends. So, if Neil and him can have a shared memory at this temporary place, until, some day, they have a home, then be it.
“Yes.”, stepping carefully on the paint, he walks towards Neil and locks their hands together, pulling him from the floor in one swift move, making Neil’s pants hang heavy during the process because of the substance stuck in it.
“Okay junkie, let’s finish this so you can change your clothes to something less liquid like”
_
Later that year, when Neil is already back in college, conciliating captaincy with his major and Andrew is practicing day and night with his new team, he enters his apartment exhausted, ready to take a shower and pass out in his bed. He turns the lights on his living room on, dropping his bag loudly on the floor. He scratches his face, looking at the goodnight message Neil sent him along with a blurry picture of a plane ticket for next week, when he will come visit after a month of not seeing each other.
He breathes deeply in and out, calming his heart, that clearly was very much into the idea with the prospect of holding Neil again. That’s when he is looking down his green walls, very near the bottom of it, he captures a hand figure in the middle of all of the paint. He shakes his head softly, his chest warming at the sight, thinking of how much of a sap Neil is for letting a bit of him imprint there. And he wonders how much of a sap he is for taking such comfort in the action. Maybe Renee is right after all and he is getting soft with time.
He sends a ‘see you soon’, counting the days until next weekend.
4.
Andrew really hates airplanes. It has been hours since he landed and yet he can still feel the fear crawling into his skin. He wished he had driven until here, but not only Chicago is way too far away from Boston, as also he only had the weekend to spend here, so it didn’t leave too much time for the road.
However, he is trying to use one of Bee’s techniques to keep himself calm and not focus too much on the unpleasant sentiment the whole trip gave him, because the reason he willingly put himself in this situation was currently running around court and hadn’t noticed his presence on the benches yet.
Neil was at the beginning of his second pro year for the Boston team, while Andrew was still at Chicago. They had been apart for three years now, struggling to finally end up on the same team. But there were rumors that the striker of Andrew’s team was about to retire, so maybe at the end of this season, they could finally live together again.
Until there, they would have to content themselves with these quick meetings, but it was definitely better than nothing at all. So that’s the motivation for Andrew to be standing next to the glass door leading to the inside of court, watching Neil stops practice as his coach’s whistle blows and talking to one of his teammates, who apparently says something about Andrew, since Neil’s head snaps so fast to his direction Andrew is sure that one of his bones made some noise.
The instant Neil’s eyes meet his, he almost wants to look away. He is still taken aback sometimes about how much softness and kindness the redhead can direct at him with only a single look, a touch or even a word. He dismisses the teammate immediately and starts walking towards Andrew.
The others are observing and probably wondering what the hell Andrew is doing there, but that’s not remotely his problem, he already had a lifetime stock of gossip due to the Foxes incessant rambling.
Neil is basically at the door when instead of reaching to open it, he just keeps walking, hitting the glass wall with his face. He stumbles back putting his hand above his nose and murmuring curses.
“Shit Neil, does Minyard make your head up that high to the clouds?” Neil only flips them off while now opening the door correctly, pausing in front of Andrew, who addresses him in Russian, so their conversation can be private.
“Have you spent so much time inside of court that you have forgotten how to get out?”
Neil huffed at him, “I was distracted by someone, you know. What happened, why are you here?”
“I decide to do one surprise and this is how I’m received.”, he gives that little breathy laugh Andrew adores
“You know this is not what I meant.”
“Coach gave us a free weekend.”
“Oh.” Neil replies with a small smile, “Practice is over, I’ll shower real quick and we can go.”
Andrew nods and goes to the parking lot, ignoring the whispers of the players as he goes by. He waits for Neil in front of his car and when he finally comes, they enter the Honda - of all cars, he bought a fucking old and used Honda -, sharing a long kiss to say all the ‘I miss you’ from the past month.
When they break away, Andrew turns the car key and with one of his hands on the steering wheel and the other on Neil’s thigh, because old habits die hard, and the situation feels a lot like home to him. And for now, it was enough.
5.
Andrew is reminded once again - as if he could forget - why he didn’t go running with Neil. He fell for those ethereal blue eyes asking him in the morning if he would join him. He thought about saying no, he really did. They had slept late the night before and now he was at a point in his life where he was able to sleep more than 8 hours without interruption, so he wanted to take advantage of that.
But Neil looked so hopeful of him saying yes, and now that they had just begun living together again, Andrew kind of wanted to stay by his side a lot. So he accepted. And now he was fucking dying.
He enters the apartment breathing loudly and hard, ignoring Neil’s side smirk on his amused expression. He walks directly to the couch, basically throwing himself into it, bouncing a little while Neil comes from the kitchen with a glass of water extended to him.
“Enjoyed the run?” The asshole even wiggles his eyebrows to make his point
Around a mouthful of water, Andrew says back, “I hate you so much right now.”
“Oh, really? That’s funny, I thought you always hated me.”
Putting his best stare - which, to be honest, probably wasn’t a lot, considering he could still feel his cheeks flushed and was sprawled on the couch like a starfish -, he answers
“You are on thin fucking ice, Josten.”
As expected, the comment doesn’t have the effect it was supposed to, since Neil throws his head back and gives a loud laugh, making Andrew stop drinking to admire it.
The redhead lowers his face to his level and after a rushed yes, gives him a peck on the lips. It doesn’t miss Andrew’s eyes how he rubs their noses carefully.
“Why don’t you go take a shower and I’ll make us breakfast with chocolate pancakes to compensate for the run?”
Very much interested in the sweet promise, Andrew gets up with a low groan and heads straight to their shower thinking of how they were in a good place in their lives. Neil was going to start playing with his team next season and there would be no more weeks of no seeing each other and face timing while miles away. This settled something in Andrew’s skin more than he was able to start explaining.
Now, they could even start thinking about long plans for the future. Maybe they could buy a house eventually. A place with privacy, a wide porch and extra rooms for when their family came to visit.
When he was finishing dressing up, his thoughts got interrupted because of a loud noise of something dropping to the floor. Already imagining what it was, he directs himself to the kitchen, finding a Neil covered in flour, a bowl on the ground and some pancakes ready on the counter.
“It slipped from my hand, but at least I had already made yours.” Neil said, looking annoyed with the flour covering his shirt. “I’ll go shower and then I will clean this.”
“Are you not eating anything?”
“I’ll eat a cereal bar or something afterwards.”
“We just ran six miles.”
“So?”
Andrew rolls his eyes hard at that, it has been years since Neil’s ‘I’m fine’ but he still wasn’t the best at taking care of himself.
“Come here.” He cuts a piece of the pancakes while Neil comes to stand in front of him.
“Sit”, he says pointing to the chairs. He receives a confused look but it's obeyd nonetheless. Putting the fork in the direction of Neil’s mouth, he says “Eat.”
“But I made this for you.”
“And? I think I can share.” The gratitude look Andrew gets makes him shove another piece of food in the redhead’s mouth. With a strike of sunlight touching Neil’s face and the whole sharing breakfast moment, Andrew thinks he has quite a home for himself.
+1.
Andrew wakes up before Neil today. This is not something that usually happens, because of the redhead’s habit of going running at ass hours in the morning. But today, he didn’t go, probably in reason of the weather, since they were in December and was fucking freezing outside.
Nuzzling his face into Neil’s neck and adjusting his arm around his waist, he considers going back to sleep. They didn’t have any compromises during the rest of the day, so there was no real cause to actually get up, especially when the blankets involving him were so warm and Neil was so comfortable. Except he could hear from the other side of the door King and Sir meowing, complaining about their lack of food.
Sighing heavily, he untangles himself from the bed and walks reluctantly to the kitchen. When he gets there, the cats start walking between his legs, searching for attention. He crouches down and pet them, leaning on the familiar feeling of their fur in his fingers. He gets up and finally picks their food and puts it on their bowls.
The little beasts run to eat and Andrew takes a moment to look at his house. Neil’s house. Their house. The furniture chosen by Andrew - because he would not let Neil pick an orange couch, no matter how much Neil was good at doing those puppy eyes -, and the decorated wall by Neil, with pictures showing years of life.
He never really thought this would be his home. He had wanted that kind of domesticy a long time ago, but he had learned against it through the years in the worst ways. It was hard to point out the exact moment when his relationship with the whole concept of wanting had changed, since it hasn’t been a linear process so didn’t have a “turning moment”.
However, if he needed to guess, it probably had something to do with the pipe dream currently waiting in his bedroom.
Speaking of which, he must be waiting for Andrew to come back. He wasn’t as much of a light sleeper as he used to be, but if Andrew took too long, he would get up and check if everything was good.
Walking back to the bedroom, he opens the door to the sight of Neil already sitting up with sleepy eyes, and with a quiet smile he says “Morning, Drew.”
The moment Andrew is making his way to the bed to greet him with a kiss, the cats run their way into the room, caughting Andrew in surprise when they tangle themselves to his legs, making him lose his balance. He already knows what is going to happen, but when he finds himself on the floor with a blanket beside him - due to the poor attempt of him trying to grab anything on his way down -, he is still shocked.
He hears a soft chuckling above him, and looking up he finds Neil with a hand over his mouth, his shoulders moving up and down, and the two trouble makers they call cats accommodated on his lap.
Despite not planning it, Andrew feels his mouth curving and a breath of air coming out. When he realizes it, he is giggling at the absurdity of the whole situation, not even really believing that he is able to keep this type of life where he can laugh at falling because of his cats, in front of his husband.
Andrew stops laughing gradually, and locks his eyes with Neil, who is watching him with so much warmth that the blond almost squirms under such careful attention. Neil extends his hand towards him, and when he takes it, the redhead pulls him to the top of the bed.
They end up sitting in front of each other, with basically no distance between their legs, and Andrew sees Neil raising his hand next to his face, searching for any signs of discomfort. They stopped asking ‘yes or no?’ for this kind of regular touch a while ago, but the care with it is still there, all the time. Finding no objection, Neil touches the edges of Andrew’s mouth, which - he notices now - are still curled up in a small smile.
Neil traces the contour of it and goes forward a bit to leave a long kiss on Andrew’s forehead, going back to sit again and asking “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
Andrew thinks about the light touch of Neil, the trust installed with them, the house they now own together, their weird cats. He also considers how far he has come, how deeply he tried, so now he could allow himself to have true relationships - not only with his brother and cousin, but also with the other Foxes -, to admit his feelings a little better and, mostly, accept that he deserves happiness.
With that in mind, he sincerely replies “Yes, everything is alright.”