Chapter Text
neil
“I can’t do it Andrew,” Neil said weakly, wiped the dripping sweat from his forehead.
Andrew was still in goal, his arms crossed, waiting. He was this perfect combination of unrelenting and caring when it came to Neil relearning this. Relearning Exy. Neil loved it. He also hated it. He was supposed to be good at this. He wasn’t supposed to be failing.
Neil huffed. He hated this. Hated it. Hated that his body couldn’t do what it used to. His stupid prosthetic was not comparable to his real foot, as much as his physical therapists wanted him to believe it was. He tried to push away those thoughts, about everything he lost, and focus on this game, this moment. Exy. But he kept fucking tripping and he hadn’t been able to score on Andrew once and he could tell Andrew had been going easy on him. It was frustrating to say the least.
“There isn’t a point to this. I’ll never be good enough to actually play,” Neil said, feeling defeated. He was tired, and more winded than he normally would be, and his prosthetic was pinching his leg and he hated this.
Andrew sighed heavily and dropped his racquet, left it in the goal and strode up to Neil, “You’re being whiny.”
Neil rolled his eyes, “I suck. I suck at this.”
Andrew just looked at him, blinked, “In juvie you played an entire game with a fractured collarbone and two black eyes.”
Neil huffed at the memory. A few of the other inmates had cornered him, beat him up and left him in a corner where the security cameras couldn’t reach. They hadn’t liked how he ran his mouth. It was early in his sentence, before Andrew and him were anything more than two broken boys who shared a jail cell. Before Andrew was there to protect him and before Neil had learned when it was important to keep his mouth shut (he still hadn’t really learned that). But after they turned him black and blue he refused to see the medic, refused to not play exy. Even if it was a shitty court with shitty equipment at a shitty juvenile detention center. He still played. Because he loved the sport.
“This is different,” Neil muttered.
Andrew looked up at the sky and back to Neil, exasperation shining in his eyes, “You lost your foot Neil. But you have your legs. Your arms. You are at the most expensive exy stadium on the east coast with the most expensive equipment available. Kevin Day said he would help you train. You have me. you have PT. You have therapy.”
Neil sighed, “I know. I just hate sucking,” he said petulantly.
Andrew snorted, “How eloquent.”
“Shut up,” Neil pouted, “Yes or no?”
Andrew responded by pressing an uncharacteristically soft kiss to Neil’s lips, caressing his scarred cheek with a hand, “I’m not being that easy on you.”
Neil smiled at the admission. That somehow Andrew knew what had been bothering him.
Knew what to say. It gave Neil the motivation to try again. To give his all to this sport he still loved, despite what he’d lost and how difficult it had become. He could learn again. He could play like this. He could.
andrew
“Why’s the footage cut off Andrew? I can’t see his footwork,” Kevin asked as he watched the tape that Andrew and Neil had filmed of Neil playing. Of Neil showcasing his skills.
“You don’t need to see his footwork to know if he’s good enough to be on the team,” Andrew said simply.
Kevin scoffed but kept watching the screen closely, those analytical eyes pinned on Neil’s movements. He had already watched the tape twice over. Had started obsessing over it and asking questions in the way he only did when he thought someone was good, when he thought someone was worth having his attention.
“I need to see him play in person. But… he’s good. Better than our striker,” Kevin said after watching the tape for the fourth time.
Andrew rolled his eyes, “You could have said that twenty minutes ago and saved us some time.”
Kevin shot him a glare and stood, “Bring him to practice tomorrow. He can be on the team conditionally as a sub and if he can prove himself he’ll be our striker.”
“Fine.”
“And Andrew?”
Andrew just raised his eyebrows slightly at Kevin.
“I’m not putting him on the team just because he’s your boyfriend.”
“He is not my-“
Kevin just waved his hand in dismissal and started walking away, “Whatever you need to tell yourself.”
Andrew briefly contemplated killing Kevin for that, but then Neil wouldn’t get to play. And Neil really wanted to play. And he deserved that. After everything. Even if exy was fucking annoying. It made Neil inexplicably happy, and that was enough for it to matter to Andrew.
-
“You didn’t fucking tell me he only has one foot,” Kevin hissed at Andrew as he watched Neil warm up.
“Kevin you sound like a dick,” Seth said with a grin as he slipped on his helmet and jogged onto the court.
Andrew ignored Seth and crossed his arms, glared at Kevin, “Watch. Him. Play.”
Kevin raised his arms in surrender and moved his gaze to where Neil was stretching on the court and kept it on him all throughout practice. Andrew tried not to be too smug about it.
When practice was over and they were changing out in the locker room Neil was soaked in sweat but his eyes were shining. He was happy. Happier than Andrew had ever seen him. Juvie hadn’t really triggered positive emotional responses.
“Kevin said i’m on the team,” Neil murmured to Andrew as he dried off his hair with a towel. He had already changed to sweats in the showers and was just waiting on Andrew to leave.
“Thank god. I hated our last striker,” Andrew said blandly, hiding how stupidly happy he was for Neil.
Neil grinned, took a step closer to Andrew, “Thank you.”
Andrew flicked his eyes up to Neil, “For what?”
Neil just shrugged, his smile softening, “You got me here. Back on the court. I know you talked Kevin into even considering me. So thank you. You’re amazing. This is amazing.”
“Shut up,” Andrew muttered, more on instinct than anything. Neil was so… Neil. Andrew’s heart really couldn’t handle it sometimes.
Neil just chuckled, bumped his shoulder against Andrew’s, “We’re on an exy team together. We’re gonna play together,” he said excitedly.
“You are embarrassingly happy about this.”
Neil just nodded proudly, “We should celebrate. Get dinner or something.”
Andrew raised his eyebrows but considered. Thought about Eden’s.
“You should come to Eden’s with us tonight. We go every weekend. Kevin, Aaron, Nicky, sometimes the upperclassman.”
Neil agreed excitedly, seemed honored to be invited. Which was stupid. Andrew would invite him to anything he wanted. Especially if it made him happy like that. But Neil hadn’t really had the chance to bond with anyone on the team yet, and now that he was joining it was a good opportunity. And Andrew really wanted to see him dressed in something other than baggy sweats or athletic clothes.
-
“I look dumb,” Neil said, tugging at the skinny jeans and mesh shirt Andrew had given him to wear to the club.
“You definitely don’t. Trust me Neil,” Nicky said with a grin, his gaze sliding over Neil’s body.
Andrew shot Nicky a sharp glare as he led them to their usual table at Eden’s and Nicky had the decency to look halfway guilty. Andrew rolled his eyes and tugged a seat out for Neil to sit in at their table.
“The monster’s being a gentleman,” he heard Allison whisper slyly to Seth and Andrew ignored it. He always tried to ignore the upperclassman. But Neil didn’t.
“Who’s a monster?” Neil said sharply.
Allison blinked, shocked to be addressed. Usually everyone else let her crude jokes slide. But Neil had always been stupidly overprotective.
“Don’t call him that,” Neil said, his voice still sharp with disapproval.
Allison swallowed and tried to play it off with a laugh, “I was just joking.”
Neil rolled his eyes and stabbed his straw into the lime in his mocktail aggressively, clearly still frustrated with Allison’s choice of words.
When the group had dispersed from the table to go dance Andrew flicked Neil on the nose, “I don’t need you to defend me.”
Neil frowned at him in disapproval, “Why would she call you that? Does she even know you at all?”
“No. I don’t like her. Or the upperclassman. I barely like Aaron Kevin and Nicky.”
Neil snorted and shook his head, “I don’t like that she called you that. But they don’t seem that bad. I like Matt. None of them are… bad. Except...”
Andrew raised a brow, “You don’t like Aaron.”
Neil cringed, “No. I think he’s a bit of a dick.”
Andrew almost smiled at that, “He is.”
Neil hooked his chin on Andrew’s shoulder, “You’re definitely the better twin.”
“I think you’re a bit biased,” Andrew murmured. He looked at Neil’s lips, the many freckles adorning his face, his blue eyes that seemed to glow in the lighting of Eden’s.
Neil grinned, “Hmmm. Maybe. Can I kiss you?”
Andrew flicked his eyes around the club and to the dance floor and saw that there was no one really watching them and nodded. They kissed gently for a while and Andrew could get lost in Neil for hours. Loved this, had missed having Neil so close for so many years. It was different now too, outside of juvie. The fact that they were both free, healing. It was so much more.
The next few hours went by without much happening. Neil got dragged into dancing with Matt and Nicky and him and Kevin got into a very passionate discussion about the merits of different professional exy players. Andrew got tired of being at the club after a while and dragged them all back to campus, ignoring their whining (especially Nicky’s). They had early morning practice the next day and Kevin refused to stay at Columbia when he had to be at the court by 5 am. One they got back to campus Andrew followed Neil to his dorm and ignored the sly commentary of his friends.
“I had fun. I like your friends,” Neil said with a tired smile, sat down on the bed and slipped off the shoe covering his prosthetic.
Andrew kneeled down at Neil’s foot. Took his prosthetic off gently and massaged the pinched and reddened skin there. Soothing, even though Neil swore he couldn’t feel it, Andrew could tell it comforted him.
“Thanks,” Neil murmured, his voice soft. Andrew responded by pressing a gentle kiss to Neil’s leg, that soft space next to his knee.
“Let’s get some sleep. Kevin is going to be on a warpath tomorrow,” Andrew said, standing up and pulling the covers of Neil’s bed open for them to get under.
Neil settled in next to Andrew, leaving a few inches of space between them like he always did, “I’m excited, and nervous. My first practice as a player. Part of the team.”
Andrew bit his lip to keep from smiling, ruffled Neil’s hair instead, “Idiot. You’ll do fine.”
“Hope so. Because one day I want us to make it to court. It’ll be me and you, on a professional team. Like we always talked about.”
“You mean like you always talked about. I never agreed to such a thing,” Andrew claimed. Even though the idea of sharing exy with Neil for years to come didn’t seem like such a bad thing.
Neil just hummed knowingly, tucked his head into his pillow and looked up at Andrew, “Whatever you say.”
Andrew just rolled his eyes and flipped off the light, bathing the room in darkness, “Go to sleep junkie.”
Neil just laughed softly and pulled the blankets tighter over his shoulders, “Goodnight Andrew.”