ill-go-down-with-these-ships

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nicky and aaron: when andrew’s on his meds he’s unhinged, but you haven’t seen him when he’s sober! he’s so much worse

andrew off his meds: *has clinical depression*

nicky and aaron: he’s craaazy

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So, I was thinking about how Andrew was in the car with Tilda when he wrecked it and how he could have gotten hurt and I just– Can you imagine if Andrew went deaf in one ear or something?

Like, he for sure wouldn't say anything about it. Aaron hates his guts, and he barely knows Nicky. Why would he bother telling either of them? He probably figures it could be temporary at first, but when he starts to think it might be permanent, he still says nothing about it. It's not like they would care, right?

So he would say nothing. People just think he's this asshole that ignores people (and, sure, sometimes he is ignoring them because people be fucking annoying) but half the time he just legitimately doesn't hear them. None of the Foxes notice. The staff don't either, since Andrew always keeps his hearing ear towards them. It causes issues, sure, but it's not like anyone would be able to fix it, so Andrew still stays quiet. But Neil figures it out.

It takes him a while, but he eventually notices that Andrew always sits on a certain side or has to turn to face Neil when he hasn't quite managed to pick up what he said. He starts watching and realises that he does it with the others too, and he's much more likely to completely ignore someone speaking to his left.

One day, when the monsters are hanging out, Neil finally decides to ask:

Neil decided to speak up during a lull in a conversation that Andrew was totally zoned out of. "Drew?"

"Hmm?" It's subtle, but Andrew definitely turned his right side slightly more towards Neil.

"Can you not hear out of your left ear?" Neil asked, and Andrew just blinked at him for a moment.

"Neil, what are you talking about?" Kevin shot him a confused look.

"I'm deaf in my left ear." Andrew said to answer them both.

"What??" Nicky looked startled. "Since when?"

Andrew considered that for a moment. "Since about a week before we met."

"Hold up," Aaron held up a hand. "Are you telling us you have been deaf in one ear since the crash?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't think to maybe say something about it?!"

Andrew shrugged. "I didn't think you would care." It wasn't a jab, it was just the truth.

"Andrew–" Nicky splittered a little. "Of course we care!"

"Telling you doesn't really make a difference." Andrew said, glossing over his own surprise at how much his family seemed to genuinely care about him. "The hearing loss doesn't just go away because you know about it."

"No," Neil agreed. "But there are things we can do to help."

And they do. They all make small adjustments, simple things that make Andrew's life easier. He and Neil even learn ASL together. It increases the amount Andrew calls them all annoying ten-fold, but he secretly appreciates it.

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Andrew Minyard:

#andrew minyard #all for the game

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the idea of nicky bombarding the rest of the monsters with like "yas mama pussy queen slay boots the house down queen" talk to be ironic LITERALLY makes me laugh so hard. because he'd do it, with impeccable comedic timing, and the upperclassmen would die every time. oh my god, i can't get it out of my head.

aaron would just sigh and grimace every time. andrew would be so caught off guard the first few times that it would literally show on his face; the first time the upperclassmen see it they die. kevin and neil would each be so utterly confused the first couple times because it sounds like absolute gibberish to them what's so funny?? they don't get it at all? after a few times they still don't get it but they've gotten used to it. kevin reacts similarly to aaron except with more disgust than disappointment; neil, on the other hand, just plays along, because why not? it makes everyone laugh, it makes nicky happy, and it annoys andrew so much.

nicky: yas queen, slay the boots down mama!

neil: yeah, i'm trying to. thanks. :)

nicky: werk, queen! we love!

neil: thanks, i love you too, nicky. do you want me to call you queen too?

nicky: that's sweet, love, but no. it would sound like a slur. :)

then, one day:

nicky: *makes a good play, has some small accomplishment, etc*

neil, smiling softly: slay!

and with that, he single-handedly sent every one of the foxes to the moon

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Aaron, suddenly sitting up in the middle of the night: if I was gay, would I be attracted to Neil?

Katelyn, half asleep: no honey your type isn't a runner's build

Aaron: what

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neil: joins the foxes

neil: plans to run away and not get attached to anyone on the team so he doesn’t get unalived

neil: meets andrew

neil: roasts mafia heir on live t.v

neil: makes a deal with andrew

neil: gets tortured for andrews safety

neil: gets smooched by andrew

neil:

“i lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship”

art: @lunapiq

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LMAO THE TAGS ACTUALLY MADE ME LAUGH

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Neil would be used to sleeping in his day clothes and having running shoes with no laces he can slip on if he needed to get up and get out quickly. So he’s not used to having shoes with shoelaces right?

I can imagine he’s the type of person who forgets to tie their shoelaces up and then trips about a million times a day. One day Kevin forces Neil to wear shoes with laces on for a game thinking it’ll help him run better. BIG mistake. Andrew makes sure Neil ties his shoelaces this time because he knows how clumsy his idiot is. But Neil stupidly only ties one knot instead of double knotting like you should in a game. So, it gets to the last 10 seconds of the game, the foxes and the opposition are tied, everyone is tense. Nobody notices the Neil accidentally steps on the one end of a lace and undos his left shoe’s laces. So, Neil’s running with the ball in his net, he’s close to scoring, and on his tenth step, he trips on his shoelace and slams down, face first into the ground. What’s crazy is, while he’s falling like a baby bird’s first flight, the ball still ends up flying into the air, and while the goalie is focussed on Neil’s misfortunate fall, the ball whirls past his head and into the goal, scoring the Foxes’ final winning goal.

To this day, the video of Neil’s fall with Andy Williams’ Born Free playing in the background and the camera slowly zooming into Wymack’s face (looking like he regrets every decision he’s made in his life) is the most liked sports-related video of both TikTok and YouTube.

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all for the game but neil just tells the truth about his past and all the foxes think it's an elaborate joke

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One time I was joking with my friend “eat the rich” and Allison Reynolds overheard and she looked like she was trying to decide something. Anyways she gave me her number and I have no clue why. My friend thinks it’s hilarious.

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Nicky gets Allison to re-enact Titanic scenes for the foxes on game night.

Nicky of course, plays Rose.

Allison plays Jack.

The foxes are Tortured by the sight of Nicky and Allison standing on a kitchen table, fan blowing in front of them, Nicky's 10 dollar red wig blowing in the air as he spreads his arms and they both scream the notes to the music.

For the sex in the car scene.. they use 2 anime body pillows and a strap on.. And then throw them at an absolutely HORRIFIED Aaron.

And then.. the Death Scene™️

Nicky is laying on the table, blue lipstick smeared all over his face.

Allison is clutching the table for dear life. She's fading..

Nickys crying "Jack.. JACK.."

All of the foxes are utterly absorbed in the cheap show.

Then.. Nicky looks up, stares at Kevin, pushes Allison's cold dead body off the table, climbs off his "raft",

And screams 'HUNK' as he launches himself at a crying Kevin.

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hear me out: andrew and neil swapping phones on accident.

Eventually neil and andrew have to get new phones (you guys have to get with the times sometime dude) and of course they still get the same phone. 

in. the. same. fucking. color.

‘omg. how gay are you guys’ is nicky’s reaction. 

a dangerous look towards nicky is andrew’s.

so then you get into all that snapchat goodness

and one day, they’re just walking out the door and neil has to grab their phones off the charger and they just? swap? phones?

(neil you idiot)

and ofc they have the same phone password (’literally how gay are you’)

and why wouldn’t these idiots have the same background? Why wouldn’t it be of some super gay picture of them (probably courtesy of nicky because andrew and neil have taken one selfie ever and it’s blurry as shit and they were really drunk. couples selfies just don’t do it for them.)

so imagine Andrew’s surprise when he get’s a snapchat from matt asking if ‘it’ worked.

andrew just sends a black screen with ‘if what worked’ like jfc matt, why are you speaking to me rn.

‘the sext?????’ matt is so done with neil. like how do you not remember.

that’s all it took for andrew to know that it was neil’s phone. (stupid kid can’t even sext by himself and it was quite the topic among the foxes now and a group effort to get andrew off in public. Andrew. hated. neil.)

‘yes’

matt sends back as many winky-faced emojis that snapchat will let him. 

andrew does not tell neil of their swap and just continues on the day. it’s not his fucking fault that neil’s so stupid.

neil? doesn’t? notice? 

he posts normal shit on his story (which earned andrew some weird glances throughout the day [no one said anything, assuming he would react violently if they did])

no one texts andrew, so nothing like that could tip him off (andrew’s texts are 99% from neil and the other 1% was apparently not occurring that day because that is the bad [?] luck that neil has)

neil thought the radio silence from the foxes was odd, but he said nothing to them, figuring they must have been busy or else they would no doubt be snapping him

andrew is busy responding to the foxes’ snaps as neil. 

apparently they talk about andrew a lot.

a.

lot.

andrew tells himself that neil’s an idiot (but he secretly thinks his boyfriend is such a dork.)

and andrew does not think that it is cute that neil does all this to impress andrew all of the time. it does not get andrew hot and bothered that 99% of neil’s conversations are about andrew. not one bit.

andrew goes to pick neil up and neil gets in the car. but it’s not long before andrew pulls into a parking lot that is suspiciously quiet.

‘andr–’ andrew is on him

yes, okay, andrew is smol, but how in the world did he make it over the divider between seats so fast?

andrew is straddling neil and kissing him for all he’s worth, (and because he is a little shit and neil had the audacity to inadvertently get him hot and bothered all fucking day, he starts to grind up against him)

neil is making ungodly sounds in the back of his throat

they both get off, right there, in the middle of a parking lot. through layers of clothes.

‘172%’ is all andrew snarls at neil before returning to the driver’s seat and going home. 

neil is so???? confused????

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I’m assuming that Neil and Andrew are going to have some kind of you have to take pictures and sign autographs and pretend not to hate your fans guys please clause in their contracts, so I’m sure they’d put up with that anyway but I’m imagining that one day Neil and Andrew are going to be out and public and someone’s going to tug and Neil’s sleeve, and they’re both going to turn to stare down at this little like, six year old boy with burn scars on his face who is standing there fixing Neil with these wide adoring eyes. And that’ll be one of the pictures where Neil doesn’t just give his polite little publicity smile. 

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So like. In The Raven King. There’s this part where Tetsuji tells Neil to kneel.

All I can think about is Neil and Kneel sound exactly the same

So how that probably would have gone down would be like 

“Kneel”

“Tetsuji”

and thus a confused explanation happened and then there’s the “no” and the beating.

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u know neil is hot right from the start bc allison met him and went “yes, I can use this one to make my boyfriend jealous, excellent”

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We need to talk about Kevin

Literally my favorite aspect of Andrew and Neil’s relationship is the strangely parental attention paid to Kevin Day.

Andrews going to the hospital? He can’t do that until he’s sure Neil is in a position to take care of Kevin.

They go to Georgia to buy the Maserati, Neil’s asleep in the rental. Andrew wakes him up to see which car he wants Kevin to ride back in.

Neil’s going to talk to Wymack after Baltimore. Andrew drives to the dorms and gets out, looks around for Kevin, settles when he sees he’s still w Neil.

Neil can’t play midnight Exy w Kevin because of his hands so Andrew goes out because somebody has to keep an eye on Kevin.

“Hey lets go on vacation for spring break. We just gotta convince Kevin.” “I have knives, Kevin will do what I tell him.” (Not direct quotes but fucking close enough)

And the piece de resistance, Kevin gets his fucking tattoo covered, and Neil and Andrew take his drunk ass to bed, and then Neil fucking watches him sleep like a proud mama bear, and Andrew has to drag him out of the room. And then they fucking make out over their mutual pride at their idiot child Kevin finally growing up and making good decisions.

I honestly love these boys and their mutual obsession w all things Kevin Day

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Allison Reynolds was a bewildering choice for Palmetto State. She looked like a picture-perfect princess, but she could brawl with the best of them on the court.