#Andrew: At least give it 24 hours Nicky
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Fluent Freshman - Part 24
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“What do you MEAN Smithy is in the hospital with a stab wound to his stomach?!” Nicky’s own voice is agony for his hangover but honestly, how the fuck else was he supposed to respond when he had asked Andrew where FF was and gotten that as a response.
“Calm down.” Andrew says and he looks tired, looks stressed, and maybe even just…a touch nervous?
Nicky isn’t as good as Neil at reading Andrew Minyard. He doesn’t think anyone will ever be as fluent in the language of Andrew Minyard as Neil Josten but Nicky has picked up some key phrases.
He can see when he’s making a joke that is a step too far. He can see when his cousin wants to kiss Neil but is holding back. He can see when his cousin is stressed.
He can see a guilty curve to Andrew’s spine.
“Andrew, answer me honestly, did you stab my sweet baby freshman?” Nicky asks and he’s not sure if the nausea he feels anymore is from horror or from the sheer number of drinks he had put in his system the night before.
Roland usually cuts him off before he gets this level.
Roland also has a habit of pouring heavier when he’s stressed.
Roland also also tends to make complicated fruity drinks that Nicky likes when he’s stressed.
Andrew’s jaw tenses but it’s Neil who speaks up, “It was an accident. It happened during a fight.” Neil says and Nicky throws his hands up in the air.
“You got into a FIGHT with my sweet baby freshman? Sweet little Smithy? The boy who made brownies that made me feel kinda straight for a dead woman?!” Nicky exclaims and sees Andrew and Neil open their mouths to say something but, “I promised him that if he wanted I’d get him something hard that’d mess his GUTS up but this isn’t what I MEANT.” He lets himself collapse dramatically over the table.
“Nicky, shut up!” Kevin hisses from his spot on the couch.
“When the fuck did Kevin get here?!” Because seriously, how fucked up was Nicky last night that he doesn’t remember Kevin coming on this Columbia trip? Where’d he sit? He couldn’t really remember coming over after Thanksgiving. Had Andrew put Kevin in the trunk? Had Andrew put Nicky in the trunk?
“He came with Wymack.” Neil cut in before Nicky started testing reality. “Wymack is at the hospital since he’s…uh…he’s the…”
“Medical Power of Attorney” Andrew answers.
“Yes! Thank you, the Medical power of attorney for Smith. He needed surgery and Wymack wanted to be nearby in case he had to make any pressing decisions.” Neil explains and yeah that tracks, he knows a little bit about FF’s family and knows that aside from his grandma on his dad’s side the rest can go take a long walk off a short volcano observation platform
“Okay, that explains why Kevin is here….how?! Despite all of the unwarranted advice, Kevin is not a medical professional.” Nicky says before turning to Kevin, “So Kevin, what insane Exy-related reason are you here? Don’t lie and say it’s because you want to sign the get well soon card.” He hisses.
“Fuck you!” Kevin spits, “I need to know how long Smiths is going to be out of commission and what his PT is going to look like. He was supposed to be starting during the spring season.” Kevin growls.
“There it is!” Nicky throws up his hands.
“Nicky, just calm down!” Neil pleads.
“How can I stay calm? Andrew stabbed Smithy! So not only is my favorite freshman in the hospital Andrew’s going to end up back on those god forsaken meds again!” Nicky shouts and buries his face in his hands.
“Smith isn’t going to say that.” Andrew’s voice is calm but Nicky can hear the slight edge.
“Oh yeah?” Nicky asks because he could see FF promising to never mention who stabbed him if Andrew would just spare his life. FF was going to be even MORE of a disaster when it came to his anxiety around Andrew. Nicky wouldn’t be surprised if his friend just straight up dropped out after this. His cousin is safe but he’s absolutely going to lose his friend.
“Because he’s saying Romero Malcolm stabbed him.” Andrew finishes.
Nicky sits up.
“Wait, what?” Nicky asks.
“Last night Romero Malcolm was at Eden’s.” Neil says voice even in a way that lets Nicky know that he’s trying to stay calm, “Smith recognized him, heard he wanted to grab,” Neil swallows thickly, “…grab one of my friends and saw them looking at…” Neil trails off and looks to Andrew who shakes his head, “…around for someone to grab.” Neil seems to decide and Nicky knows when something is being hidden from him but he’s more interested in the story than what Neil is hiding at the moment, “He got Romero’s attention so that he wouldn’t do anything bad in Eden’s and let Roland know to call help. He went out alone into the alley but Romero didn’t follow him.” Neil explains.
“Oh thank god.” Nicky sighs.
“Because he’d alerted Jackson Plank was lying in wait to ambush him.” Neil continues.
“Oh dear god.” Nicky exclaims.
“He uh…” Neil looks to Andrew who shakes his head again, “okay we don’t know exactly HOW Smith managed to do it but he beat Jackson up pretty bad.” Neil explains.
Nicky feels his brain stop working.
He has watched FF trip over his own feet, walk into four different trees, and almost sprain his ankle walking across a flat surface. He knows FF has been watching self-defense videos and had even gotten some pointers from Matt but even Matt had told him his better bet was probably just to yell “WOW WHAT’S THAT OVER THERE?!”, point behind the attacker, and run as fast as humanly possible away from a fight.
Neil is still talking.
Nicky boots back up quickly.
“…a gun. He tackled Romero into Andrew and Andrew’s knife ended up in Smith’s stomach on accident while they were wrestling for the gun. Smith is the one who said he’s going to tell everyone who asks that it was Romero. He even said it to me.” Neil says with an awkward laugh.
“And you believed him.” Andrew says and there’s warmth in his cousin’s eyes as he looks at Neil and teases him.
“And I believed him.” Neil confirms.
“Okay, so you swear to me that you did not INTENTIONALLY stab my BFF?” Nicky asks looking at Andrew seriously.
“BFF, seriously?” Kevin asks.
“Best Freshman Friend.” Nicky answers quickly, “Don’t worry Kevin, you lose out to Matt in all regards for my Best Senior Friend.” He says.
Kevin just flips him off but Nicky turns his attention back to Andrew, “Andrew, I need to hear it.” He says .
“I did not intentionally stab Smith.” Andrew confirms.
Nicky lets the horrified nausea leave him with only his hangover nausea.
“Okay, we can work with that.” Nicky leans back. “Have you heard from that Agent?” he asks looking at Neil.
Neil nods but then looks nervous and shoots a look towards Kevin, “The FBI is sending Browning and a field office agent to talk with us but…Ichirou also contacted me.” He says and Nicky watches as Kevin perks up.
“He did?!” Kevin squawks looking around like he expected the head of the Moriyama family to appear from the shadows.
“He wants to make sure we do our part to keep the Moriyama name out of this. He is going to deal with Romero and Jackson himself.” Neil says looking nervous.
Nicky clenches his eyes shut, “Well you’re not going to mention them right?” he hears Kevin ask.
“Of course not Kevin.” Nicky hears Andrew hiss.
“Good.” Kevin says.
There’s silence in the wake of Neil’s statement.
Nicky takes a deep breath and wishes his head was a little less agonizing. “Why aren’t we at the hospital to see Smithy?” he asks because he has nothing he can do about Ichirou so he may as well put it out of his mind.
There is some grumbling.
“Wymack said that he’ll just make us sit in the waiting room without any updates.” Neil says. “We’re picking up Smith’s grandma from the airport and she’s our ticket to getting an actual update beyond ‘not dead yet’ from Wymack.” He adds.
“What, you really can’t get updates without Wymack?” Nicky asks.
Andrew looks at Nicky and Nicky can’t read a single thing his cousin is thinking.
“What’s Smith’s first name Nicky.” Andrew asks.
“Oh God fucking Dammit.” Nicky’s head hurts too bad for this.
MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU
NEXT
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#Fluent Freshman AU#I'm almost positive the next chapter will involve Grandma Smith actually#like 90%#Maybe even 95%#Aaron walks out 10 minutes later#Aaron: I feel like someone is stabbing me in the stomach#Nicky: You and Smithy both!#Aaron: ?????????#Neil: I think that it is too soon to make that joke#Andrew: At least give it 24 hours Nicky#Andrew: He might still be in surgery for all we know#Aaron: !!!!!??????#Kevin: I've been researching and it could be 4-6 weeks before Smith can be back on the Court.#Kevin: At least he'll only really miss 2 fall season games and he should be healed up by the time we start the spring season games#Aaron: What the FUCK happened and why is KEVIN here?#Andrew: We're not explaining it again figure it out yourself#GS is in the air right now#She's got a middle seat because it was a last minute booking#But the young man next to her is a real sweetheart#He speaks polish! what a small world#AFTG#AFTG OC#AFTG AU#My Fics#Andreil#Fluent Freshman - Part 24
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Cat Magnet
loosely based on that falling for ur fuckbuddy bc ur cat likes them reddit post
"My fuckbuddy is kind to my cat and my cat likes him. I’m starting to have feelings for him because of that”
Andrew Minyard might be in too deep.
Sir Fat Cat McCatterson was not named by Andrew, because Andrew did not care to name a cat. He did not, in fact, care to own a cat. But apparently, his ground floor apartment simply came with a cat — one that hung around his back door until he opened it to smoke, that slowly began migrating into the apartment until she was inside of it more than she was out, that yelled at him until she owned a food bowl, a water bowl, an absurdly expensive cat tree, and a box of at least ten toys that she liked to chew on and absolutely destroy with her back legs.
(She would then bring those thoroughly killed toys to lay at Andrew’s feet and, once more, she would yell until he gave her a nod and a pat.)
Sir was named by an over-enthusiastic Nicky on his first visit, and she had no other name. The lack of an actual, non-Nicky-bequeathed name wasn’t an issue until Andrew found himself entertaining more than simply his cousin or his twin.
Usually, the cat avoided everyone, hiding in the bedroom if Aaron was visiting, barely peering out from the kitchen for Nicky, vanishing like a ghost if Andrew ever brought a stranger home.
Other visitors were rare — occasionally, a less-than-annoying coworker, a person who worked out next to him at the gym and didn’t chatter too much. Almost never hookups. Andrew generally kept those away from his place.
But also, Andrew generally kept his hookups to a one time occurrence, or an occasional repeat at a single location. Neil Josten was an exception because hooking up with him for a bit once in Eden Twilight’s bathroom simply…hadn’t been enough. And seeing him in weird hours of the morning/night in the 24 hour grocery store, bringing him back to his car for an hour before they parted ways…hadn’t been enough. Running into him in the library and pulling him into the farthest corner of the dusty shelves to make out against encyclopedias for an indeterminate amount of time definitely hadn’t been anywhere near enough.
So Neil Josten, The Exception, was not slated to enter Andrew’s apartment, but enter it he did, after a night of increasingly heated remarks exchanged at a back table of Eden’s, after enough time staring at each other as they sipped their drinks, surrounded by too many people. After Andrew had finally leaned in to whisper, “Follow me.”
When Andrew went to retrieve his coat, it was with Neil’s too-warm, staticky presence at his back, electrifying Andrew’s step into the parking lot. Neil’s own quiet footsteps did not fade from behind him, like Andrew had hoped. And when Andrew unlocked the car and turned around to raise an eyebrow at him, Neil Josten merely raised an eyebrow back and smiled.
“Are you coming?”
“Hopefully,” Neil said, as he slid past Andrew towards the passenger side. As he had accepted being pulled back into a hard kiss for a little too long.
A short car ride later, Neil was being pulled into Andrew’s apartment in a similar manner, only, instead of moving with any kind of poise, Andrew stepped backward into his apartment, beginning to strip Neil’s jacket off and — promptly fell over Sir Fatcat McCatterson.
Sir howled like she was being killed and shot under the couch. And the traitor Neil Josten, standing in Andrew’s doorway, staring down at a sprawled-out Andrew, laughed.
“You’re a menace,” said Andrew, as Sir crept back out to sniff at his nose, and he wasn’t sure whether he meant her or his visitor. “She isn’t even my fucking cat.”
Neil looked around at the feathered catnip toys scattered around the living room and raised an eyebrow. “Cat sitting?”
“Uninvited occupant.” Andrew sat up and gently shoved away the white fluff ball, and curiously, impossibly, Neil went down on a knee to hold out a finger, and Sir ran to him like he was the one returning home.
“What’s your name?” Neil murmured in a soft voice that Andrew had never heard before, and abruptly, Andrew remembered that she did not in fact have a name he wanted to tell anyone, much less a…something. A fuckbuddy. An Exception.
But Sir was purring like a fucking motorboat, rubbing her face all over Neil’s hands, and Neil was smiling as she balanced herself on his knee to sniff his nose, too. And Andrew chewed back something budding in his chest at his cat being stupidly clingy to…whatever Neil was…and said, “Sir.”
“Sir?” Neil looked at him.
“’s her name,” Andrew muttered, then, quieter, “Sir Fat Cat McCatterson.”
Neil took the invitation Sir was giving him and buried his face into her back, but Andrew couldn’t miss the glimpse of lips pressed together over a grin, or the shaking of his shoulders.
“I didn’t name her,” Andrew said, and ignored just how similar his tone sounded to Aaron’s sullen one. “My cousin did. She doesn’t have another name.”
“It’s a great name,” Neil said a little too earnestly to Sir as he emerged from her fluff, scratching behind her ears and sinking his fingers into her ruff. She purred agreeably and licked his chin.
“Shall I leave you alone with the cat?” Andrew shoved to his feet and tossed his keys towards the entryway table, shucking his coat off onto the back of the couch.
Neil looked up, rising to his feet to toe off his shoes with a smirk. “She’s not what I came for.”
“Good,” Andrew said, and tugged on his wrist to lead him towards the bedroom.
***
Neil Josten was supposed to be An Exception, not A Regularity. Not A New Staple of Andrew’s life. He wasn’t supposed to be a number in Andrew’s phone to text, wasn’t supposed to be an ‘are you free’ away from showing up on Andrew’s doorstep. And he wasn’t supposed to be a welcome, familiar sight on Andrew’s couch — Sir curled in his lap, her eyes slits, her approval of his presence loud enough to deafen.
Andrew definitely wasn’t supposed to carefully shift his greedy cat away across the couch so that he could slot himself between Neil’s legs to try and kiss away whatever the fuck had him feeling so warm at seeing Neil there.
“Who made you Cat God,” he murmured against Neil’s lips when Sir growled her displeasure at being unseated from Neil’s lap.
“Guess your cat just loves me,” Neil mumbled into his mouth, gathering fabric at Andrew’s shoulder with one hand as he pressed closer. Only…Neil’s other arm crept around Andrew’s body, but his hand was mysteriously absent as Sir’s angry meows cut off.
Andrew broke away and turned to find Neil’s other hand occupied with stroking Sir’s head.
“You really only use me for my cat, don’t you?”
“If it helps, you’re a welcome bonus,” Neil grinned, stretching to try and capture Andrew’s lips again.
Andrew pressed a hand over his mouth instead. “Get your own pet. Sir is mine.”
Neil raised a challenging eyebrow. “Last I heard, she was an uninvited occupant.”
And you weren’t supposed to look so right in my apartment, Andrew didn’t say, just sat back on his heels to pull his cat onto Neil’s chest where he could try to recapture her attention. It worked, kind of. She was half distracted by Neil’s hair being in grooming distance, but she let Andrew scratch under her chin and gave him an appeased look.
“If I got a cat…would you come with me to pick it out?”
Andrew stopped scratching.
“And figure out a name,” Neil mused, smoothing back Sir’s whiskers. “After all, we can’t have you completely showing them up with your name, Sir, can we?”
“I didn’t name her,” Andrew said again, but he was buzzing.
Helping Neil choose a cat. So that was…acceptable to do. Naming it.
“What do you think, Andrew?”
And Neil was right there, peering up at him through thick fur, with a small smile.
“Yes,” Andrew said.
***
King Fluffkins did not last long in Neil’s apartment. He didn’t seem to like how empty it was — much like Neil, he much preferred taking up permanent occupancy in Andrew’s bed, next to Sir.
And Andrew…he’d picked up three strays, perhaps. Hadn’t asked for them, hadn’t planned for them. They’d moved into his life and his home in a whirl of moving boxes that emptied into cat-box-forts and armchairs that turned into cat-bed-holders and bookshelves that became cat-toy-hiding-places.
But Sir, King, Neil — those three strays were his.
-
you can find more aftg fics on my ao3!
#andreil#neil josten#andrew minyard#the foxhole court#all for the game#aftg#tfc#aftg fanfic#tfc fanfic#all for the game fanfic#the foxhole court fanfic#fanfic#kaystuff#kay fanfic
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Neil Josten's Playlist Part 1: Andrew
Masterpost and link to the playlist in its entirety
These songs are going to be the biggest chunk of the playlist. Are we surprised?
Okay here we go:
1. Take Me To Church - Hozier
I was not joking about Neil being a Hozier fan. You cannot tell me this boy doesn’t hear this song on the radio and immediately think of Andrew. Every time it came on he’d make sure the radio stayed on the station so he could listen all the way through. It got overplayed but he’s probably the only person in the world who never got sick of it at the time. He got used to listening to the same songs over and over again with his mom, so he's even comforted by repeating songs now.
5. Stay - Rihanna & Mikky Ekko
So one night, after several nightmares within the span of a few hours, Neil wasn’t too proud to admit that he absolutely wasn’t going to get any decent sleep that night. Andrew took him on a long drive without even having to be asked. The silence was shoving Neil even further into his thoughts, so Andrew turned on the radio. He settled on a station that was playing softer music that Neil probably wouldn’t hate, and he just kept driving. Once this song came on, Neil became enamored with it. It’s another one of those songs that makes him think of Andrew, but it’s more because he listens to the lyrics and realizes Andrew has said half of these things to him. It’s now a song that, even years later when he and Andrew are living in separate states and desperately trying to land contracts with the same team, Neil listens to on bad nights.
6. River - Bishop Briggs
Listen... this is just another really solid Andreil song.......... and I’m absolutely positive this is a song that Neil would like. Let me have this.
For Neil everything with Andrew is simultaneously loud and quiet and intense and gentle and hard and soft. He’s never known someone to make him feel so much yet calm him down from panic to nothing so smoothly. Even their intimacy holds so much complexity and weight to it. This is a song I feel like Andrew introduced him to, because it absolutely makes him think of Neil too (not that he'd say that out loud).
8. Dreams - The Cranberries
Renee likes the Cranberries and she got Andrew into them too. Andrew pretends this song doesn’t make him think about Neil but no one is actually fooled by that when they catch him listening to it. Least of all Neil because he feels the same thing listening to the lyrics. Not much explanation past that. Neil vibes with this song right from the opening lyrics (”Oh, my life is changing every day in every possible way”), to the comparison of a lover to a dream (he still remembers when Andrew called him a pipedream, even if he didn’t understand at the time), to the vocal breaks in the middle and at the end where it just sounds like someone singing their soul right out of their body.
Neil is a private person and not someone to ever scream his love from rooftops. But that doesn’t mean the concept doesn’t hit him deep. He’s been through a lot and he’s come out the other end with a love of his own that’s deeper and more than anything he ever imagined. His lack of expressing passion about most things (Andrew) doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel incredibly passionate about certain things in a way that cuts deep. He found love and it’s incredible
12. Easily - Bruno Major
I've mentioned this previously, but I hc that Andrew and Neil almost broke up in Neil’s last year at Palmetto. Not going to get into it, but this song had a big part in pulling Neil through that whole year, ESPECIALLY the situation with Andrew. Maybe I’ll make a separate, more detailed post about that sometime. But basically I hc that neither of them were in good spots emotionally. And Andrew was very close to giving up on everything - including Neil.
They managed to pull through and stop one another from giving up on it all, even when things got really hard.
15. Sunlight - Hozier
No I’m not done with the Hozier songs. Did I say I was done with the Hozier songs? Not gonna happen.
Anyway so the story of this song is he was talking with Allison and Nicky once about music and their SOs (well he was listening more than talking but he wasn’t ignoring them), and Nicky outright asked him if there was a song that made him think of Andrew. He’d heard this one for the first time recently and it was just the most recent of many songs that make him think of Andrew, so he threw it out there to humor them. They hadn’t heard it but were very doubtful that any song titled “Sunlight” could have anything to do with Andrew at all, so he showed it to them. They didn’t really change their minds and instead Allison went on another tirade about how Neil is gone for Andrew in a way that Andrew couldn’t possibly be for him and how she was worried for him. Nicky stood up for his cousin a bit, but ultimately was still agreeing with Allison to a degree that Neil may be expecting more than what Andrew could give him blah, blah, blah.
Neil wasn’t happy. Instead he found himself latching onto this song even further and becoming even more assured that it was a song for Andrew. Just because the others refused to understand who Andrew really is and the ways he’s learning to grow and heal and the fact that he’s someone worth loving god dammit, doesn’t mean Andrew is the monster they make him out to be.
For a while afterwards, he’ll put this song on if he’s ever given the aux cord. Because he’s petty. If Andrew catches on to what he’s trying to do, he never says anything.
19. Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
This is definitely a song that makes Neil think of Andrew, though he'd never tell him that. They have both played both parts in this song, and it makes Neil's heart ache to think of all the bad nights that they weren't there for one another - whether it was distance or stubbornness or just general shitty circumstance. They both can get so trapped in their own heads in different (and sometimes similar) ways, and they're relationship has really been built in a lot of ways on the depth of emotional support they've learned to give one another in rough times. That steadiness, that presence that stays by you and keeps you grounded even when you want to crawl out of your own skin and hide somewhere far away. That is what they give one another.
24. Day After Day - Badfinger
This is another one he used to listen to with his mother, but he didn't really latch onto it until his final year at Palmetto when he and Andrew were doing long-distance. He learned in that year just how sentimental he had become in some ways. He finds it in the bone-deep longing he gets on late nights when he just wishes he could lie in bed next to Andrew - because he knew that's when he sleeps best. He'd listen to this song and let himself wallow for a little while, and then eventually put it away and carry on because he didn't have the time to slow down and feel things too hard.
Things are much better now and he doesn't feel as bad when he listens to the song. It's just a pleasant sound he leans into sometimes.
26. Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
This is another one that he first heard from his mother, but kept for himself without allowing it to be stained with her memory. It is one of those ones he listened to a great deal during his last year when things with Andrew got hard. He committed himself to not letting him go or breaking off what they had unless Andrew ever directly asked him to. He couldn't find it in himself to ever do that.
This song reminds him of that commitment and helps him stay strong with it, for better or worse. Everyone was convinced from the beginning that either Neil was bad for Andrew (Aaron) or Andrew was bad for Neil (everyone else except Renee and Nicky basically). This reminds him that he knows Andrew better. He knows HIMSELF better. He knows they aren't perfect, but he refuses to let himself fall into their blocked mentality where they choose to be blind to the reality of Andrew's character (or his own for that matter). He knows they are good together. He knows they help one another, they don't hold each other back. And he refuses to give up on them unless Andrew asks him to.
28. How Deep Is Your Love - The Bird and The Bee
This is another final-year-at-Palmetto one. He stumbles across this song while listening to one of Robin's playlists while he was driving her to practice. Listen to the lyrics and hear just how Andreil this song is. It fits so well, and Neil has to pull over and collect himself for a moment when he first hears it. It had been an especially rough week and he'd been struggling trying to balance giving Andrew space and support with communicating his own needs. This gives him the push he needs. He calls him later that night to talk and their time apart starts getting a bit more bearable for it.
29. TALK ME DOWN - Troye Sivan
This was Andrew's song that made him think of Neil. In every way. He found it while they were doing long distance. Neil first heard it on a midnight drive they took while he was visiting Andrew. They didn't say anything, but they didn't need to. Neil eventually asked him why he listens to this one when his taste is usually much louder stuff. He was expecting a stoically-delivered joke denying any potential relation to Neil or a comment about how Nicky got it stuck in his head or something while they were video chatting one weekend. Instead, Andrew just responded "You know why."
Neil stored the song away to listen to later on when they were once again sleeping in separate beds in separate states, knowing Andrew was probably listening to it as well.
38. Talking Bird - Death Cab for Cutie
Neil doesn't know why this song makes him emotional (yes he does). He doesn't know what it is about it that feels like it cuts so deep (it's because Andrew sent it to him). He doesn't get why Andrew showed it to him (it's because Andrew asked him to stay, but would never force him to if he ever did decide to run). He just listens and feels comforted.
44. I'm so Tired - Lauv & Troye Sivan
This is another one Neil found when he and Andrew were doing long distance. It was a bit of a rocky time for them and there were several of those make-or-break moments. You know, the kind any relationship has where you either pull through it together and are stronger for it, or end things where they are and go your separate ways. I imagine - during a particularly rough patch - Neil heard this song from one of his underclassmen roommates. He was thinking about Andrew (when is he not) and part of him wondered if Andrew was better off finding guys in bars to take home and have no connection to. It was a spiteful moment of self-pity that he let himself indulge in before coming to his senses and giving Andrew a call to smooth things over a bit.
He still listens back to the song sometimes. It has a nice, soft, smooth feeling to it. Now when he listens to it, he finds himself focusing more on the singer asking their lover to take them home so they can move forward because they're too tired to fight. He remembers how, when he and Andrew have reached that point, they've continuously chosen to fall back to one another instead of pulling away. It's a very comforting thought for him.
45. NFWMB - Hozier
I don't even know if I have to explain this one.
There are a lot of things that Andrew and Neil see in one another, but I think one major thing is how strong they both are in their own ways. Neither of them are someone you want to fuck with. This song is perfect for that.
And, once again I will say, Neil is a Hozier fan and I'll die on this hill.
50. It Will Come Back - Hozier
Another Hozier song look at that
Anyway this is song encapsulates exactly how Andrew feels about Neil repeatedly choosing Andrew (at least, how he feels about it in the beginning of their relationship). And Neil isn't blind to this at all. What he also isn't blind to (but that he knows Andrew forgets sometimes) is how Neil is also the stray Andrew showed too much kindness. Andrew is as stuck with Neil as Neil is making himself stuck with Andrew.
51. Love Lies - Khalid & Normani
If asked why he likes this song, he'd say it's because Matt showed it to him and it reminds him of Matt and Dan's inspiring relationship. There are very few people he'd admit the truth to.
Something about the song feels too typical and approachable to admit applying to him and Andrew. They don't have a "normal" relationship and there are a lot of norms they don't stick to. Neither of them are ashamed of that in any capacity (as they absolutely shouldn't be), and ultimately it just feels very strange to them both to consider what's between them as being on the same level of what other's have. Not necessarily in a better-worse context, more just an acknowledgment of stark differences.
But I think Neil also experiences a certain level of comfort when he catches himself relating to other "normal" people. So when he finds himself thinking of Andrew when he hears this song, he's not going to ignore that or let it go. He may, however, keep it to himself for a while. It just feels nice to do that.
72. 99 Luftballons - Nena
As a general rule, Neil doesn't like loud music. This one is an exception (though "loud" may be a bit of a stretch here) because he once got to hear Andrew singing along to it in the car late at night.
Andrew does that sometimes, sings along to songs when it's just him and Neil. It's never with a great deal of gusto or volume, more so just a soft mumble on a late night drive to ground them both. This song came on on a particularly rough night, but by the end of it Andrew was singing along louder than he ever did. Still not saying much, but it was a noticeable change to Neil.
Neil knows he was allowed to see something special that night - Andrew allowing himself to let out something he was feeling. Neil got to see Andrew in what amounts to a moment of vulnerability for him. It means the world to him.
74. Gooey - Glass Animals
This song makes Neil feel the way Andrew makes him feel. There's no other way to describe it. When it's just the two of them and they have moments of quiet intimacy, there's a specific feeling Neil starts getting - float-y but secure. Like he'd drift away if it weren't for an invisible string Andrew was holding.
If Andrew caught Neil humming this song one night as he fell asleep, unaware, he kept quiet about it.
75. Turn - The Wombats
This song Neil keeps because it's one Andrew specifically sent him. He didn't give an explanation, just "for your playlist, rabbit".
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Music Soulmate AU
I basically just rewrote this from Andrew’s POV
The first time Andrew hears what is soulmate is listening to he is in juvie.
In juvie they encourage troubled youths to listen to music. He has a radio and “free” access to a computer. But the music radios pass on is not exactly of his liking. And it’s not like he can surf the internet however he likes, not when the internet is controlled and censored.
To be honest, he’d never even thought he might enjoy music before his soulmate. His soulmate has good music taste.
Thanks to Pig Higgs he has landed in a juvie with plenty of rehabilitation programmes. He’d gladly avoid joining any of them, but his counsellor made it compulsory.
And so Andrew choses the music programme. That’s how he larns to play the guitar- just so he can play the songs his soulmate listens to.
It’s only when he gets out of juvie that he finally finds out the names of the bands and musicians his soulmate listens to. He buys their cds, downloads their songs, goes to their concerts and listens to them 24/7.
Out of juvie he also finds out that he has a twin brother who plays the drums and a cousin who plays the piano. And what is he even supposed to do with a brother he knows nothing about but start playing music together?
At first it’s mainly covers. Aaron sets the rhythm and Andrew strums his guitar. It’s quiet and slow, like their uneasy friendship. The more they get comfortable with each other the better they play together.
It’s only when their cousin Nicky walks into them playing an instrumental cover of The Ghost of You by MCR that he decides to join them. Nicky ditches his piano, buys a keybord and becomes an official member of their unofficial band.
The first time Andrew does the vocals of one of their covers, both Nicky and Aaron hit the wrong notes and then stop playing altogether, staring at Andrew with their mouths wide open.
It’s Aaron who breaks the silence with a screeched “you’ve always known how to sing LIKE THAT and you’ve never done it before?”. Andrew just shrugs, but from that moment on he becomes the designated singer.
Their unofficial band becomes official when Kevin Day joins the line up. He plays the bass, but most importantly he writes songs. And good damn songs. Plus his father Wymack owns an independent music label and he signs them.
Even with a contract in their pocket, Andrew and his band (now called The Foxhole, who even knows why, it was Nicky’s idea) have to cut their teeth. They slowly work up the ladder one little concert after the other. It is exhausting.
Andrew hadn’t signed up for crazied fans when he’d started playing the guitar with his brother in the attempt of making up for 14 years of being convinced they both were alone in this world. But at least the fans are growing the more and more numerous.
Last week they filled a small arena with 5 thousand people in LA. The posters outside the venue said “The Foxhole, SOLD OUT.” After the show Wymack had smiled proudly and told them that the recording studio would be booked for them all month long.
And that. That is one hell of a month. Andrew loses count of how many times he thinks about breaking Kevin’s hand.
But through the caos, the deadlines, and the mind-numbing recording sessions, Andrew has - well Andrew doesn’t have his soulmate. Not with him anyway. But he has a good playlist to come back to when he gets home.
He knows at what time his soulmate turns on his mp3 player. And every evening at 8pm Andrew takes one hour just for himself, sits on the sofa and religiously listens to the playlist his soulmate is playing. It’s a habit he took up in juvie, a habit he would never give up to.
The Foxhole’s first album jumps straight to the first position of the Alternative Music chart. Right on the day it comes out.
When they get the news Nicky is so ecstatic he jumps on the sofa like a child. Aaron hugs his girlfriend, lifts her up and makes her spin in the kitchen as they laugh and laugh and laugh. Kevin just smiles, which is quite shocking per se.
Andrew’s heart skips a beat only when at 8pm he hears his soulmate listening to The Foxhole’s album. And at that, just at that, his lips slowly curl up into a smile.
After that, Andrew’s life gets the more and more chaotic. It’s shows and interviews and world tours. It’s trying to set an alarm at 8pm even when he barely has time to breathe just to listen to a couple of songs from his soulmate’s evening music session.
It’s waking up at 5am when in Paris and cursing the European tour. And then it’s missing it. Missing it when he crashes on the couch and his meds take too much out of him. It’s having The Foxhole’s concerts set at 8pm.
It’s Andrew secretly hoping his soulmate listens to his concerts because Andrew can’t listen to his playlists. It’s Andrew wishing he’d stop hoping his soulmate would come find him after a concert.
Andrew is taken off his court-mandated meds during the pause between their last tour and the new album. The drug-induced mania wears off, leaving Andrew alone, parsing through the white noise in his brain and the thoughts that won’t leave him alone. Never never never.
One night he’s so drained out by the effort of overcoming his addiction and getting used to the new way is brain is wired, he falls asleep on the sofa before 8pm.
He wakes up at 2am, angry and frustrated and pissed off he’s missed his soulmate’s daily playlist. And if Andrew, frustrated beyond words, picks up his guitar and starts trying to put his thoughts into notes nobody has to know.
It’s not like Kevin will judge if he finds out. Kevin himself started composing to fight his own alcoholism.
But nobody really has to know. Not even when Andrew makes a habit of it. Picking up his guitar and humming along with the music he plays- trying to figure out what sounds right and what doesn’t. What eases the pressure on his skull, what makes his head hurt even more.
Nobody has to know, but he kinds of forgets that his soulmate *does* know. And Andrew tries so hard not to react. But when in the morning he hears his soulmate singing along to his new song, Andrew finds himself smiling. Andrew is sooo fucked.
Let’s not even talk about the somersaults his stomach makes when his soulmate starts playing awful upbeat songs whenever Andrew stops composing. He hates those songs, thanks but no thanks.
But his soulmate annoyingly persists pestering him with happy songs. And Andrew gets what his soulmate is doing, he knows his soulmate is doing his best to show him he likes what he’s doing, he gets it, he’s just not ready to admit it to himself.
He ends up telling Aaron. And it’s just because he needs to have someone else play with him. Just to test out a few things. Not because it’s Aaron.
Aaron who disgustingly smiles at him when Andrew shows him what he has composed. Aaron who knows he has a soulmate. Aaron who asks “it’s him isn’t it?” when Andrew puts his hands in his hair because his soulmate is listening to one of his sickening upbeat songs.
Aaron who tells Kevin. Fuck you Aaron.
Andrew knows Kevin would happily crack his head open if he didn’t need a singer and guitarist. He hears him mutter something like “that fucker knew how to compose and he never said anything before”.
They end up rehearsing the song together. First it’s just Aaron and Andrew showing Kevin and Nicky the ropes, then it’s the whole band. And if the smile on Kevin’s lips is any indication, the song is good. Damn good.
They end up including it in the new album. And Andrew is okay with it. But then Wymack hears it and decides it’s going to be the single paving the way for the album. Andrew doesn’t want to, it’s *his* song, it’s something he’d come to share with his soulmate and his soulmate alone.
He was happy with it becoming part of the album. He had anticipated how it’d feel like to hear his soulmate listening to their album and recognising the song. He had not anticipated the song becoming mainstream.
But he says yes to Wymack. He owes him that much. He still decides to do things his own way.
The Foxhole are supposed to debut the song during the first concert of their promotional tour. It’s Kevin who usually does the talking, but before he can start presenting the new single Andrew snatches the mic.
He feels Kevin’s eyes drill holes in his head when he says why he wrote the song, why he recorded it and- and that’s all because he has an annoying soulmate who supports him. And when he finishes Aaron is smiling (fuck you Aaron) and Nicky is staring at him with his mouth open.
If the screams and the yells and the choruses asking for an encore are any indication, the crowd loves the song. Andrew doesn’t care. His head is screaming “now he knows now he know now he knows”. And who would ever want to have anything to do with him. He’s fucked up. Oh he’s fucked it all up.
He grits his teeth through the concert, trying to prevent the walls in his head from crumbling down right in front of thousands of people. He regrets saying it but he misses his meds. They made this part easier, they didn’t let him dwell and spiral down into chaos.
When the show finishes he knows what’s waiting for him. A wall of fans screaming to his face that they are his soulmate- Aaron had warned him about it when Andrew had told him what he’d planned on doing.
He locks the door of his changing room and tires to breathe through the panic choking him. Just a few more minutes and then he’ll get out, face the fans and the media and the mess. He did this to himself. Just a few more minutes. Just a few more minutes- but the door of his changing room is thrown wide open. The intruder closes it back behind his back and presses his body against it to keep the door shut.
Andrew barely manages to say “What the fuck?”
“Lock picks!” the guy throws them a him. Andrew effortlessly catches them one-handed. The intruder flashes him a smile so bright it can’t be real. Just like the red curls and the blue eyes and everything else about him. Who the fuck is this man?
As if he’s reading into his mind, he says “Don’t worry your bodyguards will be here in a sec.” Another smile.
Andrew barely has time to open his mouth and reply when the bodyguards come crashing into Andrew’s changing room. And right then the stranger says: “By the way, I’m Neil and in the morning you always listen to Welcome to the Black Parade. Nice to meet you soulmate.”
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Andreil Week 2018 - Day 1
Ey. I’ve never participated in a fandom week type deal so I thought this might be fun. I’m not doing all the days, but gonna attempt to do every other instead :D
If you squint, I technically incorporated all three of today’s prompts in some form. As per usual, given a prompt, chances are I’ll stretch it to the point it probably doesn’t count anymore. I can’t read a map and following directions sans detours is hard.
Influenced by Nekojita’s Heartlines and you should read that if you haven’t already. Just read all her work, honestly.
Title: A Midsummer Night’s Fib // AO3
Word Count: 3,620
Warnings/Tags: G. Urban fantasy AU, bastardization of midsummer practices and festivals of past and present, an abnormal amount of glitter and sparkles
Prompts: shakespeare | mythology | fake dating/fake exes
Neil doesn’t know why he did it but Nicky wasn’t going to quit and Allison had her phone out with that plotting gleam in her eyes and Dan and Matt were looking at him in certain ways and he just blurt it out: “I’m going with Andrew.”
They all fall silent, staring at him in various forms of shock, disbelief, and overwhelming confusion. Maybe he can make his escape while they process his words.
Nicky recovers before he can give the escape attempt more thought, however. “Andrew? You definitely mean an Andrew that isn’t my cousin, right?”
“Why are you going with the monster?” Allison demands.
“So much makes sense now,” Matt mutters and Neil would like to know what he means by that but, as if summoned, Andrew enters the room. He looks around at the various faces staring back at him before turning around and leaving without a word.
“Andrew, wait!” Nicky is the first to recover, chasing after his cousin before Andrew can get too far. “You’re going to Midsummer? With Neil?!”
Andrew stops in the middle of the doorway and turns back around. His face is blank but he meets Neil’s eyes for a brief moment before answering Nicky, bland and dry, “What I may or may not be doing is none of your business,” and then leaving.
Allison comes up to Neil, looks him up and down then directs her gaze to where Andrew had gone and sighing. “Why? I will never understand why you always go for the monster when there are way better options you could pick from. That woodland druid we ran into grabbing things for Abby a few days ago, for instance. He was so into you and not a psychopath.”
Neil just blinks at Allison. He thinks he knows what druid she’s talking about but that’s about it. Allison just sighs heavily again and shakes her head. “Whatever. I guess I should commend you for getting Andrew to come to Midsummer for the first time in forever.”
Neil frowns. “He’s never gone?”
Dan answers him. “Andrew’s not really big on the quarter day festivals, really any sort of festival, in case you hadn’t noticed. And he’s not Fae so he’d need to be taken as a guest, not that he’s ever accepted anyone’s offer for as long as he’s been here.”
Neil himself isn’t quite up to date on what Fae festival and celebration etiquette is. Between Baltimore and being on the run, Fae celebrations were never something he partook in. For most of his life, his mother’s Fae heritage was beaten down and he recoiled against his father’s warlock practices.
He doesn’t get a chance to think on his past for too long. Nicky, having lost Andrew, comes bounding towards Neil with a broad grin that has Neil worried.
“Since you’ve got yourself a date, that’s part one done,” he starts. Neil really doesn’t want to hear part two, or if there’s a part three and four to follow. But Nicky barrels on, his eyes doing that sparkly thing it does when he’s excited about Erik or shopping or matchmaking. “Now, we need clothes!”
Neil regrets everything.
Midsummer lands on a Saturday this year, and the festival starts midday Friday to the sunset on Saturday, just over 24 hours of celebrations. Basically, it’s just a drinking marathon with interspersed traditional events, as far as Neil knows.
Shopping ends up being a team activity. They split up into the various cars, Neil going with the twins, Nicky, and Kevin. Once at the mall, the group splits up, agreeing to meet up at the food court in a couple hours. Dan, Matt, Renee, and Allison go off, Allison knowing exactly where she wants to go. Aaron dips away to meet up with Katelyn, leaving Andrew, Neil, and Kevin to follow after Nicky.
They wind up in stores that Neil would only ever expect Renee to shop at, but he learns that Midsummer attire consists of light, airy, or floral. He can’t imagine Andrew dressing in anything on the racks around them.
Neil’s eyes flit to the man, picking blankly through some loose, long sleeved shirts, and worries his bottom lip. He hasn’t had the chance to speak with his apparent date, never able to catch Andrew alone. So far, it seems like Andrew is going to play along. At the very least, he hasn’t thrown Neil under the bus. But Neil doesn’t want to force Andrew into doing something he doesn’t want to, the guilt eats up at him.
Looking around, Nicky’s looking through jeans, a pile of clothes already over one arm, and Kevin’s on his phone texting. Neil makes his way over to Andrew, pretending to look through the pile of shirts next to him.
“You don’t have to pretend to be my, uh, date,” he says.
Andrew makes no sign that he heard Neil, or even acknowledges him. He just grabs one of the shirts from the rack and throws it at Neil. Neil only just catches it. It’s soft and light, a faded dark red. Andrew moves on to a pile of jeans and grabs a light beige pair after looking through sizes, tossing that to Neil as well.
“Go try those one,” he orders. Neil frowns but does as told when Andrew just stares at him. Like previous times, the clothes fit well in that they’re not too big on his frame per his usual preference, but these are still light and loose. The shirt has some sort of crisscross lacing at the neck that dips down his sternum, and the sleeves are a smidge too long, coming halfway down his palms. The jeans are tight, formed to his legs, especially at his calves. They’re ripped at the knees with other signs of distress low on his thighs and along his shins.
He changes back into his own clothes and goes to find Andrew and the others. They all finish up relatively quickly and go to pay. Andrew dumps his collection with Neil’s with a pointed, “This is your fault.”
Since that’s about as close as Neil is going to get as a response to whether or not Andrew’s on board with the charade, he pays for the both of them and only winces slightly at the resulting cost. Nicky has a few other shops he wants to go to so they follow after him until it’s about time to meet back up with the others and grab food.
Dan, Matt, Allison, and Renee are already there. They’ve commandeered a table big enough for all of them and two extra chairs are piled with shopping bags. They’ve also already gone and grabbed food, trays ranging from burgers to pizza to what looks like Thai. Andrew’s crew dump their bags and go off to grab food of their own before returning. Neil pays for Andrew’s burger and tooth-rotting milkshake.
“Successful day?” Nicky asks, plopping down and immediately going into conversation about purchases with Allison and Matt. Neil quietly takes a seat at the end of the table next to Andrew, busying himself with his salad. Aaron and Katelyn show up and Katelyn joins in talking about Midsummer plans and excitement. Neil keeps half an ear on their conversation, piecing together what Midsummer with the Foxes entails. It really doesn’t sound like much more than a big party involving all the Fae courts in the area.
Neil’s content to listen and pick at his salad, but not everyone else is on board with that. He’s pulled into conversation by Allison cupping her chin in her palm and leaning across the table, staring him down. “So how long have you and Andrew been enough of a thing to go to Midsummer as a pair?”
Neil looks to Andrew who continues to work on his monstrosity of a milkshake. The only sign of him paying attention to the table is the way he loudly sucks up the chocolate and brownie ice cream mix.
Neil rolls his eyes at Allison. “It’s not anyone’s business. It’s just a party.”
“Midsummer is not just a party,” Nicky butts in. “Of all the quarter days it’s the one that’s all about relationships! Erik proposed to me at the last one I went to with him in Germany.”
“It does focus on relationships, but not only of those romantic in nature. There’s an emphasis on women and family as a whole, as well,” Renee adds.
Neil frowns. “But you were trying to set me up with strangers.”
Allison just looks at him like he’s a fumbling child who doesn’t know anything. “You don’t go to Midsummer stag unless you intend to get around or your partner can’t make it for whatever reason.”
Neil still doesn’t get why they care so much. He stuffs his mouth to keep from having to continue the conversation and is relieved when Renee distracts everyone by talking about the upcoming fall semester.
Neil finishes his salad and slides his eyes to Andrew who’s dipping his French fries into what’s left of his milkshake. Andrew meets his gaze and raises a brow mockingly at him. “Enjoying your first Midsummer?”
Neil really doesn’t need his input on how much of a hassle one little fib’s turned into.
Midsummer Eve starts like a normal day up until Neil is nabbed by Allison and Nicky to get dressed and made up. He’s given a pile of clothes and told to get dressed. In addition to what he had tried on the other day, he’s given knee-high leather boots that lace up all the way and an assortment of braided leather and hemp bracelets in varying shades of brown that all together cover a good three inches of his wrists. He’s made to sit through a bit of make-up, Allison lining his eyes with dark red-brown eyeliner and smudging some sort of gel, shimmery with specks of red glitter, on his cheeks. He draws the line at the equally shimmery lip gloss Allison is poised to smear on him.
Allison isn’t too disappointed. “I figured the lip gloss would be too much for you.”
Nicky, however, sulks openly as he gets his turn to arrange Neil’s auburn curls. He adds some sort of spray to it on top of the styling gel. Neil catches sight of the can, seeing it’s some sort of gold glitter spray suitable for skin and hair.
When he’s allowed to see himself, Neil scrunches his nose at his appearance. He looks, well, Fae. There’s no other word to describe it. If he pulled down the glamour that rounded his ears, he’d look like something out of a fairy tale storybook, scars ignored. It’s almost too much, but seeing how the girls and Nicky are done up, he’s grateful that this is all they’ve done to him. He could have had glittery lips to match his hair and cheeks and a lot more sparkly jewelry.
They meet up at the court when they’re ready. Everyone’s dressed in ways to complement their natures or alignments, or matching their Fae date. They’ve all got shimmery glitter on them in some form. Neil wonders if Allison and Nicky bought out their favourite stores of everything that contained glitter and sparkles.
In essence, they look like they got lost going to a Renaissance faire. Even Andrew’s deigned to look the part, although he’s stuck with his black, just in different cuts. Neil finds himself staring at the way the shirt, similar to his own but a deep black, hugs Andrew’s shoulders. Somehow, he’s been convinced to partake in the glitter, his jeans glittering silver in the light and a matching shimmer in his hair.
Andrew comes up to him. “Staring,” he accuses, but he stares Neil up and down before reaching out and tugging at the leather necklace around Neil’s neck, pulling Neil down and leaving barely inches between their faces. He reaches up to thumb at Neil’s cheek, some of the red glitter staining his thumb.
“Couldn’t take the lip gloss? Andrew smirks.
Neil narrows his eyes. “Not like you’re wearing any either.”
Andrew shrugs and lets Neil go, moving to stand beside him waiting for Wymack and Abby to finish up lighting up the first fires. Since they can’t go around lighting full bonfires across campus and the court, they light candles that will burn until they get back. They’re put everywhere from Wymack’s office to around the court to the dorms.
“Now, most of you know how this works. We’ll be there until tomorrow morning unless one of you idiots manage to do something that’ll have us leaving before someone dies or gets cursed,” Wymack says as Abby gathers together what she needs to create a portal to the Fae realm.
Where Midsummer is held differs every year and by regions, but it is always within the Fae realm. Abby and Wymack, with help from Renee, create the portal and they all file through once it’s set up. Non-Fae enter with the Fae who invited them and Neil watches as Allison takes Renee, arm in arm, while Dan ushers Aaron and Katelyn in, and Matt takes Nicky, Nicky cheerfully clinging onto Matt’s arm. Kevin escorts Abby, so Wymack can keep the doors open and Neil realizes it’s his and Andrew’s turn.
Andrew offers an arm and a quiet, “Yes or no?”
Neil nods, says yes just as quietly, and lightly slides his hand into the offered crook.
There’s nothing overly shocking about stepping through the portal, it’s a smooth transition for the most part. But Neil feels his glamour fall the second he and Andrew are through and into a clearing alight with lanterns and the beginnings of the biggest bonfire he’s ever seen. He panics, hands going up to his ears, now pointed and distinctly elven, and he can only imagine that his pupils have turned into cat-like slits, mirror images of his father’s.
A hand comes up and grips lightly but firmly at the back of his neck and after a second, Neil sees that it’s Andrew’s. He allows Andrew to guide him to the side, towards a copse of trees decorated with little lights.
“Glamours have no effect in places like this,” Andrew says. Neil knows that there are such places, it just didn’t cross his mind that Midsummer was held in one of them. “Is this going to be a problem?”
Neil takes some controlling breaths and shakes his head. “I just wasn’t expecting it.” He looks around and sees that it’s true, no one appears to have glamours, an array of various Fae and their companions in full form. Matt’s arms are patched with bark, Dan’s hair is littered with tiny flicks of flames, and Allison’s translucent wings are tucked behind her back as she walks with Renee towards where the bonfire is being set up.
Andrew releases his hold on Neil’s neck, and Neil finds himself missing it. But he focuses and grounds himself, tries to ignore how open and vulnerable he feels without his glamour, something he’s far too used to constantly having on his person.
When he feels more or less in control again, Andrew’s staring at him. Neil raises a brow and Andrew shakes his head and starts walking towards where food is laid out. “You Fae better have alcohol at these things.”
There are various types of alcohol, mundane and Fae tinkered. Andrew sticks to the normal drinks and piles a plate high with various desserts after making Neil figure out what some of the unfamiliar ones are. Neil sticks to the array of fruits, berries, and cheeses.
Neil finds Midsummer to be interesting on the whole. The bonfire is built quickly and people in pairs or groups dance around it. Nicky flits between couples and people who appear to be single, dancing and running around cheerfully. He even takes Katelyn for a round around the fire, the two twirling amongst other couples and groups. Abby and Wymack stick to the small lake where mermaids and water aligned Fae linger. There looks to be some sort of flower garland making camp set up, rings of woven flowers and foliage set to float into the water. Neil notices that a number of attendees have flowers in their hair as the night goes on, ranging from crowns to being woven directly into their locks.
At some point, Renee comes by, a rainbow crown of flowers in her hair, and hands Neil and Andrew flower crowns of their own. Neil’s is made of flowers in hues of red and white and Andrew’s of dark purples and grey. They’re lightly dusted in glitter and Neil both wants to and doesn’t want to know where on earth they’re all getting it from. Andrew scowls at it but puts it on and dares Neil to comment on it with a glare.
“Who’s the one that looks like some woodland elf?” Andrew sneers when Neil can’t stop his smile quick enough.
“At least I don’t look like some goth pixie.” Neil gets shoved for that, dropping his fruits. He glares at Andrew who just smirks. But when Andrew goes to refill on drinks and sweets, he has an extra bowl of sugar glazed berries he claims he lost interest in on the walk back to Neil. They’re almost too sugary sweet but Neil eats them all, licking his fingers of the glaze after.
He finds Andrew watching him before Andrew looks back to the fire, watching his brother and cousin and Kevin who’s been off with Thea who came separately. Neil grabbing some more of the sugar covered fruit is met with narrowed eyes. It only encourages him to smile as he offers some of the fruit to Andrew who only scoffs and takes a swig of his drink.
As the sun begins to set, young Fae take part in some tradition involving jumping over the bonfire that’s settled down to something a little more reasonable. Couples go after and Neil watches Matt and Dan, Allison and Renee, Aaron and Katelyn, and even Wymack and Abby. He doesn’t know if he and Andrew are expected to do so, but he sees some other pairs only watching and stays settled in the grass beside Andrew. However, once it begins to grow dark and the lanterns and lights in the field grow brighter, Neil and Andrew are tracked down by the Foxes, none sober, and forced to join in the new round of dancing around the dying bonfire.
It’s not terrible, and Neil finds himself laughing and smiling at the Foxes’ actions. And then Nicky ushers Neil towards Andrew exclaiming something about how the two haven’t danced at all together the entire night and Neil just barely stops himself from crashing fully into the scowling man.
“I’m going to kill him,” Andrew mutters but he holds out a hand and directs to Neil, “Yes or no?”
Neil blinks in surprise but he finds himself taking Andrew’s hand and saying, “Yes.”
“Hands don’t go below my shoulders,” Andrew states, his own going to Neil’s waist after pausing for Neil to nod his consent. Neil lightly places his hands on Andrew’s shoulders, feeling the muscle and warmth through his thin shirt.
As they dance around the fire, Neil thinks back and realizes he’s not entirely clueless as to why Andrew’s name was on his tongue. They may have started off rocky when Neil first met the Foxes, but Andrew’s safe. Andrew is strange and dangerous but safe. He’s not safe in the conventional way, but he understands Neil and Neil knows he can trust the other man.
He doesn’t know what look is on his face but Andrew stares just as intently at him for the duration of the dance before they break apart. Andrew leads the way to the side, finding a patch of grass barely touched by the firelight. Neil sits down beside him, just short of their shoulders brushing.
The festivities die down, people dozing off around the fire, going into the woods to sleep for a few hours. The Foxes all gather to where Neil and Andrew are, eating and drinking until one by one they nod off and Neil and Andrew are the only Foxes awake.
“The autumnal equinox is next,” Andrew says quietly. “Now that you’ve agreed to this one, fat chance of evading any of the others.”
Neil groans, falling over his bent legs, pressing his forehead to his knees. “I have to deal with Allison and Nicky trying to set me up four times a year now?” He turns his head when the expected jab from Andrew doesn’t come, staining the knees of his pants with the red glitter that is still stubbornly stuck to his cheeks.
Andrew’s looking at him, considering. His flower crown is tilted and in the flickering lights of the fire there’s something unearthly about the human. Neil wants to reach out and touch the curve of his jaw, feel the strength of his shoulder again.
“Staring,” Andrew says.
“So are you,” Neil replies.
“Why did you lie?”
Neil frowns. “About?”
Andrew rolls his eyes and gestures around.
“Oh. I just wanted them to get off my back,” Neil answers. “I just blurted your name out.” The shuttered blankness of Andrew’s expression has Neil offering more, a truth he’s still figuring out. “At first I didn’t know why I picked you, but. I think I would have asked you anyway.”
Neil doesn’t know if he’s said too much, revealed too much, but Andrew only reaches a hand out towards Neil’s face. “Yes or no?”
Neil sits up, pressing his cheek into Andrew’s waiting hand, keeps his hands in the grass.
“Yes.”
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Riverdale, “Chapter Eighteen: When a Stranger Calls”
good afternoon, this episode made me lose sleep
Jughead doesn’t even have his framing narration voiceover, because he is in too much pain, RETROACTIVELY, to WRITE IT DOWN
this is a great episode, but it’s especially a great episode for Betty’s left eyebrow, Alice’s left eyebrow, and Jughead’s pecs
there’s a very STEALTHY ticking clock sound in the background of Betty and the Black Hood’s phonecall, taken in spirit, I hope, from Hans Zimmer’s Dunkirk soundtrack, where you don’t notice it but the protracted effect makes you feel like you’re going crazy
Jughead is Betty’s “mystery-loving boyfriend”
Alice was fond of Jughead so long as he was on Betty’s newspaper staff and showed Alice compassion when her family life was crumbling, but now that he lives in a different zip code she’s over it
Archie in green is always his best choice
Archie of course walks Betty to school and of course promises not to tell a secret before he hears it
does Betty enlist Archie as her handmaiden because he’s the best choice (will do as she says, will not branch out on his own, will refuse on moral grounds to abandon her) or because she can do so with the least amount of fanfare?
“BETTY, YOU HAVE TO TELL THE POLICE, EVEN IF IT’S NOT HIM.” Archie drops some vintage bon mots today!
The Blossom spawn: it’s incredible that the Black Hood knows where Polly is when it seems like Betty doesn’t even know
Dilton Doiley is a canonically great dancer: Dilton’s stunt got the southside into more trouble, which seems like exactly the amount of power he wants to wield
remember last season when Dilton caved to Jughead’s threat of exposing him as a gun-loving loon? Dilton has purged his life of all semblances of normalcy, out in the open, so no one can do that again
apparently now we can all chill in Hiram’s study with him
Veronica was rich: Hiram’s true crime is gentrification! sounds about right!
Certified pedigree: Veronica perks up and Hermione and Hiram look at each other and agree to the same game plan silently: pimp her out
Sweet Pea is, I think, showing commendable patience towards Jughead, for someone who does not necessarily have to, for still having this particular girlfriend and best friend (“your boy, Andrews”) after day after day of southside-reasons not to. Jughead is like….I know….I don’t control them….
Jughead did not see Veronica shooting a gun coming! poor Jug is so out of the loop!
I guess Fangs earned his stripes? was it by getting an engineering degree?
What damn high school in America: okay wait, I missed before when they explained that “Fogarty’s cousin” is “in the Army” and was “going to build us something.” I can’t believe they actually FUCKING EXPLAIN IT
Sweet Pea did not know who he was talking to when he tried to hit Jughead with “It can’t get any worse.” Jughead is like, LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING—
“You can’t be half a Serpent”: it’s FASCINATING TO ME how the actual on-the-ground Serpents deal with Jughead, who is familially a Serpent but not an indoctrinated one, who has been baptised but not confirmed, if you will, who keeps telling them to knock it off with the gang stuff, and yet they’re like, very careful about giving him latitude to move around in their world without having paid his membership fee, you know? I just think it’s amazing how, and I know it’s a TV show and not like a documentary, but I think it’s an interesting choice how Sweet Pea isn’t just like, Get fucked, Jughead. he hears Jughead’s objections. he explains himself
These students are legally children: the grown-up Serpents either ghost-endorse the Serpent kids taking matters into their own hands or have no idea it’s happening. either way, these kids may not have flashy extracurriculars, but they have moxie
Toni calls Sweet Pea an idiot, which is great
Veronica says she and Nicky were the “will-they-or-won’t-they” of her old “jet-set”
admirably, she immediately tells Archie not to worry about him
Betty is barely hanging on to patience for absolutely anything
I want it on the record that Jughead not wearing his fleece jacket is slightly jarring after all this time and that he still looks great in the leather one
Sweet Pea calls him a “northsider” when he walks in, which seems like a callback to a World War II sergeant calling everybody “ladies”
I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: Jughead is lit from behind by one of the yellow lamps, casting a glow around his hat like a fucking Renaissance painting
Gay?!: SERPENT DADDDDDYYYYY is going to “initiate” Jughead, because Riverdale loves me
Toni is looking at Jughead like she truly regrets his death, which is probably right
Archie, chilling out with Betty in her bedroom, totally without sexual pretence and just there to listen to the phone call on speaker, is GOOD ARCHIE
when Betty parries the Black Hood’s demand with her own, Archie mouths “WHAT ARE YOU DOING,” because he set a game plan
Betty is blue is her best choice
“Wait...is that…” ...VINTAGE TWIN PEAKS-ERA MÄDCHEN AMICK??!
the baby Serpents lined themselves up classically, in descending order from the middle, for Jughead’s aesthetic benefit
is it possible Toni is the only one who knows Jughead’s name is Forsythe?
Archie is pretty okay with Betty building this relationship with the Black Hood, as you will remember Archie is just as obsessed with him. also, Archie is taking it pretty well that it turns out BH is into Betty instead of him. he’s not insulted or anything
he’s SO RIGHT about Alice always ragging on all of them, too! Archie’s sudden flashes of insight are revelatory
the St. Clairs are appropriately fur-covered and smug, and Nicholas St. Clair, AKA ZACH FLORRICK FROM THE GOOD WIFE, is adorable and that actor has looked exactly like that for the past seven years
why didn’t Nicky and Veronica ever sync up? they’re both schemers and that’s a difficult needle to thread? like Blair and Chuck?
I am insulted on Betty’s behalf that Alice would think Betty would write the cipher herself, in that I would hope Alice would know Betty would have more sense than to be so obvious as to use a Nancy Drew code
Jughead is officially Betty’s “Serpent boyfriend”!!!! we have arrived, Alice!
50 Shades of Betty: Betty straight destroys her mother after getting eye-rolled at
Archie does bicep curls on his bed because he’s THAT good-looking
Toni’s FLANNEL TIGHTS are great
Jughead calls Sweet Pea an idiot too, after Toni opened that gate
OF COURSE Jughead is only joining the Serpents to try and keep the peace, because he finally found a cause to martyr himself to that is as grungy and doomed as possible and with no goshdarn way he can succeed
I’m down with the six rules! but I don’t think the show has told me exactly what being a Serpent entails yet. like what do gangs do? the Serpents aren’t a particularly druggy gang, apparently, like the motorcycle dudes in True Detective (the Ghoulies) or anything. it seems like they mostly exist to get ragged on and take care of their widows, like a very sad union
Jughead is truly scared to stick his hand in that tank and if Kevin were there he would have burst into tears
in fond congratulations, Toni calls him “Juggie,” which set off a synaptic transmission in my amygdala first time around. Jughead does a double take at it and Toni herself looks kind of like, Whoops, but then sort of pleased at her own daring
POP DOESN’T JUDGE. HE WAS HERE DURING THE RIOTS AND HE DOESN’T JUDGE
Betty having her own fucking newspaper makes me so fucking happy. I fucking love Betty goddammit
Betty’s splash of sparkles on her sweater is great too. YOU’RE ALWAYS SO PRETTY BETTY
Hermione made a flan. Hermione kind of cooks! ...unless it was Andre
Nicky’s bullet is kind of cute, in a stupid way
Archie was blindly terrified to drink rum, so I don’t think he’s going to snort cocaine
in the beginning of this episode, in the beginning, Nicky basically IS Veronica. just watch it and pretend Camilla is reading all his lines. he calls Archie “Big Red” and everyone “country mice” and says things like “What a brave new world it is” and thinks it’s hot Veronica is in a band with a sexy name. and Veronica knows this, and it makes her uncomfortable
“Damn good coffee”: the retro “Lollipop” ringtone is psycho by only the second time you hear it. Dilton would love it
“How does it feel, Betty?” FEELS GREAT!
Black Hood out here really believing Veronica is complicit with her father’s crimes??? maybe if it was for getting that girl to drink gutter water
Betty and Jughead haven’t seen each other in 24-48 hours and their meetup kiss is like if Jughead like, immigrated to America and sent money back home FOR YEARS while he worked in THE MINES until he saved enough for Betty to join him and they just met on the pier during a glorious sunset, I didn’t get a lot of sleep!!!!! the kiss is really good. is it the best kiss? it’s because it’s like their first kiss but over the other shoulder. was their best kiss in the trailer park with the God light?
THEY FEEL “UNMOORED” WITHOUT EACH OTHER, GOOD EVENING DEATH
obviously the best kiss was when Jughead tossed her up on his countertop like she was a black truffle salad at the Grill Room and bit her collarbone
Jughead: “I just wanted to make sure you were still alive.” Betty: “KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN.”
Jughead read the Blue & Gold article online and glowed with pride. he showed Sweet Pea: “SEE. SHE writes stuff like THIS.”
aw, they’re both sitting there, holding hands, lying to each other
I love Jughead wanting to literally leave Riverdale. Season One Jughead was obsessed with Riverdale. Season Two Jughead is like FUCK Riverdale
I hate how Jughead is gazing at Betty from across the table when she cries her single tear because it was so beautiful I had to punch through a window like Josh Lyman and it hurt and I retroactively hate Jughead for that
Betty calls them “Romeo and Juliet, but we live happily ever after instead,” because she doesn’t know she’s only eighteen minutes into the episode
Nick’s white cardigan? sure
he gets another Veronica line with “You Pussycats are pearls before the swine of Riverdale.” is this how people in Manhattan talk now?
Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: Cheryl gets herself invited to the party by introducing herself, which would not work if this were Jane Austen, unless Nick were Henry Crawford, but Cheryl’s got this like black romper thing going on and posed in the doorway like one of the “Cell Block Tango” girls and at this point is a walking Riverdale legend
“Ten o’clock you said? I’ll be there at eleven.”
Archie crashes gently into someone while he chases Betty, which is a callback to Archie constantly falling over shit in the comics
Veronica probably went to the Gilded Lily after one of those Met Galas she keeps comparing things to
I think Gal Gadot’s last name is more like “Gadought” (not really like that) than like in Waiting for Godot, but whatever Cheryl wants
God bless jingle-jangle: my man hooked him up!!!
Veronica’s layered floral dress is like what my ten-year-old self being dressed by my mom for church wished one day I would be cool enough to wear. I don’t go to church now, but I still hope one day I will be cool enough to wear it
Cheryl’s sheaths: Cheryl’s art deco dress is really good too
Melody is in a GREAT ruffly red jumpsuit
Kevin in like, Don’t mind if I do!
Melody is like DON’T MIND IF I DO
Reggie and Josie are making out when they’re high, because they’re contractually obligated as the two most beautiful people in the room
Betty is miserable, like a teacher chaperoning a dance where the kids are allowed to grind
Cheryl’s hair: Cheryl whips her hair around like Beyoncé in the video for “Baby Boy” and I had to punch another window
it took me a second to remember that Betty had to alienate Veronica and that that was why she was suddenly talking to her like Drunk Alice and that it wasn’t just Pissed Betty
Betty’s read is pretty good! exactly what Veronica is afraid of: that she has been performing as a good girl this whole time. or that people only think she is performing it. “You’ll always be a bad person.” but Veronica is very measured for someone a little drunk and high! (are you “high” if you’re on jingle-jangle?) she calmly tells Betty to leave. BECAUSE SHE IS A GOOD PERSON
damn this episode is so low-lit. like, Hannibal dark. I can barely fucking see Jughead in this trailer. Toni is half-lit by the mysterious blue trailer park light and is beautiful, so we can see her laced-up jeans
Jughead doubts it: Jughead has a very Jugheadian response to the Gauntlet: “It’s whatever.”
Toni wants to be clear that if Jughead joins this gang, everyone else will abandon him. Jughead is like...This one time...I choose not to believe it...
Summer + Blair = Veronica: Veronica still thinks Betty is her best friend and that something weird just happened that she will investigate later. Veronica is so fucking LEVEL-HEADED
Veronica unfortunately has to engage in the dance of “Mmmm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression…” when Nick just like strokes her thigh, like she isn’t clearly happily with Archie or just a person who may not want a thigh-stroking right this minute
Nick calls Archie a “hayseed yokel”
good slap! GOOD SLAP, ZACH
Betty dragged herself out to this, the world’s most suspect bus stop, in a staging not even Alfred Hitchcock would have dared pitch to Grace Kelly
Lili Reinhart does something shockingly good every episode, but Betty’s breakdown, especially her shudder-shiver breath when her phone rings, is so far beyond what the CW deserves
when BH is like “JUGHEAD,” and Betty is like “[gasp] NO,” and I’m like “I’M OUT OF WINDOWS”
...you know what the greatest trope of all time is?
—no. the greatest trope of all time is Make Him Think You Don’t Love Him. solidly, confidently, signed, sealed, delivered, the greatest, most delicious, stupidly painful thing one character can do to another. it combines SO MUCH lurid goodness: two people who, apparently, shouldn’t be together; desperate heroic measures; lack of communication—for safety reasons!; selflessness; self-torture; “I DON’T UNDERSTAND”; BRUTAL WORDS; hitting him where you know it hurts; the heartbreaker is always a GREAT actor suddenly; turning the corner after going through with it and weeping abjectly; DANGER AVOIDED BUT SOMETHING EVEN WORSE HAPPENING!!! just like—just like in Moulin Rouge! like in Twilight for god’s sake! you loved that part!
I do like how BH has no particular objection to Jughead as his own person but rather just to his father and his circumstances. Jughead’s a good kid, says BH
Archie’s Captain America Henley is back and better than ever
who is Archie calling? endless possibilities, but I hope Veronica
Archie gets EVEN MORE little moments of greatness seeing Betty spiral (is she spiralling?) and being like, Betty, this is not sustainable: “How are you going to put yourself through that?” I know there are like 12 Archies on this show, but this is one of the sweet ones
I don’t even know if it’s totally clear that Betty is telling him to “break up” with Jughead inasmuch as just keep him away from her for a couple days or so. is it possible Betty just wants Archie to be like, “Something’s happening but we have it under control, so stop coming to Pop’s”? how much credit am I giving these two?
Archie > Dawson: Archie has never been wiser than with “You HOPE we can.” and the look he gives her? devastatingly fleeting sagacity. he knows Jughead is Soft Grudge Boy
Betty knows what she’s doing using a sports metaphor on Archie’s conscience
okay what the fuck does “SoDale” mean. South Riverdale?
Best costume bit: Hermione’s white cutout dress and top knot are Academy-worthy
Veronica’s “charm offensive”
OH YEAH, FRED���S STILL THERE
ooooh Hal certainly stepped up with Alice gone, did he not?
when Alice strides in in the Outfit, there are some prop-girls at the tent entrance in denim skirts and hard hats, like as pretend construction workers
Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: Alice’s, I don’t know what to call it, flowy snakeskin cape-suit is either something she had stashed or something she bought on Amazon Prime that morning. is this what FP meant when he said she didn’t dress like the southside anymore? is this the other option, besides flannel? ...Toni? JUG?
the eyebrow? “Shove it, Hal”? Cheryl walks in too late, if you ask me
is Nick’s bowtie like .5% too big?
Veronica is in the midst of deciding whether or not to say “I DON’T GIVE A SHIT” when she sees her parents talking to Nick’s parents and feels the pull of her father telling her she was a real part of Lodge Industries now
poor fucking lonely Cheryl. Cheryl is ALONE. Cheryl looks good!
ARCHIE TAKES A TURN in this scene from the upcoming Hostel III: My Favorite Characters. was I ready for the greatest moment in the history of television Wednesday night? I was not. nothing else measures up: “The hardest thing to do in this world is to—” —who? “Cruciatus in crucem” what? who shot JR? I don’t even care. Jughead thought Archie was here to save him. don’t talk to me
The female gaze: Jughead’s tank top is back, because on top of everything else he should be physically vulnerable (direct quote from Sweet Pea)
I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: Jughead SO GENTLY puts his hands on Archie’s shoulders to try and communicate by Morse code how urgently Archie needs to leave
Archie was going along with Betty’s instructions up until Sweet Pea & the Gang strolled up, and then it turned into him breaking up with Jughead for Betty and breaking up with Jughead for Archie, because Archie explodes when he’s angry and he just got like really angry
“thugs” is a terrible thing to say, when Archie obviously means “like-minded young men who want to protect their clan, as I do my own, like I did that one time”
the wrongness of calling Reggie and Dilton Jughead’s friends is blatant, but implying that Veronica got attacked is either Archie being a garbled storyteller or Archie rounding up to make Jughead’s crime, or whatever, even worse, as if Jughead is being a bad friend. Jughead is practically THE BEST FRIEND ON THIS SHOW
Jughead (I just took my glasses off, for a visual of the unplumbable depths of my emotion) asking Archie if Archie came to warn him that the Serpents are dangerous, because Archie loves him, is so motherfucking sad, it’s sadder than like, like anything else, it’s sadder than the end of Homeward Bound when you’re eight and you think Shadow fucking died in that trainyard (before he comes back; spoilers for Homeward Bound: the Incredible Journey)
Archie’s follow-up is that Betty doesn’t want to be with him anymore, and in fact hasn’t wanted to be with him for a while, which, on top of everything else!, is mortifying to a certain kind of person, that someone you enjoy being with has been rolling their eyes at you behind your back
Gay.: okay Sweet Pea looking back at Fangs, who’s like, Mhmmm, when Archie’s doing his thing, is really good
Sweet Pea is really good throughout! he’s standing there but he doesn’t step in, even at the “dark side” stuff. he’s kind of minding his own business!
Jughead is apparently so wretched about himself that the incongruity of this attack isn’t even a blip on his radar. he’s not like, Archie, respectfully, this is coming out of nowhere. Archie, what? What the hell? instead he’s like, The day has come
Archie’s pornographic cruelty here (which is precisely what Betty told him NOT TO DO) is to include the “agonizing over it” detail, which is a REALLY GOOD detail, and then his AMAZING bluff about “CALL HER.”
Jughead’s internal certainty about Betty’s unimpeachable conduct starts to crack
“She saw where you were headed. We all did.”: it’s not enough that Betty, the creature he loves most in all the world, thinks he’s trash and wants him gone, but it’s all of us, and Jughead buys it because he’s conditioned to expect that everyone will tolerate him up until the point they realize he’s trash and want him gone, as the Powers That Be, like he put it, keep telling him over and over and over (his mother, his father, Reggie, Sheriff Keller, Fred Andrews, the Rockland County school system, Alice, Sweet Pea, Toni, Archie)
Archie knows he might’ve put a toe over the line (obliterated it?) when Jughead looks like he’s about to cry, and Jughead tells him he got it and he just quietly says “Yeah,” and walks away, through the Serpents, who leave him alone
I honestly don’t know what Sweet Pea was about to say before Jughead cut him off! something bracing? he was definitely AT LEAST going to be neutral. there’s no “I told you so,” which is good otherwise Jughead might’ve Gauntleted himself. he changes the subject!
“I’m choosing to blame Betty’s Britney-esque meltdown.”
Cheryl isn’t fucking around with baby sips
GOD!!!!!!! I hope Lodge Industries razing the entire southside BRINGS BACK how it destroyed Jughead’s drive-in and FINALLY MAKES JUGHEAD AND VERONICA YELL AT EACH OTHER
The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: the Pussycats and Veronica looks incredible (the corset-like back of Veronica’s dress?) and perform the only song from Rent that I like!
Fwoopy hair is the best hair: VALERIE
Riverdale brings back one of their very good things: somebody cheerfully singing over top the visual of something horrible happening
Please protect Betty: Betty unrestrainedly sobbing in her windowsill while Jug cracks his neck (something he does now) in CrossFit mobility training for running the gauntlet is better than anything Alice predicted would happen when they started dating
Archie deserves to sit alone at Pop’s counter for a little while
Josie is so...fit. she’s tiny and she’s all muscle
okay LOVED Jughead’s smoky silhouette before he starts walking, loved
Cheryl’s sparkly boots???
Veronica and Josie take note of Nick leading Cheryl away IMMEDIATELY, because as you recall Veronica is a feminist superhero and senses when sketch is afoot
the gauntlet was good until it was GREAT. YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT:
Sexy, aesthetic Southside: Sweet Pea probably breaks Jughead’s fucking cheekbone with that. Jughead doesn’t really have cheekbones, but he has cheek bones and it’s probably fucking broken, and it was, IT WAS EXACTLY the kind of sexy, bloody, homoerotic standoff I crave. that lighting? Sweet Pea’s FACE? Jughead standing there with his shoulders back, daring him to go harder? Jughead is not having a good time, but I’m having a great time. I fucking love the Serpents
the real gauntlet looks like it would be lying on the floor while Josie and the Pussycats kick the shit out of you
Sweet Pea and Toni and the Daddy are SO PROUD OF JUGHEAD!!! SO AM I!!!!!
it’s possible Betty seriously no longer cares if she lives or dies, is the only explanation for her going to an “abandoned house on the edge of Fox Forest” by her own damn self
I will say the wallpaper in this house is more or less the same as in Betty’s bedroom, and that is a very Betty mirror
Archie could literally kill someone tonight, so it’s probably for the best he didn’t make the leap the Nick went back to HIS HOTEL ROOM
Josie keeps slightly fixing the warm orange knit over Cheryl’s legs
“It’s not your fault, Veronica.”
Jughead got the tiniest little Serpent tattoo, because he is just a child
I LOVE Toni’s headband wrap
Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: is it kind of tacky for Toni to kiss him right now? yes. is it BAD? no. he’s developing another layer of trauma as we speak, but he’s single. somebody wants him!
OOOOOOOOHHHH BETTY!!!!!!!
NEXT WEEK: Cheryl in round sunglasses
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TFCFansgive fic - Favor with the Stars (TFC Renison)
This is the fic I wrote for @cabeswaterlovesthem as part of @tfcfansgive - I really hope you like it, I had such fun filling the prompt! Much thanks to @magnesiumeternity for the beta.
So, basically a T rating, no trigger warnings other than references to Allison’s past and the sexist nature of Exy. I’ll probably get this up on AO3 later.
*******
Allison groaned as she felt the bed shift next to her, unwilling to wake up just then since she was still tired and there was a crick in her neck and things were so nice and warm…. Something cool and smooth stroked along her left calf, followed by a hand sliding along her left hip, which caused her to murmur out a complaint. "Not playin’ fair, dammit."
"Hmm, looks like you're not awake yet, sweetie. Still dreaming or something," Renee told her as Allison snuggled closer. "Good morning," she said before she placed a kiss against Allison's left shoulder, body warm against Allison's back.
Dammit, it looked as if she had no choice but to wake up after all, Allison realized with a bit of grumpiness as she hugged Renee's arm tighter against her belly and tilted her head up and back enough for a proper kiss. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel the smile on her wife's lips, begrudgingly giving in to one of her own as their fingers entwined, before rolling onto her back with Renee leaning above her.
"It's morning," she admitted as she opened her eyes to find Renee still smiling, pink-hued hair tousled from sleep and framing her lovely face, and dark eyes sparkling. "I'm not conceding anything else right now." Not until she got at least another kiss and a couple of espressos into her.
Well used to their morning routine by then, Renee's smile deepened. The faint wrinkles around her eyes crinkled (Allison would be appalled for her, except - as with everything related to Renee - it was adorable as hell. Besides, Renee didn't give a damn about crow's feet from smiling). Allison had just managed to sneak her left hand up beneath Renee’s cotton t-shirt when there was a loud shout about ‘not fair’ (which oddly enough echoed her thoughts just then), prompting a low moan caught between amusement and frustration.
“Why did we adopt again?” she asked, her arms flopping back onto the luxury mattress even as her lips twitched into a smile. Renee gave her a slight peck on the tip of her nose before slipping from their king-sized bed (sadly not so huge because of the very enjoyable things they did in it when they had the time and energy, but because of the shared company they usually had crawling into it at all hours of the day and night).
“Ha, ha,” Renee chided as she grabbed her robe from the chaise lounge at the foot of the bed. “I’ll go see what’s causing the latest crisis while you get ready.”
“If it’s Jared fighting over pop tarts again, tell him he’s lost his internet privileges for the day,” Allison called out, although, judging from the glint in Renee’s eyes, she shouldn’t have bothered; Renee was an amazing mother, was there for their ‘brood’ 24/7 and even cut back to part-time work at the local woman’s shelter so she could take care of the two youngest kids while Allison managed to balance running a successful clothing line and have enough time for her family. Still, that didn’t mean she let any of their four kids walk all over her, even if she was better with the whole ‘affection’ thing.
Allison was doing her best, was determined to not make the same mistakes which her parents had made— her and Renee were both determined to give their kids everything that had been denied them growing up, to provide a safe, stable home where their daughters and sons could achieve their dreams without censure or abuse. Some days, though, the doubts were ever present.
And some days, the doubts vanished when she walked into the kitchen to find Jared laughing as he helped Maddy with the breakfast dishes, as Renee and Ryan sang along together to a popular tune while Hailee finished the last of her cereal. Allison hummed along as she grabbed the mug of coffee waiting for her, swooping in to give Ryan a kiss on the top of his awful bedhead and going over to tousle Jared’s bleached spikes, as always torn between joy and a slight heartache at how he looked so much like a young, carefree version of Seth. A version of Seth she was determined to ensure would have the best chances in life this time around, who would avoid all of the demons which had dragged her old boyfriend down.
Maddy laughed at Jared grimacing at the gesture of affection and smiled at Allison; she was growing lovelier each day with her long black hair, dark eyes, and sun-kissed complexion. “You two almost ready?” Allison asked. She was responsible for taking them to school on her way to work; Renee would get Ryan to preschool in a little bit and Hailee to daycare for a few hours when she went to the shelter.
“Yes,” Jared and Maddy said in unison while Maddy put away the last of the dishes and Jared hurried to dry his hands. They rushed over to give Renee a kiss ‘goodbye’ before they grabbing their backpacks and the large duffel bags which held their sports gear; Jared was on the under 10 soccer team and doing well, while Maddy wanted to (so far) ‘carry on’ the family ‘tradition’ and was into Exy. Allison had to say that she was a damn good offensive dealer, and even Dan agreed.
It was an unexpected emotion, to feel so much joy and pride in what another person— a child at that— did, in their accomplishments, but there it was. Allison was doing a lot of new things these days, was in a lot of uncharted territory, and it was all because of Renee.
It wasn’t the fancy life she’d imagined— the endless parties and the expensive penthouse and a different city each week— but she was happy. She had a nice home in a gated community not far from downtown Los Angeles; she had a successful business, an amazing wife, and a wonderful family.
Not to mention her kick-ass custom pink Porsche Cayenne with a supped up v6 engine, which purred like a kitten and handled the highways (when there wasn’t too much traffic) like a champ— and always got her a few narrowed looks dropping off the kids. She made sure to give the other parents a big grin and a wave of manicured nails before she floored it out of the school zones on her way to work.
Once at the office, she got down to business, which was getting the winter collection ready for show even if it was early spring. She worked on a few new designs of her own and approved several others while her assistants, Emilio and Becca, ran around like the well-organized lunatics they were and helped her field the calls for new orders, interviews, production lines and so forth.
During lunch in her office, she took the time to chat with Renee, and spending the rest checking up on her Foxes, on seeing the pictures that Dan had posted of her kids (Abram was the spitting image of Matt while Tori and Davey were getting so big) and of Nicky and Erik’s recent vacation. The Foxes were off to a good start in the latest season, Matt’s team had just beaten Kevin’s, and of course there was nothing but cat pictures on Neil’s Instagram.
Seeing that his and Andrew’s team would be in LA in two weeks for a game, she fired off a message to the hopeless case that she expected the two of them to free up some time for dinner. She knew that Renee would be working on Andrew as well and figured it would be worth putting up with Andrew to get her Neil time for the night. She spent the rest of her break heaping more abuse on Kevin for his loss, which made her smile, especially when Nicky came online and joined in on the fun.
Then it was back to work, especially since she had to leave early for Maddy’s Exy game. For years, Allison had sneered at the term ‘soccer mom’, at the thought of the parents who had shown up all the time to the Exy games she’d played while in high school, who had cheered on her teammates and yelled at the coaches if they felt a call had been messed up— overbearing parents who pushed their kids too much, in her opinion, who lived through their kids’ accomplishments rather than their own.
Her parents had never come to one of her games, had never supported her while she played Exy. They might be coming around now that she had her own successful business and adored Renee, but she never forgave them for being unable to accept her for so many years, for letting her struggle on her own and stand without support. But that was the past, and she refused to repeat those same mistakes, to be like them.
When Maddy and Jared had come along, she’d realized that going to the games was important to them, to show them that she (and Renee) was there for them, to cheer them on and offer encouragement and support. Most days, Allison and Renee had split the games between them— to have Allison go to Maddy’s one day and Jared’s the next and then Renee switch off with her, but the kids were happy as long as someone was there to watch them play.
After all those years where Allison had struggled with Exy, had gotten by with sheer determination and spite, had put up with the bruises and abuse merely to prove everyone wrong… she wasn’t going to let Maddy down or go through it alone. She wasn’t going to let Jared feel that he didn’t have any support, that he didn’t have someone who believed in him (she never could convince Seth that he had at least one person who believed in him, dammit).
Traffic being the bitch that it was, she got to Maddy’s game right before it started, which meant that there weren’t any good seats left around the court. Allison shrugged and went to stand near the Plexiglas barrier, where she reached into her Chloe bag to pull out her phone so she could let Renee know that she’d made it to the game.
Already out on court, Maddy waved when she caught sight of her (the five inch Prada heels helped, and Allison refused to take them off after she caught a snide comment from one of the other mothers that ‘it’s not the division championship, what’s her deal?’, even if they would start to hurt like a bitch by half-time) and she settled in for the game. Allison filmed a few minutes of it so Renee could watch their daughter in action later, as always proud of the girl; it was the under-13 division so some of the kids were bigger than Maddy, had already hit their growth spurt and so could really shove the smaller kids around.
And, as always with Exy being a co-ed sport, you got some boys who seemed to think that girls had no right being out on their court. ‘Still, Maddy refused to be intimidated by them and stood her ground.
Allison and Renee had raised Maddy— all of their kids, really— to stand up for themselves, to know that they were worthy of respect and of being treated properly. Maddy had several ‘uncles’ who played Exy and believed that women had every right to be out on court, and had been taught she could do anything she wanted. She faced the challenges on court without fear and played with a sense of determination and skill which made Allison think that here was a Reynolds (well, Reynolds-Walker) who would take Exy all the way to the pros.
So when a backliner for the away team knocked her daughter down in a blatant foul that made Allison ready to rip open the door and go charging out onto the court, she forced herself to take a deep breath and remain calm. She knew how she’d have hated it if someone interfered when she’d been playing, if she thought that someone else had been fighting her battles. Pride swelled in her chest when Maddy got up on her feet and, after patting down her legs and letting the team nurse check her out for a couple of seconds, picked up her racquet to continue playing.
Except the Cougar’s latest coach indicated that he wanted Maddy off the court, when she was one of the team’s best dealers and clearly fit to play. Maddy frowned at that and tried to argue, but Coach Nichols didn’t listen and waved her off.
Allison caught her daughter’s eyes, giving her a reassuring smile. She watched from the stands as the Cougars lost to the Sea Lions 4-10, as the away team battered down their defense again and again. Maddy never got a chance to get back out onto the court, while Allison bided her time until the pathetic game was over.
Her feet aching and temper in shreds, she managed a smile when an upset Maddy came out of the locker room with her arms open for a hug. “I’m so sorry, mom. You came only to see us lose.”
“Hush, you were great out there,” Allison assured her as she held her daughter close. “You did your best, as always.” She gave her a quick kiss while she kept an eye on the doorway, and soon enough, Nichols finally came out into the parking lot.
Stalking forward to get the man’s attention before someone else could, Allison called out the bastard’s name. “Nichols? Mike Nichols?” When he gave her a curious look, she smiled, the expression poison-sweet. “I have a question about the game tonight.”
“I’m sure you do,” he said, his tone as sour as he glanced around. “Which kid is yours?”
“Maddy Reynolds-Walker, offensive dealer, number nine.” Maddy had been so happy to get Renee’s old number for her own.
“Right.” Now Nichols’ expression was as sour as his tone. “Look, kids are going to get roughed up in this game, if you don’t like that-”
“No, that’s not what this is about,” Allison said as Maddy crept up to stand beside her, as a few other parents and their kids stopped to watch the interaction. “I very well know that Exy is a contact sport.”
“Sure you do,” Nichols said in a patronizing manner as he pulled out his phone to look at it, as if he had a better way to spend his time than to listen to a ‘soccer mom’.
“You better damn well believe I do,” Allison snapped. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but both me and my wife happened to play Exy in college. We were on the same team as a few people you may have heard of . . . Kevin Day, Neil Josten, Andrew Minyard, and Matt Boyd, to name a few.” She didn’t usually drop names like that, but she had an asshole to tear apart and a point to prove, and not much time to do it since Renee would have dinner ready for them soon.
As soon as she’d said ‘Kevin Day’, Nichols jerked his attention away from the phone to gawk at her, and his jaw had dropped when she got to ‘Andrew Minyard’. “Yes, I’m an ex-Fox, in case you don’t recognize me,” she told the bastard. “So I damn well know a few things about the game, and so does my daughter. You know, the girl who had helped to keep the team who went on to beat your team’s ass in check until you pulled her off the court for some stupid reason.”
“But… but… she’s just a gir- ah, a kid,” Nichols attempted to argue. “She was getting smacked around out there.”
Just as Allison had thought, another asshole who thought that women couldn’t handle playing Exy. “Maddy? Were you or weren’t you fine out there? Tell the truth.”
Maddy straightened up and nodded. “I had the wind knocked out of me, but I was fine to play. I know what Uncle Kevin and Aunt Dan told me about playing injured and I wasn’t hurt at all.”
There were a few twitters at the ‘Uncle Kevin’ part, and Allison noticed that a couple of other parents with young girls as players appeared very interested in the exchange with Nichols at the moment. “See? My daughter has had it drilled into her head to get off the court if she’s hurt and she told you she was fine to play, yet you ignored her. You took a player who’s a starter for a reason out of play because… well, the only thing I can think of is that you’re a chauvinistic asshole and that makes me rather unhappy,” Allison warned. “Unhappy enough that I’m sure my daughter can find a better team to play on with a coach who knows the value of his players.”
“Mom,” Maddy whined, but settled when Allison gave her The Look.
Meanwhile, Nichols shook his head. “It’s not like that, I just wanted to make sure that your kid didn’t get roughed up!”
“Yet you allowed boys her size to continue to play,” Allison pointed out, which made several parents raise their voices in agreement. “Something to consider, no?” Feeling that she’d proven her point, she motioned for Maddy that it was time to leave. “If I see you making a negative call against Maddy or another girl on this team again, we’ll find another team for my daughter to play on, one that truly is co-ed.”
A few of the parents joined in on that statement as Allison and Maddy made their way to the Porsche, where Maddy waited to say anything until they pulled out of the parking lot. “Really, Mom? Did you have to do that?” she asked with a pout as she folded her arms across her chest.
Allison didn’t respond until about a minute later, when she was certain her tone wouldn’t be snappish in any manner. “Look, I get it, I do. That probably was a bit embarrassing for you, but I’m not going to let some asshole get away with something like that, with belittling any of you kids and your skills.” She glanced over at Maddy and smiled, the expression a little sad. “Ask Aunt Dan one day about all the stuff she put up with for being the first female captain in the Class I division, but it’s not going to be pretty, those stories. I can’t fight all your battles for you, I don’t want to fight all of them because that’s what makes you stronger, but I’ll do what I can to get you to where you’re ready to go out there and kick ass yourself.”
Maddy stared at her with those full lips of hers pushed out in a pout, and then she smiled. “Okay, first? Mom would yell at you for all of that swearing, you know.”
Allison smiled in earnest at that. “Yeah, so do me a favor and keep it a secret between us, all right? Mani-pedi on Saturday?”
“Deal,” Maddy agreed in a rush. “And second?” Her expression softened. “Thank you, even if it really was a bit embarrassing.”
“Then I’m doing my job.” Allison laughed when her daughter groaned at that statement. “Just be thankful it was me here today, because your other mom would have handed that guy his spleen for treating you like a delicate little flower.” There was no way Renee would have just stood there and allowed some asshole to sideline their child like that.
Maddy groaned again as she tucked back a lock of hair, which had escaped the bright pink elastic she’d pulled it back with into a messy ponytail. “Oh no, I still remember what she did to Jared’s math teacher when she told him that he clearly didn’t grasp the subject just because he doesn’t speak up in class!”
Oh yes, that had been quite the takedown, one Allison was sorry she’d missed because she’d been in New York City at the time, but she’d heard enough from the kids to savor the way Renee had torn into woman – hell hath no fury like the truly righteous who knew how to kill you with a slip of paper. A truly righteous person who could hold their own against Andrew Minyard and Neil Josten at that.
Allison and Maddy spent the rest of the drive home talking about colors and styles for their ‘girls out’ morning on Saturday, and arrived just a little later than usual to find something delicious scenting the air in the kitchen and Jared setting the table with Ryan’s help. He dumped a handful of forks to come running over to give her a hug and brag about his win, which set off some teasing when Maddy had to admit that her team lost – but only because her coach was an idiot. Allison left them to their bickering to go give Renee a kiss.
“Hmm, how was your day?” Renee asked as she smiled up at Allison, lovely as always, dressed in faded jeans with an old Fox t-shirt with her hair pulled back from her face in a loose ponytail.
“Interesting.” Allison picked up Hailee and settled her youngest daughter on her hip, uncaring that her Lanvin silk dress would get wrinkled. “The restock of the fall collection is well on its way to selling out, I threatened to castrate the guy who’s handling— or mishandling, I should say— the production of our coats for the winter collection and I think he liked it a little too much,” Renee laughed at that, “and I gave a verbal beatdown to Maddy’s coach because he seems to think girls are too breakable for Exy, of all things.” She rolled her eyes at that as she bounced Hailee up and down, making her daughter laugh and grab at the long gold necklace she wore.
“Hmm.” A blank look came over Renee’s face for a moment as she stirred some more paprika into what looked to be some sort of goulash. “Well, I helped Laura sign the paperwork for her new apartment,” she said, which made her smile – Allison knew that helping the women move into a new home was one of Renee’s favorite aspects of her job – “assisted a few others with filling out some resumes and agreed that we’d co-chair a fund raiser next month.” Now her expression turned a bit rueful. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“You know I love to throw parties, and it’s a welcome change from kids’ birthdays,” Allison said as she held Hailee up above her head. “Someone didn’t want black tie for their second birthday, you heathen.”
“Black tie!” Hailee cried out with evident glee. “Higher, Mommy!”
Allison gave her a gentle toss a couple of times before she set her down on the floor, where Hailee went stumbling off toward Maddy, laughing all the while. Renee watched on with a tender smile curving her lips before she turned toward Allison, her expression suddenly much more intent.
“So . . . Maddy’s next game is Thursday.”
“Yes, I believe so,” Allison agreed as she picked up a spoon so she could taste the goulash. “Oh, that’s good.”
Renee gave her wrist a gentle swat. “It’ll be done in five minutes, you can wait that long. I was going to take Ryan to the dentist that afternoon, but I want you to swap with me.” It was clear that it wasn’t a request.
Since Allison very well knew why the love of her life wanted to switch things around, she smiled as she leaned in close. “I’ll do it for a kiss, and if you promise to tell me all the gruesome details.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Renee rocked up onto her toes to seal the agreement, while Jared complained that he was hungry so no more kissy stuff and Ryan ran over to hug them both, his short arms barely fitting around their hips.
They broke off the kiss with a laugh, Allison almost dizzy with joy as she held them against her close.
#tfcfansgive#cabeswaterlovesthem#tfc#aftg#renison#hope i didn't mess this up too much#gift fic#don't mess with allison#definitely don't mess with renee#it's a bit fluffy
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@palesandwichobject asked for a part 2 of the Andreil Twilight AU (part 1) (special thanks also goes to @alecolightwood )
Neil needs some time to adjust to his new vampire body
He is still surprised when his body moves faster than he anticipates
Stupid accidents in school happen
Like Neil just disappearing and then showing up at the other side of the room a few seconds later
The other students think he is even weirder since he started hanging out with Andrew
They are also concerned because the two of them seem really close now
Who would voluntarily want to spend time with Andrew (he is scary af)
But the Foxes are worried too because if Neil keeps acting like that they´ll have to move soon
Riko may be dead but if they call too much attention to themselves the humans will soon start to notice that they aren´t normal
And if other vampires (possibly members of Riko´s clan) become aware of the fact that they have revealed their true nature this could start yet another war between the Foxes and the Ravens
So they decide that it´s time to move
Nicky wants to move to Germany because he wants to move in with Erik again
But he´s overruled by the rest of the Foxes
Kevin suggests moving to Alaska and living with the Trojans a clan who has a similar lifestyle (Kevin is also close friends with the clan leader Jeremy)
Andrew of course chooses Kevin´s side
Neil doesn´t care (he just wants to be with Andrew) so he votes for Alaska
Most of the other Foxes also really like or at least tolerate the Trojans so most of them are ok with moving to Alaska
It takes some time to pack all their stuff (Allison has a lot of clothes and Kevin wants to take all his Exy gear with him)
They also need to make up an excuse about why they are moving in the middle of the school year
It takes about a month and a half of preparations until they are ready to move
At first Neil didn´t really care about moving because he´s been on the run for most of his life but when moving day rolls around he is actually pretty excited
The last few month were exhausting
He always had to pay attention to not blow their cover and to get used to all of his new abilities
Neil had to come to terms with his new scars
Andrew gave him a matching set of armbands when he found Neil silently tracing his scars one night
Neil has been wearing them ever since
He was also very busy figuring out his relationship with Andrew
There has been a lot of kissing and figuring out each others boundaries
They figured out that Andrew is ok with Neil touching his hair and neck and even his shoulders on most days
But the most important thing that Neil has discovered is the spot Neil has to kiss to make Andrew shudder
It happened one night when they sat on the roof together (like most nights)
Andrew had a cigarette between his lips and Neil´s new sense of smell allowed him to inhale the smell from just sitting next to Andrew and watching him smoke
Andrew looked good
The pale glow of the moon illuminating his straight nose, strong jaw line and long eyelashes
The smoke curling around Andrew´s expressionless yet beautiful face
Neil couldn’t resist
He leaned even closer inhaling some of the smoke surrounding Andrew
When Andrew didn´t shy away Neil moved another few inches closer
“Is that ok?”
“Yes”
Neil leaned in and gently kissed Andrew´s neck
His skin there was just as cold as the rest of him but Neil couldn’t help but think that Andrew`s skin is particularly soft there
Andrew´s hair tickled Neil´s skin while he explored Andrew´s neck
But then something happened
Andrew has been stock-still the whole time but when Neil reached the
spot right behind his ear his body shuddered and Andrew made the most beautiful little noise (almost a sigh)
Neil smiled against his neck
“You like it”
“Shut up”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No”
Neil still grins whenever he thinks back to that moment (it has its advantages that Andrew can´t read his mind because he would just glare at him 24/7 if he knew what Neil is thinking about most of the time)
Yes, the last few month weren´t always easy for Neil but that just makes moving more exciting
He is now ready to build a new life with the Foxes and especially with Andrew
Even tho Andrew gave him a key and a home the house never felt like a real home to Neil
Andrew´s room has always been Andrew´s room even after Neil moved in with him
Now they can finally start over and built a new home together
Neil can´t wait to do that
Andrew and Neil drive to their new home together (they were supposed to take Aaron and Nicky with them but Andrew just started the engine when they were going back for the last bags that were still in the house)
Neil got used to Andrew´s driving style by now
He actually really enjoys going on road trips with Andrew
This always means quality time and at least a few kisses when they have to stop for gas or Andrew simply gets bored
They are the first to arrive at their destination
Jeremy stands in front of the house to greet them
Nothing seems amiss but Andrew has a weird feeling and his instincts are right more often than not
He can smell something or rather someone
Jean
Andrew grits his teeth but can`t stop the hiss from escaping
“What is he doing here?” snarls Andrew
“He is one of us now”, answers Jeremy calm as always
“Then we won`t stay here”, states Andrew before he turns and starts walking back towards the car
“Andrew wait”, Neil runs after him (his new abilities allow Neil to reach Andrew before he can leave)
“No!” Neil protests when he reaches him
“I´m not letting him near you. Maybe you forgot but I still remember everything”
Just when Neil opens his mouth to say something Jeremy catches up with them
“When Riko died Jean came to us asking for help and a shelter. We decided to give him a second chance and if you can´t accept then I´ll have to ask you to leave. But I hope that you´ll think about it before you make a hasty decision”
Andrew just stares blankly at Jeremy and then continues walking towards the car
Neil jogs after Andrew
“Please”
“What?”
“Let us stay here. At least for a little while. If something goes wrong we can always leave immediately”
Andrew looks at him before he nods
He turns around to look at Jeremy “If something happens to him I´m going to kill you all”
Jeremy ignores Andrew threat and just proceeds to show them the house and the property
After a few difficulties at the beginning Andrew and Neil soon settle into their new room
It takes some time for both of them to adjust but they manage eventually
Kevin and Jean fight a lot the first few months after the foxes have moved in but after some time and a few talks they decide on a truce
Andrew and Jean still don’t really talk and Andrew almost killed Jean twice but other than that everything seems pretty chill
Neil FINALLY gets to play vampire Exy
To say he is excited is an understatement
He loves every second of it
Andrew and Neil stay with the Trojans for a few years until they decide that it´s time to move on
They want to live on their own (without the others breathing down their necks every second)
Having their own house instead of just having their own bedroom
They want to settle down far away from the civilization; somewhere in the woods (They are tired of changing identities and pretending to be human. They just want to be left alone)
After some research they find the perfect house in middle of the Canadian forest
It´s very remote and the next village is a three hour drive away
They choose their final identities so they can purchase the house
When Neil checks the new passport he splutters
“This says Josten-Minyard?”
“I am aware”
“We´re not married”
“You´re exceptionally clever today”
“Do you want to get married?”
Let´s be real Neil definitely thought about it more than once but he never imagined this could be something that Andrew wants as well
“Yes or no?” Andrew looks like he couldn’t care less when he asks the question but Neil sees right through him
He sees the slight shimmer of nervousness in Andrew´s eyes and the way the corners of his mouth twitch in anticipation
“It´s always yes with you”
This is how Andreil decide to get married
They don´t want a ceremony (their passports already say that they are married and the simple agreement that they want to acknowledge that fact is enough for them. They know that they are each others forever. They don´t need to prove that to anyone)
Renee saw their talk in one of her visions and when Andrew and Neil come back she doesn´t even need to ask Andrew how Neil reacted
She can see that her vision came true in Andrew´s eyes and can hear it in Neil´s carefree laughter
Renee doesn´t tell the other foxes about it because she knows that Andrew and Neil don´t want to make a big deal out of it
It´s actually Neil´s fault that the foxes catch up on what´s going on
Sometimes he just needs reassurance that all of this is true
That he doesn´t need to run anymore
That Andrew is his home
That Andrew is his husband
So he takes out his new passport sometimes to look at it and make sure it really reads Josten-Minyard there
In a house full of people it only takes so long until someone catches him doing that
It ends up being Nicky who walks in on Neil just quietly staring at the little booklet in his hand
“What is that?”
“Nothing”
Neil tries to hide the passport behind his back but Nicky is faster and grabs it right out of Neil´s hands
“When did that happen?” Nicky asks barely able to contain his excitement when he reads their combined surnames
“What do you mean?”
“Don´t be stupid. When did you and Andrew get married?”
“Uhm technically we didn´t get married. We just changed our names on the passports so it would be easier to buy the house”, Neil tries to downplay the whole thing in the hope that Nicky will just forget about it
But of course he won´t
He tells everyone he comes across about his new discovery and after a few hours everyone in the house knows about it
When they all sit together in the evening Nicky of course mentions how sad it is that Andrew and Neil didn´t have a proper wedding and that it would be a nice way to say goodbye before they move
Andrew and Neil immediately disagree
They don´t need a ceremony
Not to mention a ceremony planned by Nicky
But Renee gives Andrew a look and a few seconds later he can see the vision she had earlier that day
It´s an image of Neil in a nice black suit standing at the end of an aisle decorated with flowers, waiting for Andrew to join him
But what strikes Andrew most about the vision is the smile on Neil´s face
It´s so radiant and bright
His dead heart clenches at the sight
Renee nods her head in Neil´s direction (a gentle gesture that says just think about it)
And Andrew knows that he would do everything to make Neil smile like that (even if that means having an actual wedding)
So it´s decided that they will get married on the day they move
Their belongings will already be a on the way to Canada and will wait for them there when they come back from their honeymoon
The ceremony is simple and nothing official
Just an exchange of vows in the garden
But that didn´t keep Nicky from going all out with the flower decoration
Sunflowers line the way to the makeshift altar (it´s a table with a white tablecloth) and at the end of the aisle an arch of yellow and white roses completes the ensemble
Allison choose the suits
They are both black and very fashionable
Wymack officiates the wedding
All the Foxes and Trojans are invited (even Jean)
There are several betting pools on how the whole thing will go down
They bet on a lot of different things but no one expected them to actually take the wedding seriously (except from Renee but she is not allowed to bet on anything because she probably already knows the outcome)
Neil is nervously standing in front of the altar waiting for Andrew
They are already married on paper but that doesn´t make the strange feeling in his belly go away
And then the music starts
It´s a lovely song but Neil doesn´t really pay attention because Andrew´s just arrived
Bee is walking him down the aisle
He looks breathtaking in his black suit with the white dress shirt and his silver tie
When he reaches Neil he puts out one hand and Neil is glad that he has something to hold on to
Andrew is his anchor
He holds Neil in place and will never let him go (Neil is glad for that)
Neil can´t help but give Andrew his biggest, brightest smile and he is pleased to notice that Andrew´s eyes soften the tiniest bit
Wymack gives a heartfelt speech
Saying goodbye to both of them and wishing them the best for their future
If vampires would be able to cry there would be only a few dry faces
Then it´s time for Andrew and Neil to exchange vows
Neil goes first
“Andrew, you gave me a place to call home and a new life. I promise that I will never forget about the second chance you gave me and that I will cherish that gift until the end of my existence. I promise to trust you and that I will stay by your side. And if should feel the need to run I´ll always come back home to you”
It is short but still more than anyone expected
When it´s Andrew´s turn they all sit stock-still and no one dares to make the slightest noise
Neil giving a little speech was surprising but Andrew saying something he actually means in return seems entiretly impossible
The silence stretches for a few more moments
Then Andrew opens his mouth
His voice is quiet but clear
His face entirely impassive
“This means something”
Neil doesn´t need to breathe anyone but he still gasps at Andrew´s words
“I vow to never bring you any harm and to protect you for the rest of my existence”
If Neil´s heart was still beating it would be jumping right out of his chest
His knees feel weak
He is not the most emotional person but this is the first time Andrew admitted that there is something between them
And he offered his protection
AGAIN
All Neil can do is hold on tighter and hope that Andrew will keep his promise and never let go
Andrew of course notices that something is going on
He squeezes Neil´s hand and tucks him forward
Neil stumbles a bit but Andrew stops him with two hands on his shoulders before he barrels into Andrew
“Alright?”
“Yes”
Neil stares at Andrew for a few more seconds until Wymack interrupts their moment to continue with the ceremony
Renee stands and comes up to them
She has a little velvet box in her hand
Andrew and Neil turn their heads to look at her
While Neil´s mouth opens wide in surprise Andrew merely raises an eyebrow
“I saw you consider it and thought I´ll help you to make a decision. You don´t need to take them if you don´t want to. What you do with them is your choice but I just wanted to give them to you”
She smiles gently at them
When Andrew extends his hands towards her she places the box in his palm
Then she goes back to her chair
Andrew lets go off Neil`s hand and opens the box
In the box are two plain gold rings
“Yes or no?”
“Yes”
Andrew takes one of the rings and puts it on the ring finger of Neil´s right hand (later Neil wears his on a chain around his neck because he is scared to lose it on a hunt)
Neil does the same with Andrew´s ring
“Andrew and Neil by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and husband! You may now kiss!”
(They don´t really need that part because it´s not an official ceremony but Nicky insisted it is mandatory)
Neil is unsure if Andrew is comfortable with kissing him in front of everyone
So he waits what Andrew will do
Andrew holds out his hand again
They intertwine their fingers and walk down the aisle together
They´ll save the kisses for their honeymoon
The wedding reception is short and mainly consists of saying goodbye to everyone
Andrew and Neil will spend their honeymoon on a small island in the Caribbean
Their flight is on the same day so they need to get ready to leave soon after the wedding
Nicky put a big Just Married sticker on the car they will drive to the airport but Andrew and Neil don´t care
They get into the car and Andrew starts the engine
Neil waves a last goodbye to his new family
When he can´t see them anymore he turns back around to find Andrew looking at him
He isn´t smiling but it´s a close call
Neil fiddles with the ring on his finger and smiles back
He can´t wait to spend his forever with Andrew
#andreil#andrew minyard#neil josten#andreil au#andreil headcanon#andreil fic#andreil hc#twilight au#andreil twilight au#tfc hc#tfc au#tfc fic#the foxhole court#all for the game#tfc#aftg#fic#neil x andrew#alecolightwood#palesandwichobject#mine#aftg au#aftg fic#tfc headcanon
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