“If it means losing you, then no.”

'who are they?' 'the monsters.'

POV: Nicky is taking pictures of the team arriving for another match 🤭

*snort* your mind anon 😂

Okay but this got me thinking-

So the count down does start with 69 , Neil gets the text same as in the book, goes through the whole same process of trying to figure out where it came from and what it could mean because let’s be honest Neil would probably not make the connection of 69 being something sexual and his brain would instantly just signal danger.

But guess who does see it and makes a different connection? Andrew. (ofc) Neil gets the text when they’re together (maybe sitting next to each at edens or practice idk) and Andrew’s mind signals danger too but in a completely different way.

His mind instantly goes to ‘oh Neil got a sext from some one’ so andrews like okay - heres solid proof that Neil’s not serious about pursuing something with him. They’re just messing around, this really is ‘nothing’, so put that dumb ass heart of yours back under lock and key.

And so time passes -(69 days to be exact 😂) - and over the course of that time Andrew keeps reminding himself of the text anytime he feels himself catching feelings. Neil, however, is completely oblivious to Andrews having saw the text, let alone that he assumed that Neil might messing around with someone else, so Neil’s feelings continue to progress same as in the book.

They still have the same conversation on the bus -

Andrew only tolerated the staring another minute before saying, “Stop.” “I’m not doing anything.” “I told you not to look at me like that.”

I want to go back for you.“ “You wouldn’t,” Andrew said.

“I really want to know when Coach figured this out.” “It isn’t a ‘this’,” Andrew reminded him.

“The only one I’m interested in is you.“ "Don’t say stupid things.”

And all those words have a different meaning because Andrews saying them in response to thinking Neil has a side piece.

Anyways fast forward to after the game and Neil’s already missing and Andrew has just found his phone. Imagine him opening it up and seeing the “0” and his mind just instantly makes the connection of “oh fuck, it was a countdown” and just his whole world crumbling around him as everything falls into place- He had been Neil’s only one, it’s wasn’t just nothing, Neil had meant every last sickeningly sweet thing he’d said and now he was gone and Andrew had let him go - and as his heart shatters in a way he didn’t think possible, Andrew just stands there staring at the “0”, holding the phone with a white knuckled , crushing grip…

a businessman andrew commission. i like to think that they’re stepping in sync with beyonce’s crazy in love

“What are you hoping for, coordinates?”

Andrew & Neil - All For The Game

Hmm 🤔 yeah this could be interesting. The kid could also be a by product of Rico hooking up with another player too and she had planned on giving birth with the hope becoming part of the Moriyama family but after Rico’s death she was like ‘nope fuck this, I’m out’ and places the kid up for adoption.

And then like you said, Kevin finding out later and adopting him and Andreil stepping in to help.. it has the possibility of being so healing for all of them!

Kevin would get a glimpse of who Rico could have been if he’d been raised differently, who they both could have been. The little boy, nikoshi, would begin to replace the negative memories with good ones. Kevin would stop waking up at night from nightmares fueled by Rico’s piercing glare, instead he’d see little nikoshi’s eyes instead, so similar but filled with the hope and sweetness of childhood.

And I think helping with any kid would be a good experience for Andrew and Neil, especially one that had been in foster care. Andrew would get to protect and be the savior that he’d always wished for for himself when he was small, alone and broken. And Neil would get to see a part of himself he didn’t know existed. He’d always held a silent fear of kids, afraid that he’d treat them like his own father had treated him but he slowly comes to realize that isn’t the case and hes capable of loving and caring for a child, of being the type of man he’d always longed for his father to be...

me:

“You’re a mess.”

“What else is new.”