carry me slowly, my sunlight

drawing w/o text below the break

Neil, coughing: Can you swing by the pharmacy after class? Need something for this cough...

Matt: Sure, no problem

/some time later/

Neil, opening the door: Hey??

Matt, standing with two huge grocery bags: Hey

Neil: Need a hand..?

Matt: Nah, I’m good. Mind if I use your kitchen?

Neil: Of course

Matt: So I stopped by the pharmacy and thought, “Just pills? That’s kinda lame.”

Matt: Got some food too—I’ll cook dinner. You’re sick, dude

Neil: Yeah...

Matt, already unpacking: Then I figured food without drinks is no fun

Matt: So I bought beer

Neil: *watches the table fill up with more and more groceries, including takeout*

Matt: Then, on my way out of the store, I realized Andrew, Nicky, and probably Kevin are definitely showing up

Neil: So you basically cleared out every store on campus

Matt: Pretty much

Andrew, in German: Food won’t buy him a family spot

Matt: Holy shit! How long have you been standing there?!

Neil, in German: He got your favorite chicken noodles. And beer. I see chocolate cake and ice cream too—

Andrew: ....

Like what do you mean you’re drop dead gorgeous but choose to dress like a hobo despite having money AND intentionally covering up those heart stopping blue eyes??

this w andrew and touch? him slowly working up to things w neil and the first few he is very conscious about. he actively makes the choice to push himself and his boundaries to allow it and grow. but with time it becomes a less bigger deal. and he gets used to things. sometimes even new things just feel natural from the first time they try it, andrew doesn't even think about it. until he does

rare sight, innit?

it’s so easy to forget that neil really doesn’t have any sort of guide for what a healthy adult/child relationship is. mary is an abuser of his as well, no matter how well intentioned her actions were.

the hug neil gets from abby, where he directly contrasts it to how mary touched him - that gets me.

“she’d never held him like he was something to be sheltered.”

no adult had ever comforted him, acknowledged him as a child first and foremost. neil is an adult who has never had unconditional love from a parental figure.

oh, and it gets me right in the heart. abby loves her foxes so much. she loves neil so so much

“abby slowly let go of him and helped him get dressed again. he could have tied his shoes, but abby did it for him.”

it doesn’t matter that he could. it matters that abby wanted to do one simple thing to show that she cared about him.

It's not the world that's cruel. It's the people in it.