没关系， 我们继续

Andrew and Wymack get tipsy together on Wymack's lumpy couch. They do this once in awhile to commiserate on Neil and Kevin and life in general. It's cathartic and they're assholes to each other and about the foxes and complain a lot and if feels kinda like the opposite of therapy but is surprisingly helpful for both of them.

And one time, Wymack confesses that one time he, Abby, and Betsy got drunk together and got a little Silly. Something that you can't do too often after a certain age but the rarity of it makes it all the better. We're talking ordering deliver from two different places by accident. Bad karaoke into Abby's TV remote. Using an entire box of bandaids on each other because why??. And Wymack, wobbling a little and smiling in a way he doesn't often but is infectious in their inebriated state, shows Andrew a shaky cellphone video of Betsy with 6 bandaids on her face, holding her phone close up to her face slurring out "did- did'jyou know... you c'n adopt an adult in south crarolinna? I'm gonna.... I'm gonna adopt that little blonde punk"

Like imagine betsy listening to andrew tell her about how he feels responsible for the safety of his family. and he’s just. so so young to have this much weight on his shoulders.

Like he had fished before but it was a survival thing not just for leisure. Sitting out in the sun with bait, a rod, and letting yourself have the room for your own thoughts? It's meditative and significantly less likely for him to hurt himself when he does it (always HC that Neil can sometimes over run as a means of SH). If the day results in him happening to catch a huge fish that someone needs to show him how to clean / cook that's great but it's also great to just have a day to let himself think.

The other hobby I could see him getting into is like wood carving. Just recontextualizing knives in his life to only good things (Andrew and increasingly good wooden ducks). It's also something that lets him sit and think and feels productive instead of destructive.

i want Andrew to start buying random things for Neil. little things, big things, unimportant things. small trinkets that don’t mean much, except they mean that Neil’s whole life can’t be packed into a bag anymore. that he can’t just run in the middle of the night.

by the time Andrew graduates it would take a whole moving truck to ever put all of Neil’s belongings in. and they’re scattered too. Neil has stuff that is his — only his — not just at PSU, but at the house in Columbia, and at Andrew’s new place too.

so when Andrew graduates — through kisses and promises and badly-hidden sniffles — he gets rid of the old duffle, and replaces it with a beautiful leather holdall (something good enough for Neil) so that Neil can pack his stuff and come see him on weekends or during break.

Until Aaron calls Andrew and tells him that Katelyn is pregnant, Andrew throws his brand new pack in the trash immediately after they hang up, picks up a pack of gum, and starts sucking on lollipops so frequently Neils thinks Andrews tongue will forever be blue.

By the time the Twins were born, Andrews had not smoked a single cigarette in almost six months. Three weeks after the girls are born, Andrew shows up on his brother's front porch. Aaron doesn't even get to say hello before Andrew pushes past him, the slightest bounce in his step.

One day one teammate comes across Andrew after practice reading a book in the players lounge. As they step closer to desifer the cover Andrew glances up at them with a questioning look. When they ask what the book is Andrew gives a surprised raise of his eyebrow and gives a shockingkly well put together synopses of the plot. After the player goes home that night they look up the book only to discover that the fantasy adventure novel that was described to them was not only an extremely sappy romance, it was also the last part of a queer YA series.

Andrew is spotted soon after at a local coffee shop drinking some sort of whip cream topped chocolate concoction with reading material much different than before. He sips his drink and peruses some large fancy looking book. With only a quick google search they realize that its some complex scientific book about Homo sapiens through history?

A few weeks later another of Andrews teammates walk in on a pacing Andrew with his phone clutched to his ear. He’s talking in an intense whisper, not angry but concerned, about some sort of cat sitter falling through. After Andrew spots them he hisses out a quick goodbye into the phone and hangs it up. When they ask what the call was about, Andrew contemplates for a second then explained that he’s visiting family and the cat sitter he had sceduled wasn’t going to be able to come after all. When the teammate volunteers to do the job Andrew only sighs but accepts their offer. After a weekend of cat sitting and semi snooping around Andrews apartment the brave cat sitter reports back to the team with all their suspicions confirmed.

All right since we got to hold jellyNeil: as long as you promise to keep him moving you can hold a baby shark of your choice in the nursery too