MOVED

i. 2007

Andrew had never exactly liked Christmas. He liked being able to disappear without his foster parents getting calls that he skipped class. He liked that he could shovel the driveway without the possibility of missing the bus. Later though, it became a nuisance.

Nicky had been big on Christmas when Andrew and Aaron had first moved in with him. The first year, he told them they wouldn’t be doing present exchanges but used some of his savings to decorate and cook a big dinner. Aaron was mortified by the amount of effort he had put in but Andrew was unaffected. They didn’t do as big of a celebration the following years, but Nicky always liked to do something.

If Neil wanted to do something, he could arrange that. Christmas was a bullshit holiday with bullshit intentions, but he could give Neil a couple gifts and get cinnamon rolls for breakfast or something.

Only a couple freshmen stayed behind for the break. Neil stuck back too with the intent to keep an eye on them, but he and Andrew went to Columbia on the 24th and left the kids to Abby.

They went shopping before going to the house. The first stop was to a department store, much to Neil’s apparent confusion.

“I thought that when you said shopping you meant for food and liquor,” he said.

“We’ll get to that,” Andrew waved off as he led them to the PJ section in the back corner. He motioned to the racks and shelves they stood between. “Pick some pajamas.”

Neil cocked his head to the side. “What about you?”

“Pick mine too.” Andrew was thoroughly bored with Neil’s ignorance. “Santa, elves, reindeer. Christmas shit, yes?”

He smiled, just a little, and went about trying to find anything in a small. All they had left on Christmas Eve was extra small and double X’s, but he managed to find plaid pants, one pair in red and the other in green, and matching shirts with penguins and lights, respectively.

Food shopping was easier, though Andrew was remembering all of Nicky’s past attempts to make a holiday meal. He was a decent cook but the man was no good under pressure.

Something about the disgusting amount of domesticity must have amused Neil, because he broke into a smile and looked at Andrew like he had put each star in the sky.

“What?”

Neil paused for a moment, smile not faltering. “Nothing.”

He snorted a little. “Nothing.”

Neil swayed to nudge him as they walked out of the store with their bags, that small smile still on his face.

This makes Neil happy, Andrew noted, keeping it in the back of his head.

ii. 2007

Once they got back to the house, Neil helped with putting all the groceries away before vanishing into Andrew’s--their--bedroom to put on his new pajamas.

He walked out in red pants and the penguin shirt, looking half giddy. He pulled out a baking sheet and preheated the oven while Andrew poured them drinks. He put premade cookie dough on the sheet in chunks, standing hip to hip with him. Neil bumped into his side and put the cookies into the oven. Not wanting to waste time, Andrew set the timer before crowding him against the counter.

“Yes or no?”

Neil jumped up to sit on the counter beside the oven and leaned down. “Yes.” He took the initiative to kiss Andrew, keeping his hands to his hair.

They got interrupted sooner than they ought to have been by the timer. Neil moved away and took out the cookies, busying himself getting a plate and searching for a spatula. Andrew stood patiently to the side, taking long sips of his drink. He made them weak.

It was ambient once they were in the living room with cookies and some channel marathoning Christmas movies. Andrew let Neil swing his legs onto his lap and lay against him at the same time, curling around him.

Andrew refused to let his heart race. He refused to acknowledge how cute Neil was like this, how happy silly shit like pajamas and cookies made from premade dough made him.

iii. 2008

Neil broke out the pajamas they had gotten last year. He wore the pants on occasion, but the rest of the set stayed shoved into the back of Andrew’s drawer.

Nicky insisted on having a Christmas dinner with the Foxes. The girls had graduated and it hit him harder than usual when he realized that family dinner no longer included them. They were always family, but it was harder for them to all be a part of it. Renee hadn’t had the room in her schedule, Allison had last minute company obligations, and Dan’s flight got snowed in.

They had managed to slip away without a trace. They drank and blew smoke out the bedroom window and locked out the rest of the Foxes.

Neil wanted this. He wanted to feel giddy off witty comebacks that Andrew shot at him, wanted to feel warm and then burning hot as Andrew brushed lips over his.

His mood worsened again when he came to the violent, sudden realization that he only had one of these left with Andrew before they graduated.

“Is it no?” Andrew asked, pulling away as soon as Neil tensed.

“It’s still yes,” he said, but the unsure tone made Andrew shoot him a questioning look. “Just thinking about how many holidays we have left. I think I’m starting to like Christmas, if only for the culture. Just thinking about how we won’t have many more like this.”

Andrew hummed and kissed him once, quickly. It stopped him from rambling, if anything. “They’ll be better when we have our own place and no noisy jolly fuckers around to ruin the night.”

He couldn’t help smiling at the implication. Neil reached up to pull him in for a kiss, tasting the future, tasting hope, tasting better things to come.

Neil liked the new feeling that replaced the cold, replaced the winter, replaced the holidays. He couldn’t stop thinking, our own place. It was a mantra, a pick-me-up, a promise. Even if Andrew dismissed any implication, it felt amazing.

iv. 2010

Andrew wasn’t coming to Palmetto during break. All new players were to stay for extra practice, orders of the captain. Neil figured, he would stay on campus too, taking care of the kids who couldn’t go home. He was the only fifth year senior and the team captain, even though Kevin came to practice over break because the Florida team wasn’t making new players give up their Christmas.

Robin stayed by Neil’s side for most of the break. She had stuck to Andrew like glue the year before--that is, once she realized he wasn’t going to kill her.

Just before noon on Christmas Eve, Neil and Robin were sitting in the corner of Abby’s living room, drinking coffee and hot chocolate respectively. The other kids were dispersed through the house or on the court for a Kevin-ordered conditioning. A sophomore striker was out for the first half of the semester for a broken wrist and still couldn’t get her throw right, so Kevin was helping her to switch hands.

He got a text from one of the freshmen that he was being asked for on court without specification. He showed Robin and she shrugged, getting up to follow him to the car.

When they walked into the stands, Neil saw Kevin instructing the sophomore on how to angle so he could make it past the goalie. Neil couldn’t see his face, covered by a helmet, and he was wearing light padding, but Neil’s heart nearly stopped when he realized that Andrew was standing in the goal.

Neil raced down the stands and Robin trailed behind. Another player on the court who was doing footwork saw him and unbolted the door--a freshman, the only one that year.

Andrew noticed too. He called off Kevin and dropped his stick in time for Neil to half-tackle him in a hug.

“You left Chicago?” Neil asked after thinking about who’s around. The only one who didn’t know about them was the freshman, but Neil didn’t give a damn.

“Yeah, I’m here to see Kevin,” he drawled.

He drew back from the hug. “Yes or no, Andrew?”

“Yes, idiot.”

Neil pulled off his helmet, holding it at his side as he kissed Andrew, not minding the sweat. They were interrupted when a ball was shot at their feet. Robin stood at mid court, handing Kevin back his stick.

“Don’t I get any sugar?” she asked.

Andrew rolled his eyes and held an arm out. Robin ran forward and was sandwiched between them.

“Ew, you smell,” she said, wrinkling her nose. Neil burst out laughing. The other Foxes on the court came and hugged them too, but Kevin abstained in favor of making a wall so Andrew had a way out. He liked this, liked the family he had made. The holidays had been feeling bleak, but they made him feel at home.

v. 2014

Neil Josten was twenty six years old and playing for the US Olympic team and the Seattle team beside Andrew. Robin had already gotten offers from them in her fifth year. Unlike the last two years, she passed up their offer to go to Washington and spent the break with her parents instead.

Seattle was snowy but less dull than Chicago had been. Andrew had lunch with his press manager, so Neil went for a run. He came back and got out of the shower only ten minutes before Andrew’s car rolled up. It was snowing and creating a picturesque holiday scene.

He had hot chocolate and tea made for them--his nutritionist was getting on him about drinking so much caffeine--by the time the door opened. The suite was big enough that he couldn’t see the door from the kitchen.

“Took a little longer than expected, huh?” he asked. Andrew turned the corner looking pissed and dripping wet. He was hugging something close under his coat, right on his chest.

“There’s a situation.” Neil raised an eyebrow before he saw Andrew pull a kitten out of his coat, looking only a couple months old and damp. He set it on the counter and stripped his coat, not paying attention to the look on Neil’s face or how he scooped it up and slipped it under his sweater.

Andrew vanished for a second, coming back with a fluffy towel and some thinner ones. He put them on the counter and let Neil figure it out as he left for another minute. He fumbled to get the little thing wrapped up, listening to it mewl, only looking up when Andrew put a cardboard box on the counter and began lining it with the towels.

“We have to take it to a vet,” Neil said.

“We can Google things.”

Neil rolled his eyes. “We need to get it tested and shit, make sure it won’t drop dead on us.”

Andrew paused for a second. “You assume we’re keeping it?”

Narrowing his eyes, he said, “Were you planning on not?”

He stayed silent for half a second before regaling Neil with the tale of how he saw it on the side of the road in the snow. He looked around with it in his coat for half an hour and couldn’t find any siblings or mother, so he drove home with it.

“All that, and you wouldn’t want to keep it?”

“Cats are almost as much work as you.”

Neil stuck his tongue out and put the kitten into the viable nest Andrew had made for it. He filled a little dish with water and stuck that in there too. It immediately started drinking, even if it seemed hard on walking.

When Andrew left to get properly warm, Neil looked up a vet with good reviews. He found one in uptown with a high enough rating and called to see if they had openings. The receptionist started drawing on about how they took some walk-ins and they didn’t have a packed schedule and if he wanted to come in that would be fine. He said he would be in soon and thanked her, hanging up as soon as he could.

Andrew walked out in different jeans and a fresh shirt. Neil looked down to the box. “We’ll go now if you don’t have any other plans,” he said.

Andrew nodded. He took the kitten out and handed it to Neil, who put it neatly into his sweater, and took the box out to the car. Neil pet the kitten’s head during the whole drive and cooed at it, to Andrew’s disgust.

They went home knowing it was okay if slightly malnourished and probably, eighty percent chance, a boy. They were given instructions on feeding and general care. Neil checked the pet policy on their building and promptly convinced Andrew to keep it.