Interests Intensifies

feeding myself with reverse robins au where damian and jon grow up to be nightwing and flamebird respectively and spend chunks of their time taking care of the younger bat kids

(an inadvertent new-year-themed sequel to this because of Her (@ilgaksu)

I know parties aren’t your scene, Cooper had said, but it’s a team requirement. And you can bring your boy! 

Andrew’s ‘boy’ isn’t the type to party either, but his interest in Andrew’s teammates almost rivals their curiosity about him. Andrew never had any intentions of passing on the invitation, which is probably why Cooper ended up going around him and to Neil directly.

That’s why Neil is here in New York at the Rebels’ New Year’s Eve party, sliding into the gap at Andrew’s side and handing over one of the drinks he just collected from the bar. We just have to stay until midnight, Neil had said earlier as he haphazardly looped his tie around his neck up in their hotel room.

He didn’t do a neat job on the knot - it looks that way now because Andrew has righted it into something suitable for the elegant tailored lines of the suit he’s wearing. Twice. Andrew messed it up in the middle himself, in order to wipe the amusement off of Neil’s face.

“What the fuck is with you today, Minyard?” Wilson asks, somewhere between aggressive and honestly puzzled as he picks himself off of the floor.

Andrew shrugs, aware it barely shows under his bulky gear, and says, “Try harder.”

The ball’s already long gone down the other end of the court, cleared by Andrew with one hard swing. Wilson, scowling, turns and jogs back towards his backliner mark for this scrimmage. 

“Don’t break them,” Cooper says. She sounds amused from her position as Andrew’s other backliner, and more relaxed than usual. That’s probably because Andrew’s doing her job for her. “We don’t have enough game-ready strikers on the roster for you to start injuring them just because you got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

“Don’t let them get so close, if you’re concerned,” he replies, all boredom. Playing goalie means he doesn’t see much contact, but when they’re in his territory offence are fair game.

They might only be trying to get closer to the goal because shooting from a distance isn’t working out so well for them today. They can’t complain though - stopping goals is what the Rebels signed Andrew for. 

He left Neil warm and not quite awake in his bed for this practice. They better make it worth his while. 

“I notice you’re not denying that you’re in a bad mood,” Cooper calls, though her attention is already back on the ball. Andrew doesn’t bother to respond. This team is already overly invested in making friends with Andrew, and talking to them only seems to encourage them, no matter what he says.

He turns aside four more attempts at scoring before Rawlins knocks twice on the door to signal a change over, calling Andrew’s side off the court. He’s the last one out, which earns him the sole focus of the defensive coach.

“Good work,” Rawlins says. He’s a man of few words, which makes him considerably less annoying than most of the Rebels. “Your visitor’s up in the stands.”

Said visitor already has the attention of the rest of Andrew’s teammates, who are looking and muttering amongst themselves. They’re probably wondering whether he’s here to scout out their strategies. That’s ridiculous, because there’s no way Neil Josten can score on Andrew if he doesn’t let him.

Andrew hangs up his racquet on the rack and heads up into the stands, removing his gloves and helmet as he goes. Neil’s slouched in a seat about ten rows up, his feet up on the plastic back of the seat in front of him. He looks up at Andrew from underneath his eyelashes as he approaches.

Andrew gets a sudden and vivid sense memory of Neil this morning, fingers curled into Andrew’s shirt and his sleepy insistence that Andrew go to practice like his hands and mouth weren’t the things keeping him right there.

“Hey,” Neil says. His expression is characteristically serious, but his easy posture and the pink marks that Andrew left on his throat last night make him look younger than he is.

“I thought you were staying in bed,” Andrew says. Neil said that this morning: I’ll still be right here when you get back, with a luxurious little stretch against Andrew’s sheets. 

Neil shrugs. “I got bored. Thought I’d come over and watch for a while. They were pretty casual about it.”

They would be - management knows about Neil. “So, are you feeling entertained now?” 

Neil reaches out and hooks a finger into Andrew’s jersey, pulling the fabric taut between them. Andrew can just about feel the attention of his teammates narrowing onto that very over-familiar action. 

From anyone else, it would be teasing. Neil’s face is ridiculously earnest when he says, “You’re playing really well.”

Andrew would roll his eyes if it weren’t for the gleaming intensity in Neil, the trace of heat that means I like you like this. Stupid as the reason for it is, Andrew likes that expression on Neil’s face.

“Yo, Minyard! Bring it in,” someone yells from the bench. Andrew doesn’t spare them a glance.

“Are you going to introduce me?” Neil asks, moving to stand like Andrew’s yes is a given. If Andrew were a liar, he’d say that’s the reason he puts his free hand on Neil’s chest to hold him in his seat.

“Not likely,” he says, and when Neil tilts his head back, mouth open like he’s going to speak, Andrew kisses him instead. Neil makes a muffled mmph! before going pliant and sweetly welcoming, his fingers in Andrew’s jersey just like a few hours earlier.

He’s rosy-cheeked when Andrew pulls back. There are several brave catcalls and the sound of hammering feet from below, which just serves to prove that all Exy players have a death wish. Fortunately for them, when Neil throws them a heavy-lidded glance and the corner of his mouth twitches, Andrew isn’t quite so interested in killing them.

Comic gift for @swerveysilks's fic Marvel at Flowers You'll Have Made!

It was a challenge to do because it's pretty much my first comic in years but I had a lot of fun!!

B&W version ↓

This came about through a combination of several factors. On the demon end, Shang Qinghua was way less circumspect about his identity whenever he was in the demon realms, so Mobei Jun was just flat-out telling his people that the Head Disciple and later Peak Lord of An Ding was his guy, and putting Shang Qinghua in charge of other servants or jobs as he saw fit, so his court faction were like alright cool guess that gives us a leg up in some departments, let's start coordinating with An Ding Peak?

Then on the other end of it, An Ding Peak is like ground zero for Cang Qiong's malcontents anyway, it is simultaneously the most vital peak and the most looked down upon, so reaching out to one of Cang Qiong's enemies to forge an alliance and hold it at the ready just in case they decide they want to overthrow the other peaks and change the hierarchies of the sect forever actually just feels cathartic. Like they probably won't, but knowing that they could is soothing. Shang Qinghua's closest disciples started figuring out the secret during his Head Disciple tenure, because what do you mean Shixiong survived an encounter with one of the most powerful ice demons alive and now suddenly sometimes his house is winter-cold and he can access a whole bunch of things from the northern climes of the demon realms?

The first few disciples stumble upon and then try to have semi-coded conversations with Shang Qinghua about it, which leads them to the conclusion that their shixiong is colluding with demons but doesn't have any plans to betray An Ding and mostly seems to dislike Huan Hua Palace (respectable) and is maaaybe pissed off enough at Bai Zhan to throw a demon at them one day (a sentiment shared by 99.9% of An Ding disciples) (they brought it up and most of it flew over Shang Qinghua's head but when someone was like "ok but are we taking action against the rest of the sect?" he was sardonically like "not unless Liu Qingge breaks another gate this month").

So when Shang Qinghua becomes Peak Lord and some of the more subtle servants of Mobei Jun show up, a lot of the senior disciples are like yup it's go time. They start conspiring to oust the less open-minded dregs of the past peak lord's rule, consolidate Cang Qiong's power overall and An Ding's influence specifically, help tit-for-tat the northern demon lords and specifically Mobei Jun's faction and disputes with his rivals, remove anyone who stumbles upon the plot and can't be trusted, establish trade deals and information brokers and etc.

All the while Shang Qinghua and Mobei Jun are still just like, it's only us two who have an arrangement going on here.

He IS a fine beta stud. When they found out Prom was having twins everyone was surprised, and Ignis was incredibly happy. A little bit smug as well.