Sarcastic-Mess' Writing

There was chaos around him with one older woman shouting instructions and names to different parts of the room and then there was a short blond grabbing the side of the gurney to push it into a corner of the room. 

Neil’s eyes landed on the lanyard clipped to the breast pocket of his scrubs and froze, all the pain gone. It couldn’t be. 

There, above the name Dr. A. Minyard, was a picture of the short blond staring back at the camera with his right eye a very familiar hazel and his left eye a very unfamiliar blue. 

Neil looked up, staring at the doctor’s face as they stopped the gurney and weaseled around it to prepare something. And then he saw it for himself. His right eye was just as hazel as Neil’s left eye under the brown contact lens, but his left eye was several shades paler than Neil’s right eye. 

Wow. He had found his soulmate and he was very obviously not his soulmate’s soulmate. 

Tilting his head back he sighed, unfortunately completely unsurprised. 

This day sucked. 

Staking out the hospital whenever he had free time was probably one of his more stupid ideas. Right up there with running away from home at age thirteen to live on the streets and accidentally getting involved with the local gangs. It did get him away from his abusive father and allowed him to meet Jean, but it also got him stabbed in the end, so it was a mixed bag. 

Neil barely saw him in the beginning, but after a bit he got a feel for the shift system and only had to figure out the new department the doctor was assigned to every now and then. 

He didn't go inside the hospital much, that was a sure way to get caught, but he did watch when the doctor went on his coffee break outside, sometimes alone, sometimes with other doctors and nurses. 

“There you are.”

Neil waved a hand as he walked through the hideout, ignoring the curious looks and attempts to catch his eye. 

No one knew where he went, but everyone knew that he went somewhere and were curious about the purpose. Good luck with that. Not even Neil knew the purpose behind the visits. 

“Do you at least remember what we’re doing here?” Jean’s tone was scathing, but it was always scathing. His eyes held a hint of understanding though. 

Neil wouldn’t be surprised if of all people Jean knew where he was doing. “What did you find?” 

“It’s not a new gang. It’s actually a duo.” 

Neil would have called Jean crazy, if Jean made mistakes. “Two people? Two people are enough to disrupt our operations?”

“Actually,” Dan interjected from her spot on the couch, legs crossed underneath her. “I’ve talked with my sisters and for every one thing they messed up for us, ten things from the Ravens are messed with.”

“And our parts are always on the border between territories, so there is a chance it’s accidental,” Matt added, always giving the benefit of the doubt. 

“That doesn’t mean we can just do nothing.” Jean glared at them all, but it had lost its effect a while ago. “We have to set an example.” 

Neil leaned back and thought about it as they argued about it some more. “Leave them be.” Neil smiled when Jean turned a stink eye onto him. “Since they want to mess with the Ravens and are successful at it, just leave them to it. Reenforce the border and redirect them towards the Ravens if they stumble onto our things. That should be enough.”

“Merde, you’re annoying.” 

Reports came in every now and then. Neil’s strategy worked and their losses had been reduced to almost nothing while the Ravens were getting more and more agitated. They were losing people to death, arrests, and deserters as their operation became more and more disorganized. 

Cheers rose up in the hideouts as people toasted each other. 

Neil was sitting in his armchair and watched his people celebrate. He was obviously not drinking, but it didn’t hurt to keep the morale high and he had to admit he was in a good mood too. 

The door to the office on the second floor opened and Jean came out, hurrying down the steps. His expression was serious and a little pale. Neil didn’t take his eyes off him, but others must have noticed, because the music was shut off and a hush covered them all. 

Jean only stopped next to Neil and handed him his tablet, screen already turned on. 

Quickly Neil skimmed it, then slowed down when he got the gist. 

None of their properties had been hit and none of their people were missing, dying, or dead. It was internal communication of Raven channels Neil didn’t know how Jean had gotten, but it didn’t matter. They were getting closer to identifying that duo that had been a thorn in their side for months now. There was no name or surveillance, but surviving Ravens had descriptions. None of their previous tactics to lure the duo into a trap or capture them in some way had worked yet and they had a new strategy. 

Since they had their eye colors and they were pretty distinctive, they were going to find and capture their soulmates to make them submit. It was a distasteful practice, even in their circles, so it was fitting for Riko’s standards. 

The memo directed at every single Raven operative included the eye colors they were looking for and Neil’s good mood vanished. 

Person one’s soulmate: Left eye, hazel. Right eye, blue. 

Person two’s soulmate: Left eye, green. Right eye, gray. 

Neil slowly lifted his head, eyes only leaving the screen when he couldn’t keep them on it and instead looked at Jean looming over him with his green and gray eyes. 

“He has a twin,” Jean said and answered Neil’s unasked question.The possibility of it being a coincidence shattered.

Neil wanted to demand the reason why the hell Jean hadn’t said that at any point in the months he had been staking out the hospital, but this wasn’t the time. He stood up, handed Jean back the tablet and looked around at the people he considered family and who he trusted with each other’s lives. “Everyone, put everything non-essential on pause. We’re messing with the Ravens.” 

“Which part?” Matt asked, cracking his knuckles as everyone put down their drinks and reached for their weapons. 

“All of it. Make yourself the biggest nuisance you can without getting yourself killed.” 

The Foxes’ grins were hungry. 

All the calls to Andrew's phone were rejected and he didn't have an official place of residence. 

(Andrew was the name of Neil's soulmate and he was already somehow involved with the business and good at it. Neil didn't know how to feel.)

They couldn’t find who his partner was, Jean’s soulmate. Hell, they couldn’t find anything proving that it was Andrew attacking the Ravens, but they had to make sure. So he did the only logical thing to do. 

He went to the hospital again, because Aaron's shift wouldn't end for a whole day and Neil couldn't wait that long. 

Watching the doctor showed that something was wrong today, but not quite alarming yet. Neil had gotten good at reading his expressions by now. Privately he wondered if it would help reading Andrew.

Neil lingered in the background as well as he could, watching Aaron go from patient to patient to talking to colleagues to patient again. The few moments he had on the way he spent pulling out his phone to scowl down at it. There was not really a chance to talk to him without causing a big scene which was to be avoided at all cost. 

His patience was close to running out when Aaron pulled out his phone to check it again and his expression cleared for a single moment into relief, then lost the little bit of color he had just as the phone in Neil’s pocket rang. 

“They messed up and took Aaron’s soulmate instead thinking it was Andrew’s and sent him a demand to meet them,” Jean told Neil, the sound of keyboard typing in the background. He was likely monitoring three different information streams and coordinating two attacks at the same time. They needed another hacker and coordinator, but that was something for a different time. 

“I’ll handle it,” Neil said and cut off Jean’s sigh by ending the call. He could listen to the admonishment later. 

As Aaron was still staring at his phone, clearly with no idea what to do, Neil stepped up to his side, caught his elbow and steered him down the hallway and into the supply closet, avoiding the other people and Aaron’s fist as he struggled to get Neil off him. Neil let him stumble further into the room while he blocked the door, so no one could leave or enter. 

“What are you- You.” Aaron stared at Neil’s face. “Knife in the gut.”

“I’m flattered you remember me.” Then again, his red hair and facial scars were pretty distinctive. “I’m going to help you with your soulmate.” 

Aaron stared at him, before it transformed into a glare. “How the hell do you know about that? Were you watching me?” He approached and grabbed Neil by the collar, much more aggressive and forward than Neil had expected. “Everyone knew that you got injured in some gang dispute. Did you fucking get her kidnapped?”

“No,” Neil answered, making no move to dislodge Aaron’s hands for now. “Technically your brother did.” 

Instead of surprise, angry resignation settled on his face. Interesting and another point for Andrew being the person the Ravens were looking for.

“I can get her back, if you show me the text you got.” 

“And why would you do that? Who even are you?” 

“I want to meet your brother and I wouldn’t be unhappy to strike down the gang that took your soulmate.” 

Conflict warred in Aaron plain to see to anyone who had been watching him extensively for way too long. Good, loyalty was hard to come by.

To make it easier, Neil did something he hadn’t done in the presence of another person before. He reached up and took out the contact lenses from his eyes to look at Aaron, giving away a secret only Neil, Jean, and dead people knew. 

The hands on his collar loosened as Aaron stared at the eyes mirroring his brother’s.

“They couldn’t catch your brother, so they’re trying to lure him into a trap with his soulmate. But they’re incompetent enough that they grabbed the wrong one. I can get her back. If you show me the text and arrange a meeting with your brother.” 

“Who are you?” He wasn’t verbally agreeing to the terms, but he didn’t resist when Neil took the phone from him. 

“My name’s Neil Josten,” he said, because it was. “I’m a Fox.” 

The curse Aaron let loose told him he was aware of what that meant. “I want nothing to do with this criminal bullshit.” 

Too late, Neil wanted to say, but didn’t. Sometimes he could keep his mouth shut. 

The Ravens who had grabbed Aaron’s soulmate, Katelyn apparently, had used her phone to send the messages. There was a picture of her, dressed in scrubs and sitting on a wooden chair, tied up with rope and gagged. A couple of tears had made their way down her cheeks. The message with the demand was without imagination. A place, a time, a taunt about messing with the almighty Ravens. They weren’t even demanding money or attempting to make it look like it wasn’t retribution for the attacks. 

“We just tell them that they grabbed the wrong person.”

“They will kill her and just grab someone else not connected to any of it.” It was impressive that the Ravens had gotten as close as they had. 

Aaron started to protest when Neil called Katelyn’s number, but shut up when Neil shushed him. He wanted to know which sub-unit he would have to deal with. He just hoped it wasn’t Muldani, but he couldn’t imagine her making such a mistake. 

The call connected and nothing happened for a couple of seconds. Neil heard heavy breathing. 

“I want proof of life.” 

“You got your picture,” came the gruff answer. 

“And you could have taken it and killed her already.” Neil needed to get him to talk more and waved away Aaron’s wide-eyed look. 

“You don’t fucking deserve anything else, you mutt. Do you know how much damage you did? How dare you go against us. We’re the fucking Ravens!”

Johnson. One of the biggest idiots among the Ravens. This wasn’t going to be too bad then. 

“I am very aware of who you are and what I’ve done,” Neil interrupted him. “Why would you kidnap my soulmate, if it wasn’t me? Let me hear her.” 

Johnson huffed and puffed, but the sounds of steps followed. “Tell your soulmate you’re alive.” 

“Aaron?” Her voice was cracking and there was fear and worry. “Don’t come. They have guns and-” She was cut off with what sounded like a slap. 

“Katelyn, listen to me,” Neil said and he knew he was still on speaker. “Just stay put and stay calm. I’m coming to get you.” She would probably be confused since he didn’t know his voice, but hopefully she would listen. “If you touch her again, Johnson, I will enjoy pulling Anna apart bit by bit, understood?”

Silence, heavy and deafening, then the call disconnected with a distinctively panicked feeling. 

“Anna?” Aaron asked, looking at Neil like he really wanted to put some distance between them. 

“His daughter. She is the only thing he cares about besides his own success. Don’t look at me like that. I would never stoop so low as to involve civilians, especially not children.” Neil was thinking about the address they had texted Aaron, about access points and route there, when Aaron’s phone vibrated in his hand. He looked at it expecting Katelyn’s name or someone else from Aaron’s work, but instead it was Andrew’s with a devil emoji next to it. That seemed like awful convenient timing. 

Neil accepted the call and put it on speaker. Once again no one spoke for a few long moments.

“Just say something, so he knows you’re alive,” Neil said and gestured with the phone. “I assume he got your phone tapped.” 

“What?” Aaron asked in outrage. “Tell me you didn’t.” 

“I didn’t,” came the answer, voice similar to Aaron’s, but so much calmer. (This was his soulmate.)

“So you got Renee to do it,” Aaron countered. 

(Was Renee Andrew’s partner? Was she Jean’s soulmate?) 

“Is this really what you want to talk about?” 

Aaron glared at the phone, but didn’t answer. 

“Okay. Andrew, for the sake of being on equal footing, my name is Neil. I know what you did to the Ravens’ operations, which I approve of, and I heard about their plans to find you. They grabbed Katelyn thinking she is your soulmate. I’ll get her, if you-”

“Don’t bother. I don’t care,” Andrew interrupted and Neil took a second to recalibrate. 

“Alright.” Neil smiled and Aaron’s eyes widened in fear. “Then I won’t take any more of your time. Aaron, let’s go.” He grabbed Aaron roughly, let him yelp and demand to be let go, before he ended the call and let Aaron go.

“What was that?” 

Andrew called again, but Neil rejected it. “You have two options. You come with me quietly and I will rescue Katelyn or you will make a fuss, I’ll knock you out and you can take your chances whether Andrew will save her or not.” 

Aaron’s face showed exactly how much faith he had in the second option. 

Aaron reported to his supervisor or chef doctor or whatever they were called that he was taking a sick day while Neil rejected one more call from Andrew before he stopped calling and then they left quietly. 

“You brought him here.” It wasn’t a question, but a demand that was supposed to be intimidating but fell flat. 

“Have you slept at all?” Neil frowned at the circles under Jean’s eyes, but he knew there was no time to rest right now. “Andrew doesn’t care about Aaron’s soulmate, but he cares about Aaron. Since he is tracking his phone, he will come here and we’ll get to meet like we wanted to.” 

Jean pinched the back of his nose. “I know that, but here?” He gestured to the entirety of their main hideout and then to Aaron, sitting on one of the couches and looking around fearfully. 

There was nothing illegal laying around and most people were out. There were some guards patrolling and Dan was taking care of Aaron with water and snacks and a positive attitude, vouching for Matt who had taken his team to retrieve Katelyn. Neil would have done it himself, but he wasn’t going to miss Andrew showing up. 

“They are either going to be our soulmates and interested in joining us or we will have to kill them as liabilities. Either way it will be fine.” 

Jean hated it, Neil could tell, but he didn’t object. With a sigh he went back to his office and Neil joined Dan and Aaron. 

“Wanna bet who gets here first, Matt or whoever is coming for our guest here?” Dan grinned at Aaron’s scowl and patted his head, getting her hand slapped away. 

Neil only bet rarely, especially because usually the bets were about stupid things, but those also kept morale up, so he didn’t stop it. “You’re betting on Matt, I assume?” he asked dryly and she made a face at him. 

“Of course I am going to bet on my soulmate. Who do you take me for?” 

“Okay. I’ll take that bet. Chores for a week?” It was the most common currency among them, because fuck chores. 

Dan agreed with a grin, confident she would win. But she hadn’t heard Andrew on the phone, wasn’t aware of how much he worried about Aaron as a person and not of what he could possibly say to the wrong people. 

They sat for a bit until the walkie talkie balanced on Neil’s thigh came to life. 

“You got something of mine.” 

Neil smiled and Dan grumbled. He pressed the talk button. “So come get him. Everyone, let him and whoever he has with him pass.” 

Affirmatives rolled in with call signs in the right order, narrowing down the points of entry until one pair was missing. It wasn’t even the weakest link. 

Another few minutes, longer because he no doubt was looking for traps or similar, and then the sliding door was pushed open. 

With a glance towards Dan he made sure she knew to stay by Aaron’s side and then stood and walked towards their guests. He didn’t need to look to know Allison was looking down the scope of her rifle up high in the shadows. 

Andrew looked almost like Aaron if you ignored the shorter hair, broader shoulders, bigger arms and the different color of his soulmate eye. 

Something resonated within Neil when their eyes met, but he forced himself to take in the person next to Andrew as well. Taller and older with tattoos that looked like art instead of gang tattoos and training a gun on Neil and allowing himself a single surprised blink when he looked at Neil. His soulmate eye looked the same as Jean’s soulmate eye, so either his soulmate was the same as Jean’s, which Neil had never heard of before, or he had a child that had the same eye color as his soulmate. But soulmate talk could come later.

Neil expected for them to talk, but he didn’t expect Aaron to charge forward and shove at Andrew’s shoulder making him go nowhere. Neil glanced over at Dan who looked mostly neutral but with resignation in her eyes. She knew that this wasn’t supposed to happen.

“This is your fault! They fucking took Katelyn, because you can’t stop moving around these circles. And then you just leave her to die. What the fuck were you thinking?” 

“We knew he would get her.” Andrew turned to look at Neil who felt strangely seen. “The Foxes are bleeding hearts.” 

Well, it wasn’t a lie exactly. 

“I see our reputation precedes us. Yours does as well. We have been following your way through the Ravens operations ever since you hit something of ours in the crossfire. I especially like the way the cargo container was emptied.” The contents had simply vanished and no one ever recovered anything. The Ravens were still scrambling to recover their losses and had no evidence that it had been Andrew.  

Andrew’s gaze sharpened without him moving. 

“Therefore I would like to extend an offer to join the Foxes to you and whoever you consider yours.” Neil’s heart was pounding. He didn’t know what he would do if he and everything he had built were to be rejected. “You would get the manpower, the support, and connection every Fox gets as long as you’re as loyal to us as we’re to you.”

“What if I say no?” Andrew did not waver, stared back at Neil with eyes so familiar it almost hurt. 

“Then you’re free to wait until Katelyn gets back and you can take the two of them with you. We would still be interested in staying in contact though.” 

“We or I?” Andrew tapped his face right next to his soulmate eye and Neil realized he hadn’t put in his brown contact lenses again. Since no one had said anything, he had forgotten about it. 

“We have been hitting the Ravens ever since we could, but we never had the power to take them on entirely. You have been a big enough nuisance that we could already capitalize on those results. I’ve appreciated your methods a long time before I knew you were my soulmate.” Neil got rid of the smile, didn’t put on any masks to let Andrew see the real him. “We will only be two people in the same business with the same goal. Until the day we both decide we’re something after all. If that day comes.” 

Andrew stared at Neil, working through it and then both he and his man winced a little, tilting their head to the right. “Fine. It’s your head the bullet is going to be in.” 

“And don’t yell,” Andrew’s man said gruffly, lowering and holstering the gun. 

Neil needed a second to realize that they were wearing earpieces. Smart. “They’re coming in?” He raised his walkie talkie to his mouth. “Stand down. More friendlies incoming.” 

A car was pulling up with a lot more people inside than Neil expected after Jean had said they were just a duo, but Andrew didn’t look alarmed, so they all had to be his. 

The first one out of the car rushed out and to Aaron, checking him over with no spatial awareness or worry for being in a gang hideout. Aaron cursed over the fussing and it looked like a very familiar dance. 

One middle-aged woman with a first aid kit strapped to her hip, one woman with platinum blonde and pastel colored hair who was smiling gently, wearing a cross around her throat and carried herself like she could fight, and another tall man with a resting bitch face and his soulmate eye the same color as Jean’s. 

A door slammed above them and footsteps thundered down the stairs and Neil could barely look before Jean was already here. 

“Kevin!” Jean was hugging what had to be his soulmate before he could get far. Jean’s shoulders were shaking and Kevin’s eyes were wide above one. It was a loss of composure Neil had never seen from him. 

“Jean?” His voice was weak and he put his hands on Jean’s back like he was going to disappear as soon as he touched him. 

“Maybe we should have started with that,” the pastel colored woman commented, looking genuinely happy for them. Her gaze went back to Neil and again very familiar eyes were looking back at him. 

“Should we have another soulmate pair find each other?” Neil asked into the round and received both annoyed and eager looks. “Allison, want to meet your soulmate?” 

There was a beat of silence where the newcomers looked around and landed on Dan first, but then Allison descended out of the rafters onto the second floor, before walking down. She was really glaring at Neil until she looked into twin eyes and they both stared at each other in wonder. 

The walkie talkie came to life. “Team Boxer coming through from the South.” 

“Status?” He looked at the woman with the first aid kit. They all had rudimentary knowledge and it had been enough until now, but it would actually really help to have someone who knew what they were doing. He didn’t think Aaron was interested.

“All walking and accounted for. Guest is in need of some assistance.” 

“What does that mean?” Aaron demanded. 

“Bruised, a bit traumatized, but otherwise within understandable parameters.” Neil looked at the two women Andrew had brought with him. “Allison can show you where you can take care of her. A place to treat her, shower, and clothes.” 

They looked at Andrew who nodded after a moment of thinking. 

“Jean?” Neil asked, looking for answers to so many questions. Even if they were among friends for a moment, it was unsettling to have his second this out of it. 

Jean straightened up, hand still clutching at Kevin’s as he answered Neil in French. “We were together in Kengo’s prostitution ring.” 

Ice cold rage flooded Neil as so many things made sense now. Jean didn’t talk about his past, but he had always hated the Ravens which had motivated Neil to fuck with them so much, but that. Neil’s hand hurt with how hard he clenched it. 

“Core meeting when Katelyn has been taken care of,” Neil said into the room and then went upstairs, needing to channel this rage into something productive. 

The war table was covered in maps, the magnetic walls covered with pictures and notes, while the screens were showing Jean’s automatic programs monitoring the Ravens operations, when Andrew stepped into the room. Neil was trying to find a weak point that would make the Ravens crumble from the foundation up, but strategy on this scale was never his strong suit. 

“Kevin and Wymack are our strategists,” Andrew said after looking around. “Renee our hacker. Abby our nurse. Nicky my cousin. And there is Bee.” 

“Jean’s mine.” Neil crumpled a piece of paper under his hand and tried his best to smooth it out again. “Strategy, hacking, coordinator. Brother.” He straightened up and looked at Andrew. “I will burn down the Ravens and it will be easier with your help.” 

Andrew came to stand next to him, so close they would touch if either of them reached out. “Nothing until we decide it’s something.” 

Neil smiled. “If we decide.” 

Matt and Dan also told Neil and Allison (and Renee who was part of their usual group and Seth who currently was here but only spent time with them depending on his relationship status with Allison) that they didn't mind and that they went on plenty of dates without Neil as well. 

Neil gestured with his soda and Allison scoffed but changed the topic. 

Time passed, the conversation was put out of his mind almost immediately. It just wasn't relevant. 

Then the new semester started and Allison met Nicky in one of their classes and hit it off immediately. Nicky joined their group during one lunch and hit it off with the rest of the group as well, though Seth was his usual homophobic self and Neil was fine with someone as loud and extroverted as Nicky as long as he didn't have to interact with him.

With Nicky came his cousin Aaron and his girlfriend Katelyn who was already friends with Dan through their extracurricular activities and Neil knew immediately he and Aaron would not get along. Aaron was an asshole.

A few weeks into the semester the group had kind of established itself and things had been normal. Until one day Allison and Nicky threw a party which Matt dragged Neil to with a promise of compensation of free food for a week. 

The party was busier with more people Neil would have liked and he kept having to talk to strangers that came over to talk to him for some reason. He had lost sight of Dan and Matt a long time ago and every time he tried to go find them or a place to sit to stretch his leg out, there would be someone else getting in his way. 

But the next time someone left and he took a step, pain shot through his leg. He caught himself on someone, but it was just another stranger, now exclaiming something about his drink.

Neil said something and pushed down the pain and stumbled away. He just needed to get out of here. 

The party was thankfully at Allison’s way too big house he had been several times before, so he knew the shortest way up and onto the roof. 

With a groan Neil let himself fall on his ass and stretched out his legs. The night was still warm, but it was still a reprieve after the much more sweltering air inside. 

It hurt, but he gritted his teeth and tried to move his leg through the exercises his physical therapist had shown him for moments like this when he had been on his feet for too long without any breaks. It had been a long time since he had seen her, but he didn’t really need the regular sessions anymore.

The door opened and he froze, turning to see who it was and seeing a bit of black and blond hair and a familiar face before his legs spasmed from the movement and turned back with a hiss, fingers digging into his thighs. 

“Shut up,” Neil told Aaron before he could make some smart ass comment. His leg spasmed again and he swallowed his pride. “Either leave or come here and be useful for once.” 

There was a pause where Neil thought Aaron fucked off, but then steps came closer and around him. Aaron’s pre-doctor urge to help seemed to still apply to Neil. 

Aaron crouched down next to him and Neil adjusted and put his foot up, pushing it at Aaron until he had no choice but to catch it by his ankle. 

Neil opened his mouth to tell him to just do it, when his eyes fell on his hands and forearms. Calloused fingers, forearms clad in armbands just as black as the rest of his clothes. He looked up and saw his expression. “You’re not Aaron.” 

Not Aaron’s mouth twitched into the slightest shape of a scoffing smirk. “And you have eyes.” 

Grimacing Neil tried to pull back his foot, but Not Aaron’s grip tightened. “Sorry. My leg’s fucked. He sometimes helps with the stretches when it gets really bad.” And always bitched about letting it get this bad and demanding compensation. 

Without saying anything, Not Aaron shifted his own weight to have a knee on the ground and his hands on Neil’s leg and pushed Neil into a stretch. 

Neil hissed and gritted his teeth again to stop any noise as Not Aaron guided Neil through a series of stretches like he had done it a hundred times before. If he ignored the hard roof underneath or the night air, it was almost like being in his physical therapist’s office. Not Aaron’s hands never strayed somewhere they shouldn’t be and when he lowered Neil’s leg for the final time, slowly having him relax into a rest state, the pain had dulled into the usual ache. 

“Thank you,” Neil sighed, consciously releasing all the tension in the rest of his body that had built up. 

Not Aaron sat back and crossed his legs, pulling out cigarettes. His lighter looked expensive with something engraved in the bottom Neil only caught a glimpse of. 

If Neil hadn’t figured out he wasn’t Aaron before this, he would have figured it out now. He had been on the other end of the “Cigarettes are bad for you” rant more than once. 

He took one when Not Aaron offered him his pack. The smoke curled warm against his face as he inhaled it without actually putting the filter into his mouth. 

“Andrew,” Not Aaron said after a while of just sitting in silence and smoking. 

“Neil.” He looked at Andrew, looked at all the differences between him and Aaron. “You have some nice hands. Are you pre-med too?”

“Of sort.” Andrew seemed amused as he took a drag from his cigarette, eyes on Neil as steady as his hands had been. “You?”

“Math,” Neil answered fully expecting the disgust and grinning when it happened anyway. “I know. I’ve heard it all before.” He dragged the stub of his cigarette over the roof, before letting it lay there. When Andrew silently offered him another, Neil scooted forward, so he was next to him facing the other direction. 

Instead of letting Neil take one from the packet himself, Andrew grabbed one and put it in front of his mouth. 

Confused, Neil looked at him, but he leaned in further to take it in between his lips. He felt fingers lightly catch on his jaw when Andrew pulled away and lit the cigarette with his lighter in the other hand. 

The smoke burned in his throat, but he just tilted his head back to exhale upwards. He didn’t cough. He might not smoke a lot, but it was enough to not embarrass himself. 

When he lowered his head, took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked at Andrew, he found Andrew already looking at him. Neil licked his lips to get another taste of the cigarette. 

Andrew for some reason looked at his mouth then. Weird. 

“You come to the party with someone?” 

“Matt. He bribed me with food. Ah, Matt’s a -”

“He’s Renee’s giant friend, I know.” 

“Oh.” Neil would have thought Andrew would know Matt more from his association with Aaron and Nicky, but it wasn’t wrong he supposed.

“So you’re that Neil.” Another drag and a slow exhale of smoke filling up the space between them before dissipating. “You often spend time with couples or is it just that one?”

Neil snorted. “Have you been talking to Allison? We are happy with the arrangement. I don’t know why their relationship status matters so much.” 

“Mh.” Andrew flicked the last bit of his cigarette away and leaned in, grabbing Neil’s chin when he reflexively tried to lean back. “If those two goody two shoes have done one thing right, it was teach you how to properly flirt at least.” 

Neil blinked at him, not understanding. Flirt? Neil hadn’t been flirting. He didn’t know anything about flirting. 

But then Andrew shifted a little more and their noses passed each other with a little brush of skin and the fingers on his chin angled his face just so and their lips were touching and Andrew smelled of smoke and chocolate and he was warm and Neil had no idea what was happening right now. 

Andrew’s mouth moved, lips dragging along Neil’s, pressure increasing and decreasing at specific points.

It was actually kind of nice. Much better than that one very wet kiss at age fourteen with some girl that his mother had beat him black and blue over. 

Eyes closing Neil tried to copy Andrew, tried to move his mouth in a way that he had seen Matt and Dan make out, but he felt clumsy and inexperienced. 

Andrew’s hand left his chin to drag along his throat and then to the back of his head. Andrew opened his mouth a little and there was a little bit of wetness, a taste of chocolate and alcohol just as he pulled Neil a bit forward with that hand in his hair, firm, like Andrew knew exactly what he was doing.  

Foreign sensations ran along his spine. Neil felt warm and tingly and like he could get addicted to the feel and taste of Andrew’s mouth. 

A tug on his hair and a deep chuckle had him blink his eyes open, realizing he had tried to chase after Andrew’s mouth he had pulled away. 

Andrew licked his lips, eyes dark and amused again. “Cute.” 

Allison had called him that before, but it had always been mocking when he had apparently been too naive or something. Most importantly it had never made him feel like this. 

Nothing had ever made him feel like this. Maybe he had been missing out. Maybe it was just Andrew. 

Andrew’s mouth left a hot trail over his jaw downwards to his throat, pulling his head back to give him more room with the hand in his hair. 

What… Oh. 

Andrew alternatingly mouthed at his throat, sucked and dragged his teeth a little over his skin. Neil had never felt anything like this. He was pretty sure his mouth was open and he was making noises, but his mind was a jumbled mess and he couldn’t concentrate. 

“You found one already? Too easy.”

Neil stilled. That voice had come from behind him. 

The words were enough to pierce the pleasant fog in his head. But that voice. It was one of a handful voices he would never forget, no matter how many years had passed. 

“Let go,” Neil said, his own voice quiet and hard. His shaky hand found Andrew’s shoulder and pushed at it. All the warm feelings slowly turned to nausea and anger. 

Andrew let go without hesitation and got out of his space, mouth red and shiny, and Neil got to his feet, refusing to shake out his leg even though Andrew already knew that weakness. 

Turning around he stepped out of reach and there he was.

Kevin fucking Day, the best Exy player that ever existed and Neil's childhood obsession right until his father had forced him to give up on a dream that had already been impossible.

But now, seeing Kevin from across the roof, he was almost right back to his bedroom, hiding in the closet with a stolen flashlight and even more stolen news articles that neither parent could ever see. 

Kevin Day was at a party two people he would only generously call friends hosted. Kevin Day had something to do with the one person who had kissed Neil into a mess. 

Kevin Day took a look at Neil and made a face he had never seen him make, his public smile nowhere to be seen. “You didn't ask him yet.” It was a reprimand.

“I was working him up to it. You're just too impatient, Princess.” Andrew also got to his feet, but he also kept his distance from Neil and got a bit closer to Kevin. “You know Kevin Day.” It wasn’t a question. 

“I didn’t know you would be here.” He didn’t know if he would have come without incentive or if he would have stayed away at all cost. 

Kevin sneered. “Did you find an entitled fan again?” This he directed at Andrew. “You need to make sure before you make out with them.” 

“You’re an asshole,” Neil said and it was part revelation and part accusation. 

“Shattering a world view here?” Andrew put a cigarette between his lips, but Kevin snatched it away and threw it on the ground in two pieces. Andrew sent him a flat look. 

“Whatever this is, I’m not interested.” He didn’t want to hear any mocking from Andrew or more insults from Kevin. He was getting whiplash from the shift of emotions. His leg hurt and he hated that Andrew had kissed him and that he had liked it when it seemed to be just a game to these two. “Go back to your Exy court.” 

Kevin’s expression twisted in anger, but Neil didn’t care. As steady as he could he walked past them and back into the house. 

The party was still going strong. Too full, too noisy. 

He found Matt talking to a guy with blond streaks in his hair and the brightest smile Neil had ever seen. It hurt his eyes to look at. 

“Oh, Neil, there you are,” Matt shouted over the music, but his cheerful expression turned concerned quickly. “What’s wrong?” 

Neil cursed his lack of control over his facial expressions. “I want to go home.” He had to repeat himself as Matt leaned in to hear better. 

“Yeah okay. No problem.” He exchanged some sort of handshake with the stranger and then wrapped an arm around Neil’s shoulders to steer him through the masses. After they left the house and made their way down the too long driveway to Matt’s car, he texted Dan. “She was going to stay at Allison’s anyway. I just let her know we left.” 

“Sorry.” Guilt joined the pile in his gut. He knew that Matt enjoyed these types of things way more than Neil and would have stayed until it was winding down, if not join the clean up after as well. 

“No no, it’s okay.” Matt squeezed Neil’s shoulder with a smile that seemed genuine. “Did something happen?” 

Neil shook his head, got into the passenger seat and leaned his head against the window. He closed his eyes. 

Their weekly mandatory brunch thing was just two days after the party. 

As soon as Nicky saw Neil, he gasped and it just went downhill from there. 

It turned out Andrew had left a mark on his throat. 

“A hickey,” Allison helpfully provided with glee in her eyes. 

For some reason those two were sure that either Matt or Dan had made it. There was a bet and everything. 

Neil tried to ignore them as they continued to pester the three of them for answers. 

Someone approached their table and he felt some relief that the arrival of food would bring some quiet, but when he looked up it wasn’t one of those fancy dressed waiters, but the two people he really wanted to see the least right now. 

Nicky cheered and immediately everyone shuffled around to make space for Kevin and Andrew around the table. Neil ended up between Matt and Renee somehow with a direct view of the two newcomers. 

Introductions were made and the mood wasn’t bad. 

“We met,” Neil said when it was his turn and couldn’t help the glare. 

A beat of silence. 

“Oh?” Nicky asked uncertainly, head turning back and forth between them. 

Neil felt Matt straighten up to his full height in his chair and a glance revealed he had lost his smile. He had figured it out then.

“At the party on Friday, but it seems we got off on the wrong foot.” Kevin was smiling, something so obviously fake now that Neil had seen the real him. 

“Kevin with alcohol in him? Color me surprised that he pissed someone off,” Aaron remarked with a smirk and glared at Nicky for hitting his shoulder. 

“Just forget it.” Neil got up. “I’ll be right back.” He didn’t look at anyone else as he walked away. Instead of leaving entirely he only went to the bathroom, splashing cold water into his face and leaning onto the edge of the sink. 

This was so stupid. He had survived things that made others sick to their stomach just hearing about it and here he was struggling with interacting with two people who had made fun of him? 

The door to the bathroom opened and Neil saw Kevin and Andrew in the reflection in the mirror. They closed the door and stopped next to Neil, obviously just here for him. 

“Look,” Neil started and straightened up. “Whatever game you two are playing-” He was interrupted by Kevin holding out some paper towels to dry off, but what really caught his eye was that he had used his left hand and it was covered in white scars spread like lightning. “What happened?” He grabbed Kevin’s wrist, turning his hand. The towels fluttered to the ground, forgotten. 

“You don’t know?” Kevin sounded surprised, but Neil couldn’t look at his face. He was too busy tracing the scars with a light touch. 

The scars were covering his hand in a way the skin would have had to have been split open in uncountable places. The placement though aligned with all the small bones underneath. 

His imagination overlaid an image of a mess of a hand, mangled and bloody, over the one in his hands right now. It wasn’t hard. 

“Five years ago Riko hit it with his racquet.” Kevin’s tone was matter of fact with none of the horror Neil felt. “He got arrested, but I can’t play anymore. It was all over the news.” 

Five years ago Neil had been sixteen and desperately trying to stay alive as his father hunted him and his mother. There had been no time to stay on top of any Exy news, even if he had wanted to. 

“I didn’t know,” Neil said quietly even though it was obvious. He didn’t know what else to say. 

“And we weren’t making fun of you,” Andrew said from his spot right next to them forming the last corner of the triangle. One of his hands was hovering near Neil and the other was behind Kevin, like it was resting at the small of his back. 

Neil blinked at it, forcing his mind to shift gears. 

“Seems that there was a,” Andrew paused, expression twitching like had tasted something disgusting. “Miscommunication.” 

“It’s not your fault,” Kevin said quietly, swaying toward Andrew like he couldn’t help it. Andrew glared at him for a second, but he didn’t look serious. 

Oh. “Wait, are you two.” Neil’s head spun. “Then why did you-”

“Are you really that naive?”

Neil bristled, realized he was still holding Kevin’s hand and dropped it, but before he could say something, there was a hand on the back of his neck and Kevin’s face was right there, close enough Neil felt his breath, close enough that a kiss wouldn’t be difficult at all. 

“We were looking for someone to have sex with,” Kevin said quietly, his tone suddenly so different. “A guy we could suck off and who we could fuck together. Someone that wouldn’t make a big deal about my name or it being threesome.”

It was so strange. Neil had been obsessed with Kevin, had worshipped him, and here he was, touching him, telling him things Neil had never ever thought about. 

“Is this flirting?” Neil asked genuinely, because he couldn’t tell. Were they still trying to do that with him or was he just explaining what had happened that night? 

Kevin’s hand on Neil twitched and his intent expression morphed into disbelief. 

“Do you want it to be?” Andrew stepped close enough Neil could see him out of the corner of his eye and what must have been his hand touched Neil’s shoulder blade, light enough he could shrug him off. 

Neil supposed he had unexpectedly liked kissing Andrew, but he hadn’t liked what had come after and he wasn't feeling any of the things he had felt on the roof. “No.” Even if the complicated history Neil had with Kevin didn’t exist, he had never been interested in any of this and he wasn’t particularly interested in kissing Kevin right now either. 

“Okay.” Andrew took his hand away and pulled Kevin away who was frowning now, mouth pulled into something that might have been a pout if someone like Kevin was capable of it. 

“But-”

“Kevin,” Andrew interrupted him and they had a moment of silent conversation. 

“Fine. It’s a no. I got it.” 

Neil watched them both, a little confused, but they were accepting his answer and that was good enough.

To Be Continued on Ao3

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