#exy practice

In their second year a deal is made. Andrew wants to explore his boundaries and there’s really just one person he trusts around himself.

Set in a universe where everything is the same except that Andrew never kissed Neil on the rooftop that night. Instead, they just got closer and more comfortable around each other.

Read from the start if you haven’t yet! [Part 1]

You can also read it on [AO3]

As always a huge thank you to @velvetnoodle for being an amazing beta <3

Part 3

Neil throws the ball at Kevin, but Andrew intercepts the ball easily and throws it to the other side of the court — almost catching Mike’s feet in the process. Neil furrows his brow and runs to the middle of the court. He knows that Andrew has been making Mike a target at practice since yesterday he just hasn’t figured out the why yet.

Minutes later, Neil winces as he watches Mike get successfully hit on the head, making him stumble and lose the grip on his racket which drops to the floor. The whole team stops at the sound of it echoing through the walls and Allison snorts at the whole situation; Neil sees some of the others trying to hide their grins, while others don’t hide them at all. Mike finally done, takes off his helmet, throws it to the floor, and begins to walk in the direction of Andrew. Neil curses under his breath and runs to try to stop him, but Matt, who’s right behind Mike, immediately grabs him.

Once Neil reaches them, he tells them all to take a break, and it’s only when Matt pushes Mike out of the court and closes the door behind them that Neil jogs to where Andrew is and stops right in front of him to catch his attention. “We can't play if you injure him," he points out.

Andrew looks bored and rests his racket on his shoulders. “Maybe he should focus more on learning how to play, instead of on your ass."

Embarrassed, Neil starts to blush and takes his helmet off. Mike isn’t completely stupid, Kevin had picked him for the team because he had potential so the dumb questions about Exy in the last couple of practices weren’t making any sense. Until now. He runs his hand through the hair that Allison hadn’t shaved at the top unsure of what to think about this. “Can we just focus on the real problem here?”

“You are the problem," Andrew points out. “You don't shut them down clearly enough.”

“I can't just ignore him; I'm vice-captain,” Neil replies, ignoring the fact that Andrew is not just talking about Mike.

“I'm getting tired of people not getting the message,” Andrew says in a bored tone, but the message is clear as water to Neil. They made a deal and Andrew is going to hold his part of it no matter what.

Neil grimaces and wonders if this will become a problem for the team. He just wants to be left alone. “Just don't injure him,” he says firmly before he starts to jog to the middle of the court again.

Once practice is over and they’re about to head off from the locker rooms, Nicky comes to talk to Neil excitedly about the trip to Columbia they’re going to make as soon as they leave the stadium. Neil distracted by Nicky, takes his bag from the locker and without noticing knocks his empty bottle to the floor. Mike who was in the lockers in front of them rushes to catch it from the floor and when it’s clear that Neil hadn’t even noticed him picking it up, he grabs Neil arm to catch his attention and give it to him.

Immediately, Neil jumps back at the unexpected touch and one second later Andrew is pushing Mike against the lockers with a knife to his throat.

“What the f—” Mike starts.

“I’ll only say this once,” Andrew interrupts him. “Don’t touch him again unless he tells you to.”

Matt is about to reach Andrew and Neil puts himself on the way. “Don’t,” he tells him, and Matt looks between Andrew and Neil, and stops just a few inches away from them.

“I just wanted—” Mike stops talking mid-sentence when Andrew presses the knife closer to his throat making him wince.

Matt steps closer almost touching Neil, so Neil tries to take a step back but feels Andrew’s arm against his back. He puts his arm in Matt’s path in a last attempt for Matt not get involved. “Let them talk,” he insists and receives a warning look from Matt but Neil doesn’t back down so Matt remains where he is.

After seeing from the corner of his eye that Matt has stopped coming his way, Andrew turns his attention to Mike once again. “Let me make myself clear, he’s not interested so leave him alone. Got it? Or next time I won’t play nice,” he warns him in a low tone that Neil struggles to hear.

“Okay, I just didn’t know—”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Wymack interrupts Mike when he enters the locker room and takes in what’s happening. “Let him go now, Minyard.”

Andrew steps back and turns to face Wymack over Neil. “Don’t worry coach, our little chat is done now,” Andrew says and turns his attention back to Mike’s terrified face while he puts his knife away.

No one moves until Andrew steps around Neil and grabs his bag. Then he starts to walk in the direction of the entrance.“ Let’s go,” he says without looking back.

Neil immediately moves to grab his own bag and follow Andrew outside but when he’s about to pass Wymack by the door, he’s stopped by a hand in front of him.

“Do we have a problem here?” Wymack asks, studying Neil.

“No, Coach,” Neil tells him, and when Wymack doesn’t remove his hand he adds, “Andrew gave him a fair warning, there won’t be a problem unless Mike doesn’t listen.”

Nicky stops right behind Neil, wanting to leave the locker room as soon as possible after what happened. He looks curiously between Neil and the coach to see what’s the hold-up, but Wymack removes his hand and nods at Neil understanding the implications of what could happen if Mike kept pushing Andrew’s patience. “I’ll talk to him,” he says to Neil, then he turns to the others. “Now, get out of my sight!”

“Yes, Coach!” Neil and Nicky half shout before exiting with Kevin and Aaron right behind them.

As soon as Andrew sees them stepping out of the doors, he takes a long drag of his cigarette, lets it drop to the floor, and steps on it before he enters the vehicle. The others don’t take long to enter the car. They make a short stop at the dorms to change clothes and grab their stuff for the weekend and then they head out to Columbia.

***

They pull up into the parking lot at Sweetie’s to eat dessert for dinner like they’ve done many times before. After they’re done eating they head off to Eden’s Twilight and by the time they reach the club, it’s fully packed and it takes them a while to find an empty table. Once they find one, Neil follows Andrew to the bar to pick up the drinks while the others stay at the table.

Neil stops right behind Andrew when he manages to reach the counter. It doesn’t take long for Andrew to see Roland looking up in their general direction and signal to them. Neil curses when he feels himself being slightly pushed towards Andrew by the crowd. He turns toward the person that bumped into him to give him an annoyed look, but the guy behind him immediately starts to smile apologetically. “Oh, hey sorry about that,” the guy starts, “how about I pay you—”

“How about no,” Andrew interrupts him annoyed, turning his head around to look at the guy. “Just go.”

The guy puts his hands in the air and turns around,looking unbothered. They both watch him leave and Neil is about to speak when Roland’s voice comes right behind them. “I’d appreciate if you don’t scare the customers away,” he says, but when Neil turns to look back at the counter he finds him only smirking at them.

“Piss off,” Andrew tells him.

“Relax, that was fun to watch,” Roland says looking between the two of them. “So, the usual?” He asks, placing two shots in front of them.

Andrew drinks the shot and answers, “Yeah.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back,” Roland says moving to the end of the counter to prepare their drinks.

Andrew then looks at Neil and when Neil shakes his head, he grabs the other shot and drinks it too in a quick motion.

Not long after, Rolland appears in front of them with a tray full of drinks, so Neil makes a path for Andrew to follow him with the tray towards the others. Once they get to the table Kevin and Aaron start to drink so fast that one would think they were in a competition to see who can get completely wasted first, and soon they head off towards the dance floor with Nicky, leaving Neil and Andrew behind as usual.

***

The next day they’re all in the living room watching a movie when Andrew silently gets up. At the movement, Neil looks up and meets his eyes for a second, and Andrew motions with his head for him to follow.

They go outside and sit on the steps. Andrew lights a cigarette takes a long drag and passes it to Neil, who lets it burn down between his fingers. They keep sharing it in silence until it’s done, then Andrew extends his arm as if waiting for something. It takes a moment for Neil to understand what, but then he copies the movement and extends his arm too.

Andrew puts his hand palm up to Neil and keeps staring in front of them. “Go on, if you want,” Andrew tells him quietly. Neil slowly reaches for it and pulls Andrew’s hand towards him barely touching him. Andrew says nothing about it so Neil takes it as a good sign and inspects his hand. He can feel the warmth of his skin and the callous in his hands just like the ones he has. He turns Andrew’s hand and traces every small scar with his finger. Then he moves his hand under Andrew’s and grabs it for a moment.

Neil studies their hands together wondering what exactly they’re doing; what it all means to them. All he knows is that he doesn’t want to stop it, he wants to memorize every inch of Andrew.

The sound of footsteps coming towards them snaps Neil out of his thoughts and he lets go of Andrew’s hand the moment Kevin opens the door. Neil turns his head to face him wanting to know the reason he’s interrupting them and Andrew doesn’t move at all.

“Tomorrow can we go back to campus sooner?” Kevin asks, looking at Andrew’s back.

“If you’re going to ask me to go back earlier on a Sunday because you want to practice think again,” Andrew responds without moving to look at Kevin.

“We need to practice there’s a game coming up,” Kevin insists, now choosing to look at Neil in search of support.

“We can practice Monday,” Neil tells him, he loves playing Exy but right now he’s annoyed at Kevin for interrupting them and he just wants him to leave them alone.

Kevin glares at him for siding with Andrew. “Monday night we’re going to practice until later,” he tells them pissed.

“Fuck off,” Andrew says, clearly done with the conversation and Kevin turns to leave slamming the door behind himself.