Chapter Text
The sticky heat of summer clinging to the back of Andrew’s neck was almost enough to distract him from the way his spine ached from sitting in the bleachers for the last two hours. He’d already gotten up to do a lap four times; Once for the bathroom, again to get away from Kevin, and twice to talk to Neil from across the fence.
Watching Neil flip around had gotten easier once he’d accepted that his fractured rib and bullet wound were completely healed and ready to be exercised. Still, it almost sent butterflies in his stomach knowing that Neil’s exterior was not as thick as he’d once thought.
Kevin groaned beside him. Andrew’s gut instinct was to get up and walk away just at the sound of his irritation; Instead he took a slow breath and held it for a few seconds to derail an unnecessary side comment. Betsy’s doing, the breathing thing. He wasn’t sure if it actually worked or not, but a placebo was better than nothing.
“He can’t be doing that before the season’s over! What if he breaks something?!” Kevin exclaimed, gesturing out towards the field. It took no time for Andrew to spot Neil, holding himself upside down while his teammates competed, red faced and determined. It took a second more to spot Katelyn also doing a handstand a few feet away, though hers was more shaky. Andrew wasn’t sure why she and Neil talked at school and track practices and ignored each other everywhere else, but he didn’t attempt to understand. Jean was finishing high school in California, and Neil was the only one left at Palmetto High from the group. That was enough of a reason not to criticize it.
Besides, Katelyn had been so surprised by Andrew not knowing she was a year younger than him and Aaron that it was probably the last thing he’d bothered to learn about her.
Neil let his feet down gracefully, wiping his palms on his shorts and pushing his hair back with his hideously tie dyed bandana. His curls poked out the sides and one made its way down in front of his eye, springing when he nodded at something someone said. It also made the scar on his ear more visible, showing off the smooth curve of his neck and, if Andrew got close enough, a peek of the hickey he had left just behind his ear.
Andrew fought a smirk. “He will get over it.”
Kevin scowled and crossed his arms, shooting Andrew daggers. “He has a scholarship to keep, Andrew. You of all people should want him to keep it.”
And he would, Andrew was sure. A few wounds had done nothing to harm his ability to outrun the rest of the school and outjump anyone else on the team. After all, Neil learned how to run as soon as he could walk.
Neil caught his eye from afar, evident in the small secretive smile that grew in place of the lip biting concentration he wore watching Katelyn talk animatedly with her hands. She stopped when realizing she lost his attention, and turned to see who or what the culprit was.
Neil’s lips curled into something troubling and cheeky. Andrew could hear an echo of his name being called from his coach. Neil ignored it for a moment, bringing two fingers to his temple in a mocking salute towards the bleachers before tugging a few more pieces of his fringe out into his face; His hair was Andrew’s favorite thing to hold onto.
Andrew tightened his fingers around the edge of the bleacher seat between his knees.
He hated that bandana.
Kevin gave Neil enough of an earful when Renee dropped him off outside of Andrew’s house, reminding him of just how much he needed his track and field scholarship safe if he wanted to attend college in the fall. It was a useless effort, an argument he and Kevin had had before when Neil showed off a new tumbling trick in Andrew’s backyard the day after signing his free time away to Palmetto State.
Going to the same college as both him, Aaron, Kevin, Matt and Dan felt ridiculous. The rest of their senior classes fled Palmetto at their first chance- both his and soon Neil’s, and yet Andrew had barely cared to switch from community college to a school thirty minutes away.
It hadn’t been a hard debate for Neil, however. Staying close enough to home, but getting to choose a path for himself for once was an addicting opportunity. Andrew would have smacked him upside the head if he’d decided to follow the same steps he did.
Neil had no ear for Kevin’s scolding today, however. Whether it was because he was talking to his deaf ear or because he only had eyes for Andrew was debatable. Andrew didn’t think he’d seen him wear his hearing aid in two weeks.
His shirt stuck to his collar when he shut the passenger side door, clinging to droplets from a shower he likely barely toweled off from. Damp hair formed little ringlets around his ears and over his forehead, and frizzed from the May humidity everywhere else.
Andrew waited, sat on the front porch twisting a ring around his finger- some piece meant for fidgeting with when he itched for a cigarette; A gift from Betsy in exchange for a porcelain Bee figure he found at the dollar store.
If it weren’t for the way Neil flinched last summer when Andrew lit a cigarette, he probably would have been sitting up on his roof instead.
Matt called Kevin’s attention back with a soccer ball to his gut.
Neil stopped in front of Andrew and glanced at his ring. He didn’t say anything about it, he never had, knowing exactly why Andrew had it from context clues alone. He sat beside him instead, shoulder to shoulder, and dug his wallet from his pocket. The matching black armbands -Andrew’s old ones- and shirt made his skin look tanner. He’d find atrocious tan lines on Neil’s skin later from his track uniform, he knew. He made a mental note to make fun of him later.
“Guess what came in today?” Neil asked.
Andrew raised a brow and held a hand out in waiting. “License.”
Neil’s snicker said enough. He handed it over with pride, beaming down at it in wonder.
Neil Abram Josten .
The picture looked like a mug shot thanks to the icy look Neil’s resting face offered. Bright eyes against dark eyelashes and sun tanned freckles; A scar running across the bridge of his nose and a bundle of pink skin on his cheekbone to match. Andrew wanted a copy of it for his wallet, if he was being honest. It sounded stupid to say Neil looked cool, so he would settle for hot. He had the right to think that, after all: Neil was his boyfriend.
“Thought you didn’t want to keep the WITSEC name,” Andrew pointed out.
Neil shrugged. “It’s the only one I’ve gotten to choose,” he said. Then, a new thought striking, asked, “How come you didn’t have to change your name?”
Andrew flicked a look up to him and handed the ID back.
Letting Abby and Wymack adopt him last month had more to do with making his college finances easier to set up and handle as their dependent than it did him wanting the validation of being someone’s legal son. He’d been offered close enough to a full scholarship thanks to his graduating test scores, GPA, and other grants from Palmetto State -more than Aaron had been given- but college was expensive. “Close enough” wasn’t going to help when he’d still owe five grand per semester. He wasn’t stubborn enough to ignore the fact that he needed Abby and Wymack’s assistance.
That didn’t make them any less emotional when Andrew had first brought it up as a solution to escape the conversation and cover the legalities.
Despite his hardened resolve, signing the papers and leaving a courthouse for a good reason on his behalf, finally allowing Abby to take a family photo outside the house without grumbling protest- with Aaron’s protective arm around his shoulder and Wymack’s proud smile behind them, lifted a weight so small from his shoulders that he could feel the tiny tremble in his fingers as he texted Neil back and forth that night.
Andrew had made the right choice, but even so, changing his name without Aaron would never be in the cards.
Neil knew that, he was sure. If he wanted to dig for information all he had to do was ask.
“Because I’m a legal adult,” was his answer.
“ I’m a legal adult, too, now.”
Andrew narrowed his eyes. “Your father was running an organized crime ring and you pulled out of witness protection.”
Neil shrugged again, carelessly this time, and let an easy smile rise to his face as he showed his questioning was all in vain. “You love your ugly twin.”
Andrew fought viciously against the breath of laughter that forced its way out and pushed Neil’s face away when he lost the battle to the deep smirk on his lips.
Neil being Neil, though, bounced right back into Andrew’s space. He ducked his head to Andrew’s shoulder, leaving a soft kiss to his clothed shoulder. His eyes were twinkling when he looked back up, crossing his arms over his knees and leaning over to rest his head on top. His cheek squished against his arm.
Andrew reached over, laying his arm on Neil’s back as he slid his fingers through the soft curls at the nape of his neck. His hair slipped between blunt fingers as he gently raked them through, soft and copper toned from all the sun.
Neil smiled unabashed back at him, warm and flushed, and preening under Andrew’s touch like a cat in a spot of sun.
“What’s up?” Neil whispered.
And, well, one could always come up with something that was wrong. The nightmare that creeped up every so often, the way he was dreading the forensics course he’d signed up to take in the fall or the rain that was supposedly coming all next week.
But the breeze of the late spring afternoon whispered through the trees and between crooked houses of the neighborhood, whisking away the nonsense worries with it up into the air and keeping Andrew rooted to the ground. After years of torturous vacancy and self-destruction, Andrew was familiar with the blooming heat in his belly and the way it spread across his chest like embers caught in the wind.
So, for once, there was nothing. No pressing urgency to run or fight. No monsters under the bed other than the ones that turned to ash when he opened his eyes and found a soft voice and glimmering eyes. Just the steady rhythm of his heartbeat picking up at the way Neil made it flip, the warmth of the setting sun on his skin, and the knowledge that his family, by blood or conscience, were safe. Cared for. That he was, too.
Andrew could see Neil about to move- to pull a hand free and sign what they’d preferred to show than say. He cut his movements short when he couldn’t help but lean forward, kissing the corner of Neil’s mouth, lingering for a moment before sitting back up and giving a playful tug of his hair.
“You need a haircut.”
THE END