Chapter Text
The end of finals week, the start of summer vacation, and the month of May all passed by in a sort of blur. Everyone went home except for, of course, Andrew’s group. For the majority of May after their finals, they spent their time in Colombia, alternating between the house, Sweeties, and Eden’s Twilight.
Kevin, of course, complained every day he was away from the court, but Neil assured him that some time off wouldn’t kill them. At the end of May, when Kevin finally retorted back in harsh French that it might kill them due to their deal with Ichirou Moriyama, Neil finally agreed to go back to campus.
Until the dorms opened, they stayed in Abby’s house. Things with the twins still weren’t completely normal, but they could stand to be in the room with one another, even if Katelyn was around. She never spoke to Andrew, and Neil was silently glad that she remembered his threat.
As the beginning of June rolled around, Kevin, Andrew, and Neil started their practices back up. Neil worked on perfecting his accuracy and speed with the heavy racquet, although it didn’t take too much work. Andrew has started joining them most days on the court so that Neil and Kevin could work with somebody trying to block their shots. Kevin was glad for it, as he was still building up his strength back in his left hand. He planned to switch back to his left hand for this coming season but told nobody that his left-handed game with the Ravens wasn’t a one and done deal.
It didn’t take long for the two strikers to get back in the groove of things, and Andrew was starting to enjoy the game. Silently, of course, but Neil noticed when Andrew stopped complaining all the time about the game.
Since the end of their last season, Andrew’s been thinking about Neil’s offer for him to join Neil and Kevin in playing for Court, and pros. He’s been weighing the pros and cons, not ever bringing it up, because he’s sure Neil will get tired of him and leave like everyone else in his life.
Neil and Andrew still hadn’t put a label on their not-relationship. They’d dealt with the comments the rest of the foxes made last season, but never really spoke about it. In Colombia, they shared a room, shared the car, and practically spent every moment together. Even on Andrew’s hard days where he found it difficult to talk at all, Neil had been there, silently supporting him. He didn’t understand what he felt, especially on those days. Since he was taken off of his medicine, he’d started to feel more. Whether it was anger or fear or… happiness, he almost hated it. He didn’t like the vulnerability that came alongside those emotions.
He'd started letting Neil touch him after a few weeks in Colombia. Nothing more than Neil’s hands over his clothes, resting on his hips or his chest. He still felt a bit of panic in those moments, but he knew Neil. He knew that Neil wouldn’t be like them.
Neil never mentioned that Andrew had slowly, but surely, started to be more comfortable with him, but the looks he gave Andrew sometimes, Andrew knew it was a silent ‘thank you for trusting me.’
As soon as their practices started back up, Wymack started coming to the court to see them in action. Sometimes he’d watch, sometimes he’d just sit in his office going through the paperwork of his six successful new recruits. With all of their success last season, the recruits didn’t take much convincing.
After Neil got a bit restless with the repetitiveness of their practices, Andrew, shockingly, suggested that he start working on his defense again. It took some convincing for Kevin, but eventually, Neil split his work between both defense and offense.
Wymack was a little shocked when he came out to the court one day to see Neil guarding Kevin, and successfully at that. He knew that Neil had started off with defense, he knew that in the championship game last season, he’d successfully guarded Riko, but he didn’t expect Neil to work as hard to perfect both defensively and offensively.
Towards the end of June, Fox Tower opened back up, and the Foxes all started moving in. Unsurprisingly, Neil and Andrew roomed together with Kevin this season.
Once all of the foxes were back, they met the new recruits. A rowdy bunch of freshmen that all had obvious issues and attitude problems. The first part of their season was always rough, but this bunch seemed harder to tame.
Neil and Dan, as vice-captain and captain, tried their hardest to reel in the new recruits, but it took a lot of work on and off the court. The returning players had a bit of animosity between them, the upperclassmen not sure if the bridge in their group and Andrew’s was still intact or not.
Their first team outing proved that there was a bit of awkwardness, especially between Aaron and the upperclassmen, but for the most part, they were a united front. Now that there were fifteen of them instead of nine, it was hard to plan team outings, but Neil and Dan pushed for it anyways.
Instead of the harsh way that Neil, Matt, and Renee were integrated into the team, the freshmen’s trip to Colombia with the team was ten-times tamer. Wymack and Abby knew normally what a trip to Colombia meant, but Neil promised them that it was different now. They were united.
It took a lot of drinks to get the freshmen talking, but no cracker dust. Andrew had made that promise to Neil, and he’s nothing if not a man of his word. They got the freshman wasted enough to see if they were going to be able to be team players or not. Most of them fell in line quickly, realizing that the Foxes, with whatever they’d heard about them in the past, had changed and they were an actual team now.
Two of them didn’t fall into line that easily though. One, obviously felt out of place, inferior. The other, the striker that Neil had hand-picked, was cagey. He was going to be a difficult one, but he was obviously a lot like Neil was at first. Roland had poured them so many shots tonight that he could barely keep track of how fast the foxes were going through them. When Neil walked up to the bar for another round, Roland took his time, talking to Neil about the newbies. Neil explained that most were fine, and the two that weren’t would be soon enough. Roland offered, obviously jokingly, but still hitting a nerve, to spike their drinks. That pissed Neil off, and when he walked back to the table with the next round, Andrew caught on fast to Neil’s sour mood.
He sent him a questioning look, and Neil shook his head. He knew it was a joke, he knew Roland wasn’t being serious, but it still pissed him off because he knew that if he’d agreed, Roland would have done it. He said, in quiet German, “Roland made a shitty joke. It’s nothing.”
At the foreign sound, the freshmen looked at them curiously, but the rest of the team didn’t, being more than used to it by now.
“Want me to kill him? I will.” Andrew responded, in German, which only made Nicky look up quickly.
“Who are you killing?” He asked, also in German, turning the table’s attention to the three of them.
“Nobody.” Neil said at the same time as Andrew said “Roland.”
“What’d he do?” Nicky asked, hearing the table going quiet, the returning players listening closely to see if they recognized any of the words being shared.
“Made a joke about spiking the freshmen’s drinks. He was kidding. Still hit a nerve.” Neil explained quickly, seeing Andrew standing up with obvious rage on his face. The freshmen hadn’t yet seen how quickly Andrew could become enraged like this, and Neil’s recruit flinched visibly at the look on Andrew’s face. Neil grabbed Andrew’s arm, making Andrew look down at him, they had a whole conversation without saying a word to each other, and eventually Andrew sat back down, tossing back two shots to calm himself down.
That’s when Kevin spoke up, in French, making the freshmen even more shocked. “Is it going to be a problem?” He asked, making Neil shake his head.
“No. It’ll be fine.” Neil responded, not looking over at the freshmen, but still saying, “Did you see the way he flinched?” Neil said, not daring to say his recruit’s name. It was harder to get away with speaking about someone in another language when names were still clear as day.
“I did. I’ll see if I can talk to him at some point.” Kevin said, turning back to the upperclassmen, who were obviously feeling left out of the conversation. He gave them a look to tell them that they’d talk later, and they nodded in acceptance.
They all went back to their drinks, everyone now speaking English again. Neil couldn’t help but notice the strange looks that the freshmen gave them. Their dynamic was obviously not one that was quickly adaptable, but they’d figure it out.
After a while, Andrew went up for another round for the table, having lost most of the upperclassmen, and some of the freshmen, to the dancefloor. Neil thought it was best to accompany him, so he didn’t say something to Roland he’d regret.
With Neil’s fingers digging into Andrew’s wrist at the bar, Andrew knew better to say anything, but he stared daggers at Roland. Roland noticed but stayed quiet as he poured their drinks.
After a long night, they went back to Nicky’s house in Colombia. When they got there, they realized the complete lack of room to sleep. Neil and Andrew shared his room, so one chair was freed up in the living room, but that was it. Andrew went up to bed, so Neil grabbed all the extra blankets and pillows he could find and handed them out to the team. When he was about to head up to bed, Neil’s recruit stopped him.
“How many languages do you all speak?” He asked, suspicion obvious in his voice.
“I speak a few, Andrew, Aaron, and Nicky speak German, Kevin speaks French and Japanese. The rest of them only speak English.” Neil answered honestly. He wants to start off on a good note, not lying like last season.
“Why that many?” His recruit asked, still obviously suspicious.
“Moved around a lot as a kid.” Neil said, shrugging, not giving the full story. He doesn’t want to drop all of their pasts on the freshman without the others being there and saying that it was okay to share. “What about you? Do you speak any other language?” He asks, trying to break the ice and learn anything about him.
“Spanish.” He said, guarded. “Bits and pieces of a few others, but I’m not fluent in anything else.”
Neil perked up at that, he’s still studying Spanish, so he spoke in broken Spanish, “Where’d you learn?” He asked, shocking him even further. He’d once been decent at Spanish, but he’d never got past the need-to-know phrases, and it had been washed out by the other languages he had ready to go in his brain.
“Back home.” He replied in Spanish. Neil didn’t know much of his past or his family, but he nodded, accepting the small truth that he’d given.
“I’m going to head up to bed. You need anything, you let me know.” Neil said, in English this time. Neil turned on his heels, heading for the stairs, but he felt eyes still on him. He stopped before he got up the first step. He said in Spanish, because he knew nobody else would understand, “Andrew won’t hurt you unless you hurt one of us first.” He said, his accent definitely needing work, but he remembered that flinch he gave back at Eden’s.
“I’ll trust it when I see it.” The freshman said, making Neil nod, knowing that trust isn’t easily given among foxes. He turned and headed up the stairs.
The weeks following, Wymack and Abby had obviously been suspicious of their trip to Colombia, but they didn’t say anything since the freshmen came back in one piece. They slowly saw them integrating with the team, talking to Matt and Nicky the most, but still integrating, nonetheless.
In early August, right before classes started back, they had their schedule pinned down, and Wymack had been obviously avoiding the conversation. Neil could assume he knew why.
The day before classes started back, he sat them all down in the locker room, Neil, Andrew, and Kevin sharing the couch as usual, Nicky and Aaron perched beside on chairs. The upperclassmen spread out a bit, letting the freshmen fall into the gaps, talking easier, but still not really opening up yet. That would take time.
“So, we’ve got our schedule.” Wymack said, looking at Neil. He’s too good at reading people for Neil’s liking, but Neil looked back expectantly, a small tug at the corner of his mouth. The ERC had been very secretive the last few months, and nobody, aside from Neil, knew why.
“And?” Andrew asked, his attitude showing through.
“And there’s been some changes.” Wymack said, looking at the upperclassmen now. The freshmen wouldn’t understand the significance of the words about to leave his mouth, but they’d understand the reaction it would cause. “The ERC made the announcement to the coaches, and plan to go public before season starts, but Tetsuji Moriyama has stepped down as the Ravens coach.” He said, eyeing Kevin and Neil. Kevin looked surprised, which confused Wymack, but he looked at Neil and saw that same smug look on his face.
The whole team erupted in joy, each talking over each other. Andrew noticed Neil’s lack of surprise, and Neil kept looking at Wymack, waiting for the better news.
“You didn’t tell me.” Kevin said in harsh French, making everyone quiet down.
“There’s more.” Neil said in English, looking at Wymack.
Wymack shook his head, “Thought we were done with the lies.” He said, a little angrily. “Tell me you had no part in it.” He said to Neil.
“I didn’t lie.” Neil said, making Matt speak up.
“What the hell is it?” He asked, knowing that it had to be serious if Wymack was reacting like this.
“Riko’s dead.” Wymack said, making them all pause for a minute, looking at Neil. Andrew got up angrily, pissed that Neil didn’t tell him. Kevin looked at Neil with his jaw practically on the floor.
“Thank fuck.” Renee said, confusing the freshmen even more than they already were. They knew the rumors, but the media had not believed Kevin when he said Riko had broken his hand, they didn’t notice the fact that Riko was so pissed off when Neil’s burn scar took away the tattoo. They didn’t think it could be possible, so neither did the freshmen.
“You knew.” Allison said, looking at Neil.
“I did.” Neil said honestly, shrugging his shoulders.
“You had no part in it.” Matt said, more a statement than a question, but Neil still answered as if it were a question.
“No. He was a loose end, causing trouble for Ichirou, risking their whole operation.” Neil said, making Wymack let out a breath of relief. Andrew was standing as far away as he could while still listening.
“How did you know, then?” Dan asked, knowing that Neil would tell the truth.
“After the championship, I was escorted to the east side. Ichirou and I had a talk about Tetsuji stepping down because of the shit he let happen at Evermore, making their business more difficult. I thought that was all until he walked over to Riko and shot him.” Neil said, shrugging. “Then I came back to the locker room, and we left.” He said, making Wymack look at him in a way that he’d never seen. They’re all still a little shocked with how much violence Neil could take with a straight face, but they understood his past now.
“Dismissed. 8:00 tomorrow morning, I’ll see you all in the gym. If you’re late, I sign you up for a marathon.” Wymack said, looking at Neil and Kevin, telling them without words that they are not dismissed. Everyone got up and left, and despite Andrew’s anger, he stayed.
“You lied to me.” Andrew said in German, obviously pissed.
“I didn’t say anything because it wasn’t important at the time. We’d just won, we had a month off, I was ready to stop talking about them.” Neil replied in German, not looking at Andrew.
“Fuck you.” Andrew said, wanting to reach for the knives in his armband. “We had a right to know.” He spoke. Everything with them had been good for a month, they weren’t together, but they weren’t not together either. They were more comfortable with each other, and then Neil pulls this.
“I know. I should have told you and Kevin when it happened, but I just wanted a minute to breathe.” Neil said, making Andrew huff out a breath in frustration and walk back over to the couch. He stood over Neil for a minute before shaking his head in annoyance and sitting down on the other side of Kevin.
“We gonna talk about this?” Wymack said, looking at Kevin.
Kevin was still shocked, his mind far away, but he shook his head. A weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “No.” Kevin said, still a little shaken and a little pissed that Neil hadn’t told him, but he couldn’t find it in him to argue about it. “I’m glad.” Kevin said finally, making Abby flinch. She hadn’t said anything this whole meeting, but she’d witnessed it all.
“Good.” Wymack said, making Abby slap his shoulder hard. Wymack ignored her and turned to look between Neil and Kevin. “You two should be relieved. I don’t know the details of you and Ichirou,” He said looking at Neil, “But will it threaten your game or your life?” Wymack asked, needing to know if they were in for another season like the last one.
“No.” Neil said, shaking his head. “It won’t affect anything. I doubt he’ll ever speak to me again.” Neil said, making Kevin huff a laugh out in disbelief.
“You’re lying again.” Kevin said in French.
“I’m not. He won’t speak to us or threaten us. When we make Court and pros, we’ll pay the money, but it won’t be to him. It will be to a middleman.” Neil said, being confident that Ichirou wouldn’t risk being seen with a Wesninski again unless it was to kill him.
“Okay.” Kevin said, sighing. “Is that all?” Kevin asked Wymack in English. Andrew hadn’t said another word; he wasn’t sure what he was feeling. It was a mix of emotions that he couldn’t name and didn’t like.
“That’s all. Dismissed. I will see you tomorrow morning.” Wymack said, standing up. The others followed suit. “But try to catch the freshmen up, at least on the vague details. We don’t want them asking questions to the wrong people.”
“You mean Aaron.” Andrew said, making Wymack nod.
“I mean Aaron.” He said, shooing them out.