Chapter Text
The day had started off normally enough. Neil got out of bed at five in the morning and walked around his empty apartment, eating an apple after changing into his running clothes. It was a Thursday, and Neil couldn’t wait for the weekend. AP tests were right around the corner, so every teacher he had was trying to cram any last-minute information they could into their students’ minds. Neil was still getting used to studying at all, so he was feeling a bit overwhelmed.
That’s why taking a run at five in the morning always helped.
The sun was just barely rising, not enough to light up the sky just yet but enough to cast just the smallest shade of light. Birds chirped as he ran down the sidewalks, making his way towards the nearest park. Neil didn’t try to run for distance in the morning, but instead to warm himself up for the rest of the day. They’d become a habit after one too many nightmares at night.
The park was deserted that morning, like it usually was. Neil paused at a bench near the street, pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the time, managing a tired grin when he saw he was on schedule. He turned around to see a black car coming to a stop at the curb, then glanced down at his phone and opened his messages, sending a message to his Uncle Stuart.
Picked up.
There was no response, but there rarely was. Neil walked to the passenger side of the black Maserati at the curb, leaning in the open window. “Morning,” he greeted with a tired smile.
Andrew Minyard glanced at Neil out of the corners of his eyes, reaching to press the button to unlock the doors. Neil hopped into the passenger seat and grabbed the raspberry smoothie left in one of the cupholders. “Did you make this?” he asked.
Andrew nodded as he rolled up Neil’s window, then started driving down the street. This had been their tradition ever since Andrew learned that Neil took runs in the morning: he’d get up, come pick Neil up at the park, give him a fruit smoothie and they’d go back to Neil’s apartment to get ready for school. Neil knew this wasn’t going to last, because next year Andrew would be going to college, but he was going to savor every drive he could until then.
They found a parking spot and then made their way to Neil’s apartment, where Andrew dropped his backpack on the single couch in the living space and pulled out the muffin in his little brown bag. Neil slurped on the rest of his smoothie, putting the cup down the kitchen counter when he finished.
“I’m going to shower,” he called, walking down the hallway. “Don’t fall asleep.”
“Mmmm,” Andrew grumbled from the living room.
After showering up, Neil threw on some gray sweatpants and a black sweater, cautiously walking down the hallway in case Andrew had fallen back asleep. Instead, he was watching some early morning documentary about snakes, frowning at every one that appeared on the screen. Neil left him to it and started gathering his notebooks.
“You ready for the quiz today?” Neil asked after he grabbed his AP Biology binder.
“Mmm,” Andrew hummed. He wasn’t much of a talker in the morning.
“Genealogy,” Neil mumbled to himself. “Remind me to study Genealogy.”
“I’m not your calendar,” Andrew said.
“I know.” Neil looked over his shoulder, grinning to himself at the glare he’d put on Andrew’s face. “You’re like a pleasant alarm clock.”
“Pleasant,” Andrew repeated.
“Yeah.”
Andrew looked away, grabbing the remote to turn off the TV. Neil finished packing his things, checking the time. They still had about twenty minutes before the first bell rang, but it would be better to leave now. They didn’t have time to sit on the couch and do nothing, even though Neil felt like studying Andrew again.
Maybe he should take those habits and apply them to his schoolwork. He had a feeling Matt would tell him that would be a good idea.
“Ready?” Neil asked Andrew, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
“Sure,” Andrew ended up saying, leading the way out.
Pretty much the rest of the day was normal. They picked up Aaron and Nicky, drove to school, and got ready for homeroom. Neil and Andrew sat next to each other, and while they still had time, Neil decided to run to the nearest drinking fountain to fill up his water bottle. There he ran into Kevin, who was staring at the wall with a frown.
“Hey, Kevin,” Neil greeted, screwing the top on to his water bottle. “Fancy seeing you here at the bubbler.”
“Shh, Neil,” Kevin said. “I can’t argue about drinking fountains today.”
“Alright,” Neil decided to say. He started making his way back towards his classroom. “The bell’s gonna ring.”
“Thanks.”
Strange. Neil decided it was insignificant enough that he could ignore it, sitting back down next to Andrew and double checking that he had all of his notebooks with him. When he straightened back up, Andrew was holding his head in one hand and staring.
“What?” Neil asked.
“Nothing,” Andrew replied.
And then it was normal again until Calculus, which is unfortunate because Neil genuinely likes Calculus. The bell hadn’t rung for class to start yet, so he was busy getting out his notebook and trying to find a pencil hidden in his backpack when Kevin walked up to his desk. Neil barely spared him a glance, continuing to try to find his pencil and his good purple pen. The one that Andrew gave him that wrote well on the first try. Both of which he was suspecting to have been stolen.
“Kevin, do you have a pen?” Neil asked, straightening up in his seat.
“Neil,” Kevin began. “I need a favor.”
Neil finally looked at Kevin - like, really looked. His hair was more disheveled than usual, he was picking at his fingernails, and his eyes were wide. It was the exact look he used to get when Riko Moriyama was around, but that couldn’t be the case, because Riko had moved. Permanently. Hopefully.
“Do I get a pen out of it?” Neil asked.
“Listen,” Kevin hissed, planting his hands on Neil’s desk and leaning in. “I was walking down the hallway and overheard Jean saying something to Jeremy.”
That really wasn’t an important enough statement to whisper in French. “You’re paranoid.”
“He said something about ‘asking him out’. I can’t stop thinking about it.” Kevin slapped his hands over his face. “I know they may not be, but I need to know if they were talking about me.”
Neil nodded. “Great news. Do you have a pen?”
“That’s where the favor comes in,” Kevin continued, ignoring Neil’s plight. “Can you figure that out for me?”
“Will you stop talking to me and give me a pen?”
“Yes.”
“Alright.” Neil rolled his eyes, wondering why Kevin couldn’t do this on his own. He was an absolute disaster of a bisexual, always second guessing his feelings and worrying over every little thing Jeremy Knox and his boyfriend, Jean Moreau, thought about him. But Neil had grown close to Kevin after mistakenly learning and accepting each other’s sexualities. Neil didn’t give a shit that Kevin ‘swung for both teams’, and Kevin couldn’t care less that Neil didn’t swing for anyone at all. So, Neil begrudgingly put up with Kevin’s rants and played messenger once in a while.
Andrew kept asking why he didn’t just tell Kevin to fuck off. It wasn’t without trying: in the past, Neil had, and the resulting week of listening to constant rants about Jeremy’s hair and Jean’s height - Neil will be eternally confused about why that does it for Kevin - had been absolute hell. He’d rather not go through it again, and if that meant asking Jeremy and Jean some weird questions once in a while? Sure, why not.
Oh, Andrew. He’s totally the one that took Neil’s purple pen.
“Don’t look at me like that, Neil,” Kevin grumbled. “This is serious.”
“I’m sorry,” Neil said, blinking away whatever look was on his face. “What was I asking?”
“You’re asking Jeremy and Jean if I was the one they were talking about dating.”
“That doesn’t sound like something I’d do.” Neil took a deep breath, looking at his red notebook for a moment. “Fine. Just give me a pen. Andrew stole mine.”
Kevin walked back to his desk, presumably to get Neil the pen he needed. While he did that, Neil started thinking about the best way to do what Kevin requested. Jeremy and Jean had to be getting sick of this. Neil should just go up to them and let them know that Kevin had feelings for them, apologize for him being a disaster bisexual, and ask them to do something about it so that Neil wouldn’t have to anymore. But Kevin would attempt to skin him if Neil did that, so he’d just have to play along for now.
After a minute, Kevin returned. The bell rang for class to begin. Neil raised an eyebrow at Kevin’s empty hands. “I think Andrew stole mine, too,” Kevin explained.
Let it be known that you should never leave your backpack alone with Andrew Minyard.
~*~
It was a nice day, so Neil decided to take his lunch outside. There were a few picnic tables around, so he quickly claimed one with Andrew at his side, holding tightly to his black lunchbox. Neil had brought a PB&J sandwich in a brown paper bag that had gotten pretty crushed in his backpack, but that was probably due to him carrying around all his notebooks so he didn’t have to stop at his locker. The sandwich just ended up towards the bottom, there was nothing that could be done about that.
“So,” Neil began, grabbing his binder for AP Biology. Andrew narrowed his eyes at the sight of it - or maybe he was just squinting in the sunlight - and took out his own sandwich. Neil was pretty sure it was just Nutella on two slices of bread. “Transcription and Translation.”
“You know I have this memorized already,” Andrew said in a bored tone, taking a bite out of his sandwich. “I don’t need a reminder.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m asking you to quiz me.”
“Schoolwork is prohibited during lunch.”
Neil ignored him and started flipping through his notes, trying to find his section on the specific material. “Oh. Genealogy. Can you help me memorize those, too?”
Another bite out of the sandwich. “I’m not a genie.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.” Neil turned his notebook towards Andrew. “Genealogy. Hit me.”
“You would not want me to hit you.” Andrew put his sandwich down and glanced at Neil’s notes, which were the ones he’d taken hours to rewrite and color-code after their last study session together. Andrew had complained that he could barely read Neil’s handwriting, and that his notes were all over the place. Neil claimed he had a system, which included writing what was on presentation slides and listing whatever extra details teachers mentioned in the margins. It had never failed him before.
He wondered if these notes were easier for Andrew to navigate. No - of course they were, the frown on his face was just due to his surprise.
“Is this color-coded?” Andrew asked, now squinting at the notes.
“Yes,” Neil answered, unable to stop himself from smiling.
“Did you get a new notebook?”
“Maybe.”
Andrew slammed the notebook closed and slid it back towards Neil. “I hate you.”
He said that all the time and Neil didn’t care, anyways, so he accepted his notebook and stared at Andrew’s face. Andrew went back to eating his sandwich and was pointedly not looking at Neil at all. The sunlight made Andrew’s blonde hair shine, creating flecks of white gold and platinum. It also helped to bring out his eyes. In the past, Neil had heard his teammates and friends mention that Andrew’s eyes looked yellow , but Neil didn’t think they were yellow at all. They were a strange shade of hazel, with different shades of browns and greens mixing. When the sun was out like this the gold shone more, which only added more to his eyes.
Because spring had brought some heat and sunshine with it, Andrew’s freckles started to come out more. He had a specific spread under his eyes, lining his cheekbones, and over the bridge of his nose. Neil had gotten curious and tried to count them once, but every time he would start Andrew seems to know what he’s doing and tells him to stop staring. His skin was just a little bit blotchy, specifically around his nose, like he’d gotten a sunburn there and only there. Andrew also wore four piercings on each ear: two helix and two standard. He had also just gotten an industrial in his left ear, which he’d pointed out to Neil when asked.
But despite the warmth of the day, Andrew was wearing a black sweatshirt and jeans. Just yesterday he’d had on the orange sweatpants the exy team had with ‘MINYARD 03’ written down one side. Andrew had sworn he’d never wear those when he first got them, but apparently the rest of his pants had been ruined or something. Neil thought it was hilarious and hadn’t stopped smiling whenever he saw Andrew that day, making sure to point it out as much as possible. Andrew had gotten fed up about it during lunch, because he poured his chocolate milk onto one of Neil’s thighs.
“What?” Andrew snapped, bringing Neil back to the present.
“I’m waiting for you to quiz me,” Neil told him. He hadn’t realized, but he’d planted his elbow into the table to hold his head up as he studied Andrew.
“Are you?” Andrew said under his breath. “I already said schoolwork is prohibited during lunch.”
“Come on, Andrew.” Neil leaned forward, attempting a small smile. “Help me out?”
For a moment, it didn’t seem like Andrew would give in. He gave a pointed look to Neil’s sandwich. “Eat that, and I’ll help you.”
“Deal.”
Neil ate his sandwich as quickly as he could, which was easy since it had been so flattened. Andrew made a face at the sight, but Neil decided not to care, because he really did need help memorizing things for AP Biology. When he finished his sandwich, he stuffed his brown bag into his backpack and slid his notebook back towards Andrew, waiting for him to get ready.
They spent about ten minutes going over questions. Neil checked the time to make sure the bell wouldn’t ring soon and thought about telling Andrew what Kevin was having him do. He glanced around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping before saying, “Do you think Kevin’s paranoid?”
“Yes,” Andrew replied while munching on a cookie.
“Like, more than usual.”
Andrew shrugged, but didn’t answer. Probably because he was eating his cookie.
“He just…” Neil trailed off, trying to think of the best way to say what was on his mind. Kevin having crushes on Jeremy and Jean was news to nobody, but Andrew and Neil didn’t exactly talk about feelings anyone else had. Neil knew Andrew was gay, but Andrew had never come to talk to him about any sort of crushes he had. Neil just didn’t get crushes.
Crushes...why is it called that? Neil thought to himself.
“He what?” Andrew asked.
“I don’t know,” Neil sighed. “He keeps telling me about his feelings. It’s weird.”
Andrew squinted again. He muttered something to himself that was too quiet for Neil to hear.
“Um, quiz me,” Neil ended up saying after they stayed quiet for too long. Andrew hesitated for a moment, then looked at Neil’s notebook again for a new question to ask. Neil bounced his feet while he waited, eyes catching on the pencil Andrew was holding in his hand for some reason. “Oh, yeah,” Neil said, remembering something important. He held out a hand. “My purple pen. Geben.”
“Hmm.” Andrew reached for his backpack, taking out said purple pen, but didn’t hand it over. “Answer a question.”
“Okay.”
Andrew paused on purpose. He leaned in as though he was telling Neil a secret, but made sure to keep the pen far away. Neil kept his eyes on it, wondering if he could snatch it, but decided not to try. “Database of death records,” Andrew stated in German, gaze not wavering.
Neil blinked, taking a moment to think. “I wasn’t expecting that,” he mumbled to himself.
“In a language I can understand, Josten. Or you’ll be added to the database.”
~*~
The next day, Kevin cornered him in Calculus again. “Did you ask them?” he asked in French.
“Oh, that’s what I was supposed to do,” Neil mumbled as he grabbed his notebook. “No. And Kevin, I don’t think this conversation is that important to talk about in French. If anything, the fact that you’re telling me things in French is making people more curious.”
“Merde," Kevin cursed, stomping back to his seat.
“Also, doesn’t Jean speak French? You’re not exactly hiding anything from him if he hears you.”
~*~
It had been raining since school started. Which was unfortunate, because that meant that Neil couldn’t avoid Kevin during lunch. He even went so far as to go to his locker, opening and closing it twice because he already knew he wasn’t going to put anything inside. Or take anything out, because it was empty. That was enough for Andrew to approach him, slam his locker closed, and then escort him down the hallway. It felt like old times.
“We can eat in the rain, right?” Neil asked.
“Technically,” Andrew agreed.
They couldn’t. Neil sighed as they got to the cafeteria doors, opening one for Andrew. “Why me?” he asked the air.
If Andrew thought that was weird, he didn’t say anything. They made their way to the table most of their exy teammates sat at, taking their spots next to one another, right across from Kevin. They’d arrived mid conversation, where apparently Kevin had gone so far as to ask Nicky for advice. Which was probably not the best plan, because while Nicky was dedicated to his boyfriend, he and Erik had some kind of agreement to still be open until Nicky could move to Germany. Maybe. Neil wasn’t completely sure about the specifics, and even if he was, he was sure he wouldn’t understand it.
“Have you tried walking up to them and telling them how you feel?” Nicky asked.
“Why would I try that?” Kevin asked.
Neil couldn’t help but snort, exchanging a look with Andrew, who was clearly laughing with his eyes. After a second, Neil managed to look away to Kevin, who was glaring at him. Probably because Neil had agreed to talk to Jeremy and Jean about the thing and had yet to do anything.
“Well, it’s a good start?” Nicky seemed to ask, frowning. “But then again, me and Erik just sorta claimed we wanted to see what kissing a boy was like - “
“TMI,” Aaron complained from Nicky’s other side.
“Hey, it was romantic.” Nicky looked at his pasta. “Eventually.”
Kevin sighed loudly enough to get everyone else’s attention. He looked about two seconds away from crying into his salad. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Okay, this is the last thing I want to get involved with,” Allison spoke up, reaching across her girlfriend Renee to put a hand near Kevin. “But you know what you need to tell yourself? You’re Kevin Fucking Day and you got this.”
Kevin shook his head. Neil rolled his eyes again.
“You know, as nice as it is for you to be talking about something other than exy, you can do something about your feelings. You know that, Kevin?” Nicky waved a worried hand in front of Kevin’s face. “Kevin. Kevin, this is concerning.”
“Neil,” Kevin whined.
“Urg, fine,” Neil grumbled, pushing the remnants of his sandwich towards Andrew. “I’ll be back.”
Jeremy and Jean sat on the other side of the cafeteria, with some other theater kids. Well, technically Jean was also on the exy team, but he’d been convinced to join the tech crew that year. Everyone there was laughing loudly enough that Neil loathed to interrupt, but he stopped before them anyway, catching Jeremy’s attention immediately.
“Hey, Neil!” he greeted with a bright smile. Jeremy always seemed to smile with too much teeth, in Neil’s opinion.
“Hi,” Neil said back. “Can I talk to you two?”
Jeremy and Jean exchanged a look. Some kind of unspoken conversation passed through them, which was something that Renee and Allison seemed to do as well. Maybe Matt and Dan too? Must be a couple thing.
“Sure,” Jeremy said, getting to his feet.
There wasn’t a good place to go for a private conversation, and Jeremy didn’t speak French, so they ended up going to the nearest bathroom. Thankfully there was nobody inside, so Neil locked the door behind them after checking under the stalls. Jeremy and Jean watched him work in silence, but they had to realize this was serious.
“Um, dare I ask what this is about?” Jeremy asked.
“Kevin keeps making a big deal about it,” Neil decided to go with. Just after he said that, he realized he had no idea how to bring up what Kevin wanted him to without sounding completely stupid. And the fact that Kevin would most definitely try to skin him alive if Neil told the two about the crushes.
“Kevin?” Jean mumbled with a frown.
“Yeah. So, he overheard you two in the hallway?” Neil shrugged. “Something about asking somebody out. I think.”
They exchanged another look. “No?” Jeremy asked.
“No,” Jean agreed.
“Okay,” Neil said, turning around to head towards the door.
“Wait,” Jeremy called. Neil paused as he unlocked the door, waiting to see what the question was. “Why was he asking that?”
Neil shrugged. “I have no idea,” he said, walking away.
~*~
Somehow, Neil managed to avoid telling Kevin what had happened until Saturday. They’d both met up to study AP Calculus, but so far Neil had been doing far more studying than Kevin had. Neil felt like he should get a medal for being able to tune out Kevin enough to review sequences and series.
“Neil? Are you even listening to me?” Kevin said loudly enough to break Neil’s concentration.
Neil had been fisting his hair while reading from his textbook, kneeling on Kevin’s bedroom floor. He’d put all of his things on Kevin’s bed while Kevin leaned against his headboard, tossing an exy ball between his hands and not even bothering to study. “No,” Neil told him.
Kevin let out a long groan. Neil rubbed his eyes. “I was talking about Jeremy and Jean - “
“I’m aware, Kevin - “
“ - and what you told me. If they weren’t talking about dating someone, then what did that mean?” Kevin dropped his exy ball, which rolled close enough to Neil so that he could push it under the bed. Kevin lurched forward to get off the bed, then seemed to think more about it and slowly leaned back again. “Jean clearly said that ‘we should ask him out’.”
“Happy for you, Kevin,” Neil mumbled into his hand. He grabbed his purple pen and clicked it so that he could write some corrections to his homework.
“Neil.” Kevin threw a pillow at Neil, hitting him in the face.
“Hey!” Neil yelled, checking his paper. “I almost got ink everywhere.”
“I need a plan of some sort,” Kevin continued, grabbing another pillow. Neil watched it warily for a moment, but Kevin only held it close to his chest. “Maybe they really do like me but they don’t know how to ask.”
“You know what? You’re right,” Neil said, looking back at his homework. He could practically hear Kevin’s face lighting up. “I forgot to mention that bit.”
“What?”
“Yup. I didn’t know if you’d want to hear it or not.”
Kevin spluttered loudly and threw the other pillow at Neil, who managed to dodge it this time. “You didn’t think I’d want to hear that?!”
Neil tucked the pillow under his knees, which he really should’ve thought about doing before kneeling on Kevin’s floor. “How should I know what you want?” he asked, trying to focus on sequences and series again. He didn’t want to talk about Kevin’s feelings anymore, he just wanted to study.
Should’ve met up with Andrew, Neil thought to himself.
“Okay,” Kevin mumbled to himself a few times. “I need a plan, I need to figure out something, I need…” Kevin trailed off. “I forgot the word, and it’s entirely your fault.”
Neil decided to ignore that. Kevin was finally quiet enough that he could focus on his studying again, which was good. He added another correction to his math homework with his purple pen, and started wondering if he should color-code his math notes as well. Maybe Andrew would help him study for this class too so he wouldn’t have to meet up with Kevin again.
“Neil, what’s the thing with the ‘aha!’?” Kevin asked.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Neil mumbled, hoping to be left alone.
Kevin snapped his fingers “I have an idea,” he said, eyes lighting up.
“Kevin, you know you shouldn’t be thinking,” Neil hummed, enjoying the neat loops his purple pen made as he wrote.
“You’re going to be my fake-date to the prom.”
Well, there went the neat loops. Neil looked up. “I’m sorry, what?”
Kevin leaned in, starting to grin. Neil leaned back, unsure how to feel about this version of Kevin. “You’ll be my fake-date to the prom, and that’ll make Jeremy and Jean jealous. Then they’ll confess that they want to be my boyfriends, and we’ll go on dates.”
“What kind of novel do you think you’re living in right now?”
Instead of answering that question, Kevin grabbed a sheet of paper and began to write something down. “Prom is on May 15th, which means we have three weeks to get ready. Not a problem.”
“Hey, I never agreed to this!” Neil said, pushing his homework away. There were more important things to be focused on. “Why would I ever go to prom with you?”
“One thing,” Kevin said, raising a finger. “I’ll do one thing you want if you do this for me.”
One thing? Well, there were many possibilities. Neil could make Kevin eat a thing of ice cream, or make him go on a rollercoaster, or make him give up his exy gear. But none of those sounded satisfying enough, and it’s not like Neil could do anything with Kevin’s exy gear except sell it. Which he had no use for. He tried to think more about it, and he ended up remembering a time the school gave them shitty pancakes as a reward for not failing their classes, and Andrew had five stacked on top of each other and stared Kevin right in the eyes as he drizzled syrup over them all…
“I want pancakes after prom,” Neil decided.
Kevin took a deep breath. “You’ll go to prom with me if I get you pancakes?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t look happy about it in the least, but Kevin slowly nodded. “Alright. It’s worth it.”
If it caused Kevin to have an aneurism? It definitely would be. Maybe they could take Andrew with them, he’d surely order something that would make Kevin want to vomit. “Alright, deal,” Neil said, picking up his fallen homework.
“So.” Kevin went back to writing on his paper, probably adding what he owed Neil somewhere on it. “I don’t trust some of our teammates not to tell Jeremy and Jean what we’re doing.”
“Fair,” Neil agreed.
“So, here’s my idea. We trick everyone.”
Neil blinked after hearing Kevin say that. That was just… “No way are we tricking everyone,” he said slowly, hating the way Kevin’s eyes gleamed. “They all know that you like Jeremy and Jean. You’re not exactly subtle.”
“No, they don’t!” Kevin smiled genuinely for probably the first time in days, but all Neil could do was keep shaking his head. “I never told them who I like. I never specified a gender or anything. You’re the only one who knows.”
“How?”
“It’s a plan, then.”
Neil had a feeling they’d be needing more help if Kevin’s plan was going to work at all.