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When the Foxes first learn of Neil’s major change, they are bewildered.
It was the first official practice of the season, and everyone, including the new freshman, were gathered in the lounge. Dan had insisted on team introductions and icebreakers after Wymack's short welcome speech before they got onto the court. As expected, Kevin was annoyed, insisting that it was a waste of time and that all the team needed was to practice on the court. However, Kevin shut up about it when Neil had reluctantly agreed with Dan, stating that teamwork was vital to win this season, and if they got to know each other off the court, it would help them on the court. Kevin had continued arguing until he spotted Andrew, idly twirling a knife behind Neil. That had shut him up rather quickly.
Now, they were all in the lounge. Dan started her speech: “Hi Everyone, I'm Dan, captain of the Foxes. I play Dealer, and this is my 5th year. My major is athletic training, and I’m minoring in Coaching. I'm excited to be your Captain this year, and I want all of you to know you can always come to talk to me about anything.”
With Dan’s introduction finished, she turned her expectant gaze to Neil, sitting on the couch between Andrew and Kevin.
Neil forced a smile, despite feeling awkward about being the center of attention. “Hello, I’m Neil. I'll be your Vice Captain. I'm a striker. This is my second year, and my major was Spanish, but I changed it to Mathematical Sciences with a minor in Spanish at the end of last year.”
None of the foxes were aware of Neil's major change except for Andrew, so the original foxes erupted in questions after Neil's declaration.
“Why would you change it to maths, Neil?” Nicky exclaimed, “It's so hard!”
Allison simply said “Ew” before going back to studying her nails.
Matt looked puzzled while Renee smiled, “Congrats, Neil. I hope you enjoy it.”
“Are you going to be alright balancing everything?” Dan asked, concerned.
The new foxes just looked confused about why everyone was reacting. Aaron couldn't care less as he sat impassively on an armchair, which made sense. He was on a pre-med track, and he balanced everything fine. Or, well, fine enough if you counted the four hours of sleep every night and copious amounts of caffeine consumed as fine. It shouldn't be an issue, but Neil was a captain and everyone cared about him.
None was more outspoken than Kevin, however. “Why would you change your major?” Kevin berated Neil as he turned to face him, “You need to focus on Exy. You cannot improve if you spend all of your time doing homework. You need to choose an easy major. Switch back to Spanish,” Kevin demanded.
Neil just stared incredulously at Kevin before taking a page from Andrew’s book and stating a simple “No.”
“What do you mean no?” Kevin erupted, leaning forwards on the couch and speaking rapidly in French now. “You gave me your game. Don't major in math, switch back to Spanish.”
Neil crossed his arms and stared Kevin down. “Just because I gave you my game doesn't mean you can control my life now, Kevin. I like math, and now that I get to live I'm going to do what I like.”
“But Exy. You can't-”
“No.”
“But.”
“No, Kevin.” Neil said with finality, “My major is not going to affect anything to do with Exy. You don't need to worry.”
Kevin slumped back in his seat, not satisfied, but knowing he could not win this argument against Neil. Neil knew he was going to bring it up later alone without the rest of the foxes staring at them in confusion. The freshman foxes were likely even more confused once they switched to French, but Neil didn't care. He switched his gaze to Dan, and she hesitantly continued on with the introductions, having Renee introduce herself next.
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The foxes quickly forgot about the introduction incident, setting it to the back of their mind until a couple of weeks later when they were at a team dinner at the diner by campus. Dan was looking at the check with a frown. She hated restaurants where, in the tipping section, they wanted you to write out the total amount of the tip, rather than just selecting a percentage.
“What's 18% of $173.84?” Dan muttered. She had always struggled with math, and her last math class was in high school, so she was trying to figure out the amount to tip in her head to no avail.
“$31.30,” came a reply across from her.
“What?” She questioned, stumped.
“$31.30,” Neil answered again before returning to his conversation with Kevin.
“What!” Dan exclaimed, this time slamming her hands on the table. “Neil, how!? How? What!?”
Neil looked bemused as he looked at her, his lips pulling up in one corner. “It's just simple math.”
“Simple math? Simple math?” Dan spluttered, "That's not simple!”
“I agree with Dan,” Nicky jumped in, always eavesdropping on others' conversations. “How did you even figure that out in your head?”
“You should have learned this in elementary school,” Neil stated. “It's simple, you just multiply the total number by the decimal point.”
“You can do that in your head?” Dan asked, disbelieving.
“Yeah, it's easy.”
“No way!” Nicky replied to Neil. “I don't even know my multiplication tables, and you're telling me that you can multiply a random number by a decimal point?”
“And I know my multiplication tables,” Matt chimed in from beside Dan, “And I can't multiply that number by a decimal point.”
“And you did it so fast too! I don't understand,” Dan added.
“He's a math major,” Kevin huffed, obviously resigned to Neil's major and wanting to get back to their conversation, which was no doubt about some Exy strategy. “It's basically his major to be good at math.”
“Yeah, but being able to do that in your head in like two seconds flat without a calculator is not normal,” Dan replied.
Everyone at this point had stopped their conversation, opting to instead listen to what was going on in the middle of the table. At this reply from Dan, Andrew huffed, muttering “nothing about him is normal” and earning him a fond gaze sent to him by Neil.
“What's 13 percent of 123.432?” Allison called out to Neil.
“16.05 if you round,” answered Neil immediately.
“Jesus Christ, you're rounding too!” Matt asked incredulously. Shocked at this information that he somehow didn't know about Neil. Neil was Matt’s best friend, and although there was a lot that Matt knew Neil had not shared with him, Matt had assumed that all of it had been related to his traumatic childhood and upbringing, and Matt knew Neil and his interests fairly well. This new revelation of Neil’s talents shocked him but as he was Neil's number one supporter, he decided to accept the fact that Neil was a certified math genius. In fact, in Matt’s eyes, Neil was a genius period. Not just in math.
The conversation continued, people wanting to test out Neil’s mental calculator.
“67 percent of 12?” Nicky asked, jumping onto the bandwagon.
“Easy. 8.04.”
“Damn, Neil, my feelings for you grow exponentially,” cackled Nicky, “Who knew that math could be such a turn on!"
“Nicky,” Andrew warned, sending a glare at his cousin.
Nicky threw his hands up; protests turned into apologies when he saw Andrew's face. He did not wish to overstep any boundaries and make his cousin angry, especially since he was on such good terms with his family now.
When the foxes saw that nothing was going to come of Nicky’s math pun to Neil, they started chiming in, calling out random numbers and percentages, and with every question Neil answered, the foxes' faces got more and more bewildered and astonished, unable to believe that Neil was some kind of math genius.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening, Neil sat on the roof besides Andrew, legs dangling over the edge. Andrew passed Neil a lit cigarette and Neil cupped it to breathe in the scent of smoke, the scent of Andrew.
“Were you bluffing?” Andrew asked, breaking the silence.
“What?” Neil replied, brain struggling to catch up with Andrew's train of thought. He didn't quite know what Andrew was talking about.
“Earlier. The numbers.”
“Oh,” said Neil, drawing out the word. “No, why would I?”
“Nobody was checking you. To see if you were right.”
Neil leaned closer to Andrew, their shoulders brushing. “No, I didn't lie. I just did the math.”
Two slow blinks were the only feelings of surprise and disbelief that Andrew gave away. His face remained blank, and he stated “116%” before they went back to silence, content to sit beside the other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the next couple of months, testing Neil on his math skills randomly became a thing. Allison started a bet over who could get Neil stumped over math.
“What's 17549 times 9876?” Nicky asked during practice as Neil ran past him during their laps.
“173313924,” Neil answered simply, not even out of breath.
During their scrimmage as Neil was trying to get around Matt, the backliner threw out his own question, “127 percent of 0.08452.”
“0.1073404. Try harder,” answered Neil as he quickly stepped around Matt, catching the ball and scoring. Matt groaned with frustration.
“197 divided by the square root of 0.08209,” Allison called out, starting to amp up the difficulty of the question, and passed Neil the ball.
“687.576,” Neil answered smoothly, catching the ball before rebounding it off the plexiglass.
The foxes take their cue from Allison and start asking Neil more and more ridiculous math questions. Neil takes everything that is thrown at him and answers them all. The foxes were stumped.
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That Sunday, Neil goes to Matt's room to hang out and watch a movie. Kevin was engrossed with an Exy game and could barely tear his eyes away from the screen when Neil asked him if he wanted to go. Andrew was lounging on the desk, holding a book in one hand, and a cigarette in the other. He merely stared when Neil asked, and Neil shrugged and took it as a no.
When Neil entered Matt's room, Aaron was at Neil’s old desk at the window poring over a textbook. Neil walked past him to get to the couch before Aaron called his name. Neil wasn't used to Aaron talking to him, and they weren't exactly friends. They had been content to ignore each other's existence for the sake of Andrew, their version of peace, so Neil merely froze before turning around slowly. Aaron rolled his eyes.
“If you substitute x = 2t− 3 into x(x + 5), what's the result?”
“Uh,” Neil hesitated, and Aaron smiled in triumph. “4t^2-2t-6,” Neil finished. “But if you want, I can simplify it further back to t”
Aaron stared at him, then back at his paper, and then at him again. “Well, of course you know that you already took calculus”
Neil merely hummed and started to turn back towards the couch where Matt was watching this exchange with his eyebrows raised in surprise.
Aaron started flipping through his textbook, “Well then how many hydrogen atoms are in ammonia, or NH3?”
Matt cut in, “Aaron, that's not fair; that's chemistry. The bet was about math. You can't ask the math major chemistry questions. He doesn't know chemistry”
“4.21”
Matt and Aaron shot their gazes to Neil. Aaron swore as he checked his textbook and then pushed back out of his seat and shoved his papers in his backpack before glaring at Neil and stomping off.
“Wait, Aaron,” Matt asked, confused, “Was he right?”
The slamming of the door was Aaron's only answer. Matt took that as a yes and then looked back at Neil, who had then joined him on the couch. Neil leveled his innocent blue eyes on Matt.
“What?” Neil asked.
“How did you know that? You haven't taken chemistry before”
“That's not true. I took like a month of chemistry last year before I dropped the class.”
“Was that really enough time to learn that question Aaron asked?”
“Yeah, but only because I remember enough about the periodic table. That was the hard part.”
Matt shook his head, before grinning up at Neil, “Have I mentioned that you are one of the most intelligent people I know. God Neil, you are like a math genius.”
Neil just rolled his eyes before changing the subject, “So what are we watching tonight?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the rest of the Foxes heard about Aaron's question to Neil, they were in equal disbelief. Allison decided that it was time to make rules about the bet and what they could ask Neil.
“Only math-related questions. No questions that have math in them but that you will need knowledge of another subject, like chemistry, to solve. In order to win, Neil can't be able to do the question in his head. It has to take him either more than 5 minutes-”
Nicky whined when he heard the time limit, “That's so much though, anyone can do a problem in their head in five minutes.”
Allison glared at him and then shook her golden hair “Fine Nicky if you think so then you answer. What is 1728746 x 328468?”
Staying silent, Nicky stared at her with wide eyes, attempting to channel his best impersonation of a puppy.
Allison smirked and threw out a haughty laugh “That's what I thought. But our resident math major might be able to solve that so we can change it to no more than two minutes. Happy?”
Nicky nodded happily and then started to complain, “I can't do that because I’m not a math major. I mean I’m sure anyone else could do it!” Nicky started desperately scanning the room, “Renee, I’m sure you can solve that problem within five minutes, right!? I just can't do it because I’m a marketing major. I mean, I haven't taken a math class since high school and that was like five years ago! I don’t remember shit!”
Renee just gave a small smile and shook her head. “I’m afraid I wouldn't be able to solve that problem within five minutes, Nicky. But thank you for believing that I could.”
Allison cut in before the conversation could get more off track. “So in order to win you have to be the one to ask Neil a problem he cannot solve within two minutes and it has to be math related.” She shot a look at Aaron, who was standing in the corner of the room, looking bored but still paying attention. At his callout, he just muttered something in German and rolled his eyes. Looking around at everyone else's nod, she continued, “Or you can win if he has to do the problem on paper. Good?” At the fox's nods, she asked, smirking, “Now who wants into the betting pool?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A knock on Neil, Andrew, and Kevin’s door sounds that night after practice. Neil was in the kitchen, getting a snack, and Kevin was on the couch with his laptop. Andrew being closest to the door answers it.
“Neil,” he calls out in a monotone voice, “one of your ducklings is here for you.”
Andrew wanders away from the door, but leaves it open, before plopping down on the beanbag and grabbing his ice cream, eyeing the freshman with interest as Neil approaches from the kitchen.
“Hey Lauren,” Neil says with surprise, not expecting to see one of the freshmen in his dorm after practice, “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah,” she replies, shifting nervously. Neil eyes the notebook in her arms. “I heard the others calling you a math genius and I'm in calculus right now and I'm really struggling with this homework problem and it's due tomorrow and I was wondering if you could help me, if it's not too much to ask?” The freshman finishes with a rush.
Hesitating, Neil glances at Andrew, not wanting to make him uncomfortable with the intrusion of their dorm. Andrew merely shrugs at him before going back to the TV and his ice cream, acting like he didn't care, but Neil bet Andrew was tuned into every word that was exchanged. “I guess I can take a look at it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be much of a help though or if you even understand my explanations, but I can try.” Neil saw this as a team bonding activity, a chance to infiltrate the freshman; maybe if he helped Lauren with her homework, she would listen to him more on the court.
Lauren looks relieved as he agrees and nods her affirmation. Neil takes a look at her homework, brows bunching as he examines the problem and solves it in his head. Once he understands it, he starts to explain the problem. By the time he is done, Lauren is awestruck. Neil had just explained the problem to her much more clearly than her own TAs, professor, and tutor in half the time. She thanks him sincerely before scurrying out of the dorm, a smile on her face.
“This better not interfere with your own grades, Neil. If your grades go down you can't play” Kevin states from where he had been sitting at his desk, after the freshman leaves. Neil had assumed that Kevin hadn't even been aware of the freshman in the room as he had a history textbook in his hands and had seemingly been absorbed with it.
Neil just rolls his eyes, “Stop worrying, Kevin. My grades aren't going to go down if I spend 5 minutes tutoring a member of our own team.”
Kevin huffs petulantly but doesn't argue back.
Eventually, word gets around to the rest of the freshman that Neil can help them with their math homework, and even better, is willing to help them. A week later, he has two more freshmen showing up to his dorm at 8 sharp after practice, notebooks in hand and desperation painted on their faces. When Andrew sees all of them, he vacates the dorm, but not before telling Neil he owes him some pie, and Kevin lets out a strangled noise before stomping to their room.
Neil gestures to the table, and the freshmen sit down. He goes from freshman to freshman one at a time and helps them with their math homework. He uses this time to get to know the freshmen more too. He hopes that him asking questions about their personal lives, something that Dan had encouraged him to do – something about making the freshmen feel like they were heard and that someone cared about them as a person, not just about how they performed on the team would help build a bond of trust between him as their vice captain.
Over the weeks, they get into a routine: the freshmen, if they need math-related help, come to his room two days a week at 8, and they get an hour to ask their questions. He kicks them out at 9 so he can have some time for himself to prepare for night practice. It works, and everyone is satisfied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neil sat on the bus, prepared for a long bus ride. It was an eight hour drive to the University of South Florida in Tampa, and Neil was prepared to use the hours to catch up on homework he had been putting off. He sat in the seat in front of Andrew so that he would have room to set his papers down. He was engrossed in a math problem, papers strewn around him, when Allison approached from the front of the bus.
“Neil,” she purred, and Neil looked up suspiciously. He and Allison were on good terms; she had recently taken him shopping, but rarely did they talk on bus rides. She had never come to the back of the bus before either, preferring to stay in the front with the rest of the upperclassmen. “Have you had any experience with taxes?”
Neil blinked, “What?”
“You know, taxes. The thing you have to file with the government once a year to tell them how much you are spending and give them some of your money.”
“I’m pretty sure Neil is the wrong person to be asking about taxes,” Andrew drawled, cutting into the conversation and leaning forward to rest his head and elbows on Neil's seat, “he was on the run for eight years; I don’t think he’s ever touched a tax form”
Allison frowned at Andrew and deigned to ignore him before returning her gaze back to Neil. “I don’t care if you’ve never filed taxes before. I just need you to look at these numbers real quick to see if they add up.”
Feeling a bit annoyed that Allison had interrupted his homework, Neil had been in a bit of a groove getting it all done, Neil decided to fuck with her. He opened his eyes wide, making an expression that had always led the upperclassmen to croon over him about Neil’s “innocence.” “Why do you have to pay taxes?” he asked.
Allison raised her eyebrows in shock, and Neil heard Andrew snort from behind him, he definitely knew that Neil was fucking with Allison. “What do you mean, why do you have to pay taxes?” She practically screeched, “I don’t need the IRS on my ass!”
Neil continued with the puppy dog eyes, but his mouth turned up in a sly smile, “I can give you some tips on how to hide money from the government and how to get away with not paying taxes if you want." Then, staring at Allison’s stunned face, he added just for fun, and idly wondering how she would react, “How do you think my dad got away with so much? I mean he had a shit ton of money and never paid taxes. The key is offshore bank accounts and cash. Lots of cash. Do you need help in hiding safes?”
Allison just blinked at him, her mouth falling open to form a perfect circle and Neil felt Andrew huff behind him, his version of a laugh. Andrew definitely knew what he was doing, however part of Andrew wondered if Neil was being more serious than he portrayed.
After a moment of silence, Neil responded again, “I’m kidding”
Allison closed her eyes in relief, and pinched the bridge of her nose with her bright pink manicured hands. “Oh thank god. I don't know what I would have done if the IRS showed up to the court one day to say that you have thousands of dollars of unpaid taxes”
“Try millions” Neil answered in a deadpan voice.
Allison looked up in shock again, “What!?”
Neil smiled wryly, and he felt Andrew squeeze his shoulder in amusement, “I’m joking. I can take a look if you want, but I was being serious about never doing any taxes. And I’m not doing it from scratch”
Allison looked relieved, “I swear, you have the weirdest sense of humor.”
“Thats what being on the run will do to you” Andrew quipped, “Turns you into an Exy junkie and a math maniac who doesn't know the difference between a joke and a threat.”
Allison had forgotten that Andrew was there, leaning over Neil's seat when she was talking to Neil. She decided to ignore Andrew’s comment, not really knowing how to respond and returned her attention to Neil. “I already filled it out. I just need to know if I did the math right. Supposedly, you're the man for the job.”
Neil nodded and held out his hand. Allison gave him the documents and Neil looked them over, eyes flitting over the paper, eyebrows raising.
“Allison, where are you getting all this money from?”
The dealer only scoffed, “It’s my trust fund.”
“I thought you were cut off.”
“I was, but they left me a shitload of money. My parents are self-obsessed and narcissistic. My image affects their image. Therefore, they gave me money and told me that’s all I get from them until I quit Exy.”
“You didn’t quit.”
Allison snorted at the observation. “I may be a stuck-up bitch, but at least I stick to what I commit to.”
Neil nodded commonly before breaking up the heart-to-heart, “You added the numbers wrong here.” He said, pointing to somewhere in the middle of the form, “The total should be 2347600, not 234770.”
Allison frowned before sighing, taking back the paper and reluctantly stated, “Thanks for checking.” Spinning around, she walked back to her seat, presumably to correct her mistake and continue with her taxes. Neil hummed his confirmation that he heard her as he returned.
As Neil turned back to his homework, he felt eyes boring in the back of his head. He turned around to face Andrew.
“You could have said no,” Andrew stated
“You were being awfully chatty,” Neil replied, answering Andrew’s statement with a statement of his own.
Andrew's lips turned down slightly. At the sight of Andrew’s displeasure, Neil continued. “I didn’t mind. It took 5 minutes, Andrew, and I got to know Allison a bit more. It’s a win in my books.”
“You give too much of yourself to them.”
“Andrew,” Neil said fondly, staring into the blonde man’s speckled golden eyes.
“You’re obtuse,” Andrew muttered, “124%” before pushing Neil’s face away and sitting back into his seat behind Neil. Neil took the hint, returning to his own homework, and preparing to get into the mindset for the game that night.
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Nicky had pretty much given up winning the bet, he could no longer come up with math questions to stump Neil and had given up googling them too. However, instead of math questions, he started constantly lobbing math-related pick-up lines or puns at Neil.
“Hey Neil!” he said, finding Neil and Andrew sitting together in one of the cafeterias at lunch. Their heads were close together, obviously talking about something until Nicky had interrupted. Andrew raised an eyebrow at Nicky’s interruption, but Neil merely stared at Nicky as he sat down at the table with them. “Are you a math teacher?”
Neil looked confused. “No, I'm an Exy player. Besides, I don't even have a degree to be a math teacher, nor would I want to be one. Do you need help with your homework or something? I thought you didn't take math.”
Andrew looked exhausted. He glared at Nicky, knowing exactly where this was going, and Nicky let out a shit eating grin, “Are you a math teacher because you got me harder than trigonometry.”
Nicky started cackling, pleased at himself for the pick up line, but Neil just looked confused, “Trigonometry isn’t hard. You just need to practice if you are having difficulty, Nicky. Besides, I thought you weren't taking any math classes?”
“Andrew,” Nicky whined when he realized that Neil didn't get it, “you have to teach your boy about pick up lines. How do you guys even flirt anyways.”
Andrew just rolled his eyes, “go away,” he ordered Nicky. Nicky obeyed, but not before saying something about letting the love birds have their alone time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After practice, everybody met to discuss strategy for the upcoming game. Neil focused on Dan and Wymack talking before Dan looked at him and asked, “Neil, is there anything you’d like to add?”
Nicky snickered. “Neil’s too acute to talk Exy right now, Dan.”
“I think you mean obtuse,” Allison interjected. The team howled with laughter, joining in with the math-related direction the conversation was taking despite Kevin's attempt to get it back on track to Exy. Wymack exited the room, muttering something about kids, and looking forward to getting out before the conversation would derail even further.
“That's only a fraction accurate,” Matt said.
“This is pointless,” Aaron added, to everyone's surprise but the comment still staying on brand for him.
“I think we went off on a tan-gent,” Renee added with a wry smile.
“Can we get back to talking about our exy-ponents?” Kevin asked. The team gaped at Kevin, afterall Kevin making a joke, let alone a terrible pun, was unheard of, before they resumed their howls.
“I'd like to add another one,” Dan started, “but I wouldn't quotient me on it.”
“You can count on me to defend you, Neil,” Matt said, shooting finger guns at Neil, “cause we’re algre-bros!”
“Would you like to add one, Andrew?” Renee asked, trying to get him to join in.
“Negative,” Andrew stated, in the same monotone tone as normal. His teammates didn't care though, and continued to howl in laughter, shocked that Andrew had joined in for once.
Neil just sat flabbergasted on the couch, absorbing his teammates' laughter but somewhat confused and a little concerned about how they knew all those puns.
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After a while, the math problems, the puns, the slightly problematic and yet somehow math related jokes that Nicky kept throwing at him were getting old, and fast. Almost every teammate he had a conversation with had to ask him a math question, or use a pun, or tell him a joke. It felt like the only thing anyone wanted to talk to him about was math. Hell, Matt had not stopped calling him his algre-bro since he first used it. Neil was done with it, and he told Andrew so one night on the roof.
“You have too many problems,” the blond man huffed.
“You too!” Neil squawked, “You have to be kidding me.”
“Why do you think I asked for pi that one time?”
Neil's eyes got wide as he realized, “I thought you just got sick of ice cream, you eat so much of it it wouldn't be a far fetched idea.”
Andrew just shook his head fondly at his idiot, taking another drag from his cigarette and pausing to exhale the smoke.
“I'm getting sick and tired of everyone acting like I'm a genius just because I can do math in my head.” Neil stated, “It's getting annoying, and I am so close to punching Nicky if he throws one more math pun in my face.”
“Nicky does have a very punchable face.”
Neil huffed a laugh, slowly leaning closer to Andrew until they were pressed together from thigh to shoulder. Andrew allowed the touch and they looked down to the campus below.
“What do you want to do about it?” Andrew asked Neil, genuinely wondering how he was handling all the attention.
“It's getting on my nerves,” Neil answered honestly, starting to pick at his nails. “Do you think if they ended the bet they would stop?”
“Stop what?’
“Everything. The jokes, the problems. Everything.”
Humming, Andrew took a moment to contemplate the question, tapping the end of the cigarette to get the extra ash off. “They are all idiots, the jokes wouldn't stop.” he paused to take a drag. “But the pop quizzes would.”
Neil nodded, “That would be enough.”
They sat in silence for a period of time. Neil, breathing in the smoke of his cigarette, sitting next to Andrew with their bodies pressed together. He turned to stare at Andrew, his jawline, his confident hand loosely holding his cigarette, his hair, soft and golden in the dim moonlight.
“Would you end the bet for me?” Neil asked, breaking the silence.
Andrew raised an eyebrow, moving slightly to stub out his cigarette, extract a knife from his armband, and flipping it.
“No violence.” Neil stated firmly.
Andrew studied Neil's face carefully before nodding.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was almost the Anniversary of Baltimore, and Andrew had noticed that Neil had been more lost in his head than usual. He was more jittery too, always moving, head on a swivel, scanning for exits and potential threats alike. He had been going for more runs, longer runs than usual, and Andrew was starting to worry. It was like his rabbit was one second away from bolting, and Exy wasn't working to calm him down and spend his energy as it usually did, as his junkie was constantly bombarded at practice with quizzes and bad jokes directed his way. Andrew could tell it was getting on Neil's nerves and that he was one bad joke away from snapping. Neil had been going harder, staying longer at night practices, much to Kevin’s delight, but it still wasn't enough to ground him, to keep him from taking flight. Andrew was going to end this ridiculous bet, calm his rabbit down, and make sure he wasn't about to have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the Exy court, violence be damned. He did make a promise to Neil though, and so he had to think about approaching this in a tactful way, or at least, tactful for him.
Neil wasn't sure how Andrew was going to handle it, but he knew he wasn't going to go around and threaten every individual member of the team at knifepoint like he had initially feared. He was confident Andrew was going to deal with it though, and it felt like a weight had lifted off his chest. It felt like everyone was judging him for his choice in major every time they asked him a math problem. At first, it had been fun, a challenge for himself and a chance to annoy the team, but now he was tired and annoyed at anyone who approached him, regardless if it was about math or not. He didn’t want to snap and potentially hurt one of the foxes' feelings, but he was so tired, and he could tell that Andrew sensed it.
Before practice in the Afternoon, he sat on the couch next to Andrew and stared at the wall. He hadn't slept well last night, he had woken up screaming from his nightmares and had stayed awake when they continued playing on a loop. His father, threatening to cut his tendons so he couldn't run, of Lola, burning his face. Sometimes, on the worst nights, like last night, his nightmares morphed where instead of him being tortured, it was Andrew, and Neil had not been able to move, to do anything to stop his father from hurting him. Andrew nudged him out of the memories and Neil looked up.
“Neil.” Andrew said, loud enough to get everyone's attention. Everyone was still curious enough about Andrew and Neil's relationship, especially since they never officially confirmed or denied anything that the team piped down a bit to overhear.
“If you had three pints of ice cream and I asked for one, how many pints of ice cream would you have?” Andrew asked.
“None,” Neil said, gifting Andrew a small smile.
Nicky squawked before Neil could elaborate on his answer, “That's not fair!”
Allison joined in, with accusations of insider trading.
Leaning back, Andrew crossed his arms, not hearing out any of the protests. “The bet is over, I win.”
Neil looked over to see Andrew subtly holding a knife, and rolled his eyes. He interjected before Andrew could actually resort to violence, “If I had three ice creams, I would give all of my ice creams to Andrew because Andrew loves ice creams and I want him to have anything he wants. He deserves all of the ice cream in the world.”
Nicky covered his face with his hands. His brown eyes looked suspiciously wet. “That is the sweetest thing I have ever heard anyone say about Andrew. Neil-” he got cut off when he tried to move to hug Neil, and Andrew blocked him with the knife. Everyone else, catching sight of the knife as well, went silent.
“No more asking Neil math-related questions without his explicit consent,” Andrew finished, making sure everyone nodded before getting up from the couch and heading into the locker room, reaching out to grab Neil’s bicep and drag him along too. Neil quickly followed, masking his small smile as he heard everyone loudly start up talking about what just happened.
“Disgusting,” Andrew said once he got Neil into the empty locker room, “Yes or no?”
“I thought I said no violence,” Neil answered, allowing himself to be pressed up against the lockers, earlier memories forgotten. He felt more present, more awake, than he had in a week. Most of all, he felt safe and protected, with Andrew’s strong body pressing into him and blocking him in. He still was not answering the question but was referring to the knife Andrew had not so subtly threatened the team with.
Andrew looked up, his eyes widened slightly with faux innocence, “That wasn't violent”
Neil rolled his eyes, “The knife?”
“No one bled,” Andrew stated matter-of-factly, his hand trailing up from Neil’s bicep to his auburn curls, tugging once. “You should have been more specific.”
Neil smiled anyway, content with the way things had played out. He leaned in close to Andrew and finally gave him his answer, “Yes, it's always a yes with you.”