acrossthehours

[acrossthehours]

i adore the idea of neil just knowing a little of everything ever from how he travelled across a bunch of countries during his time on the run.

neil and mary would have had to eat food that was cheap and easily accessible, and in many countries that means street stalls. one month they’d be eating machboos in qatar, and the next they’d have pad thai in thailand. he’s used to change and hasn’t experienced anything stable or reliable until well into his first year at psu, including food. my boy has an experienced palate.

neil's observation skills don't just apply to danger, so he'd see how each different meal is cooked, how different countries treat meal-time, and things like gestures and communication differences. although he probably won’t need the knowledge on a day-to-day basis at palmetto, it’s been engrained in his memory via mary’s grilling him to be able to just blend in.

he’d have had so many different experiences when it came to traditions and festivals. although mary would make them avoid crowds as much as possible to stay as undetected as they could, there would’ve been times where they couldn’t avoid being surrounded by nation-wide celebrations. if it would’ve been noticeable if some weren’t wearing certain clothing or eating certain foods, neil and mary would adapt to the crowd.

oftentimes conversation is also unavoidable. he may have forgotten a lot of simple phrases once he settled in with the foxes or even beforehand, but while he was in different countries mary 100% had him learn basic words to avoid eyes on them that might draw too much attention. in rural areas in some countries it can be quite uncommon for someone to not know the language or dialect of the area, so mary and neil changed not just their appearances and documents but also their demeanours constantly.

if the foxes ever went on a trip out of the usa to literally anywhere else, chances are neil would (subconsciously) flip straight to the same mannerisms that the locals present as if he’d lived there his whole life. they’d all be so freaked out at how at home neil looks, because they all remember how skittish he was when he first showed up to psu. internally neil doesn’t feel at home because he built his home in the dorms with andrew (and kevin, but he’d rather quit exy eternally than admit that), but he settles in so easily that the only person who has any idea of his lack of comfort is andrew.

the original foxes can definitely be a rowdy lot so when an complication inevitably arises with a shop owner or something, neil just slides in, says a couple words and sends a quick meaningless smile, and they’re let off. this shocks them all even more than his assimilation because neil? de-escalating? there’s no way.

matt presses the back of his hand against neil’s forehead with genuine terror that he’s some sort of doppelgänger or someone else in a disguise. neil just looks at him like he’s crazy and ducks from under matt’s hand to catch up with andrew who started walking ahead as soon as he realised neil had it under control.

[acrossthehours]

thinking about neil gradually getting used to being allowed to like/dislike things and having the choice of doing what he wants.

being on the run meant he'd have to take what he could get, no complaints. any sort of food him or mary could scrounge up was eaten, any clothes they could find (no matter how scratchy or irritating) would be worn.

now that he's settled with the foxes, he doesn't have to eat crappy canned foods that are probably closer to a biohazard than actually edible. he doesn't have to wear clothes that rub him the wrong way or shoes that are just a little too tight.

and although it takes a while, and a lot of prodding from andrew and the other foxes, he stops subjecting himself to the cheapest things possible. he probably won't ever be able to give himself the best of the best, but he doesn't live life like he's still got mary and his father's men breathing down his neck.

he eats what he feels like eating, lets himself leave a little food on the plate if he's too full or grab extras if he's not full enough - because there will be something left, always. it's a guarantee that there will be some sort of food available, and it's when he notices that the cupboards in the dorms are never empty that he starts to be more lenient with himself.

it was probably kick-started when andrew snatched his plate from him on a night where neil was just staring at the food in front of him trying to will himself to eat it. andrew definitely got annoyed with the pitiful look on his face (and also the sound of the fork scraping against the plate).

[acrossthehours]

i believe in the neil tooth gap agenda. it is propaganda i WILL be falling for, along with andrew + aaron having the most luscious eyelashes you’ll ever see on a human.

also kevin has freckles all over his back and shoulders.

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[acrossthehours]

how i think kevin helps neil + andrew when they have bad days (and what they do in return) ; a nonsensical ramble

☆★ whenever neil’s in a state of panic or just out of it in general, kevin sits with him on the couch and puts an exy game on.

he commentates, relaying each step every player on the court takes to neil while neil’s face is pressed against his shoulder or his chest. kevin ignores the ache of neil’s harsh grip on his arm in favour of holding him just as tight - some days neil needs the pressure, others he needs as little contact as possible.

kevin knows neil’s coming back to himself when he lets out a miniscule, barely noticeable scoff at one of kevin’s petty quips at one of the player’s footwork. they both loosen their grip until they’re eventually just pressed up against each other, with neil fighting to keep his eyes open because even though he was just halfway to a panic attack he likes hearing kevin’s retelling of the match.

every time neil comes back from practice and hovers next to the couch where kevin is, hair still dripping from the ice cold shower he’s just taken, muscles taught and eyebrows slightly furrowed, kevin just shifts his arm to make space. he reaches for the remote once neil plops heavily half on his lap, and it’s easy to fall into the mindless reports of the exy game, pulling neil closer somehow.

★☆ when andrew’s silence is different, more unwilling and cold than usual in a way that makes it clear to kevin and neil that today’s a bad day, kevin surprisingly shuts up about exy.

it’s a herculean effort to do anything of the sort and he catches himself about to bring up a new drill to neil more times than he’d like to admit, but he manages it well.

he figures andrew would prefer silence on days like these. but when andrew noticed kevin practically cracking his teeth in his efforts to not rattle off history facts while a documentary is on in the dorm room, he grits out a half-exasperated “speak.”

kevin stares at him in bewilderment for a few long seconds before his mouth runs before his brain can catch up (as it does in many cases) and he rambles about the aztecs, the tudors, anything that pops into his head.

eventually, after hearing kevin’s facts about the conditions of war for french world war one soldiers, andrew’s shoulders loosen a little. his hands unclench from the fabric of the blanket thrown over his legs. he breathes a little lighter.

kevin notices - he doesn’t say anything. from then on, though, whenever andrew seems curled in on himself or he’s painfully aware of all of his surroundings to the point that it’s close to overwhelming, kevin talks about the last thing he learned in his history class the day before, letting andrew listen without him needing to take anything in and commit it to memory.

➪ if kevin comes back from a long day of classes, exhaustion written on his face, and looks up to see neil perched a little awkwardly on the couch with an exy match ready to play? he ignores the way his chest constricts and wordlessly makes his way over to neil where he practically collapses on top of neil and lets his steady voice and the sounds of cheering from the tv lull him to sleep.

➪ and if kevin starts to notice a gradual addition of cups and pencils with corny history jokes printed on them around the apartment? he says nothing, just sips his green tea out of a mug with ‘napoleon’s world tour’ peeking from behind his fingers.

[acrossthehours]

the foxes probably always forget neil majors in maths until they’re watching a rival team’s game to analyse plays (kevin forced them to).

trust when i say that boy starts scribbling on some scrap paper in the most indecipherable handwriting ever (kevin thinks it’s french and andrew thinks it’s german kind of illegible) about probabilities and statistics of each player. his eyes flick between the paper and the screen but he mostly relies on the commentary as he writes so fast he’s sharpening his pencil every minute.

after watching a couple more matches of the same team he’d come up with theories: who’ll mark who, which plays the other team will use, which protein shake a player will have before the game; a whole bunch of crazy shit.

he’d get laughed at (especially by aaron) because none of them believe that he can get that much information from just 3 games.. until it comes to match day and neil’s somehow in front of each player before they’ve even moved. it’s like he’s seen three seconds into the future with every play, or he’s experiencing deja vu for the entirety of the game so he knows exactly where to be and when.

think pickford’s water bottle (sorry english footballer i feel like the majority of you guys are from the us </3) where he has the estimations for where each player will shoot in the net, except neil’s is much more in depth and more for the pitch than the goal. i think andrew would smack the notes out of his hand if neil ever tried to offer him his predictions for the goal.

when the foxes win the match, they probably eventually all turn to neil for his predictions (nicky especially), but there’s no point. neil’s already thrown the scrap piece of paper since he’s had everything memorised, and there’s no way he’ll be able to rewrite it in a way that makes sense for the team since the paper was probably just a bunch of scribbled numbers and graphs and formulas.

kevin claims it’s cheating but he’s secretly a little impressed because what do you mean neil managed to intercept a fluke from a player they’ve never played against before??? with how fast paced the games are (i’m thinking like ice hockey), being able to predict things like that is crazy impressive.

wymack would just be standing behind the glass with the biggest grin that the reporters have ever seen near the man, let alone on him. he’s smug and it’s clear with the way his hands are positioned on his hips like a dad who’s kid is slide tackling all the other kids in a little league football game.

andrew just watches from the goal where he barely has to move an inch thanks to neil, looking completely impassive to anyone else, but neil can sense he’s feeling something about it. he doesn’t need to press to find out what it is, because as soon as they get back to the dorms and the door clicks shut andrew shoves neil against the wall, muttering an exasperated “nerd” under his breath before leaning in for a kiss.

neil fr:

[acrossthehours]

hhhhghgh thinking about how andrew and neil are both obsessed with kevin in their own little ways.

neil through having clung onto the idea of kevin as a link to exy whilst on the run with mary. through spending hours upon hours in gruelling late-night practices with kevin, both hating and loving his snarky little comments as he yelled at neil to just do better.

andrew through protecting kevin - through it being a lot of his purpose in his first year at psu, not just in terms of him as a person but him having something to do and being needed. whilst aaron and nicky will always need protection in andrew’s eyes, kevin was an unexpected variable added to the equation.

they need him to function in the same way kevin needs the both of them to keep level-headed (slightly.)

those little freaks make me sick </3

[acrossthehours]

something something domestic andriel building a routine involving laundry and dishes and wiping down kitchen sides..

mutters about andrew realising theyve fallen into said routine and feeling an indescribable amount of rage mixed with a tidbit of peace..

[acrossthehours]

in another world jason would convince damian to read a few of his books and turn him into a little book geek.

they’d have in depth conversations about characters and relationships and it would 100% cause petty arguments that could only be resolved by introducing a new book to one another.