#Jean and Neil end up getting Kevin out of their and to Wymack because all three of them know the Truth™️

[thefoxesraven]

Have I ever ranted about my Kevneil to Kandreil Raven!Neil AU I've had stewing in my mind like a nice pot roast on here?

[inadvisablebutinevitable]

Every day. Every damn day I wake up and wonder how Wymack must have felt hearing Jean say, “Kevin never once doubted you’d take him in … I laughed at him. I’d never taken him for a dreamer.”

I wonder how he let that sink in, thought over and over again of his first interactions with the kid and rewriting his perceptions with the context that not only did Kevin know that was his dad, but that Kevin trusted him. Unquestionably, before Wymack even did anything, Kevin ran to him because he believed that Wymack was someone safe he could run to. I wonder if Wymack thought about “my father comes to all my games, that is enough” knowing that Kevin truly meant it, maybe always has.

I wonder how Wymack felt then, when later, much much later, that broken boy who laughed at his son for believing in a father he never met calls him out of the blue. When, before Wymack could even get a single word in, begs him, voice wet and desperate why did you take him in?

I wonder how Wymack felt after the phone call ends. Hearing Josten, arguably his most distrustful kid, telling him “I’ve got him coach” and then hanging up the phone, and wondering if Rhemmen has enough strength to watch Jean eventually get to a place similar to where Neil’s at now. To finally learn, slowly but surely, how to trust. I wonder if that made him appreciate Kevin’s trust all the more.

just… I wonder

[odetojupiter]

my favourite thing about the perfect court is how they are all parallels of each other - each person could have ended up like one of the others, but they didn’t.

neil could’ve ended up like jean, if his mother hadn’t taken him and run. neil could’ve ended up like riko, if he’d internalised his father’s abuse and tried to earn his affection instead of fearing it. if he’d tried to become someone his father would be proud of - like riko does - he would’ve become heartlessly violent. but he doesn’t.

jean could’ve been like neil, if he’d had just one family member care about him enough to run. he could’ve ended up like kevin, if he’d gone with him when kevin ran. he could’ve been like riko, if he’d taken everything that had been done to him and inflicted it on the world/people around him, but he doesn’t.

kevin could’ve ended up like riko, if he’d twisted tetsuji’s abuse enough to believe that the things he deserved were taken from him. he could’ve ended up like jean, if he’d refused to run after his hand was broken.

riko could’ve ended up like any of them. if an adult had cared about him enough to save him, he could’ve ended up like neil. if he’d hated his father instead of fighting for his attention, or if he internalised the abuse he faced instead of inflicting the same abuse on others, he’d have been more like jean or neil. if he’d accepted his place and decided to fight for the things he did have - exy, kevin - he’d have been more like kevin. but he doesn’t.

yes, their situations are largely shaped by the people around them - riko, jean, and kevin (until he learns about wymack) do not have an adult in their lives that cares about them enough to change their situation. but it’s also their individual responses to their abuse that shapes how they act. i’m not trying to say that people get to choose their trauma response, but it’s important that riko and neil parallel each other because we’re shown the could have beens. it shows you that it really only takes one person to change everything - mary taking neil and running is so so so important for how neil’s character and personality and trauma response turns out.

neil could’ve ended up like riko, but he doesn’t. riko could’ve ended up like neil, but he doesn’t.

[allfortheslay25]

Pls loredump Abt ur new all for the war au

THE MOMENT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

everyone keep up it’s a doozy☝️

TW: mentions of abuse, torture, human trafficking, assault, murder, and lots of violence ⚠️

Some facts to keep in mind: Based on a draft for a novel I am working on, despite Milo being in this AU it is not 100% based on the Milo fic and has some changes to adhere to my novel, this novel is fantasy with light magic aspects and more godly mythology aspects (so not everyone can do magic cuz it’s more like witchcraft or godly blessings/curses), Neil is sort of intersex (or at least a version of it in this fantasy world) This also isn’t the full story, I left some stuff out because I don’t think I can get through every microscopic detail

The war started when Palmetto country was harassed for the last time. The Moriyamas had sent another army to pass through, use their resources, and bully their citizens. So Palmetto decided enough was enough and declared war. It was Kayleigh Day that accepted and decided to fight back (otherwise the Moriyamas would have closed their boarders and just ignored Palmetto)

David Wymack was in charge of the Palmetto army and fought a long and hard battle against Kayleigh and the Moriyamas defenses. Eventually, they’d met in person and become frenemies. Kayleigh was pregnant with Kevin and after many interactions and conversations with Wymack, decided the war wasn’t worth it. She didn’t want Kevin to grow up surrounded by meaningless bloodshed.

The Moriyamas did not stand for her decision. She started this, she has to end it. They tasked Tetsuji, her closest friend and family, to kill her. Tetsuji did so and raised Kevin as one of his own (alongside Riko) Kevin was told his mother was assassinated by the other side and her war is now his.

So Kevin trained hard, studied war and battle strategy, and worked to finish what his mother started.

Along his journey to becoming the ‘hero’ the Moriyama empire needed, he trained alongside Riko who he considered a brother, and was given two friends; Nathaniel, a young boy belonging to a war driven family aka the House of Slaughter who were well known battle strategists, and later Jean, a teen belonging to a wealthy family aka the House of Pride who were known to own lots of ships and traveling resources.

Nathaniel was always promised to Tetsuji’s unit since his birth. Riko let Kevin have him so Kevin could make a warrior out of him. And, after all, what’s Kevin’s is Riko’s and what’s Riko’s is always Riko’s.

Jean was betrothed to Kevin when he’d completed his first mission. Kevin assumed it’s what Jean wanted since the Moreau family has always been stuck up about letting other families marry into theirs. Their children are picky and if Jean was his fiancé, it had to mean Jean chose him. But Kevin was oblivious to how little Jean mattered to his family.

Nathaniel grew up with Kevin as a brother figure and a mentor. They trained and studied together and snuck away with Riko and Jean to get into childish shenanigans. But every weekend, Nathaniel would need to go home for Wesninski family training where they’d torture him. It was meant to train Nathaniel in interrogation, both how to survive one and how to conduct one. On his first day back, the Moriyamas would hurt him so that he wouldn’t forget to fear them too. Kevin was just as obvious to this and assumed Nathaniel was just very weak and prone to injury.

Eventually, when Nathaniel was 13, he and Kevin got into a fight about how distracted Nathaniel had been these days. He’d kept sneaking off to hang out with some secret friends of his or to follow Riko around. Kevin assumed Nathaniel was purposely getting sloppy and tore into him. Nathaniel had definitely been getting away with those other soldiers, content to let them treat him to food and (appropriate)entertainment in the town. It was an escape from Kevin’s pressure on him and Riko’s abuse behind closed doors (which is why Nathaniel was often following him around)

Kevin said some things he didn’t mean and told Nathaniel to be at the training grounds for night practice or else. Nathaniel left to hang out with the soldiers so he could vent about Kevin’s attitude. He meant to show up for night practice but the soldiers had held him hostage and assaulted him until morning.

Nathaniel had Wesninski training the next day and was gone for two days and an extra day with the Moriyamas abuse. Before he could attempt to go to Kevin, Riko had locked him in his room as punishment for not seeing Riko before he left. When he was finally let out before the next week started, Kevin had to be fuming.

Nathaniel went to Kevin to explain or make up for his absence but running into Riko reminded him that even if he reported it, the soldiers wouldn’t even get a slap on the wrist. Nathaniel was property and if Riko didn’t care that they’d touched him, neither would any other Moriyama. So he showed up to the training grounds to lie about his whereabouts and it set Kevin off.

Kevin laid into him about his sloppiness and hit Nathaniel where it hurts. Kevin decided he had enough and Nathaniel wasn’t cut out to be a soldier so he quit as his mentor. Nathaniel of course had argued back and twisted the knife (metaphorical) into Kevin as a final word. They got into a bit of a tussle in which Kevin slice Nathaniel across the face as the final ‘we’re done’. Nathaniel left the castle grounds for some space and hid away for a week when he’d realized something was wrong. He was pregnant.

Knowing what the Moriyamas would do to him and how they would have decided to use this to their advantage, Nathaniel decided to leave the country. He changed his name and disguised himself (with the help of his mother) so he could go to Palmetto. Renee, a solider who helps people escape from the war and settle down into Palmetto, picked Neil out of the crowd instantly. They had to test him since being pregnant allows extra comforts and resources and many people try to fool them for it every day.

Neil was kept under constant watch by Andrew, a fellow soldier and friend of Renee’s. They talked every day, Neil never giving up any information and doing his best to take scraps of info about the war from Andrew. Eventually, Neil was far along enough for a doctor, Abby, to examine him and prove he was with child. The information wasn’t a blessing to Neil and only made him more bitter and hostile towards the Foxes (soldiers of palmetto tasked with guarding the farms that those with pregnancies stay at) Neil was allowed privacy but that was a favor from Andrew after Neil gave him a truth.

Neil had planned to use the comforts provided for pregnant ppl until Milo was born and he could just give him up and move on with his life. Andrew knew and because no one asked, he never told any of the other Foxes. Andrew would give Neil reports about the ongoing war, they’d play their truths game, and ofc Andrew would just do his duties as a guard.

When Milo was born, Neil decided to keep him, afraid to end up alone in this new country. While recovering, Neil could not stand the Foxes reckless and messy teamwork during battles and provided them with better plans and instructions while in bed rest. Dan was eager to let him since his plans worked and made sense. When Neil recovered, he enlisted and Dan took him under her wing to train him to replace her.

Word got out about this new strategist of there’s and how ruthless he was. Kevin had not been out on the field (he’s one of few people allowed to switch back and forth between battlefield fighting and hq strategy) but Riko had.

Riko one day stormed back into hq to rant about Nathaniel being the new strategist. Kevin didn’t believe it and didn’t think it was a funny joke since everyone had assumed Nathaniel was dead. Kevin instantly geared up to meet them on the battlefield and fought him, using Nathaniel’s old habits to get him on his back and unmask him. Kevin was relieved to find him alive but confused as to why he was fighting for palmetto.

Neil kicked Kevin’s ass and told him to go back home, deciding to retreat for now. Kevin followed his lead in his state of shock. A week later, he received a note from Nathaniel to meet him by a certain lake they used to hang around as kids. There, he explained that he was no longer Nathaniel and he would not be coming back to the Moriyamas. They argued, Kevin begged for him to come back, he told him that the Moriyamas killed Mary for hiding him and her last words were that Nathaniel died, Nathaniel did not mention his assault or his son but threw his abuse in Kevin’s face before they calmed down and talked about nothing. Sunrise came around and Neil left.

Kevin had hopes of convincing Neil back and confided in Jean about his struggles. He told Riko to forgive Neil and naively hoped they could all just go back to normal.

Flash forward to Tetsuji having a mission for Kevin. Kevin, eager to prove himself, agreed to kill an enemies son. Tetsuji tells him to slow down before explaining that it’s a baby and not only is it a child, it is Nathaniel’s one and only son. Kevin begs and tries to convince Tetsuji to see another way, that Milo won’t be a threat, that they can’t do this to family. Tetsuji reminds him that Nathaniel is a traitor and no longer family and that if he cannot complete this mission, someone else (possibly Riko) will. Tetsuji does this to Kevin because he wants to ensure that Kevin is a Moriyama and just like when Tetsuji was ordered to kill a sister (Kayleigh) Kevin must kill a nephew (Milo)

Kevin suits up and heads to the farm where Milo lives, sneaking in with the help of the Moriyamas and a token Neil had given him in case Kevin ever wanted to escape to Palmetto (it was a coin with a fox on it that he’d flash towards any guards at the boarders, and they’d let him in) At the farm, Kevin loses his resolve because of how much Milo just looks like Neil. Kevin had first met Neil when he was three years old at a Wesninski banquet, that’s when Riko had gifted Kevin with the honor of training him. Neil moved in with them when he was eight years old, and started his physical training at 10. Kevin couldn’t fathom killing Milo when all he saw was Neil’s infant face at that banquet.

Kevin instead kidnapped Milo and taken him back to the Moriyamas castle where he begged Riko to convince Tetsuji to let them keep him. Riko had agreed instantly with ulterior motives to raise his own Wesnisnki weapon. They tutored Milo in battle strategy and while Kevin was away on the battlefield, Riko would hurt Milo.

Neil had gone to torturing the Moriyamas ppl to find information about Milo’s possible whereabouts. It had gotten bad enough that the Moriyamas were willing to just toss him back to Neil or even kill him to get rid of the evidence. Riko had a dumbass plan to send an infants mutilated body back to Neil with a threat. Kevin actually believed it to be Milo and had a mental breakdown about the loss until Riko revealed it was all a trick. Kevin began to realize how much of a monster Riko actually was.

Meanwhile, Neil stopped torturing the Moriyamas citizens and instead just started burning down their villages. At first, it seemed like a ridiculous act of grief and the Moriyamas opened their kingdoms city borders for the homeless to reside in temporarily. Once all of their ppl were in one place, Neil broke into the castle and gathered all the Moriyamas to make them beg for mercy.

Kevin was the only one to beg for forgiveness and accept any punishments Neil had to offer. Kevin hadn’t known where Riko hid Milo at the time and didn’t know if he should admit that Milo was in fact alive (after all, Kevin didn’t even have proof) when the Moriyamas made halfassed apologies for Neil’s loss, he told Kevin that he was an idiot and needed to stop treating Neil like a child. Then Neil set the entire city on fire as his men slaughtered as many women and children as they could. Kevin was forced to watch from a window and listen to the people’s screams as the city burned and bled. It was the first time Kevin saw Neil as a monster.

Neil then castrated the Moriyamas, killing Kengo and Ichirou and taking Tetsuji’s hands. Kevin was the only person unscathed because Neil knew how Kevin has the worst case of survivors guilt. Riko was the only person who escaped, hiding away until the next day when the fires died.

Tetsuji was meant to make Riko king now. He first ordered Kevin to kill Milo as a last act of vengeance and fear that Neil would discover the truth. Riko taunted him about it and went to sleep like a baby for his coronation the next day. Kevin almost did kill Milo before deciding to instead kill Riko in his sleep. Kevin took Milo and returned him to Neil’s men.

On his long journey to palmetto (now that the city is burned and the borders are back up Kevin must take the long way) Jean’s spirit follows him, talking to Kevin as he begins to believe he is going insane. He didn’t want to believe Jean was dead but it was the only answer. Tetsuji and his advisors slaughtered Jean for killing Riko. They didn’t bother investigating and brutally murdered him. Kevin eventually is able to return Milo and wanders between the borders, unable to return home or go to palmetto.

Neil later forgives Kevin (after a very long few years) and helps him connect with Wymack. While Kevin talks to Neil about his plans, he avoids the war and Neil never tells him that Tetsuji hung himself and the throne now belongs to Kevin. The war is coming to a close and Kevin needs to let it end before he can claim his title. Except, while Kevin is helping a few ppl escape to Palmetto, Milo (who is a teenager by now) tries to kill him, driving Kevin farther from both kingdoms. It’s why he never gets the news about the end of the war or Neil and Andrew’s brutal deaths.

Injured and weakened, Kevin tries to help as many people as he can as they all make way to palmetto. Crossing the river, Kevin is too injured from Milo’s attack to fight the ripples, causing Kevin to fall and bust his head open on a rock. Kevin drowns until he finally bleeds out.

As for Neil and Andrew, they were still on the war front the day the news of the end came. Neil was asked to help some villagers nearby their camp. He was tricked and captured and the villagers burned him alive for a day and a half. Nearing the second day, Andrew received word about Neil’s kidnapping. He was leaving their tent when he’d had a heart attack and died. Andrew was purposely poisoned so he wouldn’t avenge Neil’s death.

The only survivor of this story was Milo, who had trained himself for his parents war, who was tortured just to end it, who was kidnapped and separated from Neil, who didn’t even get to fight in it. Milo lived to tell their tale and was forced to face it alone.

The end.

[detectivebambam]

inspired by a recent post i saw about Kevin Day holding a baby, here's Bam Bam's professional ranking of Foxes and Co. by best to worst at dealing with children:

Andrew and I am always going to stand by this. He grew up in foster care so it's entirely possible he's raised a bunch of babies in his lifetime, but I think he'd by driven by breaking the abuse cycle. if he can keep a kid safe, even if it's only one, he's going to. Andrew social worker au when? anyway. Designated Babysitter.

Laila. No clue why tbh she kinda just gives those vibes

Katelyn because she's a sweetheart. whether they're her kids or someone else's, i just feel that she's really great with them

Seth was very good with kids. babysat his younger siblings a lot, didn't really want kids, but if you gave him a baby he might not give it back

Wymack is scared of babies. The younger a child is, the more fear he has. The first time he held a baby he was like... 50-60. (bonus points if it's Kevin's kid). but he's very good with them. very gentle and sweet

Matt. golden retriever yk. idk what else to say. he's also Big and babies tend to like that. lots of sleeping room

Aaron. he thinks he'd be terrible so he stays away from them. when he and Kate start talking about having kids, his biggest fear is turning out like his mother. they do end up having kids and he is the Best Dad to ever dad

Abby is really good with kids in that she knows what to do with them in the most basic sense. when they need to be fed, how to get them to stop crying, etc, but other than that she's pretty indifferent to them

Jeremy. he's kinda lost when it comes to kids. he'll hold them for a little bit but unless they're older than six he gets bored so easily

Bee. she'll hold a baby cuz they're cute, but toddlers exhaust her. she'd rather spend her time with older kids and young adults

Renee thinks kids are cute, but doesn't really want anything to do with them. if someone asked if she wanted to hold the baby, she'd politely decline. very funny for the Foxes watching her try to interact with a child and realize that Andrew is actually better than her at something

Dan. not great with kids because she gets very impatient and doesn't want any due to some lurking childhood trauma (sometimes i give Matt and Dan kids for funsies, but realistically i don't think they'd have any)

Kevin. 😐 he's. not great. he kinda shakes a lil when he holds them, and holds them so gently that you'd think they were made of glass. he will only hold a baby if he's sitting down. with older kids, he tries to hard to be logical with them which ends up not working. to be fair, he's probably never seen a baby face to face before.

Cat. life or death situation, she could take care of a child. does she want to? no. and unfortunately i think she's one of those "kids are gross and annoying" people 😔

Nicky loves kids! he's just Very Bad with babies. if a baby even senses that Nicky is near, it starts crying. heartbreaking. this gives him the opportunity to adopt an older kid, though.

Alison doesn't care until the kid is old enough to go shopping with her. and if they start crying she's taking them home.

Neil. with Andrew's help, he does okay, but when left to his own devices he bluescreens. no, Neil, a 2 year old can not sit on the table while you do dishes.

Jean would be fantastic with kids, but they all remind him of Elodie, so it's more of a mental struggle than an actual inability to care for a child. if Andreil ever adopt, he likes to babysit

[high-queen-of-the-court]

quick and goofy aftg character hcs

Jean: has a book where he keeps tally of every time kevin pisses him off (complete with the reason and date)

Aaron: when coworkers/friends ask if he knows *insert popular ex-Fox exy player* he acts like he has no idea who they’re talking about

Andrew: sleeps in so late that Aaron had to call Neil to make sure he was alive once

Neil: eats the weirdest food combinations (broccoli and ketchup, pickles and peanut butter, etc.) and has definitely been chased by the neighbor’s dog

Renee: has a cat that for some reason looks exactly like her. she also has a groupchat with matt, andrew, and jean where they share photos of their baking adventures

Allison: was Barbie for Halloween the year the movie came out and the photo exploded on social media. she also loves the new hair bow craze

Nicky: drove in the wrong direction for over an hour, but since he was with the twins, they never pointed it out

Matt: goes all out on the Christmas lights every year because the kids like it and he ends up winning the neighborhood competition

Dan: once received a happy birthday message from someone texting the wrong number but she never corrected them so she gets a happy birthday text every year from them (she doesn’t know their name, age, or anything. and that’s not her birthday )

Jeremy: knows all of the servers names at his favorite restaurant and gets invited to their employee parties

Wymack: he cried when Kevin graduated and gets defensive when Abby brings it up

Kevin: is babygirl (canon)

Kevin: becomes an iPad dad

[jtl-fics]

In honor of April Fools day I will talk a bit about an AU with my favorite fool - (Redacted) Smith that I will probably never write fully but have thought about a bunch of scenes for.

I call it 2 Fluent Freshmen.

Due to a clerical error at both the school and during the local government's push to digitize their documents Smith is noted down as being 2 years older than he actually is and (perhaps a clerical error or maybe no teacher can say if they've had him in class or not) Smith also has enough credits to graduate. Gran has passed away early and there's nothing for him in Washington other than more anxiety.

Wymack & Dan come to Smith when he is 16 and Smith takes the chance to escape from his family IMMEDIATELY. Sure the Foxes are the worst team and sure there's some drama going on with Kevin Day having joined them after his injury but a full ride scholarship is a full ride scholarship!

Smith is rooming with 2 upperclassmen and his only other fellow freshman - Neil Josten. He is not hiding the fact that he can speak Russian, he is hiding the fact that he is 16. Smith ends up pretty close to Seth and Allison due to sharing a dorm / position respectively and just doing his best not to get to close to crazy Andrew Minyard. He does get a bit close with Neil but it's not something he's trying to do.

He's trying to keep his head down and get through the year.

It's a little hard when he is sat on the couch with the Kathy Ferdinand show. It's a lot harder when Riko Moriyama shows up and doesn't realize he's there and just...sits in Smith's lap?? Smith remains as blank faced as ever and what the fuck is Riko supposed to do? ADMIT HE FUCKED UP?

Do you know how hard it is to intimidate someone when you're sitting in the lap of some dude? The answer is VERY. Kevin can't take him seriously at all, especially after Smith made a comment that Riko's ass was bony.

Riko goes after them the same but Smith doesn't really get that his anger is at Kevin. "Hey, I'm sorry I called your butt bony on national television. That was rude of me. You should try some squats though." and like what the fuck is Riko supposed to say in the face of some dude genuinely apologizing to him.

It buys enough time that no one is grabbed or slammed.

Seth and Allison drag him out to the bar that night and after a few minutes sitting with Allison Smith realizes that he actually does have to pee and oh god someone's trying to assault Seth! Smith calls upon the powers of Gracie Hart and Seth has a black eye and a concussion but he graduates.

Neil wants Smith to come with him to the Thanksgiving because Neil has latched on a bit. Smith ends up going and also ends up going upstairs to go to the bathroom because oh god he cannot handle Nicky's parents hearing him take an anxiety shit. He's making his way to the end of the hall and sees a penny on the ground so he bends over to grab it.

And Drake Spears is unbalanced from missing his swing and falls right out the open window to the ground below where he breaks his neck. Naturally, Andrew is watching this scene unfold from the stairs and just starts to laugh his ass off. Smith turns around after flipping the penny over (it was tails side up and therefore not lucky) unaware of what has happened.

Smith asks if Andrew wants to use the bathroom. Andrew insists that Smith goes on ahead. The Hemmicks keep asking if they saw anyone upstairs and Smith has no idea what they're talking about, Andrew does but plays dumb out of spite. A day later it's wild that Nicky's parents got arrested. Like they seemed so normal, how did they kill someone and dump him in the side garden??

The Winter Banquet happens and well...it's dark. It's dark and Neil has brown hair and brown eyes and Smith has brown hair and brown eyes. Riko is not the best at judging heights so he calls Smith to threaten him and tell him that he's joining the Ravens for a Winter Break training camp. Jean is doing the most anyone has ever done not to laugh right now.

Riko only realizes his mistake when he's finished threatening Smith with his father and Smith ruins it. Smith is elated to have somewhere to stay over winter break. He can't mention he has nowhere to go so he'd thought he'd spend the break homeless. Now here comes Riko Moriyama inviting him to a camp where room and board will be provided?

What a nice guy. To thank him Smith compliments the gains he's noticed on Riko's ass. "The squats are really helping you, or are you doing something else?" he asks.

What the fuck is Riko supposed to do? ADMIT THAT HE FUCKED UP? Tell Smith that he's been doing squats and leg lifts before asking that he hand the tickets back and go get Neil???

Fuck that.

He'll just turn Smith against the Foxes and-

Well Riko kept talking about Smith's dead dad and so Smith may have a slight misunderstanding about the full scope of this training camp. He may think that there is some sort of seance element to it at this point and he's kind of excited at the idea of talking to his dad. "I've never spoken to a dead man before, this will be fun." and it's delivered flatly with no expression.

Riko starts to wonder if maybe Smith is the Butcher's son? Did the Butcher have two sons? He's sweating all the sudden.

It does not help that Smith brings a Ouija board to camp or that his dad was a legit Butcher before he died so Riko's tentative questioning only sends him further into an anxious mess about if Nathan had twins and Riko, due to being kept away from the family business, might just not be aware of it?

Smith has a nice Christmas break.

The last scene I've got dinging around in the noggin is in Binghamton. Smith has been left behind at many a stadium at this point. There's a solid and fast rule.

Neil cannot get on the bus without Smith. They are buddies. This is the buddy system. So when the riot starts and Neil seems to be getting pulled away in the crowd?

Well Smith grabs his hand and pulls him towards the bus, "Buddy system."

The bus starts and they're on their way shortly after. Neil's an anxious wreck but that next morning he wakes up to the news that the Butcher of Baltimore died in an FBI raid the night before as well as his men.

Smith watches the news with Neil, "Wow, that's scary." as he sips some orange juice.

[foxstens]

can't stop thinking about the au where riko kills kevin instead of breaking his hand

would riko have done it intentionally? would it make him finally start seeing the consequences of his actions? or would it do the opposite?

would he take his guilt anger and grief out on jean and the other ravens? or would he shut down? or would he keep going somehow because after all kevin was never his equal?

would he even survive tetsuji's wrath in the first place?

what about jean? would he somehow make it until graduation as he does in every other universe? or would grief consume his already bleak existence? maybe he'd allow himself one moment to be truly furious with his parents, with riko, with the situation before he ends things

what about thea? at that point i don't know how long it would've been since she graduated. but even if they didn't have a lot of time together, even if she already started building a life outside the nest, she would not be unaffected

what about neil? without kevin the chances of wymack wanting to recruit him would be very slim, and the chances of him accepting would be almost non-existent

but he's already barely holding on by a thread in millport so maybe kevin's death would be his breaking point. maybe he'd give up playing before wymack even saw his tape because he no longer feels alive on the court

what about andrew? he probably wouldn't really care but i think he would always remember kevin's words in that dingy locker room. he'd also probably never repair his relationship with aaron and without neil and kevin around to inspire him to keep going every day, he'd have a very boring life after graduation

what about wymack? he loved kayleigh and losing kevin too would be devastating precisely because he never got to truly know kevin. i can't decide what's worse, if he never finds out that kevin is his son or if he finds out too late (never mind how he would feel if he found out the truth about evermore)

what about the foxes? presumably janie would live and seth would get to graduate, but the current generation of foxes would never grow as close and they probably wouldn't win championships either

what about jeremy? we see he considers kevin a dear friend and if fan theories that he lost a sibling are correct, he would not get over it easily

[deeppenguinstudent]

Beach episode with the trojans and Foxes.

Kevin and Jeremy are the first ones into the ocean with catalina and laila tagging along behind them. They play that game where you get on eachothers shoulders and try to push down the other people.

Ananya is making sand castles alongside Renee as Paul and Cody run to the beach with kiddish buckets to get water to stabilise the castle. Allison is tasked with collecting seashells for their sandcastle while Xavier and her converse , talking bout her future fashion line. Andrew joins Renee, and he gives conclusive sand castle advice because he wants to have the best sand castle at the beach to put the little kids hard work to shame as he says.

Matt and Erik are on the grill while Dan and Katelynn play music and swerve their hips to the beat, helping them with the food but mostly just gossiping about their boyfriends to each other. Lucas and Aaron complain about their courses to each other as they help set the benches for the food.

Neil and Jean are seated on one side, Jean can't fathom even dipping his toes into the water, and Neil shares that sentient as they sit in silence apropos to Neil talking about new recruits and complaining about the uselessness of the backliners. Jean doesn't say anything back, but he's happy someone is beside him. Neil doesn't think to mention that Andrew had forced him into extensive therapy to deal with the water correctional trauma, and he was supposed to attend his resolution appointment next week.

The coaches, Rhemann and Wymack, enjoy a hearty conversation with beer and snacks as Abby and Lisinski joke about their reckless kids.

Dan yells at them to come back to the benches to eat, and they begrudgingly agree to scampering to eat the meat that has been freshly grilled. Andrew takes refuge under the umbrella as the rest laughs and plays volleyball while enjoying a light snack.

Jeremy calls out to Jean as Catalina and Laila take either side of Jean's arms and hoist him up. It's Jeremy, Catalina, Jean and Laila VS Matt, Dan, Kevin, and Aaron for the match. They end in a draw, which makes Jeremy and Kevin continue the match by their lonesome until the Sun sets.

The coaches are starting up a campfire for the kids, and they all take a seat around it. Renee takes a seat beside Jean, face brightening, and Kevin takes his other side hesitantly. Neil notices Jeremy's face falter in disappointment before lightening up as he decides to sit down beside Neil and Andrew.

He's loud and jubilant. Andrew surprisingly converses with him about literature, and Neil can feel an unlikely bond forming. It was solidified when Jeremy reached into his pocket before lathering his smores with an ungodly amount of sugar. Andrew pointed towards it, and Jeremy poured the remaining of the sugary substance onto Andrew's smores.

Nicky pulled out a guitar. Where did he get that from? and they sing some 90s song lost in translation, no one knows the lyrics some don't even know the tune as they sing their hearts out. Neil feels a soft smile on his face, after everything they've been through they deserve this.

He feels shuffling and sees Jeremy stalking over towards Jean. He grimaces at Jean, breaking crackers on the stick before helping him gently as he takes away the awkwardness by exchanging commentary with Kevin. Renee gazed at Jean knowingly before squeezing his hand and making her way towards Allison and Xavier.

Jeremy is now seated next to Jean, impossibly close. Jean surprisingly doesn't comment on it and ignores the way Jeremy practically leans on him. It was Jeremy and Kevin conversing, yet it seemed like Kevin was the bystander within the interaction between three of them.

Nicky whispers to Neil, his guitar now abandoned and face filled with crackers. He said he feels bad for flirting with Jeremy. He didn't know that he had someone in mind. Neil glances over to Jean and Jeremy and sees Jean let out a small smile for the first of the night as Jeremy's head is whacked playfully by Kevin.

Neil's eyes widened in shock as Andrew rolls his eyes at his idiocity. Jean meets his eyes, shit was he staring for too long? He gave a whimsical raise of his eyebrows before nudging his head towards Jeremy, and Jean flipped him off before indulging in whatever Jeremy was explaining animatedly about.

[mieeaahhh]

A really looonngggg list of the most useless and boring all for the game head-cannons

Characters:

Neil Josten

He has those two crooked teeth at the sides of his mouth that look like ‘fangs’ and big two front teeth (me too, me too😔)

Wears caps backwards like a freak loser weirdo

He doesn’t care much about facial piercings but he ends up getting a few more ear piercings after awhile (and then he got a tongue piercing because someone told him he wouldn’t)

Regularly walks into glass doors and poles by accident and tries to play it off and act cool when really he just looks like an absolute dumbass

Sneezes like an old man

He wakes up from nightmares sometimes thinking his legs are gone and panics before realising that he’s okay and that he’s safe

Curly mullet curly mullet curly mullet curly mullet

His mum did his ear piercings for him as another way to change his appearance

Once woke up from a nightmare and punched Andrew instead of Andrew waking up from a nightmare and punching him. Andrew had never woken up so confused in his life and Neil burst out laughing while apologising and he immediately forgot about what his nightmare was about

Andrew Minyard

Once he starts relaxing more while sleeping in the same bed as Neil he starts sleep talking and it’s always about something ridiculous or completely random

I’ve said this so many times but idc. Andrew didn’t have any piercings until he moved in with Aaron and Nicky because Aaron has piercings and Andrew thought they were cool

Is good at baking and enjoys it but if you held a gun to his head and told him to cook dinner the gun would go off

When he was a kid he was really into space and constellations and sometimes he’ll point them out while on the roof with Neil

Covers his mouth with his hand or turns his face away when he laughs

He has Arfid? I think that’s what it’s called

Hides away whenever he’s sick because as a child people have gotten angry at him for being sick as it was ‘inconvenient’.

Aaron Minyard

Has slight claustrophobia from when Andrew locked him inside the bathroom. It’s not that bad most of the time but sometimes if the door gets stuck for a second or he’s in a small room for too long then he silently freaks out (he also hates going inside lifts)

Was really big on dinosaurs as a kid. his favourite teddy was a little terradactyl (idfk how to spell it I’ve been trying for ten minutes😭) and he still keeps it under his pillow

Gives the most nastiest looks to people without even realising

Mumbles to himself a lot about the things he’s doing like a narrator

The type of person to not know where their glasses are when they are on top of their head

Whenever he does something that makes him think the person he’s with will get angry with him he either freezes or makes himself smaller

Aaron has a weird thing with being perceived and will often stop doing something (like reading or whatever) if someone sees him/walks in until they go away.

Kevin Day

He’s autistic but only got diagnosed when he was in the foxes (like a few months or so after Wymack finding out he’s his dad and stuff)

Scared if butterflies the same way people are scared of wasps and bees

Sleeps face down and snores really loudly but is in denial about it

He has a keyring that he carries around with him everywhere because he was going to give it to Jean but never got the chance and now he feels it’s a bit late to do it now

Has the most beautiful handwriting

Nicky Hemmick

Really long eyelashes

Had a really bad and embarrassing emo phase that he refuses to talk about but one time the twins found old photos of it and framed them to mess with him

Tongue and smiley piercing

He’s in a the family group chat Erik has with his family

Opening up about his personal problems is hard for him. He thinks that if he’s upset about something then people will get annoyed with him and he’s scared of being an inconvenience

Renee Walker

Dyes her hair to match the holidays

She’s transgender mtf

The first time she died her hair was after she was adopted by Stephanie. She messed it up and Stephanie had walked in on her trying to fix it and offered to help her. It was one of the first things they really did together as mother and daughter

She always stands with her hands clasped together either in-front or behind her

She always has unique/fun hair-clips in her hair

Allison Reynolds

When she’s anxious about something she kinda just rubs her hands together or rubs them across her neck or legs repetitively

She LOVESSS shopping but always enjoys it more when someone is with her (it normally ends up being Neil, Seth or Renee)

Hips + bellybutton pierced🙌

When she was a kid she refused to wear anything but princess dress costumes and tiaras for like two years

A lot of her clothes/accessories or glittery or shimmery but she actually hates glitter because of how inconveniently messy it is

Kisses peoples cheeks to greet them

Matt Boyd

He’s the type of hugger that lifts up whoever it is he’s hugging (Aaron, Dan and Neil are victims of unexpectedly being lifted of the ground and seeing their life flash before their eyes)

Will, has and still does break it down to Brittney spear’s whenever she comes on

He has a tattoo on his hand on a flower and a tattoo on his shoulder of his exy number

He wanted to get both his eyebrows pierced but chickened out after getting the first one done

His favourite animal is a crocodile and has been since he was a little boy. His childhood toy was a teddy crocodile that he still keeps on his bed

Dan Wilds

The foxes all got Wymack a Father’s Day mug with their names signed on it once. It was Dans idea and it was a moustache on the bottom of it

She LOVES maximalist gold jewellery and is covered in it most of the time

During and after her time with the foxes she keeps in touch with her old work sisters and does secret Santa with them every year

Nose freckles nose freckles nose freckles

The teams ‘bonding’ activities are normally planned by her

Seth Gordan

He has dyslexia but is in denial about it and pretends he doesn’t know what dyslexia is💀

He is absolutely COVERED in freckles

He’s wanted to be a professional Exy player since he was a kid and it’s always what he’d tell people he was going to be before he joined the foxes. He lost hope in becoming one after signing with the team (kinda canon lmao?)

He looks the most like his father out of all his siblings

David Wymack

Proper BAWLED his eyes out at Dan and Matts wedding. It was the first time any of the foxes had seen him cry and they thought it was hilarious

Doesn’t know how to work a phone and holds it far away from his face like an old lady to read messages

Has a moustache🫡🤤😍🥰😘

Had an eyebrow piercing as a teenager but took it out YEARS ago

Abby Winfield

Was like super goth as a teenager

Has a tongue piercing and is a FAKE BLONDE🫵

Her only friend growing up was Betsy

Has a raspy voice🤤🤤

Betsy Dobson

Her style is very colourful and maximalist. She wears funky jewellery, crazy accessories and patterned tights, etc

She enjoys crocheting from time to time

She had a crush on Abby when they were in school with each other

Jeremy Knox

Big front teeth like a rabbit

Cries during sad movies. Like full on heaving sobs

Was very very shy as a kid and didn’t have many friends before the Trojans

He’s never really been aloud to do do things like dying his hair, dressing how he wants, going out more than a day a week if he was lucky, getting piercings etc etc so he’s honestly kind of afraid of being himself and a part of him still doesn’t really know who he is

Frecklesssss

A haver of the OCD🫡

Really bad at hiding his facial expressions. If you’re annoying him you WILL know about it but he won’t know that you know🧍

Jean Moreau

Moles EVERYWHERE

Sometimes he has days so bad that he struggles to even drink water because it feels like he’s choking

He’s very fidgety. Never sitting still for too long and whenever he’s holding something he’s always playing around with it in his hands. He fidgets very subtlety as he can though because he doesn’t want people to notice it

His favourite films are the buddy’s films

Absolutely SUCKS at any kind of game, board games, card games, video games etc he’s ridiculously bad at them

The toaster gives him a fright every single time it pops. Even when he pops it himself with the button

Resting sad face

Katelyn Mackenzie

She’s one of the cheerleaders that get thrown up in the air (I don’t know anything about cheerleading it isn’t really a thing where I live)

Her hair is really really curly and long

She’s the oldest sibling of four and the youngest is adopted

She’s always been quite popular amongst her peers growing up because of how kind, helpful and friendly she was but she’s never really had a best friend until the vixens (I like to think her best friend is a really goth girl in the cheer team)

Her part time job as a teenager was babysitting and she LOVED it

She’s 5,11

Groups:

The Monsters

They have a group-chat but they don’t really use it

Have all just fallen asleep in the car outside of Eden’s instead of driving home by accident a lot

They don’t take photos with each other but Nicky has taken sooooo many sneaky photos of them all

When Robin joins the foxes and eventually joins the monsters they all treat her as if she’s their little sister and her parents have invited them all for tea/dinner a few times

Kevin and Aaron are the only ones that can’t drive

Had a karaoke night once and have all agreed to never ever speak of it again

Once Andrew sorts his shit out Katelyn joins them in their outings sometimes

The upperclassmen

Go out for dinner together quite a lot

Were all bridesmaids/groomsmen at each-others weddings

They’ve got a group chat that is still used years after graduation even though they are all busy with their own lives now

They do those hangout things when they all make a PowerPoints about whatever they want and present it to each other etc yk?

They all have matching tattoos of their exy numbers

On the anniversary of Seth's death, the foxes and Wymack gather at Abby's place to have dinner together. They don't really talk about him but they leave one seat empty.

The floozies

They have BBQS together a lot

All have some sort of matching thing like a bracelet or t-shirt I just can’t think of what it would be lol

Cat and Laila have a photo wall/photo album full of photos of them all

They are always helping Jean have fun experiencing things he never got the chance too. He probably won’t tell them directly but he appreciates their patience

Kevin being obsessed with them is a bit of an inside joke of theirs. “Hey guys do you think I look okay in this?” “No but u know who would!” “If you say Kevin I’m punching you in the fucking face” (???) idk how else to demonstrate that LMAO

Love love love having sleepovers at Cat and Lailas

The Vixens

They were all weary of Katelyn’s boyfriend being Aaron grumpy loser pants Minyard but they eventually warmed up to him

When Melissa/Marissa(?) first joined the vixens after being in the foxes she struggled fitting in with everyone. Katelyn was the first friend she made on the team

Most of them are probably the nicest people you will meet in Palmetto and couldn’t care less about the foxes but a lot of them absolutely despise the foxes and want nothing to do with them

Katelyn has her own little group of friends in the vixens who Aaron eventually joined and is now the main source of their gossip (he mainly bitches about Neil and Andrew)

They all absolutely ADORE Robin

Relationships/couples (cannon and not lol):

Andrew and Neil

Andrew runs cold and has to sleep like he’s hibernating for the winter while Neil runs hot and needs a fan (Andrew hates the fan. It is enemy #1)

The cats were Andrews ‘idea’. (He found them outside and took them home without saying anything)

Neil has had to carry drunk andrew a few times because Andrew likes being difficult

The team all have AT LEAST one photo of them sleeping together . On the couch, in the bus, in their bed, ON THE ROOF? They all have one

Andrew enjoys shopping and has a wardrobe full to the brim with clothes. Neil just wears Andrews clothes most of the time

Andrew sits on Neil’s lap more than Neil sits on his but Neil LOVES holding Andrew’s hand

They bake together sometimes but it usually just ends up with them throwing flour at each-other (poor Andrews completely black outfits)

They both actually get ‘flustered’ quite easily around each-other but with Neil it’s literally Impossible to tell. Andrews entire face goes red but that’s IT

Andrew paints Neil’s nails sometimes when he’s bored (it’s obviously black nail varnish too)

Andrew let’s Neil pin his hands,eventually, enjoying being safe in his hold

Aaron and Katelyn

Katelyn is the big spoon🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Katelyn enjoys baking but Aaron doesn’t so he is always just sitting on the counter and watching her bake

Aaron is a lot quieter/more insecure than Katelyn is so she’ll often be the one in control of the conversation whether it’s just them two or a group of people but Aaron is a lot more comfortable being himself when he’s with just her (Their a Sunshine and rain cloud basically🙄)

Katelyn’s parents ADORE Aaron

Aaron buys flowers for Katelyn every single time he comes over to see her. When they get a home together he buys her new flowers every week

Katelyn is a big kisser while Aaron is a big hugger

Katelyn always kisses Aaron repeatedly on the face when she’s trying out new lipstick (leaving him covered in lipstick marks how adorbs and lovely)

They are both very physically affectionate with eachother

Katelyn takes 0.5 photos of Aaron all the time trust

Dan and Matt

Matching pajamas🙏🙌🗣️

Randy absolutely loves Dan and is constantly going on about how lucky her son is and how beautiful Dan is etc etc

Matt is the type of guy to wear a t-shirt covered in pictures of dans face at the club or a “I <3 my GF” shirt

They do face masks together during movie nights

Matt absolutely WORSHIPS Dan and it’s so painfully sweet it causes tooth aches

They go on a date once a week after graduation

Wymack walked Dan down the isle at their wedding and was absolutely SOBBING while dancing was giggling at him

Matt doesn’t know how to tie a tie because he’s got hashtag daddy issues so Dan usually does it for him

Always touching somehow. Shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand etc

Seth and Allison

He liked her bossing him around👁️👁️

Sometimes when they were bored Seth would try do Alison’s makeup and she wasn’t aloud to help him and it always ended up with them cry laughing

Allison would help Seth shave his head when it got too long for him

Allison had Seth saved as “wife🏳️‍🌈” in her contacts LMFAO

After he died the foxes photo wall had a photo of him put up with his name and birth to death dates. Allison is the one who picked the photo

Allison always manhandled Seth into doing his skincare and eyebrows etc because she was NOT going to have a scruff as a boyfriend (he secretly enjoyed it)

He liked it when she scratched his back because of her long fake nails

She was the first real girlfriend Seth had (and the last)

Allison and Renee

Allison helps Renee dye her hair when Andrew isn’t around to help (sometimes they both help her at the same time)

Renee is silently a little shy around Allison and gets flustered at all the compliments and praise Allison gives her (Allison is head over heels and is very very much flustered but she can’t let people know that🙄🙄)

^They are basically just very awkwardly sweet with eachother

Allison always ricks Renee’s hair behind her ears

They go on picnic dates a lot during summer and spring

Renee fell first, Allison fell harder🫡

Stephanie is the embarrassing type of mother that’s always teasing her kid about their crush and she most definitely teased Renee about Allison

Renee makes homemade valentines gifts and Allison gets expensive valentines gifts

Allison loves Renee playing with her hair

Renee enjoys taking off Allison makeup for her at the end of the day and always kisses the tip of her nose when she’s done (taking the fake eyelashes off is her favourite part LMAO)

Allison has gone to church with Renee and Stephanie a few times during Christmas

Allison always kisses Renee’s wing tattoo

Renee reads before bed a lot and Allison falls asleep listening to her sometimes

Renee and Allison and Seth (hear me out I’m begging)

Renee and Seth are both dating Allison but they are not dating each-other 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️

They are both very playful competitive when it comes to Allison and she thinks it’s hilariously sweet

They have a groupchat named “Renee is cooler” and Seth is a dumbass who doesn’t know how to change the name

After Seth died Allison and Renee stopped dating for a while. Allison needed some time to herself and Renee was okay with that

Renee and Seth are low-key best friends (obviously! they have the same girlfriend) but pretend to be enemies in a way that’s like almost as if they are at war against each-others kingdom LMAO

They all go on dates together but they also take turns going on dates

Seth helped allison help dye Renee’s hair once and accidentally got the dye in his and Allison hair. He was never aloud to help again

Allison sleeps in the middle and they rotate the spooning lmao. One night Seth spoons Allison while Allison spoons Renee and another night it’ll be the other way around. Sometimes they are both just curled into Allison 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Stephanie loves both Allison and Seth and often invited them over for dinner

They all had matching banquet outfits

Jeremy and Jean

Jeremy kisses jeans moles/Beauty marks and Jean kisses Jeremy’s freckles

They sleep facing each-other and so close that they are basically kissing 🙄

Jeremy likes playing with jeans hands when they cuddle and kisses his finger tips

Jeremy screams and runs from bugs while Jean picks them up and puts them outside

Nicky and Eric

At their wedding Nicky was walked down the aisle by Erik’s dad

Their first date was an aquarium date and it was also Nicky’s first time going to an aquarium

They have matching build-a-bears

When Nicky first moved back to take in the twins he and Erik called almost every single night. Nicky was so tired sometimes that he’d fall asleep while Erik was speaking

Nicky only taught the twins basic greetings and manners in German so that when they meet Erik they could at least greet each other but the twins learnt it fluently in their own time without Nicky knowing

Abby and Wymack

They got legally married but instead of a wedding they had a dinner party at their house

They cook together almost every night (Abby is cooking and Wymack is TRYING to cook)

They go on a date every Friday night if they can

They are both very private about their relationship and keep to themselves instead of parading their love around for everyone to see

Abby helps Wymack shave most of the time because he #sucks

They have a daughter together sometime in the future (probably wouldn’t happen but idc😒) and Kevin is her best friend. He buys presents and spoils her whenever he comes to visit

She also absolutely adores Dan and Matt

Katelyn and Aaron and Kevin

Aaron and Katelyn are messy sleepers and move around A LOT so Kevin has woken up from being kicked in the face or something an ridiculous amount of times

Aaron kisses Kevin’s hands and Katelyn’s head/hair a lot, Kevin kisses Aaron’s forehead and katelyns shoulders a lot, then Katelyn kisses Aaron’s cheeks and Kevin’s forehead a lot

Katelyn and Aaron wear eachother and Kevin’s clothes a lot but Kevin barely wears theirs because most of it’s too small for him

Katelyn taught them both how to plait hair and sometimes when they are bored she’ll sit on the floor infront of them while they plait one side each and whoever does the best plait wins

They had a shared playlist but Kevin was banned from adding songs to it because his music taste is bad

Cat and Laila

Bicker like an old married couple

Matching outfits AND hair for banquets but Laila has really long hair and cat has short hair so they are not always FULLY matching hairstyles

Just have a lot of matching things like pajamas and jewellery etc

Sometimes when it’s just them home they play music and slow dance in the kitchen/sitting room quietly

Cat is an ‘organised mess’ kinda person while laila is just a messy person

Friendships/Family:

Katelyn and Neil

Bully Aaron every chance they get bro trust🙏 “look at him” “ikr what a nerd” “I can hear you both😐”

Katelyn is just messing around but Neil is probably actually bullying him LMFAO

Dressed up as each other for Halloween once without telling anybody and gave the twins whip lash

Neil helps her with maths and will help Aaron too if he’s there but Aaron is actually good at maths so he doesn’t need it most of the time

Katelyn was watching when Marissa was asking for Neil’s number because she was the one that told her to ‘go for it!’ And when Marissa got back Katelyn was in tears laughing

They have a secret hand shake that is unnecessarily complicated

Katelyn has bright ginger hair while Neil (cannonicly) had Auburn/dark ginger hair

Aaron and Matt

Aaron was a little awkward about their slowly forming friendship and often tried pushing Matt away but Matt was a little oblivious to it

Randy loved Aaron and always tells Matt to invite him over for the holidays

Whenever Aaron has a nightmare he doesn’t like sleeping by himself and has woken up next to Matt many times because Matt told him he can just sleep in his bed if it makes him feel better

They get really competitive with each other over video games

They play fight/tackle eachother at the most random times and Matt usually wins

Matt had a pair of Spider-Man pajama bottoms and Aaron has a pair of Batman pajama bottoms (Matt bought them)

Matt was the best man at Aaron and Katelyn’s wedding

Matt is Aaron’s first ever best friend

Neil and Matt

Matt gets Neil into playing video games with him sometimes and Neil is wayyyyy better than Matt so he regrets ever letting Neil have a go

There is a photo taped to the photo wall of Neil sitting on matts shoudlers with the biggest smile on his face because he’s laughing and doing this 💪😆💪 LMAO matts doing 💪😁 because he has to hold Neil with his other hand

Matt always holds his hand up high when giving Neil a high five so Neil has to jump to high five him back

Andrew and Neil are the designated babysitters for the team (when they aren’t working obviously) and matt and dans son is constantly copying them and the things they say

Matt insists on them having ‘bro nights’ at least once a week

Matt is Andreils biggest fan

They have a bromance so strong you’d think their actually inlove with each other sometimes, Dan thinks it’s hilarious (Andrew does too but they can’t know that🙄🙄)

Dan, Allison, Renee (+Katelyn!)

Renee, Allison and Dan have girls nights and slumber parties sometimes and after awhile they start inviting Katelyn

When Renee was re-dying her hair once Allison asked her to put pink and black underneath the blonde but she only kept it for a year (Mcbing Allison🫡)

Allison and Katelyn gossip like nobody ever could, they know everything and everyone bro

Dressed up as the powerpuff girls for Halloween once

Aaron, Andrew and Nicky

Nicky was the one that bought Andrew his armbands. Nicky took them shopping for some extra things like clothes and school supplies etc before they went home and Andrew picked them up, Nicky saw him looking at them and told him he can get them if he wants (Nicky never knew why Andrew wanted them until thanksgiving)

Nicky cut the twins hair for them up until the left collage. To begin with it was just Aaron’s hair he did but eventually Andrew trusted him enough for him to cut his too (I don’t think Andrew would like a hairdressers due to a stranger having to touch him and I just think Aaron would hate getting his hair cut)

They had movie nights together before collage every now and again but didn’t have the time for them once they joined the foxes. One night, after the books take place, Nicky asked if the wanted to have one and they ended up meeting in Aaron’s dorm to watch it. Aaron fell asleep against Nicky’s shoulder and while Andrew fell asleep last at the other side of their make shift sofa bed thing

Aaron and Nicky met once or twice when they were little but Aaron doesn’t remember

They have a groupchat and Nicky has the twins contacts saved as ‘thing 1’ and ‘thing 2’

A part of Nicky was upset Andrew never told him he was gay and at some point he asked him if it was because he felt like he couldn’t and Andrew looked him up and down and asked if he was being serious LMAO

Aarons had glasses since he was little but Andrew only got his after moving in with Nicky

Aaron and Andrew eventually just end up sharing most of their clothes either each other after awhile

andrew and aaron both have a very contagious laugh if you’re lucky enough to hear it

Allison, Renee, Neil and Andrew

DOUBLE DATES GUYS TRUST🙏🙏🙏 I think Renee and Allison are more of a dinner date kind of couple while Neil are a staying in or like going on a drive type of couple so they all agree on something that they would all like. a small café or something yk?

Andrew doesn’t gossip but will slide Allison information he’s heard, Renee doesn’t gossip and doesn’t particularly enjoy listening to it, Neil doesn’t gossip but he’ll listen if Allison is, Allison loves gossip and looses her mind when she’s with them

Renee and Andrew have a video of neil and Allison doing karaoke and dancing while drunk in the dorms but nobody else knows about them (not even Neil and Allison)

Allison and Andrew are the best gift givers on the team🫡

Allison put glam makeup on Neil once for fun and the look and Andrews face had them in stitched laughing

I think it would be cute if Allison and Renee adopted a daughter in the future and she would LOVE Andrew and Neil and always want them to ‘come over and play’

^^^Andrew always lets her get away with everything. “Do you want some..?” “My mums said I can’t have sweets before dinner😞” “well they aren’t here right now and I say you can”

Allison and Andrew eventually end up becoming somewhat friends after awhile and she paints his nails for him a lot because she claims he’s ’bad at it’

Neil and Allison

She drags him along for shopping sprees a lot and often ends up buying him clothes even though he has the money for his own

^^^when she and Andrew get closer, there will be a few times she’ll be looking, pick something up and go “you’re buying this for Andrew” and shove it into Neil’s hands

She and Neil have matching skincare headbands/hair-clips

Allison made all Neil’s social media accounts and showed him how to change things like his profile info and how to post. All he’s ever EVER posted is a selfie he has with Allison, a picture of Andrew + the cats and a group photo of the foxes

^^^something similar to this (yes I know that’s the Yellowjackets cats but just imagine it’s the foxes instead LMAO)

She used him as a model when making clothes sometimes (she used Renee as one too🤭🤭)

she made him try do her makeup once and he put the fake eyelashes on her eyebrows

[knickknacksandallthat]

I was watching hockey the other day and the announcers were talking about how on the penguins, there are three player who are setting the record for the longest tenure as teammates. they've been playing together for 18 years, i'm sure you can see where my brain went

Anon, yessss!! Omg I can literally just see the interview now:

(Jean, Jeremy, and Kevin sitting in a room with an interviewer)

INTERVIEWER: Well, thanks for sitting down with me, guys! And listen, a few of us were just talking about this - the three of you have been together on the same team for around 10 years now, right?

JEREMY: *smiling* Yep!

JEAN: If you say so.

INTERVIEWER: Wow, that's quite the tenure! Did you know, in fact, that you three are close to setting a record within the league?

KEVIN: What record?

INTERVIEWER: Most consecutive years together on a team.

JEAN: *raises eyebrow* they have records for this?

KEVIN: Who currently holds it?

INTERVIEWER: uh...well I think it's technically Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard with the Dragons.

JEREMY: Awww, good for them!

JEAN: *snorts*

INTERVIEWER: *clears throat* well, in any case, uh...that's quite the achievement, you know? Tell us - what's your secret? What's the magic between you three?

JEREMY: *still smiling* hmm, I wonder.

KEVIN: Practice, hard work, and experience.

INTERVIEWER: Well, I'm sure the time you train together accounts for a lot, but...there's nothing...else you'd say helps?

JEAN: Like?

INTERVIEWER: Um, like...well, you know...like friendship?

JEAN: *blinking* Friendship.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, man...I mean, after all this time, I would think the three of you have grown so close that you'd be more like bros, you know?

JEAN: *frowning now* Bros.

JEREMY: *biting lip silently against grin* Ohhhh, right. Got it. Yeah man, for sure. Bros.

INTERVIEWER: Exactly! Homies, man.

KEVIN: *tone dripping with derision* Homies.

INTERVIEWER: Three dudes with the most sacred of all bonds - sports.

JEREMY: *now shaking with repressed laughter* Oh, for sure, my dude. Homies. Brotherly bonding. Soooooo hetero. The most.

(Kevin turns to scowl at Jeremy.)

INTERVIEWER: You know, it actually kind of surprised many of us that you didn't end up on a team with Neil and Andrew, Kevin. If anyone, those two are who many of us would have thought you'd be setting this record with.

JEREMY: Oh my god. *doubles over laughing*

JEAN: *smirking* Yes, tell us, Kevin. Why aren't you on a team with Neil and Andrew? Accomplishing this sacred connection of brotherly bonding?

KEVIN: *pinches bridge of nose with fingers before sighing* Let's just say being on the same team with them at the Olympics is more than enough.

KEVIN: *grumbles under breath* The damn pair of menaces.

-------------------

INTERVIEWER: Josten and Minyard, we were just out talking to your rivals on the West Coast last week - Jeremy Knox, Jean Moreau, and your former PSU teammate, Kevin Day, from the Warriors.

*Both stare silently at him*

INTERVIEWER: *coughs* Right, so, we were just saying how that trio is coming up on your record for teammates with the most time spent together on one team.

NEIL: And? What's your point?

INTERVIEWER: *loosens tie* oh, well, there was a little curiosity, I guess, around why Kevin chose that team instead of coming to play for the Dragons - with the two of you, I mean, his former teammates. Um...do you know why that is?

NEIL: Because Andrew would probably stab him.

INTERVIEWER: I...what?

NEIL: *waving hand back and forth* Yeah, I'd probably give it two weeks at most.

INTERVIEWER: ...

NEIL: See, Kevin would whine and nag, and Andrew would get pissed but he promised Wymack he wouldn't, no matter how much Kevin annoys him. So...yeah. It's probably better that they both stay on opposite ends of the country.

INTERVIEWER: ...

ANDREW: *pulling lollipop out of mouth* Never let a sad, forty-something year old man convince you to promise shit.

[inadvisablebutinevitable]

it’s been like 3 months since tsc and I still can’t get Jean Moreau out of my head.

Jean and his hopes, Jean and his fears, Jean and all the little things he never let cross his mind that come to him unbidden in the middle of the night as he stares at the ceiling of a room too bright. Do you think the big open window that forces him to know the time of day prevents him from sleeping? Do you think he looks down at himself before bed to change his clothes and has a brief moment of sheer panic when he sees a blue t-shirt instead of the usual black? Do you think hearing the traffic outside his window is jarring to him? Or is he used to white noise in the nest?

do you think Laila asked him to try on a turtleneck shirt that first horrible day they went shopping? She was only thinking of how handsome he would look in it, how Jeremy would react to seeing Jean in something so casual and comfy. Do you think she was shocked when Jean stormed out of the change room and threw it at her? Do you think she ran forward to go off on him for being so rude but stopped when she heard his laboured breathing and saw the claw marks on his neck. Do you think it took Jean the rest of the day to convince himself he wasn’t being choked?

do you think he catches himself one day wishing that Elodie had been a Wesninski? That she had a mother who loved her enough to steal her away and go into hiding so that she would never belong to anyone that would do her harm? Do you think he doesn’t quite dismiss the thought fast enough to stop himself from wishing that he too, had been a Wesninski? Do you think he’s especially pissy to Neil after that and Neil just thinks he’s being an asshole like Kevin?

Does Jean ever see Riko in his teammates? Does the metal grate of the helmet ever disguise a striker’s face a little too well, so Jean ends up apologizing to a very confused Derek after a drill for not properly utilizing Raven techniques? Does he ever see a racquet swing up above his head and he just freezes as he waits for the inevitable crunch of breaking bones? What about when it’s him and a striker and the stairs to the change room, and he tries to get as far away as possible? Does he ever say “yes captain” in Japanese to a shocked Jeremy?

what if he messes up during a game because he subconsciously passes to players wearing black instead of the bright Trojan red? What if Laila loses him in the mall because he fell into line with someone wearing black and Wymack wasn’t there to hold him back this time? What if the first time a coach ever raises his voice at him he responds in Japanese? What if he cuts himself with a knife and for a moment he swears Riko is in the room? What if Neil speaks to him in French and he calls Neil “Kevin” out of habit? What if Jeremy is rambling on about exy and Jean calls HIM “Kevin”? What if Cat buys him a magnet and he finds himself wanting to ask which city it’s from?

just… Jean Moreau. He will not get out of my head.

[stick-ball]

I dont know how many of you will agree with this, but recently I had a realisation about Kevin. lt could be broken down to 3 phases:

The first is that Kevin is existing in very extreme emotional states - he either completely removes his emotions and as such vulnerability from a situation, or he goes all in reactive, which ends up with him being extremely dominant and agressive in his expression. The in between only happens when he is in the process of bouncing from one to the other.

Here is why I think he acts as such: as a kid, he had to really moderate how he expressed himself and constantly adapted to the situation. He had to be the golden child for the cameras, he had to be unfallible as an athlete due to his legacy, at the same time, he had to be submissive and lesser than for Riko and Tetsuji. Since most of the attention he got was both very keen and very dominant while emotionally removed (I wonder how much actual prize he got for normal things), it created a deeply rooted fear of honesty. It would be pretty natural for him to feel resentment at constantly not being the right thing, always lacking. As such, he became ultimately dishonest in his expression, which makes him repellant to opening up and being vulnerable in relationships. I used to think most of his dishonesty stemmed from fear because the truths he knew were very delicate and dangerous, but I am wondering if it wasn't born out of this deeper feeling of inadequacy. As a result, the Kevin we meet is used to fitting into someone else's ideas, and that's because he feels like every relationship is based on him GIVING them something of himself. Every one, not just the one with Riko. Living is a sacrifice of self for him, and he will end up, willingly or not, molding himself into whatever he feels he has to give away. When he asks for Wymack to take him in, when he makes the deal woth Andrew, when he wants Neil to believe in a future, when he drops all conctact with Thea, or Jean, after leaving the ravens. He feels like it's expected of him to be what others want to see him as and not what he wants to be. He can't be both of those things at once, so he is what they want or nothing at all. Just think of his attachment to the number two on his cheek and the meltdown that accompanied him, finally choosing to stand up for himself. To finally choose to come into his own identity.

That mechanism would lead from the beginning to him being very removed from his own wants in order to protect them. So, after a while, he would lose his sense of self. Which is funny, because that would lead to him having to relearn it through first finding the negative image of his preferences and his true self, like when capturing a scene in traditional photography.

As such, he is able to pinpoint everything he hates, dislikes, doesn't want and agree with - because they are an immediate danger. But that doesn't immediately lead him to finding what he likes, what he wants or what he is.

And this is where it gets interesting. This behaviour would also be responsible for him feeling very secretive about everything he does find that he likes and enjoys. For example history, if someone made it into a adressed thing, that he likes history, it would feel like he lost that interest, for the sole reason it's not just his anymore. You with me? Not in general, but in a personal relationship. That's why he is so annoyed at people not being good enough for his standards at exy but also not being excited at them caring or trying to meet them, only more and more critical even when he is totally having fun and excited about this.

The fact that even his interest in something like history could be demonized isba pretty common protection mechnaism. That's because when we shelter ourselves by pretending to not exist we are completely vulnerable when that illusion drops. It makes sense that he keeps everyone and everything at an arm's length with his cold and biting demeanour. Feeling like every person is a threat to who he is explains how screwed up almost all of his relationships are.

[writtenicarus]

AFTG Headcanon Series [4] Kevin

part 1, part 2, part 3 part 4, part 5

Okay first of all let's start off by saying this man is so much more then vodka and goddamn exy, seriously

The fandom and the foxes never take his trauma and issues seriously and it hurts me to the core so much

A year after he told Wymack he was his father he started getting him Father's Day cards, he was extremely embarrassed at first and ran away but Wymack found him after and hugged him

Eventually sees Bee about his drinking problems, he tries very hard to work on it but it's still quite tough and he relapses several times

Trials to call Jeremy and Jean once every two weeks to check in on them, see how they're doing, he's trying to build friendships

Still gets upset on both Riko's birthday and the anniversary of his death but, again, it's another thing he's working on

Is able to set boundaries with Andrew, he doesn't trust him as much as he used to after what happened on the bus trying to figure out where Neil was but he's at peace with it, he doesn't feel bad. Andrew fucked up, he's allowed to distance himself

Finds new friends that take the same classes as him

Starts truly coming out of the shell he was forced into throughout his teenage years and is able to discover who he is as a person

Gets really close with Neil by the end of Neil's second year at Palmetto and he values Neil's opinions on everything

Doodler!!! This man will absently draw on anything without noticing including the people around him

Doesn't like hugs from just anyone but if he does trust you will hug you for hours

Is not really the type to get sick but when he does he takes absolutely no time off to feel better, he just pushes himself until he breaks and moves on

Silently judges people whenever he leaves the house

Idk why but I could see him being really really interested in marine biology

Writes a book at some point in his life - whether it's about exy or whatever he does eventually and it does really well

Can tie his shoelaces at an alarming pace because he used to being forced onto the court as soon as possible, but also because he can't wait

I'd like to say he eventually Coaches his own team, but I don't think he would, I think he would play until he couldn't no longer and opt for a quieter life (perhaps pursuing marine biology)

Misses his mom oh so very much

Hates any form of hot drink unless it's extremely black coffee or tea with ONE sugar

Is trying to get out of the funk he's in when it comes to food, he is trying to learn that not all foods are bad and will kill him just because they're not fruit or vegetables

Afraid of dying and drowning (why he works so hard on being a strong swimmer)

Can't sleep fully in the dark, he got used to it early on but after being at Palmetto and getting used to the life around him, if he ever was put in a dark room it triggers a lot of flashbacks for him

Always helps Abby with dinner when the foxes go to her house, she will never be Kayleigh but he eventually sees her as a motherly figure

Overall, I think his recovery and development as a person starts with him realising he doesn't have to box himself up anymore

Part of why he cared so much for Exy was because it was all he had

Now he has so much more

[foxufortunes]

So like, I was having a moment thinking about how because exy is not actually central to the narrative of AFTG (again, I've talked before, although maybe deleted it by now, about how AFTG is not a sports drama but a drama contain sports, and this is the difference, not good or bad, just differences in genre) how little weight there is on the games themselves. And this is not me hating it's just musing I muse while writing fanfic. Like way Nora writes matches is fun, but there's not really any weight to them. Correct me if I'm wrong and I've missed, but I've reread the interactions with Ichirou and everything else, and I can't find anything saying there's an actual wager on the finals for Neil or Kevin or Jean. No matter how much we/they hate Riko, it's nothing. Riko doesn't die because he lost, he died because he made a fool of himself trying to kill Neil (and didn't cover up the other stuff well enough). The match was nothing but an excuse for Ichirou. An easy cover up as to why Riko suddenly lost it and ended his life. The game doesn't matter.

And this is a "problem" if you want to call it that (I don't think it's actually a problem unless Nora really did want it to be a straight sports drama, which I don't think she did), throughout in that there's no weight to the matches. This is why a lot of sports dramas plump for single elimination. And, if you want to focus more of the sport, like I sometimes do in my fics, this is where that becomes an issue. Take out the mafia and now the sport has to carry the weight. Now, there's a lot of pros and cons to a lot all the different tournament styles and and single elimination is rarer the more teams you have, single elim often faces readers going "yeah but they're not going to lose because they can't" while the opposite league play like AFTG has the opposite problem of "yeah, why does it matter if they lose?" And that is what happens in AFTG. The games are fun, but there's no weight on most of them. Even the first Ravens game. It doesn't matter. Aside from the Foxes pride, it's not the last game of the season and they needed the points. We don't even know how losing to the Ravens affected their standing in the league. We lost to the Ravens. Ok and? Not even the characters were bothered. There was no narrative weight. And that's what you need to make league play tense. Neil and Kevin and Wymack, and probably Dan, should constantly be aware of who's playing who, and what the ideal loss/win ratio is and what the point difference needs to be. My dad is a fan, and I am not, but he is constantly telling me which teams need to win and how much by to improve his teams standing and prepare them for later in the season. This is casual fan behaviour, Kevin and Neil should be all over that telling us who they need to beat and how much by so we can count what they need to get through. Whether the Foxes were going to make it to the championship or not wasn't a concern for me. It'd be like asking me to be tense about whether they're going to win or lose a match, but during the match no one is describing the match or telling you the score.

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 30

PREVIOUS

Ichirou Moriyama had long been someone Riko had spoken about and therefore someone Kevin knew of.

First reverently as he talked about how someday his brother would come for him and how he’d watch Riko’s games. Then Ichirou never showed up once and the anger set in and mentions of his brother would result in especially bad days.

Kevin’s only saving grace at the Nest near the end was that Ichirou had been as uninterested in him as he was in Riko.

Neil was the one who had handled any communications with the new Master of the Moriyama family and Kevin was grateful for that. His stomach still twists when he found out what it would cost him to have the closest thing he would ever really have to freedom since his mom’s car accident but Kevin could hardly fault Neil since Kevin has no idea if he would have been able to even open his mouth and speak to negotiate with Ichirou. He certainly wouldn’t have thought to bargain for Neil and Jean’s lives.

So he was going to make sure the Neil had the best possible chances to get on a great team not just because he had every faith that Neil could be on the national court but also Kevin wanted him on the national court. Neil was his partner and his friend.

This was his last year that he could help as directly as this so he and Neil were still putting in the hours in their evening practices. It was also the last year that Neil could rely on him to assist in getting everyone up to snuff.

Ichirou Moriyama was going to be stopping by at some point and Kevin had decided that the best way to handle this information was to focus on something life affirming.

“I’m just saying it isn’t an unknown flavor combination.” Kevin argues.

“Kevin there is something very different about vanilla protein powder in chicken stock and Chicken and Waffles.” Aaron says from his spot behind Kevin in Wymack’s car.

“There shouldn’t be! It’s all the same flavors, just liquid!” Kevin turns in his seat to point at Aaron, “You should put on your seatbelt, what if Wymack crashes?” He says for the third time since the car ride had begun.

“That’s my problem, not yours.” Aaron says and his eyes have been locked on the roof of the car since the car ride began which was rude but Kevin had learned to expect nothing less from a Minyard.

“It will be my problem when your corpse breaks my neck as you fly forward!” Kevin hisses.

“Coach, could you do me a favor-“

“I’m not going to crash the car.” Wymack interrupts eyes on the road and hands at 10 and 2.

“God forbid you do something nice for me.” Aaron gripes crossing his arms.

Kevin decides to change his target.

“Coach-“

“Kevin, you’re not putting any protein powder into Smith’s soup. That’s final. Do you want to mess up his Grandma’s hard work to follow the Doctor’s recipe exactly?” Wymack asks.

No.

No Kevin does not wish to mess up Grandma Smith’s hard work.

He just…

A Food pyramid flashes in his mind.

…thinks he knows more than the hospital dietician.

“It’s not that Smith’s Grandma made bad soup.” Kevin says because the woman was a talent in the kitchen even if she might use a bit too much butter. He’d let her know but Nicky refused to translate and she’d smiled so warmly at him and touched his face so gently… “I think she was led astray by bad science and Nicky wouldn’t translate for me.” He says, “If she understood English she would have understood and agreed with me.” He says because he did manage to get her finely chop a bunch of carrots to put into the pasta sauce so that Neil would get some veggies.

She was a reasonable woman who understood the importance of good nutrition.

“I don’t know about that.” Coach says and Kevin wonders what he means by that.

They’re close behind Andrew’s car and Kevin can see two parking spots next to one another near the front except Andrew pulls into the spots in a way that means it is almost impossible for anyone to get into the second spot unless they owned a tiny smart car.

Andrew often parks like that to make sure no one dings the Maserati.

“That little shit.” Wymack grumbles as he continues to drive.

“Aren’t you going to let us out at the entrance?” Kevin asks.

“Who am I, your driver?” Wymack grumbles and does not slow down to let them out  at the hospital entrance. “You’ve been bitching about not getting enough exercise and eating too much fat this weekend, consider this just some of the exercise you’ve been wanting.” He says.

Kevin leans back in the chair.

He does NOT pout. He merely frowns with his lips puffed out and feels as if he has been treated unfairly.

He uses this time wisely.

He thinks about Neil and Andrew’s ‘secret’ conversation.

Kevin still doesn’t know Russian, has no plans to learn it because he does not want to know 80% of what Neil and Andrew say to one another, but Kevin has always been great at understanding tone and it’s not that hard to understand that they were talking about FF when he ‘Kapitan Neil’.

He thinks about what might stress Neil out about FF (never once does he consider that FF being in the hospital with a stab wound may be the thing that stresses Neil out, not when there’s an explanation that involves Exy).

FF might choose to leave.

That would not bode well for Neil.

Kevin has already signed but Neil needs the next few years still to make sure he can follow through on his deal with Ichirou.

FF is a great defensive dealer.

Kevin still doesn’t really understand how he can seemingly just appear on the Court to intercept passes but Kevin has been informed that all of his plans to figure it out are ‘medically unethical’ and ‘likely to get him thrown in prison’.

Nicky patting his face pityingly and saying, “Your face is too pretty for prison.” had been when he stopped looking at how he could buy electrodes.

His follow-up search to find out that no prison in the United States currently had an Exy court as a facility had him drop the outline of his research into his recycle bin and right click to delete permanently.

Since Kevin cannot find a way to replicate that particular talent of FF’s then they just need FF to stay.

He also quite likes the steady freshman. He’s probably not ever going to be National Court level like he and Neil are, but he would be a solid Dealer on a good team. Kevin wouldn’t even mind playing with him professionally.

They park the car far in the back of the lot and Wymack grumbles at a different nice car that is taking up two spots. Kevin climbs out of the car and they start their way towards the hospital.

Kevin considers jogging in circles around Aaron and Wymack as they walk just to burn off more of the lunch they’d just had but decides against it.

Maybe a different nutritionist will be on staff today and will be able to back Kevin up on his plan.

***

Captain Neil and Andrew are quickly followed by Nicky and his Grandma both of whom look nervous but some of that seemed to dissipate when they saw him.

“Are you okay?” Captain Neil asks.

FF goes to open his mouth but a nurse interrupts, “He decided to go on a walk in his current condition. I thought we were quite clear that you needed to stay in bed. Stressing yourself is why you collapsed in the Cafeteria like that.” His main nurse chastises.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again.” FF promises because it won’t. He’s planning on asking for a medically induced coma to escape the consequences of his actions so leaving the bed is the last thing he’s going to do. His dad’s trust for him can have money taken out for his medical needs and there has never been a greater medical need in his entire life than right now.

“What happened?” Andrew demands stepping next to Neil.

How does one explain getting a job offer from the Yakuza (Yakuza or Mafia)?

“I wanted to go for a walk.” He answers because he had and that’s easier to explain.

“Why did you meet Ichirou Moriyama?” Andrew asks again in German.

Well dammit.

FF finds himself at a crossroads.

Does he tell the truth? That he’s an idiot and didn’t realize the man was reaching out to Captain Neil? That he went and had an entire conversation with the man who owns Captain Neil, Kevin, and Jean Moreau? That afterward he tried to stand up and fainted which is how he got taken back to his room?

He thinks he has enough lies going on between his own and his grandma’s and he needs to relay something from Ichirou Moriyama.

“Lord Moriyama wanted me to tell you that he no longer needed to speak with you Captain Neil.” He relays just like he said he would and he sees Captain Neil tense.

“Smith.” Andrew says his name.

He also doesn’t want to talk about it any further.

“I’m fine, but I don’t want to talk about it.” FF closes his eyes as he answers back in German. He feels exhausted now and wishes that he had just requested a coma earlier so that he wouldn’t be in this situation. “Captain Neil, you left your phone here and it’s been pinging. Sorry I read one of the texts.” He gestures vaguely to his side table.

None of his guests speak for the next few minutes as the nurses finish reminding him to stay still, that he’s lucky his stitches didn’t break, that he’s on thin ice. He’s tired and he’s hungry so he’s curt with them in a way he’ll regret later but right now it’s just a lot when he can still feel Captain Neil and Andrew’s eyes burning into him.

Then Nicky proves to continue to be the nicest friend he has when the nurses leave and he feels Nicky’s hand take his and squeeze. “Hey, how are you really feeling?” he asks.

FF takes a deep breath, “I have...no idea.” he says. “I’m sorry.” he adds.

Nicky squeezes his hand again, “Hey, Aras made you some soup and we kept it away from Kevin. You’re probably a lil’ cranky because you’re tired, hungry, and in pain. You don’t need to talk about it right now okay?” Nicky says.

He’s really lucky to have Nicky as his friend.

He squeezes Nicky’s hand back and valiantly does not cry. He squeezes his eyes tighter to keep them from slipping out, it’d be embarrassing to cry here like this.

“Thank you.” He says voice quiet but doesn’t open his eyes, knowing what will come out if he does.

His Grandma comes to his side again and strokes his face. Her fingers wipe away the few tears that did slip out despite his best efforts but he thinks she did it so casually that maybe no one noticed.

It hasn’t been a good day, but Grandma’s soup has always been something that makes him feel better. He just wishes he could be alone for a minute with just her to witness the next few minutes.

Nicky, bless him, must sense that because he squeezes his hand tightly before letting go, “C’mon, let’s give Smithy and Aras a moment okay?” He says.

FF doesn’t open his eyes until his Grandma whispers, “My little Rotisserie Chicken, they’ve stepped out.” She says.

“He offered me a job in the Yakuza.” He blubbers immediately. “I don’t even know if they have dental.” He spills one of his lesser concerns.

“Oh honey, let’s eat some soup.” She soothes stroking his face.

***

Neil feels bad.

FF was pale, shaking, sweaty, and despite his grandma’s best efforts Neil had seen a tear slip from his tightly closed eyes.

He looks to his side and sees Andrew’s own hands tightened into fists.

“C’mon, let’s give Smithy and Aras a moment okay?” Nicky says and drags them out of the room through the sheer force of his ire. It’s moment like this that Neil really does understand why it is that FF prefers to spend his free time with Nicky over any other of their group.

They get out of the room and down the hall before Nicky starts in. “You two are the KINGS of not talking about shit so, for now, LEAVE it.” He hisses in German in a bid to keep the conversation private from anyone walking past.

“We need to know what deal he and Ichirou came to.” Andrew says in the same language.

“You’re going to find that out from Ichirou probably once he crazy murders Romero and Jackson in the next couple days!” Nicky cries dramatically, “Smithy probably doesn’t even know the full details because he’s in a lot of pain because he’s been STABBED.” Nicky points a finger at Andrew but wisely does not poke him with it. “Do you think he ACTUALLY went on a walk? Ichirou’s men probably took him since they couldn’t find YOU Neil.” Nicky points at Neil and, again, wisely does not poke him with it.

Neil’s stomach twists.

Maybe Neil should invest in a phone clip like Wymack thought the implication that the Moriyamas came to where his phone was leaves him wanting to skip it like a stone straight into the ocean. Too bad going to a beach still makes his palms sweaty.

“So what WE are going to do,” Nicky does a quick circle to point at the three of them, “is we are going to be good friends and help Smithy because he’s stressed, in pain, and needs friends not INTERROGATORS.” Nicky waves his arms in exasperation.

“Who are Neil and Andrew interrogating?” Aaron asks and Neil looks to the side to see Aaron with Kevin being pulled along by the scruff by Wymack.

“Smithy.” Nicky says.

“Why?” Kevin asks.

“Because Ichirou came and talked to him.” Andrew explains.

Kevin goes pale. “Why? I thought he was going to talk with Neil?” Kevin asks looking at Neil.

“He probably came here following Neil’s phone, which he left. So he grabbed Smithy to talk to him.” Nicky says, “Ichirou seemed impressed and pleased with whatever they talked about but Smithy is a little fragile after all of this so,” Nicky stepped into Kevin’s space, “Leave.” He pokes Kevin’s chest once, “Him.” He pokes Kevin’s chest twice, “Alone.” He pokes Kevin’s chest a third time.

“How would he even have an understanding of who he’s talking to?” Kevin asks looking sick. “No one has mentioned anything about the whole thing with the Moriyamas right?” He looks at the rest of them and Neil knows none of them would mention it.

Nicky rolls his eyes with his entire body.

“Kevin, do you know how many languages Smithy is fluent in?” Nicky asks.

“Uh…quite a few?” Kevin responds looking thrown.

“Yeah, one of those languages is French. Which you KNOW because he’s corrected your pronunciation before.” Nicky reminds Kevin and the Son of Exy blushes slightly.

“What does that have to do with this?!” Kevin squawks.

“Kevin, how many conversations have you had RIGHT in front of Smithy in French as you talked with Jean?” Nicky asks.

“None!” Kevin hisses.

“Can you say that for sure? You know how it can be with Smithy. Aaron over here has basically almost fucked his girlfriend in front of Smithy before because he didn’t realize he was there.” He juts his thumb towards Aaron.

“Hey.” Aaron scowls not happy to be reminded of that. “He needs a damn bell.” Aaron grumbles.

“I’ve talked about it in front of him and you never told us?!” Kevin exclaims.

“It’s Smithy! He’s not going to tell anyone!”  Nicky argues.

Which is very true.

FF is just not that kind of guy.

“So we are ALL going to be good, supportive friends to Smithy and hopefully he gets out of here today despite the whole shit show with Ichirou and we get him back to Abby’s where he can rest up in her guest room with his grandma.” He points at each of them with a frown.

“But-“

“Kevin, leave it for now.” Wymack finally steps in to the conversation. “How’s he looking?” He looks to Neil.

Pale, tired, pained, and trying not to cry either from pain, stress, or fear Neil does not know.

“Bad.” Neil answers.

Wymack sighs, “Stay out here. I’m going to go check.” He says.

They watch as Wymack enters into FF’s room.

Kevin is still spiraling from the realization of all the different conversations he could have possibly had in front of FF thinking French would act as a barrier.

A thought crosses Neil’s mind, “Wait, Smith doesn’t know Russian right?” He looks to Andrew because he and Andrew have said quite a few things to one another when FF was there.

“No, he said he isn’t learning it here.” Andrew shakes his head. “Even if he does learn it Smith would just leave if he was uncomfortable.” Andrew shrugs.

They have all seen a ‘Smith 180°™‘ before when he’s walked in and has seen Aaron and Katelyn or entered a room where Nicky was talking to Erik or Matt was talking to Dan. Neil has even noticed one or two when him and Andrew may have been in a less than private place.

It was nice to have someone who would just see them like that and leave it alone instead of betting on it, trying to take a picture, or gagging like it’s disgusting.

Wymack walks back out after a minute in FF’s hospital room, “Let’s give Smith and his Grandma a couple more minutes.” He says and Neil’s heart sinks.

***

Wymack wasn’t quite sure what he walked into.

Smith’s Grandma was wiping his face and feeding him soup which is about what he expected. What he hadn’t expected was what FF was saying to his Grandma.

“….didn’t even wash his hands Gran. What if none of them wash their hands? I can’t work in that kind of environment!” FF babbles as he takes another spoonful of soup from his Grandma.

Smith’s Grandma looks up and sees that it’s just him at the door before continuing in English, “Sweetie, you don’t need to accept the job offer from the Yakuza.” She soothes.

“What do I even do?! What’s the etiquette? Do I send a letter refusing the job offer? Do I email him thanking him for the interview? Was it an interview?” FF asks.

Wymack shuts the door and he’s sure FF hadn’t even noticed him.

Yeah the kid needs a couple more minutes

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

NEXT

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