Neil Actually Cleaned Out His Cuts And Burns After Lola Tortured Him??? While He Still Thought He Was

no fucking wonder mary never let neil make any friends on the run. for someone whose survival depended on anonymity and being anyone but himself, he was absolutely horrible at hiding any aspect of his personality for longer than 2 seconds of actual human interaction

same energy as “i can walk” “proud of you, didn’t ask”

I thought of this interaction whilst shopping today & laughed out loud in the dairy aisle.

neil josten’s favourite place to sit is the floor. i will die on this hill

so you're telling me that nicky, a bad gay driver, was driven around by andrew, a bad gay driver, and he still... didn't realize that andrew was gay af?? nicky c'mon

andrew “stood with his back to the car, one arm propped on the hood and the other draped along the top of his door” (tkm, ch. 1) and i stg andrew bought a low expensive car simply for the Aesthetic and the Drama, you can’t convince me otherwise

when neil ditched kevin to go sit with andrew on the bus and matt held kevin back, it’s 100% because matt was rooting for the tiny terrors to get together (and yes they were already “not-a-this” at this point but matt didn’t know that)

andreil! i’m thinking of maybe digitalizing these two and adding them to my redbubble shop, but i’m not sure yet. i hope you enjoy!

aftg but every time the foxes travel anywhere, Medicated Andrew™ sings “the wheels on the bus” nonstop until he passes out

okay uhhhh describe what neil looks like in your head (hair, if he has freckles, is he pale? etc.)

omg thank you for reading my tags and sending this ask hahah ily anon <3 okay so for me, neil has like wavy wiry hair and it’s a dark red/auburn, he has faint freckles but he wears hoods and so many layers that he doesn’t have a ton bc he’s protected from the sun, his eyes are just slightly too calculating and make him v intimidating (esp without the contacts), and he’s definitely pale - i get people wanting him to be tan but like,, have you ever seen a redhead tan?? nope! me neither! bc they burn and/or freckle (so i guess i picture him w extra freckles in the summer then too)

so i'm currently consuming only orange food (on accident) and my mind just decided this needed to happen so consider this:

it's neil's sophomore year and they've managed to make it to championships again

this year it's a home game, so they don't have to travel anywhere

enter neil

it's the morning of the game, and as he pulls an orange from their fruit bowl he gets an idea

how much orange food do you think can he eat before the game?

he tells no one, but eventually they all catch on

the foxes were never one for superstition or pre-game rituals

the closest they got was tapping the "riko racquet" before each game

but suddenly it's like they're on a mission

that first year it's mostly neil, but after he scores the winning shot of the game it's cemented in the team forever

the next year almost all of them join in, going to every length to keep it orange

neil buys orange ice cream and special orders all orange m&m's to try and get andrew to join, to no avail

his junior year he stops to pick up coffee (the one thing they agreed to allow, though they usually shoot for orange mugs) when he has an idea

"do you think you could make an orange coffee"

the barista: 👁👁 can i what now

turns out they can

when neil shows up at the dorms with orange coffee for everyone andrew has never been so close to murdering him

nicky all but loses his mind when he sees the tray

matt very excitedly adds it to their running list of orange foods held to the fridge with a fox magnet

when neil graduates allison frames it and they hang it next to the trophy stand

by his senior year andrew still outright refuses to join in

until it's his last college championship game

neil comes home from his run early and flips on the kitchen light to find him on top of the counter

3/4ths of the way through a pumpkin pie, orange whipped cream and all

and halfway through a two liter of orange crush

they both freeze

for a long moment nothing is said

a clock's ticks echo through the room

neil grins, "don't believe in superstition, huh?"

"shut up, junkie"

"i'm not the one devouring an all orange pie like a gremlin right now"

"i will kill you"

"you'd have to put down the pie first"

eventually he does, in favor of a very different pre-game ritual