Chapter Text
Andrew hated lots of things.
Heights.
Stickball.
The Junkie, with a passion.
Getting phone calls from his brother because the Junkie had managed to get himself shot and was hospitalized.
The last one really topped the list.
He grabbed some paperwork and dragged Kevin out of the shower and into the car. And floored it out of the stadium parking lot. He wouldn’t wait until the next day to see the rabbit. Couldn’t.
Nicky and Aaron were being useful for once and kept him updated with messages Kevin read to him from the passenger seat. The man was openly panicking where Andrew was keeping his own emotions under tight control.
His knuckles were white around the steering wheel. His foot hadn’t yet let up on the gas pedal.
Fucking Josten. Shit. How even?
Stupid idiot.
Andrew couldn’t wait to get his hands on him to make sure he was as okay as his brother and cousin were trying to convince him over the phone.
He cut the drive short by an hour and a half. Record time, yet it still didn’t feel like enough.
The hours spent on the road were barely enough to get the gist of the Junkie’s latest act of brain damage.
He’d gone on a run, alone. Had gotten jumped by some guy who was a very bad shot.
Had gotten shot nonetheless.
Had bitten his attacker in defense and gotten a gun to the head.
Had knocked the guy out despite being injured.
Hadn’t called for help because his phone had somehow also gotten shot during the fight. Went back to the hotel. Taped his wound shut. Went out to dinner with the rest of the Foxes because the hotel had shit reception and he needed to watch Andrew’s game.
Watched the first half of the game and asked Aaron to stitch him up in the restaurant bathroom during half time.
Aaron refused. They drove him to the hospital. End of story.
Andrew was attracted to idiots. One idiot. The biggest of them all.
He had both amazing and horrible taste in men. In man, really.
Kevin was through the door first when they finally arrived, got himself a head start while Andrew left the car in a way that an alien who’d never seen or driven a car might understand as parking.
It was luck. Pure chance, the way his eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar black car with a familiar license plate. The number registered only after he’d already stormed past, and he doubled back, glad he’d never stopped carrying knifes.
Browning’s car thus handled, he continued into the hospital. They’d caught Kevin at the triage, were refusing access because visiting hours were over and only immediate family and blah blah blah.
“Shut up,” Andrew told the nurse manning the station, waving the papers he had with him in her face. They were only missing a yes. And a signature. “Neil Josten. Now.”
The woman looked tired. Not exhausted, even though it was the middle of the night.
No, Andrew knew that kind of tired. It was the kind of tired one got from wrangling an entire circus.
Or a single rabbit.
They got waved through. Andrew followed the instructions Aaron had sent him, but those got unnecessary after some time.
He just had to follow the trail of Foxes.
Nicky and Erik, slumped into seats in a waiting area.
Renee and Allison by a coffee machine, one waving and one flipping him off when they caught sight of him.
Matt, walking down one hallway with a heavily pregnant Dan. Both grinning when they saw him and Kevin rushing past.
It did offer some sort of relief, seeing them all relaxed. They wouldn’t be, if the Junkie had been seriously hurt.
Still. Andrew needed to see it with his own eyes.
Aaron was waiting outside the Junkie’s room, wearing the same expression the nurse at the front desk had.
“You,” he snapped in greeting. “I can’t fucking wait for you to take him off my hands. I can’t deal with his shit any longer.”
“I’m working on it,” Andrew snapped right back, trying to push past him through the door.
Aaron blocked his way and snatched the papers out of his hold, scanning them with a quick glance. His expression went surprised, then smug, then both of that with an added pinch of scowl.
Andrew did not have the patience to deal with his brother’s complicated expression, and Aaron was quick to hand the forms back. “I still get him on the weekends,” he demanded, which could’ve been hilarious if Andrew hadn’t been about to murder him for standing in his way.
Aaron must’ve picked up on his mood – maybe twin telepathy was real after all. He finally stepped aside. “Hey. He’s okay. Just stupid.”
“That’s not curable,” Kevin said, and pushed both of them aside to march first into the room. He didn’t bother lowering his voice to adhere to hospital customs. “Josten!” he bellowed. “Can you run?!”
Andrew follow him into the room. And there he was.
Not in bed, of course, and not in a hospital gown or anything. The Junkie was perched on a small couch next to Katelyn, who threw her arms in the air and gave up on the sermon she’d been holding when she realized his attention was out the window.
He was wearing sunglasses that Andrew would have to burn to make up for how ugly they were, and a hoodie that Andrew was pretty sure was his own and that Josten somehow still managed to look homeless in.
He was grinning, and Andrew almost forgot how to breathe.
The fucker got more beautiful every day.
Andrew had thought he just needed to get used to it, in the beginning. The eyes and the smile and everything else. But the Josten effect never lessened.
The Josten effect got stronger, if anything.
“Of course I can run,” Josten scoffed, then made to stand up from the sofa. “In fact, I’ll outrun you right now.”
Katelyn pushed him back into the cushions.
“Is he on pain meds?” Kevin asked her.
She shook her head. “No. Just stupid.” She pointed a threatening finger at Josten’s face. “You’re concussed, moron. No running. Two weeks, at least.”
“I’m barely concussed.” Josten slapped her hand away. “Yo, Kevin. The hell happened in last quarter? Did your mind take a leave of absence or did you suddenly decide to forget everything you know about playing?”
Kevin assumed the posture of the righteous. “The defense line was-”
“Shit and you fucking know it. You got Richards. Richards, Kevin. How did you not manage to shake that fossil off?”
Andrew saw that Kevin was gearing up for more, easily provoked fool that he was. The Josten effect was different for him, and had also only managed to strengthen with time.
He finally decided enough was enough and pushed past the tall idiot. The Junkie’s eyes fell on him, and his entire demeanor changed.
His body relaxed. The fight bled out of him. His grin became a smile, became soft, and honest.
“Hey Drew,” he said, and leaned into him when Andrew was close enough to touch the side of his face. “Missed you.”
“Mhm.” He leaned down to press a kiss into the bird’s nest of curls on top of the rabbit’s head, uncaring that Kevin and Katelyn were both still there, still watching. Fuck them. “Think you can miss me without getting shot next time?”
“I was grazed. Barely,” his idiot exclaimed, but quietened when he noticed Andrew’s expression. He grabbed Andrew’s hand, pulled it away from his face only far enough to press a kiss into his palm. “I’m sorry.”
Andrew allowed the tension that’d been knotting up his insides since after the game to bleed out of his body with his next exhale.
The Junkie was here.
The Junkie was safe.
“Who was it?”
“Not sure, but he knew my name.”
The five second reprieve had been nice. The tension was back immediately.
“You think he was-”
“No.” The rabbit cut him off with a shake of his head. “No, I don’t think it’s anyone from before. There’s no one left.” His eyes were steel. Andrew couldn’t help but believe him. “Just some guy. Too incompetent for organized crime. Maybe he jumped me and recognized me by chance or something.”
“Why would he jump you?”
Josten threw Kevin a disgusted look for that question. “Why does anybody jump anyone? Money.”
“No, I mean why would he jump you,” Kevin corrected. “Nobody with a pair of functioning eyes would think you have money.”
Josten’s expression turned nasty. Andrew put a hand on the nape of his neck, and he mellowed right back out. “Anyways, Browing’s here. For no reason. He’s being annoying. Tried to interrogate me, but Aaron keeps turning him away.”
Andrew gave a noncommittal hum. “Yeah. I saw his car.”
The Junkie’s eyes widened. “Did you…”
Andrew shot him a wink – which he would deny until his deathbed had ever happened but fucking hell he was weak for his rabbit – and Josten’s entire face lit up in joy.
“I love you,” he breathed into the space between them, and Andrew had heard it before, more than once, but his heart still decided to go off rhythm for a few beats.
“About that…” He unrolled the paperwork he’d brought, and Josten’s eyes latched onto the words on the first page, visibly buffing for a moment before he blinked, once, twice, then glanced up at Andrew, speechless. “I didn’t expect them to annoy the hospital into submission.” He waved the papers around a bit, pretending to be calm about it even thought the shape of the rabbit’s eyes told him it was a lost battle. “It was a precaution, but…”
“Yes,” Josten said. Calm. Steady. Certain.
Happy.
“Yes?”
“Yeah. Were do I sign?” He made grabby hands at Katelyn, who handed him a pen from the bedside table and pretended she wasn’t trying to read the papers over his shoulder.
Kevin had no such reservations. “What are you doing? Was is- You’re getting married?” he shrieked, right into Andrew’s ear.
Katelyn dropped the pen from surprise, right into Josten’s waiting hands. “Would you mind giving us a moment?” he asked, sweet as anything, and fluttered his eyelashes. Katelyn nodded dazedly and left. Kevin stood frozen.
“Do we need a witness or something?”
“No.” Andrew’s heart was going to beat right out of his chest. His head felt light. “That part comes later.”
The rabbit nodded. “Go, then.” He shooed Kevin away. “Spread the word. Go work on your aim or something.”
Andrew dropped into the space Katelyn had vacated as soon as it was just the two of them. “Really?”
He hadn’t expected a yes. He hadn’t expected a no either, not really, but…
Josten’s eyes crinkled with joy. “Yes, Andrew. Always.” He bit his lip, mouth twitching. “I bought a ring. The day after we met.”
There was no ground and no ceiling and no hospital and not a single other person on the entire planet.
There was only Neil Josten.
“I did too,” he admitted. It was sitting in his sock drawer at home. He hadn’t brought it, because every minute had counter after reading Aaron's message.
“Perfect,” Josten said, and signed his name at the bottom of the paper.