Chapter Text
The summer holidays are creeping closer, and Andrew can’t wait. Usually, they spend a few weeks at the beach, but since the baby is due in June, they’re staying home this year. Mom and Dad offered them to send them to summer camp, but Aaron, the baby, has a bit of a hard time staying somewhere without Mom, and Andrew, if he’s honest, doesn’t want to risk not being there when their sister is born.
Mom is huge now, and she can’t even tie her own shoelaces anymore, and Dad does all of the chores around the house, and so are Aaron and Andrew, but it’s not such a big deal because Mom literally can’t do much but lie around.
Last weekend, Dad roped them into painting the baby’s room which used to be Dad’s office, and Andrew called up Neil to help. Neil suggested painting a bunch of stars above where the crib is going to be, and it ended up looking really nice, nice enough for Mom to gasp “Oh! How beautiful!” and hug Neil to her side after waddling into the room.
Things with Neil are normal. As normal as they can be, actually, even though Andrew finds himself fighting off thoughts about Neil that are a lot more than just friendly on the regular.
Damn hormones.
The last few years, Neil actually came with them on vacation, but since they’re not going this year, Stuart is taking him to Europe.
“Are you excited to go?”, Andrew asks one afternoon when they sit outside in the backyard with iced tea and cookies, Monster begging for crumbs by pushing her snout against Andrew’s leg repeatedly.
Neil shrugs. “Kinda? I mean, London is supposed to be pretty cool.”
“You’re gonna come back and talk funny.”, Andrew smirks. Neil answers with a grin and a shove against Andrew’s shoulder that makes him spill a little bit of tea over Monster’s snout. They dissolve into laughter as she first sneezes and then runs her long tongue over her nose in irritation.
When they’ve calmed down again, Neil leans back onto his hands and stares up into the blue sky.
“Five weeks is real long, though.”, he says, and then, after a glance to Andrew, “I’ll miss you.”
Andrew feels like that one time when Kevin accidentally hit him into the chest with a particularly hard shot. He holds his breath for a second, and then just says “Eww.”, but in a way he knows Neil understands as ‘I’ll miss you too’.
“I’ll send you a post card from every city we go to!”, Neil promises, voice full of smile, “And I’ll text you every day. Okay? And if your sister is born before I come back, you need to send a picture.”
Andrew just nods and takes a big gulp of iced tea. To be honest, there’s no-one he would like to share that with more than Neil. He can’t say that, but it’s okay because he knows that Neil probably knows.
“You need to promise, Drew.”
Neil sticks out his hand, and the expression on his face is serious.
Andrew rolls his eyes, but takes Neil’s hand, and they shake. “I promise.”
Neil’s serious frown relaxes into a smile, and then, before Andrew can do anything about it, Neil uses Andrew’s hand to pull himself closer to Andrew and place his head on his shoulder.
-
The last few weeks of school fly by like the wind, and then, Andrew is holding his report card in hand and walking out of the school building for the last time this school year.
His grades are fine (not as good as Aaron’s, but whatever), and the freedom of summer makes him feel light and good. Neil leaving tomorrow morning is kind of a bummer, but right now, he’s gonna ignore than in favor of the pizza party Coach is throwing for them tonight, and the weeks of freedom that lie ahead.
-
“Andrew? Do you wanna stay overnight at my place tonight?”
They’re relaxing on the Minyard’s sofa, watching cartoons because it’s too damn hot to go outside.
When Andrew, shocked for a second, doesn’t react immediately, Neil turns to him, his blue eyes big. “I bet Stuart would allow it! And you could ask your mom right now… I mean I’ll be gone for the entire summer… so… they won’t say no for sure, right?”
“Right.”, Andrew manages.
It’s not like him and Neil have never stayed over at each other’s places. But somehow, it feels a little different right now.
He can see Aaron is looking at him from the other end of the sofa with the most shit-eating smirk ever.
“Yeah, I’ll ask mom when she wakes up from her nap.”, Andrew replies. Neil gives him a smile and leans back on the sofa, stretching.
Andrew catches Aaron’s eyes, and then kicks him as hard as he can without alerting Neil, which is pretty hard.
The painful wince on Aaron’s face is just a small satisfaction, though.
-
Mom says yes.
Throughout the entire pizza party, Andrew feels way more giddy than a pizza party justifies, but he doesn’t want to think about it too much.
They do have fun. Coach tells them all to be good during the summer, and to show up to as many trainings as they can. Andrew knows it pains Neil that he won’t be able to be on Court for five entire weeks.
Him and Kevin and the others make plans to meet at the pool a lot and to just hang out, which, Andrew knows, is only going to be half as fun without Neil, but he also knows he can’t stay in his room and sulk the entire summer.
When they’re leaving, Kevin actually hugs Neil a little awkwardly, and Coach claps him on the back, and then Stuart picks them up in his Mercedes (which, in Andrew’ opinion, is way cooler than Mom’s and Dad’s Subaru).
Neil keeps giving him excited smiles throughout the entire drive, and they make Andrew’s heart beat faster.
Andrew still needs to go get his pyjamas and his toothbrush from home when they arrive, and so he follows Aaron to their house.
Aaron waits until he has enough of a headstart on Andrew on the stairs up to their rooms, and then turns around.
“Have fun smooching Neil!”, he tells Andrew, and then he’s already running, a furiously blushing Andrew on his heels.
Aaron manages to slip into his room and slam the door shut just in time before Andrew gets to him, but Andrew swears he’s going to make him pay for that tomorrow.
“Fuck you!”, he yells through the door. From downstairs, Dad shouts “Language!”, voice muffled by the living room door.
Inside his room, Aaron makes kissy noises.
Andrew swears it to himself in that moment: when Aaron has his first girlfriend, his life is going to be living hell.
-
Neil waits for him on the front porch, having already changed into pyjamas, looking ruffled and a little tired and… cute.
They’ve already established they they’ll have to go straight to bed, because Neil needs to be up at 6 tomorrow to drive to the airport, and so they make their way up to Neil’s room after saying good night to Stuart who’s in the living room, watching some strange french movie.
Neil’s room is really nice. It’s not as neat as Andrew’s, but it’s really big and Neil put up all sorts of posters and paintings he made. Photos, too. Right by Neil’s bed, there’s one of their team from back when they were in little league, him and Andrew arm in arm, smiling after a victory, faces still red and sweaty.
They decide to just pull Neil’s mattress off the bed frame and put it next to the spare mattress Andrew is going to sleep on.
Andrew lies down, feeling his heart beat into his throat, and Neil, after switching off the lights, crawls in under the covers next to him.
For a moment, they’re both quiet.
Neil likes to sleep with the blinds open, and so the light from the street lamp outside paints the walls in low, orange light.
Andrew follows the pattern it makes with his eyes.
He hears the sheets rustle as Neil turns to his side, facing Andrew.
“Drew?”, he asks into the silence between them.
Andrew slowly turns his head, even though he’s not quite sure if he can manage to look at Neil right now.
“Yeah?”
“...can you promise me again that we’ll stay in contact while I’m away?”
Neil’s braces reflect the light as he talks.
“...of course.” Andrew turns all the way to his side, too, like Neil did before, and now they’re properly facing each other and Neil is real close, and Andrew is kind of embarrassed to admit but right now his blood is… not rushing to his head.
Neil nods a little. His eyes dart across Andrew’s face.
Andrew can see that something is going on inside Neil’s head, and oh, fuck, he really wishes it was the same thing that’s going on in his own.
“...can we cuddle?”
The question throws Andrew so hard that he doesn’t know what to say for a moment, and so he just nods.
Neil scoots closer, grabbing Andrew’s arm and maneuvering it around himself, and then he curls his head in a bit and fits his face right below Andrew’s chin. Andrew can feels Neil’s breath on his chest now, warm and a little humid, and Andrew hopes he can’t hear how fast his heart is beating. Neil’s curls tickle his cheek and his nose and Andrew can smell Neil’s shampoo, and a little bit of sweat.
He’s so hard that he has to scoot back his hips to prevent Neil from brushing against his boner before he wraps his arm around Neil properly.
“Good night, Drew.” Neil’s voice is muffled against Andrew’s t-shirt.
“Good night.”, Andrew replies, voice cracking.
He lies awake for over an hour, listening to Neil’s breath slowly evening out, before sleep overtakes him, too.
-
The alarm clock is way too loud and comes way too early the next morning. Andrew startles awake, but is held back from sitting up in bed by a weight on his arm: Neil.
He must have turned around during the night, because Neil’s back is to him, now, which means they were spooning, which is definitely something Andrew should NOT think about too hard right now because of obvious reasons.
Neil, too, wakes, but slower than Andrew. Andrew can see him starting to stir, then stretch, then slowly open his eyes.
He looks as grumpy as Andrew feels.
“Ugggggggggghhhhh…”, he groans, throwing an arm over his eyes as Andrew reaches for the phone to turn the alarm off.
From outside Neil’s door, they hear Stuart’s footsteps, and then a knock at the door. “Wakey wakey! Get decent, the taxi is arriving in 15 minutes!”
Neil answers with another groan, but actually sits up, only to collapse against Andrew’s side again.
Andrew feels really, really courageous when he wraps his arms around Neil. “Come on. Your flight…”
He really doesn’t want Neil to go, and so they sit like this for at least 5 minutes, and then they end up having to rush to get dressed- well, Neil does. Andrew stays in his PJs, since he’s definitely going back to bed once he’s home (also that gives him time to calm down a certain overly excitable body part of his, so there’s that).
And then it’s time to say goodbye.
Stuart is already loading their suitcases into the taxi, and they’re standing by the front porch.
“Guess it’s time to go for you.”, Andrew says, trying to sound like he doesn’t care as much as he does.
Neil sighs, turning to him. “I guess.”
“Enjoy fucking up Europe.”, Andrew tells him and it comes out real soft and mushy.
Neil gives him a lopsided grin.
“Dunk Kevin a few times for me at the pool, yeah?”
“Promised.”
From the taxi, Stuart yells, “Neil!”, startling them both.
“Go.”, Andrew tells Neil.
Neil takes a step forward but immediately turns back around. “I’ll miss you.”
And for the first time, Andrew says “I’ll miss you too.” instead of something stupid.
“Neil! Come on!”, Stuart yells again.
“Good-bye, Neil.”, Andrew says.
And then, faster than Andrew can look, Neil rushes forward and presses a kiss to his cheek before running off towards the taxi, yelling “Bye, Drew!” and jumping into the taxi.
As they drive off, Neil waving furiously from the back seat, Andrew stands there, in the Hatford’s front yard, stunned, waving back mechanically.
The taxi turns around the corner at the end of the street.
Andrew’s hand sinks, fingers brushing against his cheeks where Neil’s kiss still burns on his skin.