Chapter Text
Eventually, winter break ends and Neil has to head back to Palmetto.
“Halfway there,” he says into Andrew’s shoulder as they hug over the center console before Neil gets out of the car. Only a few more months until graduation, and then—hopefully—they’ll have the whole summer to themselves. Neil still doesn’t know what will come after that or where he’ll end up signing, but he fuels himself with the thought of those months he’ll have together with Andrew.
“Halfway there,” Andrew repeats, his voice even. Neil feels some of the tension drain from his shoulders, reassured by Andrew and how steadfast he is, how he’s always Neil’s port in a storm.
Eventually, Neil forces himself to untangle himself from Andrew and get out of the car. It feels more difficult than it did just a few short months ago at Thanksgiving.
He’s exhausted by the time his flight lands and he gets back to Palmetto a few hours later, and though his little dormitory mattress is far too small and doesn’t smell like Andrew at all, he crashes almost immediately. It’s when he wakes up in the morning that he forces himself to unpack his luggage—he knows that if he doesn’t do it then, he’ll be living out of it just like he used to live out of his duffle bag before he joined the Foxes.
(He knows enough now, through hard attempts at growing and healing and more than one lecture from his family, to know that that’s probably not the healthiest mentality to live with.)
He’s tossing his little matched bundles of socks from his suitcase to a drawer when he feels something unusual tucked inside one. With a furrowed brow, he unfolds the socks.
He immediately cracks a smile, his mood boosted tenfold. This is clearly Andrew’s doing—in Neil’s hands is a little Lego-like replication of his boyfriend all decked out in his home kit goalie gear, an unimpressed expression on his tiny face.
Neil fiddles with the toy, waving Andrew’s arm with his exy racquet up and down and checking the range of motion.
He grabs his phone from where it’s tangled up in his sheets just to text Andrew.
Andrew doesn’t dignify Neil’s last text with a response, but that’s alright. Neil doesn’t miss Andrew quite as badly knowing he’ll be able to carry around a little piece of Andrew with him.