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{Andrew}
When Andrew thought of this one particular woman, he couldn't help the way his blood was suddenly set to boil. It was one of the rare moments people could actually see Andrew Joseph Minyard was human. You could see it in the way his hands would uncontrollably form into fists, his eyes would close to try to grasp any control - his eyes could rival Medusa's oh so deadly ones - and in the way his face would slightly flush. No, the emotion he showed wasn't pretty at all. But the anger he showed for his partner revealed his human heart.
Nathaniel Wesninski was put into a coma by Mary Hartford, awoken by Riko Moriyama, tortured by the Butcher and his people and killed by the signature of Neil Josten. He was no more. Andrew told Neil to stay but that wasn't the only thing he wanted from him. He wanted Neil to live.
Neil wasn't dead but neither was he really living. His only passion was Exy and running. No wonder he was nicknamed Junkie. Andrew didn't want to think about his third passion and the real reason why Neil was a junkie. While Exy was truly something of Neil Josten, running was just a leftover coping mechanism with credits to Mary Hartford. It was the only thing she allowed him to built a personality on. Every time Abram gave a little bit of himself to his new person, Mary would without a doubt kill that piece and later just kill the whole person himself. If she didn't do it with her fists she had done it with twisted words. By the time Neil Josten was born Abram had nothing to give to him. Mary Hartford had would win this round without even breathing, if Andrew let her. But Andrew's raging heart would not fucking let her.
{Allison}
“I guess you could wear that,” Allison says with a shrug, “There are also other colors than black.” She flips through the shirts with a small car patch on each to find one in blue in Neil's size. Turning around with the right shirt in her hand, she says, “Should have known you wo-.” Neil is clutching the first shirt with white knuckles and his eyes has gone distant. She slowly moves to hover over his hand with her own to direct his attention to her. Fortunately he turns just as slow to her without further prompting. “Do you want this shirt, Neil?” Allison asks knowing calling out his name is another method to ground him into the reality.
Neil blinks for a long moment and speaks like he isn’t allowed to, “You have to thank my mum for my clothing style. She never allowed me to have clothes other than the one color pants and shirts. She was afraid of people remembering the boy with the smiley on his T-shirt even though a lot of children I saw were wearing one. Plaited wasn't allowed either.” He finally lets go of the shirt and takes Allison by surprise by holding her hand. He takes takes a deep breath before continuing, “So one time when I saw these kind of shirts, still one color but just with a tiny patch on it, I wanted it. Like the child I was I asked for it. She ignored me and got everything we needed in record time. I thought it would end like that but when we got back to the motel I got beat for it.”
Allison saw the hint as it was and didn't ask further. Guiltily she was proud of herself that she earned enough of Neil's trust for him to share this much with her. If she was Andrew, Neil would probably even talk about the beating but she wasn't him. So she hands Neil the shirt and with her free hand she combs through his hair. “I'm a different kind of woman than your mother. I will never hit you just like Dan and Renee never will,” she cups his face, scars and all, “Do you want the shirt?” He squeezes her hand and looks her in her eyes and says, “Yes.” The catshire grin she gives him is mirrored by a grin of himself. He doesn't let go of her hand till they are paying. Neil doesn’t mind the contact from this woman.
When they are driving back Neil is looking outside, softly tapping his foot with the beat. It makes Allison smile a little when she gives a look sideways. She heard Nicky sing this song a few times. It must have rubbed off Neil without him even noticing. She makes a mental note to ask Nicky pass off her thanks to the Monster for prompting this shopping trip. Never had she thought he would come into her dorm after sparring with Renee. It was a surprise after coming out of the kitchen with an ice pack for her girlfriend to find the man, whom beat said girlfriend up, in her living room. Out of pure instinct she wanted to throw the hard ice pack in his face. But before she could even take her next breath, he told her Neil needed new clothes and rattle off Neil's schedule. In the next second he was gone and left her even more confused. She still couldn't phantom why he wanted her to take Neil out shopping but she wouldn’t complain. Neil was their baby Fox after all.