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Neil couldn’t believe that Nicky was the one to point it out.
“Aaron works so hard,” Nicky said softly, fondness thick in his voice as he took in the twin sleeping on the couch behind where Neil and Andrew we're Skyping him. “Don't wake him up, I'll talk to him next time.”
They were in the tower's common room, although it wasn't common for it to be used, as the internet was strongest there. They'd arrived early, studying before the scheduled call, but Aaron had fallen asleep about fifteen minutes in. Aaron slept as silent as always, except for the occasional, quiet groan as he shifted. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence. Neil had watched the other twin conk out at parties, in the car, on the bus, at Eden's, even once at the Christmas banquet. He just put his head on his hand and closed his eyes and within minutes was breathing through his mouth, dead to the world despite the pounding music and the sound of shouted conversations.
But Nicky was right; Aaron didn't have a memory like Andrew's and getting into med school was difficult. He studied his ass off between practice, games and his girlfriend, often late into the night. It made sense that he made up the sleep when he could.
It wasn't until the weekend that Andrew went away to tour the Virginia Riptide's facility that Neil figured it out.
He left before dawn on Friday, waking up Neil by running a hand carefully through his hair. Neil had smiled sleepily, turning his head to press a kiss to Andrew’s calloused palm and scooted over to claim his pillow.
“I’ll be back Sunday.” Andrew said.
“Have fun storming the castle.” Neil replied, groggy with sleep as he quoted their last movie night’s feature. Andrew rolled his eyes and threw the rest of the blankets over Neil’s face. He was gone by the time Neil wiggled himself out.
They had a friendly scrimmage against a tiny community college that evening and while normally Aaron would nap on the bus, he was wide awake, staring out the window at the dull, flat expanse of I95 for the entirety of the three hour drive. He was awake on the way there and apparently on the way back as well, as every time Neil woke up Aaron was staring out the window, face harshly illuminated by the passing streetlamps or reading with a tiny penlight.
“Andrew will be back soon,” Nick said on their Saturday Skype call. Aaron and Neil were seated on opposite ends of the couch, the laptop with Nicky's smiling face on the coffee table in front of them. Aaron rolled his eyes, putting the bags there on display in fluorescents of the common area and got to his feet, leaving the room without saying goodbye. The door slammed behind him, a function of the weight of the door and not Aaron's near constant annoyance with the world at large and Nicky sighed.
“He's so moody when he's tired, it’ll get better when Andrew gets home.” He said.
“What's Andrew have to do with that?” Neil asked.
“Uh… his naps?" Nicky said, confused. The sound of a door closing filtered across the feed and Nicky’s face blossomed into a smile, bright and pleased and joyful. His eyes tracked upwards, watching whoever had entered until Erik popped into the frame to solidly kiss him hello.
“Hallo, Neil!” Erik said, settling into a crouch behind Nicky. He immediately leaned back and Erik’s arms settled automatically around his waist. “Wie geht es dir? Wo ist Andrew? Aaron?”
“Andrew’s visiting a team up north and Aaron just left.” He said. Erik nodded and shrugged, hooking his chin over Nicky’s shoulder.
“Aaron only naps if Andrew’s around,” Nicky said, “Which, like, used to be all the time, you know. Sometimes I don’t even think he realizes that’s what’s going on.”
Neil blinked and then sat back as mental puzzle pieces, chunks of knowledge he didn’t even know he had, clicked into place.
The weekend had only been that, a weekend, but looking back on Andrew’s longer absence two years before made Aaron’s behavior make much more sense. It wasn’t just that he was unsettled by killing Drake, he’d been horrifically sleep deprived. He did the majority of his sleeping under his brother’s watchful eye. It explained his nearly excessive snappishness, his clumsiness on the court, the general disheveled aspect to his entire person in the days leading up to Andrew’s discharge.
“Oh.” Neil said and shrugged.
Andrew arrived back on campus at four Sunday evening. He unlocked the door to the dorm and stepped inside to find Aaron and Neil bent over opposite sides of the dining table, books and paper and pens scattered between them. They looked up in unison as the door clicked open, pencils pausing in sync.
Neil smiled, soft and bright, straightening in his chair. “Hey, welcome back.”
Aaron’s expression loosened, shoulders dropping as he leaned away from the table. The dark circles under his bloodshot eyes looked like bruises and as Andrew passed him on the way to the bedroom he paused, meeting his eyes.
“You look like shit.”
“We’re identical.” Aaron returned. The tip of Andrew’s lips twitched and he shrugged before looking over his shoulder at Neil. There was a beat of silence, then Neil stood up and trailed after him into the bedroom.
They locked the door behind them.
Thirty minutes later, Andrew stole out from the bedroom for coffee, leaving Neil warm and quiet in bed.
Asleep on the couch, a textbook spread over his chest, was Aaron. One hand was thrown over his eyes, the other dangling on the floor, a highlighter loosely dangling from limp fingertips.
Andrew course corrected, dug silently into the storage closet and pulled out the large, orange crocheted blanket that Renee and her foster mother had made him last Christmas.
He pulled the book off Aaron’s chest, dogearring the page because he knew it pissed him off and tossed the blanket over him. He only woke when Andrew bent to move the highlighter off the floor and cap it.
His twin started, but relaxed when he spotted his mirror standing over him in the darkness, barely illuminated by the lights from the stove’s clock.
“Sit up.” Andrew said.
Aaron blinked, but complied, too exhausted to even be confused as Andrew swiftly swapped the throw pillow for the extra pillow he’d pulled from the closet. He settled back heavily, and when Andrew turned away, flipped over with a sigh.
“Goodnight.” Aaron slurred.
“Goodnight.” Andrew said, and left the bedroom door cracked.