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The Foxes learn a huge thing about Neil unexpectedly. Apparently, he’s affection starved.
Neil comes to Palmetto flinching at every touch, every hug and each sign of affection anyone shows him. However, after Nathan Wesninski and Riko Moriyama died, Neil has slowly accepted the fact that he is deprived of affection and gentle touches and gestures from other human beings.
The Foxes learn about it step by step.
It starts with Neil almost-purring when Allison absently scratches his scalp when she is preparing him for his haircut. Dan and Renee, who are present, look bewilderedly at their youngest recruit who is oblivious at the attention he is getting.
The three girls exchange looks. The word spreads around the others. This birthed their experiment of finding out whether Neil starves for gentle gestures.
After a successful backliner tutoring, Matt ushers for Neil and gives the auburn-head’s hair a wild ruffle. Matt almost melts at the big smile he receives.
Ever since then, Matt always ruffles Neil’s hair after practices and their games.
Matt never gets tired of the reaction he gets.
That’s also the reason why he has started placing Neil on his back for piggyback rides whenever they walk down the stairs of the Fox Tower. Neil seems happy being taller than everyone so Matt decides that this extra activity could just be one of his happy exercises.
Dan then confirms it when Neil actively asks for her attention while he is studying inside the girls’ room. He is sitting beside her on the floor and she blinks when Neil tentatively reaches for her hand. He then places her hand on his head. She coos and pats his head. She doesn’t say anything, knowing how embarrassed Neil must be feeling evident with how red his face is. Instead, she turns back to her assignment while rhythmically patting Neil’s head.
Due to some of their classes almost just minutes away and schedule almost being exactly similar time-wise, Renee has volunteered to wait and walk along with Neil towards their classes. She sees how much Neil is affected with the fact that this is the girls’ last year in PSU so she is doing her best to fill him with good memories before they graduate.
She meets with Neil at a waiting shed outside his building and waves him over. He brightens up at the sight of her and walks alongside her.
When a comfortable silence settles between them, she present him her arm. He blinks at her for few moments before interlocking his arm with hers. She giggles when he sways their arm as they walk towards their next building just five minutes away.
Kevin is not gentle by nature, due to being brought up in Evermore. That’s why he has a different way of showing his affection towards Neil Josten.
Neil and he don’t always meet eye to eye. They have huge differences when it came to their personalities. They have varying playing. But Neil has become a big part of who Kevin is. Kevin’s life wouldn’t be the same if he had thrown Neil’s file away years ago.
He still believes his biggest achievement in life is recruiting Neil into the Foxes.
He is stretching when Neil approaches him with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Kevin tenses, knowing how much trouble Neil could be when he wants to be one.
He squints at his fellow striker. “What is it?”
Neil hums, stretching his glorious legs and twisting his torso. “I bet I can finish five laps around the court faster than you can.”
He squints even more at the grinning Neil beside him. “You never bet.”
“True but irrelevant,” Neil answers, quoting him.
He snorts. “Fuck off. Fine, I bite. What’s the price for the winner?”
Neil thinks it over then lights up at an idea. Kevin immediately regrets his decision when Neil answers with an enthusiastic, “The winner gets to ask the loser a dare the loser can’t back off from.”
That’s how Kevin ends up right beside Neil with Dan holding a stopwatch at the other end of the court. She will be the judge on who finishes five laps first between the two of them.
At Matt’s yell, “Go!” Kevin and Neil depart.
Kevin doesn’t need one but if someone wants a proof that Neil is the fastest Exy player there is, today could be recorded for them. Kevin is just on his fourth lap when Neil reaches Dan and whoops, barely sweating.
Kevin collapses on the floor, panting heavily. “Bastard.”
Neil smirks, stands beside him and declares, “I dare Kevin Day to stand on his boxers on the rooftop and then scream that he loves baseball. During lunchbreak tomorrow.”
Kevin Day thought his worst day was when he broke his hand back in Castle Evermore. As usual, Neil surpasses even his darkest moment. His worst day ever is right now as he strips his clothing on the rooftop, surrounded by the Foxes. He leaves his boxers on and stands just behind the edge. He looks down and flushes when he finds hundreds of Palmetto students down on the ground.
“Tick tock, Day,” Allison quips.
He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and yells at the top of his lungs, “FUCK BASEBALL!”
The Foxes are in varying degrees of hysterics around him. He does want to bury himself alive with embarrassment but his shame flies away when he finds Neil shaking in laughter few meters away. The other striker is as red as his hair. “Yeah, that’s definitely better than I asked of you.”
Kevin Day is not gentle by nature and he doesn’t do well with tender gestures but he knows deep within him Neil is worth being gentle for.
David Wymack would do anything for his Foxes. They are basically his kids and he would always be proud of them and their progress no matter what.
That includes Neil Josten who fought hard to become who he is right now. However, sometimes Wymack wonders how he hasn’t aged yet with the sassiest person he has ever met.
Neil just healed his bruises leg from a hard check from their last game. Last he left him, Neil was on the inner stadium, taking some notes. The moment Wymack returns, he finds no auburn head inside. When he peeks on the court itself, he finds Neil not-subtly hiding behind Matt.
“Neil Josten!” He yells, opening the door.
Neil squeaks and makes a run for it. Wymack rolls the newspaper in his hand and runs after their stubborn striker. The court erupts into laughter when Wymack tackles Neil.
The auburn head cackles and seems pleased with himself despite the earful he is getting. Wymack sighs fondly at him and taps the rolled newspaper at the striker’s head while chanting, “Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.”
Neil just accepts the reprimand, not even struggling despite Wymack’s arms around him.
Wymack loves and adores his kids. Neil included.
Neil never actively asks for attention from Aaron. He even avoids him like a plague if he could help him. But Neil is also an antagonistic martyr who loves to instigate fights.
That’s why Aaron shouldn’t have been surprised that he gets the opposite of what the other Foxes receives. The others gives and received affection from the auburn. He and Josten exchange glares, insults and antagonism.
Aaron never truly had playmates since he was a kid. Nicky was different in his perspective, due to how Aaron was raised. Andrew, despite being his twin, doesn’t acknowledge him in normal ways because of the gap their separation caused.
Aaron is studying for an anatomy exam when he feels the couch sink beside him. He glances at his seatmate and scowls when he finds Neil beside him.
He returns to studying and tries his hardest not to feel annoyed when he feels a pencil’s eraserhead poke his arm. Nicky and Matt watch them, amused but not helping.
Aaron’s patience evaporated when Neil poke his rib and he jumps. “Stop it!”
Neil blinks then grins. “I found your funny bone.”
He jumps again when Neil pokes his other side. “Fuck off, Josten.”
Aaron abruptly stands and screams when Neil runs after him, obviously fascinated that he found Aaron’s weakness. He screams and runs outside of their dorm.
Fucked up as it sounds, the antagonism between he and Neil has become a norm for him. In fact, he thinks Neil is the playmate he never truly had for the past twenty years.
Abby loves giving hugs, especially to her Foxes. She believes they deserve it most.
She does know, though, that Neil is unused with her gentleness brought by her experience and profession. She doesn’t comment but has observes how stiff Neil is when she enveloped him with her arms.
Neil is brought up with violence – knives in his hands, gun under his pillow, lighter on his cheek, cleaver on his arms, scars from head to toe. Despite the hell he suffered through, Neil is a daredevil. He is an angel that has grown up sassy and antagonistic.
When everything has subdued and Neil is learning that it’s okay to accept tender gestures, Abby figures that Neil is affection starved.
It is a surprise but also not entirely unexpected when Neil himself asks for a hug when he came into her office for their yearly check up. It must be the fact that he is actually starting a new year, alive and a Fox or the fact that a year has passed and he is still Neil Josten. However, he seems tired but happy when he opens his arms for her.
She doesn’t hesitate to give him the tightest hug he deserves. Neil Josten, after all, deserves the world.
Nicky has become maternal due to being the Minyard twins’ guardians for years. They weren’t the easiest kids to raise but he grows even more interested in having kids when he sees the progress between the twins.
That’s why when he finds out that Neil is taken by one of his cousins, Nicky accepts the fact that he could be Neil’s older brother/maternal friend instead. That’s also why they are in the mall as he shops for Neil’s new clothes and accessories.
Neil is no help whatsoever so he dumps clothes he thinks would best fit Neil into the cart. Neil insisted to pay for them or else he wouldn’t accompany Nicky so Nicky vowed to find the best deserving of Neil’s blood money.
Nicky squeals when he finds a Fox hoodie with matching Fox ears on top of the hood. When he shows it to the striker, Neil visibly brightens up.
He takes the hoodie out the moment they step out of the department store, helping Neil put it on. He takes a photo of Neil wearing it, smiling shyly while placing the hood over his head.
“Let’s go find you a new pair of sho—“ Nicky cuts off mid-sentence when he feels Neil tug on the hem of his shirt. He turns and finds Neil staring at the ground. “Neil?”
“Thank you,” Neil whispers. Nicky knows it’s not just for today and appreciates the phrase.
“Can I give you a hug?”
Neil nods and wraps his arms around Nicky just when the backliner scoops him up.
Andrew will never be comfortable with touches. His skin crawls. He does appreciate that Neil never pushes. The striker always looks pleased with whatever he receives from Andrew, even if it was just a hand on the back or words of apathetic comfort.
Neil Josten despite his best efforts to show that he has his shit together, that he could cut you with his words alone, that he would live his life however he wants, and that he is fine without anyone – Neil Josten is a nineteen year old covering himself with the lies he has spat all these years but if you dig a little deeper, you would find him in there – innocent, naïve and soft.
That’s why Andrew accepts that he would willingly even if slowly bring his shield down for the person he has chosen to live for.
That’s why here he is, walking towards where Neil is seated on the beanchair. He doesn’t know and wouldn’t pry what memories today brings into the auburn head. Instead he sits cross-legged in front of the striker, staring right back at Neil.
Neil reaches for his hands. So Andrew takes Neil’s hands and in a rare sign of affection, runs his thumbs on the raised skin on the back of the striker’s hands.
A year and months has just passed by. Their lives are just starting. They’ll be alright.