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Their day started like this: a toddler with red hair and big baby blue eyes.
"What the fuck?" Kevin demanded incredulously, referring to the little redheaded child sitting on the couch in the living room, chewing on a chocolate chip cookie.
Andrew stared at little Neil, unsure of what to make of this situation while Aaron rubbed his eyes, muttering something about not having enough sleep. Nicky was practically all over Neil — who looked a little annoyed and frightened by the attention.
"Who a'e you?" Neil asked, eyes darting suspiciously from one person to another. "Whewe's my mommy?"
"Oh," Aaron mumbled before looking at Andrew. "Oh, this is bad. We have a brat in our living room and he's asking where his dead mother is."
"Neil, you're so fucking adorable," Nicky cooed instead, taking out his phone for a picture.
"Adowable?" Neil asked, seemingly forgetting about the topic of his mother as he pushed himself away from Nicky.
Nicky snorted. "Adorable," he confirmed. Kevin was still in the doorway, eyes blinking in disbelief.
"I think I had too much to drink."
Aaron glared at him. "Would you come help us out, maybe? Snap out of it."
"We need to call Wymack," Kevin suggested, running a hand through his hair.
Andrew remembered how Neil had tensed whenever Wymack raised his voice, whenever Wymack would take a step near him. In a sharp voice, he said, "No."
And that was that. Nobody questioned why or disagreed with Andrew. After all, he knew Neil better than anyone.
Andrew stood up beside Aaron and Neil paused from eating his cookie, staring up at the two twins in front of him in pure confusion.
"Andwuw...?" He asked, looking at Aaron as he waddled over to him. He hugged Aaron's legs and turned to Andrew. "Aawin."
"No," Andrew said, shaking his head. "I'm Andrew."
"You’re Anduwu?" Neil asked, even more confused as he looked frantically between Andrew and Aaron. "Two Anduwu's?"
"I'm Aaron," he said, crossing his arms and glancing at where Neil was hugging his leg. "That's Andrew."
"Aawin? Anduwu?" Neil asked again, blinking slowly.
Kevin stared, still wondering when he'd wake up from this extremely realistic dream. "He can't tell you both apart."
"I'm Andrew," he said with a bit more frustration as he pointed at his black armbands. He took Aaron's arm and showed how it didn't have the same thing. "That's Aaron. Armbands, me. No armbands, Aaron. Understand?"
Neil pouted as he concentrated fiercely before nodding. "Undewstand Anduwu..?"
Andrew nodded. "Correct."
At that, Neil giggled happily, proud of his accomplishment of telling the two twins apart and pointed at each person as he spoke. "Anduwu! Aawin! Kewin! Nickwy!"
Neil let go of Aaron's legs and dropped his half eaten cookie on the floor as his little legs carried him over to Kevin.
Kevin paled as Neil began running around him in little circles. “Shit, shit, shit! Help me out here!”
"Shit!"
Nicky shook his head, just like a mother hen. "No! Kevin, stop teaching him bad words! Neil, that's a bad word. A very bad word. You're not allowed to say that."
Neil nodded his head. And then, "Shit!"
Nicky groaned in defeat while Andrew had a hint of amusement in his eyes. Neil finally stopped running around Kevin and wobbled in place, plopping on the floor right on his ass.
"Kewin!" Neil said, making grabby hands from the floor. Kevin looked confused for a few seconds but eventually got the message.
Kevin bent down and picked Neil up, placing his legs over his shoulder around his neck and holding onto them. Neil kept his hands on Kevin's hair, giggling as he was carried around the room.
"Woohoo! I'm tall!" Neil said happily, waving at Nicky from above. "Nicky! Hewwo!"
"Hi," Nicky greeted back with a grin on his face, waving back at Neil.
Kevin continued carrying Neil around the room before Andrew sighed and walked over. "Such a troublemaker," he muttered, picking Neil up from Kevin's shoulders by the armpits.
"Anduwu!" Neil giggled, swinging his short legs when Andrew lifted him over his head.
Kevin just stared, dumbfounded. "What the actual fuck is he wearing?"
Apparently, there weren’t any clothes in the apartment small enough to fit little Neil, so they'd done the second best thing and given Neil Andrew's clothing: an extremely oversized black shirt with cookie crumbs all over them and blue shorts.
"Andrew's clothes," Nicky answered simply. "Renee's gone out to buy him baby outfits."
"Anduwu!" Neil said again, squirming around in Andrew's grip. "Let goooo."
Kevin sat down, blinking slowly as if this was a hallucination from all the alcohol, maybe. But no, everything seemed to be real, from the way Andrew placed Neil back on his feet, to Nicky snapping photos of his dumbfounded expression.
He needed a nap. Maybe even another drink.
"TV," Neil said, tugging on Andrew's shirt and pointing at the TV Aaron was using to play a video game. "TV!"
Andrew looked down at Neil, then at Aaron as Neil ran over to babble about switching the channel. Aaron was more than confused as he dropped his controller but somehow Andrew understood.
"Let's give him something to watch," Andrew said and took the remote, switching off Aaron's video game.
"Hey!" Aaron protested, glaring at Andrew. "I was in the middle of a battle! What the fuck?"
Neil giggled and ran over to stand by Andrew's side, fascinated as he watched him flip through all the channels and stopping on YouTube. When Kevin squinted, he saw that Andrew was writing Baby shark song in the search bar.
Neil gasped as the video began to play, the obnoxious song beginning to play. Neil was enjoying it immensely, straightening his arms and placing them on top of each other, palm to palm like a crocodile.
As the song sang Mommy shark and started chomping the two arms together, Neil did the same. He turned to Andrew and opened up his arms, chomping Andrew's leg with them as he sang along, a delighted expression on his face.
Then, almost as if it were a dream, Andrew began to sing along in the most bored and monotone tone. That encouraged Neil and excited him even more. So much so that Neil started chomping people with his arms. Aaron was first to fall victim, with a chomp to his head, and reluctantly, he decided to play along and dropped to the bean bag, pretending to be dead on the ground.
Neil squealed in excitement when Andrew — Andrew of all people — went over to Neil and chomped his arms on his waist before taking them away. Then, Andrew turned his gaze to Kevin, and Kevin immediately knew he was fucked. He watched Andrew calmly walk up to him, lifting his arms and chomping his neck.
"Dead!" Neil said, giggling as Kevin dropped to the ground, face down.
Neil continued dancing, wiggling his butt to the song and swinging his leg to try to get a particular dance move. Nicky stayed behind the scenes on the couch, recording everything on his phone.
Andrew lifted his leg up and spun around, perfectly landing on the same spot. Neil tried to do the same thing with the kind of fierce concentration only a toddler can have. He clenched his small hands into fists, eyebrows furrowing together as he spun, only to fall right back down on his butt with a loud noise. Except that loud noise came out of his ass.
Neil panted, breathless with bright red cheeks as he burst into a fit of laughter. Andrew had given up long ago and was sitting on the couch, elbows on his knees and face in his hands.
As Kevin lifted his head up a little, he noticed Andrew's red cheeks, his entire body trembling a little. Even Aaron started cracking up, letting out quiet snorts. Nicky was practically crying from laughter. Soon enough, Kevin joined in until it was all that could be heard around the room.
—
When they'd calm down, Andrew — still looking a bit red — picked Neil up and set him on top of the counter.
"Ice cweam!" Neil said, swinging his legs on the counter. "I wan' stawbewey ice cweam! Gimme stawbewey!"
Aaron wrinkled his nose, unable to understand what Neil was talking about. "What the fuck is he saying?"
"Fuck!"
"Neil, no," Nicky scolded, shaking his head disapprovingly before whipping around to face Aaron. "Stop teaching him those words!"
"He's Neil anyway. Soon enough he'll be that Exy obsessed asshole again," Aaron reminded, shrugging. Nicky only sighed defeatedly.
Neil turned to Andrew who was busy taking out a pint of strawberry ice cream from the freezer. "Fuck!"
"Bad word," Andrew said boredly, poking Neil's nose with a finger, making Neil giggle in return.
Kevin stared between the two, shaking his head in disbelief. "Are you actually feeding him ice cream ? You can't do that."
Andrew just gave Kevin a pointed look that translated to 'watch me' while Neil nodded eagerly, making grabby hands at the ice cream pint. Kevin sighed in defeat, knowing that Andrew couldn't say no to little Neil. Even Kevin probably couldn't.
When Andrew handed Neil a bowl with two scoops of strawberry ice cream, Neil immediately dug in with his small spoon, shoving it into his mouth. Andrew had his own bowl of ice cream, but instead, he ate calmly from where he sat on the stool beside Neil.
Nicky took a photo, and Andrew surprisingly didn't say anything to object.
Only when Neil was covered in ice cream, strawberry dripping down his chin and onto his — Andrew's — shirt, staining it with small blotches did Kevin get up and take away the bowl of now melted ice cream from Neil.
"No more," Kevin said sternly as he dumped the liquid in the sink. "He's still an athlete. You can't just throw away your diet like that."
Neil was definitely not happy and the way tears started filling up the corner of his eyes proved that. Kevin widened his eyes, almost as if he didn't know this would be the outcome of taking ice cream away from a toddler.
Neil burst into tears, screaming and kicking his tiny legs. Kevin stared, unsure of what to do, while Nicky took some action.
"Hey, Neil! Focus on me, yeah? Look!" Nicky tried his best to come up with funny faces to get Neil to laugh instead.
Neil only continued to cry, kicking at Nicky's stomach while doing so. Nicky choked at the strong hit, surprised a child could do that. It was Neil, after all.
"Someone get the brat to shut up," Aaron called from the couch.
Nicky sighed in defeat, shaking his head. "Come on! Just calm down, Neil! It's okay, trust me. We'll get you your ice cream, I promise!"
Andrew was the only one who seemed to be able to deal with Neil. He picked Neil up, and Neil's first response was to try to bite Andrew to let him go. Andrew didn't budge, though. He took Neil into his arms and cradled him, rocking him while shushing quietly.
Neil, thankfully, started quieting down. But he grabbed Andrew's finger and stuck it in his mouth as if it were a pacifier. The sight was adorable, the cutest thing anyone had seen. Neil, sniffing with dried tears on his cheeks as sucked on Andrew's finger. And Andrew, still rocking Neil in his arms. The cutest thing, though, was the way Neil's whole hand barely fit around Andrew's mere finger.
Nicky would've taken a photo had Andrew not sent him a sharp look. Despite how softened Andrew's eyes looked, Nicky had no doubt that he could kill a man if needed. Kevin stayed where he was, blinking slowly as he shook his head, walking over to his room to collapse on the bed and think his entire life over. Aaron had gone back to his video games.
—
When the doorbell rang, Nicky got up to unlock it, thinking it was Renee who came back with their supplies. It was actually Allison, Dan, and Matt, all of them walking in as soon as the door was opened.
“Where’s the baby?” Allison asked, searching around for the familiar mop of red hair.
Nicky coughed in an attempt to hide his laughter when he pointed at Neil on Andrew’s lap, finger still in his mouth. “You’ve had your fair share with him, it’s our turn,” Dan told Andrew, who tried to pick Neil up. Neil only widened his eyes, bursting into tears as he was taken away from Andrew’s protective arms. He desperately made grabby hands at Andrew, cheeks puffy and red.
Andrew felt a surge of protectiveness run through his body as he snatched Neil back, who stopped crying the moment he was back with Andrew. Dan sighed and Matt snorted as if they had expected anything else.
“Come on, Neil,” Dan chided, to which Neil only responded by frantically shaking his head and curling closer to Andrew.
“That’s Dan,” Andrew informed Neil quietly, pointing at her. “That’s Allison, and that’s Matt.”
Neil looked at them with unfamiliar cautiousness in his eyes. “Dan... Mawt... A-Awison?”
Allison barked out a laugh at Neil’s attempt to try to pronounce their names. Andrew only nodded, encouraging Neil. “Yeah. They’re good people. They won’t hurt you.”
“Weally?” Neil asked as if that seemed possible. Andrew didn’t know if he wanted to kill anyone who made Neil untrusting of anything or if he wanted to continue to cradle Neil in his arms.
“Really.”
“But I wan’ Anduwu with me,” Neil told him, a pout on his face as he tugged on Andrew’s shirt.
“Anduwu is coming,” Andrew replied in a monotone voice, standing up and carrying Neil with him to where Dan, Allison, and Matt had gone to their rooms.
Allison was propping up everything she brought in her bag on the desk, raising a manicured finger and beckoning Andrew forward. Andrew obliged and placed Neil on the chair. There was a pillow underneath him, mainly to make Neil taller and because it would be more comfortable. Neil looked up at Andrew, a slight frown forming on his lip as if wondering when Andrew was going to leave.
“I won’t leave,” Andrew promised, moving to sit on the edge of the bed so he wasn’t between Dan and Allison and so he could see Neil.
Neil watched him for a bit longer before eventually deciding to trust Andrew’s word. He turned to where Allison had steadied a small mirror and switched on the lamp. Neil frowned again, confused.
Matt patted Neil’s hair, grinning down at him. “Don’t worry, you adorable baby. Allison is just going to cut your hair.”
“My haiw?” Matt nodded and Neil raised a hand to his hair, tugging as if he disliked the idea.
Allison got out the scissors and wagged them in front of Neil’s face. “You have to be still, okay? Or your hair will end up really messy.”
Neil gasped as if that was the worst thing ever. “No mewsy haiwr!”
“Yes, Allison,” Dan said in agreement, which Neil huffed at.
Allison rolled her eyes and dismissed Dan, beginning to cut the too-long strands falling into Neil’s eyes.
“If you cut off too much I’ll cut your hair in your sleep,” Andrew threatened boredly, and Allison grinned.
“Don’t worry, Minyard. Once your boyfriend is back to his normal size you’ll end up loving it.”
“Let’s just hope that’s the case.”
When Allison was finally done, only trimming off a bit of hair since Andrew had warned her, watching closely from the background like a hawk. Allison decided it was enough and threw all the red hair into the trash, sighing.
“Skincare time,” she announced and Matt had excitement written all over his face.
“Skincawe?” Neil asked curiously as he shifted in his seat to look at Allison, Dan, and Matt.
Dan raised a finger as a signal to wait. Neil didn’t wait, to say the least. He continued kicking his feet against the chair until Dan came back with five pink facemasks all in large size. She ripped the packaging of one and slowly unfolded the sticky and wet facemask, placing it on Neil’s small face who whined at how cold it was. Dan ripped the other, giving it to Matt and then the next to Allison.
“Anduwu, skincawe!” Neil called out, scrunching up his nose when he accidentally licked the facemask sheet.
Andrew only stared at Neil before standing up and taking the mask from Dan, putting it on his own face. Matt almost wanted to laugh at the sight: Andrew wearing a pink facemask, but still looking like he was ready to kill someone.
“Better?” Andrew asked, trying not to speak too much since it was uncomfortable. Neil happily nodded, grinning broadly.
Allison couldn’t help but take out her phone and snap a quick selfie of them. Neil, grinning from ear to ear with his facemask slowly beginning to fall off, Matt picking him up and placing him on his shoulders, holding his legs firmly. Dan, tickling the bottom of Neil’s feet and Neil bursting out into happy giggles. Andrew, completely bored as he stared at the camera, not even reacting when Matt brought Neil down so he could peck Andrew’s cheek for the camera.
“Did you all come here just for this?” Andrew demanded, sighing when Neil’s mask completely fell off and smacked right on top of Andrew’s head, getting it all sticky. “Brat.”
Andrew picked up the mask from his hair and stuck it back on Neil’s face once Matt had placed him on the ground.
“Well, obviously,” Matt replied. “We needed to see him all tiny.”
—
After an hour of playing with Neil, Dan, Allison, and Matt left. Neil had become a lot sadder than expected and didn’t stop crying even when Andrew tried calming him down. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door, and Nicky practically scrambled over to open it. Renee greeted him, carrying two bags, a happy smile on her face as usual.
"I heard about the news," she started, tilting her head to peek through the doorway to scan the situation. "May I come in?"
Nicky nodded, smiling back at her and leading her inside. When she saw Andrew, she smiled even wider.
"I bought clothes and toys," Renee informed as she walked over to baby Neil, who was calm and okay now thanks to Andrew’s finger in his mouth. She chuckled, taking a tissue to wipe the tears and snot on Neil's face. "I bought a pacifier too."
Neil opened his blue eyes to stare at Renee in confusion before he went back to sucking on Andrew's finger. Andrew tried pulling his hand away gently, only to have Neil whine and tighten his hold. If Andrew wanted to, he could pull his finger out and exchange it for the pacifier. But Neil looked so determined, holding onto Andrew's finger with both hands now as if his life depended on it. Andrew was helpless against that.
"No," he said simply, shrugging as he took Neil over to the couch and sat him on his lap, his head on his arm. "Bring him toys to play with instead of my finger."
Neil keened happily, murmuring, "Anduwu," in a tiny, muffled voice.
Andrew stared down at him, wondering how Neil could be so adorable in both states. Renee smiled even wider at the sight as she kneeled by the couch, unwrapping the toys she got from the store.
"We have puzzles... a toy laptop... rubber ducks... legos.." she checked off, raising an eyebrow when Neil perked up at the mention of legos.
"Lewgos?" He asked as he pulled Andrew's finger from his mouth. When Renee nodded, Neil excitedly turned to Andrew and raised his hands over his head, nodding eagerly. "Lewgos, Anduwu! Lewgos! Lewgos!"
It seemed like Neil was done with the temper tantrum and was now chanting 'lewgos' all over again, not willing to play legos without Andrew.
"Andrew, just fucking play legos with him so he can shut up."
"Lewgos! Aawin! Pway with me! Lewgos!"
"I'm not playing with you, brat."
Neil whipped his head to Aaron, face upset. "Fucking meawnie!"
"No. Bad word," Andrew said, pinching Neil's nose.
Neil looked up at him with pleading baby blue eyes, a pout on his face. Andrew wanted to die . "Aawin is meawnie!"
"Yes, Aaron. He's a meanie," Andrew agreed in a monotone voice, looking bored as he slid his gaze over to Aaron. "You're a meanie. Apologize."
Neil nodded in agreement as he turned as well. "Apowogize!"
Aaron stared in disbelief at his brother, blinking as if he couldn't believe it. "I'm not apolo—"
"Apowogize,” Andrew said in the same tone as Neil did, glaring at Aaron and almost daring him to comment as Nicky laughed.
"Fine. Fine. I'm sorry, brat."
Neil grinned happily and tried to wiggle himself down from Andrew's lap until Andrew helped. "Lewgos! Aawin! Anduwu! Kewin! Nickwy!"
Andrew took Neil's tiny hand and led him to where Renee was sitting, taking the legos out from its packaging. Aaron moved to sit beside Renee, Nicky beside Neil and Kevin on Neil's other side. Renee was in front and the lego box was in the middle of the circle. Andrew took the important role of letting Neil sit on his crossed legs while he made grabby hands at the tiny pieces of lego. He wrapped his hands around Neil's tiny waist to keep him in place.
"Lewgo!" Neil pouted a little like he always did when he got frustrated. He looked at Renee, babbling some random and incoherent words.
"Yes?" Renee asked softly after she noticed his gaze.
"Wame?" He asked, pout getting bigger.
Nicky frowned a little. "What did he say?"
"He wants to know Renee's name," Andrew explained, and Nicky nodded. Andrew was somehow able to understand baby language.
"W... wenee?" He stuttered, trying to pronounce her name since he couldn't properly say his 'R'. His face scrunched up after a few tries and everyone knew that that look meant a tantrum was about to hit them all.
"Hey, it's okay. Look! Toys!" Nicky said in a try to distract Neil.
Andrew kissed Neil's hair to calm him down, chin on his head while saying, "you were correct."
Aaron had already started building with Kevin helping out. Neil glanced up at Andrew. "It's Wenee?"
Andrew only nodded and Neil's face turned into a happy smile, whipping back to Renee. "Wenee!"
"What do you want to build, Neil?" Renee asked, ripping the plastic bag of the next lego piece.
"Wobots!" He answered with a bright grin, nodding eagerly at his idea.
"You heard him," Andrew said, flicking Aaron's stacked lego tower. It fell to the ground and broke in pieces.
"Asshole."
"Wobots and Awshole!"
Nicky burst out into laughter. "How many bad words do you know?"
Neil scrunched his nose as he thought, counting on his tiny fingers. "Fuck, shit, awshole." Nicky only laughed even more while Andrew scowled, sighing.
—
They'd spent a good thirty minutes building a robot, and the reason it took that long was because Neil kept knocking everything down and giggling. Renee had long gone by then, Nicky in the kitchen to make them dinner, and Kevin collapsed on the couch, tired.
"I'm never having kids. Ever."
"You and me both," Aaron mumbled as he moved away after the tenth time of Neil knocking the robot arm down.
Neil's face saddened at everyone leaving him and he dropped the lego he was playing with, looking down at the ground. Andrew noticed the change in Neil's mood. He immediately started wiggling his fingers and attacked Neil's stomach, who twisted and fell on his back. Andrew instinctively moved one hand to Neil's back to keep him from hitting himself.
"A-a-andw-wuw!" Neil stuttered out, bursting into a fit of giggles and kicking his legs up as he got tickled.
Andrew managed to dodge hits from Neil's legs, continuing to tickle him until Neil's laughter filled the room, somehow not enough to wake Kevin up. Eventually, it wasn't just Neil's laughter. It was also Andrew, whose face had gone red from him trying to hold back his laughs. It was only until Andrew let out one tiny squeak as an indication of laughing did he stop tickling Neil, who immediately collapsed on the floor, breathless and panting and tired.
"Sweepy," he mumbled, rolling to his side as Andrew got up and picked little Neil up bridal style.
"Food, shower, then sleep," he informed Neil, who only nodded sleepily.
Andrew picked up the bowl of baby food while still holding Neil, walking over to the bedroom. He gently placed Neil down upright on the bed, giving him a cat plushie to hold on to. Andrew sat beside Neil, starting to feed him while Neil giggled and played with the plushie, naming it Anduwu.
When Andrew asked why, Neil replied with, "becawse it's the wame of my favowite pewson!"
Andrew wanted to kill Neil. Even as a toddler he was unbearable. "Just eat, brat."
And Neil ate, finishing his entire bowl and wiping his mouth after with his hand. Andrew tsked and got baby wipes from the drawer, wiping Neil's sticky lips and hands.
“Come on,” Andrew chided, placing the bowl on the bedside table before scooping Neil up using one arm, his other grabbing two towels as they made their way to the bathroom. “Shower time. Bubbles or no?”
“Bubbles!”
Andrew hung the towel from the sink and placed Neil back down, turning on the shower head and letting the bathtub fill up with warm water. He went out to the bedroom to grab the two rubber ducks. He could see Neil peek through the door, curiously looking in on where Andrew had gone. Andrew ushered him back into the bathroom and locked the door, taking off Neil’s clothes first before doing the same to himself but leaving on his boxers. He didn’t know how to feel about getting naked in front of his toddler boyfriend.
Neil didn’t care, choosing to watch as Andrew filled the bathtub with liquid soap to cause bubbles to form. Neil giggled, excitedly pointing at the bubbles and muttering something Andrew wasn’t able to completely understand. Neil hopped into the bathtub after it was filled, looking up at Andrew and pouting as if he wasn’t going in as well. Andrew got in after Neil, sitting on the opposite side so he could keep an eye on Neil who was splashing around with the bubbles. He moved closer to Andrew and brought up a handful of bubbles, plastering it under Andrew’s chin.
“What are you doing, idiot?”
“Giving Anduwu a beawd!” Neil explained and Andrew sighed, pulling Neil’s back against his chest and letting him stay on his lap as Andrew grabbed the shampoo.
Neil played with the annoyingly loud ducks who screeched every time they were squeezed. Neil, for some reason, found this fun while Andrew decided he could just endure it only to see the happy smile on Neil’s face. Andrew washed Neil’s red hair thoroughly, occasionally making a few comments when Neil pointed at the rubber ducks.
When they were finally done, Andrew took Neil out of the tub and wrapped the long towel around him, using the other on himself. He let Neil waddle out, plopping himself on the bed as Andrew dressed in new clothes.
Andrew also pulled out the fox onesie along with the pacifier that Renee had also bought. He let Neil sit up on the bed, and even then Andrew was still taller. Good to be tall for once, he thought, snorting as he quickly took off Neil's clothes and dressed Neil in the onesie. He gently pushed Neil down to lay on the bed before Andrew laid beside him, placing the pacifier against Neil's lips in a silent demand to open them. Neil pouted and angrily shook his head, biting the tip of Andrew's finger in spite.
"Stop being a brat," Andrew said though his tone was softer than usual.
Neil angrily spat out some upset sentences, pushing the pacifier away and instead stealing Andrew's index finger and shoving it into his mouth, starting to suck.
"I can see where your finger kink comes from," Andrew mumbled to himself, shaking his head when Neil raised curious eyebrows. "Nothing. Sleep, idiot."
Neil pouted, mumbling, “Wead me a stowy, Anduwu.”
How could Andrew say no to that face? Anyone would be heartless if they did. He looked around for a children’s book and picked one up, sitting back next to Neil. Neil crawled onto his lap, impatiently kicking his feet for Andrew to begin.
“Once upon a time...”
Halfway through the story, Neil bit his lip and pulled Andrew’s finger out of his mouth. “Can you do stowy voices fow each pewson, Anduwu?”
Andrew stared at Neil for one long moment and sighed deeply, raising his voice to a high-pitched tone at the princess’s dialogue. Neil giggled and nodded eagerly in approval.
“You better sleep,” Andrew warned, pausing mid-sentence, unaware of Nicky who had grown some guts and was filming the entire thing from behind the door.
And Neil did. He curled up in the fox onesie, fox ears on the hood on top of his head brushing against Andrew's stomach, Andrew’s arm protectively around Neil's small body. The tail of the onesie wrapped around Neil's legs that were pulled up between his and Andrew's chest.
And Andrew eventually slept like that too: his finger in Neil’s mouth, Neil curled up against his chest looking fucking adorable, and his chin on Neil's head.
—
The next day when it was bright and early and Neil had somehow got to his original size, the first thing he did was take Andrew's finger from his mouth, blinking in confusion when Andrew woke up from the shifting.
Neil stared at the finger that had been in his mouth in absolute confusion, sliding his gaze over to an already awake Andrew. He blinked once, twice, and kept staring at Andrew as if to wonder 'why is his finger in my mouth? He had to think it was hot, though. He loved Andrew's fingers anywhere on him. But this... this was certainly odd. He didn't always wake up with Andrew's finger in his mouth.
Andrew pulled his wet finger out of Neil's mouth, staring at him boredly as if their morning was just normal.
"I'm not complaining, but care to explain why the fuck I was sucking your finger?"