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Andrew wakes up alone in a pool of his own sweat and wonders where it’s coming from. He quickly realizes that it’s his own sweat because of the heat and he sighs. He finds it odd that Neil’s awakening didn’t subsequently awake him, but the air is too hot for him to care.
He pushes his top half up and frowns at how humid the air feels. He looks around the room and notices that Neil has stolen his shirt once again. Andrew pulls on a pair of shorts that used to be sweatpants before he cut them into shorts. He sets off to the bathroom attached to their room and brushes his teeth. He does a quick once over in the mirror to make sure there’s no goop in his eyes. When he’s satisfied, he leaves the bathroom and closes the door behind him.
Andrew walks into their living room and sees Neil (wearing Andrew’s shirt) with his camera pointed at himself and takes a moment to decide whether or not he should just go back to his room, but it’s too late because Neil has already noticed him.
“Look who’s finally woken up,” Neil says into the camera and twists his wrist to point it at Andrew, “You do realize that it’s nearly two in the afternoon, right? How have you been sleeping so long?”
Andrew doesn’t bother responding to that because it’s a stupid question. Neil knows why he was up late last night. Neil is the reason he was up late. Instead, he opts to raid the fridge. The only food they have is Matt’s leftover birthday cake that Andrew took home because everyone else said it was too sweet.
“Did you call the landlord and ask him to fix the AC?” Neil calls out to Andrew.
“Yes.”
Neil sighs and shakes his head animatedly towards the camera, “So is he going to fix it?”
Andrew walks back into the living room and ignores the camera pointed at his face. “Thursday,” he says as he plops himself onto the couch. He grabs an Exy magazine from the coffee table and uses it as a makeshift fan.
“What? But that’s so far from now,” Neil whines and Andrew wants to pinch the pout off his face, “We’re going to die of heatstroke.
“It’s two days,” Andrew says, “You wouldn’t die if you stopped going to Exy practices with Kevin in a hundred and fifteen degree heat.” If Neil notices the way Andrew grimaces a bit at the mention of Exy, he doesn’t say anything.
Neil sighs and returns to talking into his camera. Andrew listens to Neil as he recounts what he’s done so far that day and what he’s left to do. Andrew will never understand why people watch Neil’s videos. The videos literally only consisted of Neil’s day, and as far as Andrew was concerned, Neil’s day to day wasn’t that interesting.
Later in the day, Kevin pounds on their door. Andrew recognizes his knock by the way he has no regard for the structural integrity of their home.
Andrew opens the door and eyes the man coolly. Kevin returns the glare.
“Andrew,” Kevin says.
“Idiot,” Andrew says back.
Kevin gives an indignant scoff and frowns, “What’s your problem?”
“Explain to me why your stupid sports game is so important that you and that dumbass back there,” Andrew points towards the bathroom where Neil is showering, “can’t take a week off in the scorching heat.”
Kevin shrugs, “Ask your boyfriend,” and invites himself into the apartment.
Andrew doesn’t like that word. He knows it’s probably the best word to describe him and Neil, but he still doesn’t like it. Kevin knows this, but Andrew doesn’t bother retaliating. Kevin walks through the small hall to the living room and takes residence on the couch while he waits for Neil.
Andrew stands where he is until he hears the shower turn off. When Neil emerges from the bathroom, Andrew sends him a disapproving look, but Neil just smirks back at him. It takes him a few minutes to get dressed before he comes out of their bedroom and greets Kevin excitedly. Andrew notices that Neil is wearing one of his shirts again, but remains silent.
Andrew watches as Kevin and Neil get ready to leave. Neil picks up his camera and has started vlogging again. He briefly mentions that he and Kevin are going to practice and points it at Andrew, who refuses to acknowledge the attention.
“Sure you don’t want to come along?” Neil asks.
“I’d rather not sink that low.”
Neil knows better than to take that to heart and smiles as he bids Andrew farewell, Kevin following him silently. Andrew can hear Neil interviewing Kevin as soon as they leave, no doubt holding the camera up to the other man.
Andrew and Neil were already in the eye of the public. They had caused quite the fuss in the Exy community when people found out the two of them were an item years back, but that stayed within the Exy community. They were used to attention, but this channel brought more attention than either one expected. Neil’s gained quite a big audience: five and a half million subscribers. At first, his YouTube channel started as an Exy channel and was solely for reviewing his and other teams’ recent games, new players, and anything else Neil thought was interesting pertaining to Exy. Eventually, his viewers started to actually take an interest in Neil’s personal life and wanted to see more than just him talking Exy, so Neil started vlogging. It’s become a semi-daily thing and Andrew hates it.
He doesn’t hate it because of the camera constantly being shoved in his face, he couldn’t care less about that. It’s the comments that get under Andrew’s skin. One particular comment got Andrew so upset that Neil deleted the video. “AFSJKGJADGK!!! I thought Neil was tiny, but Andrew is so fucking smol. He’s so cute I want to wrap him in a blanket and hug him!!!” Andrew refused to be in Neil’s vlogs for weeks after that. He’s gotten back to being indifferent about it.
Since the heat wave, Neil’s been vlogging everyday because apparently his subscribers are interested in watching Neil (and Andrew) die slowly from the heat. Sadists. He would never tell Neil to stop, though. Neil used to be completely closed off and treated basic information about him like they were his deepest darkest secrets. His YouTube channel has made Neil happier and act less like a jumpy rabbit, so Andrew doesn’t say anything.
It’s nearly completely dark when Kevin brings Neil back. When Andrew hears the sound of the door creaking open, he detaches his legs from where they are stuck to his chair and makes his way to the hall.
“He’s fine, just overheated,” Kevin says. It takes Andrew a second to figure out what Kevin means. Neil is drenched in sweat, still in his practice gear, and has passed out in Kevin’s arms. Andrew resists the urge to strike Kevin, only for the fact that it would mean Neil would fall as well. He settles on flashing Kevin a dark scowl.
Andrew extends his arms out for Neil. Kevin has to squat a little bit to drop Neil into Andrew’s waiting arms. Once Andrew is sure that he has a good grip on Neil, he looks up at Kevin, “You were supposed to stop him before he pushed himself too hard.”
“He’s stubborn,” Kevin says. If Andrew didn’t know how correct Kevin was (and if Kevin didn’t have what Andrew was guessing to be Neil’s vomit on his shirt), he would have said more, but he just motioned with his eyes for Kevin to leave. Kevin drops Neil’s duffel bag onto the ground and puts his hands up in a surrender.
Andrew carries Neil to their bedroom and he hears the door close as Kevin leaves. He sets Neil down onto the bed and starts to strip him of his gear. Somewhere amidst the shuffling, Neil regains a bit of consciousness. His eyes flicker around a little bit until they settle on Andrew. Neil smiles, “Hi,” he says quietly, voice scratchy, probably from dehydration Andrew guesses.
“Junkie,” Andrew says.
Neil doesn’t have enough energy to come up with a rebuttal so he closes his eyes and lets Andrew undress him. When Neil is naked, Andrew leaves the room for a little bit. In Neil’s sorry state, he barely registers the sound of the bathtub filling up. He feels himself slowly drifting back out of consciousness. The last thing he remembers is the feeling of Andrew lifting him up, bridal style.
Andrew sets Neil down on the toilet seat for a second, maneuvering Neil into a position in which he won’t fall over. He dips two fingers into the bathtub and decides it’s just frosty enough to cool Neil down. He picks Neil up again and places him carefully in the tub and kneels next to it.
At the sudden change of temperature, Neil’s eyes flicker open. Neil is greeted by the concern in Andrew’s face. When Andrew sees that Neil is conscious again, his concern is overtaken by anger. Only Neil could notice the difference.
“I’m fine,” Neil says. How predictable.
Andrew looks back at him, expression unchanged, “Try again.”
“I’m fine now.”
“I warned you yesterday that you needed to take it down a notch,” Andrew says. Neil doesn’t respond, instead he sends an apologetic look to Andrew. Andrew leaves the room and Neil fears that Andrew is going to destroy an item of their furniture, but he returns not a minute later, holding a thermometer in one hand and a towel in the other. He sets the towel down on a rack and takes his place by the side of the tub.
Andrew thinks about making Neil use the thermometer rectally as punishment for his reckless behaviour, but decides against it because that part of his body is submerged in cold water. He holds the thermometer to Neil’s lips and tells him to open up. Neil obliges and allows Andrew to press the thermometer under his tongue and closes his mouth around it.
Neil examines Andrew as he awaits for a beep from the thermometer. To most people, Andrew would look completely apathetic, but Neil recognizes the tension in his shoulders and eyebrows. It brings a small smile to Neil’s face. Andrew cares about him, he knows that, but it’s nice to be reminded. No matter what he says, Andrew cares about Neil and Neil loves that.
“For someone who just passed out from heatstroke, you look awfully smug,” Andrew says. Neil’s smile only widens. Neil only remembers the thermometer in his mouth when it wiggles a little bit at the way his mouth stretches.
The thermometer beeps and Andrew slips it out of Neil’s mouth to look at the results. Andrew doesn’t say anything, but guessing from the way his shoulders relax a bit, Neil knows it’s not that bad. Andrew returns his gaze back to Neil and says, “You are not going tomorrow. I’ll tell Kevin.”
Neil pouts, but doesn’t argue back. They stay like that for what feels like years in a comfortable silence. Andrew raises the thermometer to Neil’s mouth again and Neil complies.
Andrew doesn’t announce the results, but Neil figures it’s fine since Andrew leaves him in the bathroom and heads for their bedroom and stays there. Andrew discards the plastic covering from the thermometer and lies back on the bed.
Andrew isn’t sure how much time has passed, but he hears Neil emerge from the bathroom. Andrew is relieved that Neil is able to walk again. He tilts his head so he can see Neil in his peripheral vision, but doesn’t acknowledge him otherwise. He hears Neil shuffle out of the room once he is dressed and hears the unzipping of Neil’s duffel.
Andrew gets up from the bed and opens a window. The temperature outside is only marginally cooler than inside their apartment, but Andrew takes what he can get. He makes the mistake of turning to face Neil when he reenters the room. Neil is holding his camera and pointing it at Andrew.
“You almost died and your first instinct is to grab your camera?” Andrew says, kind of a question, kind of teasing.
“Oh yeah,” Neil says into the camera, as though he had totally forgotten what happened not an hour ago. Neil turns the camera back onto himself and explains what happened. Andrew learns that Neil felt a headache while he was practicing with Kevin, but he just attributed it to being whacked on the head by Kevin countless times during drills. Andrew makes a mental note to smack Kevin’s head the next time he sees him.
“Then I remember vomiting, and Kevin, if you’re watching, sorry about your shirt,” Neil says, obviously not sorry at all, “and then it’s just, like, fuzzy and grey,” he points the camera back at Andrew, “Can you tell them what happened when Kevin dropped me off, I don’t remember that well,”
Andrew shrugs and says, “You were dangling in his arms passed out from heatstroke, like an idiot. I put you in a cold bath.”
“My hero,” Neil says dreamily.
At the look Andrew gives Neil, Neil turns off the camera and sets it down on the drawer. Andrew’s expression is darker and Neil feels a tight pull in his stomach when he realizes only he would get to see Andrew like this. Andrew makes his way over to Neil and stops just short of pressing their lips together. He raises his hands to cup Neil’s face and whispers, “Yes or no?”
“Yes,” Neil gasps out. Andrew closes the distance between their lips. Neil is eager to suck on Andrew’s bottom lip.
Andrew pulls apart for long enough to tell Neil, “Not my ass,” and pulls Neil back in. Neil instinctively opens his mouth to let Andrew’s tongue explore. He knows he can touch wherever he wants (save Andrew’s ass), but he reaches for his go-to spot. He raises his hands to run his fingers through Andrew’s hair and grab hold of it to press Andrew further into his mouth. Andrew lets out a quiet moan as Neil squeezes his hair.
With a tap of his fingers on Neil’s arm, Neil lets go of Andrew. Andrew uses this newfound freedom to push Neil onto their bed and climb on top of him. He places a hand under the hem of Neil’s shirt and lowers himself so that his lips brush against his ear, “Yes or no.”
“Yes. Definitely yes,” Neil says through the shivers that Andrew’s voice sends down his spine.
Andrew spends all night taking Neil apart. Neil takes notice of the way Andrew’s touch is slightly more gentle than it typically is and it sends an impossible amount of warmth to Neil’s groin.
They fall asleep too warm for comfort and sweating, but they still sleep pressed up against one another.
Neil wakes up first in the morning with a tiny headache. He tries his best to get out of bed without waking up Andrew, but it’s no use. Andrew is a light sleeper.
“Advil in the bathroom,” Andrew mumbles, his voice muffled by the pillow half his mouth is pressed up against. They’re both relieved that it’s slightly cooler than it was yesterday, but still too hot to feel comfortable.
In the time it takes Neil to brush his teeth and swallow an Advil tablet dry, Andrew is dressed for the day. Neil makes a comment about his disappointment that Andrew has covered up his chest, and Andrew rolls his eyes when he knows Neil can’t see.
Andrew brings out his phone to text Kevin that Neil won’t be joining him for practice today. His phone lights up with Kevin’s caller ID and Andrew picks up, says, “No,” and hangs up. He brushes his teeth and puts the Advil back in the medicine cabinet.
When Andrew returns to their room, he finds Neil sitting at his desk, using his laptop. Andrew walks up behind Neil and sees that he is sending footage over to Matt, who edits Neil’s videos. Neil exits out of that tab once the files have sent and checks his channel. He scrolls through the comments of his most recent video. Andrew knows it will just irk him, but he can’t look away.
Neil points to the second top comment and reads it out loud, “Domestic andreil is the best andreil,”
“Andreil?” Andrew says, confused.
“Allison says that’s what people say to refer to our relationship. It’s a combination of our names.”
Andrew doesn’t scowl or smile at that but he does lean his head on Neil’s shoulder. Neil takes that as a cue to keep going through comments.
Andrew decides he’s had enough once the comments get too nosey about their sex life. Neil closes his laptop since he’s also had enough of the prying comments. Andrew walks to the kitchen and rightfully assumes that Neil will follow him.
“So, was the comment right?” Neil asks, accepting the mug that Andrew offers him. Andrew answers Neil’s question with a confused face, inviting Neil to elaborate, “Do you want me to deepthroat you?”
Andrew can’t stop the snort that comes out of him. Neil’s mouth curls into a wicked grin and Andrew knows he is pleased with himself.
“Yes or no?” Neil asks.
Andrew acts like he has to think about it for a second and says, “Yes.”