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Neil sat at the kitchen table, playing with Sir. The cat chased the toy around the kitchen and Neil was more than content to sit and play with her on his day off.
Except the doorbell rang. Confusion plagued him.
It wasn’t Andrew. He was at practice and could get in with his key.
Who else would be coming over?
A package?
Neil set the cat toy down and walked to the door. He opened it up to find a very disheveled Kevin Day standing there.
“Oh thank god your home,” he whispered. “Can I come in?”
Neil stared at the taller man. He swallowed his anxiety and stepped back to let him in.
Kevin had gotten better as they got older but for most of their college years he was an ableist dick. He stole Neil’s stim toys, threw them out and got upset when Neil was nonverbal or wouldn’t stop talking about dinosaurs.
Neil closed the door before the cats got out.
“Why are you here?” he asked quietly, eyes scanning the room for the stuffed animal he loved.
Kevin sat down on the couch. He closed his eyes for a long moment. “I didn’t know where else to go. We just talked to the doctor. Apparently my daughter may never speak to me. Do you know why Neil?”
Neil shook his head no. Of course he didn’t know. Kevin hasn’t told him yet.
“She’s—She’s like you, Josten.”
“Autistic, you mean?” he asked, sitting down on a chair across from Kevin. He resisted the urge to reach over and touch the stuffed animal.
Kevin nodded. “Yeah.”
“The speech therapy—“
“It was bullshit. She recognized the behavior. She wants to keep working with her but she may never be able to speak. At least not enough to properly communicate.”
“I think if Andrew were here he’d tell you that karma is a bitch,” Neil said thoughtfully.
Kevin blinked at him. “I come here for your help and you tell me karma’s a bitch?”
“Okay, then my first bit of advice? I can’t read between the lines. Your daughter probably won’t be able to either.”
He frowned at that, looking down at his hands. “Did we do something wrong? How did you end up like this?”
He gestured to Neil.
“That’s not how it works. Didn’t the doctor explain this?”
“I didn’t stick around to listen,” he said quietly.
“You left them at the doctors?”
Kevin nodded. “I ran here.”
“Jesus Christ, Kevin.”
Kevin stayed silent.
“Go shower. I’m going to call Thea.”
Kevin nodded. Neil thought maybe he looked ashamed of himself.
Neil recalled how his father reacted when they learned he was autistic. It wasn’t a fun memory, really, but his mind kept coming back to it.
Kevin went upstairs to shower.
Neil dialed Thea’s number.
His mom had actually been really good with the diagnosis. She started reading up on ways to best help him. Did everything she could. Until they ran. Everything she’d learned to help him was washed down the drain and she forced him to mask in public to not draw attention to himself. It took awhile to unlearn that habit. Sometimes it required a reminder from Andrew that he was safe.
His father had shouted about he’s not surprised, his son was fucking useless before now he’s twice as worse. He’d wanted to get rid of him, give him to someone else to be his problem and the Moriyama’s had offered him that.
“Neil!” Thea’s voice exclaimed into the phone. He jumped, startled by the noise.
“Hi,” he said into the phone, hearing the shower start up. “Kevin’s here. He told me what happened. He needs some time to process it. Are you okay?”
“A little shocked but I’m glad he’s okay,” Thea said.
“You’re okay with her being autistic?”
“I’m okay with her being anything. I just feel better knowing that we didn’t do anything wrong, it’s how she was born.”
“That’s good. I’ll keep you updated on Kevin. You can call me if you need anything...or have any questions.”
“Thank you, Neil.”
“Of course.”
“Bye.”
Neil hung up and immediately dialed Andrew’s number.
Andrew answered in the second ring.
“What’s wrong?”
Straight to the point. Neil loathed formalities anyway.
“Kevin’s here.”
“Like he’s in our house?”
“Yeah.”
“We have to burn the place down.”
“What?” Neil asked. “Burn it down?”
“It was a joke,” Andrew explained. “Why is he there?”
“His daughter is autistic. He’s upset. What do I do?”
“Do you want to help him? Kick him out?”
Neil thought about this.
He wondered if he could help Kevin make him turn over a new leaf. He wondered if he’d be more understanding when Neil stimmed at ‘inappropriate’ times. If he kicked him out he wondered what would happen to his daughter. Would he be impatient and cruel? Would Thea even let him?
“I think I should.”
“You misunderstood. I asked if you wanted to. You probably should yes, but if you don’t want to then don’t. He’s been an asshole to you since day one because you’re autistic,” Andrew said firmly. “He doesn’t deserve help, but do what you think is right.”
Neil looked up the stairs. “Can you make sure Thea is okay? Kevin ran out in the middle of their doctors appointment.”
“He’s such a fucking asshole,” Andrew grumbled. “Yeah, I’ll check on them.”
Neil nodded. “Bye, ‘Drew.”
“Bye.”
-
Neil had made three cups of coffee.
One for Andrew, one for Kevin and one for himself. Kevin took a long ass shower and Andrew left practice early. He was just leaving Thea and Kevin’s place now.
They were okay, he said. Perfectly safe.
Neil felt better knowing that.
Kevin came down the stairs just as Andrew came home.
Andrew glared across the room at his former teammate. “You’re a real piece of shit, Day.”
He cringed, but nodded.
“I made coffee,” Neil managed to say. Then, when Andrew was looking, he signed: “He wants my help.”
“You’re not his doctor or his therapist,” Andrew signed back.
Kevin looked helplessly between them. “Quit talking about me when I can’t understand it.”
Neil held up the dinosaur coffee mug to him with a smile. “Here.”
Kevin glared at the coffee cup. “Will she be this obsessed with dinosaurs?”
“Probably not dinosaurs, something else? For sure.”
Kevin frowned. “How do you deal with it?”
He was looking at Andrew. Andrew had sat down next to Neil pouring sugar packets into his coffee.
“Deal with it?” Andrew repeated. “With Neil being autistic?”
Kevin nodded.
“Not how it works, Day. It’s like ‘dealing’ with anyone else. He has things he likes and things he doesn’t and you accommodate for that. He likes the leather seats in my car and hates fabric seats so his car has leather as well,” Andrew explained, looking up at him.
“You can drive?” Kevin asked Neil in shock.
“Um, yeah. You really should have stuck around to listen to your doctor.”
Kevin dropped his head onto the table. “How do I do this?”
“Raise a child?” Andrew asked.
Kevin shrugged. “I don’t know how to be there for her.”
“She’s two. As long as you feed, clothe and house her you’ll be okay. Worry about the rest later.”
Kevin was quiet for a moment, sipping his coffee. Neil was content to play with the keyring Andrew had slipped him. On the end was a fuzzy pom pom that Andrew had attached specifically for Neil.
“Most of what I learned was from being around Neil or from asking Bee,” Andrew said. “Talk to your doctor. Don’t leave Thea to deal with it alone, though.”
“Oh my god, I ran out on them,” Kevin cringed. “I’m horrible.”
“We’ll give you a ride back,” Andrew said, holding his hand out for the keyring. Neil handed it over, sipping his lukewarm coffee. “You coming?”
“Yeah,” Neil decided.
-
The ride back to Kevin’s was quiet, until they pulled into his driveway.
He leaned forward through the middle, thanking them. Then he turned to Neil.
“You have a normal life right?” he asked. “Like, you can still do things. Like you got married, you have cats, you could have kids--”
“Kids.” Neil repeated, staring at him.
“I mean, you and Andrew can’t have biological kids but if you wanted to adopt?”
Neil was stunned by the question, frozen in his seat. Kids. With Andrew. He’d never considered it.
“He could if he wanted to. Your daughter will be fine. Get out of my car, Kevin.”
Kevin took a moment to be fake surprised by Andrew’s answer before he climbed out of the car and left.
Neil stared at Andrew. “You--How--I can have kids.”
“Yeah. If you want them.”
“Do you?”
Andrew looked over at him, considering this. “I do.”
“Okay,” Neil said, sitting back quietly. He shook his hand a little, the image of Andrew holding a baby with such gentleness flooded his brain. He liked that idea a lot.