Work Text:
Aaron knows what promises mean to Andrew.
He knows the iron clasp of a deal, knows the bitter, stinging rage of one broken.
He remembers the deals they’ve made, all of them, big and small.
He doesn’t regret any of them.
Not one, no matter what happened because of it.
He had when he was younger. When he was mourning his mother, when he was shuddering on a cold tile floor, when one by one his friends and girlfriends left with shaky apologies and red eyes that wouldn’t meet his.
He let go of it, all of it, when his racquet smashed through skull and his shirt splattered with blood. He’d been on fire, every inch of him, seeing Drake on Andrew.
He’d understood why Andrew did the things he did. He hated the methods, hated how trapped he felt.
But.
Aaron is an adult now. He’s a neurosurgeon, and engaged, and he lives in a house he and Katelyn bought for themselves.
(Tilda’s money was donated to the Foxes. He didn’t use it, and then he didn’t need it. It felt too much like blood money for him to want.)
Andrew went pro, and Neil followed. It took years, but they’re on the same team now, and they've a house and cats.
Aaron still dislikes Neil. He knows he’s good for Andrew, but Neil is still the mouthiest shit Aaron’s ever met.
Andrew is his brother. They don’t make deals anymore. They don’t need to.
They have that strained, half-formed bond, the one they’re working on fixing slowly. They have Nicky, and weekly video calls with Betsy, and the Foxes’ stubborn insistence that they need to stay in contact.
So they have exchanges, instead. Something safer, something warmer. It’s not transactional, not as cold as its traditional meaning. It’s a safe, steady base to build and work on.
Andrew sends two plane tickets. Aaron goes to his finals game. He sits in the box reserved for family and watches Andrew slam a legendary shot down the court and into the opposite goal. He remembers it clearly, the way the glass felt when he slammed his hands on it, how disbelief-his own, around him-erupted from dead still silence, how Katelyn threw her arms around his neck and bounced on her toes, yelling. Aaron has the newspaper clipping from the day after pinned to the corkboard with bills and take-out menus.
Aaron celebrates the end of his residency, and Andrew sends him a card. There’s nothing written in the card itself, but when Aaron picks it up a polaroid slips out. It shows a brain-shaped cake, a knife buried in the center of it. Do not do this, it’s captioned in Andrew’s blocky handwriting. Aaron snorts when he sees it and pins it to the corkboard.
Andrew arrives in person the day before he marries Katelyn. It had been unplanned, Andrew and Neil having an away game that day. Andrew had cancelled the game, flown out with a suit and a spare shirt and got to Aaron’s house less than twelve hours before. Aaron hadn’t planned on having a best man-it had felt wrong, somehow, having anyone else-but Andrew took on the role with unexpected grace.
When Neil is stabbed non-fatally and hospitalised for a week, Aaron takes his vacation early and goes. He stays to make sure Andrew sleeps in a real bed, and eats more than hospital cafeteria food. He argues with Neil’s doctors until they show him his chart and explains it to Andrew-it’s not his area of expertise, but he took a generalised course and he understands it enough. When Neil is discharged, Aaron drives him to physical therapy and back until Andrew can renegotiate his contract and get more time off.
Aaron reaches, and Andrew tries, and they don’t need deals anymore.
They have exchanges, have each other.
They’re brothers, and for the first time in their lives, they’re acting like it.