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Andrew was fixing his hair on the mirror, Neil knew that Andrew could see him leaning against the door with a dumb smile, he also knew that Andrew was purposefully ignoring him, but Neil couldn't complain having the amazing view of Andrew's back muscles moving under his navy blue dress shirt.
"Staring," Andrew finally mumbled and Neil grinned.
"I'm allowed," he smiled brightly hugging Andrew from behind and resting his chin on Andrew's shoulder, and Andrew smiled.
"Says who?" Andrew asked because even after all these years he was a little shit.
"You can't be mean on our anniversary," Neil retorted and Andrew huffed.
"Being mean was what made you fall in love with me in the first place."
"Can't argue with that," Neil laughed.
Neil couldn't be happier, he never thought he would live past twenty, but there he was, alive, with a stable career, two cats, a husband, and a family waiting for them to celebrate their seventh anniversary.
So much had changed since Neil met Andrew, after years together and a lot of therapy they could communicate their feelings easily, Andrew wasn't scared to want anymore, he knew that he was allowed to want, they were healing together.
Hugging Andrew without asking first years ago would be the end of their troubled relationship, but now they could hold hands, hug, even kiss without a verbal "yes".
Not on bad days, though, but bad days were less and less frequent now, and even when they came, Andrew was always ready to deal with Neil when he needed support, and Neil was always ready to have Andrew's back.
They also have each other's therapist’s number just in case.
The first time Neil saw Andrew smiling after those awful meds, smiling not because something was funny but because he was happy, Neil almost cried, he really had to go outside and breathe or he'd cry for no reason.
Andrew still didn't smile frequently, but he did smile with Aaron and with Aaron's kids, he smiled with Kevin, and, most importantly, Andrew smiled with Neil, all the time.
And Neil was so proud to be the one who made Andrew smile the most.
"If your younger self could see you now wearing something that isn't black he would kill you," Neil whispered, and Andrew laughed – Andrew laughed!!! – tapping Neil's hand softly as a sign that he needed to finish getting ready, and he wouldn't be able to do that if Neil didn't let him move.
Neil grunted and let go of his husband even though he didn't want to.
"Are you feeling nostalgic today?" Andrew said touching Neil's hair softly, probably fixing the mess that was Neil's auburn curls.
"Maybe, a little."
"I can hit you with a racquet if it makes you feel better," Andrew said, finally satisfied with whatever he'd done with Neil's hair.
"I'm feeling great, no need for violence. I'm just thinking about how far we've got," Neil shrugged. "Like, goddammit, Aaron and I text every day and I actually enjoy it."
"Gross,” Andrew scrunched his nose. “You’re married to me, not him.”
“Aaron is your brother and I care about you, so I care about him too,” Neil frowned. “Don’t tell him I said that.”
“I’ll definitely tell him you said that. Are you ready? We’re late.”
“Do we really need to go? We could stay here,” Neil smiled. “I’ll order something, you’ll choose the movie we’ll ignore, I’ll lock the cats in the guest room, and you’ll fuck me hard. Sounds good to me.”
“That’s tempting, but we have to go to the surprise party your family spent months planning,” Andrew held Neil’s face in his hands and kissed his forehead. “We’ll go to the party, we’ll pretend Nicky didn’t accidentally tell us all about it when he was drunk, then we’ll come back home, and I’ll fuck you hard.”
“You’re so sweet,” Neil whispered, smiling brightly, talking about sex so openly was also something they’ve never thought would happen without bad memories coming back to haunt them both, but they knew that, whatever happened, they’d take care of each other – and Neil felt lucky for Andrew trusting on him this much. “And they’re your family too, don’t you dare throw them all at me.”
“Kevin is yours, I’m not claiming him.”
“Of course Kevin’s mine, he’s like my brother,” Neil paused. “Holy shit, don’t tell him I said that.”
“I don’t have to, he already decided he’s your brother anyway,” Andrew huffed a laugh. "Let's go, babe. You’re driving tonight.”
“Why do you always ask me to drive when I’m wearing a suit?”
Andrew arched an eyebrow.
“Because it’s fucking sexy.”
And that made Neil laugh, and he pretended not to see Andrew's proud smile.
“C’mon, our family is waiting for us. Oh, I’m not claiming Nicky, but Renee is mine.”
“No way,” Andrew gasped. “Renee is mine, Allison is yours.”
.