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In spite of what most people believed, pro players of Exy had some sense of self-preservation.
Which was most of the reason why no one had dared to talk about the incident between Andrew Minyard and one of his teammates.
To be fair most players had only known about this from rumours, and since most of those seemed too unbelievable to be real only very few people knew the truth, and even fewer of them knew the truth about the truth.
That’s how the theories and conspiracies started, half-truths, quarter truths, completely made-up stories, a variety of comments that hung around in locker rooms and hotels, hushed so that no one unwanted would listen, hidden so that it couldn’t get out of them. And that only helped to make the theories more bizarre.
“I am telling you, it’s a Mafia thing, probably owed some money”
“I heard they made a blood pact when they were in college, that’s why no one talks about it”
“I heard Andrew killed one of his teammates before”
Not many dared question the theories, not while they didn’t have any other explanation to offer in their place, if it were a rumour about any other pair of Exy players maybe someone could offer their piece of the truth, but Josten and Minyard had always been undecipherable, and terrifying in their own way.
Outside of what the press had to say no one knew too much about them, there were talks about deaths, threats and mafia bosses around. No one really wanted to know about them in fear they’d get pulled into something they couldn’t get out of, and those who had shared teams with either could never say anything beyond the fact that Neil was obsessed with Exy and that Andrew hated it but was still insanely good at it.
And the rumour going around of them being married was just too absurd to be true.
They couldn’t be married, right? They hated each other, that’s what everyone knew, it was obvious they hadn’t spoken more than a colourful array of insults and threats, sometimes even in different languages, no one knew what had happened between them after they graduated college and started to play for professional teams, but their hostile glances indicated it was nothing good.
So they couldn’t be married, whoever was walking around saying that clearly was making it up, there must be another explanation as to why Andrew punched his teammate and a much better explanation for what he was doing in Neil Josten’s hospital room after the incident.
Still it is not as if anyone was going to ask them directly, sense of self-preservation and all.
Many would argue that the best place for gossip was a hair salon, those many have probably never been to an Exy banquet.
As drinks get poured and people are forced to talk it’s inevitable that gossip will start, and against all the rules of designated gender roles, it never gets started by the women.
This banquet is not the exception to the rule, anyone at the banquet could sense it, there was a lot more talk than usual, a lot more hushed conversations, and a lot more directed looks towards two specific people in the room.
Not that anyone would admit it, if those people caught up on it things could get… rowdy.
That didn’t stop conversations from happening, especially as one glass of champagne had turned into two, or three, or more, and as a whisper could be heard from a metre away.
“You think they are actually married?” One player asked, a tan-skinned man who had never been in a team with either, next to him one of Neil’s previous teammates who got traded to a different team a few months after Neil arrived, turning into two people who knew very little of who they were talking about.
“Jones, Minyard literally punched someone as he said it,” The other player, Alexandre, said, his companion, Jones, thought for a second, considering the words.
“I mean, but were you there? Did you see it?”
“No, obviously, but that’s what most people say, I’m telling you that many people can’t be lying.”
“But that doesn’t have to mean anything, they could have been pretending, I mean, they don’t even wear rings!” The comment made the two men turn around to look at Neil and Andrew, who were now sitting next to each other but talking to other people (Or Neil was talking to other people while Andrew was glaring in the opposite direction)
The two men tried to look for any indication they had a ring hidden somewhere, but none of them wore any visible jewellery, and the suits they had chosen to wear today didn’t particularly help as they were trying to see if they maybe wore their rings as a necklace as many other Exy player did to not have to take them off during games.
There was nothing to be found, not from afar, but they still tried.
“You guys know that it’s rude to stare?” Kevin Day’s voice made itself present behind them, making them jump slightly at the sudden appearance.
“Day! My man! How’s it going?”
“Did you lose something?” Kevin answered ignoring the greeting, gesturing towards Neil and Andrew.
“No, but I was just wondering if you could help us out here”
“With what exactly?”
“You know…” Alexandre gestured towards Neil and Andrew, drawing an imaginary circle in the air around them. “That,”
“What about it?”
“You must know what they say about them, like, you shared rooms with them in college, right?”
Kevin didn’t hold back the impulse to roll his eyes. “Yes. So what?”
“You have to know something”
“Something like what?” Kevin answered, his tone had the slightest hint of hostility, but none of the other two seemed to notice.
“Like, if they are…?” Jones spoke this time, letting the question hang in the air, Kevin cocked an eyebrow, as if daring Jones to finish the sentence, he didn’t.
“Not that we would have a problem with that, we are huge allies, right?” Alexandre rushed to say, nudging the man by his side, who nodded eagerly.
“Yeah, yeah, huge allies,” Jones added, still nodding and holding his hand up in a fist.
“Yeah, live your truth and all that,” Alexandre paused, letting the statement hang in the air for a second before speaking again. “So what do you know?”
Although Kevin had years of PR training under his belt, and even more years deflecting questions from people who didn’t know when to shut up in the most decent way possible he still had a very short temper when it came to drunk people asking questions about the personal lives of others.
Those others in this case being Andrew and Neil, his temper was even shorter.
Even if Kevin would never admit it out loud he cared for them, he watched their games and checked what people said about them, he shut down journalists who stepped over the line with seeming ease. He knew they wouldn't like him to fight their battles, but this one was hardly a battle if his only weapon was indifference.
Still the other two didn’t seem to be taking the hint, they kept asking, and finding new ways to ask, even as Kevin kept ignoring and deflecting the questions, not giving them a clue about anything, but it just made them ask more, as if they knew he was hiding something and were determined to ask until Kevin got annoyed to death and confessed.
It was them who got bored first, or maybe they decided in their heads that if Kevin was not saying anything it must be because he had been threatened by Neil and Andrew and will get killed if he says anything (he wouldn’t put it past them, but they never had to worry about him talking about their relationship, he shared his philosophy with his father, it was above his pay grade)
They decided it was better not to ask anymore, even if they were a little drunk and had a lot less impulse control than they normally did, especially as they caught Andrew Minyard staring directly at them as if he knew everything they had ever done, as if he could take them apart with only his eyes.
He probably could.
So they moved, walking as far away as possible. from anyone who had even been a Fox
For self-preservation and all.
Winning Olympic Gold was not something that US Team Captain, Paul Restrepo, had considered as possible.
True, he had a good team, but his team seemed to be too dysfunctional to be able to go as far as winning at the Olympics. Their training sessions had been a mess, specially at the beginning, when Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard had walked into the court and people didn’t know if they were going to kill each other (or them)
Paul was well aware of the rumours, and he was also aware that Minyard and Josten had played for the same team in college, so he hoped that they could be civil and professional.
He wasn’t wrong about them, on the court they didn’t seem to hate each other, Paul wasn’t sure what exactly was driving them but they were a force to be reckoned with, an incredibly fast striker and an impenetrable goalie, opposite positions that perfectly complemented each other.
It was obvious they knew each other games, their strength and weaknesses, Neil was the only player who could score a point against Andrew with seeming ease (Not even Kevin Day who was a more polished striker could do it and leave as calm as relaxed as Neil seemed to be when he did it)
Still their own chemistry while playing did not translate to the rest of the team, who seemed to be more interested in paying attention to others than to themselves.
And even then, they were not a bad team, they weren’t terrible, but Paul wasn’t sure that not bad was enough to win the Olympics. Even if his not bad was to US Court standards and was definitely a better not bad than your average team.
So one could imagine his surprise as the last buzzer indicating the end of the match appeared and indicated that they had won. Somehow they had won. And it was shocking, even if they had already made it that far.
(Even if he had already seen that Neil played as if his life depended on it, like he had a purpose beyond just winning. And he saw how Andrew matched it, even if he didn’t seem to care most of the time about the result of each match)
The celebrations didn’t wait, loud screams coming from the bleachers and the Court, hugs and applauses and pats on the back. It was everything Paul had dreamt of.
And then everything went quiet for a moment, he looked around, searching for the reason, maybe someone had fainted, maybe it was a fight.
He had not been expecting it to be a kiss.
He was expecting even less to see Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard kissing on the court.
And not a heated, rough kiss, it didn’t seem to be an impulse, or a bet of some kind. It was slow, careful, soft.
All of the things he would have never thought to associate with either of the two players.
He watched with his mouth agape as they pulled apart after a few seconds, Neil was smiling brightly and Andrew had a smirk that was the biggest display of emotion anyone had ever seen from him.
It was unsettling.
Neil and Andrew moved away from each other and started walking towards the rest of the team, standing side by side but not touching, not even acknowledging what they had just done, as they got closer no one dared to speak, the loud celebration they had going on before coming to an abrupt end.
Andrew stayed a little farther from the team as Neil went to stand next to the captain, he seemed to be having fun, the captain was sure it had nothing to do with winning an Olympic medal.
“Aren’t we celebrating?” Neil asked, cocking his head to the side lightly, his tone was almost innocent.
“Why did you do that?” The captain answered instead, Neil looked at him as if he had no idea what he was talking about.
“What?”
“Kiss him”
“Oh, that.” Neil paused, finding his next words as a smirk spread across his face. “Because we are married.”
“Be fucking serious, Josten, you’re not.”
“We’ve been married since my first season as a Pro,” Although no one had heard Neil joking about anything ever, his tone was for sure not a joke this time, it was a truth, just as real and factual as saying that the sky was blue. No one had any reason to not believe him.
“Wait, you’re for real?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Neil asked, a rhetorical question that no one knew how to answer. Rivalry aside there was nothing they could say to prove he was not telling the truth.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone that?” Paul asked instead, earning himself a glare from Andrew who still remained away from the circle that had formed around them, filled with players who wanted to know what was going on.
“Well, it was none of your business. And it still isn’t” Neil’s words were pointed and clear, his words slow so everyone could understand them.
“Then why tell now?”
“Because it’s fun,” Neil shrugged, looking back at Andrew who barely acknowledged him with a nod, Paul couldn’t guess what that meant.
“I-”
Neil interrupted before Paul could say anything else. “If that’s all I think we have to go and pick up our medals.”
“Are you-?”
“Don’t we?” It was Andrew who interrupted this time, appearing behind Neil as if he were a ghost, his never-changing expression was as hostile and uninterested as always, Paul didn’t want to find out if that was his version of an angry face, the captain gulped and nodded.
“Yeah…” The captain looked away from Neil and Andrew, facing the wide-eyed teammates who couldn’t stop looking at them. Except for Kevin Day, who seemed completely unfazed (if anything, a little annoyed) at the whole thing. “Hey team, let’s go get our golds.”
As the captain spoke he started moving, and his team followed him without asking any more questions and without daring to look back.
For self-preservation.