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Neil barely registers the date when he gets ready for class that morning.
It’s a Thursday, which means he has only half an hour after morning gym practice to shower, squeeze as much water out of his hair as possible, and hurry to his Multivariable Calculus class. He’s not known for being the least oblivious person in general, but as this professor docks points for being late, he’s in a hurry and wouldn’t notice anything strange if it hit him in the face.
Which it quite literally does, in retrospect, when Nicky tosses a package at him while he’s on his way out of the gym lockers. It’s wrapped in white tissue paper, which he tears open at Nicky's encouragement to reveal a knit black beanie with sewn-on orange fox ears from the campus shop.
“Oh,” he says, looking up at Nicky’s grinning face. “Thank you?”
It was pretty cold out when he jogged to the gym this morning, and his hair is still damp, so he pulls it over his head immediately and makes his way out.
“You’re welcome!” Nicky hollers after him, “Happy V—” The door falling shut behind Neil cuts off the rest of his sentence, but Neil can't quite feel sorry.
In class, he notices a suspicious amount of flowers poking out of people’s backpacks, but thinks nothing more of it until a girl he worked on a project with at the beginning of the semester approaches him after the professor dismissed them. Angela, he thinks. She fiddles with her necklace as she stands over his desk and smiles when he looks up.
“Hi Neil,” she says, her face turning red.
“Hi?” He blinks. He’s not sure he’s talked to her since they finished that project.
“Um, I was just wondering if … you’d maybe like to go out sometime? Maybe tonight?”
Neil feels both of his eyebrows rise far up his forehead. That’s not at all what he was expecting to hear, if he was expecting anything at all. “Um. No. No, thanks.” He’s aware, dimly, that he could have been nicer about that, but it’s too late now. He watches as her face turns an even darker shade of red.
“Oh. Alright. I mean, yeah, that’s fine. Sorry!” She laughs, nervously, stepping away from his desk. “See you.”
Neil watches as she stumbles over to the gaggle of her friends waiting at the door, sees their expressions change from hopeful into a range from pitying to angry as they pat her on the back. He shakes his head, grabs his bag and makes his way out past them.
He makes it as far as the front steps of the building before he runs into Julia, who he knows only as the current captain of the Vixens. He almost doesn’t recognize her without her uniform and ponytail, but he’s talked to her at a few joint post-game parties because she has a surprising amount of insightful observations on their games. When she steps into his path, he expects something about the game tomorrow, but what he gets instead is a tiny pink envelope pressed to his chest.
She smiles very, very broadly and says, “For you,” before hurrying past him.
It is around this point that Neil begins to suspect something might be up. He stuffs the envelope into his pocket unopened, and makes his way down the steps, where Andrew is waiting with an unlit cigarette already dangling from the corner of his mouth.
“Hi,” Neil says as he steps up to him.
Andrew says nothing in return, but his eyes flick up the stairs to where Julia stopped him, and back down to the edge of the envelope peeking out of Neil’s pocket. “Let’s go.”
They walk to the lunch hall together. Neil usually prefers the athlete’s one for the sole reason that they’re more likely to run into the others there, but Andrew regularly steers him towards the other one on their shared Thursday lunch break, so Neil follows.
Inside, there are pink heart garlands strung up along the walls, bouquets on almost every table, and even more people are carrying flowers around. Neil narrows his eyes.
“What’s going on?” he decides to ask when they’ve claimed an empty table with their trays.
Andrew gives him a deadpan look, but shrugs when Neil simply continues staring.
They eat in silence, as they usually do. The food is not even that good for the fact that it’s not part of their approved meal plan, and Neil mostly ends up pushing his mashed potatoes around on his plate before giving his dessert to Andrew.
Just as he’s about to announce that he’s done, someone steps up to their table.
It’s a guy from his History class whose name he doesn’t even remember. He has bright red hair and very green eyes and usually sits only a few seats away from Neil, but Neil doesn’t think they’ve ever spoken.
Until now, apparently, when the guy opens his mouth. “Hi Neil!”
“Hi,” Neil replies automatically. “Sorry, I don’t really know —”
“Oh, it’s Leonard! We have History and Basic Analysis together.” Neil nods, slowly. He didn’t know they had another course together. Leonard’s smile begins to falter at the edges, but he soldiers on. “I’ve noticed you in class a couple times, and I think you’re really cute, and was wondering if I could maybe have your number?”
Neil, feeling thoroughly spooked at this point, barely knows what to say. Remembering his earlier fumbling with Angela, he manages to get out something along the lines of: “Uh, sorry, no. No, but thank you.”
Leonard briefly looks like he’s going to say something else, but his gaze snaps over to Andrew and he quickly shuts his mouth and hurries away. When Neil turns towards Andrew, though, his face is his usual blank mask. Nothing really scary about that, but people have always believed strange things about Andrew.
“What the fuck is going on today?” Neil wonders aloud as they leave the dining hall.
Andrew clicks his tongue. “You can figure it out on your own.”
Neil gives him a look, but they have no time, anyway. Andrew has a class right after lunch, and Neil has a test this afternoon that he’d still like to cram a bit more for, so he reaches out to squeeze Andrew’s wrist once before he takes off towards the library.
There are no more strange encounters, though when he leaves to go to the bathroom he returns to find another envelope tucked between the pages of his textbook, with his name and a heart drawn on the outside.
It’s only when he checks his phone on his way to his test that the date catches his eye: February 14th.
Suddenly, the sappy decorations and the flowers and the confessions make a lot more sense. He rolls his eyes. There’s no love lost between him and Valentine’s day. He opens the two envelopes, leafs through the cards inside briefly. One of them has a bright red heart lollipop taped to it, which he pries off and pockets for Andrew before tossing both cards in the trash can outside the science building on his way in.
He returns to Fox Tower almost two hours before evening practice with the intention of taking a nap. Instead, he is waylaid once in the parking lot by a girl from the swim team who hands him an envelope with a tiny purple flower taped to it and tries to ask him out, and then once more in the hallway upstairs.
That second time is at least saved by the fact that it’s Matt, holding a giant fox plushie out for him.
Neil takes it, although it’s almost half his size, and Matt grins at him over its head. “Happy Valentine's Day!”
Neil sighs, but does squeeze the plushie tighter to his chest. It’s soft, and very squishy, and definitely not something you can buy at the campus store. “Where did you get this?”
“The internet, Neil,” Matt says, eyes huge. “Isn’t it great?”
Neil squeezes it some more. It is pretty nice. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome buddy.” Matt’s eyes land on the envelope Neil is still awkwardly holding onto because he didn’t want to throw it away right in the lobby in front of the girl’s eyes. “What’s that? You got mail from your lover?”
Neil snorts. “No. This is from one of the swimmers.”
“Oh?” Matt raises both brows. “You got multiple lovers? How many gifts did you get today?”
Neil cringes at the memory of each one, barring Nicky’s and Matt’s, and shrugs. “A couple.”
“A couple, he says.” Matt laughs a bit. “Andrew must be fuming.”
At this, Neil frowns. Andrew didn’t appear out of the ordinary to him earlier. “Why?”
“I mean, I’d be pretty mad if a bunch of people came onto Dan.” Matt shrugs. “Like, I know she wouldn’t give any of them even a second of her time, but I still wouldn’t love it. Especially on Valentine’s Day.”
“I don’t get what’s so special about this day. Don’t you tell Dan you love her every day? And you guys go out on dates all the time. I don’t see why today would be special in any way, or why it would be especially bad if someone else flirted with her today.”
Matt does laugh, this time. “Oh Neil. Sure, yeah, I do tell her I love her all the time. And I love taking her out. But it’s still nice to have a day that’s a little bit special every now and then. You’re alive and aware that you were born every other day of the year, too, but it’s still nice to celebrate your birthday, right?” Neil doesn’t know about that, but he thinks he can agree with the sentiment. “Same with this. I love her every day, but it’s still nice to be able to celebrate a special day with her. And if other people think my girlfriend is single on the day of love, then I’m clearly doing something wrong.”
Neil considers this. He’s still unsure if he agrees, but he does think he gets what Matt means.
Matt shrugs again when Neil doesn’t reply. “Well, Andrew might not care. Plenty of people don’t, it’s not the same for everyone. That’s your thing entirely. I was just joking.”
Neil nods, slowly. It hadn’t seemed like Andrew cared much earlier. Neil didn’t, either, although he did see a benefit in doing something to celebrate if it meant he had to put up with fewer uncomfortable interactions throughout the day.
“But tell me if he does end up having anything planned, yeah?” Matt knocks his shoulder with a grin. “I got a bet going with Allison. She can’t keep winning.”
Neil brushes him off, but returns the smile. He doesn’t always love when the others bet on him and Andrew, even though he knows it’s unavoidable with the Foxes. This seems relatively harmless, though, so he lets it slide.
Luckily, only Kevin is home when Neil finally makes it to their dorm. He’s at his desk with headphones on and his nose deep in a textbook, and Neil can crawl into his bed without any further disturbances, curling around his newly acquired plushie to sleep.
He wakes when the front door falls shut again, and is for a moment sure that he must have slept through practice. The sun is setting outside and he left the lamp on the bedside table on, so the window looks darker than it is. A quick look at his phone confirms that he still has half an hour left, so he swings his legs out of bed and tucks the fox plush under his arm before waddling out into the living room.
Kevin is gone, and so are his sneakers from the shoe rack — he’s likely on his way to the court already, getting his warm up in by jogging there. Instead of him, Andrew is perched on the edge of the desk, and he’s holding a bouquet of very red roses.
Neil blinks once, twice, and tilts his head. Andrew holds the bouquet out for him, face stoically calm. There’s a little card tucked between the blood red petals.
“It was on sale,” Andrew says when Neil doesn’t immediately take it. He sounds like he’s pressing the words out from behind his teeth. “They were gonna throw it out. Take it. Or not. I don’t care.”
Neil cannot take his eyes off of him. He reaches out and slowly wraps his fingers around the bottom of the bouquet, lifting it out of Andrew’s hand. It’s a very nice bouquet, the roses all fresh and perky. He seriously doubts the flower shop was planning to throw this out before 5pm on Valentine’s Day, but elects not to comment.
“Thank you,” he says instead. He holds the roses closer to his chest to sniff them, though he isn’t sure what he expects. Perhaps something that smells more like Andrew, like a whiff of his cologne. They smell only like flowers.
Andrew shrugs, looking away. “It’s nothing special.”
Neil hums, and can’t help a smile. “I didn’t get you anything. I’m sorry.” He remembers the card from earlier, then. “Oh, wait.”
The lollipop is very warm, some of the candy melted and smeared against the plastic wrapping, when he digs it out of his pocket, but he holds it out for Andrew, anyway.
Andrew breaks his staring match with the kitchen cabinet to look at the lollipop. He raises a skeptical brow, but takes it anyway. “I don’t care.”
Neil also doubts that, but he holds his tongue once more. He digs a tall glass out of the kitchen drawer to substitute as a vase, and places the roses on the table. They look very nice in their fancy wrapping, and he wonders if it cost Andrew extra.
When he returns to the desk, he leans over to peck Andrew on his newly candy-flavored lips, once. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Andrew doesn’t reply, but looks at him with heavy eyes, and when Neil makes his way over to the bathroom to get ready, he hears a mumble behind him that sounds vaguely like, “Hm —py —tine’s Day.”
After practice, Neil catches Nicky in the hallway outside the locker rooms and tries to, subtly, get him to distract Kevin and Aaron. Nicky, however, is smarter than Neil sometimes gives him credit for, and his eyes light up immediately.
“Do not fret, my young padawan,” he whispers too loudly. “There shall be no disturbances this Valentine’s Night.”
Neil blinks at what he’s sure is a reference to something he doesn’t know, but says nothing. This is not quite what Neil was aiming for, but it does the trick well enough when Nicky herds Kevin and Aaron towards Matt’s truck under loud complaints about how long Andrew is taking, even though he leaves the lockers right after them. Kevin tries to protest, clearly confused, but Aaron simply accepts his fate, and so they are both pulled along by Nicky’s astounding gravitas.
Andrew raises an eyebrow at Neil, who can only smile back.
“Can I drive?” he asks as they approach the Mas.
Andrew side-eyes him, but throws his bag into the backseat and rounds the car to the passenger side with no further comment. Neil grins and slides in behind the wheel.
Immediately out of the parking lot, he takes a turn toward the highway instead of the dorms. Andrew says nothing.
He has no real plan, and they need to be in bed early so they get enough sleep before the game tomorrow — he suspects that if they aren’t back by at least nine, Kevin will start blowing up both their phones, anyway. But he wants to do something, even if it’s small, and nothing too out of the ordinary.
So he hits the interstate and drives until he finds the exit that leads into a nearby town. Nothing special, just another suburb that has not much more to its name than a hospital area and a strip mall, but they’ve ended up there on the tail end of one of their nights spent driving around before, and he remembers that Andrew liked the ice cream shop at the center of said strip mall.
He pulls into the near empty parking lot, and turns off the engine. Andrew gives him an unimpressed look from the passenger seat, but Neil finds himself smiling, still. “Can you order something for me? I’ll be right with you.”
Wordlessly, Andrew gets out of the car and walks into the ice cream shop. Neil grabs his own wallet out of the cup holder and makes for the convenience store instead.
He buys whatever he can find that he thinks Andrew might like. A new pack of cigarettes. A fancy lighter that looks like a blowtorch. Chocolate pralines. A tiny rabbit keychain.
When he makes it out of the store with a plastic bag full of gifts dangling from his wrist, Andrew is already waiting by the car with two cups of ice cream in his hands. They eat in the car, still parked, and Andrew finishes his cup of chocolate fudge ice cream almost a solid ten minutes before Neil is done with his fruit sorbet.
As the shops around them begin to close for the night, lights flicking off one after one, Neil leans over to steal one chocolate-sorbet flavored kiss, then drops the bag in Andrew’s lap.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he says, for the second time today, and Andrew grunts at him.
He rifles through the content of the bag briefly, weighing every gift in his palm for a moment, before he leans back over to press their mouths together once more, this time with force.
Neil’s heart beats high in his throat. He whips the car around to take them back home, and he doesn’t look over at Andrew fiddling with the bag in his lap for the rest of the drive. Once back at Palmetto, though, he spots a tiny rabbit swinging from the key Andrew uses to unlock the dorm door, and Andrew pulls him inside by his hand.