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“I’ve got an announcement,” Wymack calls out at the end of practice. The foxes, already halfway to the locker rooms, pause.
“Kathy wants an interview and with all the questions I’ve received after the stunt you two-” He pauses to shoot a glare at Neil and Andrew who stare back unrepentantly, “-pulled during the last game, I’ve decided to kill two birds with one stone. Minyard, Josten, be on the bus no later than 5am.”
"Because’ getting on her show went so well for me last time." Neil mutters, running a hand through his sweaty hair in exasperation.
"You provoked Riko on live television." Kevin reminds him with no sympathy, "The last time was on you, not Kathy."
Neil takes that into consideration and elects to ignore Kevin on principle.
"Are we not going to acknowledge that we’re putting Andrew on air? Knife-wielding, Andrew the Monster, Minyard?” Allison demands with a hysterical lilt to her voice, “We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t stab Kathy on set.”
“I’m more interested in why the hell anyone thinks it’s a good idea to put Neil in front of a camera. He’s a menace.” Matt chimes in, digging an elbow into Neil’s gut playfully. The striker groans good-naturedly.
“Andrew will be there to balance me out.”
"I'm not sure if that's better or worse," Dan mutters under her breath, but the whole room hears it.
"Oh worse for sure," Aaron cuts in dryly, "Andrew's incapable of anything other than one-word answers and threats."
Andrew slips a knife out of his armband, and spins it knife threateningly, "Fuck you."
Nicky waves dramatically in his direction. "Oh what a miracle! Two words!”
Neil hovers his hand over Andrew’s, and the spinning comes to an abrupt stop.
"Maybe he'll be more friendly with his partner at his side." Renee winks at Neil, ever the optimist. There’s a mischievous glint in her eye though; she’s well aware that won’t be the case.
"Nah, they enable each other. This is going to be a shit show." Dan sighs, but Wymack claps a hand on her shoulder, commiserating.
"It's just a glorified press conference. They'll be fine."
If Neil wasn't already planning for the worst, he'd say Coach just jinxed it.
. . . .
Kathy Ferdinand is all white flashing teeth and picture perfect smiles as they settle on the couch across from her.
"Welcome, Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard! After that last game, you two have been the talk of Exy fans worldwide!"
She pauses, waiting for the crowd to settle and one of them to comment.
Neil obliges with a mischievous smirk. After the absolute disaster of a performance Neil put on last time he was on air, Kevin and Dan had taken it upon themselves to teach him how to socialize with the media.
They’d even gone as far as to make a persona for him, though it relied heavily on his penchant for mouthing off, considering they couldn’t get him to stop.
He was to play the part of a sarcastically loveable menace, similar to a younger sibling - not that Neil had any experience with one - but they assured him that as long as he kept up his smile, and cracked a few jokes, he had it down pat.
"It's a familiar feeling." Neil quips with a grin, making a show of relaxing against the backrest and crossing his legs. Andrew is stiff and on-edge beside him, but Neil didn’t expect him to play nice.
"I'm sure it is!" Kathy laughs good-naturedly, "You've sure gotten a lot of time in the spotlight in recent months!"
Neil shrugs unapologetically. “What can I say? I’ve been told I’m a bit of a trouble-maker.”
"You're dramatic is what you are," Andrew remarks dryly and the audience rumbles in laughter.
Kathy flashes bleached-white teeth at the blonde, "How about you Andrew? This is your first major headline. Are you enjoying the attention?"
"No."
Kathy's eyebrows raise at his succinct answer, but she doesn’t let the mood drop. "Oh? Care to elaborate?"
“No.”
Kathy shoots a desperate look at Neil, clearly hoping he’ll be more forthcoming.
"Andrew’s a private person, being in the news is more my thing.”
There’s a quiet scoff from beside him, but Neil ignores it. They both know that his face on the news still sends him into fits of panic, but Neil’s been explicitly instructed to lie in this interview, and he’s a good fucking liar, dammit.
"It's got to be tough dating someone who's so nationally recognized then." Kathy tuts in fake sympathy. "Do the critics put any strain on your relationship?"
"Not really," Neil cuts in before Andrew can say something scathing, "We tend to stay off social media, and don't pay much mind to what's written about us in gossip rags."
"Keeping a healthy distance from the masses, how cute!" She leans forward in apparent interest. "But I must know, was it love at first sight?"
Neil huffs a laugh, and shoots a shit-eating grin in Andrew’s direction, much to the chagrin of the blonde if the twitch of his eyebrows is any indication, "Oh, he took my breath away for sure."
"I hit you with an Exy racket so hard I almost broke your ribs."
"I never said you did it romantically."
Andrew lets out what would seem like an annoyed breath to anyone else, but Neil knows he's amused.
"Well, that's one way to make a first impression.” Kathy remarks, a slight strain in her picture-perfect smile. Neil doubts he would’ve noticed it if he hadn’t spent years miro-analyzing expressions while on the run.
He wonders what it would take for her fake smile to crack.
"Yeah, we really hit it off." Neil quips, and Andrew lightly cuffs the back of his head.
"Stop that."
"Aw, there’s no need to make such a racket . You were quite a striking figure."
"I will stab you." Andrew states, completely serious, and Neil chuckles.
"You know, there's been a lot of debate as to how you get along as a couple, but I think I'm starting to understand your dynamic." Kathy sounds delighted, “Tell me, when did you know that you had feelings for each other?”
Neil glances at Andrew. They’d talked over what they were comfortable sharing the night before, and this is one of the questions they saw coming. Andrew nods, and Neil turns back to their obnoxiously cheerful interrogator.
“It wasn’t so much as a singular moment. Kinda crept up on me.”
The audience ‘awws’ appropriately.
“That’s so sweet! You must have had a wonderful friendship.”
Neil abruptly remembers the shared cigarettes, secrets spilled into open air, and Andrew threatening to push him off the roof just about every time they had a moment alone. Friendship. Yeah, that was fitting enough.
“He grows on you. Like a fungus.”
Andrew levels him with a flat glare, but his eyes aren’t shuttered, so Neil knows he’s not offended.
Kathy laughs her perfect TV host, laugh. It’s fake and shallow, but the audience joins in anyway.
Neil wants to be anywhere else.
"How about you Andrew? When did you know?" Kathy questions, turning her pearly white smile to the blonde.
"When he paid a busboy a hundred dollars to knock him out in front of me.” Andrew says, deadpan, and Neil blinks, surprised. He didn't know that.
"That sounds like quite the story!” Kathy remarks, glancing between them a little uneasily.
Neil hums, noncommittally. He’d like to keep that disastrous night at Eden’s to himself, thanks.
Seeming to realize she's not going to get that particular scoop, Kathy changes subjects.
“What’s been your favorite date?”
“Hmm,” Neil searches desperately for a date that didn't include a crime they shouldn't admit to on live TV.
“The mountains.” Andrew supplies, helpfully.
Neil snaps his fingers as if just remembering. Yeah, he can work off of the mountain trip. If he ignores that he couldn’t move his hands and that his entire team was there, so it probably didn’t count.
“The mountains?”
“Yeah, we took a trip to this cabin in Blue Ridge. Took us about 2 hours to get there, so the road trip probably counts too.”
Neil glances at Andrew, as if confirming his statement. Andrew, in tune with Neil’s antics, nods.
“And what did you do to pass the time?”
“Sat by the fire and drank hot chocolate mostly, it was cold outside.” That was technically kind of the truth. If you squinted, and left out a lot of things. Like the hiking, horseback riding, and Neil punching Aaron with barely scabbed over hands.
“That sounds cozy! How romantic.” Kathy says wistfully.
“That’s one word you could use.”
“Speaking of words, if you could describe each other with just one, what would it be?” Kathy asks, jumping on the chance to change the subject.
“Stubborn.” “Idiot.” They chorus, and that sets off the audience again.
Kathy chuckles, “I should have seen that one coming. Why is that the word you both thought of?”
“Because he’s dense as a bag of rocks. It took months before he realized I was flirting.” Andrew deadpans, shooting a withering look at Neil.
“I’m sure he was just focused on Exy-” Kathy tries to play damage control but Neil cuts her off with a grin.
“No he’s right. I do need things spelled out for me. Drew’s great at making sure I get the message though.”
The tips of Andrew’s ears flush red and his glare turns murderous. The striker only smirks at him, knowing they’re both thinking of the way Andrew had confessed at Eden's Twilight.
“It seems like there’s a story there.” Kathy hedges, clearly looking for details.
“That’s a story for another time-” Neil begins, but Andrew speaks over him.
“I had to blatantly tell him I’d blow him for him to get the picture.”
Kathy visibly chokes.
“ Andrew .” Neil hisses, face burning, but the blonde is too busy imitating that meme with the cat and the knives Matt had showed them last week.
“Right,” Kathy clears her throat and shifts gears, “Not to bring the mood down, but you must be upset at the death of your former opponent, Riko Moriyama. How are you handling that?”
Neil's embarrassed flush fades with the topic change. He'd been waiting for questions on that, despite the pre-approved questionnaires he and Andrew had received, Neil knew better than to not expect Kathy to try and catch them off guard.
“Actually I’ve never been better.”
The casual way Neil speaks seems to throw her, but Kathy presses on regardless. “How’s Kevin? I asked him to join the interview as well, but he declined.”
“Annoying as always.” Andrew states before Neil can get a word out.
“He gets enough of us sharing the dorms, he's probably enjoying the break.”
“That’s understandable, you know, I’m feeling a little lonely myself over here!” Kathy jokes, neatly skipping over Andrew’s comment.
Neil is beginning to sense a pattern in her reactions to Andrew. Judging by the slowly raising eyebrow, it hasn’t escaped Andrew’s notice either.
“I have one more question for you. After the finals game with the Ravens, there's a clip of you springing across the court to get to Neil when Rico had his racket raised. What were you feeling during that moment?”
“Angry.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“No one touches what’s mine.”
Kathy claps, a strained edge to her smile, “You've heard it folks, a right knight in shining armor! That’s all the time we have today! Thank you for joining us!"
There's a flurry of movement as they retreat backstage, remove their mics, and head back to the bus. Coach Wymack is waiting for them with crossed arms and an irritated expression that only Neil seems able to pull out of him.
"Are you physically incapable of talking to the media without causing a scandal?" Wymack demands as soon as the door closes behind them.
"Yes." Neil and Andrew chorus, non-repentant.
Wymack rubs the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "Get on the fucking bus."
. . . .
They get ice cream that evening at a local shop Neil’s pretty sure is only still in business because of Andrew’s fondness for the low lighting, uncrowded interior, and flavor variety they circle through.
Neil pays for his single scoop of strawberry in a cup, and Andrew’s 3 scoop, extra sprinkles, and chocolate dipped cone monstrosity with only minor teasing for his partner’s sweet tooth.
They take a seat in the metal chairs along the back wall, lit by retro, low-hanging bulbs. The orange light halo’s Andrew’s blonde hair, softening his features and bringing out the gold in his hazel eyes.
Neil watches him, mesmerized.
Andrew’s tongue catches a stray drop rolling down his cone, and he glances up, expression blank, but relaxed.
Slowly, he takes another lick, not breaking eye contact and Neil feels his face flush.
“The bus boy knocking me out? Really?”
Andrew puffs out a breath, “Finish your ice cream so we can go home.”
Neil wordlessly slides his half-empty cup across the table, knowing he’ll enjoy the lingering taste of strawberries later, and pushes back from the table.
“Ready when you are.”