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Neil arrived back at Wymack’s apartment the following afternoon. His practice last night lasted long enough for it to be suspicious if he would have gone back to the apartment when he ran his last drill.
So, Neil crashed on one of the couches in the lounge of the Foxhole Court.
When he awoke it was after noon. Neil ran all the way back to Wymack’s, hoping the older man wouldn’t pester him too much about where he slept that night.
Neil rehearsed his script of lies as he entered the apartment. However, he quickly abandoned his planned arguments when a crash came from Wymack’s designated home office.
Neil dropped into a defensive stance and stayed completely quiet and still.
“Dammit Kevin, sit down!” Wymack yelled.
Neil relaxed when he heard the whiny voice of Kevin Day.
“I will not!” Kevin protested. Kevin sounded alarmed. Neil went back on high alert. Kevin might be a pain in Neil’s ass but he’s Neil’s pain in the ass. “How could you let him do this?!” Kevin sounded so panicked that Neil moved closer to Wymack’s office. The door was cracked open but there was clearly the intent for it to be shut completely. Neil could almost feel the accusatory finger Kevin pointed at their coach.
“You know I have no say in this” Wymack’s voice is steady but a light with quiet fury.
Seconds passed in silence. The audible air of a cushion sinking down indicates someone sitting down. A deep breath is blown out into the air. Neil peaked into the room. He saw Kevin sitting on the black leather couch in the coaches office, opposite the desk. His face is buried in his hands and Kevin is raking his fingers aggressively through the inky strands of his hair.
Standing beside the taller boy, Wymack sighed. “Look at me,”
Kevin shook his head a little. Wymack gently slapped Kevin's back and rubbed the striker's back with a heavy hand. “Goddammit, look at me Day!”
“I told Andrew that Riko would come for me!” Kevin sobbed miserably.
That’s when Neil had enough. He despised the littlest king. He cleared his throat and didn’t quiet his footsteps as he walked further into the office. “Josten-!” Wymack started towards Neil but the shorter man easily dodged, anticipating the move.
Neil stepped in front of Kevin and stared at the boy before him with intense eyes.. “Riko doesn’t get to do anything. If he comes for you, direct him towards me. Me and the jinan have unfinished business” Neil said coldly with his fathers smile.
Kevin shivered. “This is your doing then?!” Kevin panicked.
Neil sneered. “No jackass, I’m one of the chōnan's. The jinan is simply a thorn in my side. Now,” Neil turned to the coach. Wymack was watching the exchange with rapt fascination. No doubt he had a million questions. “What did Riko do now?” Neil asked.
Wymack blinked. His voice came out gruff but steady. “Edgar Allen transferred to our district."
Neil’s jaw clicked. “The fucking audacity…” Neil grumbled as he fished out his black flip phone.
Kevin seized Neil’s wrist with his right hand and stopped Neil before he could dial the number pulled up on his phone. “What are you doing?!” Kevin’s eyes were wide and filled with fear. Neil almost felt sorry for the boy but that was before Kevin touched him.
Neil took a breath and gathered some remnants of his calm facade. He tried to ignore the way Kevin’s hand made his skin crawl. Neil used his left hand to hit the call button on his phone. He brought the device to his left ear and twisted his right arm out of Kevin’s grasp.
The call connected on the last ring.
“Bonjour Moreau,” Neil greeted.
“Nathaniel,” Jean sighed.
“Je vous manque?” Neil grinned.
“Comme un trou dans ma tête. Quoi tu veux? Jean said flatly with exasperation. Neil checks the clock on Wymacks wall. The ravens just finished practice.
“Parler à Kevin” Jean groaned and Neil shoved his phone at Kevin who looked at the small device like it was a nuclear weapon.
Neil rolled his eyes and hit the button on the phone to put the phone on speakerphone.
“It’s Jean,” Neil told Kevin.
The older striker scowled. “I know that”
Neil tried and failed to hold back a smile. Out of the three of them- Kevin, Jean, and Neil, Kevin knew the least amount of French. The boy was still fluent but his syllables were never as natural as Neil’s and Jean’s. The other two boys spoke French from birth. Jean was imported from Marseilles, France to play for the ravens and Mary frequently took Neil and Kate on “trips” to Montreal throughout their childhoods.
Neil and Jean consistently poked fun at Kevin for his often stilted pronunciation.
Kevin sat up from where he’d sunk down, speaking directly into the phone's speaker as if his lack of distance to the device would make a difference. “Is it true? Are The Ravens transferring?” Kevin demanded in shaky English.
There was a pregnant pause on the line. Jean cleared his throat. “Oui. Yes. The Ravens will play The Foxes.”
Kevin hung up without another word. He looked at Wymack with pure panic; eyes wide, face so pale it was white.
“We’re not ready.” Kevin said bluntly.
“You promised to get us ready,” Wymack argued.
Kevin threw his hands up. “I said I’d get you past the first round! Winning is out of the question!”
Neil clucked his tongue. “That’s no way to think,” He said lightly with the shake of his head.
Kevin glowered at Neil in response. The redhead cocked a brow in Kevin’s direction, his eyes full of mirthful amusement.
“Okay, what’s going on here?” Wymack asked with suspicion.
Neil didn’t fault the coach for it. He should’ve been suspicious of Neil from the beginning.
“I’m afraid you’ve let a wolf into a fox den” Neil answered.
Kevin rolled his eyes. “More like a mutt.”
Neil gnashed his teeth together. Kevin scowled.
“You know the Moriyamas,” Wymack said without question. “How do you really know Kevin?” The coach's eyes darkened and a murderous look flickered across his expression.
Neil almost smiled. Nathaniel rattled in his cage within his mind; itching for the intensity of a fight. “Kevin and I go way back. I helped him out with a painful situation last Thanksgiving” Neil examined his nails. Despite Katelyn’s mandatory monthly manicures she forced Neil to endure, Neil’s fingers are always rough and worn. The rough handles of exy rackets with frayed netting and frequently inflicting torture resulted in a permanent state where his fingers looked both chewed and pruned.
Wymack and Kevin both winced at the mention of Kevin’s incident last year. “He knows?” Wymack raised a brow at Kevin. He had figured out he wasn’t going to get any answers from Neil. Kevin couldn’t lie when it came to anything to do with the Moriyamas. Neil internally cringed as Kevin fidgetted with his own fingers in his lap and anxiously licked his lips like a man who hadn’t had water in weeks.
“He knows everything,” Kevin confirmed.
Neil pinched the bridge of his nose so he wouldn’t punch Kevin.
“And he’s- is he…?” Wymack didn’t finish either of his sentences. Yet, Neil knew what the older man was asking. He wanted to know if Neil would hurt the team; hurt Kevin. Neil wasn’t sure if Kevin ever told Wymack about their familiar link. Neil guessed he hadn't when Wymack handed Kevin one of the glasses he had just poured and hurried to fill it with more vodka when Kevin drained the glass in two gulps. However, Neil didn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to fatherly relationships and what healthy ones looked like.
Neil declined when Wymack offered him vodka. Neil didn’t drink alcohol unless he was on business. Somewhere along the way, Neil had stopped viewing his impending university student status as another job. Maybe it was when Neil first met Matthew Boyd and he drove the two of them to Foxhole Tower. Perhaps it was when Seth entered the dorm room and grumbled a sarcastic “home sweet home.”
Neil had never had anywhere to call home, sarcastically or not. Even his living situation with his sister in Baltimore was precarious. The twins had to be constantly prepared to abandon their house at the drop of a hat, or more accurately- the drop of blood. Because of that, Neil never fully relaxed in his house in Baltimore, neither did Kate. Safety was never a guarantee there.
“I won’t hurt any of the team. They’re not who I’m after.” Neil’s tongue slipped and he said too much. He often did. His mother used to beat him black and blue whenever Neil’s mouth ran away from him. However, he never kicked the habit.
“Who do you want then?” Wymack tilted his head slightly.
Neil’s head tilted back. A genuine smile spread across his face as he imagined getting what he wanted. Finally.
He already had the fake IDs for him and Katelyn. A peaceful, little, house waited for them on one of the beaches of a small town in France. Everything was set up. He just needed one thing.
“I want myself, I want to be free, and I need to dethrone a fucking false king” Neil’s voice was raw and shockingly real. This was the wish which bound Neil and Nathaniel. They shared this goal.
Wymack nodded sharply a single time. He turned his head and addressed Kevin. “Then, I need you to keep this from Andrew until the regular season"
Kevin made a strangled noise like a wounded animal. Neil shot Kevin a warning look he only gave his partners on Moriyama assignments. Kevin's eyes widened and he rolled his lips inwards.
“Got it. C’mon Day” Neil pointed his thumb over his shoulder.
Wymack locked eyes with Kevin who audibly swallowed. He wordlessly stood up and followed Neil out of the apartment building.
Then, Kevin weakly shoved Neil. His hands shook as he did it.
Neil calmly turned to face Kevin’s bloodless face. The taller striker stared at his hands in disbelief. As if he couldn’t believe what he just did. Kevin recovered and his pale face creased. He crossed his arms to refrain them from trembling.
“What was that?! I can’t lie to Andrew!” Kevin whined.
Neil narrowed his eyes. He scrutinised Kevin in silence until the other boy squirmed on the spot.
“Then learn” Neil’s tone was bored with a light hint of the accent he picked up from the Hatfords. “I don’t see why Andrew can’t know about this but I assume that’s because of your reaction” he jutted his finger at Kevin, “So you have more than a week to get your shit together. Andrew will be more reactive if you’re spiralling when he finds out the Ravens are coming.”
Kevin skeptically eyed Neil as the shorter man spoke about the pint-sized goalie. “Stay away from him, Nate. I’m serious. Don’t poke the beast” Kevin warned.
Neil perfected his lying skills when he was a child. He lied to the police and social workers when they came asking questions. Lying to Kevin was almost too easy.
“I won’t.” Neil chirped.
Kevin groaned.