Work Text:
They both had the next few weeks off work: Neil because of his broken wrist, and Andrew just because he can. The incident occurred last Saturday when Andrew was teaching Neil to ride a bike, resulting in Neil falling off. A trip to the hospital and an X-ray later, it was confirmed that Neil’s wrist was broken, and he was off the court for the remainder of the season. Neil spent the rest of that weekend pouting like a grumpy toddler at not being allowed to play, but Andrew reminded him that there were only three weeks left in this year's Exy season and that he had extra vacation days left over that he could take, which cheered Neil up just a little bit.
They had decided to spend a long weekend staying with Aaron, Katelyn, and their daughter, April. April had turned four a few weeks earlier, so Aaron and Katelyn had a late birthday party for her, so her two favourite uncles could join in too. It was going to be her last birthday as an only child, as Aaron and Katelyn had announced that they were expecting their second child in the summer.
Whilst Andrew and Neil were at the Minyard-MacKenzie household, April wanted to show them her scrapbook of all of the things that she had done with her family and friends right from the moment of the first ultrasound scan, all the way up to yesterday's birthday party, which Katelyn was sticking in.
April sat her uncles down on the sofa, and together they began looking through the photos and memories of April's first four years on Earth. She told them each and every story behind each and every picture, scraps of old clothes, drawings, locks of hair, stamps of her hands and feet from the day she was born, Christmases, birthdays, holidays, days out; each one had a special meaning to the youngest member of the family.
Andrew watched as Neil’s face lit up with each photo, each memory, each moment captured on film and placed somewhere special right in front of him. This gave Andrew an idea, which he proposed to Neil on their drive back home on Tuesday morning.
"We could make one, you know," Andrew says out of the blue as he drives them in the Maserati down the highway.
Neil’s head whips around to face Andrew so fast that Andrew is convinced that Neil gave himself whiplash.
"A baby?!" Neil exclaims in questioning horror.
Andrew laughs. "No, not a baby, Neil."
Neil tilts his head in utter confusion. What else could Andrew be referring to?
So, Andrew spells it out for him. "A scrapbook. Like April’s. We could print out the photos from your camera film. I’m sure Wymack has some photos and newspaper bits and pieces that we could use. We could ask the rest of the Foxes, Jean, and Jeremy if they have anything. Dan and Matt definitely have some. Jeremy, too, with the amount of photos he takes when he comes to visit Kevin."
"Ohhh," Neil says once he realises what Andrew meant and slowly turns his lips up into a smile. "Yes, Andrew. I would love to do that."
Andrew smiles back at him in return and leans over the centre console to kiss Neil on the lips. Neil puts a message in the Foxes group chat:
MurderMagnet: Does anyone have any photos?
YesCaptain: What sort of photos are you looking for, Neil?
MurderMagnet: Andrew and I want to make a scrapbook of our lives together
RAINBOWS: OMG THAT IS SO CUTE! YOU ARE SO CUTE!
YesCaptain: I have plenty that I can send you. Are there any in particular that you want?
MurderMagnet: Do you still have one of me and Andrew at the airport?
YesCaptain: yes give me one sec to find it
YesCaptain: [image.PNG]
JoanOfExy: I have the photos from Andrew and Aaron’s 21st birthday if you want those?
MurderMagnet: Andrew said, "Burn them," hahaha
JoanOfExy: haha. I’ll send them over now.
RAINBOWS: I’ve got the first night of you ever being drunk
MurderMagnet: I still don’t remember that night, haha
JoanOfExy: [image.PNG]
RAINBOWS: OMG LOOK HOW YOUNG THE TWINS LOOK
BillionaireBitch: Nicky, that was only a couple of years ago
RAINBOWS: but they’re 27 now. I’ve been a parent for 10 years [crying face]
DrMinyard: You’re not our parent, Nicky
RAINBOWS: [crying face] [crying face] [crying face]
YesCaptain: Aaron, don’t be mean
BillionaireBitch: [image.PNG]
YesCaptain: omg that is brilliant
RAINBOWS: I’m turning my phone upside down and all sorts, and I still can’t work out what this is meant to be
YesCaptain: It’s a very drunk Neil and Kevin sleeping upside down on the stairs at Coach’s birthday last year.
RAINBOWS: HAHAHAHHAHAHA
Queenie: delete that
BillionaireBitch: absolutely not hahaha
JoanOfExy: @MurderMagnet I can send you some more when I get home from the park with the kids
MurderMagnet: thanks
JoanOfExy: You’re welcome. Tell Andrew the kids, and I say hi.
MurderMagnet: he says hi back
YesCaptain: Matt said he’s got a few photos too that he’ll send later. He’s just dealing with Alice’s tantrum.
MurderMagnet: okay
RAINBOWS: Oh no! What’s wrong with my darling Alice Boyd?
YesCaptain: She finished eating her pasta, and now she misses it.
The group chat erupts into chaos after that, with the Foxes sharing stories of their kids’ biggest and weirdest tantrums. Neil mutes the group chat and messages Wymack instead.
Neil: Hey, Coach. Do you have any photos or newspaper articles that Andrew and I could have for our scrapbook?
Coach: Yes, of course. I have a folder for each of my Foxes. Let me know when you’re next coming to Palmetto, and I’ll get yours and Andrew’s out for you.
Neil: We're heading to Columbia at the moment, so could we pick them up later?
Coach: Sure thing
Neil: Thanks
Neil exits that chat and opens the one with Jean.
Nathaniel: Can you send me some photos of your scrapbook? Andrew and I are making one.
The message doesn’t get read, so Neil assumes that he’s either at practice or he’s switched his phone off. It’s most likely a combination of the two. Jean still very rarely keeps his phone on.
Neil puts his phone back into the cup holder and takes Andrew’s hand when he offers it in invitation.
"We could go to Hobbycraft on the way home and get some supplies if you wanted. There’s one on the way to PSU," Andrew suggests and beams at him. Andrew takes Neil's hands and places his boyfriend’s knuckles against his lips, kissing them softly.
Andrew spends the rest of the journey brainstorming different ideas for Neil, not that Neil understands any of them. The only scrapbook he’s ever seen is April’s, and before then, he didn’t even know what a scrapbook was.
They make it to the Palmetto Hobbycraft a couple of hours later. Neil looks up at the huge building with the bright pink sign above the entrance. He’s never been to a place like this before.
They head inside, and Neil is immediately overwhelmed by the amount of arts and crafts supplies crammed into this one building.
"All of this is just art stuff?" He says as he takes it all in.
Andrew stands by his side and nods. "Yep."
"Wow," Neil says quietly as Andrew begins moving through the store. Neil has to do a little jog to catch up with him. "So what are we getting first?"
Andrew continues down the main aisle before turning off into one of the aisles to their left. "Ah, here they are," he says as they come to a stop in front of a shelf full of what appears to be colourful books. "Scrapbooks."
Neil smiles at Andrew and begins looking at each of them. There are so many to choose from. There are plain ones, patterned ones, large ones, medium ones, and small ones. Some have bows on the side to tie them shut. Others stay closed on their own. There are some with cutouts to add a photo to the cover. Covers with hearts, spots, flowers, stars, rabbits- Neil is so overwhelmed just looking at them.
Andrew helps Neil go through all the different options, removing all of the ones they don’t like until they are finally left with their top three contenders: an all-black cover with a photo cutout and black pages on the inside with a black bow to tie the book together; a brown book with brown pages and a black bow; and the final option is a cover with a fox and a rabbit on it with Memories written at the bottom. The pages are a cream colour with a sleek black bow and a ring-bound spine.
"This one," Neil says as he points to scrapbook number three.
Andrew smiles. "You’re so predictable sometimes."
Neil pouts at him, but Andrew kisses it away before picking up a scrapbook from a few books behind that has less damage than the one that they had been staring at for the last twenty minutes.
Andrew leads the way to another aisle full of coloured paper on one side and stickers on the other. Neil instantly begins looking for as many different Exy stickers as he can. He finds the Foxes and the Trojans, but only picks up three packets of the Foxes' stickers before going back and looking at what else there is to offer.
Andrew shakes his head and smiles as he, too, adds some stickers to their already growing pile of supplies.
Smiley faces, stars, hearts, rainbows, letters, quotes, happy birthday, happy anniversary, merry Christmas, animals, sharks, dinosaurs, gems, fancy-looking decoration ones, floral ones, silly, funny, different colours of sticker packets that they’ve already picked up. By the time they finish choosing stickers, Andrew is convinced that Neil has picked up at least one pack of each option available.
"If I’d known that you were going to get this much, I would’ve gotten a cart." Andrew laughs, and Neil just smiles at him before dropping another packet of PSU stickers onto the already very large and very messy pile.
If Andrew thought that the stickers were bad, then god knows how he would describe how Neil reacted to all of the different coloured and patterned paper that was on selection.
Once again, Andrew is pretty much convinced that Neil has picked up at least one of each item that is available to buy. Neil picks up anything from cards to tissue paper to plain colours to multi-pattern packs. All different sizes, shapes, textures, and materials. Some paper, some card. You name it, Neil’s picked it.
At one point, the pile begins to get so out of control that Andrew has to stop Neil from continuing to make his path of destruction so that he can quickly go outside and get them a trolley to put everything in. Even if Neil had two working arms at the moment, they still wouldn’t be able to carry all of this stuff.
Once they put everything into the trolley, Andrew leads Neil to the next aisle. Andrew picks up a box of crafting scissors that cut the paper with different patterns and designs. This absolutely fascinates Neil, who tries to insist that they need to buy more boxes of them, but Andrew convinces him that one box is enough.
They add a few different types of glue into the trolley,y as well as pens and a wide assortment of paint. Neil is collecting pots of glitter when Andrew looks up from where he’s been stacking everything neatly in the trolley and laughs.
"Tell me why exactly we need twenty-seven different shades of glitter?"
"Because, as Nicky always says, you can never have too much glitter," Neil replies with a cheeky grin.
Andrew scoffs, rolls his eyes, and laughs again. "Never listen to a word my cousin says," he says before helping Neil place them into the trolley.
Their final stop is the photo machine. They take turns plugging their phones in and scrolling through their camera rolls for photos to print and immortalise in their scrapbook.
"Why do you have a photo of your foot?" Neil asks as they come across the strange picture.
"It’s not mine. It’s Aaron’s," Andrew replies with a blank tone.
"Why the fuck do you have a photo of Aaron’s foot on your phone?" Neil laughs loudly.
"I don’t know. Aaron took it years ago. I just never deleted it."
That is not one of the many photos that they print off before finally heading to the checkout to pay for all of their scrapbook supplies.
Neil waits for Andrew over by the magazine section, where he’s spotted an article about Kevin’s new team. Andrew comes over to get him once he’s done.
"How much did all that cost?" Neil asks a bit apprehensively.
Andrew shakes his head and smiles. "No price is too much when it comes to you," he reassures Neil before kissing his temple.
Andrew lifts the several bags into the boot of the car, not willing to let Neil risk injuring himself any more than he already is, and then joins Neil in the front before they begin the drive to the stadium to collect their Foxes memorabilia from their old coach.
It’s only a ten-minute drive from the Hobbycraft store to The Foxhole Court. Andrew parks the Maserati in his old spot, and Neil pretty much jumps out of the car with the amount of excitement he has for being back at his favourite place on Earth.
Andrew takes Neil’s hand as Neil practically drags him across the car park with how excited he is. Andrew laughs and tells him to slow down before he falls over and injures himself even more.
Andrew punches in the new code for the gate, 0310, and they enter the building and head over towards the Lounge.
Wymack is talking to his current Foxes when they arrive. The Freshmen look so young and enthusiastic, and nothing like when the Original Nine started.
Wymack dismisses his Foxes to change out and head onto the court to begin warmups and drills. He looks up and smiles at his two former Foxes. "Well, well, well, if it isn’t the two Minyard-Jostens. How are you both?"
"I’m fine, Coach," Neil replies first, to which Andrew rolls his eyes.
"He’s not ‘fine'," Andrew begins with a huff of a laugh. "The idiot came off his bike last week and broke his arm. He’s out for the remainder of the championships and has been acting like an angry toddler ever since."
"I heard," Wymack replies. "I saw your team’s press release explaining your absences. So tell me, how are you really doing, kid?"
Neil sighs. "It hurts at night, but it’s okay again once I take my painkillers."
"How long do you have to have that thing on your arm for?" Wymack asks, his voice kind.
"Six weeks," Neil answers with a pout.
"And then he’s got to have physio before he can be cleared to go back on the court. He should be all good for the start of next season," Andrew says before kissing Neil on his temple.
"Well, now that we have the pleasantries over with, I can show you both of your files," Wymack says before he begins walking off in the direction of his office.
Andrew takes Neil’s hand again, and they follow Wymack into his office. The two folders are laid out side by side on the desk. Neil heads straight over and looks at the cover of his file.
NEIL JOSTEN
It’s the same folder that Wymack was holding on the night he found Neil in a high school locker room somewhere in Millport, Arizona, when Neil Josten was just a made-up name with a made-up story and a life full of lies and fear. Now, Neil Minyard-Josten stares at the cover of his folder as a real person, as someone who now lives with truths and love, as a married man who couldn’t be happier to be alive with the man and the family that he loves.
Andrew walks over to Neil and places his hand on his husband’s shoulder as he continues to stare at the folder where his entire life began.
"It’s all in there, kid. Everything from your first ever Foxes contract until the end of last season," Wymack tells them. "I haven’t started putting together this season yet, so you’ll have to wait for those, I’m afraid."
Andrew nods. "Thanks, Coach."
Neil looks up, his eyes wet with unshed tears as he opens his folder and looks at the photo of Wymack giving him his diploma on the day of his graduation.
"Thanks, Coach."
"No problem, kids," Wymack replies. "Do you kids want a moment alone to look through them or—?"
Neil’s laugh interrupts them as he holds up a photo in Wymack’s direction. "It’s from when you made Andrew lock me in the lounge when I had my appendix out during my third year."
Wymack laughs. "It was the only way we could make sure that you stayed off the court until you were fully healed. It appears to be pretty similar to what the two of you are doing now."
"It’s either that or I superglue him to the sofa." Andrew laughs too.
"Hey!" Neil shouts in mock offence. "I can hear you both, you know."
"Yeah, yeah, kid, save it," Wymack waves him off. "So, are these files any good for you?"
Neil smiles. "Yeah, it’s perfect. Thanks, Coach."
"No need to thank me, kid. Are you going to look at yours as well, Minyard?"
"Minyard-Josten," Andrew replies with a hint of sarcasm.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
"I’ll look through mine when we get home. We’ve been driving since 8:00 this morning."
Wymack nods. "I understand" is what he says, but he knows the hidden meaning behind it.
The three of them talk for a while longer until he has to leave and stop his new team of unruly Foxes from killing each other. They say their goodbyes, and Wymack tells them that they are invited for dinner this week, which Andrew and Neil both accept.
By the time they make it home to the Columbia House, it’s early in the evening. Neil wants to get started on the scrapbook right away, so Andrew helps Neil get everything set up on the coffee table in the living room.
Piles and piles of arts and craft supplies surround the two young men. Andrew takes the envelopes of photos out of his backpack and puts the stacks down on the coffee table next to the empty scrapbook.
Neil frowns as he stares at the mountain of everything they bought. "How do we even decide what’s more important?"
Andrew sits down next to his husband with a smile and bumps shoulders with him. "We don’t. We just pick up a photo, stick it in, and see if we like it."
"And if we don’t?" Neil asks with a small and quiet voice.
"Then, we take it out and see what else works. We can bluetack the photos on each page first, and after we rearrange anything that we’re not happy with, we can use the glue to secure everything permanently," Andrew reassures him.
Neil nods. "Should we start with the photo that Dan took in the airport when I told you my name?"
Andrew sighs. "That’s not your name anymore, Neil."
"I know, but it’s the context behind the image. Plus, it’s our first photo of the two of us together without any of the other Foxes in it."
"It is indeed." Andrew smiles and kisses Neil’s cheek as Neil picks up one of the envelopes of photos and searches through it for the first photo for their scrapbook.
He pulls a photo out of the envelope at random and looks at it with a fond smile before passing it over to Neil. "The day we found out that you were indeed very much allergic to pineapple."
Neil looks at the photo and makes an awkward face before letting out a small laugh. It's of him and Andrew sitting on the roof on an official Palmetto Foxes picnic blanket surrounded by bowls of fruit that they had spent the evening dipping into melted chocolate. Technically, this was their first proper date after the events of Neil's kidnapping and Nathan's and Aaron's trials had both been resolved, and the boys finally felt free and safe enough to give their all to each other.
"I still can't believe you thought that struggling to breathe after eating pineapple was a normal experience," Andrew says with an exasperated expression.
"In my defence," Neil begins, "I’d never had pineapple or an allergic reaction before. How was I supposed to know what was happening?"
"Idiot."
Neil bluetacks the photo into the scrapbook and picks out the next photo from a different envelope. It’s a picture of Neil holding up a cuddly fox next to his face and making a kissy face towards Andrew and the camera. Andrew had won the cuddly fox for him at the arcade during one of their first road trips together.
"Aww, look, it's Exy!" Neil says, looking at the cuddly fox with adoring eyes.
"And now it only has one eye and half a body," Andrew replies with a roll of his eyes.
"It’s not my fault that you decided to put him in the washing machine," Neil reminds him with a pout. "Murderer."
Andrew rolls his eyes again and waits for Neil to add the photo to its provisional place on the page.
"Oh, look," Andrew says with an obnoxious laugh as he picks out the next photo from the envelope. "It's your first ever night being drunk-" followed by another photo "-and your first hangover the morning after."
Neil takes the photos from Andrew's hands and winces at the mere sight of them. The first one is of Neil taking a shot with Nicky, Kevin, Aaron, Allison, Dan, and Matt. The second is of Neil with his head in the mop bucket back at the Columbia House as he spent the rest of the night emptying his stomach, "Who the fuck thought that giving me tequila on my very first night out would be a good idea?"
"It was your idea!" Andrew exclaims. "You're the dumbass who suggested it."
"Well then, who let me do it?" he asks in a sarcastic tone.
"You're a grown ass adult, Josten."
"That's Minyard-Josten to you," Neil replies with a wicked grin and leans in to kiss Andrew.
Andrew kisses him back for a few moments before pushing Neil away gently and reminding him of the current task at hand. "They're not going to stick themselves."
"Yeah, yeah."
The two photos get added side by side before the next few are chosen.
The collection of chaotic photos from the twins’ 21st birthday is next. Pure chaos is the only way to describe any of them. There's a photo of the twins dressed as each other. A very drunk Neil giving a very drunk Andrew a very poor lap dance. Andrew - oh no wait, Aaron - dancing on the bar at Eden’s Twilight with Kevin trying to get him back down again. The birthday cake that was very lovingly and poorly made by Nicky was so disgusting that no one could eat it. Neil experienced the foam machine on the dance floor for the first time and looked so confused at what was going on. The Foxes with foam beards and hair posing together and surrounding the twins as the pair of them look very unimpressed.
These are followed by Neil's 21st birthday, which was somehow even more chaotic than the twins'. Abby, for some reason, said that Neil's birthday party could take place at her house whilst Eden’s Twilight was having a refit after the ‘incident’ that definitely didn't involve Nicky and a paint cannon during the New Year's Eve party.
Andrew and Neil laugh at the photos from Neil's birthday. Neil being lifted into the air by Nicky and Matt as the rest of the team sang Happy Birthday to him. Andrew sitting on the sofa with cake icing on his nose, which Neil licked off before falling off the sofa and landing on his boyfriend's feet. Neil's ‘first’ legal drink. The photo taken of Abby's house the following morning revealing the pure chaos and destruction that the Foxes had bestowed upon it. It's no wonder she never let them party there again after that.
The photos are all added into the scrapbook over several pages, then the next batch is picked up and sorted through.
It's some of the photos and newspaper clippings that Wymack gave them.
The many, many articles from Neil's Freshman year. Articles about Andrew's growth and progress during his time as a Fox. Championship games. The win against the Ravens. The win against the Trojans. Andrew, Aaron, and Nicky's graduation photo with Wymack. Neil's graduation photo with his team, past and present.
The photo of Neil being locked in the locker room after having his appendix out makes both of them laugh. Neil looks like an angry toddler as he squishes his face against the glass in the hopes that Wymack would at least let him sit on the bench.
"Appendix 1, Neil 0," Andrew says as he lays the photo next to the one of Neil, absolutely high off his face on morphine in the hospital a few days before.
"At least the drugs made me funny," Neil says with a shrug.
Andrew turns to him and shakes his head with a small laugh. "You kept asking the nurse if you could have it back."
"So?!" Neil exclaims. "It was mine."
Andrew laughs and shakes his head again. "You're such an idiot."
"I'm your idiot."
Neil picks up the next photo from the batch and laughs. "Oh my god, do you remember when you pretended to have tonsillitis and tried to convince Wymack that you were going to die so that you could get extra time off?"
"He's a terrible doctor. I would have gotten away with it if he hadn't told Abby," Andrew says with a huff.
"You told him you were dying!"
Andrew shrugs. "It was worth the look on his face."
This time, it's Neil's turn to roll his eyes.
The rest of the photos are sorted through and bluetacked into their temporary place on each page of the scrapbook. There's an array of pictures and articles added in, ranging from more birthdays and Christmases, anniversaries, and their first matching tattoos. The day they brought Sir Fat Cat McCatterson home and decided less than a week later that she needed a friend, so they went back and picked King Fluffkins, too.
Day trips with the Foxes, as well as just the two of them, and many holidays and roadtrips thrown in between. The tree that Andrew planted in their garden with a plaque for Mary, so that Neil could have a place to remember his mother.
The first time that they held Dan and Matt's daughter, Alice, and Aaron and Katelyn's daughter, April. Dan surprising Neil with an ultrasound scan of her pregnancy with her and Matt's twins that were born last year. Neil still has no idea which one is Eve and which one is Grace. The photos of the Foxes ski trip and the aftermath of Kevin being in the hospital with a broken ankle after trying and failing to do one of the jumps.
Each photo and article holds its own memory for both Andrew and Neil.
Neil flicks through the pages of the preemptive layout and sighs.
"What's wrong? Andrew asks.
"I think I want to put the cats together in their own section. Our little fur babies."
Andrew quirks an eyebrow. "Fur babies?"
Neil turns to him and beams. "Yeah, fur babies. They're our babies, but they're furry."
Andrew sighs. "Fur babies," he mutters under his breath before helping Neil to unstick and reorganise the photos.
"Can we add some stickers?" Neil asks.
Andrew shakes his head and smiles with a small laugh. "It's your scrapbook, Neil. You can add whatever you want."
"Stickers and glitter," Neil decides as he picks out a packet of cat-related stickers and silver glitter. "Help me open it," he says as he passes Andrew the bottle of glitter.
Andrew struggles as he attempts to twist the cap open when it suddenly releases, spilling sparkly glitter all over himself, Neil, the carpet, the table, and poor old Sir, who had been sleeping in Andrew's lap for the past half an hour.
Both Andrew and Neil gasp and stare at each other in shock at the very shiny mess before they both start laughing, causing the glitter to go flying in the air and startling a sparkling Sir awake.
"Oh my god!" Neil exclaims through his laughter.
Andrew coughs a few times with some glitter spilling out of his mouth. "Fuck." He looks down to see Sir stepping to shake the glitter from her fur, which just causes even more of a mess as she shakes it into the air before scarpering off, leaving a trail of glitter behind her.
"Well, I think you opened it," Neil says, and Andrew huffs a sarcastic laugh.
"You think." Andrew coughs one more time before attempting to wipe away some of the glitter from his hands and face without much success. He gives up and sighs. "Right. Is there anything else that you want to change and reorganise? Hopefully, without trying to drown me with Nicky's favourite inconvenience.”
"Everything needs more stickers," Neil concludes.
"Okay, then.”
Page by page, they go through the scrapbook, rearranging the rest of the photos and articles as well as adding in stickers and — more successfully — glitter.
After hours and hours of finishing the decorations, Andrew and Neil come to the final page of their scrapbook. Their wedding day. A day filled with so much joy and happiness with their found family and friends.
Finally, they close the cover on their memories, and Neil climbs into Andrew's lap and kisses his husband on the lips as they both turn and look at the memories that they have created together right there on the coffee table in the house that they bought and own together.
"I love this life that I've built with you," Neil whispers against Andrew's lips.
Andrew lowers Neil gently to the floor and kisses Neil's neck. "Darling, I'd do it all again.”