Work Text:
Berwyn is being quiet. Too quiet.
They were in Neil's mums' attic and Neil was digging through cardboard boxes. He was told that some of his belongings would be up here but he wasn't told about the amount of tat they would be buried under.
Neil's sketchbooks were the only thing they'd uncovered so far, and Berwyn had asked to look through them. Neil was sure that they were only filled with drawings of flowers and diagrams of plants, nothing too interesting, but Berwyn didn't seem to mind.
He's sitting a few feet away now and hasn't made a sound in quite a while, Neil only hears the quiet turning of a page as he rifles through old CD's and Christmas decorations.
"Enjoying yourself?" He asks, breaking the silence but not turning around.
Berwyn only hums in response, but it sounds quite gleeful, happy yet mischievous.
It's not the sound of someone looking at plants.
It's the sound of someone looking at something they know they shouldn't.
Neil spins round and no- nononono.
Berwyn has the biggest smile on his face and instantly Neil remembers what's actually in the sketchbooks.
He makes a lunge to grab it from Berwyn's hands but he dodges easily.
"It's no wonder ya almost failed understandin' Nelly!" He teases, looking at the drawing of a younger version of himself sitting at his desk. He looks bored that's for sure, but Neil's managed to make him look somewhat ethereal at the same time. He didn't know it was possible to make him look good.
He continues to page through the sketchbook, holding it out of Neil's reach and smiling at every single time he's been drawn. There's a lot.
In class and asleep, intensely focusing as he carves something at his desk. Neil was there next to him of course, but finding out what he was doing the whole time has Berwyn feeling a certain sort of way.
There's ones where he knows Neil wasn't looking at him when he drew. Not because they were any worse, just because there was no way he wouldn't have noticed. In these ones it's like he's looking out of the paper with such an intense fondness it makes Berwyn feel a bit too perceived. It's how he looks at Neil, he realises.
But Berwyn is jolted from his thoughts when Neil tries to grab the book again and he can't stop the growl coming out. No one is taking his book from him.
Neil stops immediately, pulling his hand back and letting Berwyn keep the book.
"Sorry," he says, his face still flushed from the embarrassment, "I- didn't remember what was in those, I thought it was just my plants and then I remembered-"
Berwyn cuts him off by tackling him into a hug, sending them both sprawling onto the dusty floorboards.
"Thanks." He replies, his voice sounding a lot more wet and emotional then he realised. "Thank ya so much."
Neil doesn't really know what he's being thanked for but he's just glad the attention is off his stalkerish drawings.
"Which ones do ya think we should frame?" Berwyn says with a grin.