Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Neil cupped a hot mug of green tea warming his freezing cold fingers. In front of him there was a fruit cheesecake which was bought ten minutes ago in the recently opened coffee shop nearby. Its smell made Neil’s stomach writhe with hunger as rapidly growing audience was watching him. The stream started just a minute ago, but a dozen thousand spectators have already been there. Colourful garland was blinking under the ceiling in the background in honor of the upcoming Christmas.

“Hey,” Neil greeted as usual swallowing the drink, warming his throat, “You wanted Q&A.”

Chat reacted approvingly filling with praising exclamations and confirmations. Followers were always interested in his personal life, about which he didn’t talk a lot, and for the first time in his streaming career Neil agreed on such format. Usually his lives consisted of his gameplays or film watching, but that day he wanted to do something different.

Neil wasn’t able to say more as a donation was already sent, read in a mechanic voice.

Neilsfan1003

$100

FINALLY! Why didn’t you agree earlier?

“I still don’t fully understand why you wanna know about my life so desperately,” Neil confessed, shrugging shoulders, “You can thank Allison, she insisted on doing this stream.”

Immediately after that a new question appeared.

aurolwr

$15

are you gonna celebrate Christmas somehow?

Neil scratched his head looking upwards.

“The Foxes are gonna arrive,” he decided to tell. He was unaccustomed to telling his plans to strangers on the internet. Andrew and him played similar game when they were only getting to know each other, but that was ‘truth for truth’ and now it’s like ‘truth for nothing’, “This year it’s my turn to host them. I can already imagine how they’ll ruin everything there” Neil chuckled remembering previous years.

Andreilcanon

$40

Andrew’s gonna be here too?

Neil squinted.

“I said ‘Foxes’,” he answered, “Obviously. What are you hinting at?”

Anonym

$10

Don’t play a fool, everyone knows about your rivalry

Neil snorted, his gaze moved to the mentioned Minyard who was sitting next to him beyond the camera. He had hopped up on the chair with his legs tucked under and was eating another bought cheesecake, and unlike Neil’s dessert it had five times more sugar, with pleasure. Andrew bowed his eyebrow as Neil looked at him.

“Oh, yeah,” he said with a tone which seemed like he recalled only now. And it was true. He always forgot about that imagined rivalry.

For some reason people thought Neil and Andrew had loathed each other – they’re not far from the truth but not in a right sense. The moment it all started was when Josten commented Minyard’s playing abilities in exy on another stream, calling him the best goalkeeper. Andrew was asked about it on a post-match interview, what he thought about those words. Journalists got an answer: “Why should I care about what he’s saying?”

Neil was amused with this because he got a hidden meaning: Andrew did care about what Neil said to him, not someone else. However, of course he was misunderstood. As more sarcasm was used by them, the more people started seriously dividing into teams and spreading hashtags like #MinyardJostenRivalry, #TeamJosten, #TeamMinyard. No one was bothered with the fact that Neil had played in Foxes for one year before his insane father injured his shoulder, so Neil couldn’t continue playing. Also no one cared about Neil attending Andrew’s every single professional exy match.

They both wondered how far everything could go, so they didn’t refute any spreading rumors adding fuel to the fire. Neil and Andrew decided if that rivalry didn’t bother them too much, they would keep on staying silent and behaving as always.

“Yeah, Andrew didn’t want to miss all the fun,” as Neil said it his leg under the table was hit. In order to hide the corners of his lips turning upward, he put out the cup and took a piece of the dessert.

After that everything went fine. Neil enjoyed moderately sweet tea and cheesecake, answered the questions. It turns out that many followers needed to know his favourite colour, season, preferences in food and the fact that he hadn’t seen any films, series and cartoons by the reason of his awful childhood. As time flowed, Neil got used to talking about himself and answering extensively.

Even though Neil replied only to the donators, he still was checking the chat sometimes; it was pretty hard as it flowed with breakneck speed. But when he looked at it once again, this flow of the messages was even crazier.

The reason of it was found immediately.

dREamyk1ttEN

$32

who’s behind the scenes?

Neil’s hand, reaching out to the cup, froze.

“What d’ya mean?” he frowned a bit moving his gaze to Andrew.

He reached out a basket full of candies with his hand so it would be seen in the frame demonstratively, purposely. Neil looked at the screen, then at Andrew, ― if Neil didn’t know better, he would think Andrew looked nonchalant ― who was full of self-satisfaction, and his gaze became accusing as he’d have to take the rap.

“Oh, nevermind,” he waved with his free hand like brushing off something insignificant, “I've got a little sweet-toothed thief at home,” his leg took another hit.

While Neil was being fascinated by answering to the question about exy, Andrew got up to add hot chocolate to his cup. The only sign Neil noticed was that he moved his mug to him in a silent plea. Grabbing two cups, Minyard left the room. However, as he opened the door, he saw Sir. The cat meowed demandingly and Andrew, looking behind for a moment, allowed the pet to enter the room.

Neil’s speech was interrupted with new ‘meow’ from the back. He was always trying to keep cats ― at least Sir as she was the most active ― away from his cabinet because the whole floor was strewn with wires. It was pretty easy to imagine how the cat could pull out a cable or, even worse, get entangled.

Neil frowned.

“Who let you in?” he asked the cat affectionately. She meowed in the response. Neil moved his gaze to the opened door and, sighing, put Sir on his lap, stroking her fluffy colourful fur, “You’ve already eaten, don’t grumble.”

In a dozen seconds a new donation appeared.

3tsukiii

$50

WHO’S THIS CUTIE?????

“Sir Fat Cat McCatterson,” the cat lifted her head, hearing her own name, and Neil scratched Sir behind the ear. “Nicky was the one who nicknamed her,” Neil said, foreshadowing new questions.

New meow was heard when Andrew returned to the room with full mugs and, before taking his seat, had picked the cat up. Neil had already wanted to look at him sourly but couldn’t. He saw Andrew, holding Sir with two hands in front of his face, giving her a peck before placing her in his lap. Neil gazed at Andrew tenderly with that very look that made even a heart of stone flutter frantically, beat faster, trying to leap out of the chest. Unable to bear it, Andrew gave him a flick, mouthing ‘stop it’.

Grinning with satisfaction, Neil continued the live stream.

While reading this comment thread Neil spoke to Andrew, who was standing near the kitchen stove and cooking dinner. Josten was grinning, "I guess someone has already figured it all out."