Chapter Text
"Neil!"
"Heyy earth to Josten."
Neil flinched slightly at the noise, trying to cover it up for just a slight adjustment of his seat. It was Nicky's voice in which startled him. Lately Neil had noticed himself being more spacey or confused easily. This was disconcerting to Neil, being unaware meant being vulnerable. Whatever was going on would be the end of his mom if she were alive. Most of his teammates seemed more concerned than usual, but they probably just assumed he was still recovering from Baltimore. Well.. all accept Andrew, recently he had been on Neil and watching his every movement as if trying to decipher something.
"Oh. Yea."
Neil agreed, having absolutely no clue what Nicky was talking about.
"Dude. I just asked if you wanted to go to bed or watch another movie. Are you okay? You seem kinda out of it."
Nicky was looking at Neil with a concerned glaze.
"Yeah I'm f-"
Neil stopped himself feeling Andrews glare
"I'm not that tired, let's watch another movie."
Nicky looked happy at his comment and began scrolling through all the options with Matt. The two of them usually had the best movie taste out of the Foxes. They ended up deciding on Rapunzel, which Neil recalls watching at least 10 times already. Not that he's complaining the movie is a masterpiece, and honestly one of the only ones Neil finds interesting.
"Let's order some pizza I'm starving." Allison cut in, her voice interrupting the movie everyone was intently watching.
Everyone except Andrew and Neil loudly expressed their agreement.
"Okay what do you guys want? Should I just order the usual?" Allison asked, her voice bored.
"I want extra garlic knots, a half sausage half pepperoni pizza, and maybe a chocolate cake slice for dessert."Nicky exclaimed, obviously unaware of the health concerns.
As if reading his mind, Kevin called out "You're going to have a fucking heart attack. We don't need anyone's game to be worse because they're hungry."
"Your no fun." Nicky whined, a pout on his face. "Allison, still order the food."
"Well now with all of us there's like 11 items in the bag. I'll just ask Wymack if he can grab some for us. It seems rude to make a delivery person do it because Nicky is big."
Dan hummed in agreement.
Allison called Wymack and ignored his irritation, they finally convinced him to get the food.
Neil was watching Rapunzel again, happy they turned it back on after all the food chaos. Honestly Neil wasn't even hungry he just wanted to sleep. It took all of his will power to stay awake.
Andrew nudged him, intently looking at Neil.
"Staring." Neil murdered, using Andrew's words.
"yes." Andrew replied, intently searching Neil. His eyebrows were creased, almost as if he was worried.
"Neil go to bed." He ordered, obviously noticing Neil's slowed actions.
"Andrew, I'm good. I like watching this movie with everyone."
Andrew huffed in argument but looked away towards the television.
Neil, who usually knew exactly what was going on with his body, felt at a loss. His sudden fatigue, headaches, and sick feeling was disorienting and frustrating. He hoped it was just a bad cold, he needed to do his best with Exy to stay alive so everything else wasn't nearly as important. He'd deal with it later.
Wymack finally arrived with the pizza, Abby showed up alongside him. The two found seats and ate the pizza as well claiming that they deserve some after picking it up.
"Neil are you going to have any?" Dan questioned
Neil nodded and grabbed a slice of the pepperoni pizza
He really didn't want any, honestly it felt like he was about to throw up at any moment, and eating seemed miserable. He took a bite and immediately choked on it, feeling like his throat was raw and about to tear open. His gag reflex happened without meaning, without even trying he began coughing. Unable to make it stop, even despite the agonizing pain.
"Neil!"
"You okay?"
"Is he choking?"
Neil coughed more into his hand.
"Sorry, I probably just swallowed wrong." Neil hoarsely explained.
He looked down, and saw a dark pile of liquid in the middle of his hand. It was blood.