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Neil was having a bad day. No, scratch that; Neil was having a bad week. Not only was Jack being his irritating asshole self, but Kevin also decided to be especially hellish in light of their upcoming match against the Ravens. On top of that, Lola’s trial was on Sunday, a mere two days from now.
To say the least, Neil was feeling the pressure.
He doesn’t quite feel the urge to run, not yet anyway. He’s far too happy and determined to consider running every time he gets stressed nowadays. But, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t at least consider the possibility, even if it’s only for a couple of seconds.
“Goddammit, Neil! Would you get your head out of your fucking ass so we can practice? You do realize we’re playing the Ravens in less than a week, right?” Kevin seethes, shoving Neil up against the wall of the court, and cutting into Neil’s depressing train of thought. Seeing as it’s Wednesday and Aaron and Andrew are at Bee’s office for their weekly session, Kevin can get away with being especially shitty.
“Bordel, ne me touche pas, Day” (Get the fuck off of me, Day.) Neil spits back, letting out some of his anger to shove Kevin off of him and stalk back to center court.
Kevin, however, does not give up. “Non, écoute moi, Josten. Tu vas pas tout faire foirer comme ça. Tu comprends ça?” (No, listen to me, Josten. You will not screw this up for us. Do you understand?) Kevin spits back, staying a good distance from Neil but yelling threateningly.
“Va te faire foutre, connard!” (Fuck off, asshole!) Neil rips his gloves off and moves towards the door, spitting French expletives at Kevin the entire way. “J'ai pas besoin de ça en ce moment!” (I don’t need this shit right now!)
“Où est ce que tu vas putain?” (Where the fuck are you going?!) Kevin asks angrily, moving to stalk Neil off the court but getting the door slammed in his face instead.
Neil strips off the rest of his gear angrily in the locker room, failing to notice Jack sneaking in behind him. “Aw, what’s wrong Josten? Daddy issues? Oh, wait!”
“Fuck. Off.” Neil replies dangerously, turning around and giving Jack the glare he learned from his father.
“No,” Jack replies with faux-sweetness. “You want to know what I think is wrong?” Jack growls, moving closer to Neil with each step.
“Enlighten me,” Neil replies sarcastically. He was never afraid of Jack, and was never going to be, despite what the little shit himself seemed to think.
“I think you’re scared. Are you scared we’re going to lose against the Ravens?” Jack asks, pausing to ‘think’ before grinning maliciously. “Nah, that can’t be it. You scared that Kevin will kick your ass if you don’t do well? Oh!” Jack pauses to clap loudly. “I know! Did Andrew finally dump your ass?”
“Get the fuck out of my sight, Jack.”
“Wait! Now I really do remember! It’s Lola’s trial in hmmm, two days is it? How’re you feeling Neil?”
Neil, instead of responding, punches Jack straight in the face. He hears a sickening crunch as Jack’s nose breaks, and shoves him up against the lockers to whisper harshly at him.
“Listen the fuck up, because I’m only going to say this once. If you cross me, if you cross anyone that I remotely care about, I will destroy you. Do not forget who my father was, Jack. I may go by Neil now, but I still have some of Nathaniel in me. You do not want to see him come out. Stay the fuck away from me and do your damn job.”
Neil shoves Jack hard against the lockers one more time before grabbing his bag and stalking out of the locker room and into the lounge, almost running smack into Andrew and Aaron, who have apparently returned from their therapy session.
A second or two behind Neil is Jack, who is clutching his bloody nose. Neil shoots him a glare and is satisfied at the bruise that is already beginning to show on Jack’s left eye, before he turns back to look at Andrew.
“Can I have the keys? Or can you drop me at the dorms?” Neil asks.
Andrew spares a glance at Jack and then looks back at Neil. “I’ll drive you.”
Neil just nods, turning and following Andrew out of the room and into the parking lot. Andrew doesn’t say anything on the short drive back to the dorms, much to Neil’s simultaneous relief and annoyance.
“Are you coming in or going back to practice?” Neil asks once Andrew has parked in front of their dorm.
“What happened?” Andrew asks, apparently deciding to ignore Neil’s question.
“Kevin was being a dick, so I left, then Jack cornered me in the locker room and I punched him.”
Andrew just looks at him for a minute. Neil, getting sick of being stared at, turns the back of his head to Andrew and looks out the window.
“Lola’s trial is on Sunday,” Neil says after a moment.
“I’m aware.”
“And?”
“And what, Neil?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t fucking say ‘nothing’.” Andrew growls, and Neil finally turns back to look at Andrew.
After a split second of indecision, Neil decides he might as well be honest. After all, he doesn’t really have anything else to lose. Especially after today. “I’m scared,” Neil manages to say.
“You’re an idiot,” Is Andrew’s only response. Neil just looks at him for a minute longer, clearly expecting an elaboration. “What?” Andrew growls again, shoving Neil’s chin away so that he’s no longer staring at him.
“I– no, it was my fault for thinking you might care,” Neil replies as neutrally as possible. He quickly unlocks his door and steps out of the car. “You should go back to practice before Kevin has a heart attack.”
Neil doesn’t wait for Andrew’s response before he slams the door and heads towards the dorm, but he does hear Andrew speeding away the second Neil reaches for the dorm’s door handle.
Once Neil makes it up to his dorm room, he finally lets all his anger and panic set in. He’s been trying to keep these emotions at bay for days, no, weeks now.
He needed to run, and he needed to do it now.
—
Neil eventually collapses on a park bench in the middle of nowhere, with no phone, no money, and no way of contacting anyone. He vaguely remembers how he got here, but he’s not sure that he could remember the way well enough to make it back without getting even more lost.
Resigning himself to his fate, Neil slouches down on the bench and begins thinking back to his time with the Ravens, Baltimore, and Lola’s upcoming trial.
—
Neil doesn’t know how long he sits there, but it’s dark when he hears a car come to a sudden stop beside him. He startles out of his thoughts and turns, surprised yet not surprised to see Andrew getting out of his car and heading towards him.
“Get in the car,” Andrew says evenly once he reaches Neil.
Neil, grudgingly realizing he doesn’t really have another option at the moment, nods and follows silently. He expects Andrew to drive off the second Neil’s buckled his seat belt, but instead he turns the car on and stays parked.
“You don’t have a reason to be scared,” Andrew finally says, turning to look at Neil with a calculating gaze.
“I know. But I am anyway.”
Andrew stares at him for a minute longer before turning his gaze out the window. “The feds have enough evidence to put her away for good.”
Neil always seems to forget just how well Andrew knows him. His biggest fear about the trial would not be seeing Lola or having his torture brought to everyone’s attention–although that would surely be uncomfortable–but the possibility that she could walk free, and Andrew knew that. Could see that.
Unable to respond, Neil nods and watches Andrew’s hand flex around the steering wheel.
“Yes or no?”
“Yes,” Neil responds immediately. Andrew hooks his fingers in the back of Neil’s collar and drags him in for an urgent and bruising kiss. Neil sighs into Andrew’s mouth, grateful that he seems to know what Neil needs better than Neil himself, at least when it came to matters like this.
“I’m sorry I ran,” Neil says once they pull apart.
“I hate you,” Andrew says, and Neil knows he’s forgiven.
“Liar.”
They stare at each other in the darkness of the car, and after a minute or so of silence, Andrew speaks. “Let’s go to Columbia.”
“Yeah, ok. Let’s go to Columbia.”
Neil smiles softly as he watches the highway, grateful that Andrew seems to know just how to prevent Neil from drowning in the shattered remains of his past.