#but let me just believe they still hangout and got closer post canon

[shhhsoftnwet]

They do their daily morning jogs together before work 🏃🏻💨

[kinsbin]

Jealousy

Title: Jealousy Word Count:  2089 Ship: Dale/Alexys [Canon/Self Insert]

Summary: Alexys and Dale have been friends ever since they had escaped the horrors of the cannibal backwoods of Virginia together. Spending so much time together, Dale slowly begins to realize he has feelings for her. It only takes one asshole at a bar to confirm it.

Author’s Note: A writing comm for @bad-blue-moon-rising! I ALMOST FORGOT TO POST IT BC I GOT SO BUSY WITH CHRISTMAS STUFF BUT! Ilu Alexys here u go <3

Her time away from home had been...enlightening.

The troubles of life were far from nonexistent, of course, but Alexys counted herself lucky in more ways than one. She had survived a forest filled of terrifying cannibals who made it a game to hunt her down like game on their own personal reserve. In that process, she had also garnered a close friend in the form of ex-marine veteran Dale. The man had stuck by her side since they first met in the dark, terrifying forest a night before being attacked by the cannibals yet again from either side. With his help, though, she had escaped. He had too. They had both crawled out of the forest that fateful night clinging to one another for dear life, but alive and kicking nonetheless. She could remember it in pieces only, though. Of holding onto his arm as he helped drag her through the mud. Of arriving at the nearby town and being taken in by the police. Of whispers on how it was alright. How he’d protect her. How, in the moment of panic, he had promised to keep her safe. How, in her own moment, she had been desperate to believe him.

He hadn’t failed in the promise so far, though, and for that she could only admire the man. After their anxiety had passed for the evening, he took her to his hometown not a few miles out of the town they had managed to find sanctuary in. He offered his home to her, a spare bed in an inn close to his home so that she could be sure he was only a phone call away. It had given her comfort where she thought there would be none. Rather than being tossed onto the street to fend for herself in a world that was now, perhaps, a bit too terrifying and full of nightmares for her to be comfortable with, he stuck by her side. He kept himself close and, with it, kept their friendship strong.

Alexys hadn’t expected to move into the same town as Dale, the small apartment she had rented only for a short while with his help soon turning into a full time lease and then longer with her approval of a job at the local diner...But was how things had happened. The world, she had learned, was full of surprises certainly.

“You good, kid?”

Dale’s voice startled her out of her train of thought as she gripped the tumblr of drink tight between her fingertips, turning to face him with wide blue eyes. His own eyes matched hers with patient expectancy, his own grip wrapped loosely around his second beer of the night. In the low light of the bar they were at, his hair sparkled silver like a halo around his face. Biting her lip, Alexys smiled and gave a coy shrug while touching at the rim of her glass. It was filled mostly with virgin bloody mary mix, the alcohol taste an annoying sting in the back of her throat if nothing else.

“Fine,” She murmured, “I was just thinking…”

“What about?”

“How I first moved in and started living here...How you helped me settle in and all that which-” She held up a finger at him warningly, “I’m still totally going to pay you back for and-”

“Alexys,” Dale’s groan sounded almost like a half chuckle, “We’ve been through this. You don’t owe me anything.”

“But-!” She had begun to protest with a soft whine in her tone, but a stern look from Dale had her biting her lip softly instead. He had always been able to do that, ever since they had first met. One fierce and capable look between the two of them and Alexys couldn’t help but relent to him, shutting her mouth from the argument in favor of playing with the tumblr that her drink came in with a pout. Hair was brushed behind her ear again as she mumbled, “You should at least let me pay you back for the down payment…”

A hand reached out, ruffling her hair and making her jump in surprise. Dale stood up as he let his hand rest on her head, his smile turning warm again as he nudged her, “We’ve been through hell together, kid. We almost got our arms ripped off, respectively, by asshole cannibals and you still worry about shit like paying me back for something like an apartment? When I was friends with the landlord for 15 years?” His laugh was warm and hearty, filled with hospitality and the beers he had sipped at with her at his side.

“I’m not making fun of you,” he added softly, “It’s a good quality to have, just, don’t worry about it with me.I’m just happy you’re alive enough to even think about things like that.”

His words softened her heart and allowed a nod of her head to him. She took a sip of her drink as he mumbled something about using the bathroom, words she couldn’t hear against the thrumming of the bar music as he left her alone. Alexys took a breath to try and control her anxiety, hands stretching against her own glass as she took another sip and shut her eyes, sighing as she tried to recollet her thoughts and opinions of the evening out. Drinking wasn’t her thing, but, Dale insisted it would be an amusing enough place without the need for alcohol. The fact that they offered virgin drinks was a good sign, at least, and she had found her eyes wandering to the televisions on either side of the bar more than once. The atmosphere was...homey. It matched the warmth of the town they lived in. She couldn’t say that she disliked it. She COULD say that, maybe, she would pick their hangout place next time they needed a night of friend time.

A hand set itself dangerously close to her form, sending her jumping out of her brief soiree of thought. Alexys looked up, expecting to see Dale having returned from his excursion. Instead, her stomach dropped at the man at her side. A stranger she had not seen before whose outfit gave him the appearance of a trucker who had just rolled into town. His sneer was just as ugly as his eyes, not in color but in intent, as they bored into her. Their fierceness made Alexys cringe back without realizing it, her body reflexively bringing the drink closer to her body to help make herself as small as possible.

“Aw, relax now little lady,” The guy laughed with amusement, “I don’t bite much, promise. Just saw you sittin’ here alone and thought you could use some company.”

“Uh,” She swallowed as the man took the stool Dale had been previously occupying, finding the space less than pleasant now with the stranger eyeing her with what only could be described as slight hunger in his eyes, “A-Actually um...That seat’s kinda...taken and...m-me and my friend are-He’s-”

“He?” The stranger snorted, breaking the personal space between them further, “I promise you, I can be way more fun than that friend of yours, cutie. You want to grab a drink with me and blow this place or something? I could give you a ride in my semi, she’s a real beauty. I don’t make the offer to any old girl.”

As he pushed himself closer, Dale exited the restroom with little on his mind. His eyes locked with the scene before him and he felt a strong sense of...anger? Frustration? ...Jealousy? Burning within his stomach like someone had struck a match that made his heartbeat fast and his pulse rise with every passing moment. The sound of the music was drowned out by the sound of his anger as it boiled and frothed in the corners of his mind, teeth gritting together so hard he felt himself slowly gain a toothache from the effort. Dale barely felt his feet move as he all but stalked up to the two talking, the force of his appearance parting the sea of people in the bar with ease.

A hand flew up onto the other man’s shoulder, yanking him back so that he faced Dale.

“Yo, dude,” The guy’s voice was angry as he was moved away, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

He glared at Dale and stood straight, the two men equaly as tall as one another. The room felt supercharged as they held eyes, like two bulls refusing to back down from a fight.

“Rejoining my friend back in MY seat,” Dale growled darkly, “Best you move along, don’t you think?”

“Come on now,” He shrugged, “We were just having a friendly chat, weren’t we darlin?”

Alexys swallowed and shook her head no as fast as possible, moving out of her seat to rush behind Dale, who glared darkly at the man before him. The man gritting his teeth, fists clenching as he watched Alexys run. Unsavory words filtered from his mouth and, well, to be honest Dale can’t remember who flew the first punch. Most said it was the stranger, so angry with not getting the girl in the end that he dared try to punch the well known ex-marine in the face. Dale only remembered the blood on his knuckles at the end of it and the slowly growing bruise on his cheek that resulted from a decently-aimed hit.

He remembered helping escort the other man out of the bar, kicking him out as he yelled not to come back. The other running with his tail between his legs like a godfearing coward.

Alexys touched his arm, making him flinch before looking down at her.

Her gaze was so soft. So worried for him as she moved him back to the side of a bar no one was using, the bartender passing them pieces of gauze and bandages and alcohol (both for rubbing and for drinking) before going on his way. “Here,” Alexys murmured, “Let me help.”

He didn’t stop her as she dabbed the disinfectant on his cheek. He didn’t flinch as he leaned into her touch, grows furrowing as he watched her own concentrated face. “Why?” Her question was soft.

“Why what?”

“Why did you punch that guy for me? It was...pretty stupid, honestly. You could have just taken him down without hurting his nose like that.”

“Guy deserved to be as ugly as he was inside.”

“That’s all the reason?”

It wasn’t accusatory, rather, curious as she finished cleaning off his cheek, moving to the bruises on his knuckles and dried blood of the other man that she dabbed carefully away. Dale watched in silence, not answering as he began to think himself. Why had he gotten so angry? So jealous when he saw the man just...sitting with her? Just seeing her even being looked at by that guy -buy any guy he realized- made him sick to his stomach. He stared at her hands and how small they were compared to his as she held it close to her chest.

He wanted to be the one whose hand she was always holding…

The thought clicked into place in his brain. The final peace of a puzzle falling from hands to table as all of the light faded out of the bar only to focus on her. On her beautiful eyes. The way she bit her lip as she concentrated. How she brushed her hair back when she spoke to him, the smile always faint and lined on her lips when he made a joke. How she was so perfectly, irrevocably, beautifully HER that it made his chest tight just seeing her. HOlding her. Wanting to hold her more.

“Because I-”

The words caught in his throat as she looked up, doe eyed and soft as he inhaled sharply. He let it out in a sigh, face peppered with red.

“I didn’t like seeing you that uncomfortable. You know I always have your back.”

She smiled at him and his heart fluttered. She laughed as they continued to talk, tension fading as she cleaned him up and she scolded him as he did. His heart...hurt for some reason. A vast hurt centered in his stomach as he withheld his true reasoning. A vast adoration at how beautiful she looked at his side.

Confessions, he supposed, could wait a night longer. For now he just wanted to watch. To see just how damn beautiful she was like this...Like always.

More than a bruise was punched into him that night...and, to be honest, Dale was pretty okay with it.

[okneiljos]

aftg headcanons

sorry if this is a mess but i have a lot of feeling/thoughts about this

• matt has donned “true friend” by hannah montana his and neil’s song okay

• neil is a runner and goes on runs a lot when he needs to clear his head and stuff so like what if the foxes started running with him

— kevin goes with him first (nicky was chilling in the dorm eating some ungodly snack and kevin was glaring at him and had this disgusted look so nicky laughed and with a surprise attack got kevin to swallow two whole bites)

 • so kev is like no i need to work off these calories immediately and he sees neil getting ready for a run and just joins him 

       — he and kevin only talk about exy, it’ll take a while for them to actually be able to talk about anything else, but it does happen           

       • matt is second cause he sees them jogging out the window and is like “well shit i didn’t know neil was open to company on his runs (cause sometimes he’s not) and decides he’ll join him next time

— matt is neil’s best bro so they talk about whatever and neil is like since when has this happened but he’s fine with it and is actually glad for the company 

     • a few weeks later it’s dan, then nicky who won’t shut up and keeps blabbing his head off but by this point neil finds it endearing, then allison who tells neil how pretty he is and how she could make him look and i quote “bitchin’” if he let her do his make-up, he politely declines. renee asks him if she can join and neil was going to say no since she unnerves him but he’s trying hard to get over that and says yes and they don’t speak other than her occasional humming

• whenever “circle of life” from lion king and matt is anywhere neil he will pick him up and sing along and all the foxes have so many videos of this along with zoomed in pics of neil’s face while it’s happening and they all think it’s the funniest thing ever (they mostly put on the song just to see it)

• they all have so many videos and pictures of neil and kevin’s reactions to things. kevin mostly to their unhealthy food choices (so they purposely order the thing on the menu most likely to give them a heart-attack) and neil to like anything.

    — they have compilations of neil going off on press and then panning over to kevin who is standing with his hand over his face sighing and muttering things like “why does wymack even let him do this he knows by this point” and “i’m going to murder him at night practice” and “why do i even try like honestly god why are you so against me”

    — they all try to get neil to say his iconic “i’m fine” so they can record it and pan over to any one of the foxes faces like their on the office. they have to have hundreds of these videos by this point honestly. dan puts them all together and it’s more than an hour long, at one of the sleepovers they watch it all and neil is cursing them while they laugh and andrew is muttering “idiot, do you know the definition of that word?” 

• all of them have a lot of sleepovers. they’ll watch movies (they take turns picking) and eat snacks and junk food that kevin complains about and they sometimes play games and they fall asleep on each other and its just really wonderful 

• so when the upperclassmen graduate neil is proud but also feels a little lonely but he voice calls with them all the time but he decides that isn’t enough so he gets rid of the dinosaur (his phone that andrew gave to him so he doesn’t really get rid of it he keeps it in the drawer by his bed) and gets an iphone

— after that all hell is unleashed and he is always facetiming at least one of them. andrew mostly and then matt and dan (but he sees them the most cause of dan being assistant coach) and then nicky and kevin. 

— they all try to call each other at least once a week but theres a lot of them so they have a groupchat. they talk all day in this groupchat and at least three conversations are always happening at once and pictures from the good ‘ol days and recent ones are always being sent 

— bless the thing called skype and google hangouts because now he can talk to more than one of them at once and it’s really great and he loves it and them so much

• they also try to visit each other on any special occasion and when they can’t you best believe they send cards and facetime. 

• neil is most surprised by the times that kevin initiates contact with him after he also graduates. kevin will call and text him reminding him to train and eat properly and keep his reflexes sharp and to insult his skills because kev always records and watches his games. it’s few and far in between that kevin compliments him but when he does neil feels good and proud and awed but he’d never tell kevin that

    — kevin and neil become closer okay i don’t make the rules. they call each other and talk about things other than exy but lets be real these exy junkies mostly talk about exy and each others games and the players on their teams (usually to complain or insult them) and kevin gives him advice 

• when robin comes neil doesn’t feel all that lonely anymore and they are giving matt and neil a run for their money of the level of bro-ness 

• my wife allison plays professionally and you cannot fucking tell me otherwise i’m sorry i don’t make the rules, she becomes pro and is a badass and her team beats kevin’s team once and kevin is pissy about it but he can’t be that mad (although he makes his team practice twice as long for a week straight afterword)

      — speaking on my wife allison didn’t nora say she didn’t play pro and became a fashion designer or something? anyway she still does that and she makes sports gear and work out clothes that make you That Bitch but are also comfortable and practical and she becomes even more rich. everything comes in shades of bright orange, pink, and black

     — every time she sees any of the foxes she brings them clothes from her line and she promotes the line by making the foxes put them on and model them for her. 

     — the most popular ones are matt boyd in a bright orange crop-top and booty shorts, the second most popular being neil in tight compression pants that leaves nothing to the imagination and a pink muscle tee. as soon as the picture of neil is posted his phone is ringing and guess who it is, yes that’s right its andrew. allison shoots neil a wink

     —  eventually she gets a deal with nike and designs shoes and the same thing, though this time she makes dan and renee model them for her. nicky does it on his own and send her pics of him wearing them and she posts them

     — kevin adamantly refuses to model for her but he owns everything from her line but he would never tell her that and he shows his support by taking a picture of him at the gym in the gym mirror and he’s wearing them and allison reposts it and texts him a winky face

     — everything she designs she has them try it first to see if it can withstand practical use so even after they graduate more than half the shit in their closets is bright orange only now theres also varying shades of pink 

     — she also forces her current team members to model for her and they all don’t want to at first until they actually try them and now all her teammates are always sporting her designs while training or at the gym or on court and she’s so proud of herself because she’s made something of herself without her parents 

• now on to kevin, so he learns the piano i have a headcanon (i forget if its actually canon or not but) jean is like a piano prodigy so when he and jean have their bi-weekly calls he begins asking jean for tips and its hard but kevin picks it up a lot faster than he would have expected 

i have so many thoughts on these guys so i’ll do a part two more on like renee, dan, matt, the twinyards and kev. especially aaron cause i don’t think i mentioned him but i have so many about him also so that’ll be in the second part.