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paradoxolotl · 2 years ago

Note

i know it's basic but i need to know what was going through andrew's head when he hears that aaron asked neil to kiss him in the jeans fic (im so sorry i can't actually remember the complete name of the fic in my mind its saved as the gay jeans fic)

Specific Fic Asks

I absolutely can do this for you anon ~ for It’s in the Jeans

Andrew’s life could be boiled down to three points of orbit:

His brother, Aaron. A minor pain in the ass on any day of the week that ended in y. Also the person who Andrew had crawled through hell with to build some semblance of normalcy. So for him, Andrew kept his complaining to a minimum.

Secondly, the neighbourhood stray cat. Andrew called it Worm. He also fed it after school every day, crouched in the bushes breaking up bits of ham with the paranoia levels of a small rodent.

And then there was Neil Josten. A major pain in Andrew’s ass every moment of every day, who was probably more feral than any street cat could dream to be. He’d complain more, used to complain more, but Andrew had recently found a better use of his time.

Because Neil’s kisses were a mind numbing, bone buzzing, oh too sweet addiction. Nothing in Andrew’s life had ever been as viciously satisfying as having Neil beneath him, one hand tipping the menace’s head back for a better angle, the other ghosting fingertips across the sensitive skin of his stomach just to feel the muscles jump.

It was too easy to lose himself in this, in Neil. Minutes were meaningless, the world falling away, and Andrew found himself halfway drunk with just Neil’s mouth against the skin of his neck. Nothing on earth could pull him from this moment, his Eden. Nothing-

There was a clattering bang from Aaron’s room. Odd enough to rip Andrew from the haze clouding his mind. But when no other noises followed, no cries of distress, it only took his name, whispered quiet and reverent, to pull him back to Neil. The fingers on his jaw helped him along, until he was sinking sinking drowning.

“I tried!” This time, not even Neil’s breath on his neck or hands in Andrew’s hair could distract him from Aaron’s shout.

Annoyance flicked up within him, simmering in his blood. Whatever fucking melodramatic bullshit Aaron found himself floundering in could not be worth-

“I asked Neil to kiss me-”

The thing about Andrew was this: he didn’t care about much. Most things in his life were revolving time passers, some more pleasant than others. But when he found something that burrowed past everything else, something worth calling his, Andrew cared a whole damn lot. Some might call it obsessive, concerning, unhealthy. Bee called it a trauma response. Andrew called it practical, because those few things he cared about could be taken away too quickly, too easily.

And the thing about Neil was this: he was Aaron’s before he was Andrew’s.

Andrew’s hand slammed into the wall before he registered what his body was doing, the beat of his heart slamming from excited to pretending not to panic. An unfortunate event, due to snapping both Aaron and Nicky’s attention to him and his complete loss of composure. Part of him wanted to glance back, to see if he really had just abandoned Neil to throw himself into whatever fucking mess this was, but Andrew’s brain was still screaming WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK RED ALERT on full power.

He knew Nicky was saying something, the noises hitting his ears, but he couldn’t process them. Eyes locked on his twin, Andrew all but demanded, “What did you just say?”

By Aaron’s concerned confusion, Andrew had clearly missed the mark. “The fuck were you doing?”

Neil, he thought. But he couldn’t very well say that to Aaron, especially when Aaron wore the same expression he did when they had watched a man sprint from beneath a bridge and disappear into the woods when they were ten. Quickly righting himself, Andrew attempted to infuse his voice with his usual nonchalance. “Nothing,” he said. Completely fine, totally normal. Not weird at all. “What did you say about Neil?”

For a moment, Aaron narrowed his eyes at him. As if Aaron had ever been able to break Andrew with his judgement. But then he shrugged, and Andrew felt his stomach drop with the cocky smile that spread across his face. “Oh, just asked if I could kiss him. No big deal.” Smug. Smiling. Bastard. “Why?” Aaron asked. Like an asshole. “Did you need something?”

Yeah, Andrew needed the world to stop falling from beneath his feet. Because Neil was a prickly fucker, untrusting and vicious. He held his people just as tightly as Andrew held his. Andrew spent years studying him, falling hard and fast and lasting, but the one thing that remained elusive was why Neil had fallen for Andrew too.

And deep down, a small voice whispered that if anyone could catch Neil and take him from Andrew, it would be Aaron.

Only one person had ever been able to quiet that voice. What did Andrew need? He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, back to Neil. “Yeah. I just-“ Nope. Uh huh. Brain hadn’t reset yet. Abort. Abort, Minyard. “Need to-“ Phenomenal. His mouth just wouldn’t stop. Is this what Neil felt like?

Well, time to abandon ship.

He didn’t feel any steadier when the door closed behind him, but his eyes zeroed in on Neil. Still sprawled on his back on Andrew’s floor, he looked up with a crooked smile, laughter tucked into the corners.

“Oh, right,” he said softly, unapologetic. “Your brother asked to kiss me.”

Andrew swallowed. His throat clicked. His shoulders pressed harder against his door.

At the silence, Neil’s smile turned a little softer. “I said no.”

“You said no.” His voice remained flat, neutral in the way he always used when expecting something to hurt.

Sighing, Neil rocked his knee in the air. Not jittery. Not nervous, just…moving. “Because I didn’t want to.”

“I asked you,” Andrew said.

Neil hummed. “And I wanted to. Still do, if you ever decide I’m more interesting than your wall. Or I could leave and you can brood and mope or whatever people with on overgrown sense of doom and despair do.”

“Really?” Andrew asked, even as he pushed off the door, falling back on top of Neil and into his grin. “You’re not funny.”

“Never said I was,” Neil said, words a laugh.

Neil had always been a point of clarity. An impossible piece in Andrew’s life he could never stray from, despite his efforts in the beginning.

His hands found their home in Andrew’s hair, dimple flickering out alongside his mirth. Quietly, he said, “It’s just you, Andrew.”

And Andrew believed him, and let everything else fall away.

#phew that was longer than I meant #did I do it #I don’t even know #let’s yeet it anyways #aftg #all for the game #the foxhole court #the raven king #the kings men #andrew minyard #neil josten #aaron minyard #andreil #twinyards #nicky hemmick #para’s fics #ask me stuff #ask para

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snowcoming · 1 year ago

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me and my friend, talking: omg wylan and jesper, omg love them fav characters omg

me, later: BUT NEIL JOSTEN OUR LITTLE FERAL CAT (junkieee)

Now how do you break it to said friend?

I managed to convince her to read the series and she better read it after exams bc i can not express my love for neil josten enough

and andrew minyard

and matt boyd

and dan

and renee obvs

#renee walker #andrew minyard #aftg #all for the game #trk #tkm #tfc #the foxhole court #neil josten #dan wilds #wylan van eck #jesper fahey #matt boyd

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thoushaltnotlive · 1 year ago

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Neil Josten is the human embodiment of the feral, sopping wet dumpster cat you find in a storm and cant leave. By just looking at it you can tell it's life is miserable. But it takes weeks to even let you in arms reach.

So there are 2 approaches to helping it:

Over a long (loooong) time it slowly warms up to you until you can actually help it . [Upperclassmen]

You just snach it up and take it home. It scratches you to all hell and back, might give you rabies. BUT it has a home now, and will never leave you. [Andrew]

In the end both works out just fine so now you have a very cute slighly less feral friend for life

#I can picture the upper classmen discussing tactics how to get closer to (cat!)neil #and then cut to andrew bleeding holding him by the back of his neck #I'm not tagging it as headcanon because this is what basicly happend in the books #tell me I'm wrong #come and tell me #neil josten #andrew minyard #aftg #all for the game #the foxhole court #tfc

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youaremysunshine-court · 4 years ago

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Andrew Minyard and Musicals

Hes the kind of person (like me) who can start at how does a bastard orphan and keep going for two and a half hours

He knows all the songs from Oliver Twist

Sometimes Neil whirls him around the living room with Oom-Pah-Pah playing

When they go to England, Andrew forces Neil to go to Piccadilly with him to watch whatevers on at the time

He has watched Legally Blonde the musical an insane number of times

He hums songs from Mary Poppins when he cleans the house

(He is appropriately touched by feed the birds, as he should be)

He fucking hated the remake of cats, because he has seen the play on a proper stage and it was a disgrace to the soul of theatre.

He always says Auf Wiedersehn when he drops Neil at the airport, not bc they speak German at home, but because he likes quoting Sound of Music

He sings "How do you solve a problem like Josten" after every press conference

Sometimes he stops halfway through what he's doing and says "Seven children?!?!"

Neil learnt 16 going on 17, because Andrew's eyes go soft when he sings "I'll take care of you"

Andrew has a surprisingly mellow singing voice, considering all the cigarettes he smokes, and he uses it to his advantage (ie. Gets lots of kisses from Neil)

MAMMA MIA, oh my god, at this point Andrew can replay those movies in his mind à la Shrek.

He knows all the songs

His Mamma Mia playlist is one his most listened to

We all know he prefers the ones sung by the cast to the og ABBA songs

High school musical was a guilty pleasure when he was living with Aaron and Nicky

He still watches it on bad days, curled up under a blanket and leaning against Neil's legs with a cup of cocoa warming his hands

He also loves any musical interpretation of Shakespeares plays, and just implodes when the Lady Macbeth speeches are sung

(Especially her first one, where she asks heaven to hide her knife in the cover of darkness)

(Also the "Oh hateful love, oh loving hate/ oh anything from nothing first begate" He goes feral.)

Anyway, Andrew minyard would have been a theatre gay in a better life

Bonus: whenever Sir asks for more food, Andrew stares him down and does a fake British accent: "Sir, can I have some more?"

"MORE, you want more??"

"Oliver, Oliver, never before has a boy wanted more," and then he calmly adds another handful of cat food to the bowl and walks away

#a happier timeline #someone write the fic thx love #fandom #aftg #andrew minyard #neil josten #tfc #tkm #trk #all for the game #the foxhole court #the raven king #the kings men #all for the gay #andreil #minyard josten #andrew could have been a theatre gay change my mind #nicky hemmick #kevin day #aaron minyard #renee walker #allison reynolds #matt boyd #dan wilds #can we talk about less traumatised andreil being theatre husbands together can we do that #also neil HATES Piccadilly but he puts up w it bc andrewd like but ACTORS and stage plays #they also visit the globe #andrew went through a phase where he tied his hair like hamilton and went around saying 'aaron burr sir' bc ive never done that what #andrew minyard sees the words 'a musical' and just goes f e r a l #neil calls him junkie sometimes and andrew sort of softens and flick his forehead and says 'no you'

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andrewjosephminyards · 6 years ago

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please write a hc about neil calling andrew “drew” in front of the foxes and everyone freaking out and trying to get away w also calling him drew tysm and have a nice day or night ! x

WHOOO ANON, Neil calling Andrew “’Drew” is literally one of my favorite things. This took a hot minute because I had no idea it was in my inbox, like I literally just found it with that ask I published a couple of days ago so if you sent it a while back then I am so so sorry, but I was so excited to find it and thank you so much for sending it, I hope you’re having a nice day/night as well!

Also, I strayed just a little from the prompt and this turned into a monster of an answer, forgive me :’)

So, without further adieu, the Foxes trying to get away with Neil Privileges™.

It happens early during Neil’s sophomore season.

Neil doesn’t mean to call Andrew “’Drew” in front of the other Foxes, but dammit the game they just won wasn’t easy between being slammed against the walls by the backliners more than half his size and running like a bat out of Hell up and down the court all night long. He’s tired and he’s sore and it just slips out.

They’re all siting in the foyer, waiting for Wymack to start his post-game talk and Neil honestly thought he was being quieter than he apparently was, but he’s asking Andrew if they’re going to Columbia and the name slips. It comes out sleepy and soft and it shuts the whole team up, freshmen and all.

For a minute, Neil doesn’t realize they’re being looked at, but Andrew does and the look he’s giving them all says they’d best not say a word about it.

And they don’t. At first.

Naturally, all of the foxes have been mulling this little interaction over in their heads, because it isn’t very often that they all get to see Neil so soft and sleepy. He’s very rarely tired enough to let his guard down around the freshmen enough to let them see something like that.

And as such, they all treasure the moment in their hearts, because it’s a well-known fact the whole team has adopted Neil Josten.

However, he’s a lot like a feral cat, so none of them actually mention it to either Andrew or Neil, rather they discuss it among themselves, which results in a bet as to whether or not that’s actually something Neil calls Andrew.

Or maybe his voice cracked from being tired and it came out as “’Drew” even though he really said “Andrew.”

They’re going to figure it out.

They’re split about fifty-fifty.

Actually a nickname: Matt, Dan, Allison.

Not a nickname, just an accident: Nicky, Aaron, Kevin.

Aaron and Kevin don’t really care, but they got dragged into the bet by Allison.

Renee doesn’t bet, because she Knows and they all know she knows, but she just smiles like the angel she is when they ask her. She won’t even tell Allison.

It’s a few days later, at practice, when Allison is the first to try it. They’re scrimmaging for the first time since that game instead of doing drills and Allison is on the opposing team. Neil’s on her team and he scores a painstaking shot. Up until this point, Andrew had kept his team’s goal clear.

“Better luck next time, ‘Drew.” And she coos it, grinning like mad at the gremlin in the goal.

Neil hisses her name, not happy she’s using his nickname for Andrew against him. And not exactly knowing how she even knew it in the first place. Because like I said, he was tired when it slipped and he’d really thought he was being quiet.

Andrew says nothing. He doesn’t even narrow his eyes at her. There’s no reaction whatsoever.

The ball that comes barreling at Allison the next time somebody tries for a goal on Andrew tells her she effectively got under his skin.

Every subsequent shot after that comes her way. She leaves fairly bruised up and cursing Andrew to the high heavens, but pleased nonetheless to have gotten any kind of reaction from him at all.

When they lose and have to run laps, she’s a little less pleased. Not to mention the dark bruises that have started to bloom whenever Andrew got a clear hit.

Allison doesn’t mention the nickname again on the court.

Andrew doesn’t say anything about it to Neil, because why would he?

Even when Neil asks, he just shrugs, says he doesn’t care.

He’s not angry over it, but that’s Neil’s. It’s become sacred without him realizing it, like pipedream, like keys, and home, like stay, like yes or no.

Just because he isn’t angry over it doesn’t mean he likes it.

Hearing it fall from anyone else’s lips leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

Neil knows, even if Andrew doesn’t tell him. Won’t tell him.

The next time it happens, it’s Matt and it’s to Neil and Neil only. No one else is around, because Neil and Matt have the same hour out of classes and none of the other foxes do, so it’s just the two of them.

Matt’s kind of picking at his salad, eyes on Neil and Neil just knows what’s coming.

“So, Drew-?” Matt was only going to ask whether or not it was a nickname, not actually use the nickname, but Neil is faster with his words.

“Don’t call him that.” It comes out quickly, sharp and cutting through the rest of Matt’s question, whatever it was. But it’s not harsh, not hateful, because this is Matt and Neil knows Matt doesn’t mean any harm.

And because it’s Matt, he drops it immediately. A nod, an “okay,” and they move on to something else.

Matt, inevitably, tells Dan that Neil doesn’t want them to call Andrew “’Drew” and she takes it in stride. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything to her.

They still don’t have their answer to settle their bet.

Nicky thinks that this would be the only bet he’d be happy to lost and that if it really is a nickname that Neil has for Andrew then that’s actually super sweet, but after living with his cousin for so long and seeing what happened with Allison, he decides he’s better off not testing any of their theories, especially not on Andrew.

That leaves Aaron and Kevin. Aaron decides he sure as hell isn’t asking because his relationship with Andrew is still rocky at best. His relationship with Neil was even worse still, albeit on a different sort of level. So he immediately throws Kevin under the bus.

“Kevin lives with them, make him figure it out.”

Silence from the other foxes. They can all see Kevin’s internal screeching through his eyes. And then his adamant protests.

Nicky points out that all Kevin really has to do is listen, but he’s still not digging this sudden turn of events and the responsibility of this entire bet being placed firmly upon his shoulders.

Kevin argues and argues, but to no avail. He gets sent into battle without really being prepped.

So he sits in their dorm and does his best to listen to every conversation they have while they’re in the living area, even those that are hushed though he’s pretty sure he could live without hearing 70% of those, but things sound as normal as they usually do. Neil calls Andrew by his name and Andrew usually responds with something along the lines of “Neil” or “fucking junkie.”

Neil and Andrew both know that Kevin’s listening to their conversations. He’s not subtle.

Even if he’s not looking at them, he’s not reacting like he usually does to the television or his laptop.

Neil just kind of assumes he’s getting irritable because they’re talking during the exy games he’s watching, since the season has started out on a rockier note than they’d all hoped for.

Andrew doubts it. He imagines he knows what Kevin’s listening for. So it’s Andrew that confronts Kevin: “Are you waiting for something, Day?”

Kevin’s little jolt is all Andrew needs to know that he’s right. He goes so far as to pop an eyebrow up when Kevin glances at him.

Kevin just shakes his head and puts his headphones in. He doesn’t feel like getting kicked out more than he already does.

Days go by before any of the upperclassmen ask for a status report, everyone eagerly awaiting their answer.

“He doesn’t call Andrew that around me. I am not asking.”

Stark disappointment from all the other foxes and then some serious nagging for Kevin to figure it out somehow.

This nagging continues right up until Andrew and Neil are around and then it stops entirely.

Kevin’s still not been won over by that point and everyone’s actually starting to get a little discouraged or otherwise irritated that they can’t pin this down.

Neil, for one, is feeling a pretty good sense of relief that the foxes have apparently forgotten about Allison calling Andrew “’Drew” and that Matt had completely let it go.

Andrew’s pretty certain not a single one of the damned nuisances has forgotten.

Unfortunately for the both of them, that’s the case, but it’s not the upperclassmen that necessarily make it unfortunate.

It’s that very day at practice that the foxes get their answer. They’re split up to run drills by position when one of the freshmen Jack snarls something at Neil that most of the others can’t hear (Kevin can), but it flares Neil’s temper and he swings on Jack so fast no one really realized it was about to happen.

The other foxes converge on the scene and break up the not-so-little brawl that’s gone down and it’s just as Matt’s trying to pull Neil back with Allison and Nicky putting themselves in between them and Kevin and Dan forcing Jack away from him that Neil snarls, “I’m the only one that can call him that you shit-faced motherfucker.”

Matt gasps like he’s not heard worse, but Kevin’s head whips around and he’s staring wide-eyed at Neil.

No one gets the chance to ask why until after practice because it’s a day that Wymack decides running off their tempers is as good an idea as any (and it is, since it essentially allows the freshmen and the other foxes to put a little distance between themselves, even if all of the freshmen aren’t so bad).

It’s after practice that they’re finally able to ask Kevin what happened.

Kevin just kind of clears his throat, tells them that Jack had thrown around some insults at Neil through practice (nothing new) and then said something about Andrew, which Neil ignored again, and then the one thing he said that pushed Neil over the edge was something about “Drew.”

Kevin doesn’t know what the last insult was exactly, but he does know he heard that. He’d been trying to hear it all week.

Money exchanges hands immediately. Allison’s smug, Kevin’s irritated that he just made himself lose the bet.

None of the foxes ever try to get away with it again.

But Neil eventually, slowly, lets himself call Andrew Drew in front of the foxes. And Andrew can’t really say that he minds. As long as it only falls from Neil’s lips from then on.

And a little something extra for the first time Neil calls Andrew “’Drew”, like this isn’t already long enough:

Again, the above situation happens early in Neil’s sophomore season.

And Neil’s only recently started calling Andrew “’Drew.”

That, too, started as an accident.

It was a good day and Neil had just made coffee after his run and he fixed himself a cup and then Andrew.

And upon taking a sip of his own coffee, he burns his tongue, so when he calls for Andrew, he’s talking fast and it comes out like “Mm. ‘Drew, coffee!”

Neil pauses a moment, realizes what he’s done and turns to slip out the door immediately.

For once in his life, he’s not fast enough.

Andrew’s there, picking up his coffee, eyebrow rising in question as he takes a sip.

Neil says nothing, just smiles and sips his own (too-hot) coffee again.

Andrew hums at his and Neil takes that as a pass. His coffee was acceptable this time. He’s getting the hang of how sweet Andrew’s has to be for it to be even passable. (Which, he already knew what made it passable, but sometimes he just isn’t willing to check and see if he’s put the right amount of sugar in the man’s coffee himself.)

They stand there for a few minutes, Neil relaxing, glad Andrew either hadn’t caught the little slip or just didn’t care enough to say anything.

And it’s then, just when Neil thinks he’s safe, that Andrew says, “Drew?”

Neil flinches, points at his mouth, now molded into a sheepish smile. “I burned my tongue and it slipped.”

Andrew nods, accepting the fact for what it was, ignoring the slight disappointment that he may or may not feel, that had followed the butterflies in his stomach that he may or may not have been trying to kill.

And then Neil says, “Unless�� unless I can? Call you that, I mean.” It’s tentative, quiet, like he’s trying something he didn’t even expect himself to try.

Andrew simply looks at him, those stupid fucking butterflies starting up again, even as he very desperately tried to squash the damn things mentally.

They stand there again for a good two minutes before Neil says anything else in the form of a very soft, “yes or no?”

Andrew presses his lips into a thin line just before he rolls his eyes, lets out a long suffering sigh, and averts his gaze from Neil’s bright eyes. He can’t take the little bit of hope that shown in them. It only made the horrendous psychologically-induced stomach-creatures worse.

Then, “Yes.”

Neil lets out a little puff of a laugh, something disbelieving and overall giddy that Andrew didn’t mind if he called him Drew.

It was something else for the two of them, something special that no one else could ever quite understand. There was meaning there that meant more than either of them could fathom in the past or that they could even really fathom now, but that they would learn to understand as they learned to understand other things in the future like being really and truly happy, like complete and unequivocal trust.

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