#neil x andrew

[little2nerdy]

when andrew graduates and is playing pro he has to quit smoking. as a joke neil gets him candy cigarettes. andrew goes nowhere without them.

[herondaleoffspring]

reporter: omg you're so determined

neil: thanks i do everything out of spite

[thatcrimsonsun]

I was talking to my friend today about books, and she said something along the lines of: "You know that dark romance book you're obsessed with...", which got me so fucking confused because???? I don't read those??? and then she continued to describe it and turns out she was thinking of aftg, and when I tell you I cackled, because babes, that book is dark in every sense and corner BUT romance, it's actually fascinating how two such damaged people can have such kind, harmless love.

[yukaruuyuh]

NEW ANDRIEL COMIC PAGE! ✨

I just read a incredible fanfic this days that makes me feel so cozy and warm omg I almost wished to die (jk haha) hope u enjoy

[atlalasassy]

Sometimes I lie awake at night thinking about how in the shower scene, Andrew took off his armbands. He wasn’t scared of getting them wet or anything; he was literally wearing the rest of his clothes, but he knew that he was seeing Neil’s scars so he let Neil see his

[gabumk]

🦊🐱

I wanted to draw them older, since I imagine that only after a few years together would Andrew let Neil touch him like that. But I ended up drawing them in the Palmetto uniform because I wanted you to recognize them even without seeing their faces. hope u like it even It’s just a Wip tho🙌

[verdiris]

✨️2021 vs 2024✨️

[okdesk]

i'm 10 years late

[mayaheronthorn]

I love how in this chapter when Minyard twins were talking with Betsy about their deal Andrew never denied that he fell for Neil when Aaron said it BUT he always denied that they were dating (which was true cause they never made it official) IT MAKES ME GIGGLE SO HARD BECAUSE HE CAN'T LIE ABOUT HIS FEELINGS FOR NEIL

They are so special to me

[allforthegaymes]

Andrew sat in the fbi interrogation alongside Neil, stuck between trying to decide wether to keep his wary eyes on the agents sat across from them or to keep his eyes locked on Neil, as if he’ll disappear again if he loses sight of him at any point.

Instead he keeps a finger hooked around one of Neils belt loops and sets himself to memorizing every word out of Neils mouth, keeping a watch on the agents to make sure they dont make a sudden attempt to go back on their words.

Which means he gets the first hand sight of how other people would react to hearing about what Neil’s gone through. And while he’d accepted every word from Neils mouth without a facial reaction, watching how the agents react make him think maybe he shouldve.

(The whispered thanks from Neil afterwards about Andrew not looking at him differently changes his mind)

The only part that really makes him freeze is when Neil begins the talk of his mothers death. Andrews all too familiar with dead mothers in cars, but hearing about the gun wound, the vinyl seats sticking to a half burnt away body, the bone burial along the beach. Neil stutters only once during his recounts, where he slips and mentions the smell.

He compares it to the scent of cigarettes, used Andrew’s one marlboro reds as a reference and suddenly all those rooftop rendezvous together makes more sense.

Neils half smoked cigarettes, never stubbed out but left to continue burning on the concrete next to them while they sit and talk. The way he only does stub them out when talking about his parents, or when Andrew mentions something about his own mom, or when Andrew says anything about the earlier days with Aaron.

Neil stops talking for a moment after that. Lost in thought.

And as always, Andrew follows him half a step behind.

Neils adamant claims during their zombie apocalypse walks with Renee around the track that he would always burn their friends bodies to make sure they dont come back from the dead.

The way he always leaves the room when they watch the newest episode of that stupid viking show that Aaron and Kevin like to watch and theres a burning boat funeral.

The way he-

And then Neil starts talking to the fbi agents again and Andrew is forced to tune back in and tuck away those thoughts till later.

He tells them about what happened in Baltimore.

The torture from Lola. The dashboard lighter pressing seared wounds into his skin. Over the tattoo, scattered across his arms, the faint marks from where she tried to burn holes through his jeans to get to his thighs. Saved only half as well as they were by the fact he’d worn a pair of the carhartt work pants Andrew had bought for him and not a pair of the threadbare thrift store jeans he usually wore.

Andrew makes the mental note to stop using his own dashboard lighter to light the cigarettes he smokes in the car. And to swap cigarette brands. And to stop smoking in the car.

And then its about the trunk of the car, the way Lola had held onto him and the comments she made in the car, the basement, the offhanded mention about how Nathan was barefoot when he walked down the stairs.

The little details that only someone who’s truly grasping for any recollection in a traumatic moment would retain. The way even when Nathan was walking down to tear Neil limb from limb, Neil still couldnt bring himself to look at his fathers face. The face that Neil shares. The face Neil still avoids looking at when he walks past the mirror in the hall in Columbia.

And he thinks about the way Neil shied away from Wymack in the beginning, the way he now searches for Wymacks face whenever they get separated from their coach at away games.

The gun shots during the Hatford raid, the way even though Neil was bruised and battered he still found himself with a smile on his face when he saw Lola’s body get blasted apart by silenced guns.

The way he knew even if they got a proper funeral no one down there would get to have an open casket. The evidence in their bullet shattered bones that their bodies would never rest peacefully. That people in a thousand years would know from the unmarked graves and their remains that they deserved whatever ended them.

And then he claims it goes dark, he says it with the same way Neil lies about everything else, with his body forced relaxed to not twitch and give himself away, but he breathes a little heavier when he calmly tries to describe the way he came to and found himself being helped by the emergency services, feigning he doesnt know what theyre actually called, playing into the runaway kid sent on the road too young and not knowing completely how the world works still.

Andrew wishes he didnt know Neil well enough to know its only half real. Wishes he didnt know Mary probably only taught Neil how to recognize and run from EMT’s, and never actually explained what EMT was meant to stand for.

Andrew knows first hand how hard it is to gain sympathy from government officials, but Neil’s got them eating out of his hand with the way he words his story, their final nail in the coffin to take down the Wesninski trails in Baltimore and beyond.

Neil knows they need him and he knows how to play them to believe whatever story he deems they’re worthwhile to hear.

[popcornhee]

Uwauwgu

[little2nerdy]

ik that nora said that andrew and neil don’t say i love you, but i disagree (to a certain extent) here’s why:

as a demisexual and demiromantic person i never put much weight in that phrase, it’s just something i said to my friends and my family and my pets and the inanimate objects that matter to me. however when i was in my first serious relationship i rarely said it. even though i had told them i loved them when we were just friends i stopped. it felt heavier. i think neil who had probably never heard the phrase directed toward him until he met and befriended the foxes would have a hard time saying it to andrew.

it’s really hard sometimes as someone on the ace spectrum to accept you feel that way about someone when you never/rarely have before. it feels like a lie or that maybe you’re faking it.

additionally andrew was probably told during many traumatic childhood experiences that what was being done to him was out of care or love and probably didn’t want to associate that phrase with his relationship with neil bc of the nasty connections to those terrible experiences.

but i think after a lot of growth, and therapy, and trust, they do say it, maybe not as frequently as other couples but they do say it, and when they do it means so much more.

[herondaleoffspring]

the foxes: we're your friends

first book neil: it's a setup

[the-best-of-the-myrmidona]

Andrew Minyard is so mentally scary and tough to me, and then I remember that he canonically matches things like his armbands with Neil. And then I remember he's also probably secretly a little mushy pile of love

[yukaruuyuh]

They are the stars I draw around my scars 🧡

[atlalasassy]