write that athletic trainer au thx

:

au where Neil is a professional exy player and Andrew is the unfortunate son of a bitch athletic trainer in charge of patching him up.

Hate That You Know Me HC

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• most days, Neil begins or ends practice with some sort of injury
• he’s an absolute glutton for punishment and has a bad habit of talking himself into situations that he can’t get himself out of
• a fair amount of fights are started by Neil’s mouth, to be sure
• but there are also a hefty number that are started by his racquet
• both inside in out of practice, Neil isn’t afraid to high stick a bitch if the card is worth it
• a good portion of Neil’s time in the stadium is smack inside Andrew’s little room
• Neil has to take ice baths fairly often because he pushes himself harder than anyone else on the team, and stripping down in front of people isn’t something that Neil does
• the first time Andrew told him he had to take an ice bath, he immediately bristles. logically, he knows that he can keep some of his clothes on, but it’s hard enough dealing with the stares for the scars that he can’t hide. he’s not really interested in letting it be known that he is a patchwork of ruined, pink skin where it should be a golden tan. shiny and smooth where there should be hair.
• Andrew immediately senses his tension and leaves the room for a supply run for something Neil doesn’t even really hear him say
• for the entire duration of his ice bath, no one comes in Andrew’s room
• it’s not exactly party central to begin with, but there is typically a steady trickle of people coming in to get athletic tape or over the counter painkillers. some of them even come into Andrew’s room for the silence. Andrew doesn’t waste words and if you need five minutes of silence from the rowdy locker and weight rooms, Andrew’s room is where you go.
• Neil finishes his ice bath and leaves, without seeing Andrew.
• the clinical way that Andrew deals with Neil, and his growing knowledge of the extent of Neil’s scars, is endlessly fascinating to Neil
• most people that get a glimpse of his torso when his shirt rides up ask him hundreds of questions
• all Andrew does is run them over with an intense eye, once, then he never looks at them again
• Neil hasn’t felt like an actual person in so long
• they start to have conversations while Andrew is patching him up
• most of them are about how fucking stupid Neil is and that he is just trying to keep Big Pharma in business by getting busted up every other day
• Neil might be more interested in Andrew than he’s ever been interested in anyone else before
• but that is a bitch because he’s never been interested in anyone else like this before
• Matt encourages him to ask Andrew out, but like, Neil doesn’t even know that he swings at all and doesn’t know how you would tell. how would he even know if Andrew is interested?
• so he just ignores it. that’s healthy right? because he does it with everything else too
• Neil is considering googling “how to ask out your cute AT” when he gets high sticked in the face and gets a bloody nose.
• he doesn’t think it’s broken, but noses always bleed like a bitch so coach wants him off the court and he finds himself in Andrew’s little room
• Andrew is wrapping an ankle when he catches sight of Neil
• “don’t get your blood on the floor, I literally just mopped, and you know how much I hate mopping”
• “was that more or less than you hated me?”
• “less”
• Neil grinned and exposed a set of bloody teeth to Andrew
• Andrew huffed and looked up at the woman whose ankle he had finished wrapping, intending to scaring her off, but she just looked between the two as she hopped down off the table
• and before she walked out the door she turned to Neil, who wasn’t even aware she existed anymore, and said, “one day you’re going to have to tell me how you won Minyard over with a bloody nose”
• Andrew looked like he was considering double homicide, but the woman was unfazed and continued walking out the door
• “you like me?”
• “I hate you.”
• “does that mean if I asked you out for coffee, you would go?”
• “you don’t even drink coffee, Neil”
• “yeah, so? you do.”
• “I know six different ways to immediately kill you where you stand without you feeling a thing.”
• “is that a yes?”
• “…yes.”