anon: 10/10 would be down for more of that Jake au!!!
anon: Ohmygod please make that a thing
soooooo apparently y’all liked it? for those curious, here’s part 1, and there is at least one more scene in my head if y’all want it
Of all the things that Andrew has been forced to give up and change about himself, he’s refused to stop smoking, and he’s refused to stop wearing his armbands. He’s not giving up his nicotine, and no one is seeing his scars.
“Jake” – that’s not his real name, Andrew has learned, and his current name is Noah – doesn’t seem to mind the smoking, though it’s obvious that his mother has tried to quit and is bitter at Andrew for making that worse. Good. Fuck her.
“Antagonizing her isn’t going to help anything,” Jake says, watching Andrew from the corner of his eye as they wait on the sidewalk for “Brenda” to get them from school.
Andrew drags from his cigarette. He doesn’t care. She hasn’t been welcoming to him since he joined in their little runaway tag-team. Trust must be hard for her, not that he has any pity for a woman who packed up and ran at the first sign of trouble.
Jake sighs. “You find it amusing, don’t you?”
“Nothing else to entertain me,” Andrew says. He doesn’t want it to sound meaningful, but it does, and Jake isn’t stupid, even when he’s pretending to be.
i have this headcanon where in andrew & neil’s apartment they have this giant ass bulletin board near the entrance, so it’s one of the first things you would see when you entered the place. neil originally bought it to put practical stuff up like their team practice schedules & assigned meal plans given by their team nutritionist (which andrew ignores).
but eventually photos started making their way onto it. there’s a team picture of the foxes, of course kevin is the only one who took the team picture seriously but it’s them nonetheless. standing with them is abby, wymack & bee too. there’s a picture of dan & matt dancing horrendously at their wedding, one of nicky & erik they sent from one of their vacations, there’s a rare picture of nicky, aaron & andrew looking civil, a nice shot of renee & allison standing in front of a nice view, one of kevin getting pissed drunk which he makes an attempt to take down every time he visits.
and because andrew has a secret sense of humor, there are articles of neil from teen gossip magazines that describe him as “a sexy blue eyed beast on the exy field” neil pins up exy cards (kinda like baseball cards, roll with me here) of himself and andrew. plus the cards of their friends and teammates, like matt and even kevin makes his way up there. (andrew only tolerates kevin’s card up there because it means he can stick tacks through his picture’s face). they also have up various newspaper clippings & headlines like when they win the gold in the olympics.
and in the bottom right corners is the tack where they hang their keys.
Dan: There are seven chairs and ten people in the room. What do you do?
It features a canon lgbt relationship between a gay boy and a demisexual boy, a relationship that isn’t even a main focus of the books but still manages to contribute to both the plot and the character development.
A same-sex relationship that doesn’t end tragically, that shows these two characters staying together for years to come and leading a healthy domestic life with two cats, an apartment and a joint career.
A relationship that may not start out well, that is anything but love at first sight, but grows so much through personal struggles and mutual respect, and results in something worthwhile.
A relationship that places heavy emphasis not only on mutual consent, on learning and supporting, on protection and respect, but also on individual independence.
A relationship that doesn’t cast other characters to the sidelines, that isn’t the main character’s only source of happiness, because it takes more than romance to develop a character.
A relationship with a goddamn happy ending that feels entirely deserving for both characters because this is how they love, this is how they overcome their past, this is how they grow, not dependent on each other but side-by-side.
Just a goddamn happy same-sex relationship that doesn’t end in death or separation and that involves characters actually learning to respect and love each other basically???
andrew: i like hot chocolate and chain smoking instead of doing things i’m supposed to be doing
+ bonus andrew: 20 likes and i’ll kill my crush
aaron: exam self care is eating a pound of chocolate covered coffee beans and astral projecting into a wendy’s parking lot to knife fight with god
neil: this is just a gentle reminder that i am pretty much permanently Emotionally Unavailable thank u goodbye
+ bonus neil: kiss me or kill me. or both. lets just get this over with
kevin: i’m listening to tchaikovsky and shostakovich and getting drunk. this is the fucking #life don’t bother me
+ bonus kevin: my kink is when my teammates do their fucking jobs
allison: do i want to kiss her or steal her look?
+ bonus allison: i want to look good AND fuck people up
seth: i’m a literal wet heap of garbage and i want to die
nicky: i’m not here to be reasonable i’m here to be gay and have fun
matt: listen to me. every time this girl breathes i want to give her everything i own she deserves the world i love her
dan: men are weak and disgusting. except for that one he can stay
renee: having good friends is a religious experience and i will protect them with my life
additional
wymack: [letting my cats outside] you are idiots. i hate you. i know youre going to get hurt. [opening door] i love u go get ’em
jean: je don’t know, je don’t care, je want u to go away
Nothing but My Aching Soul 