AGLIONBY ACADEMY » Now With More Magic : HOUSE CABESWATER 🍃 » Members of House Cabeswater often excel at the more arcane arts taught at the academy, such as scrying and tarot card reading. House colors are Evergreen and Teal. Notable members include Adam Parrish and Noah Czerny. »
so i somehow messed up answering your ask directly, but this was requested by @vexingcosmos! i’m sorry it took me forever, but i actually did some research because i know NOTHING about smoking. also, this got long. like…really long.
it began as most things do, where the Foxes are concerned: with a bet
it’s a Friday night and the Monsters have come to Columbia, and for once, the upperclassmen were allowed to come along
Matt’s birthday was on Wednesday, and he just wants to hang out with his best friend and favorite human Neil okay let him live
so Neil *asked* Andrew and well…we all know how that goes
the whole gang is having a grand ol’ time
Aaron, Nicky, Allison, and Dan have been on the dance floor practically since the second they walked into Eden’s
Allison dragged a reluctant Renee out to join them within the first hour, and this girl can DANCE don’t fight me on this
Kevin has been drunk since before they even left Sweetie’s (snuck in a flask, the little troublemaker)
he’s so far gone that he couldn’t even tell you who the first striker in Exy history to reach 1,000 goals was. he may or may not be aware that he is swaying.
Matt has been hanging out at the table with Neil and a rather annoyed Andrew
Matt has convinced Neil to take way too many shots for his tiny body to handle, but Andrew is there, so he’s trying not to worry about it
sometime around the seventh shot, the rest of the gang makes their way over to the table
Andrew’s hand is on Neil’s thigh, and his pointer finger has been tapping incessantly for the past twenty minutes
and Neil can only take so much, even from Andrew
he stares at Andrew as subtly as he can (i.e. not very) in an effort to catch his attention
Andrew eventually drags his gaze over to Neil and lazily cocks his head to the side, as if to say what could you possibly want at this moment in time, Neil
Neil looks pointedly to Andrew’s hand and then jerks his head towards the exit
Neil is, of course, very unsubtle with all of this
Kevin turns to stare at them and says, in a barely intelligible voice, “if you’re gonna hook up, you could at least wait until we’re back at the house and i’m passed tf out”
Nicky laughs and says, “aww Kev c’mon, let the munchkins have playtime whenever they want”
Andrew is about to turn his whiskey glass into a weapon for the munchkin comment when Aaron suddenly pipes in
“nah, Andrew needs to take care of his other habit”
it is now very quiet in their group of normally very loud people
everyone looks to Aaron for him to clue them in on what he means
everyone except Renee, who has silently moved closer to Andrew just in case he really does decide to use that whiskey glass
Aaron continues: “you know what smoking does to your body over time, right? i assume i don’t need to go all Bill Nye on your ass and draw you a picture”
Aaron becomes Dr. Minyard when he is very drunk. trust me.
Andrew doesn’t say anything, just stares at Aaron. is he even blinking? probably not
“who am i kidding. you don’t care. you’ll just let this ruin you. i bet you couldn’t quit even if you tried”
that gets everyone’s attention
Nicky: “did he just say the B word”
Allison: “looks like it’s that time again where i get even richer”
Matt, softly: “oh shit”
Neil is about to jump in and open up a can of whoop ass on Aaron when Andrew’s steady voice comes from beside him
“fine”
everyone, collectively: “WHAT”
Andrew rolls his eyes. “fine. i bet that i can quit completely within a week”
complete silence. everyone just stares. shock. disbelief.
Andrew gets up and starts heading towards the exit, dragging Neil along with him
********
Neil decides to join Andrew in Operation Quit Smoking
but two days into it, they’re both at their wits end
they definitely aren’t about try anything medication-related, for obvious reasons
after doing a bit of research related to natural methods like adding more of certain vitamins into your diet, Neil confronts Andrew
“you know we have to. we don’t have another choice”
“fuck you, i’m not doing that”
“Andrew. it’s our last option.”
[after a long, defeated sigh] “fine. but you have to ask him”
so Neil does the one thing he wished he’d never have to do with anything that isn’t Exy
he asks Kevin to help
when they wake up the next day, Kevin has printed out color-coded meal plans for both Andrew and Neil
Andrew Minyard does not cry. But let me tell you. Looking at that list of food options…it was an extremely close call.
on every single day, the breakfast item was a green smoothie
Andrew thought he’d rather just pay the entire $500 betting pool off himself
but Neil. precious, precious Neil. tells Andrew that they can definitely do it, and wouldn’t it be great to prove Aaron wrong and make him lose money that he probably would have spent on Katelyn?
so they pull themselves up by their metaphorical bootstraps and follow all of Kevin’s rules. every. single. one.
halfway to their deadline, Andrew finally wants to kill everyone slightly less than he did yesterday. he marks this as massive progress.
Neil didn’t really smoke in the first place, but he’s still having trouble finding something to replace that feeling he gets from the smell
he’ll be okay without it, he thinks. he has Andrew to keep him steady, to ground him when he feels like he could float away from reality for good
by the following Friday, the Foxes have gathered in the girls’ room to hear the final word and settle their bets
Kevin has become the official referee of this particular bet
everyone waits in suspense, heartbeats flying at the thought of all the cash they are either about to lose or gain
Kevin takes his role seriously, as he does everything else
“i declare that, as of this day at 4:27 pm, Andrew and Neil have gone three consecutive days without one cigarette. i predict that they will be able to continue resisting, if they keep following my suggested guidelines”
the last bit is said with a hard look at Neil and Andrew. of course.
Allison, Matt, and Dan don’t try to hide the smug looks on their faces as Aaron and Nicky hand over entirely too much for a bunch of college students to bet with
Renee chose not to participate, but her new bruises say that she’s been helping Andrew cope all week
Aaron grudgingly looks back to Andrew, holding out his hand with his share of the winnings
Andrew just stares at him. blinks. turns around and walks out the door.
Neil edges out of the room to follow him up to the roof while everyone is arguing over who gets Andrew’s share, since he’s obviously not taking it
Neil reaches Andrew and sits beside him with their shoulders touching
they’re looking out over campus when Neil turns to Andrew
“i’m proud of you”
Neil gets a disgusted scoff and a hand pushing his face away in return
cool concept: demons and monsters being defeated by disabilities
-a demon waits to scare a woman as she opens her eyes she doesn’t notice because she’s blind
-the boogeyman grabs the child’s ankle as they climb put of bed, it’s prosthetic the child doesn’t notice
-sirens fail to lure the deaf sailor for obvious reasons
-the schizophrenic doesn’t pay any attention to the demons telling them to do things because it’s the same shit as always
-the demon screams in frustration as the guy with ADHD he’s possessed keeps forgetting that he came into the kitchen to kill his family not wash the dishes
-the devil tries to create an unholy union to give birth to the anti-christ he is thwarted by the man’s severe anxiety disorder
-demons try to torture a person with chronic pain who just thinks they’re having a bad pain day
-demons attempt to force a person read the rite that will summon Satan fails because of their speech impediment
-Satan possesses a person with the intent to use them in a mass murder, except that they’re a severe agoraphobe and can’t leave the house
-monster uses candy as a lure to trap a child for dinner, but they have Type 1 Diabetes and don’t eat sweets so they ignore it
Okay so it’s like around semifinals or something and 2am because Kevin made everyone practice until they were at the gates of hell so everyone is tired and sleep deprived and exhausted and hates Kevin
Except Kevin he’s still going
But Nicky is having none of that because Kevin tried to throw out all of the junk in everyone’s fridges but now all that’s left are like a pack of peanuts and an avocado so he throws everyone into the 24 hour Target parking lot
Matt drove everyone there too because he saw the avocado and cried
So everyone is in Target at like ass o clock in the morning, running around looking for food and Andrew
God Andrew’s just
He’s got circles under his eyes that make him look like the spawn of death itself
Dan is a fucking nightmare
She’s tired and hungry and ready to fight like twenty people and she’s throwing literally anything into the cart.
Pizza?? Can’t get enough frozen pizza. There’s like twenty different kids of cereal. Cheese stuffed jalepenos! Great! Let’s get three bags! Can’t have enough salami! A pumpkin?? Someone knows how to cook that right??
Matt is trying to be ground control but he’s so tired and sleepy that at some point he falls asleep trying to pick things out of the cart and they have to stuff the rest of him in there and cart him around while they throw food on top of him.
Andrew just bitterly. Puts a giant store-bought cake on top of Matt. He doesn’t remove it and nobody can make him.
Nicky has disappeared at this point but he comes back with like thirty different outfits but they’re all for Neil
NEIL
NEIL GET YOUR GORGEOUS ASS TO THE CHANGING ROOM
Nicky it’s three int he morning- NEIL PLEASE
Aaron is off by the aisle with the bean bags and has just sort of curled up in one to sleep and not left. Renee finds him in the middle of the aisle and puts him and the bean bag back on the shelf where less people can find him because she feels bad.
She also covers him in pillows.
And towels because she can’t unpack the blankets.
And she ends up falling asleep on the floor next by accident on top of a bunch of towels and pillows because Aaron just looks so comfortable and peaceful it made her sleepy and peaceful.
Kevin has grumpily been banished in the Starbucks for a long time. He just sits there as Allison is his guardwoman, using Kevin’s credit card to buy herself like fifteen cups of coffee as she angrily glares at him in silence.
Dan finds them eventually with a cart full of boyfriend and random food items.
“I want Kevin to buy all of this” “Dan you can’t buy a human” “Fucking watch me”
Nicky got distracted when he found Renee and Aaron in the bean bag aisle and is taking like forty million pictures.
And Andrew just shoves a half-awake Neil into a changing room so they can make out.
They come back with flushed faces and mussed hair and Allison takes more money from Kevin’s wallet.
It takes like three people to pull Matt out of the cart and carry him into the backseat.
They all eventually get back home with Neil asleep on Andrew, Aaron five times grouchier than normal, Renee buying all of the towels out of guilt, six bags of frozen chicken nuggets, and evidence of all of their misdeeds on Nicky’s instagram.
More of my trc lookbook series!! When you know there is gonna be a new trilogy of trc and is about Ronan then you go “wasn’t trc about ronan??” but who tf cares because now we legit gonna get more of Ronan/Adam AND SO I do this.
I didn’t want to include canon ships on my series bc its of their friendships but they are all friends regardless of their romantic inclinations. so im including them. Stay tune for more! :>
Nothing but My Aching Soul 