Tag: oh these precious boys :’)

reneewvlkers:

everythingthatmatters:

reneewvlkers:

in the future, trading cards get made of the best exy players. neil buys every pack he sees until he collects all his friends. (collecting kevin’s feels like a completion to the binder he’s long since buried) (he mails matt his card with every letter he sends, because it makes him blush). he gives riko’s trading card to andrew to burn because that never gets old. he smiles every time he sees ‘andrew minyard’ on a card, but andrew likes to burn those too.

seeing the words ‘neil josten’ on a trading card, his history reduced to his achievements in exy, feels like the end of a story he never thought he’d get to tell. he keeps one above his desk in the apartment he shares with andrew and it’s another way to feel grounded. he exists. he’s real. this is real. and it’s good.

#but where does neil keep his secret andrew minyard hoard? (via @evil-diabolical-oops)

asking the real questions

secret??? andrew knows exactly where it is. neil is a practiced liar, but he has no secrets from andrew and hasn’t since the first year.

andrew lets him be, even if he hates that he knows it’s his card whenever neil smiles that smile. he lets neil put it back with a feigned nonchalance, face down as if that stops andrew from knowing whose face is on the card, and he lets neil hide them in ridiculous places – a bookmark in the history of exy, behind neil’s healthy cereal, under a pile of bills – as though that keeps him from knowing.

occasionally he rescues one from one of the cats. occasionally he doesn’t. occasionally, if neil’s getting too much, he’ll swipe one to burn. neil smiles in a way that can be described as things other than fondly (even if the words aren’t coming to mind right now) and says “yes, andrew, you’re very dangerous and scary. sorry i forgot.”