whatmack:

the first thing they bond over– truly bond over, not merely accept as a by-product of being in the same group– are their casual-death senses of humor. But that’s not enough, and that’s not recovery, so there are other things.

1). The sweet potatoes in the dining hall. They’re widely accepted to be terrible. Aaron and Neil both like them. Why? They just do. When there’s sweet potatoes at dinner they each take a heaping serving and collaborate on disgusting the other Foxes.

2). Homework. Neil is terrible at chemistry; I hc that Aaron is not a fan of math. They’re short-tempered tutors for each other, and attempts to help are reluctant and fraught with argument, but they put aced exams on the fridge for the other one one to see. The rest of the Foxes think it’s more antagonizing. It’s not; it’s a thank-you. Though they pretend it’s the former.

3.) The man at Eden’s with the greedy eyes and the roving hands. Neil and Aaron close ranks around Andrew to shield him from view. Aaron is drunk when they slip away to corner the man outside of the bathroom, but he’s awake enough to show Neil the back door they can use to get rid of a man bruised enough to win suspicion from the front entrance.

4). Neil refuses to listen to his team’s physician, but he’ll listen to Aaron. He’ll complain the whole way.

5.) They love Andrew. They love Nicky.

6.) Aaron’s daughters want a cat. Andrew pretends he doesn’t like the cats, but Neil helps find a good shelter and talks to the girls about responsibility and not tugging on kittycat’s tail. The girls run to Neil when he visits and give him updates about what Rattlesnake has been doing since Neil left.