Kevin probably took so long to admit that he wanted to recover. Wanted to get help for his alcoholism. He probably didn’t want to tell the team afraid he’d get made fun of. But he finally does. He goes to Neil first because the kids an asshole but Kevin knows if he really truly needed something Neil would 100% help him.
He tells the cousins next. He expected Nicky to crack jokes or Aaron to say some kind of bullshit but he’s not sure if Neil talked to Andrew and Andrew made threats but Nicky just hugs him and tells him he’ll help anyway he can. Aaron kind of just nods at him and tells him he’ll miss him at Edens which is the nicest possible outcome.
He doesn’t tell the rest of the team because he doesn’t drink with them anyways. He doesn’t really bother until they’re celebrating a massive win and they all want to party at the dorms after. Kevin is invited and he wants to go because he actually does like hanging out with these idiots as much as he hates to admit it. But he’s not really sure he can be around all that alcohol but even Andrew and Neil are going. He finally pulls Renee aside and explains because she’s sober and he wants to know how she does it. She explains that throwing himself into a situation before he’s ready won’t do him any good so he decides to just go back to his room.
Not even 10 minutes later the foxes are piling into the dorm room with snacks and sodas stacked in their arms and Nicky has a tower of DVDs falling onto the floor and he’s telling Kevin to pick one and Kevin is so??? But Allison just smacks him upside the head “you should have said something. As much fun as it is to get shit faced it’s not the only way to have fun. And Kevin suddenly realizes that there’s not a single liquor bottle in sight. They gave up their night of partying to watch movies and talk shit for him. Because he’s trying to get better and this is them supporting him.
It’s unspoken after that. If it’s a team activity that all of them are at there’s no drinking. Even Abby and Wymack have switched out their beer and wine at family dinners and when Kevin tells them they don’t have to they just shrug and tell him it’s the least they can do. Renee tells him eventually he can be around people who are drinking. Maybe. He might be able to but it’s okay if he can’t. And Kevin hates this team. Hates that they’re so difficult but he loves them. He loves his family.
Peter Parker: -on meeting Loki, offers his hand- Hi, I’m Peter!
Loki: -shakes his hand- Loki of Asgard.
Peter: Aren’t you like…a bad guy?
Loki: It varies from moment to moment.
Peter: So like…on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst evil imaginable, like…killing puppies, and one being I’ll spit on your hotdog…where are you right now?
Loki: …maybe a three?
Peter: Cool. Lemme know if it gets above a six.
Loki: -thinking- I like him.
It had been a joke, a flippant line, but somehow, Loki found himself taking the youth up on it.
It was hard living around these heroic Avengers, hard trying to stay close to Thor. And when he felt his need for mischief rise too high, when he felt exasperation with these Midgardians turn too close to spite, he would casually say “Six.” to the young man, or sometimes “Seven.”
And Peter would spend the rest of his day with Loki. He would badger him with questions about magic, or drag him across his beloved city to see its entertainments, or take him along stopping petty crimes. He grounded Loki to the here and now, and distracted him from the churning, jagged shards of ice in his mind.
I went majorly overboard on this, but I hope you enjoy!
–
Neil doesn’t care about material possessions. Andrew knows this, knows that Neil would be content to live out of that fucking duffel bag for the rest of his life if Andrew let him. He tries not to let it get to him, he really does, but his mind can’t get over the fact that Neil should be able to own things like a key without looking at it like a dog with their favorite toy.
And if part of the reason it bothers him is that seeing Neil with that goddamn duffel just reminds him of “thank you, you were amazing” and Neil running and himself falling, then that is his business alone.
Once he’s gone pro, Andrew finds that without Neil and the other chosen Foxes to watch, he’s left with two dangerous things: a lot of time on his hands and a disposable income. So Andrew starts small.
A day after the gift is delivered, he gets a call from Neil. “Andrew. Why is there an Audi in the parking lot that I’m being told is mine?”
Andrew’s a little sad they’re not facetiming. He would have liked to watch the way Neil’s face is surely reddening with righteous fury. “I didn’t like the car you picked out,” he answers. “It’s ten miles out from dying anyway.”
“My car was-”
“I swear if you say fine-”
“It ran.”
“Barely.”
The silence on the other end lets Andrew know he’s won and he can imagine the way Neil’s mouth has probably pressed into a thin line.
Finally, Neil answers, “If it makes you feel better, fine. I’ll keep the car. But nothing else.”
Andrew doesn’t make any promises. He just says, “Good. You didn’t really have another choice, since your old car is halfway to the junkyard by now.”
“You asshole-”
He ends the call.
–
Andrew tries to refrain from any more lavish gifts, he really does, but Neil’s clothes still piss him off. He’s on the phone, complaining to Andrew for the fifth year in a row about not wanting to go to the Fall Banquet and what a travesty it is that they’re using his precious court from something that’s not Exy, so andrew interrupts, “Are you wearing the same shirt?”
“Yes?”
“No you’re not. It has holes in it.”
Neil scoffs. “No one is going to be close enough to see if there are holes.”
“I’ll know.”
Neil drops it after that and three days later, there’s a nice black dress shirt laying across Neil’s bed. Neil sends him a picture of him in it and it looks just as good as Andrew knew it would.
Another perk of living alone is no one can see when he makes it his new phone background.
–
They go on like this for a while, Andrew sending little things he thinks won’t piss Neil off too much. They can’t spend Thanksgiving together, with Andrew out of town for a press thing and honestly, they don’t really want to considering the history that day holds. But he can hear the way the end of the semester is slowly tearing Neil down, and he hears the echoes of a similar exhaustion in his own voice. So when Neil softly admits softly, “I miss you,” Andrew knows his next gift.
–
He makes it to Palmetto just before the end of afternoon practice. He can hear Nicky’s voice in his head cooing over how romantic the whole thing is, but he ignores it and grabs his gear out of his trunk.
When he gets to the sidelines, he opens with, “Hey, Coach. Sub me in for one of your goalies.”
Wymack’s eye roll is audible. “You couldn’t do this when you actually played here?”
“Come on, Coach. Think of how boring your life would be if I did what you expected.”
Wymack grumbles something about blood pressure medication, but Andrew is already halfway to the goal. Some of the freshmen start chattering excitedly, which prompts Neil to look up from where he’s talking to Robin by the goal. He freezes in the middle of a word when he sees Andrew and though Andrew’s loathe to admit poetic thoughts, he thinks he could live without the sun if it was replaced with Neil’s smile at that moment. All Andrew says in greeting, though, is, “Ready to get your ego checked, Captain?”
Neil’s face turns fierce and there’s a brightness in his eyes that makes Andrew want to try.
Wymack yells distantly at them to stop gabbing and start playing, so Neil heads to the center of the court, though not without turning to look back to Andrew. Andrew gives them his signatures salute and that’s all he registers until Wymack signals the end of practice.
Neil ignores everyone asking for his thoughts and makes a beeline for Andrew. “You’re here,” he says, a little breathlessly.
“Your teammates are staring.”
“Let them,” Neil says, pressing up close to lift the grate of Andrew’s helmet. “Let me kiss you.”
This time, it’s Andrew’s turn to answer “yes” and pull Neil in by the back of his neck. Their lips meet and he feels right for the first time in months.
When they’d first started sharing beds, it had to be a very careful thing. Forever cognizant of what parts of their bodies lay against each other, and carefully crafting pockets of space between the rest. The closeness hadn’t come until later, only a little while before they graduated. Nightmares were common, and they were both used to startling awake in bed before each getting their bearings and coaxing each other back into resting until the sun rose.
Nightmares aren’t as common for them anymore, but they still exist, and so Neil isn’t terribly shocked when he’s ripped from sleep by the feeling of Andrew shooting away from him in bed.
The startling thing is the broken sound that escapes him as he tears his way into wakefulness.
“Please!”
It’s hoarse and ragged and terrified, like someone had forcibly pulled the word out of him. He’d jerked hard enough to put inches of space between them, and Neil lays still and watches as he comes back to himself, his own breath caught in his throat.
“Neil.” Andrew’s voice is still wrong, still desperate and frightened and angry, too much the way he sounded all those years ago in that hotel room in Baltimore. He turns to Neil and scrabbles amongst the sheets, looking for him. “Neil.”
“Andrew,” Neil says, sliding a hand forward against the sheets so he could hear and seek it out if he wanted. “I’m here.”
“Neil-” He grabs Neil’s hand and starts following the line of his arm and then freezes. Neil can hear him swallow. “Can I-”
“Yes,” Neil says. “Always yes, Andrew.”
He doesn’t argue with that the way he always does. Instead he stays silent as he searches iver Neil’s scarred skin, almost desperately, as if making sure he’s in one piece. His fingers flit over his body, up his neck until they’re cupping his face.
He can feel Andrew’s breath on his face, too fast, and see the reflection of light in his eyes from the open blinds. He reaches up, slowly, and lays his hands against the backs of Andrew’s, holding them to his face. Andrew pushes their foreheads together and takes a gulping breath.
Neil keeps his breathing even, keeps his eyes on Andrew. He doesn’t know what Andrew was dreaming of, doesn’t think it was the usual things because this isn’t the usual reaction.
“I’m here,” he repeats, trying to help Andrew any way he can. “I’m right here. Do you want me to keep talking?”
Silence. And then a whispered, “Yes.”
Neil talks. Sir did something funny today, and did Kevin send you that link as well, and it was pretty chilly today, and I think we should switch to almond milk just to give it a try-
A while later, after both their breathing is calmer, andrew hums. Neil goes quiet, waiting for him to speak. When he does, it makes his stomach churn.
“They got you. In my dream. They had you.”
A little part of Neil wants to ask who, but the smarter part of him (thankfully becoming more dominant these days), couldn’t care less. He settles for laying his scarred fingers against Andrew’s stubbly cheek, listens to the sigh that touch elicits. “It’s just you and me here. This is our space, and it’s only you and me and the cats.”
“You and me,” Andrew repeats. His hand travels to rest against Neil’s neck, the butt of his palm resting over his pulse point.
“And the cats,” Neil says, and holds back a smile when Andrew shoots him a flat look. He closes his eyes and smooths his thumb back and forth over the swell of Andrew’s cheekbone. “You can come closer if you want.”
Andrew doesn’t ask again to make sure, which is another sign to Neil that Andrew needs to touch him. As they get older and Andrew grows farther from the traumas of his childhood and late adolescence, it’s easier for him to reach out just for the sake of it. Neil has realized that Andrew is actually very affectionate. This is different, though. This is Andrew needing the touch, needing to feel Neil’s skin on his own, and it hits Neil hard: this is Andrew seeking physical comfort from him.
They end up with Neil half beneath Andrew, their legs intertwined. Andrew’s head is ducked down on Neil’s bumpy chest, his arms snug around Neil’s middle. Neil raises his arms slightly, unsure, but Andrew mumbles a “yes” into his skin so Neil settles them loosely around his shoulders.
It’s very warm, and very comfortable. Neil can feel Andrew’s heartbeat and is sure that Andrew’s listening to his own. “Do you think you’ll be able to go back to sleep?” he asks, willing his eyes to stay open even as he feels himself melt into the mattress.
“No,” Andrew says. His voice has calmed, almost back to normal. “You can. I’m okay like this.”
“Are you sure?” Neil asks, even as his eyes close.
“Yes, Neil. Go back to sleep.” He presses a light kiss into Neil’s skin and lays his head back down.
It’s the last thing Neil feels before he falls back asleep. When he wakes up to the sunlight reaching in through the window, they’re still in the same position, and Andrew is snoring lightly against his neck.
Eddie, in all his self-righteous “I’m a reporter who must find the truth and take down barons” self, goes after Tony post-Iron Man, falsely assuming Iron Man is a cover-up for something bigger. Tony’s expected reporters like Eddie Brock to question him, so he lets Eddie to a complete investigation of literally every aspect of Tony’s life.
When Eddie comes up empty-handed, he apologizes to Tony for assuming the worst and Tony pulls the classic line of “how about you make it up to me with dinner?” and Tony honestly meant for it to be a one night stand, but somehow he ended up really falling for this reporter guy.
Flash to Eddie losing his entire job and rep from his fail at trying to take down Life Foundation, and he’s in a deep depression that even Tony has trouble knocking him out of.
Then the whole Venom thing happens and Eddie desperately avoids Tony because fuck, Tony cannot see him like this, hell no.
We’ll assume that chick in the movie is just Eddie’s really good friend and was never anything more.
Once Eddie and Venom finally beat Riot, Tony convinces the chick to tell him what the hell is going on, and he’s royally pissed at Eddie, but also makes damn sure Eddie knows that Tony still loves and supports him, and is sticking with him through this.
So of course, shenanigans ensue of Tony and Eddie adjusting to living with a third party. And once Eddie convinces Venom that Tony is not edible, Venom slowly starts to tolerate Tony too.
Oh, and their sex life definitely gets more interesting.
Per Eddie’s request, Tony keeps their relationship and Eddie’s Venom status under wrap. It’s not until an absolutely dire situation in which Eddie has to run in full Venom mode to save the Avenger’s asses that Tony finally admits “Yeah, this is my boyfriend. He has a bit of a parasite problem- VENOM DON’T YOU DARE EAT CAPTAIN AMERICA, I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING, AND NO YOU MAY NOT. GIVE EDDIE CONTROL BACK, PLEASE”
Okay, so, I was thinking last night about the fact that Venom looks a little bit like the chitauri build-wise. I mean, obviously there are a lot of differences, but if you played ‘Who’s That Alien?’ with their outlines, it’d be a pretty close call. Now, imagine Eddie and Tony being in a committed relationship, maybe it’s new, maybe Eddie just liked to keep up his indepenance so he doesn’t spend the night often. Tony knows about Venom; they even get along really well. All in all, it’s a very happy, healthy semi-polyamorous relationship.
Until the night that Tony has a nightmare and ends up smacking Eddie across the face with his flailing. Venom is instantly on alert, reacting to the bloom of pain by taking over and springing from the bed, already snarling and looking for the threat. Instead, he finds only Tony, now awake and staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. It’d been a long time since Tony was scared of him. It stings to see it on his face now. Venom reaches out, only for Tony to flinch back, scrambling away and all but falling out of the bed in his haste.
“No! No!” he cries. “Stay away from me!”
Venom can hear the way his heartrate skyrockets, can watch as the panic consumes him. It quickly becomes clear that while Tony is here, he isn’t here. Venom doesn’t know what to do. Knows something is wrong, but he doesn’t know what. Useless against a threat he can’t find, he gives in to Eddie’s urging and let’s his host take back control of their body.
Hours later, Tony sleeping fitfully with his head in their lap as Eddie runs thier fingers gently through his hair, Venom learns about a human term called a panic attack. He learns about trauma and PTSD, about the shadows that haunts their lover’s mind. He fears that these shadows haunt their lover every time he sees Venom’s full form.
After that, Venom is more careful. He makes sure to purposefully allow his form to take a more amorphous shape when Tony is nearby, or to only partially form. He doesn’t want to be something Tony must fear. Tony doesn’t say anything, he’s absolutely shit at talking about his emotions, but Venom can see the gratitude in his eyes. At night, when he and Eddie do sleep over, he curls around both of his humans, ready to protect against anything that might think to harm them.
And Tony never fails to give him a soft kiss to whatever part that’s nearest in thanks.
guess what i just realized matt and aaron both propose to their girlfriends during the same summer
okay but imagine how crazy that year gets for the Foxes trying to plan two weddings at the same time. imagine Katelyn finding this absolutely amazing wedding planner and referring Dan to her, and they both schedule all their appointments right after each other. imagine Aaron doing his absolute best not to get caught up in the hype, but then Katelyn shows him the cake that Matt picked out and he straight-up refuses to have anything less perfect than that (and it definitely isn’t a competition for his brother’s sweet-toothed affection, not at all). imagine them competing over who will be the first Fox to get married, while Nicky mopes and cries about long-distance with Erik during 3am Skype calls. and Dan and Matt book a hall for July, only for Katelyn and Aaron to find something mid-June, only to then get bumped out from over-booking. and for four months Dan and Matt are ecstatic, until May 29 when a room opens up for exactly one week before Dan and Matt’s wedding and Katelyn completely overhauls everything so she can have that room. and then Neil passes by and asks what’s so exciting about being the second Foxes to get married and that’s when everyone finds out he and Andrew got married three years ago.
Andrew’s lips are sticky and raw, but he still goes to press his lips against Neil’s, slightly off centre.
They’re comfortable, you see. There’s an enormous pillow, one of two, wedged between Neil’s back and the end of the couch. Andrew’s kinda on his hip with his legs curled enough to get his feet up too, but this couch is soft enough that it doesn’t hurt and isn’t numb, even after being here for what had to be hours. Days. Weeks, months, years.
Andrew didn’t want to move. Ever.
Neil’s legs are draped over Andrew’s. His left hand is entwined with Andrew’s right, resting on his lap. The other has his fingers curled in Andrew’s collar, brushing against soft skin.
Somehow, they’re at a perfect angle where Andrew doesn’t have to hold himself up, or crane his neck down, and Neil doesn’t have to reach. A few years ago, this would have been clumsy and barely as stretched out.
There’s something beautiful in kissing without the desire to finish: To just keep going, on and on.
Neil’s flush is a special thing, dappled, his red hair bringing it out even more so. It’s across his cheeks, jaw and ears, down his neck and along the sliver of collarbone that is visible, thanks to a loose t-shirt that is certainly not his and covered with cat hair.
The flush makes his eyes glisten, and Andrew stares. He watches Neil’s eyebrows furrow in concern, and the hand in his collar untangles to trace it’s fingertips across Andrew’s lips.
“’Drew?” His voice is hushed. There’s no need to talk above anything but a whisper when it was just them.
Andrew wanted to let his head fall to Neil’s shoulder, to sigh out and confess every love proclamation that ran through his head in times like these.
“If you’re uncomfortable –”
He let his head fall. It fit perfectly in the knook of Neil’s shoulder and neck, and he felt the shaky exhale of Neil’s surprise with clarity.
Neil’s head fell back onto the pillow, and Andrew felt the swallow.
Folded in with one another like this, the afternoon sunlight peeking through the closed shutters on the opposite side of the rooms, Andrew might whisper three words that shouldn’t change anything, but weighed so heavily on Andrew’s tongue that he suspected they would.
Untangling their entwined hands, he pressed his palm on Neil’s chest, a thin sheet of cotton keeping the pads of his fingers from Neil’s past that marred his skin. He slowly spread his fingers wider and Neil sighed, sinking even further into Andrew.
Neil arched his neck downwards as Andrew pressed up, in perfect synchrony, their lips slotted against each other.
kiss. kiss. kiss.
His head fell back onto Neil’s shoulder. Neil’s heartbeat was strong under his hand. Andrew could hear his own thudding into where it was pressed into Neil’s shoulder.
He closed his eyes, a gently thud-thud lulling him to sleep.
How far they’d come, to fall asleep like this, together.
Aaron knocks on the apartment door, a wedge in his throat and his stomach turning over itself, again and again and again.
This might be a bad idea.
He remembers the deal they’d made in high school and initially kept during college. He remembers Andrew’s reasoning behind it. He remembers feeling no remorse when he broke it. He’s regretting that now.
Neil looks a little shocked when he opens the door. He’s shirtless, which is always a shock to Aaron’s system when he sees it. Andrew told him it was to intimidate anyone who they didn’t want coming back. But Aaron saw the fuzzed hair and the self conscious crossing of Neil’s arms over his chest when he saw who it was, the lopsided angle to his sweatpant’s elastic, the flush on his cheekbones.
happy halloween! here’s halloween fill #10. this one is for @arsenicjade, who asked for hauntings/ghosts + jason.
so here’s jason todd, haunting dick grayson.
don’t worry. it’s a benevolent haunting. but it is, like all things bat-related, emotionally fraught and unnecessarily complicated.
Hauntings are serious things. Sometimes
dangerous, always inconvenient. Bruce picked up a poltergeist once that
screamed every time he closed his eyes and threw knives whenever he walked
through a kitchen. There was no rest in the Manor until Alfred and Dick
conspired to sneak in a psychic to banish the thing.
This haunting, though. It feels like something else.
“Dick,” it hums, crackling at the
edges of discernable frequencies, simultaneously almost too low and too high to
hear. “Prodigal sons come home.”
“Could you not?” he asks, as
politely as he can. “I’m busy right now.”
clintbbarton 