Neil Has Had Countless Dramatic Main Characters Outside Of The Series - Namely While Staring Out Of A

matt: self-defence is not some fun boxing match, okay? it’s about escaping with your life. so, strike, scream, and run. alright, lets try it

neil: *smacks kevin on the back of the head, screams, books it*

matt:

kevin: >:o

matt: that may have been my fault

Marissa: hey neil, what's your number?

Neil, visibly texting: i don't have a phone.

i really wish we’d had more hernandez content, because he was obviously important to neil. like neil didn’t flinch at all when hernandez reached to help him up after andrew slammed him w the racquet, he clearly cared for neil and wanted to see him succeed, he was probably the person neil most trusted (although still warily) in millport. like i bet he puts up all the newspaper clippings about neil that he can find, and i bet he follows neil’s life through the news (and is shocked when the truth about his past comes out). i hope that neil gives him a ticket to watch him at the olympics. anyway, i want more hernandez content 

andrew after a nightmare and unable to stand touch, but he still needs neil. so neil stares at the ceiling and talks. not about exy, not small talk. he says what’s on his mind, he tells stories from his past (good and bad), he just fills the silence. and eventually, andrew reaches over and places two fingers on neil’s neck and focuses on his pulse. focuses on the life that this man radiates, this man that chooses him every day and stays with him and respects his boundaries and talks into the dark on andrew’s bad nights because he knows that andrew needs to be rooted in the present but he can’t grab his neck the way andrew grabs his, so the liar tells truths for free.

Since my recent post about demi Neil erasure has gotten much more traction than I thought it would, here's a small post about how it feels and felt to realize I was demi because of Neil and then subsequently see tons of people disregard it.

(this isn't a call out or discourse post, just some personal stuff I'm airing out to hopefully help this stop happening)

It was kind of a big moment for me when I realized that like, Neil's thoughts on romance/relationships throughout the books wasn't just someone finally getting it right but someone writing from an ace spec perspective.

So seeing people (and literal friends of mine) say, "Well he is basically gay because he's dating Andrew," or any similar phrase hurts. On top of all the internalized shit I still have to work through seeing that sets me back so far. There is literally no justification for it. He is demi, it is not just a widely accepted headcanon. It's a confirmed canon fact, and he and very importantly every demi and ace spec person in this fandom deserve to have it treated as such. It erases such an important part of his character and the plot of the books. It erases his emotional bond with Andrew.

We rarely get ace spec rep in novels, and to finally have a demi character and see it taken away by people in this fandom because it's 'just easier to call him gay' really fucking sucks.

TL;DR: Neil is demi, he isn't 'basically gay'. It isn't 'easier' to call him gay either. If you want to get into semantics it's one extra letter to type. Calling him anything but demi hurts demi fans more than you may realize, and I hope this helped at least one person understand that.

you know what’s painful? before the final match against the ravens when neil says that he can see how much matt loves his mom and that “sometimes he was still surprised at how blatantly that love was returned” 

like?? 

mary did her best to keep neil alive and they had a complicated relationship but, ultimately, neil loved her

this quote hurts though, because neil obviously didn’t really get that love reciprocated - yes, in her own way, mary loved him and tried to keep him safe and as happy as possible given the circumstances, but overall his life on the run was full of pain and fear and his mom added to that

so of course it’s weird for him to see randy love matt so fiercely and so openly, but my heart still aches for him

so i'm currently consuming only orange food (on accident) and my mind just decided this needed to happen so consider this:

it's neil's sophomore year and they've managed to make it to championships again

this year it's a home game, so they don't have to travel anywhere

enter neil

it's the morning of the game, and as he pulls an orange from their fruit bowl he gets an idea

how much orange food do you think can he eat before the game?

he tells no one, but eventually they all catch on

the foxes were never one for superstition or pre-game rituals

the closest they got was tapping the "riko racquet" before each game

but suddenly it's like they're on a mission

that first year it's mostly neil, but after he scores the winning shot of the game it's cemented in the team forever

the next year almost all of them join in, going to every length to keep it orange

neil buys orange ice cream and special orders all orange m&m's to try and get andrew to join, to no avail

his junior year he stops to pick up coffee (the one thing they agreed to allow, though they usually shoot for orange mugs) when he has an idea

"do you think you could make an orange coffee"

the barista: 👁👁 can i what now

turns out they can

when neil shows up at the dorms with orange coffee for everyone andrew has never been so close to murdering him

nicky all but loses his mind when he sees the tray

matt very excitedly adds it to their running list of orange foods held to the fridge with a fox magnet

when neil graduates allison frames it and they hang it next to the trophy stand

by his senior year andrew still outright refuses to join in

until it's his last college championship game

neil comes home from his run early and flips on the kitchen light to find him on top of the counter

3/4ths of the way through a pumpkin pie, orange whipped cream and all

and halfway through a two liter of orange crush

they both freeze

for a long moment nothing is said

a clock's ticks echo through the room

neil grins, "don't believe in superstition, huh?"

"shut up, junkie"

"i'm not the one devouring an all orange pie like a gremlin right now"

"i will kill you"

"you'd have to put down the pie first"

eventually he does, in favor of a very different pre-game ritual

erik: what does ‘take out’ mean?

nicky: dating :)

kevin and aaron: food

neil: murder

andrew: all three, if you’re not a fucking coward

andrew frequently wakes up in the middle of the night and tenses at the feeling of skin against his own, but he instantly relaxes when he feels the ridges and bumps of neil’s scars and callouses, completely at odds with the slick, groping hands of his foster siblings. the remnants of neil’s trauma help andrew cope with his own

okay bestie please elaborate on:

SAFE HAVEN AU (yes i’ve already heard about it and watched the movie with you but just more pls), vet fic, and andreil night drives!!

Thank you for the ask! Even though I have made you watch it with me I will still offer you some Safe Haven content (honestly if I've made you watch Safe Haven with me there's no going back we're best friends from then on).

Spoilers for the movie Safe Haven?? Idk if I need to do that but this is your warning if you haven't seen it there is an actual twist so like don't read this if you genuinely want to watch it.

Safe Haven Au

One of my favorite WIPs! Idk why I love this movie so much but honestly it's probably cause I watched it a lot as a child and can now project Andreil onto it. Anyways, into the plot. I'm just assuming y'all have seen it because otherwise we'd be here for ages. Oh and some relationships are changed and I feel like you can guess where as I explain who is who. So Neil is Katie and Andrew is Alex which I feel is pretty obvious. Nicky is Lexi, and Aaron will be Josh which again.. if you've seen it you know the vibes. Wymack will be Roger which I think will be ridiculously funny for the lead up to canoeing scene. Bee will be Jo because the potential™. And of course Nathan is Kevin. Also Kevin is Rhett. And Abby will be the Ivan's owner.

The plot stays pretty much the same with some minor changes like the kids being replaced with Nicky and Aaron, Bee being Jo and Nathan being Kevin. But even then their roles are staying the same it's just the relationships that are changing? This au works to well is what I'm saying. The biggest change will of course be with Bee being Jo. I think she'll end up being a co-owner of the shop with Wymack and will have adopted Andrew and Aaron at some point, and Nicky will either also be adopted or just like live there with his cousins because he can (maybe post-Bee?? I'll have to think on this more apparently). So Andrew will take over her spot as co-owner and the story stays the same from there. It's really more backstory that will be a kinda off-hand mention (e.g. beach scene) than a true plot point because if you've seen it you know that her character up until the end reveal doesn't involve any of this.

I don't actually have anything written for this it just all exists in perfect vivid clarity in my head. But maybe I'll have a piece soon and can post it separate if anyone is interested?

Vet Fic

This fic kinda has it all for some of my favorite fluff tropes. It's a meet-ugly (meet-angsty??) strangers to neighbors to friends to lovers. Basically, Neil works as the night receptionist for a 24/7 emergency vet when Andrew runs in one night with a fast-fading King (or Sir, undecided) after she's attacked by an animal. They manage to save King because I'm not horrible and Andrew is taking care of her at home when he notices someone moving into the long-vacant apartment next to his. That someone being Neil who very quickly becomes invested in King's recovery because why wouldn't he be, he worries about emergency patients all the time and finally has the chance to see how one is doing. Of course, King immediately falls in love with Neil when he comes over to check in and Andrew slowly begins to as well. Queue inevitable angst because yeah and then a soft sappy ending like always. Here's a piece from it:

-

Andrew was walking into his apartment building when he spotted a moving truck parked at the curb. Hopefully whoever was moving in was nowhere near his apartment, or at least knew how to take a hint when met with his blank glare. Fate seemed to hate him however, because when he stepped out of the elevator the door to his neighboring apartment was propped open and surrounded with boxes. Great. He tried to unlock his door quickly to avoid meeting them but again, fate hated him. Just as he was about to push his door open he hear a startles gasp then, “King Fluffkins!”

Odd. That was definitely not his name. He turned to his new neighbor prepared to ask what the hell was wrong with them and how they knew his cat’s name.

He found the nurse from the vet—Neil, his memory supplied—looking at him with wide eyes. Now that his mind wasn’t clouded with worry he notices that he is very attractive. Dammit. Fate was so fucking with him. To late he realized how long he had been staring and forced a response from his lips.

“My name is not King Fluffkins.” Andrew deadpans. -

Andreil Night Drives

This is an idea I've had almost since I read the book, it's just a short little fic based off of the song You Won't Be Here Again by Rainstorm Society. It's my favorite song to drive to at night/early in the morning and I think it works really well for their night drives after nightmares or when they can't sleep. There isn't really a plot it's just them together with the vibes of the song.