Work Text:
They’re in Andrew’s fifth year when it happens, as with most things in their relationship, it takes them both a bit by surprise. They’ve both dealt with so much throughout their years together, it feels like it’s been a lifetime and yet, both of them couldn’t imagine a better person to spend the next hundred lifetimes with. Neil was finally real, and Andrew was finally able to allow himself to feel something.
They had spent the years whispering soft yes or no’s, they had used up so many yeses they rarely needed them anymore except for the big things. They had spent their years by each other’s sides, be that fighting with a nurse to be let in to a hospital room (Neil will never let Andrew hear the end of that one), or battling to get through Andrew’s walls to help him after a particularly bad nightmare (the first few attempts had left Neil with bruised ribs, but Andrew had softly pressed ice to them and kissed the bruises in apology later that night). They had spent so many nights up on the roof, so many sunsets that Andrew won’t ever forget.
The Foxes put the thought of it into both of their heads, during an “OG Fox Group call” as Allison calls it. One half of the group (Renee, Matt, Dan and Nicky) disagreeing with the other half (Kevin, Aaron and Allison) over the subject of marriage, the first group believed wholeheartedly that marriage was something that was a sign of love, something you would take with the love of your life. Aaron, Kevin and Allison argued that it was a commercial invention there to simply bind you to someone whether you loved them or not. Although Aaron conceded, he would marry Katelyn if it were something she wanted. Both were good points for either side, so they had decided to look to Neil and Andrew for their opinions on the matter. Andrew had stayed silent while Neil had thought about it.
“I don’t know honestly, they’re both good arguments, but in the long run it would be very helpful for taxes.”
“Romantic as always Neil.” Allison snorts, and the rest of the foxes laugh to themselves.
“It would have to be the person I knew I’d spend the rest of my life with,if I ever did it.” Kevin had said, just loud enough for people to hear, it was so out of character that everyone froze, before Nicky responded with a “same” that was echoed by everyone. Neil had stopped listening after this and had made eye contact with Andrew, his eyes burning with something that even Andrew couldn’t quite recognize, as his soft voice simply stated.
“Same.”
Which led them to now, Neil’s anxiety had been growing more and more every day they got closer to Andrew’s graduation. He had tried to bond with the younger foxes as he had done with the upperclassmen in his first year, but it just hadn’t worked out, they weren’t his family so much. Robin was different as she was part of the Monsters, but Robin wasn’t like the others, she wasn’t Andrew.
The roof was his and Andrew’s place; they stole their moments there, as much as they possibly could. Trading secrets and kisses between them and, when there were no more secrets to share, kisses and conversations about anything and everything. Sometimes it was just a solid silence between the two of them that was comforting within itself.
Andrew was silent tonight, but the type of silent where his jaw was working slightly as he chewed over his words. Neil wanted to kiss it, but he knew now wasn’t a good time for that so he settled for staring at every part of Andrew’s face, tracing every freckle and line that he’d already memorized a hundred times, and would happily continue to do every day for the rest of his life. Andrew eventually turned to stare at him, eyes burning with something Neil had only seen a few times, once in a motel in Baltimore, and a few other times spattered over their years together. Where Neil expected a soft staringto come out of Andrew’s mouth, it was different words that appeared into the air between them.
“Marry me Neil.”
“You- wait what?” If Neil was honest this was not the way he thought the night was going, Andrew’s eyebrows drew together again as he pulled out a box from behind him.
“Marry me Neil. Yes or no?”
Neil would like to say that he reacted in the way those girls in those YouTube videos that Allison showed him always did, but in all honesty he sat there staring dumbly for an embarrassingly long time before the words Andrew said sunk in. By the time he’d got his thoughts in order Andrew was starting to shift backwards, a slight wrinkle in between his eyebrows.
“What- Wait, Andrew! Yes! Oh my god yes I’ll marry you are you kidding?”
“Don’t- if you’re not sure don’t”
“The fuck do you mean if I'm not – yes I'm fucking sure Andrew, yes I’ll marry you.”
“Why did it take you so long to answer if you’re sure?” The wrinkle between his eyebrows hadn’t left.
“Honestly, it took… longer for me to understand what you meant than it should have, I never really expected someone like me to end up getting married.” Neil couldn’t always get the muddle of thoughts inside his head out, but somehow Andrew always understood what he meant,someone who usedto be nothing, and Andrew always knew how to answer.
“Idiot”, he scoffed turning away from Neil but holding his hand softly, the skin between his eyebrows finally smoothing out as his shoulders relaxed, Neil hadn’t even realized they were stiff if he’s honest. In his defense though he was very distracted by the reason they were stiff in the first place.
“Your idiot. Who has not forgotten that you owe him a ring by the way, don’t try to back out already.”
Andrew scoffed and pulled the ring out, placing it into Neil’s palm so he could inspect it. It was just a plain gold band, but there was a single word engraved on the inside.
Stay.
Neil honestly couldn’t believe how much that single word could make him choke up.
“Yes or no?” He asked, receiving a nod as he pressed a soft kiss to Andrew’s lips while he slips his ring on. Andrew allowed it for about a minute before pulling back for a cigarette, it was clear ‘popping the question’ had taken more out of him than he’d like to admit. Neil was quick to lay his hand in Andrew’s once he’d finished lighting up, and leaned his head on his shoulder.
“So, when and how are we getting married then?”
“As soon as possible with as few people around as we can.”
“Sounds perfect.”
_________________
They get married as far away from a church as possible, at the courthouse in fact. It takes a little longer than they’d like due to needing a marriage license and all (who thought marriage would be so complicated). Luckily though, Andrew had done a lot of reading on the subject, so he had it all planned out in advance. Neither of them sees any reason for fanfare, or for anyone to know for that matter. They may love their family in their own ways, but this is for them and them alone. Of course they need a witness, they invite Renee, her reaction was somewhat surprised although she tried to hide it, followed with pure gratitude that she had been invited, it was rather sickening in Andrew’s point of view, but he guessed he understood her point of view in being invited to this when Andrew hadn’t even invited his own twin brother. In all honesty, he hadn’t particularly wanted to. He got along well enough with Aaron now; Bee had worked hard with them to fix their relationship, along with Aaron’s homophobic views. But there was an issue between Neil and Aaron. Neil had never truly told him the cause of it, sticking with some vague mentions of Katelyn, therapy and something about after Baltimore, which Andrew honestly had never found out about but assumed it was something to do with his breaking the deal with Aaron. But this, today, was about them. Not about Aaron, not about Aaron’s odd resentment of their relationship or about Neil’s weird anger toward Aaron that sometimes rears its head. This was about remembering, and staying and whispered yeses and no’s, and if he was honest, Andrew was ready for this. He knew Neil was the only person who could love him and he could only love Neil, there was no one else and he didn’t even want to think about someone else. No better world like the ones he’d imagined as a child, no need for walls like he’d needed as a teen, just him and Neil and that was enough.
When they finally stood in front of the altar, Renee standing nearby, a camera to capture at least one picture of the ceremony (Neil didn’t have an eidetic memory after all) and the celebrant in front of them. It wasn’t big and it wasn’t flash, but neither of them were either of these things, so it was good enough for them. They had both agreed they only wanted one ring each and as Neil had been in charge of getting Andrew’s, he hadn’t seen it yet, but first, it was time for the vows. Neil, incredibly good at using sharp words had never been very good at soft words, but he would do his best, he had written them down in advance so he unfurled the paper.
“Andrew, I know neither of us have ever been good at, or with sappiness, but bear with me just this once. When I met you, I was a scared runaway with absolutely no name or future. You hit me with that future so hard it felt a lot like an Exy racquet.” Andrew snorted at the memory and Neil smiled softly at him. “We’ve been through a lot, and I know it’s not always been easy, but let me say, if I had to choose something to be with through thick or thin, it would be you, you’re my home. I promise to listen to your yes’s and to listen to your no’s; I promise to respect you and to love you. I promise to stay.”
Andrew didn’t make any facial expressions, but his eyes were filled with more emotions than Neil could even think about counting. He cleared his throat softly before starting to speak.
“Junkie”, Neil couldn’t help himself from laughing at such an Andrew thing to start his vows with and Andrew felt his laugh hit him with more strength then he had ever felt sunshine. He cleared his throat again. “When we first met, I would never have thought that there would ever be someone I could trust in the world, we were both from bleak worlds, neither of us seeing a future. If someone had told me I would be here five years later, I’d have laughed at them, and not just because of the drugs. You’ve given me so many secrets; so many truths and you’ve never once reminded me of anything bad. We’ve been through a lot, and we’ll go through more. I promise to stay, and to follow when you run, although you’ll never get me out of bed for a morning one. I promise to love you and to argue about mindless things, and even to put up with your Exy talk. You’re my idiot.”
From behind them they heard a soft sniffle, and then they started to exchange rings. Andrew lifted his to look at what the engraving said, but it wasn’t a word, it was simply a key. It slipped onto his finger perfectly, as Neil’s did the same, the cool metal felt a little odd but he wasn’t too bothered. They wouldn’t kiss here, not in front of people, neither of them was into openly showing affection around others and their vows had been more than enough PDA for their entire lives. Neil was practically glowing you could see how happy he was and Andrew was quietly radiating contentment, both of them more than happy with this decision. As they went to leave, they caught Renee wiping her eyes.
“You’ve gone soft Walker”, Andrew said making Renee laugh.
“I guess I have Mr. Minyard-Josten, but for some reason I'm not too upset about this.”
Andrew could honestly admit, hearing his new name sent a warm glow through him. Both he and Neil had fought for their names, clawing for them until their nails bled, and now they had each gained one more. No longer a Doe, no longer a Wesninski, they had made their own paths.
They shared a cigarette outside the courthouse, Renee snapping a few pictures without them really noticing before coming to join them.
“So boys, what’s the plan for telling the rest of the foxes about your marriage?”
“Honestly, we were just going to leave it and wait until people noticed the rings.” Neil grinned evilly at her, a smile she returned with equal mischief.
“I would expect nothing else from you two.”
___________________
The first people to find out about it were Wymack and Abby, they had to change their Next Of Kin on their forms for the team, so it was obvious that the coach and team nurse would have to find out about it. They had gone in to Abby to say they both needed to change something on their forms, and had said nothing else, so with a confused look she had handed the forms over. They had filled them out quickly and handed them back to her. As she looked over it she read the changes and looked up at them, her eyes shining.
“I'm so happy for the both of you.” She had obviously wanted to say more, but luckily Abby had always been a smart woman and knew when to push and when not to. She stood up and hugged Neil softly, she had learnt he didn’t like feeling caged, a life on the run had bred it into him, all the foxes had learnt this after watching Neil have a panic attack and dissociate into a fight or flight mode that almost got Matt killed after he had been bear hugged from behind. Neil had quickly forgiven Matt for the mistake of course, Matt had been incredibly apologetic, but all the foxes learnt to let Neil know they were coming before hugging him. For Andrew, Abby simply nodded at him and smiled when he nodded back. Everyone knew Andrew hated being touched. As one of the first people to find out about them, they were rather surprised she hadn’t asked any questions, but were hgrateful all the same.
The next day Wymack called them into his office during practice, much to Kevin’s chagrin after noticing their changed forms.
“What the fuck is this?” he eloquently put it, making Neil smile guiltily, Andrew kept his face passive of course, as they both pulled their rings out. During practices they kept them on chains around their necks so they wouldn’t lose them, both unwilling to part with anything that important to them for long. Their upbringings had raised them to know the importance of certain objects. Wymack had raised an eyebrow before huffing out a breath. “Well I guess it’s better than finding out either of you murdered someone.” He meant congratulations.
“Oh coach, the day is still young.” Andrew said, he meant thank you.
_____________________
Robin of course, being their only roommate not blinded by Exy, never mentioned it, but did leave them an offering of a Just Married bumper from a car, neither of them asked where it came from, they didn’t need to, but Andrew had smirked at it. Later in Colombia, he had given her his knives, they had been practicing with them since he decided he was one of his, but he hadn’t been comfortable parting with them just yet. It was a huge step for both of them, Neil couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the night, even when Andrew had thrown a pillow at him later that night for it.
Kevin worked it out in his own way, during one of their night practices, he noticed Neil had a chain around his neck and had told him to take it off. When Neil refused to, Kevin had proceeded to grab the chain to see what it was, the ring tumbling free of Neil’s uniform. Kevin had stared at it dumbly for a few minutes, wondering why Neil would be so attached to a ring until it clicked, he hissed at Neil in French.
“You did not fucking get married Neil.”
“I did Kevin.”
“No, what about the Moriyama’s? do you know what they’ll do to you? What about your career? Do you know what the press will do to you if they find out you’re gay andmarried? Are you trying to throw your career down the drain?” He was building himself up into a panic.
“Kevin, shut up, the Moriyama’s do not care about whether I'm married or not as long as I'm making them money, they’ve never taken issue with our relationship before. As for Exy, I won’t hide my relationship with Andrew but I don’t plan to flaunt it, have you met me? If teams do find out and decide not to take me then they are idiots. I'm the fastest player in Exy history and I'm captain of the collegiate reigning champions. We haven’t lost a single championship since I joined.” Neil wasn’t in the mood to be told that his relationship was a bad idea for the millionth time, he would never leave Andrew, not for the Moriyama’s, not for Exy, not for anything. He honestly wasn’t sure why Kevin still didn’t understand this.
Kevin opened his mouth, probably to call Neil an idiot and continue on a rant of how he would drag Andrew down with him when they could both go pro and everything he’d said a million times. Luckily for Neil, Andrew decided to step in finally.
“Do you have a problem Kevin?” He said it softly but it was clear he was angry, the last time Kevin had mentioned how his being gay was a ‘bad thing,’ Andrew had almost broken his jaw. Kevin hadn’t mentioned it again, and luckily realized this was a battle he wouldn’t win with either man, so he shut his mouth and they went back to night practice. He didn’t complain about it again and from Kevin, that was basically a congratulations, Neil counted his blessings.
_______________________
Bee was the next to find out, Andrew had requested an extra session without Aaron. Neither of them had expected their joint sessions to continue on as long as they had, but they had both realized that with Bee as a mediator they got a lot further in mending their fucked up relationship.
Andrew hadn’t bothered waiting for Bee to work it out for herself, when she asked how he’d been since their last session he told her he had been good, and that he’d gotten married. Bee didn’t show the slightest amount of shock as Andrew had briefly talked about proposing with her in their last session.
“I was wondering whether you had proposed yet, I cant say I expected you to both get married this fast but I must say I’m very proud of you.”
“Oh Bee, you’ve gotten soft on me.”
Bee smiled softly, proving his point, and Andrew allowed himself a quirk of his lips. Her eyes lit up in that way they always did when he allowed himself to show an emotion or admitted to caring. It was both sickening and endearing, a lot like most of Neil’s quirks Andrew had to admit to himself.
“Have you told your family yet?”
“No, we’ve decided to let them work it out for themselves, we’re not very secretive about the rings.”
Bee leveled him with her ‘disappointed stare’ for that comment.
“Are you sure that’s the… correct way to do things, your family would probably like to be told by you Andrew.”
“Where’s the fun in that though? They can figure things out themselves for a change.” Andrew smirked to himself, remembering using the same comment when Nicky and Aaron found out Neil spoke German. Bee huffed out a sigh, knowing this wasn’t a fight she could win, as it was Neil and Andrew’s business how they came out as married, not hers. So they settled into talking about other subjects. All in all it was good, Andrew was glad he had told her himself and not let Wymack or Abby do it.
___________________
When Aaron works it out, it’s explosive, as most things the Minyard twins do are. Andrew was doing some studying, exams were coming up and he might as well pretend like he cares about the outcome, Aaron is sitting next to him doing his own study, when he suddenly looked up at his hand and realized it wasn’t just any ring.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” He shouted jumping up out of his chair. “You fucking married Josten?” His face was growing red in anger.
“I did yes, and his name is Josten-Minyard.” Andrew really wasn’t in the mood for this. “If you want to throw a tantrum about me marrying a man you can do it elsewhere, I can’t be bothered to deal with your homophobia.”
“It’s not fucking homophobia you asshole.” Aaron spluttered, “I don’t care that you’re married to a man I care that you fucking married Josten of all the fucking people in the world.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means he’s the fucking son of a mob boss. His father was a fucking murderer. He’s using you.” Aaron was panting with the effort of saying his words with so much anger. Unfortunately for him, he just majorly pissed Andrew off.
“Do you think it would be possible for him to use me?” He hissed, eyes narrowing at his angry mirror image.
“Yes Andrew, I fucking do, because of Dr-“
“Don’t fucking say his name. You don’t get to say that name, and you don’t get to pretend like I didn’t know I was being abused, you know I didn’t have a choice with Him or with anyone else, or did you really not pay any attention in therapy. Neil is the first person in my life that has given me a choice, the only person who has always respected my boundaries; he’s the first person in my life to make me feel worth anything. Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I mean, that’s what your cheerleader does for you right?”
“He’s nothing like Katelyn.”
“You’re right, he’s better and he’s mine. If you ever think I would allow myself to be abused ever again, then you really don’t know me at all. Fuck you for thinking that about me and fuck you for thinking that about him.” Andrew had finished what he had to say and he tried to pack his anger away, he didn’t want this to get out of control. He and Aaron glared at each other for another few minutes before Aaron’s shoulders eventually sagged.
“I just don’t want him hurting you.”
“He’s not going to, at least not on purpose. I rarely make decisions rashly these days brother, I know what I'm doing.”
“I know.” They looked at each other for a few minutes until Neil walked in and realized there had obviously been an argument.
“I’ll just go, sorry.” He started to turn around but Aaron held out a hand
“No, it’s fine I’m going to head to Katelyn’s”, but as he walked past Neil he said, “If you hurt him they will never find your body.”
“I know.” Neil looked at him very seriously, “If I hurt him I’ll help you find places to hide my body.”
Aaron blinked before nodding seriously and eventually jerkily clapping Neil on the shoulder. It was acceptance and family in its own way. Neil smiled at Andrew and Andrew felt his lips twitch in return.
____________________
When Nicky finds out, the whole team of baby Foxes find out (they also find out that they were together in the first place). They were getting changed and Neil was transferring his ring from his chain to his finger. Nicky looked over at him and laughed brightly at him.
“Neil honey you’re putting your ring on the wrong finger. Andrew’s going to think you’re cheating on him.” He laughed again and looked at Andrew who slowly pulled his ring out and put it on his ring finger as well. Nicky’s eyes widened to the point where Neil thought he might be in very real danger of losing them and started looking back and forth between Neil and Andrew and their hands before it clicked in his head.
“WHAT?” he screeched at them loud enough that everyone turned toward them, “You’re fucking married?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, Josten and Minyard are fucking fags?” Jack spat out from across the room while the other foxes all asked various questions about when they were together in the first place.
“Shut up Jack”, Nicky said as Andrew and Neil glared at Jack, before Sheena appeared to pull him out of the room before he got himself killed. “Wait, wait, no I'm not letting Jack distract me right now, this is bullshit I am not accepting this marriage, where was my invite, and furthermore, you’re not allowed to get married before me, oh my god Erik is going to be so mad, I’m so mad. Oh my god Dan and Matt are going to be so angry I cant believe the two most unromantic humans in the world got married before us, I feel like I'm letting my people down.”
“Nicky”, Andrew eventually broke in, “shut up”.
“Oh, you’re right I'm so sorry, I’m so happy for you guys of course! Um, can I hug you guys?” Neil acquiesced and even Andrew allowed him to squeeze his shoulder. Nicky had reacted exactly how they had expected him to and proceeded to grill Neil, and then Renee when he got no information out of the former for details about the wedding.
______________________
Of course the rest of the Foxes found out once Nicky had found out, and they’d received a text from Allison saying “Not bad monster, you better treat him right.” To which Neil had responded with a “Don’t call him monster.”
Matt however, came barreling into their room heavily offended.
“Neil buddy I love you and I'm happy for you, but you knew I was going to propose to Dan, I cant believe you did me like this, we were going to be the first of the OG’s married, we were competing with Nicky for it, there were bets Neil, we all just lost so much money to Renee.” He eventually tired himself out from his rant and just sat half glaring at them, at that point Neil’s phone rang and he picked it up to hear Dan screeching over the line.
“What the fuck Josten are you kidding me? I’ve been waiting for Matt to get out of college so I can propose to him, there is no way I'm letting you get away with this, I am your captain, I should have been the first to get married.”
Neil laughed at them both, and told Dan that she and Matt had just said the exact same thing to him, which brought a response of a bit more yelling until they both calmed down and Neil put Dan on speaker, something he’d finally learnt how to do.
“Apart from being heavily offended that you stole my marriage thunder with the grumpiest human alive, I’m super happy for you Neil, I know he makes you happy.” Dan said over the phone, Neil could imagine her soft smile as she always got when she talked about his happiness.
“I'm so happy for you my son,” Matt said, making Neil roll his eyes. Matt had recently decided that as Neil had never had a good father, he was now Matt’s son, or something like that, he didn’t really understand it but it made Matt happy so he let it go fondly. “You tell my son-in-law if he ever hurts you I’ll pay him back for that time he nearly stabbed me.” Neil laughed at his friends and they all moved on to different subjects.
Later that night they curled up in their bed in Columbia hands intertwined and words passing softly about anything and everything.
“I’m glad our family all know now.” Neil whispered to Andrew, almost too quiet to be heard. Andrew didn’t answer immediately, but when Neil’s eyes were falling closed, he felt a soft brush of lips to his knuckles, and an even softer voice reply.
“Same.”
It was enough, they were enough and Neil couldn’t choose a better husband or family, he wouldn’t change anything. Well, he might want a cat, but that was something to think about tomorrow.
________________________