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Andrew barely even noticed it when his neighbour moved out in August. The man was firmly elderly, and so didn’t throw ragers or have fights or have loud sex or whatever the absolute hell his new neighbours were doing. For the last three months, every Friday night, and a good handful of Saturday nights, his new neighbours were over there doing something that involved so much yelling and occasional crashing noises. He occasionally caught glimpses of them coming and going from their apartment, a tall man with dark brown hair and a much shorter man with curly red hair, but never long enough that he could call out to them or tell either to keep it the fuck down on his Friday nights. His job at a bakery-slash-coffee-shop type thing meant he was always home by five pm, regardless of the day of the week, and so he always heard them.
It was really starting to get on his nerves.
After another half hour of intermittent yelling and one crash so loud that it scared Sir right off his lap, he’d had enough.
He didn’t bother to put shoes on, just slipped his arm bands up and headed into the hallway for the next door. If he’d been feeling more generous, he might have rapped on it with his knuckles. As it was, he didn’t think they’d be able to hear that over whatever racket they were making anyway. He pounded on the door with the side of his hand.
The sound of muffled voices paused, he heard another small crash, and then the door opened to give Andrew the first good look he had gotten at either of his new neighbours.
“Hi?” The one with the brown hair was much taller up close, and also shirtless. And also in extremely good shape. And also Andrew wanted to climb him. Like a tree.
“Do I need to call a medic or a repairmen for you?” Andrew deadpanned, refusing to be intimidated by the very well defined jawline or green eyes.
“What?” The other one of his neighbours, the redhead, appeared under the first one’s arm, and now Andrew was starting to wonder if there was some lab that was missing these two. Despite the rather intense scarring on the redhead’s face, he was undeniably stunning. Curly red hair, long lashes, blue eyes, lips that Andrew wanted to bite. This had to be illegal. He hated them both. At least the redhead was wearing a shirt.
“It seems like, from all of the crashing and screaming that I can hear quite clearly in my own living room, that you seem to be having some sort of trouble. I thought I had better make sure that no one was dying over here.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, Kevin just keeps forgetting that he can’t walk through tables. Or jump through them.” The redhead smiled, and the tall one- Kevin- sighed.
“I’m not the one who decided the table had to go there. It’s not my fault the table is in a stupid place and you won’t let me move it.” Kevin glared at the redhead who was still under his arm. “Anyway, sorry about the noise. We’re actually watching a college exy game, do you want to watch it with us? We’ve got pizza.”
“Dude, you’re gonna give up my pizza like that? What if I started offering people your salads?”
They were jocks, of course they were. Exy-obsessed jocks.
“No, I’d actually like to hear less about exy, not more. If you like exy so much, why don’t you just join the local team instead of interrupting my weekends by yelling at your wall?” Unwilling to look at the pair of them a second longer, Andrew all but stomped back to his own apartment. And he did slam the door. Just for effect.
Andrew leaned against his racket in the goal, watching the coach go over the drills with the players there for tryouts. It was mostly the same people as usual, the mix of thirty-forty-fifty year olds who got together on their weekends to play skirmishes at the rec center. There was one new backliner that Andrew didn’t recognise, some guy who had the distinct look of someone who has just recently become an empty-nester.
The December tryouts were largely a joke. Everyone made the team, the coach just wanted to give people a shot at starting line-up for the rare few games they played against other local adult teams. Andrew didn’t even have to tryout himself. He was already guaranteed to be starting goalie. Five years on a Class I college exy team put him on a completely different level from the rest of the local team.
The coach walked off the field and whistled for the backliner pair and the striker pair to start the drills. Andrew watched them play for a few minutes. Yeah, the new guy didn’t know what he was doing at all. He wasn’t even holding his stick properly. The striker team realised that quickly, and they managed to push him back to make an opening for themselves. But the one who had the ball always shot too high, and Andrew didn’t even have to move. It sailed above his head, above his goal, and bounced off the plexiglass.
The coach called them in and talked with them, then sent them back and brought out a new quartet of tryouts. This time, he recognised both backliners, but not the striker team. They already had their helmets on, though, so Andrew let it go. Three new people each season wasn’t uncommon. They usually had three people leave each season, too.
He wondered why he’d let Renee talk him into this. Oh, it’ll be good for you, Andrew. Get you out of the house and keep you active. Whatever. Maybe he should start walking to work instead of driving. Maybe that would keep him active enough to please her.
The coach blew the whistle, and the new strikers were off like shots. Andrew barely had time to stand up properly before there was a ball flying at him. He caught it, but the force of it almost pulled his racket back. He glanced at the pair of them, and felt adrenaline race down his arms. He flung the ball back at the shorter of the two, aiming for their feet, and watched as the backliners struggled and failed to keep the strikers from reclaiming the ball. It failed, and before Andrew knew it, his goal was lighting up red.
The whistle blew again, and Andrew blinked. No one had scored on him in four years. No one. What the fuck?
At half court, the quartet of tryouts were taking off their helmets. Andrew had to flip up his visor to make sure he was seeing it correctly.
When he’d told his neighbours to join the local exy team and shut the fuck up, he hadn’t expected them to actually show up at tryouts today. He certainly hadn’t expected them to actually be good.
King was his favourite child, Andrew decided. He tried very hard not to play favourites, however, Sir was the one who decided to betray him.
He was in his apartment with Kevin and Neil, because their apartment was chronically a war zone, and he had let them talk him into taking up his Saturday night by watching an exy game. And Sir had decided to betray him by sitting in Neil’s lap. The fluffy bastard.
At least Andrew now understood why exy games were such a loud event for the Josten-Day household. Apparently both Kevin and Neil were incapable of watching people play exy without also moving their own bodies. Like, actually incapable. Kevin was up and jumping around, but since Neil had a cat in his lap he couldn’t move, so Andrew was just watching him sit there and make these funny little twitching motions. It was an incredible demonstration of something that Andrew was sure there was a college psychology class devoted to.
“So, you played Exy in college, right?” Neil asked, during the half-time break. “For the Palmetto Foxes?”
Andrew raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised that these two actually had heard of his old team. “Yeah, back before they dropped down to Class II.”
Kevin nodded, finally sitting down on Andrew’s couch. “Right, your skills as a goalie kept them from being moved while you were there, but they got dropped the season right after you left. Why didn’t you go pro after graduating? For that matter, why didn’t you sign with a better college team than the Foxes? You definitely could have.”
Andrew thought of the Foxes, of how the team never really took to him, the steady bout of homophobia from Seth and later Jack, how Aaron spent most of their time there thinking he could break his promise without Andrew noticing, of driving Nicky to the airport every break they had. He shrugged. “Exy never really did it for me. It’s complicated. What about you guys? You must have played in college, too, if you kept up with the Foxes.”
Kevin opened his mouth as if to say something, then flinched away, as if there was a memory there that was still too raw. But Andrew had never been one to shy away from poking at an unhealed wound, and Neil was leaning in with an almost competitive gleam in his eye.
“We almost did. Played a bit with a college team while we were still in high school, but it didn’t work out. Kevin ended up going to school to be a personal trainer, and I actually didn’t go to college at all. But it’s complicated.”
Andrew narrowed his eyes, even as a little thrill went through him at the implicit challenge. “I signed with the Foxes because they were the only ones who would take me and my family. My cousin was the legal guardian of my brother and I, and the Fox’s coach offered all three of us scholarships. Plus, no one else would sign me on account of my past.”
“Your past-” Kevin started, but Neil waved him off.
“Kevin and I were supposed to sign with the college team that we used to play with, but instead we ended up fleeing the country with my uncle, ended up in the UK. We played against each other and a couple acquaintances of my uncle, and kept up with a few of the college teams here that we had friends on.” Neil grinned sharply. “So, why wouldn’t any other team take you?”
Andrew leaned back against the couch, debated for a moment, then shrugged again. “I almost beat four men to death with my bare hands outside of a nightclub. I was almost recruited by the Edgar Allen Ravens, but I turned them down, and apparently their little bitch of a captain didn’t like that, so he sent some guys after me. I got off easy with mandatory therapy and pills, but it scared off other schools. So the Foxes were my only choice.”
Kevin’s eyes were wide with shock, and Andrew noticed his left hand start to shake before Neil leaned over Kevin and grabbed it. Kevin looked down at the redhead for a moment, then back at Andrew.
“We were supposed to sign with the Ravens, too. We played with Riko for most of our lives. He, uh, broke my hand when he heard some people accuse him of holding me back, then tried to get Neil to replace me. That’s when we got in contact with Neil’s uncle and left the country.”
Well. That was… interesting.
“And now you’re back here?” Andrew asked.
“Sure. Riko’s dead now. Offed himself a couple years back, cracked under the pressure, apparently.” There was something in Neil’s tone that made Andrew think Riko’s death was, indeed, complicated.
“Huh. Well, to complicated lives, I guess.” Andrew lifted his drink in a slightly ironic toast, and the others followed.
Andrew was half laying on his sofa, Kevin taking up the other half of the sofa and also most of Andrew’s lap, and Neil was laying on the floor. They were all spectacularly drunk. Even Andrew. Especially Andrew.
He was the kind of drunk that other people got in college, that he had never allowed himself to get in college. A little fuzzy and a little sleepy and just… content. Seven months into what both Bee and Renee told him was a solid friendship with Kevin and Neil, six years into living on his own and having a door he could lock whenever he wanted, and he finally felt comfortable enough to relax and let his guard down. And you know what? It was nice. He would definitely regret it tomorrow morning, but for now, it was nice.
Neil was babbling something in one of the four languages he knew that Kevin or Andrew didn’t also know, and Kevin was desperately trying to respond in French. It wasn’t working and Kevin seemed almost close to tears. Ok, maybe Kevin was a little bit more drunk than the rest of them. Lightweight.
“Andrew, tell Neil he’s- he’s- un lapin.” Kevin turned his head so he could look Andrew in the eye.
Andrew looked down at the drunk man with his head in his lap and raised an eyebrow. “He’s a rabbit? That’s your best insult?”
“Noooooooo.” Kevin almost whined. “Not an insult. He’s too pretty to insult.”
“Ok, Kevin.” Andrew patted his head. “Maybe you should go lay down with your pretty boyfriend on the ground over there. I think you’re cut off for the night.”
It was an empty threat, Andrew had already put the alcohol away for all of them about thirty minutes ago. But, clearly Kevin didn’t remember that and then progressed to actual whining.
“I caaaaaan’t. Neil isn’t my boyfriend. He is so pretty but he doesn’t like me that way. He doesn’t like anyone that way. He’s, uh. I dunno the word for it. But he just doesn’t.” Kevin had gone from whining to loudly whispering, like he thought Neil wouldn’t be able to hear him, still looking up at Andrew with a drunkenly earnest expression. “Both Neil and Andrew are just so pretty and it is unfair. Don’t tell them, though? It’s a secret.”
Andrew’s eyebrows shot up and he looked past Kevin to where Neil was. Neil had rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his hand.
“Just give him about five minutes and he’ll be out like a light. He does this every time he gets drunk enough.” Neil did a sideways shrug. “We can forget this ever happened, if you want. Kevin won’t remember it in the morning, anyway.”
Andrew shrugged back. “Eh. Are you really, um. Just not interested in that stuff, ever?”
Neil made a so-so hand gesture. “I’m demi. Demisexual and demiromantic. So, usually, nah. I’m just not interested in anyone unless I already trust them a lot, and even then it’s still iffy. I think I might be interested in some of that stuff now? But it’s hard to tell. Heh. Hard.”
Neil grinned, and Andrew rolled his eyes, and Kevin mumbled something in his sleep.
Usually, Andrew really, really liked Neil’s smart mouth. Today, he did not.
Yesterday had been the so-called championship for the local adult Exy teams in the county. They were an absolute joke by any normal standards, nowhere near high-profile enough to even hope for local news coverage, but Andrew’s team had actually made it to them for the first time in two years. The addition of two more near-college-level players had rallied the others on the team, bringing their overall skill level to firmly mediocre. So, they’d actually done really well during the season, and had won the championship game with a 10-4 score, meaning they’d now get to play against the other winning teams from the neighbouring counties in the region. Everything should have been perfect.
Except.
Neil had a sharp tongue and a hair-trigger temper. His mark during the game had been some burly thirty-something who’d shown up to the game in a pick-up truck with a Semper Fi plate and the anger issues to match. Generally, the local Exy group was miles less tolerant of violence on the court than the college teams had been, so there had only been two red cards thrown during the whole season. But whatever Neil had said to the ex-marine during the game had bumped that up to three.
Just after half-time, Neil had said something that had gotten him slammed into the wall, hard. Kevin was pulling the brute of a man off Neil almost before the whistle had been blown, but the damage had been done. He wouldn’t tell them what he’d said, exactly, but Andrew had needed to help Kevin keep the backliner from going back in for another swing. Neil sat out for the rest of the game, refused to call an ambulance, and Andrew had driven them all to the hospital the moment the final buzzer sounded.
A doctor had confirmed what they all suspected- Neil had a mild concussion. She’d recommended bed rest for a few days, and when Andrew had gotten them home, Kevin had ordered bed rest for a week.
Naturally, Neil had tried to argue, and so now Andrew was heading next door on his day off to babysit his stupid friend while Kevin went to work.
The door opened almost before he had finished knocking, to reveal Kevin already dressed and ready to go to the gym where he worked.
“Oh, thank god. He’s being impossible again, and I’m going to be late.” Kevin left the door open for Andrew to come in and went back into the kitchen. “He’s apparently hidden my water bottle out of spite and he just let me waste time looking for it until five minutes ago.”
“I’ll tell you where I put it if you give me my laptop back.” Neil called, from where he was laying on the couch.
“No, you’re not supposed to be doing any mentally taxing work. If I give you your laptop back, you’ll start doing your translation work again. We already told Stuart what happened, you’re cleared to take a break for a week.” Kevin shot back.
Andrew looked between his two morons, and sighed. He set the tupperware container he was carrying down on the table and headed into the kitchen. He looked at Neil, looked at Kevin, and opened the cabinet under the sink. He reached into the back and pulled out Kevin’s water bottle. “Don’t be so tall next time.”
“Traitor!” Neil cried.
Andrew pointed a finger over the kitchen counter at Neil. “Hush. Concussed rabbits should be silent. Kevin, get out.”
Kevin finished filling his water bottle and raised it in thanks. “Aye. I’ll be back at seven, make sure he doesn’t get to his laptop, and do not let him go on a run.”
“I will throw his shoes into a pool if he tries, and I’ll knock him off the counter if he goes for his laptop.” Andrew said, pushing Kevin out the door.
“Counter? You put it on top of the fridge, didn’t you, you tall bastard? Imigh leat!” Neil started to get up from the couch, and Andrew shut the door behind Kevin with a snap.
“Of course he put your laptop on top of the fridge, just like you put his water bottle under the sink. Neither of you are clever.” Andrew sat himself on the floor in front of the couch and tossed the TV remote into Neil’s lap. “Now pick a show and shut up.”
Neil settled back down, turned the TV on, and started sulkily going through channels, the volume turned way down low. Andrew grabbed the tupperware container he’d brought over and pulled out two of the orange-cranberry muffins he’d baked earlier. He passed one up to Neil.
“Is this another punishment? You know I don’t like sweet things.” Neil grumbled, finally switching to Netflix and pulling up the Great British Bake-Off.
“Just try it.” Andrew picked a chunk off the top of his muffin and ate it, choosing not to think too hard on how Neil had apparently remembered what his favourite show was.
“Oh.” Neil said behind him. “These are good.”
A lightly tanned hand reached over Andrew’s shoulder and snagged another muffin, and Andrew let the side of his mouth twitch up. He’d made them with fresh orange juice and only a little bit of honey, so between that and the cranberries, the muffins were only barely sweet. He didn’t love them, but he had been pretty sure Neil would.
“Don’t tell Kevin.” Andrew glanced back at his friend, who only grinned and grabbed a third muffin.
The next time Andrew glanced back to check, Neil was fast asleep.
They were halfway through a third episode of Bake-Off before Andrew noticed Neil was awake again, mostly because that’s when he started talking.
“You don’t actually have to stay here the whole time, you know. Kevin’s just mother henning.” Neil said, as Mary Berry explained a recipe to Paul on screen.
Andrew shrugged. “It’s my day off. This isn’t much different from what I would be doing if I went back to my own apartment. TV’s already on in here, so might as well stay. How do you feel? If you say you’re fine I will put your laptop in the sink.”
There was a movement at Andrew’s back as Neil shifted around.
“Tired. Fuzzy. My head hurts a bit. Better, overall.” Neil sighed. “Honestly, though. I’ve had far, far worse than this. You’ve seen my face. Hell, my chest is more of a mess than my face is. Kevin’s just being dramatic.”
Andrew frowned. He was not going to think about Neil’s chest. Or Kevin’s. “If you need space, I can leave. If being injured brings back bad memories or something.”
“What? No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, yeah, it does, but having you here helps. I’m safe. With you here.”
Ah. That was a lot.
Andrew stared at the TV screen and did not look at Neil for another twenty minutes.
“Hey, Andrew?” Neil’s voice was muffled, and he sounded half asleep.
Andrew glanced back, and sure enough, Neil was laying down with his face half smushed into a pillow. “Hm?”
“Is it ok if I want to kiss you but I also want to kiss Kevin? Is that weird? Attraction is weird.”
Andrew blinked a few times and quickly looked away from Neil’s sleepily honest expression. “Maybe. But so do I.”
Now Andrew felt slightly dizzy himself. He had wanted to say that, he just hadn’t really thought about the consequences of actually saying it. Too late now.
“You also want to kiss yourself and Kevin?”
Well, now Neil was just being an ass. That actually made him feel less unsteady.
“Hmm, maybe I only want to kiss Kevin.”
“Wait, nooooo. Andrew. Andrew.” Neil repeated until he finally relented and turned around to face the man. “I want to kiss you. Can I?”
There was a tight ball of something in Andrew’s chest. Neil asking, the fact that it was Neil asking. It was a lot. He shook his head.
“Oh.” Neil looked like a kicked puppy. “Ok.”
“Neil,” Andrew started, then sighed. “Ask me later. Once you’ve thought about it. Once you’re not still all fuzzy from the concussion.”
Neil brightened back up. “Will you say yes then?”
Andrew gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Probably. Yes.”
“Ok.” Neil said again, now happily, and burrowed himself back into his blankets and pillows until only his curly red hair and bright blue eyes poked out. Rather than look at whatever expression that was on the visible half of Neil’s face, Andrew turned back to the TV.
Neil had to sit out the first game against the regional teams, but he was back in for the second and final game. It was close, but with Andrew, Kevin, and Neil all back on the court, they managed to pull a 8-7 win. It was the end of the season for the local team, the first time they had actually won at regionals, and the first time Andrew actually felt like he might miss Exy in the off-season.
Now the three of them were in Andrew’s cramped kitchen, celebrating. Kevin was leaning against the fridge, a vodka-and-cranberry in his hand, with Sir twining around his ankles and begging for attention. Andrew was sitting on the counter, and Neil was practically bouncing around between them, still hyped up on energy from the game.
“Rodgers did so much better this last game with the passes! And Perez! If everyone comes back for next season, I think we’re gonna have a really fun time. We’ve got a good team.” Neil’s grin was bright and happy, and Andrew was seriously worried he was going to spill his drink with all of that gesturing.
“Perez’s teamwork is shit, and Rodgers is still practically tripping over himself.” Kevin said, like he couldn’t help himself. “We won half those games by pure chance. One of them by pure technicality because someone tried to cheat.”
“Hey, Andrew?” Neil leaned back against the counter next to Andrew, rolling his eyes as Kevin continued to expound on all the ways they could have lost before making it to regionals.
“-if Jones would just get a grip on her temper and not get herself a yellow-card every other game, we’d be at a lot less risk-”
Andrew looked down at Neil and raised an eyebrow. “Hmm?”
“-we can’t call ourselves a good team if we can barely call ourselves a team since only one of our backliners seems to actually care about-”
“Remember that thing I asked you when I was concussed? That you said I could ask again once I was no longer concussed?” Neil flicked his eyes over to Kevin and Andrew nodded. “Well, I am no longer concussed. So, can I?”
“-and neither of you are exempt from that either. Are you even listening to me?”
“Yes.” Andrew said, and pulled him in with a finger under his chin.
It started out as a chaste kiss, and then Neil parted his lips to let out a breathy little noise of surprise, and Andrew wanted. Behind them, Andrew heard Kevin make a choked-off squeaking sound. Andrew slid a hand into Neil’s hair to tilt his head and deepen the kiss.
When they pulled apart, Andrew dragged his gaze away from Neil’s blown pupils and slightly puffed lips to Kevin’s red face.
“What, do you need a signed invitation?” Andrew said, and his voice came out lower than usual.
“I- what?” Kevin sputtered.
Neil smiled and hooked an arm around Kevin’s, dragging him in so he and Neil were on opposite sides of Andrew’s legs, then slung his other arm around Kevin’s neck to pull him down. Kevin floundered amusingly when Neil kissed him, his hands fluttering at his sides like he didn’t quite know what to do with them. He tried to chase after Neil’s lips when the shorter man pulled back, before straightening back up and continuing to look just as confused and flustered as before.
“Neil, what- I thought you didn’t swing?”
Neil still had that same bright grin, and his side was pressed into Andrew’s knee. “I don’t. It’s just the two of you.”
“I- oh. The two of us?” Kevin looked so lost.
“The two of us. You, me. You can count it on your fingers if it’ll help.” Andrew nudged Kevin in the side, but there was no bite to his words. “And come on, Kev. Are you going to leave me out here? Gonna kiss me or not?”
Kevin immediately responded to the playful challenge in his words, even as the realisation that kissing Andrew was an option dawned on him. He leaned in halfway, and Andrew hooked a finger in his shirt collar to pull him in the rest of the way. Once Kevin found his footing, he kissed back with the same intensity and focus that he played Exy with.
Andrew pushed against Kevin’s collarbone gently with the hand that was still curled into his collar.
Kevin went, looking dazed and just as lost. “How did you even know that I liked you? Both of you?”
Neil shook his head fondly. “Kev, you’ve confessed your love to me every time you smelled alcohol for the past four years. And you started doing the same for Drew right after he got pissed off at us during the second practise and shut down the goal against us.”
Kevin turned slightly red again, and Andrew snorted in feigned disgust. “Fucking junkies.”
“Pot, kettle. Besides, you like us.” Neil said slyly, and Andrew pulled him in again just to wipe that smirk off his face.
Andrew’s phone rang at exactly noon on Sunday, waking up both him and Neil. Kevin and the cats remained firmly unconscious. Andrew quickly muted it, glanced at the caller ID, and sighed. He waved a hand at Neil to go back to sleep, then pulled himself out of their Alaska king sized bed. He walked out into their living room and, after a moment’s debate, sat down onto the floor next to the coffee table. He took a moment to stretch his legs out in the much larger living room of the still relatively new apartment that he, Neil, Kevin, and the cats had moved into together. The he answered his phone.
“Hello.”
“Andrew! I wasn’t sure you were going to pick up. How are you?” Nicky’s voice came through the phone, and Andrew almost winced. In the years since college, living with Erik in Germany had really centered his cousin, and Nicky had become a lot more comfortable and calm. Now, though, he sounded just as frazzled and forcibly cheerful as he had back then.
“Awake.”
“Oh, did I wake you up? I’m sorry, I thought you might be up by now but I wasn’t really sure so-”
“Nicky.” Andrew cut off his cousin’s rambling. “Is something wrong?”
“Wrong? No! Not at all, I just-” Nicky stopped himself and Andrew heard him let out a deep sigh. Somewhere in the background, Andrew heard Erik’s voice, but it was too quiet for him to be able to figure out what was being said.
“No, no, I’ve got it.” Nicky said distantly in German, talking to Erik. There was a pause, and then Nicky’s voice came through the phone again clearly. “I called to ask if you wanted to come to Germany next month. I’m buying tickets for Aar- I’m buying tickets right now.”
There was a wave of old anger and hurt at the almost mention of his twin, the one who’d abandoned him the moment college had ended, but Andrew managed to keep himself from spitting out a knee-jerk angry refusal. Instead, he took a deep breath. “What’s the occasion?”
“Erik and I are getting married.” The words tumbled out of Nicky in a rush, like he was trying to get them all out before Andrew said no.
“Ah. Took you guys long enough.” Andrew said, turning the concept of it over in his mind. There was a creak from the hallway to the bedroom, and he looked up to see Neil standing there, looking sleepy and rumpled. He looked at Andrew questioningly, and Andrew waved him over.
“Well, we wanted a long engagement, we knew, and we wanted to have a bit of a fresh start together once I got back after college, not that college was a bad thing! Just that we hadn’t really lived together, and-”
Andrew let his cousin anxiously ramble again as Neil sat down a careful distance away from him before giving him another questioning look. Andrew draped his arm on the coffee table in answer, and Neil folded himself into his side.
“Managed to extricate yourself?” Andrew said quietly, holding the phone a little away from his mouth while Nicky went on.
Neil nodded sleepily. “Like an octopus. I gave him the long pillow to hold.”
The side of Andrew’s mouth twitched up, thinking of Kevin’s habit of latching on to anything and everything in his sleep. He put the phone back to his ear, and found Nicky had gone quiet.
“I’ll come.” He said.
There was a shuffling noise, and he knew Nicky had just done some sort of celebratory dance. “I’ll email you the ticket. Or, um, I heard- do you have a plus one that you want to bring?”
“A plus one?” Andrew repeated, just to let his cousin squirm a bit.
“Yeah, a date or something? I just thought I might have heard someone else? Um, nevermind.”
“Plus two.”
“Plus two? Plus two!”
“Nicky.” Andrew warned.
“Yep, yep, okay. I am fine. You cannot pull knives on me and you cannot take back your agreement to come to my wedding, you said you would! With your plus two!” Nicky sounded stupidly gleeful. “Why haven’t you told me anything about them? We talked last week!”
“I did.” Andrew said nonchalantly. “I told you I’d gotten a bigger apartment. I’ve told you about them both.”
“You only said you were moving! You didn’t- Ah, whatever. I will meet them. At my wedding, which you will be bringing them both to.”
“Unless I accidentally miss the flight.”
“Andrew Minyard, don’t you dare. I will tell Renee. I’m sending you the flight confirmation now, and you are coming to visit me.”
“Mhmm.” Unfair of Nicky to use Renee against him like that. “Bye.”
“Bye!”
Andrew set the phone down and glanced down at Neil, who was mostly asleep again. Ah, well. He’d break the news that they were going to Germany once everyone else was up.