Andrew sighed with relief when the whistle announced the end of the game. It was an exhausting one, not because it was a demanding opponent. No, Ravens stopped being a force to be reckoned with a year ago, when the foxes beat them in the finale. After that it was like a snowball of fallen ravens and the team had not yet recovered.
It wasn’t even a championship game. The season was over. Foxes had beaten the Trojans in the finale six to five. This was just a friendly game between two teams, who hated each other, to improve their image.
The Ravens didn’t play like they wanted to improve anything. They played as if it was the most important match of their career. They were vicious and unforgiving. They weren’t stupid enough to foul Andrew, but that couldn’t be said about the rest of his teammates.
But it was over and Andrew could finally breathe. His people were only in various bad shapes, but none of them needed any medical attention outside of Abby. He looked across the court at a smiling Neil who was heading his direction. Helmet under his arm and a glint in his eyes that meant that he was on his way to say something incredibly stupid that would leave Andrew’s stomach in knots.
Stupid junkie with his stupidly beautiful blue eyes and blinding smile. Andrew wanted to punch him in his stupid face, preferably with his lips. The rest of the team would probably go to the basement to celebrate with lots of alcohol. And whenever there was alcohol there was Kevin, so they would have the dorm for themselves. Andrew couldn’t wait to get his hands on Neil. They had only a week left of classes and after that Andrew was planning on taking Neil to Columbia for at least a week. He knew that taking his idiot away from the court for longer was impossible so when Neil reluctantly agreed to one week when Andrew was insisting on two, he decided to quit while he was ahead.
Neil was in the middle of the court when suddenly there was a body throwing him in the direction of the plexiglass. There was a loud sound as the backliner who was assigned to Neil during the game repeatedly banged Neil head on the wall. Andrew wasn’t the first to get to him, since he was still standing in his goal, never keen to be in the middle of the celebration.
Matt threw the backliner off of Neil and there was Abby immediately at his side, checking him over. Seeing as Neil was in good hands, Andrew went for the Raven first. He pushed Matt away and punched the much taller man straight in the face and then troppeled him over on the ground. He managed a couple more punches, but then there were people's hands all over him, trying to pull him away.
There was ringing in his ears and he didn’t want to let himself be pulled away. He would probably still be fighting all of them if not for a small, barely heard above all the noise voice.
He jumped from the backliner immediately and shraged away all the people who tried to calm him down. He kneeled next to Neil and gripped his hand softly. There wasn’t any visible blood, but Abby looked worried.
“We need to take him to the hospital.” She said,
Andrew helped her pick Neil up and they went into the foxes changing room. He wanted to drive Neil to the hospital himself, but with the game just ending the traffic would be a nightmare. They called 9-1-1 and waited for the ambulance to get here.
Apart from the stupid nickname that melted Andrew’s heart every time Neil used it, the striker didn’t utter another word. He was lying unconscious while Abyy tried to assess the damage to his probably broken ribs.
The paramedics showed up ten minutes later and let Andrew ride with Neil to the hospital after he threatened them with a knife for trying to keep him away.
It was all a blur after that. They took Neil to do some tests and Andrew had to wait in the waiting area. He wasn’t sure what time it was, once Neil was all done and patched up and safely tucked away in a hospital bed. Andrew was sitting in the armchair beside him. Someone must have warned the hospital staff to not even try to kick him out, because no one batted an eye at him staying way past visiting hours. He didn’t want to fall asleep. He wanted to watch Neil and protect him.
“It is too late for protection, you failed.” A traitorous voice sounded at the back of his head.
He tried to silence his racing thoughts, but there was no reason to deny them. He failed. If he was closer to Neil. If he made his way across the court instead of waiting in his goal, maybe he would be able to stop the backliner from attacking Neil. If he wasn’t so focused on Neil’s stupid smile and pretty face, maybe he would spot the danger and prevent it.
His eyelids started to get heavy. He took a last glance at Neil’s unconscious form and fell asleep himself. He was used to having nightmares, but tonight they were filled with guilt instead of fear.
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