Aaaah yes I love prompts!! Send em my way ;) I actually have a few still in my inbox that I haven’t written yet, so I'll use this ask to say that I'm sorry to anyone that I haven’t answered yet, but I promise I'll write them eventually! (I am the world’s biggest procrastinator oof)
Hello! Maybe you can help me... I just finished The Raven King and am excited to start the next one! But when I was looking at the Goodreads description, it has the line “Befriending the Foxes was inadvisable. Kissing one is unthinkable.” Did I miss the kiss in the Raven King!? Or is that in the next one? I’m so confused...
Hi! The description is actually a little misleading. Don't worry, you did not miss anything in The Raven King, and the kiss is refering to events in the Kings Men because Nora Sakavic is indeed the master of "slow burns". I hope you like the last one, it's a great series! :)
Hey!! Can you please write a fic where neil is having a panic attack in front of the foxes and they don't know what to do and then andrew steps in. I would love to read this
Great prompt! I’ve gotten everybody else’s asks, and I promise i’m going to try and write them all, but it’s slow moving. here’s the first one.
Neil awoke with the image of a burning car in his mind. Dark smoke still stained his view, billowing up to the ceiling of his room. He rubbed his eyes, clearing away the pictures still surfacing of his dream, and he reminded himself how to breathe again.
Neil climbed swiftly down his ladder, careful to be quiet and not wake any of the other sleeping boys. Once he was out of the room, he grabbed a pack of cigarettes and headed for the roof.
The chilly morning air hit his face as he went to the ledge, dangling his legs toward the ground, and he pulled his hood up over his head to block out the cold.
Neil could feel it was one of those days. He had heard some of his teammates calling them his “off days” in whispering tones in the locker room when they happened. He didn’t know why they happened, and sometimes it wasn’t even a nightmare that threw him off. What he did know was that these off days were driving him crazy.
On days like these, things didn’t feel real. It was like looking in a mirror and having the deep realization that it was actually you who you were looking at. Neil pressed his hands harder against the ledge just to prove to himself that he could; just to remind himself that he was real, and he was still there.
It didn’t help much.
The loud crunch of feet on gravel alerted Neil to Andrew’s appearance, and he didn’t bother looking at him when he reached his pack of cigarettes out for him. Neil watched one of Andrew’ long pale fingers pluck a cigarette out of the box, and he couldn’t help but turn and watch as he lit it, placing it against his chapped lips.
Andrew let out a puff of smoke into Neil’s face before saying, “You’re not going to practice today.” It was a demand not a question, and Neil narrowed his eyes at him, taking in the image of Andrew’s physique against the rising sun. Andrew frowned.
“Yes I am,” Neil responded.
Andrew stared at Neil, his eyes dark and empty. “I’m not going to help you when you’re breaking down later,” he deadpanned.
“What makes you think I’m going to breakdown later?” Neil asked, trying to convince himself more than Andrew that he was going to be okay at practice.
It was Andrew’s turn to narrow his eyes at Neil, and Neil sighed, turning back to the parking lot. Andrew knew Neil better than himself, but Neil would not let him be right about today. He had lost too many days to this overwhelming panic that he couldn’t control, and he wasn’t about to lose another one.
Everything was over now. Neil was Neil Abram Josten, and he was safe. His mind knew that, but sometimes his body still forgot. Sometimes he saw one of his scars and hurtled back to a time when he thought he was going to die and was still clinging onto everything that he held dear.
He was not going to let this day get to him.
So Neil went to practice despite Andrew’s warning, and all he got out of Andrew was a cold glare and silence on their drive there. Neil was fine with that because he felt like if he even opened his mouth to speak, he was going to fall apart.
He held it together through practice, pushing himself harder than usual, which meant that by the end of it, he could barely lift his arms. He ignored Wymack’s sharp warnings across the field to not overdo it since they had a game coming up. He also ignored the worried looks his teammates were giving him as he sprinted hard down field, scoring another point on Renee. He reminded himself that this was his day, and he was not going to give it up to whatever force was making him feel this way.
He was feeling okay when they all started heading to the locker rooms. He had buried his strange feeling deep down, and he walked with clipped uneasy steps, forcing himself to put one foot in front of the other. He wanted to prove Andrew wrong. He was not going to break down that day.
As Neil opened his locker, a sharp image flashed in his mind, and suddenly he was back to his birthday, and there was blood spewing out of his locker all over him, coating his orange jersey. He saw words smeared onto the bathroom wall, and he felt the shocked gazes of his teammates as he frantically tried to clean away the blood on his jersey.
Neil swallowed back his tears. He wasn’t there right now. That was so long ago. He had spent so many days in the same locker room, and it had been fine. He was fine.
But he wasn’t, and as that realization hit him, Neil felt his knees giving out, and he fell to the ground, his breath suddenly growing rapid and choked as the tears began to stream his face. The more that he struggled to calm himself, and the more that he told himself to stop, the more his panic rose up, bubbling over in uneven sobs.
He heard his name being said, and he saw Nicky and Matt in his peripheral, asking I’m what was wrong, but he couldn’t respond. The thought that his teammates were all watching him only made him cry harder.
“Just breathe, Neil,” Matt instructed calmly, and Neil tried to listen to him—he really did—but he couldn’t.
His mind betrayed him, bringing up images from his dream last night, and flashes of his old life. He saw a dashboard lighter, a hot iron, a gun, a cleaver, a knife. They flashed across his vision just as fast as they had sliced across his skin so long ago. Except some of them hadn’t even been that long ago. He panicked more as he wondered how he was ever going to get over these things if he still wasn’t even over his childhood.
“What do we do?” Neil heard someone say.
He wanted to repeat the question back. It filled up his head, repeating on an endless loop. What should he do? Because he couldn’t keep living like this. He heard Andrew’s name being mentioned and latched onto it like a life preserver.
Before he could continue his line of thinking, strong hands were grabbing onto Neil’s jersey, and he was being pulled up onto shaky feet and dragged towards Wymack’s office. Neil watched as Andrew let go of him, locking the door behind them and drawing all of the shades shut.
“I’m sorry,” Neil sobbed from his place on the floor where he had folded in on himself. “I’m sorry.”
Andrew entered his tear-stained vision, his face cold and unyielding. Neil focused on it through his panic, and followed the cold lines of his face to his solid constant gaze.
“Junkie,” Andrew mumbled, scooting closer towards Neil.
Neil watched as Andrew’s hand reached out, his palm flattening on Neil’s heart. Neil could feel his heart beating against Andrew’s fingers, and he tried to focus on it. He was alive, and he was here. He felt his breathing becoming a bit steadier, but the overriding thoughts that had overflowed him were still swimming around his mind, forcing tears from his eyes.
Andrew frowned and reached out with his other hand, tugging Neil’s up so that it was covering Andrew’s heart.
Andrew’s heartbeat was slow and even under his palm, and Neil found his breathing slowing to match the cadence. He found himself pressing his hand more solidly against Andrew’s chest, and soon their hearts were connected, Neil’s beating against Andrew’s palm at the same time that Andrew’s was beating against Neil’s. Neil took one last shaky breath, and let his head fall against the wall.
“Thank you,” Neil whispered.
“Let’s go,” Andrew responded, tugging Neil onto his feet by the hand.
Andrew didn’t let go of Neil’s hand as they left, and he pulled Neil along behind him.
“Neil, are you okay?” Matt said instantly when they got into the hallway.
Neil opened his mouth to respond, but Andrew fixed Matt with a glare that silenced him and the others. The girls had joined the group now and must have been filled in on Neil’s panic attack.
“Yeah, I’m okay now.” Neil said anyways, watching as Andrew motioned to his group that they were leaving.
“About time,” Aaron muttered.
“Neil,” Dan said, reaching a hand out to his arm. Andrew fixed her with a glare too, and although she took her hand away, she watched Neil carefully.
“Honestly,” Neil said specifically to Dan, and his voice was sincere as he continued. “I was having an off day, and it sort of hit me, but I’m going to be okay.”
Later in the car, Andrew still hadn’t let go of Neil’s hand. As Neil looked at their entwined fingers, he could remember the feel of Andrews heart beating against his palm. He remembered his words to Dan, and for the first time in a long time, Neil realized that maybe they were true.
He was always going to have bad days, but Andrew and the foxes were always going to be there to pull him out of it, and he had his whole life ahead of him. He realized that maybe it was okay to have bad days, and he decided that it was better to be alive with a few bad days than not alive at all.
Neil squeezed Andrew’s hand lightly, expecting a glare or a low-spoken percent, but after a few minutes, Andrew squeezed back.
Neil sighed softly, and let relieving words that he never thought were possible wash over him as they drove back to fox tower.
I’m going to be okay, not now, and maybe not soon, but eventually.
I’m sorry but why had nO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS BOOK SERIES I AM IN LOVE HOLY SHIT. I’ve almost finished the first book and I’m shocked why I didn’t know this existed.
Oh my gosh right!! They totally don’t get the attention they deserve! I actually discovered the series from fanart XD Just wait until you finish the series, it only gets better<3
Wymack thinking things couldn’t get any worse with the monsters *aka Andrew*, having to protect Kevin from the Ravens, the press, Seth and Kevin drama, etc:
Lol there’s this part in The Foxhole Court where Neil is evesdropping on Wymack trying to calm Kevin down about Riko, and Kevin’s like “I CaN’t TeLL RiKo No!” And then Wymack’s like “Let me and Andrew do the talking.” But then the quote just keeps going with, “Yes, Andrew. Don’t tell me you forgot about that psycho.” But like what the heck did Kevin’s face look like to get Wymack to say that?? We’re all like haha Andrew saying “What’s exy?” haha, but Kevin is the real MVP. He just made a face at Wymack that said he didn’t remember who Andrew was XD. Oof Kevin’s such a dork. I bet Neil wishes he could be like Kevin and get Andrew off his mind.
I don’t care how many times I see it, but Andrew pretending not to know who Neil or the foxes are during interviews kills me every time. No no no, even better is when he’s legit holding Neil’s hand and he’s like “WhO dAt? NeiL? i NeVeR hEaRd oF sUcH A pErsOn.” ahahahaha. Oh my gosh Andrew “what’s exy” Minyard. Dude and with his deadpan expression. Classic.