this is my @aftgexchange gift for @kevindxy ! sorry it’s just now getting posted - I’ve had a wrist injury and typing hasn’t been my friend! But anyways, one of your prompts was greek mythology au, so have this slightly odd kevinneil centric kandreil retelling of the theseus and the minotaur myth! under the cut bc this ended up being like 1.3k
The moriyamas as rulers of crete, exerting influence over the other city states around it, particularly athens, ruled by neil’s father, nathan
So the moriyamas force athens to send them tribute every year
This goes on for a few years, and then one year nathan decides to send his own son, neil
Neil’s mother tries to stop him, tries to run away with neil and keep him safe, but his father finds out and she’s killed just before neil is sent away to his (almost certain) death
So neil gets there and meets kevin, one of the moriyama’s wardsKevin isn’t a sacrifice, but he is definitely treated as less than the family and is pretty consistently threatened with sacrifice, especially by riko
This au is a step to the left of canon relationships in that they develop more quickly bc it’s based off of a greek myth
But anyways, neil is very desperate in this, and although he’s decided to try to kill the monster to free himself and get away from his father, he’s pretty firmly convinced that he’s going to die
Kevin is also very desperate, albeit in a very different way
Him and kevin are thrown together just because neil has a few days before he’s supposed to go into the labyrinth and die to the monster and so they end up spending a lot of time together; they’re both want out of their circumstances very badly but also recognize that there’s no way to do that
The last night is the worst, by far. Kevin and Neil fight a lot; they both have quick tempers and will snap at each other, but they also understand each other on a very intrinsic level
Anyways, it’s the last night before neil is supposed to go into the labyrinth and die, and he’s sitting in one of the courtyards and kevin says something that makes him roll his eyes and he realizes that fuck, he doesn’t want to lose this
He doesn’t really know what ‘this’ is, at this point, but he does know that being around kevin makes him feel a little less trapped, a little less hopeless
And next to him kevin is having a revelation of similar way, although it’s more about like ‘I don’t want him to die and to leave me alone again, i don’t want things to be this way’
And kevin just. Doesn’t even think before he’s moving and kissing neil and neil’s caught way off guard, because he hadn’t even entirely realized he had feelings for kevin yet but as soon as he kisses him it’s very much a ‘oh, this is how i’ve been feeling’
They have a very angsty conversation that’s punctuated a lot by kissing
“I’m going to die tomorrow Kevin, this isn’t worth it” - that sort of thing
The night passes like that; and finally they say their goodbyes (they’re both not expecting to see each other in the morning; the moriyamas have a pretty strict curfew)
It’s not a super emotional goodbye, but kevin does tell neil that he’ll remember him, even if his father and the moriyamas try to erase all memory of him
And then the next morning, a few hours before neil’s expected to be ready, there’s a knock on his door
It’s kevin, and as soon as he comes in and shuts the door behind him he just grabs neil and kisses him
Neither of them are crying, but neil is holding onto kevin’s shirt really tightly, as if he’s never going to let go
“I’m going to get out of this and i’m going to come back for you and we’re going to leave this place and never seen any of it again”
That’s when kevin pulls out the ball of yarn and presses it into neil’s hand
“Sneak it into the labyrinth with you and unwind it behind you. Then, when you beat it, you’ll be able to get back again”
Neil kisses him one last time and then leaves
So Neil heads into the maze, the ball of thread kevin gave him smuggled in past the moriyama’s guards
The gate clangs shut behind him and he’s alone in the labyrinth and it’s pitch black and every instinct he has is screaming at him to get out get out get out, but there’s no way but forward
So he takes a deep breath and starts walking forward, unravelling the thread behind him as he goes
The maze is relatively uneventful - there’s some traps that almost get him, but neil knows that the real horror is the monster at the center. He has a sword - the moriyamas like to make a game of it, give the sacrifices some semblance of a fighting chance, although everyone knows that the monster is stronger than all of them
But he finally gets to the center just as he’s starting to worry that he’s going to run out of thread and he enters the main room, his grip on the sword impossibly tight
“But standing in front of him was no monster, only a man”
The monster is just a person. A terrifying person, sure, with a slightly manic look in his eyes and a wickedly sharp knife in each of his hands, but a person nonetheless.
“Aren’t you going to try to kill me too? The rest of them try, but I’ve never lost.”
Neil isn’t going to kill him, can’t kill him - there’s no way someone would subject themselves to the moriyamas willingly after everything he’s heard from kevin
“No. You’re not a monster.”
But secretly, Andrew is pleased; it’s…nice to be treated like a person again. It’s been a long time.
“Even if I let you go, there’s no way you’ll survive. No one knows the way out of here.”
Neil just looks kinda smug and holds up the ball of thread Kevin gave him. Sure enough, there’s still some thread left - kevin’s plan worked perfectly. “If you say so.”
Andrew’s at this point just completely fucked
He’s been here for years, and by this point has pretty much accepted that there’s no way out of the labyrinth and that someday someone will come along that he can’t beat and that they’ll kill him.
And then? This jerk just shows up out of nowhere and calls him a person and is about to walk back out of here without even trying to fight him. It’s the only interesting thing that’s happened to him in years.
And then neil says the words that andrew least expected to hear, “You can come with me, if you want. I’m going and getting Kevin and then we’re getting the fuck out of here. We’ll need someone who’s able to fight.”
Andrew smiles, then, and he still looks horribly dangerous and like he could kill neil in an instant if he wanted, but there’s a glint in his eyes that wasn’t there before and neil thinks that maybe, just maybe, this will work. “Useless, the both of you. I’m going to have to do all the work, aren’t I?”
Andrew sheathes his knives and neil’s still tense, still kind of expecting andrew to attack him even if he doesn’t think he actually will but he puts his sword away and starts to re-roll the ball of string
This got kinda long so i’m going to stop but andrew and neil get back to the castle and break kevin out and the three of them sail away and fall in love
