merry christmas! here's part 3 of my fay and christmas thing! (part 1 and part 2, in case you missed them?) 3.3k words... featuring the winter banquet, fay pining, and christmas presents! yippee >:3 anyway! enjoy! and i love you! <3
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The Winter Banquet crept up on them like an axe-murderer in a bad horror flick, an ominous silhouette in the background everyone was trying to ignore as they suffered through finals week. And, like the pretty girl who would end up brutally slashed by said murderer, the Foxes loaded themselves onto the team bus and went without a fight. Fay sat beside Kevin and tried to reassure him that everything would be fine but neither of them really believed what he was saying.
Somehow it was even worse than Fay had anticipated. And regrettably, it all went down in the couple minutes Fay had taken to use the restroom. He'd returned to Kevin's side and found him rendered mute, unable to even explain what had happened. From the scene before him, Fay deduced that Neil and Riko had rumbled and he'd missed the whole damned brawl.
"Who won?" Fay jokingly asked Kevin. He got no response except a terrified glare, an expression he never knew existed.
"It was a draw, I think. But it was great," Matt told Fay with a grin. But Fay couldn't see how because Riko was still breathing and Neil looked shaken up, plus Kevin was about five seconds from needing an oxygen mask.
Fay made sure no one was watching before he took Kevin's hand and gently rubbed his thumb across the back of it. "It's okay, we're all okay. I've got you." He said under his breath, trying to be a comfort. He hadn't done it in ages though and he was apparently quite rusty, because Kevin just yanked his hand away and refused to look at him. Ouch.
After Coach Wymack rounded them all up and informed them they'd be leaving early, one of Kevin's former teammates appeared like a phantom and Fay was about ready to start round two. Then he realized it was only Jean, Kevin's friend. He was even taller than Kevin and the three inked under his eye was slightly crooked, but he was pretty. Fay waited, though not as anxiously as Kevin, to see what he wanted.
When it became obvious Fay was not going to leave Kevin's side Jean huffed a breath and, with a look, said in French: "If you don't give it to him, I will be the one paying for it."
Fay was so awed at his accent the words almost floated past without meaning. Paying for what, Fay wondered. He wondered if he'd let his French get rusty but Kevin seemed to understand him fine. He nodded stiffly before saying back, "I know. I'm sorry."
That made it more confusing.
"Does it even matter what it costs?" Jean asked.
"You know it does." Kevin told him, but Jean laughed bitterly.
"Yeah, right. Goodbye, my traitor." With that, he slinked away just as quick as he'd appeared. And Kevin watched him go, lips pressed into a thin line.
"What was that about?" Fay asked. Kevin almost startled, like he'd forgotten Fay was next to him. His eyes widened a touch.
"Nothing. Just catching up."
"You know I speak French, Kevin. That wasn't catching up." Fay said, calling out the lie. "Do you have something of Riko's that he wants back?"
Kevin's eyes cut across the room to where some of the other Foxes were standing around Neil, who seemed to be shaking. "It doesn't concern you. Let's go."
—
That night, back at the Tower, Neil explained what had happened at the banquet. That Riko had been behind Andrew's attack, that he'd goddamn gloated about it. Fay wished for a redo of the entire evening. He would've gladly held his bladder to get a few hits in. Though, Fay wouldn't have just hit. When he got angry he lost all sense. (He was his father's son.)
Fay had no doubt if he'd had a chance he would've beat Riko Moriyama to death in front of God and Coach and everyone else. He could imagine the crunch of bone beneath his knuckles and had to shake his hand out to make it go away. The image of a battered striker wouldn't leave his mind though, and Fay hated just how vividly he could picture it.
What a headline it would've been: Another Palmetto Fox arrested for MANSLAUGHTER!!!
Maybe it was a good thing he'd had to pee. Fay did not think he would be good at prison at all. And while his lawyer was the best in the business, he didn't particularly want to see her. Or her damn husband. (Sorry, Camille.)
Fay would talk to Betsy about all this later. On the phone. Of course, he would not mention his propensity for murder. Just that he was disappointed he wasn't able to help Neil. And she would tell him that wanting to help his friends was nice, but assault was never the answer. (This was one thing Fay disagreed with her one. Betsy's qualifications were quite sound but Fay had never met any problem that couldn't be solved with a certain amount of violence.)
Since he'd grown accustomed to hanging out in Nicky's dorm, Fay was at the backliner's desk trying to plot a way to get back at Riko. And he was struggling immensely because, according to Kevin, there was no possible way to hit him where it hurt. The way Kevin spoke about him, Riko did not feel pain unless their so-called Master was doling it out. Fay was certain he would think of something, if he just sat there long enough. He was scribbling down an idea involving a solo road trip and a blow torch when Neil broke the news that Matt had invited them all to spend Christmas with him in New York.
"New York, the city?"
"No, Nicky. The planet," Kevin scoffed. He'd been in a mood since they got back and Kevin in a mood was a bitchy comedian. Fay tried not to laugh but he couldn't help the twinge of his mouth. Nicky pouted and pinched Fay's calf with his toes, making him squeak.
"The city," Neil clarified helpfully.
"You're kidding," Aaron said as the rest of the room stared at Neil in disbelief. "Why would he invite us?"
Neil shrugged. "I don't know. I told him I'd pass the invite along."
Fay sort of hoped they would unanimously decline, but with his luck he should've known otherwise. Nicky started animatedly jabbering about how much fun it would be. He elbowed his cousin, "You've always wanted to see New York."
"No I haven't."
"Oh. Right. That was me." Nicky beamed, making Aaron roll his eyes. "Oh, come on. We should go. We could be tourists. And maybe you can find Katelyn something cool up there." Nicky added in a stage whisper, as if Andrew could hear him from East River. Or whatever it was called.
The mention of his girlfriend made Aaron consider it for a moment. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."
"Fay, how about it?" Nicky asked. Fay looked to Kevin, because his decision was not his own. He'd promised a drunken Kevin to protect him in Andrew's absence, after all. And boy, was he absent. Kevin glanced at Neil, then back at Fay.
"Are you going to go?" Kevin asked, and it was the first time he'd spoken to Fay since they left the banquet. The bus ride home was endlessly and painfully awkward, and Fay didn't understand why Kevin had been short with him.
"I'll go where you go," Fay said nonchalantly, and Nicky cooed.
"Aw, cute."
"Shut up." Fay told him, turning back to his notebook. He made a note to look into the Raven's next away game and tossed, "Whatever you want, Kevin," over his shoulder.
"You follow him like a puppy dog... Ha, maybe you should've got that collar after all." Nicky said in amused German. Fay's eyes widened and he whipped back around to find Nicky laughing, a knowing look in his eye. What the fuck was he even talking about? He glared daggers at him but Nicky dodged them and shrugged, "I saw you looking at it the other day. The leather one, remember?"
Fay remembered. He dropped his head into his hands. "Nicky, I might just go ahead and kill myself if you say another word."
"That makes two of us." Aaron said with an audible grimace. Fay felt a curl of shame and heat in his stomach when he remembered Kevin was, in fact, the only one who couldn't understand them. He considered swan diving out the window but he wasn't sure if it was high enough. Nicky opened his mouth and Fay pulled the knife from his boot, ready to jam it into his own throat.
"Fine, fine. I won't say anything else." Nicky switched back to English in a panic, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "I was just joking."
"Anyway..." Kevin said, thankfully oblivious. At least one of them was. When Fay looked, Aaron looked like he'd bitten into a lemon and Neil just looked baffled. Kevin seemed to ponder their options then sighed. "I think I want to go."
"I'm with you, then."
"Cool. I'll let Matt know." Neil left, and Kevin put his headphones back on, and Aaron resumed his game on the TV. And Nicky moved from the couch to the top of his desk, putting his ass right in Fay's way and looking down at him with a pouty mouth.
"I was just seeing what it felt like." Fay grumbled, doodling an airplane on the edge of the paper that was sticking out from under Nicky's butt. "I didn't want it."
"Defensive."
"Always, I'm a goalie."
"Ha ha," Nicky put a hand in Fay's hair, scritched his scalp in a way that sent a shiver down his spine. His eyes fluttered shut at the attention and Nicky laughed softly. "God, you're such a puppy."
"Fuck off." Fay said, ducking away from his touch and regretting it instantly when Nicky's face screwed up.
"I feel like I've said that before..." He said, looking down at Fay with confusion. "Have I called you a puppy before? When the fuck would that have been?"
"No idea." Fay shrugged. It was a lie. Fay knew exactly which occasion he meant but he wasn't about to remind him. He just stared blankly while Nicky tried to remember, and hoped he wouldn't.
—
The night before they were all supposed to split up for the holidays, Fay passed out the gifts he bought for all the Foxes. Well, he passed them out to Andrew's bunch. The presents he got for the upperclassmen he stacked in his arms and took over to the girls' dorm. He dropped them in a pile on Dan's couch with a soft, possibly awkward, "Ho, ho, ho", before slipping right back out without giving any of them a chance to look at him funny.
When he returned to Nicky's dorm, the others were all sitting just how he'd left them with their presents in their laps. They all looked absolutely confounded by this gesture and Fay thought maybe he should've just... not. Next year, if he was still here, he might skip Christmas. He cleared his throat.
"Guy, I know we're the saddest, most pitiful, neglected team in D1 exy but we all know what gifts are. Right?" Fay tried to joke.
Kevin scowled. "Of course we do."
"Then open 'em."
Nicky needed no further invitation. He ripped into the wrapping paper like some sort of beast, making Fay wince because he'd been raised to save the stuff. His gran used to iron and fold it, then store it in an old suitcase until the next Christmas. Same went for bows and gift bags. God, the woman had a hoard of gift bags. She would collect them from everybody at the end of the night and pull off the name tags.
Fay missed her.
"Fay, oh my god." Nicky gasped as he uncovered a PlayStation Portable. His PlayStation Portable. His dark eyes were huge and his mouth wide open as he looked it over. "You did not."
"I did." Fay smiled. Five times, it anyone was counting. They'd cost a pretty penny, not to mention the handful of games he picked up for them all to inevitably fight over. But it was goddamn Christmas! How many times was Fay gonna have to say it!
Almost simultaneously, Kevin and Aaron seemed to notice that their boxed were shaped the same as Nicky's. Fay caught them glancing around at each other's laps, as if trying to activate long dormant x-ray vision, and had to hold in a laugh. Aaron was the next to move. He slid a nail under the edge of the paper and wore an expression that matched Nicky's when it fell away and revealed his own console. After a few seconds of staring at it, he finally looked up.
"Why?"
"It's Christmas."
"That's not an answer."
"Okay... GameStop was running a sale. Buy one, get four free! They wouldn't let me out of the store till I agreed to take all these with me," Fay told him, making himself the victim of a ridiculously fake scenario. Aaron wasn't impressed with this story, he merely squinted at him as if trying to see an ulterior motive. Fay shrugged and sighed. "I had money and you're my friends."
Aaron almost looked like he wanted to argue that point. And, well, fuck. Ow. Fay wilted and muttered. "If you don't want it I'll take it back."
"I didn't say that," Aaron held up a hand, still befuddled. "I just don't know why you..." He trailed off to look over the box and Fay took it as a victory.
At last Kevin opened his and seemed puzzled as to why someone would want one in the first place. Until he unwrapped a game which had exy players on the box. Fay hadn't ever heard of it, but it had seemed like something Kevin might like. The other game Fay picked up for Kevin was Tomb Raider: Legend, because... Well, if one thought about it, Lara Croft was pretty and into historical things. Kevin's type, sort of. It was the best Fay could do, he lamented.
"Something to play on the bus, you know. And, they're all different colors so we know who's is who's," Fay said once they were all unwrapped. Neil sat still frozen with his gifts untouched. Fay swiveled to look at him. "Neil, I didn't get you one because I didn't think you liked games much. And, also because I thought you might bite me for getting you something you didn't need. Or want."
Nicky laughed at that bit of truth, but Neil's shoulders lowered a bit as he unwrapped his largest gift like he'd truly never opened one before. Inside was a shoe box and tucked inside was a pair of sneakers similar to the ones he always wore. Grey with white laces. Perhaps a nicer brand, with more cushion to the insoles.
"Oh. Thank... You," Neil said, though he looked a bit constipated about it. Maybe he was disappointed. Had Fay read him wrong? Neil's other gifts were equally as practical and Fay felt guilty about it. He'd treated Neil as less, hadn't he? He hadn't meant to. He would fix it. He would—
"If you want a game I'll get you one. Really, I just thought—" He started, trying to fix it. Before Fay could spiral too much Neil cut him off.
"No, these are good. I don't care about games." Neil said, pulling them out of the box to look them over. He seemed genuine and Fay settled a bit, but there was still that little niggle in the back of his head that he'd hurt Neil's feelings.
"You can borrow mine sometime, Neil. If you wanna," Nicky said, holding out the pink device, which he'd apparently already removed from the box. Fay had made sure to get them all in different colors. That was what his parents— or really, his mom, since his dad was a sorry sack of shit who didn't even try to buy them gifts— always did for him and his siblings. That way they wouldn't fight over anything. As much, anyway.
So Nicky's was pink and Aaron's was white, while Andrew's was black. Kevin's was gold and Fay got himself a silver one. (Matching metallic game systems? How romantic!) He should've got the blue model for Neil. Damn it. Fay pulled out his phone and tapped out a text to himself reminding himself to get it as soon as he could. Neil might would like the exy game, if nothing else. And then they would all be even again. Fay could say the blue one was out of stock when he was there. That he'd got the shoes as a stand-in or something... Yeah, that would work.
The others finished unwrapping their gifts. The game consoles and games, plus a couple random tidbits Fay had picked up when the devil pinched him and said they need that. Nicky sniffed his new cologne and made an appreciative noise. Kevin was reading the back of Tomb Raider and looking vaguely interested in it— score! The hoodie he bought Neil was nice but basic, and had some cash in the pocket to make up for the discrepancy between his gifts and the others'. Neil didn't check the pocket but he'd eventually find it.
Aaron was struggling to wrangle his PSP out of its box, and ignoring the headphones Fay bought him. But that was fine. They were all fine.
Fay glanced over at Andrew's desk, where a couple presents laid untouched. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn't here for this. Maybe he would've thought it was stupid. Maybe he would've laughed and dropped the brand new console in the toilet, then bullied Kevin's away from him a couple days later.
With an inward sigh Fay stopped himself from that line of thinking. He knew what it was like to be on drugs that made you stupid and out of your mind. It was why he tried so hard to be patient with Andrew. He could remember being in that ward after Marcus died. It was the worst twelve days of his life, and he'd literally been beaten unconscious twice.
And while Fay's own trip through crazy town had only lasted a couple weeks Andrew'd been up for years, god bless his fucking soul. Fay still didn't understand that. He hadn't even killed anyone.
If Fay was honest he couldn't wait to meet the real Andrew. No matter what his family said, real was better than fake. That was a simple truth. If Andrew was just as quick to reach for a knife sober... Then Fay would cross that blade when it got there.
—
"Kinda stole my thunder, Fay," Nicky said later, when they were both laid out on the sofa. Nicky's head was at one side and Fay's at the other, feet tangled in the middle.
"Hm?" Fay had almost been asleep. Kevin was, he'd gone to bed an hour ago.
"With your awesome presents."
"Oh. I'm sorry," Fay mumbled, waking up a bit. He opened his eyes and looked across the couch at Nicky. "Didn't mean to. I got excited is all."
Nicky hummed. Aaron was melted into one of the cousins' beanbags, the light from his PSP's screen illuminating his face. His new headphones looked a little clunky, but he didn't complain.
"You got them good stuff, too." Fay said. And he meant it. He'd been there, after all. He mostly remembered the things Nicky had picked out for them. Nicky had shoved all his wrapped gifts into his suitcase, saying it would be more magical to open them in New York.
"Yeah, I guess."
"I just want everybody to like me." Fay admitted into the quiet. Nicky smiled sadly and tapped his foot against Fay's thigh.
"Me too, babe. Me too."
"You're sitting with me and Kevin on the plane, right?"
"What a sandwich to be in the middle of, huh?" Nicky said with wiggly brows. Fay pinched his toe.
"I'm in the middle."
Nicky's eyebrows danced again. "That works too."
"Shut upppp," Fay laughed. "I'm going to sleep."
"On my couch?"
"Yeah."
"Mmkay, night." Nicky said as he swung his legs over the side of the couch to stand up. He returned a minute later to throw a blanket over Fay, then disappeared into the bedroom. Fay drifted off the to sound of Aaron cursing at his new game.
fay’s friends: @c-lion @themundanemudperson @tessasilverswan @ordei @skrybspryt @tedious-malcontent @aftgphoenix @little2nerdy @cosmmicdancer (if you want on/off this list please let me know!)
