Valentine’s Gift for @peanut-milk for the @aftgexchange.
The one where Andrew and Neil have their first official date( On Valentine’s Day no less. Blame Allison.)
“So, what did you get your monster for Valentine’s Day?” Allison asks, as she idly types away at her phone.
Anger bubbles up in Neil, “Allison, he’s not—“ he begins, but gets cut off by her.
“Sorry, I meant to say Andrew, your boyfriend. What did you get him for Valentine’s Day?” she gives a quick glance up at Neil, whose face appears slightly flushed at the remark. A smirk forms on her lips, “Don’t try and deny that. I won’t let you.”
Neil sighs and runs a hand through his hair, “Nothing. Why would I?” At those words, Allison stops typing away on her phone and sets it down next to her. She arches a brow at Neil, “What do you mean ‘nothing,’ it’s Valentine’s Day, Neil. That one day of the year specifically designated by capitalism to celebrate your love with your partner. Which is Andrew, in your case.”
Love. He lets the word wash over him. He doesn’t know if that’s the word he’d use. It’s a word too overused all around him but too underused in his own life for it to mean anything to him. He doesn’t think any word is fit to describe what he and Andrew have and yet—
Neil shrugs off Allison’s comment, “We’re not into that kind of stuff. It’s stupid. Why pick one day of the year to specifically celebrate a relationship?” He didn’t think Andrew would be too partial to celebrating it either. He would probably just walk away from Neil for just suggesting it. It had taken a while for Andrew to even admit that what they had was something and in fact, a ‘this.’
“Because it’s nice,” Allison replies like it’s obvious, “It’s a decent excuse to dress up and go out on a date. Eat. Drink. Kiss. Whatever.”
Neil stays silent and Allison reads the silence in the only way she can.
“Wait, have you two ever gone on a date?” She reaches for her phone and Neil can’t help but think another bet has been settled between the Foxes.
“That’s none of your business,” Neil gets up to leave.
-
Neil receives a text an hour later from Allison detailing directions to a restaurant in Columbia and reservation details.
For u and ur boyfriend. Have fun.
Neil replies with, no.
Allison texts back, go or don’t go. I don’t care. The reservation has been made.
Neil doesn’t bother to text back.
-
That night, like every other night, Andrew and Neil end up on the rooftop. Neil finds himself thinking back to Allison’s words. Have you two ever been on out on a date? The truth was that no, they had never done the whole go out on a ‘date’ thing. Neil didn’t mind it because they had their smoke filled nights on the rooftop. But, since Allison had brought it up that morning, he couldn’t help but be curious. He found that he actually liked the idea but he wasn’t sure how he felt about it coupled with Valentine’s Day.
“Spit it out already, Neil.” Andrew breaks him out his thoughts. Neil watches as he takes a drag of his cigarette and blows out smoke into the cold air.
“Are you busy Saturday evening?” Neil decides to just ask. After all, it's never steered him wrong before. He knows Andrew isn’t—his days are usually a combination of classes, Exy and Neil. Sometimes none. Andrew cocks his head to the side but doesn’t look at Neil.
“I’ll check my calendar, let you know after,” he drawls.
“Andrew,” Neil says because really he doesn’t know what else to say. He knew Andrew wasn’t going to make this easy on him, which was enough to frustrate Neil, who was already swimming in unknown territory.
“Why?"
“I have dinner reservations Saturday night.” Neil says Saturday and not Valentine’s Day because that’s a surefire way to get an instant rejection. Also, technically, it was Allison that had reservations but Andrew didn’t need to know that.
“Congratulations.”
“You want to go with me?” Neil asks, as casually as he can.
“Are you asking me out on a date? On Valentine’s Day, no less? Never took you for a romantic.” There’s a ghost of a twitch to Andrew’s lips as he asks. Neil reaches out to take Andrew's cigarette and breathes in the trailing smoke.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to go out on a date with my boyfriend.” So much for being casual about it.
Andrew stills briefly and finally turns his gaze on Neil. It’s the first time Neil has ever referred to Andrew as his boyfriend. He waits for denial in the form of an obnoxious answer but all Neil gets is a question in return.
“Why?” Andrew studies him and Neil doesn’t look away from the scrutiny. He’s used to this. It’s Andrew calculating Neil, adding and subtracting, trying to solve for the remaining variables in the equation. The problem that keeps on giving.
Neil is silent, trying to think of the truth not just for Andrew but himself as well. His curiosity had gotten the better of him but curiosity was never a good enough answer for Andrew. He wanted a taste of normalcy, it wasn’t Valentine’s Day he wanted a piece of though. It was the going out for dinner, just him and Andrew.
“I’ve never been on a date.”
Andrew tilts his head in consideration. He reaches over to steal back his cigarette, only to snuff it out on the cement seconds later.
“Neither have I,” Andrew offers up his own truth.
Neil let’s the silence settle around them both, knowing all too well not to push for an answer. Neil is content with gazing at Andrew and imagines tracing the moonlit shadows on his face. There’s a slight wrinkle in Andrew’s forehead, giving away Andrew’s pensive state. Neil fights down the urge to kiss Andrew and waits him out.
“Cancel those reservations,” Andrew says. Neil can’t help but feel disappointed and all he can muster is a weak, “Okay.”
Neil watches as Andrew reaches out to light a new cigarette. “I’m not taking you out to some restaurant that Allison picked. We’re going to do this my way.”
Neil blinks in confusion, “How’d you know it was Allison?”
Andrew rolls his eyes, “Who else would get you a last minute reservation on Valentine’s Day?”
Neil smiles and leans in towards Andrew, stopping short a few inches from his face. He waits for acceptance or rejection and seconds later he's greeted by Andrew's lips crashing into his own.
They spend the rest of the night kissing each other dizzy.
-
Saturday night, Neil dresses himself while Andrew is in the shower. He tries his best, picking out pieces that seem to fit together, trying to remember clothes that brought on lingering looks from Andrew. He settles on a grey long-sleeved buttoned up shirt and dark slacks. It’s a combination of formal wear that he had once worn to one of the Exy banquets. He doesn’t remember much of the banquet but he clearly remembers Andrew’s hands on him later that night.
Once Andrew comes out of the shower, Neil is rewarded with a slow once over. Neil feels something in his gut settle.
“Staring,” Neil teases. Andrew doesn’t say anything to him though and instead walks past him to get ready.
Neil heads to the kitchen and digs out a box of chocolates that he had bought at the store earlier. He really wasn’t aware for the protocol of what a date entailed but he thought gifts might be involved. It’s not like Andrew would ever turn down free chocolate so Neil thought it was a safe bet. He made sure to get one that weren’t clearly Valentine’s Day themed and ended up settling on a box of whiskey filled chocolates.
Andrew comes out of the room, dressed casually but significantly less dressed down than Neil. Neil frowns, had he overdone it on his part? He never asked Andrew what he planned for them both. He just figured it would be a different restaurant.
“Where are we going?”
“Columbia,” Andrew responds as his gaze falls to the box being held by Neil. Neil takes it as his cue to shove the box into Andrew’s hands.
“I hate you,” Andrew replies without any heat.
-
Once they get to Columbia, Andrew drops Neil off at the house without offering any explanation. Neil waits at the house, flipping through channels in confusion. Neil was fairly sure this wasn’t how dates were supposed to go but shrugs it off because this was Andrew after all. Andrew never quite followed the norm, never did Neil for that matter and that was enough to placate Neil as he waited for Andrew’s return.
Andrew arrives sometime later, carrying several grocery bags with him. Neil watches him as he takes item after item out of the grocery bags. Neil’s eyes widen in slight surprise as he realizes what was happening.
Andrew was cooking dinner. Andrew was making pasta.
“Can I help?” he finds himself asking.
“Get your boyfriend a drink,” he says, dropping several ingredients into a pot to simmer. Neil snorts, he wants to say something but thinks better of it as fiery warmth spreads through him and he just knows his face is red all over. He takes two down two glasses from the cupboard and fills them both with the vodka Andrew had bought. He hands one to Andrew and keeps the other to himself. Neil still doesn’t drink very often, but if he does it’s always with Andrew.
Neil doesn’t say anything else, content to just watch Andrew in action. It’s mesmerizing really. He had never seen Andrew cook like this before. The few times he had it was just simple breakfast items and only for himself at that. He had never cooked for Neil.
“I learned at Eden’s,” Andrew offers the answer to Neil’s unasked question, ”We started off helping to cook in the kitchen before they let us bus tables out in the club.” Us. Aaron and him.
“How long were you planning to hide this talent of yours?”
Andrew glances up from the pot, “You never asked.”
There’s a warm feeling in Neil’s stomach and he doesn’t fight the smile that comes over him. He realizes he’s happy. They eat and drink in comfortable silence. Trading stories every once in a while, ranging from the worst things they have had ever eaten to hypothetical situations of what exactly they would take with them on an island.
Allison’s words come back to him, because it’s nice. Neil can’t help but agree as he watches Andrew open his box of liquored chocolates. He pops one into his mouth. Neil fights his hardest not to smile, the warm feeling filling him up. Neil would have blamed it on the alcohol but he had stopped at his second drink, which was nowhere near enough to get him drunk or even buzzed.
“You’re staring,” Andrew says. Neil reaches over to Andrew’s hand, an unspoken question that Andrew answers by interlocking their fingers. Love, Neil thinks to himself but doesn’t dare say it out loud. Maybe it might just fit, just like his and Andrew's hands fit together.
“Can you blame me?” Neil grins. Andrew flicks him an unimpressed look and leans forward, stopping short of kissing Neil. He places a hand on Neil’s neck and waits for Neil to close the gap between them.
Neil has never been fond of sweets, but the taste of chocolate on Andrew’s tongue is one that Neil can’t even bring himself to complain over.
