I read your fic “conversation within the conversation” and now I’m curious: when do you think Andrew would be able to talk about Neil with Aaron and how much of their relationship would he be willing to discuss/share? Or maybe you think that that would never happen?
honestly i think that talking about neil like that with aaron would likely never happen. at most it’d be about random day to day things neil gets up to that andrew might feel like telling aaron that aaron might not know about, especially once they’ve graduated and aaron’s not nearby to see it for himself, but anything to do with his and neil’s relationship i think he’d keep between him and neil. important milestones like moving in together or getting the cats are things he’d mention, but those are things that anyone could know about and that aaron would learn anyway if he ever visited
in my fic, i have andrew give an answer to aaron’s question about neil in what i feel is a very andrew-like way: answering by framing it as an antagonistic statement (“unlike you, neil knows how to respect a no”) because he IS opening up to aaron in therapy and he DOES recognize that aaron won’t let it drop, BUT he’s also using it to remind aaron that he’s saying NO, he is NOT going to answer his question beyond that. that’s all aaron’s getting and that’s more than aaron deserves to know. it’s a private topic that needs to remain between andrew and neil