Since fanfic seemed to be a theme in the game …
The lights around the stage were a little reminiscent of stadium lights.
Nicky was already on stage counting down to the final results. Nicky was also the only reason Neil even knew what he was here for in the first place. Kind of.
Neil looked over Andrew’s shoulder at the poll up on his phone as Nicky reached the end of the countdown.
“It says fifty-fifty, but my name is blue,” he pointed out with furrowed brows.
“OP didn’t realize it would still mark a winner at fifty-fifty since it’s never happened on the tournament before,” Matt explained. He was proudly sporting four buttons proclaiming he’d voted for Neil. “So it’s a tie, because it’s fifty-fifty, but you get to give the victory speech.”
“And you don’t have to divorce,” Dan added as she collected money from Allison. Probably a bet about the poll, but Neil didn’t want to ask. Especially since Nicky was frantically gesturing them forward.
It was also the fourth time someone had mentioned divorce since he and Andrew arrived, and he wasn’t sure what to make of that either.
He held out his hand to Andrew anyway. “Yes or no?”
Andrew rolled his eyes- at the entire spectacle of all of this was rather than the question- but nodded and took Neil’s hand.
Hand in over 8k votes worth of lovable hand they went up to accept their … reward? Neil still wasn’t sure.
He was handed something. Not a medal or trophy though. A rainbow flag that had words on it. Upon closer inspection- before it completely crumpled because Andrew just stared blankly instead of picking up the other half- it appeared to have said “love loses” except loses was crossed out hastily and “wins” was written over it.
“You’ve just avoided divorce and won the 2024 Queer Book Character Tournament! What would you like to say to your fans who saved your marriage?” Nicky aimed a microphone at him. A mistake really, every other Fox would likely agree.
“I’ve never been married,” Neil answered. A mild response really for cameras rolling- mostly because he was confused- coach would be proud.
There were scandalized gasps from the crowd. Maybe not so proud then.
“It’s more the spirit of the thing,” Nicky waved him off quickly, and then leaned in conspiratorially. “Although… if you wanted to change that…”
“No,” Andrew said at the same time Neil scoffed and said, “definitely not over this. Or on… TV?”
“Tumblr,” Nicky corrected.
Andrew was apparently done rolling with it, because he started pulling Neil by their joined hands off the stage, the flag trailing after them.
