Chapter Text
1.
Aaron hates many things, but god he hates Neil Josten. He hates how he appeared out of nowhere and turned everything upside down, how he brought fucking mafia on them and most importantly, how he somehow made Andrew fall for him.
But even though Aaron wants to believe that the “thing” between his brother and Josten is nothing, that it’s just hate sex, as Nicky suggested, he knows, deep down, it’s more than that. And for some reason, that makes him hate Josten even more.
He was under the impression his brother has a common sense. Sort of. But after he got together with Neil, he threw that idea out of the window. No, his brother is an idiot and he is going to end up hurt.
Technically, Aaron knows Neil wouldn’t hurt Andrew. Technically, he knows Andrew wouldn’t let Neil hurt him. But he still tenses when he steps into what he thought to be an empty locker room and sees the two of them kissing, Andrew trapped between Josten’s body and the wall.
Aaron didn’t think anyone was here yet, it was too soon for practice, but he got out of his class earlier and knew it was pointless to go back to the dorm, so he headed to the court. Very bad decision in retrospect. Now he stares at his brother and his stupid boyfriend and hates his life.
They haven’t noticed him yet, which is something, considering the fact that both of them are extremely jumpy. But now, they are too soaked up in themselves to care about their surroundings. Andrew is leaning on the wall, his fingers hooked in Josten’s belt loops, and he doesn’t seem to mind their position. Josten is standing inch or two away from him, leaving some space between their bodies, his hands resting on the wall, not touching Andrew.
Aaron doesn’t think he’s ever seen Andrew kiss Josten before. Or anyone, really, but that’s beside the point. He’s actually pretty sure no one from the team has seen the two of them kissing and that they would pay great money to see that. He shudders at the thought.
He must’ve made some sort of sound, because suddenly Andrew’s eyes snap open and he’s staring at him with the most murderous glare he can possibly manage. Josten turns around and frowns at Aaron as well. Not that he cares.
Ten painful seconds pass without either of them speaking. The one who breaks the silence in the end is Kevin, who walks in, halfway through his monologue about something, followed by very unamused Nicky. Both of them are completely oblivious to the tension in the room.
Andrew is the first to move. He doesn’t meet Aaron’s eyes as he makes his way to his locker. Aaron decides to let it go.
2.
Aaron’s enormous amounts of school assignments are the reason why he finds himself awake at 3 am in the morning and in desperate need of coffee. He doesn’t know if it is his bad luck or karma for some of his past actions, but they are out of coffee.
He knows there’s no way he’s getting through this without caffeine. And he really needs to get it done tonight.
He curses quietly but in the end decides that there’s certainly going to be some coffee in the monster’s dorm. He has nothing to lose at this point. Right?
When he walks in their dorm, he is surprised to find the TV still on, though it’s so muted he can barely hear what’s going on the screen. But Aaron doesn’t really care about the TV. No, he cares way more about Andrew, seated in one of the beanbags, his eyes on the screen, his face utterly blank and Josten sitting in his lap, fast asleep. Andrew has one hand wrapped around Neil’s waist and his head is resting on Andrew’s shoulder.
Aaron is staring.
Andrew doesn’t let people touch him and he definitely doesn’t let them in his personal space. Aaron supposes Josten is an exception, but this still shocks him.
“Do you need something?” Andrew asks him impassively, as if this was completely normal. He doesn’t move, on contrary only seems to tighten his grip on Josten’s waist.
“Oh.” Aaron distantly remembers his assignment. “Yeah, I… Coffee. We ran out.”
Andrew gazes at him, but then takes a pity on him and jerks his head towards the kitchen. Aaron is quick to comply. He pours himself a cup and is on his way back, doing his best to avoid looking at Andrew as he leaves, but hesitates with his hand on the doorknob. He throws a glance back at his brother.
Andrew, though he doesn’t take his eyes of the TV, raises an eyebrow. “Yes?”
Aaron shakes his head in dismissal. “Nothing.” He decides doesn’t want to know.
3.
Aaron can pretend he doesn’t give a single damn about his brother all he wants, but when he sees how exhausted Andrew looks at practice, he gets worried enough to go check up on him later that day.
He keeps persuading himself it’s just because he’s soon-to-be doctor and he needs to know whether Andrew isn’t sick or something. It’s definitely not because he actually cares about him. No. Not at all.
Kevin is sitting on the couch with his laptop, headphones on, so Aaron doesn’t bother talking to him and walks straight to the bedroom. The door is closed. Aaron sighs but knocks. “Andrew?”
No answer. But well Aaron didn’t expect actual response from Andrew.
He opens the door and peeks inside.
To his amazement, Andrew is in bed and he’s not alone. Josten is there with him, but not in the way Aaron expected. Josten’s sitting propped against the bed frame, reading a book, and Andrew’s lying between his legs, his head resting on Neil’s navel. He’s sleeping. Josten’s holding the book with one hand and with the other one idly stroking Andrew’s hair.
Aaron is sure he is hallucinating.
The weirdest thing is, how calm Andrew appears to be. He’s always so cold, distant and tense but now, nothing of that. He’s relaxed, practically melting into Neil’s touch. What the actual hell?
Josten looks up from the book with unimpressed expression. “Andrew is busy,” he announces coolly and goes back to reading.
Aaron blinks. “Right.” But he can’t bring himself to move.
Josten tolerates his presence for two whole seconds before raising an eyebrow. “Anything else?”
Aaron shakes his head but for some reason remains frozen on the spot.
Josten sighs and puts the book aside. “Do you need me to show you the door?” He sneers.
That finally snaps him back in reality. He rolls his eyes at Josten but obediently leaves.
Kevin lifts his eyes to him when he emerges from the bedroom. “He was awake the whole night,” he mentions.
Aaron gives him a confused look.
“Andrew. He couldn’t sleep. Neil finally made him go to bed.”
“Oh.” So maybe Josten cares about Andrew as well.
4.
The smell of pancakes wakes Aaron up. They went to Columbia for the weekend, but Aaron thinks everyone would be too hangover to be awake now and definitely not in a mood to be making pancakes. But it’s not like he’s imagining the smell, is he?
In the end it’s his curiosity that makes him walk downstairs and to the kitchen.
He freezes as soon as he steps in the room.
The air is indeed filled with the delicious smell of pancakes. Josten is standing by the stove, whisking a bowl of batter, while eyeing the pancake in the pan. But what’s more surprising (apart from the fact that Josten is able to cook without setting the whole place on fire) is Andrew. He’s standing behind Josten, wearing black T-shirt, no armbands, and violently orange sweatpants, that surely don’t belong to him. He has his arms loosely wrapped around Neil’s waist and his chin is rested on Neil’s shoulder. He’s talking in quiet voice and Josten is giggling softly at whatever he’s saying.
Aaron blinks. He can’t believe his eyes. He has seen them being kind of domestic with each other before, but it was always brief and it usually involved one of them, or both, asleep. Now they are both wide awake and they are talking and Andrew is smiling, his eyes filled with warmth and Aaron is sure that if Nicky saw this, he would faint. Aaron feels like he shouldn’t be watching this.
“You’ll get batter all over me!” Josten yelps with a laugh as Andrew takes the whisk from him and licks the batter off of it.
Andrew answers something too quietly for Aaron to hear, but – Aaron so shouldn’t be watching this – presses a kiss to Neil’s neck and Neil practically melts at the touch. He laughs again and tries to bat Andrew away, unsuccessfully, thought neither seems to mind.
That’s when Aaron decides not to interrupt this and slowly back away. It’s of course now, that the floor creaks loudly under his weight.
Andrew’s whole body tenses at the sound and he turns around to face his brother, his eyes cold again, no trace of that soft look. He steps away from Josten at once and seizes Aaron with narrowed eyes.
Aaron wants to kill himself and he’s sure Andrew wants to kill him as well. He is very glad Andrew doesn’t have the knives on himself at the moment. Though the hot pan is within his reach, but Josten tactically puts himself between Andrew and the stove.
“I… um…” Aaron begins, but he has no idea what to say. Andrew’s gaze is piercing. “I’m just gonna go,” he says at last and without a second look walks back upstairs.
5.
Aaron isn’t sure why but he just knows Andrew stole his anatomy textbook. Probably for fun. What an asshole.
“Are you sure you didn’t just leave it somewhere?” Matt asks.
Aaron rolls his eyes. “Yes, I am sure. Andrew has it.” With that attitude he marches to monster’s dorm, ignoring Kevin in the kitchen, and walks to Andrew’s bedroom. He opens the door without knocking and lets himself in.
He is not prepared for the image before him.
Andrew is here and so is Josten. They are in bed, and not in the good, napping together way. Not this time. Aaron is going to set himself on fire.
They both freeze when they hear the door opening but they don’t have time to move. Andrew is on top of Neil, fortunately still dressed, only his armbands discarded. One of his hands is under Neil’s T-shirt, while the other is clutching at the back of Neil’s neck. His expression is blank as usual, the only difference are his slightly pink cheeks. Josten has his fingers tangled in Andrew’s hair and one of his legs hooked over Andrew’s thigh and if looks could kill, Aaron would be long dead.
They are staring at Aaron, who has never been more uncomfortable. “Ever heard of locking the door?” He suggests wryly, trying to mask his discomfort.
Andrew finally pushes himself away from Josten and throws his brother a warning look. “Ever heard of knocking?” He retorts.
Aaron rolls his eyes. “Give me back my textbook.”
Andrew returns his gaze without batting an eye. It doesn’t have the same effect now that his hair is standing in every direction. “I don’t have your stupid textbook.”
Aaron grits his teeth. “Yes, you do. Now give it back.”
Josten pulls himself into sitting position and shakes his head in disbelief. Aaron has very strong urge to punch him.
Andrew is not in a joking mood. He stands up and steps to Aaron, who cleverly backs away. “Leave,” he growls.
Aaron considers his options. If he stays, Andrew’s going to kill him. But if he leaves he won’t get his textbook. He folds his arms over his chest. “The textbook, Andrew.”
Andrew isn’t impressed. He grabs him by the back of his neck, his grip tight, almost hurting, and walks Aaron back to the door. “Ouch! Fuck, fine. I’m going!” Aaron yelps. Andrew releases him only when he’s out of the room and slams the door in his face. Aaron only hears the click of a lock.
He sighs and massages his neck. “Asshole,” he mutters. He wants to go back to his room, textbook or not, when he notices the missing textbook on the kitchen table under Kevin’s laptop. “What are you doing with my textbook?” He hisses at Kevin.
Kevin follows his gaze and shrugs. “It was just laying here. I thought it was Neil’s or so.”
“Fucking Andrew,” Aaron mumbles, snatches the book and marches out of there.
+1
Aaron’s still a bit sleepy and very hangover when rolls out of bed in Columbia. He doesn’t remember how much he drank, but he remembers how Andrew and Neil not-so-subtly sneaked from their table to the bathroom and he needed a lot of alcohol to not think about what they were doing. No wonder he ended up so wasted.
He rubs his eyes with one hand and blindly reaches for the doorknob to the bathroom with the other. He does register that the door is locked, but he doesn’t have time to stop his moving body and finds himself walking face-first into the door.
“Fuck!” He curses and tries the door again. Still locked. Now that he’s a bit more awake, he can actually hear the running shower.
He rolls his eyes, annoyed with himself and turns around to go away, when he hears something else besides the shower. A moan.
He stops mid-motion. No fucking way.
But it comes again and this time he has no trouble recognizing Josten’s voice. And he’s moaning Andrew’s name. Aaron regrets his entire existence.
For a second he considers pounding on the door to make them stop whatever they are doing, but then he decides it’s not worth it. It’d only make Andrew angrier.
Instead, he goes back to his room, takes his headphones and turns the volume up as much as his headache can stand.