heartbeat ~ a f t g

Andrew

If Andrew was feeling cheated, he didn't show it. 

Instead, he trailed behind as Nicky and a furiously now-sober Kevin gave Neil a tour of Columbia house. There wasn't really much to show: a few bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and sitting room. But Nicky seemed determined to make it the most exciting place possible, as well as flirt with Neil the entire time. Neil was either oblivious to his attempts, or very good at acting, but Andrew found an unwanted smile stretching across his lips as Neil turned down Nicky flat for the third time. 

Kevin was taking this more seriously than any of them, rattling off facts about  individual abilities and team bonding and, the worst of all, how Neil would have to go on a diet if he wanted to keep up. Neil looked tired, and once the tour was over he grimaced in Kevin's direction and asked, "There are more of you right? It can't just be you four."

"Stop changing the subject," Kevin huffed, but Nicky grinned and nodded. "Yeah, there are more of us. But we're- different." Neil raised an eyebrow, an expression that made him look like a much more attractive version of Kevin, if Kevin had a god-awful, bleach-blonde dye job and a nose ring. Nicky hurried on. "We're the Monsters. One half of the group. The others call themselves the Foxes. We both answer to David Wymack, he's our manager- sort of, and we see each other on the odd weekend, but we keep to ourselves most of the time."                                                                Neil nodded, and Andrew felt it was time to cut in. He didn't want Nicky to spill anymore information, and anyway, he'd prefer Neil to look at him. Not that he'd ever admit that, though.

"We've answered one of your questions, new boy. Now you have to answer one of ours." A flicker of distaste flashed across Neil's face at the nickname, but he nodded resolutely. "A trade?" "Precisely. So, what were you doing at half one at night, knocking on our door." He'd hit a nerve, Andrew could tell. Predictably, Neil had been hoping that they'd forget about that, what with all the 'excitement' of him joining the team. But he answered it all the same, just like Andrew knew he would. "It was the Patch. I had been working on overloading it, seeing as it was old and there was a chance it would fry my brain if I left it on. I'd heard somewhere that if you pump however many volts into it, it would just retract and fall off. Turns out that doesn't work. All it did was scramble my thoughts, and lead me to a place that I had no idea even existed." He sighed. 

Nicky looked appalled. "You tried to- what?! You could've killed yourself, you know that right? And then we would've never got to see your pretty face." Andrew thought about how much effort it would take him to to stop the blood flow to Nicky's brain. Yes, it would probably kill him, but at least it would shut him up. Neil seemed just as uncomfortable with Nicky's flirting as Andrew felt, so when Aaron re-entered the room with a half-empty bottle of Kevin's posh whisky, he looked glad for the distraction. Andrew watched him slip out of the room in the midst of Kevin's ranting (that's vintage, Aaron, you fucking idiot. Do you know how much those cost? Seriously? God, I'm surrounded with fucking imbeciles.) and followed behind. He had a few more questions himself, starting with 'Why the bleached hair?' and 'What do you know about Kevin, seeing as he clearly makes you so uncomfortable?' 

But by the time he got out into the corridor, Neil was sitting with his head in his hands, and Andrew could hear his heart beating loud enough that it was a surprise the others couldn't. "Neil?" He would be lying if he said that the way Neil's pulse slowed ever so slightly, a sign that Andrew wasn't a threat, a sign that he was trusted, didn't give him butterflies. "Are you having a panic attack?" If Nicky was here, he would be laughing at how soft Andrew's voice was. But he wasn't, and it was just Andrew and Neil in the corridor. Alone. 

"No, I'm- Im cool. Just wondering what I got myself into, that's all." Neil was lying, his pulse had quickened, but when he glanced up to meet Andrew's eyes, everything was drowned out by the pounding reverberating in his own brain. Neil's gaze burned bright and hot, azure lights swimming in a turquoise sea. If they had been beautiful before, it was nothing compared to how they looked when he was using his powers. So all Andrew could do when Neil pushed himself to his feet was raised an incredulous eyebrow and turn to leave.

 But he'd caught the blood rushing to Neil's face in the pads of his fingers, and realised just a second too late that Neil had been blushing. Blushing at Andrew. Those two words didn't belong in a sentence together, but he felt his own face heat up, remembering the way Neil had looked at him when he'd first woken up. Awe, and something else, something else which had never quite sunken beneath the surface the whole time Neil had been at Columbia house. Something else that Andrew knew was plastered into this own expression as he watched Neil over his shoulder. 

Fuck.