heartbeat ~ a f t g

Andrew

Apologies, this one is going to be long.

In the two years they'd been working together, Andrew had grown used to Kevin's paranoia and control issues.

They were a side effect from his time at Evermore, an academy for up-and-coming superheroes, and his dubious friendship with Riko Moriyama, the headmasters son. He'd gotten out eventually, but the scars- both mental and physical- had remained. This had resulted in a desperate need to be on top of everything, know what was going on at all times, and a bone-deep fear of change.

But in the weeks since Neil had joined the monsters, Kevins fear had dissipated and faded away, leaving behind a strange responsibility to teach the new boy everything. Neil, who seemed reluctant at first, soon became intrigued and slowly morphed into a power junkie like Kevin. The two of them spent hours at a time practicing or discussing tactics, and it took only a few weeks for Kevin to convince Neil into late night practices. After the fourth time listening to Neil's silent footsteps pass his door, his heartbeat echoing through the crevices in Andrew's mind, he grew tired of being in the dark. Andrew swung his feet out of bed and into his shoes, picked up a pack of cigarettes and followed the soft, pounding pulse that led him into the garden. He paused only to grab a cup of coffee, figuring that it would help him stay awake in case anything exciting happened.

Neil was sitting cross-legged on the short grass when he got there. His eyes were closed and his hands were pressed into the mud, knuckles white. Andrew could feel his heartbeat slowing the longer he sat there, until Kevin stepped out of the shadows and huffed impatiently. "What are you doing, I can't fucking feel anything!" He pulled a mobile phone out of his back pocket and checked the screen dubiously. Andrew had no idea what he was checking for, or what Neil was trying to do, but it must've been important to get Kevin so hyped up.

Neil cracked an eye open, and when Kevin's attention switched to his face, he flipped him off and lay back on the grass. Kevin sighed, and lowered himself down as well, holding the phone above Neil's face in a silent offer. "Try using it physically instead," he suggested, and the redhead grabbed the rectangle of light in a pale hand. Their fingers brushed, and Kevin yelped, stepping back and staring at his hand like he'd received an electric shock. "What?" Neil's voice was a surprise to Andrew's ears, and he felt it's familiar warmth soak into his body, a kind of heat that a cigarette could never supply. But Kevin shook his head, and gestured for him to continue.

Neil sat up and placed the phone in front of his crossed legs, resting his index finger on the blank screen. Andrew straightened as he closed his eyes, before opening them again to reveal that bright, mesmerising blue. As Andrew fought to keep his warming cheeks under control, he realised that the outdoor lights were flickering in unison. Off, on, off, on, it reminded him of the morse code that he'd learnt as a child, a strange and complex pattern that few understood. Then, as one, they sparked and the bulbs blew. Glass shattered and flew haphazardly in all directions, forcing Kevin to duck out of sight and yell something in french. Neil snorted, so it must have been rude, but the snort morphed into a cry as he tipped his head further than should have physically possible. Suddenly, a flash of blinding light lit up the entire garden, and when it drained away, Andrew saw with a shock that Neil's power didn't just expand to switching on the TV when he felt like it.

No, it was so much more.

Hovering above the boy's head was a ball of raw electricity, pulsing and shimmering and straining against itself like it was trapped in a cage. There was just no other way to describe it. It glowed blue, the same enhancing cerulean that Neil's eyes did, and tiny sparks jutted out at intervals, so that it resembled compressed lightning.

Neil's face was slowly turning red from the effort of controlling it, his fingers around the phone were bone-white and stiff. Somehow, having contact with an electrical device was helping him do this, though Andrew wasn't entirely sure what this was. Kevin, on the other hand, looked not stressed, but in awe. His eyes were wide and mouth hanging open in an 'O' than would have been amusing at any other time. He started towards the boy on the floor, but as soon as he came close, Neil jerked back and his hands unwound themselves from the phone. This untethered the ball of electricity: it sparked and leapt in the air, leaving trails of blue light, before it sinking towards Neil's form on the floor. It didn't touch him though, instead melting into the phone, which promptly sparked and snapped itself in half.

Kevin chocked down a sob, whether from pride or fear Andrew couldn't tell, and clapped Neil once on the shoulder before disappearing inside. "Coward!" Neil yelled after him, then pushed himself up to standing on unsteady legs. He managed one tentative step, then another, and a third, before he fell against the wall. He dragged in a ragged breath and looked up, eyes scanning the darkness. Sensing that it was his time to show himself, Andrew stepped out of the shadows, balancing the cigarette between his lips. Neil yelped in surprise, before his expression calmed and he asked simply, "How much did you see?"

"Enough," Andrew replied, holding out the cigarette pack in a silent offer. The taller man accepted one and lit it, but didn't take a drag, instead holding it up to his cheek instead. They stood there for a while, and Andrew would be lying if he said the way Neil seemed so comfortable around him wasn't pleasing.
When both their cigarettes had burned down to stubs, he turned to go but Neil stopped him with a hand on his coat sleeve. "The next one is on Thursday." He spoke quietly, but Andrew heard well enough. Neil was offering to let him watch, giving his consent to Andrew tagging along. He nodded, and the grin that split the other mans face was nothing short of ecstatic. And beautiful, it was beautiful too. "Don't tell Kevin."

So it became a routine. Every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Andrew would meet Neil in the garden. When Kevin arrived, he would slip inside to watch by the back door, and when Kevin left, he and Neil would share a cigarette.

It took him a month of these meetings to realise that Neil's heartbeat no longer bothered him.