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Listen. Andrew had a few quirks. No one could ever deny that. He was kind of weird (scratch that, extremely weird) about most things, and tended to react with violence more than anything else. However, Andrew was his best friend's boyfriend, so Matt let a lot go.
So he didn’t question the reason why Andrew was often on his phone, with brightness turned to zero and it right over his face. It’s not like the guy attended team bonding events super often, though Neil dragged him to as many as he could, and Neil seemed unbothered by the way Andrew was always on his phone during them so Matt never really questioned it. It wasn’t like Andrew would ever be cheating on Neil or something, and Matt had gained a grudging respect for the other man after listening to Neil drunkenly wax poetry about how great he was. But still. He didn’t get it.
It was movie night tonight and Andrew and Neil were sitting side by side in an armchair, and Matt was doing his best not to stare at the slight physical touch between them, their bodies pressed side by side and the way they were whispering to each other slightly. They’d been together for over a year now (or at least Matt thought they had, Neil was very cagey about how ‘them’ started), and had slowly become more comfortable with slight physical touch in public. Matt was on the chair closest to them and the only one slightly paying attention to whatever was going on between the two.
He was not so subtly watching them, as Neil mostly watched the movie but had slight reactions to the things Andrew whispered to him, apparently reacting to whatever was on his phone. He was scrolling so aggressively that Matt would assume he was part of a Twitter fight or something, if not for the lack of typing.
He briefly considered if this was some weird form of flirting, but Andrew seemed much more engaged with his phone and Neil’s expression was more loving than… that.
Andrew suddenly stopped scrolling and buried his face in Neil's neck, with a muffled groan. Or potentially scream? Matt would have been alarmed if not for the fact that Neil was slightly laughing.
“They finally?” Neil asked quietly, too low for anyone else to hear, and Andrew just groaned again. It wasn’t aggressive persay, but it seemed to be a mixture of pain and excitement. “Oh hell yeah.” He said with a grin.
Andrew removed his head from Neil’s body. “I’m going to die.” He responded, and Matt would have been extremely alarmed at this point if not for the way that Neil looked overjoyed and Andrew had the closest thing to a smile he had ever seen since the drugs. “We need to discuss this later.” He said intensely, and Neil giggled slightly again. Matt had no fucking clue what was going on, and what the hell they needed to discuss. And who were they?
“Naturally.” Neil replied, and they shared another unreadable look.
The other foxes seemed to be picking up on either their quiet conversation, laughter or Matt’s confused facial expression, and Andrew suddenly looked apathetic again and went back to whatever he was doing on his phone. The look was so schooled and unnatural compared to what he had seen previously that Matt knew one thing.
He had to figure out what the hell Andrew was doing on his phone all the time.
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Matt wasn’t spying. Seriously, he wasn’t.
He truly was planning on going into Neil, Andrew and Kevin’s room to hang out, and no one was answering his knocks. It was like 2pm and he put his ear on the door to make sure there were no sex noises, instead hearing loud laughter and similar groaning. But not sex groaning. It sounded suspiciously similar to the conversation Neil and Andrew were having at movie night, so Matt decided to just go in and get some intel.
But he wasn’t spying. Seriously.
He slowly opened the door, and it seemed that Andrew and Neil were in the adjacent bedroom rather than the living area, and neither boy either heard or acknowledged the sound of someone entering. There was some sort of indie music playing over an Alexa in the living room, which Matt could only assume was Andrew’s because Neil never listened to music.
“I’m going insane.” He heard Andrew say, and Neil’s voice hummed in agreement. “They make me insane.”
Matt was slightly worried by whatever was going on, was this like some sober breakdown? There was something in Andrew’s tone that Matt had never heard before, suspiciously like joy. Not insanity.
“This is turning not very slowburny.” Neil replied, and Matt frankly had no clue what that meant.
Andrew groaned in agreement. “I know. I can’t do it with them. I just need-” and muffled screaming began again. Seriously, what the fuck was going on.
Neil was giggling again, a sound that Matt heard rarely but never stopped enjoying. “You’re going to have to change the tags.” He mused, and the screaming started up for the third time. Neil was still laughing. “I’m glad you’re so normal about this.” The tone was teasing, and Matt smiled at how fucking happy his friend sounded. He wasn’t aware that this is how Neil and Andrew talked when they were alone, he had always imagined there would be more anger or at least brooding involved.
Something like muffled laughter filled the air, and Matt suddenly realized it was Andrew laughing. He hadn’t heard that sound in a long time, and never this open. It sounded actually authentic, and Matt suddenly felt horrible for eavesdropping.
But he needed to know more.
Neil didn’t seem disturbed by whatever was going on here, so at least it didn’t appear Andrew was having an actual mental breakdown. The kid was so protective of him that Matt knew if it was something serious messing with him he would never be giggling about it.
Aggressive typing filled the air, and Neil started to say something but was cut off. “Shush. This takes precedence over you.”
“Wow.” Neil deadpanned, but didn’t seem offended, which was frankly shocking. Matt didn’t think that in Andrew’s mind anything actually took precedence over Neil. He didn’t really get their whole thing, they were so weirdly (or perhaps not weirdly) intense over each other that hearing them joke about something not related to their own tragic backstories seemed weird.
It shouldn’t have been, of course they had to talk about silly things besides being serious all the time, but Matt had never really imagined this. Whatever this was. He really didn’t get this relationship, but whatever the fuck Andrew was doing was clearly some kind of inside joke between the two of them or something.
Andrew joking was such a foreign concept to him post meds that Matt didn’t really know what to do with it, or the fact that they both sounded so happy and normal. The typing continued very loudly, almost as if Andrew (or maybe Neil?) was angry at the keyboard, or at least super intense about whatever he was writing.
“It’s no longer a slowburn.” Andrew finally said, and Neil broke into wild laughter. “My poor readers.”
Andrew’s poor… readers?
Matt took a step closer, but he must have stepped too loudly because the noise suddenly stopped.
“Who's there?” Neil’s voice rang out, and Matt stepped into the room sheepishly.
“Hey guys, what's up?” He asked, and Andrew slammed his computer shut on his desk. Neil wasn’t even sitting close to him, curled up on the bed with some book open, one that he vaguely could identify as a series Andrew had been reading for the past few months. He didn’t know Neil liked to read, which seemed like pertinent information, but whatever.
“How long have you been here?” Andrew stated in an even tone, with the same level of scary he had come to expect from him. Okay, so whatever he had walked in on was clearly a secret.
Neil was looking at him expectantly. “Not long. I came in to ask if we could play Mario Kart or something, I’m bored.”
“No.” Andrew said, not leaving room for argument. Neil huffed in a way that could have been a laugh, and shut his book.
Matt scanned the room again, trying to get a hint as to what was happening. “Yeah sorry, are you working on an essay?” It was admittedly a shot in the dark, because it didn’t sound like a breakdown over an essay, but you never knew with Andrew. Maybe he was taking an aggressive creative writing class? He actually had no clue what was on Andrew’s schedule.
“No.” Andrew said again, and Neil’s eyebrow shot up, clearly confused as to why Andrew didn’t take the easy way out.
“Cool.” Matt said awkwardly. “I can go. Sorry.”
Neil stood up, throwing the book in Andrew’s direction. “Want to go get smoothies?” He asked in Matt’s direction, and Matt nodded while Andrew looked disgruntled at being hit with the paperback.
“No damaging it.” Andrew said flatly, even though the book was dog eared and beat up to high heaven, and Matt realized just how much he saw Andrew reading that goddamn book. Was Neil reading it to… bond with him or something? Matt had no idea.
“Sorry babe.” Neil said, which made Matt stand up straighter. Babe? Andrew didn’t react, and Neil walked over to the desk chair he was sitting at and said a quiet a ‘yes or no’.
“Yes junkie.” Andrew muttered, someone petulantly, and Neil gave him a chaste kiss. Matt suddenly realized it was the first time he had seen them be so soft together. “You are reading when you get back.” Okay so apparently this was a bonding experience. Or some weird parenting situation. Maybe he thought Neil didn’t read enough? “Now leave me alone.”
Neil was laughing again, and there was an unreadable expression on Andrew’s face, something akin to happiness. “Good luck!” He called as he was walking away, and Matt followed dumbly. Andrew only grunted in response. Matt could hear the sound of the computer opening up again.
Neil was already wearing shoes so they walked out together. “Smoothies?” Neil asked, as if Matt wasn’t having a mini breakdown over whatever he had just witnessed.
“Yeah…” He replied. “Hey what was that-”
“Nothing!” Neil said chipperly, and Matt suppressed a groan. Neil was not going to help him out here.
“So you read now?” He asked, choosing the safer topic.
Neil grinned. “Andrew’s making me read it. He claims that he needs someone to discuss the plot with, but he’s literally already told me everything about it so-”
He continued chatting, and Matt attempted to process this new information. Neil and Andrew talked about books. He kind of thought that Andrew was often reading because he was bored, not because he actually liked it.
The reaction to whatever was happening here today was so similar to whatever was going on with Andrew on his phone, so he had to assume the 2 were somehow related. Maybe Andrew was writing a novel or something? And also reading an ebook? He had no fucking idea.
Whatever. He was going to figure this out.
-------
He started playing such close attention to Andrew and Neil that Dan actually asked if he was okay. Neil had apparently finished the book, because before he knew if Andrew was reading them on the bench again.
“So uh, you really like that series huh?” Matt finally asked.
Andrew shot him a withering look. “I hate it.”
It sounded a lot like when he said that he hated Neil. What was going on.
-------
A few weeks passed. He hadn’t seen Andrew with the books anymore, but the obsession with his phone wasn’t fading. He ended up letting out a snort of laughter of something on his phone (all while still aggressively scrolling) while Matt was laying on their couch trying to escape Aaron and Kaitlyn's third hookup of the week, and Matt attempted to ask about it.
“I’m watching a video of someone getting murdered.” Andrew explained.
Okay so Andrew wasn’t going to tell him.
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Matt and Neil usually hung out pretty regularly. Neil was lounging on his bed looking at some language book that Matt was pretty sure wasn’t for class, while Matt struggled over gen ed bio. He ended up breaking the silence by asking if they could see a disney movie together that night, considering it had been a bit since they’d had a full night of one on one time, and Neil’s knowledge of movies was actually tragic.
“Oh I kind of have plans.” Neil said awkwardly, and this time it was Matt snorting with laughter.
“With Andrew?” They were practically attached at the hip, and Neil did not interact with outsiders. So that would be pretty typical.
Neil groaned. “Yeah okay, with Andrew. We’ve been watching the Marvel movies together and tonight we're on his favorite one, so….. Yeah I’m busy.”
Matt raised an eyebrow. Andrew watching Marvel movies was honestly pretty unexpected, but he guessed that Andrew couldn’t be pretentious and depressed all the time. He had been finding out a lot of new information lately.
“Not gonna be a lot of watching, huh?” He joked, because that's basically how all of his and Dan’s movie nights went. He wouldn’t judge if Neil was ditching him for a booty call.
Instead of nodding, or going awkwardly silent like he normally did when sex with Andrew was brought up, Neil groaned. “No, we will be watching with bated breath. Maybe even taking notes. As if Andrew would let me look away during a Marvel movie. I swear he’s-”
Neil cut himself off, and Matt raised an eyebrow. “How long have you been watching these movies?” He asked, and Neil groaned again.
“For so long. There's like a million of them!” It was starting to make sense why he hadn’t seen Neil in a bit. Apparently he was being held hostage watching Andrew’s current obsession. It felt weird that Andrew could have an obsession over anything, let alone some superhero series, but Matt forced himself to accept it. If Neil didn’t prove that Andrew’s whole uncaring facade was fake, he didn’t know what would. That in combination with whatever Andrew had been doing the past few weeks proved it.
“And you guys haven’t…” Matt trailed off, having no clue what to say or if Neil would even answer.
“No we haven’t.” Neil said sulkily, slamming his book shut. It was so rare to hear Neil mention anything regarding their sex life that Matt immediately locked into the conversation. “I know Andrew likes them but I’m actually going insane. Like, last time we were making out he actually pulled away to talk about the characters! The movies are good but I just want to-” He cut himself off again, ending the sentence with mumbles.
Okay so Neil was repressed. That was a strange piece of knowledge to know. It was also weird to imagine Andrew bringing up like, Tony Stark, mid makeout session. “I’ve got to admit it’s super weird to imagine Andrew being so into something that he ignores you of all people. You’ve got your whole… intense thing.” He paused when Neil didn’t respond. “I didn’t think that he really liked anything more than you.”
Neil had a strange expression on his face. “I mean obviously he likes me more. He just gets like this sometimes. It’s like when Dan got really into Criminal Minds and skipped team hangouts so she could keep watching.”
“Yeah but,” He didn’t continue. It was just, Dan did more stuff like that. She was healthily into a TV show, but it was her. And this was Andrew. He wanted to punch that thought out of his head.
“It makes him happy.” Neil finally said. “And I like when things make him happy that aren’t me, and I know I should encourage it, but. And I know that he’s making me watch them so he can talk to someone about them but I just.” He paused again.
“You’re repressed.” Matt said with a laugh, and Neil buried his face in the pillow. “I mean he could talk to me about them? I’ve seen them before.”
Neil removed his head from the pillow. “You know how Andrew can be about sharing with people other than me. He just gets a bit intense about these things, you know? But I like that about him.”
Hearing that made something weird twinge in his gut. No matter how much he was happy that Neil was happy with Andrew, he seriously didn’t get their relationship. He couldn’t imagine what they talked about, and the fact that it could be something as mundane as Marvel movies was really strange. The fact that Andrew was a fully realized human being, who actually shared with Neil about dumb stuff made him feel strange about whatever this was.
“Yeah of course.” Matt searched for the right thing to say. “You guys are happy together, right?”
Neil smiled then. “Yeah we are.” He got a kind of far away look in his eyes, and Matt cleared his throat. “I know he’s not super open with you guys, but he’s different with me.”
Matt may not have believed that in the past, but now he definitely could. Baltimore had proved his intensity, but something about his spying over the past few weeks and hearing the two of them giggling together made him feel like he was understanding a little bit more about what they were.
“I’m happy for you bro.” He said, and Neil smiled. “Now we’ve got to figure out how you can get some.”
Neil groaned. “We’re not doing that.”
“I mean, there's gotta be times when you’re not watching them, right? Like during the day? There’s only so many times you can rewatch them”
Neil shook his head. “Yeah, but I actually can’t tear him away from his phone. Like, how can you read so much about-” Neil suddenly went white, and shut himself up. “Nevermind.”
So apparently whatever Andrew was doing on his phone was somehow related to this. And Neil knew what it was. Matt felt like this was a big piece of information, but he had no clue what to do with it.
“Okayyyyy,” Matt trailed off, and Neil reopened his textbook, clearly done with the conversation. But Matt was not done. He was going to figure this out.
------
His online research did absolutely nothing. Googling Marvel apparently didn’t get him any information, and he even went on Twitter to see if Andrew had like a secret fan account or something, but that felt like a huge long shot. And he found nothing.
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It had been another 2 weeks, and Neil had sent him a photo of the closing credits of Endgame with the caption ‘FINALLY’.
Matt burst out laughing, and tried to show Dan before realizing how much he was going to have to explain to her. Instead he texted back ‘does this mean we can hang out tonight?’, and the typing bubbles immediately appeared.
‘Um, I think I’ll be busy’
Matt laughed even harder, and Dan looked at him like he had 2 heads.
“Don’t worry about it babe.”
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Neil came to practice the night morning looking very tired and like he had possibly been mauled with someone's lips. Money started to exchange hands immediately, but Matt had a closed lipped smile. Andrew was still scrolling on his phone. He was still no closer to his answer.
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His results came in an unexpected way. He let himself into Neil’s room again, this time hearing no sex noises or whatever groans he had been accustomed to from the pair. There was the sound of a monotonous voice however, so he guessed that Andrew was home.
As he walked into the main area, and through the doorway he saw Neil sitting on the counter, with Andrew standing between his legs. He still would have thought he was walking in on sex, if not for the fact Neil was waving a spray bottle in Andrew’s face.
“We have to clean. It’s been like 2 months.” Andrew quirked his head. “There's mold in the bathroom. Kevin threw up on our floor. It’s time. It’s so dirty in here.”
He couldn’t see Andrew's expression, but he felt like he could. “What if I want things to be dirty?”
Matt loudly cleared his throat, and Andrew turned around with a bored expression, but practically jumped away from Neil. So apparently Andrew and Neil propositioned each other badly. And Andrew flirted like they were in a weird porn, which honestly comforted Matt because normally he flirted by saying he hated Neil.
“Hey Matt!” Neil said cheekily, and Andrew shot him a cold expresion. “I’m so glad you’re here. Want to help clean up?”
Matt really didn’t want to help, but he wasn’t doing anything and Neil actually looked hopeful. “Yeah sure.”
Neil slid down from the counter, and strolled past Andrew. “Matt, you start picking up beer bottles and getting all the shit off the floor in the living room. I’ll start on the dishes.” He looked at Andrew. “And you get to start in the bathroom!”
Andrew gave him a cold look, but didn’t argue. “I am listening to something.” So apparently Andrew was whipped. He locked that away too.
Neil smiled knowingly, and Matt looked at them confused. “Have fun babe.” Matt did not understand this conversation. Was he going to be listening to like… porn or something? He had no clue what listening content could instigate such a sly look besides porn.
Andrew just groaned and went to get his headphones, carrying the windex with him. He dug out some weird bluetooth ones and typed something on his phone, before disappearing into the bathroom.
Matt went into the living room, and saw the Alexa light up. Maybe Neil was putting on music? It would be kind of nice, but he couldn’t imagine Neil playing music. He was actually really curious what he would select.
The Alexa shot fully to life. “Hashtag Get Captain America a Boyfriend” a woman's voice blared from the speaker. “A Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes fanfiction from the fandom Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Tags are:”
Matt dropped the beer bottle he was picking up. His brain short circuited for a second, because what the actual fuck was he hearing. The voice stopped, then started repeating itself again but louder. “HASHTAG GET CAP-”
“ANDREW!” Neil practically yelled. “YOUR HEADPHONES AREN’T CONNECTED”
The voice completely stopped, and he heard something slam in the bathroom.
“Um….” Matt finally said. So Andrew was listening to a fanfiction. A gay fanfiction. About Captain America and the Winter Soldier. And he listened to an audiobook version while he cleaned. Apparently.
He didn’t really know how to react to this new information. He was frozen in place, as was Neil. It was so unexpected, and so not Andrew like that his mind was blank with the correct thing to say in this scenario.
“So Andrew…” He trailed off, and Neil pressed his lips together, clearly somewhere between laughing at what was going on and being horrified at the violation of Andrew’s privacy. Things started to click into place. “This is why you guys were watching all the Marvel movies.”
Neil pressed his lips tighter together. “And this is what he’s always doing on his phone. Reading… fanfiction?”
Frankly, Matt didn’t really understand the concept of fanfiction, besides when Allison had once made a joke about Mafia Harry Styles. He really couldn’t imagine Andrew reading like… hardcore porn in front of them daily, and he definitely couldn’t imagine that with the giggles that Neil and Andrew shared whenever they talked about it. Besides, whatever the title was that he had just heard sounded almost… wholesome.
Andrew and wholesome were two words he never thought he’d be putting together. Potentially even more than the words Andrew and fanfiction.
“You can’t tell anyone.” Neil finally said. “Not even for a bet. Or if you’re drunk. Or to Dan. Andrew would not understand, and he would probably kill you.” He pressed his lips together even tighter, and Neil was obviously struggling not to find humor in the situation.
Matt put his hands up. “Yeah, yeah of course. His secret’s safe with me.”
Another thump was heard from the bathroom, and it sounded a bit like Andrew was banging his head against the wall. “Why don’t you head out? I’ll talk to him.”
“Okay.” He said, and practically ran out of the door.
Andrew read fanfiction. He did not know what to do with that.
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He ended up googling fanfiction and went down a weird rabbit hole that night. Aaron yelled at him to stop fucking laughing at 3am and Matt shut off his phone, but left the tab open.
------
The next day, Andrew approached him in the hallway as he left for class. “Hi Andrew!” Matt said, trying to sound overly peppy. He knew Andrew was reaching for a knife before he even saw it.
The knife pressed against his side, and he almost wanted to laugh because at this point he knew Andrew would never stab him. “If you tell a soul,” He said, in a low whisper. “I will kill you. I don’t care you’re Neil’s best friend.”
He didn’t even let himself process Andrew calling him Neil’s best friend, and aggressively nods. “Yeah of course Andrew. I actually think it’s kind of cool-”
Andrew cut him off by pressing the knife closer. “Nope.”
Matt nodded, and Andrew let him get away. Andrew read fanfiction. And Neil knew about it. Okay then.
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+1
Neil knocked on the bathroom door, and Andrew immediately swung it open. “Is Boyd gone?” He said, but the words were muffled by the way that Andrew’s head was buried in his hands.
Neil kneeled next to him. “Yeah he’s gone.”
“Oh my god.” Andrew finally said, and Neil stifled a laugh.
“Oh my god.” He agreed.
Andrew groaned again. “I’m going to have to kill Boyd, right?”
Neil booped him. “No killing my friend.”
“But-” Andrew looked pained. “He was still scared of me.”
Neil started to laugh again, and Andrew gave him another look. “I’m sorry Drew, I just can’t believe that that happened. It’s not a big deal. Matt won’t tell.”
He knew that Andrew believed it, and had probably heard Matt’s promise. But still. Andrew put his head back in his hands. “Why did it have to be called ‘Hashtag Get Captain America a Boyfriend’. That’s like the worst title it could have been.”
Neil shrugged, and pat Andrew on the head. “It could have been like smut or something. Or omegaverse?”
Andrew groaned loudly again, looking Neil in the eye. “That would have been so much more normal. I was reading fluff! They still think we’re hate fucking, and now I’m the guy who reads happy fucking Stucky.”
Neil couldn't stop laughing, and Andrew kissed it off of him. “I’m going to have to threaten him tomorrow. You know that, right?” He said when he pulled away, and Neil nodded.
“I understand.” Neil kissed him again quickly, and then handed him the spray bottle back. “Now don’t think this is going to get you out of cleaning.” Andrew gave him a look, and Neil could read the ‘really’ in his expression. “Really.”
Neil pursed his lips, but couldn’t resist. “Leave it connected to the speaker. We can listen together.”
Andrew moaned in pain. “I hate you so much.”
Andrew kissed him anyway.