Chapter 2: Day 2, Part 1

"Come on, Allison, move your arse."

Dan glanced across the room to where Matt was shifting from foot to foot next to the door. He was practically buzzing with energy, the enthusiasm and something close to excitement tugging on his face only enhancing the impression. Smirking, she shook her head and returned to filling her thermos.

She couldn't blame him. Not really. After the previous day and the forced ejection from Abby's house so that 'certain people can get some sleep', it was difficult not to feel the jittery need to return to what had abruptly become the most interesting thing that had happened to them in months. Maybe even ever given it was such a distinct flavour of interesting.

It was more than a little crazy, a little unbelievable, and Dan almost couldn't fathom that less than a handful of days ago the biggest thing on her mind was returning to campus, to her friends, and preparing for the new season and the incoming freshman. Practice, games, and school; they would consume her world as much as they would the rest of her team. A few more days reprieve would be spent in good company, lazing around their rooms and revelling in the last minutes of the holiday, before diving headfirst into the midst of it with the influx of their new freshmen.

Waking up the previous morning to find Neil in the body of a kid a third his age threw a spanner in the works. Just a little bit.

Pouring swirling coffee into her cup, Dan shook her head to herself. That was definitely crazy, and more than a little unbelievable, despite spending the entire previous day with Neil "my name's Nathaniel" to reinforce the new reality. Dan didn't quite know what to think. Should she be worried, like Abby was? Utterly baffled, like Aaron? Amused to the point of hysteria like Allison, doting as Nicky and Matt seemed to have become, or quietly concerned like Renee? Like Andrew, too, for though he hadn't spoken a word to anyone the previous day, hadn't shifted his blank expression in even a twitch, Dan got that impression. She got it more profoundly than she'd ever detected anything from him before.

A week out of school, the new season revamping, and Neil was a kid. Dan found herself mostly torn between every single one of the responses of her friends. For once – or at least for once in the past few months – exy was secondary to more pressing matters. Dan could wholly commiserate with Matt's sense of urgency in leaving Fox Tower; to get to Abby's to see little-Neil and reaffirm that yesterday hadn't been a dream, or better yet, find him returned to normal. Dan definitely felt that urgency, too.

Renee and Allison appeared almost as eager if the way Renee idled alongside Matt and Allison appeared moments later was any indication. She'd managed to dress and make herself up in an impossible half an hour that morning. Dan was suitably impressed.

"Finally," Matt said, turning for the door as soon as Allison appeared. "We'll take my truck."

"Or I could just take my car," Allison said, following him out. "I'll beat you there."

"You could try."

"I could succeed, you mean."

Dan smiled, snapping the lid onto her thermos. She fell into step alongside Renee as they left their room, waiting as Renee locked it before picking up their pace to keep up with Matt and Allison's rapidly retreating steps. Matt's eagerness had only intensified in the span of their seconds of leaving, and Allison was striding remarkably quickly for someone in such tall shoes. They were exchanging words – or taunts – with a distinctly posturing air, an attempt at distraction that Dan was all too familiar with herself after their brief, hurried morning.

Everyone wanted to be at Abby's. They wouldn't have left in the first place if they'd had a say in the matter.

"Are you alright?"

Dan glanced at Renee as they made their way down the stairs. Renee was regarding her with a slight tilt of her head, her perceptive gaze as softly curious as ever. Dan shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee. "Still a little weirded out. Just like everyone else, I guess."

Renee nodded. "Sure, we all feel that way. But I know you get especially worried about things like this."

Dan didn't need to nod this time. Renee knew her too well. Dan would never admit to just what extent she felt responsible for her team. It didn't matter that Coach was in charge, or Abby could patch them all back together, or Betsy could mend the pieces that Abby couldn't reach. The Foxes were Dan's; she was in charge, and just when that responsibility had overflowed from the boundaries of the court into everything else, she wasn't sure. Maybe she was just getting clucky in her old age.

"Who isn't worried?" she murmured, eyeing Matt and Allison. For all their enthusiasm, Matt was still jittery and had hardly slept the night before, and Allison's promptness that morning was telling. "We're all a little bit useless to help out with anything."

"Which isn't exactly unusual when it comes to Neil," Renee said with a small smile.

Dan scrunched her nose. "True. This isn't quite a repeat of earlier this year, though."

"No. Thankfully."

"Yeah. I'd rather this than potential murder and gang wars."

"Definitely."

They fell into silence for a moment until Dan led Renee from Fox Tower; Matt and Allison had already drawn alongside their cars for the speed of their departure. "Still," Renee continued, closing the door behind herself, "it would be nice to help out a little more. I don't know how long this will last –"

"It'd better fucking reverse itself," Dan muttered.

"- but I admittedly feel a completely useless after yesterday." Renee smiled at Dan's words but didn't otherwise comment upon what they were all thinking. "I don't know anything about looking after kids."

Dan grunted in agreement. None of them did, for that matter. Not kids as young as Neil had become, and definitely not kids like Neil himself. Dan knew as little about dealing with them as Renee, but she would wager that little-Neil wasn't like most kids.

"Come on, you two," Allison called as she turned towards them, hands planted on her hips. "Some time today would be nice."

"Yeah," Matt agreed. He'd returned to rocking between his feet. "We need to rescue Neil from Andrew." He shook his head. "I still can't believe, of all people, Abby let him stay."

Renee breezed past Matt's truck to Allison's car, Allison falling into step alongside her as she did. "Oh, I don't think it's so hard to believe. I think that Neil would be the last person Andrew would put at risk."

Dan could agree with that – definitely, even understanding Andrew as little as she did – but she couldn't help asking, "But to trust him with a kid?"

Renee paused as Allison unlocked her car, smiling over her shoulder. "I wouldn't call it a soft spot, but Andrew's always considered children an exception. If anything, I don't think Neil could be in safer hands." Then she turned from them, climbed into Allison's car, and they were away almost before she'd pulled the door closed.

Dan shared a glance with Matt, a like-minded raised eyebrow, then shrugged. "Well, she does know him best, I guess."

"It's still weird to think," Matt said.

"Yeah, but it's true – he was kind of good with him yesterday, right?"

Matt frowned but didn't reply as they climbed into his truck. He was still chewing over his words as he kicked the roaring engine to life. "That's a bit weird too, right?" he said, killing the radio as they pulled from the parking. "Not just how Andrew was acting, but Neil, too. Right?"

Dan nodded, chewing absently on the rim of her thermos. Weird was about the simplest word to use for their entire situation, but for what was between Andrew and Neil? Even without the whole kid thing it was strange, but that extra element was just a whole new world of bizarre.

Andrew didn't leave Neil's side. He didn't speak to anyone, didn't do much of anything but watch, but he didn't leave the room Neil was in but for brief moments at a time that were so short Dan could practically blink and miss them. In the apartment, the car, at Abby's – he was like a guard dog, albeit of a different kind to what he'd been with Kevin.

When Nicky made the error of ruffling Neil's hair for the first time, Andrew almost sprained his wrist. When Aaron took to asking prying questions about Neil's mom, Andrew pinned him with an unblinking stare so heavy that the room seemed to darken and Aaron surely wouldn't have been able to continue even if he'd wanted to. When Wymack, seemingly unconsciously, pulled a smoke from his pocket, even before Abby could say anything to a scolding effect, a spoon had been flung out of nowhere and practically struck the cigarette from Wymack's fingers. Wymack had scowled, muttered something about "being old enough to use goddamn words, Minyard", but he'd gotten the message.

In a way it might have even been sweet, except that the behaviour came from Andrew. That fact made it almost horrifyingly disconcerting. Just as much as the fact that Neil seemed entirely okay with all of it.

He hadn't been at first. For a good chunk of the previous morning, when he still practically quivered with tension that screamed flight-risk, Neil had regarded all of them with wide-eyed wariness. Whether because Andrew was watching him or because he could somehow sense the sheer danger that was Andrew Minyard, he spared more glances to where Andrew stood across the room than to anyone else.

Then had been the car trip, a brief twenty minutes of them both out of sight, and something had changed. A moment when something had clicked, and – though Dan would never say it out loud – Neil seemed to have picked up the leash that Andrew had affixed to himself. Whether unwittingly or deliberately, Dan didn't know, but of all of his options Neil seemed to have become the most 'okay' with Andrew.

That was weird, too. It would have been almost as weird as the whole age thing if Neil hadn't made the exact decision months before.

"I guess it's not entirely unexpected," Dan murmured into her thermos, gazing out the windscreen but not seeing the road. "This is Neil and Andrew we're talking about, after all."

"Right." Matt sighed. A moment of silence passed between them before he regained his enthusiasm. "Still, it'd be cool if Andrew let him out of his clutches for a few minutes. I've never had a baby brother before."

Dan couldn't help but laugh. "You don't have a baby brother now."

"Actually, I kind of do. And he's adorable."

"Yeah, I got the impression you felt that way."

"Even if he is twitchy –"

"Totally twitchy."

"- he's adorable. You've got to admit. If I have babies, I want them to be just like him. He's so cute, and little, and…"

Dan laughed again, shaking her head. "Don't let Neil hear you say that. Or Nathaniel, I should say. Apparently he had a height complex as a kid."

"I wonder when that went away?" Matt pondered aloud. He pursed his lips, frowning at the road ahead. "Sucks that we have to call him Nathaniel, though."

Dan pulled a face. "I know. Talk about bringing back bad memories."

"Reckon we could convince him to use a nickname?"

"Convince Neil?" Dan raised an eyebrow. "You mean the stubbornest person in human history?"

Matt grinned. "True. But he's a baby, so I have the advantage."

"You only think you do. He'd steamroll you with a smile."

Matt's grin softened into the doting expression he'd worn for most of the previous afternoon. "Yeah." He sighed, and he didn't seem begrudging in the slightest.

They pulled into Abby's house, bumping up the curb behind Allison's Porsche, and piled onto the sidewalk to join Allison and Renee. There was no sign of Andrew's Maserati, but Dan didn't think that meant anything in particular; Nicky and Aaron still weren't allowed to drive it, and Andrew almost certainly hadn't left the house yet to retrieve it himself.

Matt, naturally, led the way at an almost-run, and he'd pressed the doorbell half a dozen times before Allison elbowed him gently to stop. Abby, expecting them, opened it in short order.

"Alright, calm down," she said, stepping aside to allow them all to pass her. "You'd think it was an emergency or something. My poor doorbell this morning."

"Nicky?" Renee guessed, and Abby nodded.

"Damn, they beat us." Allison clicked her tongue. With a huff, she strode past Abby, leading the way inside. "Nicky, did you sleep on the doorstep or something? I could have sworn we dropped you back to campus last night."

Dan followed in Allison's wake, slower than Matt's enthusiastic step but nonetheless hastily. Nicky's retort was lost beneath Matt's exclamation as soon as he stepped into the living room. "Hey, Nathaniel! How's it going, buddy? Did you sleep good?"

Neil – or Nathaniel, though Dan still couldn't bring herself to consider him as such – gave off a far different impression than he had the previous morning. Seated cross-legged in the middle of the floor, gaming controller in hand, he glanced over his shoulder at their entrance. Still wide-eyed, though likely more because his eyes were beautifully big in his little face, the tension of the previous day was practically gone.

That in itself was strange, Dan thought, studying him as he offered a small wisp of a smile for Matt. The whole situation must have been terrifying for a kid of six. No parents, no one he knew, no memory of any of them – which in itself was terribly saddening but Dan shunted the thought to the side as a secondary concern. Any other child would have been in tears, or demanding to know where their parents were, or clinging to the nearest adult who showed a lick of concern or kindness.

Neil wasn't any of that. He didn't cry, just as he never had as an adult, and didn't even look on the verge of it. He'd only once asked for his parents, for his mom, but it had been more of a tentative query than a desperate plea. And as for clinginess?

Neil had never been one for hugs, had tolerated them at best before he became a little more practiced at receiving them, but surely kids were different. They were, weren't they? Dan really didn't know anything about kids, but she was fairly sure of some things, and those things were the polar opposite of Neil.

It shouldn't surprise her, not when she really thought about it, she supposed it did. Dan had never considered the childhood years of her Foxes with any kind of scrutiny beyond acknowledging that they were, by and large, all kind of shit. It struck a chord, though, to see evidence of that shit in the flesh. No one should have to withstand whatever it was that made a kid so resilient, so self-reliant and wary. It shouldn't have happened to Neil.

Which was why it was surprising to see him in a state of relative ease, seated on the floor alongside Nicky and before Abby's television. The gaming controller was resting in his lap, all but forgotten as he turned towards their entrance. Or briefly towards them; he spared a long glance for Andrew, stretched along one of the couches, before reaffixing his attention to Matt. Permission? Assurance? Dan wasn't sure.

"Hello," Neil said. "Matt?"

Matt beamed as though all his Christmases had come at once with the simple act of Neil remembering his name. "Sure am. Glad to see you remembered me."

"You're disrupting our game," Nicky complained, throwing a missile of one of the couch-pillows he'd built into a nest at Matt.

"That's very gracious of you, to allow your TV to be monopolised," Dan said to Abby. "Did Nicky bring it over?"

Abby nodded. "Nicky, Aaron, and Katelyn arrived in Katelyn's car this morning."

"Ah. That explains it."

"Where's Aaron and Katelyn now?" Renee asked.

"They went off to get some breakfast together. Just the two of them." Abby shrugged. "Aaron looked like he needed a break. It's all been a bit overwhelming for him, I think."

Dan nodded. She didn't have to ask; Aaron seemed to have been struck particularly strongly yesterday. "Do you mind if I grab a bite myself?" Dan asked. "Matt practically dragged us all out this morning to get here early."

Abby smiled. "Why am I not surprised?"

Both of them glanced back towards the room, to where Matt had taken up a seat at on Neil's other side and was drawing Neil into conversation despite Nicky's protestations. For a moment, Dan couldn't help but watch; Matt dwarfed Neil even more than he usually did, but if anyone could give off the impression of a big, friendly giant it was Matt. Off the court, at least.

"Your boyfriend's whipped," Allison muttered in Dan's ear before striding into the living room and assuming one of the couches for herself. Renee followed after her.

After helping herself to the kitchen, Dan planted herself in the picnic-like arrangement that had been set up on the floor, folding herself into what was already a cluttered living room. "Where's Kevin?" she asked, taking a bite of her toastie.

Nicky, apparently forsaking his own controller when Matt successfully distracted Neil, turned towards her. "With Coach. He's still rattled."

"Still?"

"Hey, we can't all bounce back from shock so easily. He's the one who noticed first."

Dan shrugged. "So? Kevin needs to learn to get over things. He'll miss out on life if he doesn't take things in stride." She held out one of her toasties towards Matt.

Matt accepted it with barely a glance and word of thanks. "Still, doesn't mean you're not pretty good at it," he said, continuing whatever he'd been saying to Neil as he took a bite. "You've never played on a Playstation before?"

Neil shook his head. "Not allowed to," he said.

"Are you allowed to do anything fun at home?" Nicky asked with a sigh, flopping back onto his bed of pillows.

Neil pursed his lips and seemed to consider. With the little squiggle of a frown on his forehead, his cheeks rounded by childishness, and the utterly minute size of him, Dan could entirely understand where Matt was coming from when he gushed. Neil had always been a good-looking kid, even with his scars, but shrunken in age and stature he was practically cherubic.

Which made his following words sting even more.

"I'm not allowed to make a mess," he said, "so Mom says I'm only allowed to play at school."

From the corner of her eye, Dan saw Andrew twitch, and he wasn't the only one. Renee's face noticeably smoothed, her eyes shuttering briefly, while Nicky propped himself up on his elbows and Allison leant forwards in her seat. "Well, that's fucking depressing, isn't it?" she said.

Neil shrugged, plucking at the hem of his shirt. It was the right size, now; Wymack had taken a trip to the store the previous day when it became apparent that he made Neil more than a little uncomfortable. It was likely a good part of the reason he'd removed himself with Kevin in tow that day, too.

"I dunno," Neil said. "Not really. I don't really like playing with toys anyway."

Or so you tell yourself, Dan thought. She'd been there once, too – convincing herself that killing herself at work to support her family was actually what she wanted rather than what had been forced upon her. "Do you play any games at school, then?" she asked.

Neil shrugged again, glancing towards her. "Sometimes, I guess. I like playing soccer –"

"Soccer?" Nicky shook off his melancholy instantly, exchanging a widening grin with Matt. "No shit, really?"

Neil glanced over his shoulder. "I guess. It's fun, sometimes."

"Any other sports?"

"Like what?"

"Like –"

"Don't say it," Allison said, flapping a hand at Nicky. "This is incredible. If he's not obsessed yet… fuck me, that's weird."

Neil glanced between them, his gaze narrowed and shrewd. Far too old, in Dan's opinion, but at least it wasn't with wisened wariness this time. He was just… smart? Street savvy? Maybe a bit of both. Apparently, it had been a lifelong trait of his.

"What're you all talking about?" Neil asked. "Tell me."

"It's a secret," Matt said.

Neil's pout and frown embraced his cherubic impression once more. Dan could practically see Matt melting. "Secrets suck. And it's rude not to tell me, 'specially seeing as you guys all know what you're talking about. That's unfair."

"Why is it rude to keep secrets?" Renee asked.

"Because," was all Neil said, which was about the most child-like thing Dan had heard from him.

"Okay, you lot, don't be such asses," she said, stepping in despite herself and her friends' amusement. "It's nothing huge, Neil. We were just wondering if you'd ever heard of exy."

Neil snapped his gaze towards her, and for a moment his face became utterly blank. Dan wondered if she'd misspoken, if somehow, impossibly, there really had once been a Neil that hadn't been obsessed with exy. Then he frowned, and it was less cherubic and closer to flinty anger.

"My name's not Neil," he said. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Oh." Dan mentally kicked herself. "No reason, it's just…"

"Well, Nathaniel's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?" Matt said, swooping into her awkwardness.

Neil switched his heated gaze towards him. Why it was such an issue, Dan didn't know, and she couldn't help but agree with Aaron in considering it more than a little ironic. How many names had Neil taken in his life? He'd mentioned it once; the number was ridiculous.

"So what?" Neil said, folding his skinny arms across his chest. "I don't like nicknames."

"You don't?" Nicky asked cautiously. "How come?"

"Because," Neil said, just as emphatically as before, though this time he continued with, "I just don't."

Dan would have been happy to leave it at that, but Nicky picked at the subject like he was itching a scab. Scooting across the floor closer to Neil, he cocked his head. "Has someone given you a nickname before or something? One you didn't like?"

Dan thought it might have been a bit of a leap, but Neil nodded immediately. "Yeah. Lola always calls me names. I hate it when she calls me Junior, and I especially hate it when she calls Little Nathan. I hate, hate it. That my dad's name, not mine."

Silence immediately smothered the room. Nicky jerked straight, Matt winced, and Allison cursed under her breath. Renee's sigh was filled with heavy regret, and even Andrew slowly sat up on his couch, the waves of tension rippling from him felt from across the room. Only Abby's fussing in the kitchen provided a muted disruption.

Dan felt her blood chill. Lola. They all knew that name far too well. And Nathan? To be called after his father… Nathaniel was one thing, and bad enough, but to wear the label of his brutal father's name directly, one given to him by one of his chief murderous subordinates…

Dan could sort of understand why Neil might not like nicknames. She found herself nodding. "Right. I guess that's understandable. I wouldn't want to be named after my mom or dad, either."

Neil's glance, still frowning, flickered with a hint of gratitude. "I hate it," he said again. "Even though I don't even like my stupid name in the first place."

"You don't?" Nicky asked tentatively.

Neil shook his head. Dropping his gaze to his lap, he fiddled with his bare toes, fingers threading between them. Dan unwittingly followed the line of his gaze and almost winced when she saw the pale stretch of a scar curling around his ankle. An old scar, aged yet apparent enough that anyone who looked closely would be able to make it out. What kind of a kid had a scar that old when he was only six?

Neil did. And Dan had known that. But she was struck in her earlier realisation in that moment; somehow, it made it all the more horrible to consider the past of her Foxes when it was on display for her rather than in the form of a depressing recitation.

"'Course," Neil muttered to Nicky's words. "Nathaniel has 'Nathan' in it. It sucks."

"Then," Dan began, caught herself, then ploughed on as Neil glanced up at her. "Then wouldn't having a nickname like Neil sort of be perfect?" She exchanged another glance with Matt before turning back to Neil. "It would, right? It's like your name but without the Nathan part. Right?"

Neil blinked. His frown cleared and he seemed to consider Dan's words as though he'd never contemplated such a possibility before.

"Well, sort of," Nicky said with a forced smile. "Neil is spelt a little different."

"Huh?" Neil said, glancing up at him.

"Shut the fuck up, Hemmick," Allison said. "You're making life unnecessarily difficult."

"Oi," Nicky said. "Just because you can't fucking spell Neil –"

"I'm not illiterate, asshole."

"Really? Could've fooled me –"

"What," Abby said, appearing in the doorway into the room, "is going on here?"

Heads turned, and Nicky echoed Neil's previous "huh?" almost to the pitch. Abby frowned at them, wiping damp hands on her jeans. "There's a small child in the room. Watch your language, would you?"

"I'm not small," Neil said, almost before Abby finished speaking, and Dan couldn't help but laugh.

"Hate to break it to you, Neil, but you kind of are," Matt said, grinning down at him.

Neil opened his mouth, caught himself, then frowned. "I'm not, actually. You're just stupid and tall."

"Hey! I'm not stupid."

"Stupidly tall, I think you meant," Allison offered, and Neil nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "That."

"I'm not!"

"Neil is literally as tall as one of your legs," Dan pointed out. "I'd say you're tall."

"Or he's just short," Matt said.

"I'm not that short." Neil pointed at Andrew. "He's hardly any bigger than me anyway."

Nicky burst into profuse laughter, Allison and Renee snickering openly and behind their hands respectively. "Oh, so true. Although, this is an opportunity for you, Andrew; this will be the one time you're actually taller than your boyf –"

He was cut off with an "oof" as Andrew, faster than Dan could see, flipped a shoe off his foot and lobbed it at him. Andrew didn't say a word, didn't appear otherwise fazed, but for once Dan was more than a little grateful for the unexpected violence.

"Nicky, don't say shit like that," she said. "It's kind of messed up."

"We agreed to leave things like that unspoken of," Abby added, overlooking Dan's cuss for the greater evil as she gave the pointed reminder of their admittedly awkward discussion about keeping 'certain things under wraps' the previous day.

"What?" Neil glanced between them all. "What're you talking about?"

"Grown up stuff," Matt said.

Neil pulled a face. "Like, gross stuff?"

Matt burst into his own laughter. "Sort of, I guess."

"Gross."

Dan couldn't help but smile as Matt laughed again, as Allison commented about "things not being so gross when you're actually an adult" and Renee's quiet chuckles. She settled back upon eating her toastie, and watched as the chilled mood rapidly retreated, as the dark shadow of words unspoken brightened just a little, and hastened it along with a mental shove.

Because it was settling. Somehow, if just a little. Matt drew Neil back into sports talk, caving into discussing exy as Dan knew he would. Nicky ruffled Neil's hair and Andrew didn't seem to object as he had the previous day. Abby shook her head and left them to their own devices with a final warning about using bad language, and Dan watched Neil with satisfaction.

She doubted she was the only one who'd noticed he hadn't protested to the use of 'Neil' anymore. It was a victory that didn't feel like it had any losers. For however long Neil's physical regression lasted – because it couldn't be permanent; fuck, it couldn't be – Dan would be happy if she could make even a flicker of his childhood just a little better. In some ways, if felt like she fixed a little of her own, too.

Propping a shoulder against the doorframe, David regarded the room. He couldn't help but shake his head. His team, his goddamn team, were crammed into the small space of Abby's living room like train commuters at peak hour. It didn't matter that Aaron wasn't present, or that Kevin stood at his side. The room wasn't big enough to fit them all comfortably.

Which didn't mean that any of them looked likely to leave. Given the centre point of the room, David would wager he'd have a hard time kicking any of them out that evening. And that centre point…

Neil had always been the damndest kid. It was only fitting, really, that an impossibility of supernatural proportions would happen to him. It had been a few months since the season was up; it was as though Neil was chaffing at the bit to cause a disruption. David thought he almost should have expected it. Not that it was Neil's fault, but…

As he watched, an outburst of laughter rose from the Foxes, hyena-like cackles and head shaking, Nicky clapping his hands in pseudo applause while Neil cast a glance around at them all. He wasn't laughing, but he didn't appear nearly as flighty as he'd been the evening before, or even that morning upon Nicky and Aaron's arrival. David supposed he had that to be thankful for. As a kid, Neil was apparently marginally more trusting.

"What?" the kid asked, glancing up at Matt, at Dan, then towards Andrew who was the only other person who wasn't doubled over with laughter. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Nicky managed to get out. "Nothing, it's just –"

"We wouldn't have expected it from you," Renee said between chuckles.

"Why?" the kid asked.

David had missed the question, had barely been listening but to know they were discussing exy – because of course they were – but he could join the dots himself. It really was comical, to consider a world where Neil wasn't ferociously committed to the sport.

"No reason," Matt said, ruffling a hand through Neil's curls. It said something that, while Neil tensed slightly, he didn't pull away. "Just unexpected from you."

"But why?"

"It just is," Allison said.

"Huh? That's not a proper answer."

Allison stuck her tongue out at him. "It is so."

"No, it isn't."

"It is if I say so."

"You're not allowed to just make up rules."

"Yes, I can. I'm older than you, so I say I can."

"But that's not fair!"

"No, kid, it's not. Life Lessons: One-Oh-One."

"Then – so then, you didn't go to school?"

The laughter paused at the kid's question, and Allison arched an eyebrow. "What makes you think that?"

The kid shrugged. "'Cause your teacher wouldn't let you. Is that why Nicky said you can't spell?"

A pause rose at Neil's words before it was broken once more by another outburst of laughter.

"He got you, Allison!" Nicky laughed, head tossing backward. "Oh, that's so perfect."

"Below the belt, Neil," Matt said, ruffling the kid's hair again. David thought Neil might have tensed a little less than even moments before.

He watched as they dove back into questions, into exy explanations of the most rudimentary kind that David couldn't blame Neil for eyeing Matt as though he were something of a fool. He watched as his Foxes rebounded from their surprise – if it could be considered something so minimal as a surprise – and grasped the situation by the reins, taking control once more.

From the corner of his eye, David watched Kevin inch into the room, dropping onto the other end of Andrew's couch and almost immediately sliding into the explanations. Of course he would; Kevin could never resist, even if he was still shaken.

As Dan explained over Matt's attempts. As Nicky picked apart their words and attempted to draw Neil into another discussion. As Renee said something to Allison, and Allison, as if in response, rose to her feet to take a seat on the floor alongside the other Foxes.

He watched, too, as Neil, peppering Kevin with questions – which was telling, that he could pick Kevin's nature so easily – climbed to his feet and took a position on the couch in between Kevin and Andrew. As Neil leant just a little against Andrew's arm, and Andrew –

Andrew didn't pull away. Not even slightly. If anything, David thought he might have leant against him in return. Had David not know about the anomaly that was Neil and Andrew's… whatever it was, he would have been more than a little disconcerted. It was disconcerting even without the kid thing.

"They're not as worried as I thought they'd be."

David glanced at Abby where she'd appeared at his side, leaning towards him slightly to murmur in his ear. He grunted. "I'd say they're still worried. They're clingy."

Abby smiled. "Can you blame them?"

"Not in the least. This is fucked up."

Abby hummed. "I've called Betsy. She's ringing around. We'll sort something out, David."

"I know," David said, even if he really didn't this time. "We always do."

Abby only hummed again, falling into the same, silent watchfulness David couldn't quite draw himself from. David kept his distance, kept his composure, but really? The truth of the matter?

Just one year. One year David would have liked nothing unthinkable to happen. Just for once, he longed for his Foxes to manage to play their season without any major hiccups – no deaths, no hospitalisation, no lawsuits. No strikers turning into fucking six-year-olds. But then, David supposed it wouldn't be the Foxes if at least something wasn't happening.

Except the six-year-old thing. That was definitely an exception.

Don't leave me to wrangle this team together without you, kid, David thought, eyeing the back of Neil's head. Even with Dan, we both know they need you.