The alarm went off at 1 the next morning and Neil was contemplating murder.
Not that he hadn't had to do much the same thing for some of his photoshoots and interviews in the past. (An activity Neil was forced into to get as many sponsors as possible to appease Ichiro) Neil still woke up miserable and mentally cursing in every language he knew, which actually made for an extensive list.
As he climbed down from his bed, he could hear Matt grumbling. He felt for his friend, they were both going to feel like the walking dead for a good few hours still, but at least the show promised to be something worth seeing. If Kevin kept his promise that is.
Neil wasn't sure what he would do if Kevin folded. He just knew that he wouldn't allow Riko to spout his lies on national tv. Andrew would probably kill him if he got up on that stage though, even if they already had the leverage they needed to shut down any retaliation the Moriyamas might make.
As Seth grumbled rudely from his own bed, Neil paused in the middle of the room, regarding the older striker for a moment. He remained there as Matt patted him on the shoulder and made his way to the bathroom first.
As soon as Matt was out of the room, Neil went to Seth's bedside.
"Hey. Get up. You're coming with us."
Bleary eyes barely opened as Seth glared daggers at him.
"Fuck you and that shitty press shit. I'm fucking sleeping."
"No. You're not. I think you're going to want to see what's going to go down. If for no other reason than you hate Kevin." Neil argued back, wrapping a hand around the covers and pulling gently.
"What the fuck man!" Seth complained, tightening his own hold. "I'm not going anywhere!" Then there was a pause. "What do you mean by that?"
Neil didn't find any reason to hide it, so he said, "I know for a fact that something very unpleasant is going to go down today. If you want to be there to see if Kevin is going to sink or swim, get off your ass and get dressed. If the bus leaves without you, you wasted your only chance to see the unfailing Kevin Day flounder in person."
So, yeah, it wasn't the nicest thing he could have said, but if it got results, fuck it. It was too early in the morning for him to give a shit.
They had Wymack at their door 10 minutes later and Neil opened the door just to close it right back up when he saw Wymack's face. There was more pounding before Coach was yelling through the door.
"Get your asses moving, bus leaves in 5!" Before he was off to bang on another door.
Neil figured that maybe this was his own fault. Knowing what this was going to be like, he'd still attended the impromptu party the upperclassmen had in the girls' room. He mostly stayed quiet in the corner, but at least this time he didn't have Allison trying to drag him out of it. She was more considerate of his space after he'd trusted her with the story of his scars. He didn't think neither she nor Seth had told anybody because Dan and Matt still looked at him the same and Renee was still as cheerful as usual. It was a little strange. Usually the Foxes bet and gossiped on and about everything, but it suddenly seemed like things about Neil were off limits. When he told something to one of them, that one didn't tell the others. It boggled the mind a little, but Neil had a hunch that maybe his stories were the worst these Foxes had ever heard and gossiping about it probably felt too morbid, too invasive to a kid who so obviously had spent his life being invaded.
Hell, if they only knew Andrew's story…but no. There would never be that kind of relationship between Andrew and the upperclassmen. Not even Renee got to know the truth about that, not fully.
Pushing away his foreboding thoughts, he made his way to his room to find Seth getting dressed sluggishly. He still glared at Neil.
"I fucking hate your guts." He said with feeling. Neil nodded.
"I kinda hate my guts too."
By the time they were dressed, Matt was back. He took one look at Seth and frowned.
"Wait, you're going too?"
Seth just shrugged tiredly, not saying anything.
Matt shrugged. "Oh, well. The more the merrier. It should be fun getting to see the inside of a tv studio. It'll prepare us for when we all go pro."
Matt's smile was radiant, but Seth's face was shocked.
"The fuck do you mean by 'we all'." He said rather harshly.
Matt gave him a confused frown. "I meant, we all. You want to go pro too, don't you? I mean, you never talk about it, but you always get those Exy magazines and you're pretty good at remembering player stats and you've been going hard on practices lately. If Gorilla hadn't taken you down like that, you would have probably scored a good amount of those 12 goals we got last night.
Seth frowned, brows furrowed, but couldn't find the words to react to all of that. Neil got tired of watching his face and turned away.
"Let's get the fuck on the bus so we can go back to sleep. Fuck Andrew, I'm getting a seat to my damn self." Neil said as he opened the door and walked out. He heard Seth snort behind him and Matt's confused voice asking what Andrew had to do with Neil getting a solo seat?
Seth wasn't by any means any more accepting than he had been in the beginning. Neil could still see the glares and nasty looks he sent towards Nicky and Andrew and even Neil on occasion. But he had learned to keep his fool mouth shut and that was all Neil really cared about.
When they got down stairs, they were met by Dan and Renee, both of which looked at Seth with barely disguised surprise on Dan's part, and a calm smile on Renee's.
"What the fuck are you doing here? I thought all of this was too stupid for you to bother with." Dan asked.
Seth gave everyone a sour look. "Fucking midget assholes don't fucking know how to respect other people's sleep. I got woken up by Daisey Duke and Daisey Don't over here so I figured I might as well go along for the ride. Not like I'm going back to sleep anyways."
No one commented on it, though Wymack gave him a suspicious look. Addy was there by his side, looking tired but cheerful.
It wasn't long before Andrew's group made their way down the stairs all of them looking close to dead, even Andrew.
"How the fuck did they get you up?" Dan asked Kevin as Andrew pushed him forward step-for-step.
"They didn't let me go to sleep." Kevin answered darkly, drooping eyes burning with hatred.
"Smart." Wymack said. "Now don't go biting anyone's head off, this was your idea."
At that, Kevin scowled, unable to deny it.
They all made it to the bright orange and white bus, a large orange fox paw painted on the side matching the stadium perfectly. Neil grimaced at so much color so early in the morning. As Andrew passed him by, he heard the blond's voice.
"Fuck you, Josten. I'm getting my own bench."
Seth, who'd been standing near Neil actually snorted at that again, nearly laughing if Neil hadn't turned a dark glare on him. "Just get in the damn bus, Bean stalk, before some random Jack tries to climb you." It wasn't his best comeback, but fuck it, he was exhausted.
When Neil got on the bus, he noticed Andrew had dragged everyone to the back, taking the last seat for himself. The seat in front of him open followed by Kevin, Aaron, and then Nicky. Neil headed for what was clearly, his assigned seat.
"Fuck, is Allison the only one not going?" Seth asked as he took the seat behind Wymack.
The upperclassmen all looked around at each other, before Renee sighed and got up from her seat in front of Nicky. "Please hold the bus for just a few more minutes, Coach." She said kindly.
Wymack didn't even argue, just glared and crossed his arms. It was as much of an acceptance as she was going to get so she got off and left to go fetch the last member of their team.
"God save me from idiots. I was hoping to only have to deal with some of you today." Wymack grumbled.
"You made it an open invite. You expected us to, what? Not take it?" Dan said grinning.
"Yes! It's fucking Saturday? Don't you heathens have anything better to do than crowd up my ass?"
"Coach!" Matt and Seth yelled at the same time.
Neil ignored all of them, curling up a bit in his seat. He felt a hand sink into his hair and smiled sleepily, but he knew what it was. A silent question.
"We're trying to save him. We decided on it. Now we have to make sure he has a reason to be saved. He and Allison need to be part of the team. He's already made an effort, now we all need to follow through." Neil explained, talking in low Russian.
"And you think this cluster-fuck is the right situation for a team bonding exercise?" Andrew countered.
"I think seeing how shaken up Kevin gets at just Riko's presence is going to give Seth some perspective. Seeing people at their weakest, seeing them helpless seems to have a sobering effect on him. He's an asshole, he's always going to be one, but if we work it just right, he'll be a living asshole."
Andrew scoffed. "It's not worth it."
"Maybe, maybe not. But he protected someone once. I'm hoping he'll do it again."
"And you call me delusional." Andrew mutter tiredly, flipping Neil's words back on him. Neil just smiled. He was just conscious enough to hear Allison get on the bus, complaining in low tones about beauty sleep and the proper amount of time needed to get ready in the mornings, before he was out.
~!~!
It was almost 6 before they reached Raleigh, North Carolina. Wymack stopped the bus at the next fast food place and let Abby and Renee off to go buy the team's breakfast. Neil woke up as soon as the bus stopped, sensitive to the motions of a vehicle even to this day…or maybe that's not the right way to put it. Maybe 'still' was the right way to put it.
Sitting up in his seat, he looked behind him to find Andrew still asleep, his head against the window and his body slumped uncomfortably.
"'Drew." Neil said, soft but just enough to get through to the sleeping blond.
Instead of the violent jerk that usually resulted when someone woke Andrew up by touching him, the soft call woke Andrew gently. The call of his name and the tone of the voice giving him no moment of instinctual fear. This was why he and Andrew rarely went to bed touching each other. Even after years of distance, they still had demons that neither had quite put to rest.
Breathtaking hazel eyes opened for him, blinking dully and taking in his face as they slowly focused. Andrew was slow to move. Getting himself up, testing each part of his body for pain (A habit born from living the life of a professional sports player.), and finally giving his surroundings his attention.
Wymack, who had made his way over to wake up the people in the back looked on with indifference. "Oh good, it looks like you have some sort of magic power you never told anyone about. Now get the other one up as well before I take drastic measures."
Neil turned away from Andrew to shake his head at Wymack.
"Whatever power I have doesn't work on Kevin. You might as well just go for brute force."
And so Wymack did.
As Wymack shouted and manhandled Kevin around, everyone else started to wake as well. Matt was now sitting up, his spiky hair even wilder while Dan slumped and yawned. Wymack had Kevin walking up and down the length of the bus. He looked like a zombie, but he was walking. Neil watched him go by every time, a little bored and still a lot sleepy.
"Good morning, sunshine!" Matt said with exaggerated cheer.
"Fuck you." Kevin answered tonelessly.
Dan smirked, the expression getting lost in another yawn as she threw her hand over her mouth. "Glad to see you're still a morning person."
"Fuck you too."
Neil snickered softly under his breath and sighed when a hand sank into his hair for only a moment before it was gone.
They made it to the two-story building that housed Kathy Ferdinand's daily show within the next 20 minutes, the Foxes all munching on sausages and whatever else Abby and Renee had managed to grab. The second he saw the building, he tensed up.
This was it. He'd see Riko in person again after nearly 7 years of peace and distance. He didn't exactly feel fear but there was a healthy amount of trepidation. One of his demons back from the dead and all flesh and bone. Neil wanted to be the one to kill him this time.
They were all given passes and were halfway to the building when Kathy herself came out to join them. She looked more awake than even Wymack, her make-up freshly applied and her hair styled perfectly. She was all fake cheer and despicable sunshine and Neil was suddenly, and violently reminded that he absolutely hated this woman.
"Kevin," Kathy said, reaching for him. "It's been so long. I'm so glad you could make it today." Polite and just the right amount of cheerful.
"It's good to see you again." Kevin replied, just as polite, but the smile on his face was pure plastic.
Neil actually had to stifle a laugh when Dan mimed swooning into Matt's arms from behind Kathy's back. He was suddenly reminded that for as long as he'd known this version of Kevin, he'd only seen the other man smile once or twice before.
He felt a sudden ache in his chest for the friend he missed. The one with more courage and grit than many other people. One who smiled more freely and openly showed affection to a girlfriend he did in fact adore, even if they rarely ever broadcasted it.
Kathy let go of Kevin's hand and turned her megawatt smile on the rest of them, pausing for a moment too long on Neil and Andrew before moving back to Kevin. "You were amazing last night. Kevin, you have the magic touch. This team has been doing so much better since you transferred, oh and that win last night! 12 goals, Kevin!"
Yeah, 12 goals. 5 of which were scored by Neil, 2 of which were Seth's after he'd shaken off Gorilla's hit, and 4 of which were Kevin's. But nobody mentioned that.
"They were already on their way up," Kevin said. The first positive thing he'd ever said about the Foxes. Neil was getting memory whiplash. "They deserve the Class 1 status. This year will prove it." His eyes strayed to Neil.
"Brilliant." Kathy said as she follow Kevin's gaze to Neil.
Against his better judgment, Neil stiffened. He felt Andrew at his back, a solid wall prepared to step in if Neil couldn't step back. He had just enough time to force himself to relax before Kathy was on him.
"Neil Josten, good morning. I suppose you've already heard the good news? As of 11 o'clock last night, your name is the third-highest searched string for NCAA Exy strikers. That puts you right after Riko and Kevin. How does it feel?"
Neil knew. He'd even searched himself to make sure he knew what information was being put up. Despite any protest he'd managed to make, there was a photo of him up and on full display. Rusty red curls, bright blue eyes, and all. Seeing his own face without the usual scars never sat well with him, but he'd swallowed it down and decided how he was going to handle that.
His family would now know where he was. His picture was too recognizable for them not to. If they didn't send someone to collect him, they would send someone to protect him and Neil could handle both. If his father saw it, and chances were he would, the man knew he would need to plan for a way to get to Neil without interference. Hopefully, he would hear that the Hatfords had men on him, or he would be too low on manpower to afford another one going down. He knew from Manny that his father was laying low now, the feds picking up half his most trusted forces had hit Nathan hard and the hits were still coming with all the information Neil had. From every safe house he could remember, to every property owned, to every name he could give. He'd broken down his father's holdings before, after his Uncle had killed the man, so the memories of all of it were fresh in his mind and through Manny, he was dealing blow after blow to his father's empire. It still wouldn't be enough to take the man himself down though.
On that same vein, his image would get to the Moriyamas much faster. They would know who he was and they would try to pull strings, as many of them as they could, but with Neil's contract to Palmetto, his protections with the other crime families, and the fierce blond who always had his back, Neil felt very okay about the whole thing.
Still didn't mean he liked having his face splashed all over the place.
"I don't really care for it." Neil finally said, shrugging flippantly.
Kathy frowned. "Everyone wants to know about you." She said, her voice losing a bit of the fake cheer.
"It's a good thing I don't really care about 'everyone', isn't it." Neil shot back.
At that, Kathy turned to Kevin. "I thought you said you would talk to him." She said.
Kevin shrugged. "I did. He said no."
At that she looked aghast. "Oh, no no no. That won't do!" She spread her hands in some sort of grand gesture. "You're a mystery addition to the Fox line, a rookie out of nowhere recruited out of a tiny recreational center. No one knows anything about you, no one has ever heard of you before, you've never played on any team at all before the Foxes, yet Kevin says you're going to sign with the US Court after graduation. And with your talent, everyone can believe it. Such ambitions and dreams from such a humble and mysterious beginning, don't you think? It's time for your debut."
"No." Neil said shortly. It caused her to faulter. "No. I'm not interested."
Her smile twitched. She reached out to pat his shoulder but Neil stepped back, right into Andrew's chest. He stayed there, taking comfort in the heat of the blond at his shoulder. Abby was gesturing at him, silently warning him to be polite and watch his manners. Neil pretended not to see her.
"Don't be shy," Kathy cooed a bit. "If you can play in front of sixty-five thousand fans in a game ESPN2 picked up and broadcast live, you can sit on my stage for 10 minutes. This is the easy part. I'm just going to ask a couple questions about why you started playing and where you hope to go from here, that sort of thing. It's all written down so you can think on your responses before you step onto the stage. Your fans deserve answers from you."
Neil smiled thinly at her lies and deceit. She was a cruel bitch. But Neil was prepared to be crueler. "Simple questions, you say. It's all written down, yes? Then please, give me the script and show me where it says 'Riko Moriyama enters stage left.'"
Those words brought a reaction from everyone around him.
Kathy's fake, grandiose smile finally dropped completely and her mouth gaped open, half formed noises coming out of her throat that wanted to be question, but never quite getting there. Kevin went startlingly ash white in seconds, his legs wobbling under him and Abby had to take a step to the right and bring a steadying arm around him. Wymack frowned and then understanding rushed through him and he looked murderous. The Foxes were all in various states of disbelief, but it was Matt and Seth's reactions that caught Neil's attention.
He'd expected Seth to be a little gleeful at the look on Kevin's face. He expected a little joy at finally seeing the great Kevin Day crumbling. That was not what he got.
"What?!" Seth yelled. "What?!"
Matt was livid. His jaw clenched so tight that he didn't even speak.
Kathy looked around at all of them, a mouse caught in a trap. Neil didn't even feel any kind of triumph at all. He just leaned back a little into Andrew and watched.
"You're going to put Kevin on a stage with Riko without even telling him?!" Seth shouted. It was the start of an avalanche.
Wymack started yelling and Dan was right behind him. Allison looked on a with forced impassiveness, but even she looked a little angry. Renee was frowning and tense, Aaron and Nicky were gaping in shock, and Matt was still standing there, unable to speak.
They all knew what really happened to Kevin's hand. They all had been there when Kevin had come to Palmetto, hand bandaged but still bleeding, having made his way from Evermore to the only place he could go. To the only family he had left, or so he thought.
If there was one thing that brought the Foxes together, it was when an outside force threatened one of their own. After all, they hated their opponents more than they hated each other.
In the midst of the yelling, Kathy was trying to get a word in, trying to stumble her way through explanations, trying to justify what she'd been planning. 'It was going to be good for ratings', 'It was only to bring two best friends together again', 'Surely Kevin misses his brother'. The lies were always half formed and lack luster.
Finally, Neil had had enough.
"Stop! All of you, stop!" He yelled, loud and cutting as it pierced through the roaring thunder of so many other voices. Surprisingly it worked and everyone's attention was on him now.
When Kathy turned to him, she looked angry. Or a pale imitation of anger, because she was too frazzled to manage a proper glare.
"How did you know? No one but the producers and I knew."
Neil leveled her a cold stare making her shrink back, before all of his focus shifted to Kevin.
"This is your choice. Now you know what's waiting for you in there. We can get back on the bus and go home right now, if that's what you choose, but remember that you have a deal to keep." Neil said, letting everyone around them hear his words. Then, he switched to French. "We found her, Kevin. We found your aunt."
Kevin jolted like he'd been shocked. His ghostly pallor finally getting a spot of color as he registered the words.
"She's alive?" He asked, stupidly in English. Kathy instantly latched onto that.
"Alive? Whose 'she'?"
Kevin ignored her, completely focused on Neil. This time he spoke in French. "Where? How? I-She's really alive?"
It wasn't Neil that answered this time, it was Andrew. The one Kevin trusted more, the one he trusted above anyone else to always tell him the truth.
"She's alive. We can't tell you where, but she's on her way here. We can't tell you when, and we can't tell you how, but you have a chance to meet her. Your mother's sister." It was in French and multiple voices intoned a curious 'what the fuck?', but the three of them ignored all that. "Now you get to choose what you want to do. Are you going to bow to the people who murdered your mother? Or are you going to face them?"
Kevin once again lost all color at the reminder of his situation.
His face reflected his inner turmoil perfectly going from hope, to determination, to fear, to panic, to pain, to determination again. Kevin was falling apart.
Matt was the one to reach forward and lay a hand on Kevin's shoulder. Kevin's conflicted green eyes snapped to the backliner's face.
"Whatever you want to do, we're behind you man." Matt said gently, squeezing where his hand lay. "You're one of us. You got shit on by life, but we're a team."
"Fuck, Day. To hell with this shit. Let's get on the bus and fuck who ever approved of this stunt." Seth growled, arms crossed over his chest and a fierce scowl on his face.
"Yeah, you don't have to go in there. What they're trying to pull is a load of bullshit and you don't need to sit there and take it." Dan chimed in angrily.
Renee looked calm, like a black lake in winter, the still surface hiding everything underneath. "It's okay to not want to face him, Kevin. They can't force you and they shouldn't have tried."
Allison afflicted a bored look, tossing her hair over her shoulder and looking at her nails. "I didn't even want to be here anyways. We might as well go home."
Wymack, Abby, Nicky and Aaron all remained silent. The four of them not really the type to doll out advice in situations like this, but two of the four also knew that Kevin actually did have to go in there. If he turned tail and ran now, if he failed to prove to Andrew that he wanted to actually be free of the Moriyamas, then that would be it. Andrew would drop him and Kevin would have to face everything on his own and he wouldn't have the strength to do it.
Everyone hung there, waiting for the answer as Kevin had what amounted to a mental and emotional breakdown right in the middle of their little circle. No one moved and no one said anything more for a lengthy stretched out period of time.
Neil could see a person in a black t-shirt and a clipboard coming out of the building and knew that Kevin's time for contemplation was up.
"Time's up Kevin. What's it going to be?"
Kevin's shoulders were slumped. His gaze on the floor, his body the very image of defeat, but when he heard Neil's words, it was like something snapped.
Kevin's spine uncurled itself, his shoulders coming up and back, his head lifting and his gaze hard as he met Neil's.
Neil could have sworn that instead of a number 2, he saw the shadow of a chess set's black Queen on his cheek.
His dark green eyes were a storm of emotions, but they turned to Kathy with a cold sort of fury. She visibly recoiled. Like she'd never seen Kevin look like that before. Chances were, this was the first time he'd ever looked like that in his life.
Let Riko be the King. I'll be the deadliest piece on the board.
"All hail the Queen." Andrew said softly next to Neil.
The smile on Neil's lips was nearly vicious.