"Oh my god!" Dan heard a screech then a door slam from the hallway. She glances sideways at Renee and Allison, and they wordlessly go to investigate. As she peeks her head out the door, she can see Matt do the same from his room.
They find Nicky, Aaron, and Kevin looking
shell-shocked outside the monsters' room. "What's going on?"
Aaron is pale as he pushes past everyone and into the elevator. Kevin is stuttering incoherently. Nicky,-and this is the most unnerving part-Nicky is silent. His eyes are wide, he's frozen stock-still, and he is completely speechless.
"He- they- I-" Kevin's speech keeps breaking off into fragment. He actually looks like he's hyperventilating.
Renee goes up to soothe him. "Kevin, Kevin breathe with me, okay? In and out. In and out. He seems to get a handle on himself.
Just as it looks as if Kevin can finally communicate with his usual semblance of control, Nicky comes out of his trance. "Everybody, go to Matt's room now!" He whisper-yells to the group.
And that's not weird at all.
"Nicky you're being weir-" Dan is cut off from her observation by the monsters' door suddenly opening.
Behind it is a red-faced Neil. Behind him is, interestingly, red-faced Andrew.
Oh.
Oh.
Well that explains it. Looking around, Dan can see expressions ranging from confusion-Matt, poor baby I'll explain when you're older-to amusement-Allison and Renee-to unbridled fear-Nicky and Kevin. Suddenly, it clicks just WHO they've interrupted.
With that realization, Dan grabs the girls and Matt and hightail it out of there. She doesn't look back for Kevin or Nicky, but she has no doubt they follow.
"Freeze," a chilly voice stops them all in their tracks. They all turn in a synchronized motion to face a slightly more collected Neil and a, once again, apathetic Andrew. "What did you see?" He has eyes only for Nicky and Kevin.
"Nothing," Nicky blurts out.
"Everything," Kevin says at the same time with a haunted look in his eyes. A glance at Allison shows that she is highly amused by this interaction.
Nicky quickly cups a hand over Kevin's mouth. "We really didn't see much," Nicky babbles with a nervous smile. "It was totally forgettable, already left my mind." Nicky is trying to back away slowly while Kevin is struggling under his palm.
"-nyway we were just heading ou- EW Kevin did you just lick me? You don't know where I've been." Nicky retracts his hand and wipes it on his jeans.
"Never do that again," Kevin says with a grimace. "We literally just got back, I wanna go to my room."
Nobody saw when Andrew pulled out his knives but suddenly, he was grabbing Kevin by his collar. "What did you see, Day?"
Kevin splutters for a moment then he seems to take in the rigid set to the blonde man's shoulders, he's serious.
Just as Dan steels herself to break up the potential massacre, Neil steps up to pull on Andrew's sleeve.
"Drew." He says it with a fondness Dan rarely heard from the sophomore. "It's okay."
"It's not," Dan didn't expect to hear so much emotion from the shorter man. She especially didn't expect to see his shoulders drop so easily. Last year, it took until Andrew almost broke Allison's neck for Neil to talk him down. Now, it's a simple graze of fingers and three words, and he's grabbing Neil by the waist-judging by the blush on Neil's face, that's a new thing for him too-and pulling him back into the room. "Stay out for the rest of the night," he calls over his shoulder. Neil's blush intensifies.
"Sure thing," Nicky calls with a wiggle of his eyebrows. He seemed to have gained his humor with Andrew's back to him.
"But my-" Kevin's tangent is cut off by Nicky elbowing his ribs.
As the door closes, the six remaining foxes glance at each other. Then Matt, Dan, Nicky, and Renee all hand Allison her money.