《One-Shots // Book Compilation》• Foxes •
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A loud laugh escaped Neil Josten's throat, head thrown back and amber glass bottle in his hand. The other Foxes were all scattered around the space in Matt and Dan's new apartment. Dan and Matt were entangled in one another's arms, the two of them sharing a bottle of vodka. Meanwhile Renee, Allison, and Nicky were sprawled out on the floor, competitively taking shots. Aaron sat on the windowsill, arms crossed and a beer sitting in a bottle next to him. Kevin was perched in a recliner, sipping on whiskey. Andrew was curled up against Neil's side, the two of them in a drunken stupor while sitting on the loveseat.
"No, but a serious question. If you had to marry someone in this room, who would you pick?" Nicky asked as Matt laughed.
"Please don't make me choose between Dan and Neil. They're both the love of my life," Matt whined as Allison snorted. Dan rolled her eyes as Neil grinned with amusement.
"And Kevin doesn't love any of us. He'd marry the court if he could," Neil added as Kevin shrugged in agreement from where he was sitting, running one of his fingertips around the rim of his glass.
"That's true. Renee, you first," Nicky prompted with a smirk. She hummed in thought for a moment, her eyes scanning over each Fox.
"Allison. Easily. If I'm marrying anyone, they at least have to be mature and responsible. She's the closest I'm going to get," Renee answered as everyone nodded in understanding.
"You have to pick who goes next. Like 'Bump'!" Nicky explained, grinning like a lunatic. Honestly, he was just excited to treat this like an elementary classroom.
"Fine. Aaron, you're next," Renee called as the boy in the windowsill scowled. He looked between everyone in the room, an eyebrow arched. His expression remained calm as he evaluated his choices.
"Dan. She's a bad bitch. And we'd both be equally disinterested and most likely seeing other people on the side," Aaron replied as Dan and Matt fell into a laughing fit. After the initial shock, Nicky joined in on the laughter. Andrew just rolled his eyes, taking a swig from the beer bottle that Neil had been holding.
"Kevin, what about you?" Aaron questioned as Kevin hummed in thought, taking an analytical gander around the room. He seemed uncertain, not entirely sure as to who he should choose.
"I guess Neil. He'd play Exy with me and agree to buy a court for our home," Kevin explained as Neil nodded in agreement, grinning over at Kevin. Neil even sent the other striker a wink, making Kevin roll his eyes in annoyance.
"Sounds like an absolutely devastating relationship," Andrew muttered as Neil laughed.
"Nicky, you can go next. Who would you marry?" Kevin asked as Nicky smirked, laying on his back and letting out a laugh.
"Neil Josten every time. There's absolutely no competition," Nicky replied steadily, tilting his head to look over at Neil. Neil was laughing as Nicky sent him a wink and blew him a kiss.
"That one was obvious. Nicky has been flirting with Neil since the first day he arrived in South Carolina," Dan spoke up, a smile on her lips as Nicky made eye contact with Andrew. And Andrew glared right back at him, unflinching.
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"It's not like he can help it. I'm fairly certain that Neil's seduced every Fox, with the exception of Aaron," Allison teased with a laugh, which caused giggles to erupt throughout the room. Neil was the one laughing the hardest, unable to contain how hilarious he found this response. Andrew rolled his eyes, looking over and watching Neil in the middle of his laughing fit. It was enough to calm the drunk blonde down, resulting in him getting up to go grab himself another beer.
"Hey, don't get all upset, Andrew. Who would you pick, by the way?" Nicky questioned, resulting in all eyes shifting over towards the blonde twin who was grabbing another cold bottle of alcohol, then proceeded to fall back against Neil's side.
"I don't think that you understand that I would rather die than be stuck with any of you longer than I have to be," Andrew replied with a calm expression on his face, his voice steady and sure. Neil snorted, which resulted in Andrew slapping the back of the striker's head.
"But, Babe, you're my husband. You're supposed to pick me," Neil mock-whined with a smile playing at his lips. Andrew's blank stare turned into one filled with annoyance as he glared at the boy he was laying against.
"You mean boyfriend, not husband," Allison corrected Neil, who grinned widely while looking around the room. Neil proceeded to stumble to his feet, swaying while he was standing. Andrew huffed out a sigh, standing up as well in order to stabilize the taller boy.
"No. I meant what I said," Neil stated firmly, staring back at Allison as confusion spread over the other Fox's expressions. All the attention officially fell on the two standing boys.
Andrew huffed out a sigh, looking up at his significant other. Neil was still drunkenly grinning, placing his hand down the neck hole of his team hoodie, pulling out a necklace chain. On the end was a silver engagement band, making the others' eyes widen with complete and utter shock; Nicky audibly gasped as Kevin's jaw fell open. Andrew rolled his eyes before removing his left hand from his hoodie pocket, displaying that his band was on his ring finger.
"Oh my fucking god..." Allison mumbled, being the only Fox able to form a coherent sentence. Everyone else was too busy staring in complete disbelief.
"You know, this wasn't the best way to break the news to them. And, another thing, the proper term is fiancé, not husband," Andrew corrected in a bored tone as Neil smiled with pride. He was far too excited to be able to tell his broken family about his new engagement that he didn't really care about specification.
The room was flooded with a long silence, the Foxes looking between one another with confused expressions on their faces. Kevin just glared at Andrew, eyes filled with complete disbelief. However, Andrew's attention was solely focused on his fiancé, who was absolutely wasted and grinning with happiness. And who was Andrew to ruin Neil's genuine joy; it wasn't like Neil had many enjoyable memories from his childhood. Therefore, Andrew would allow this to play out.
"Um... Since when?" Nicky managed to squeak, eyes flickering between the two members of the standing couple. Neil looked over at Andrew, leaning heavier into his side.
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"What was it... Three months ago?" Neil asked as Andrew nodded in confirmation. This caused even more shock to spread over the Foxes faces.
"What? That's impossible! How have we not noticed?" Dan questioned, one of her eyebrows arched as she observed the two boys.
"Well, you're not all that observant, if we're being honest," Neil pointed out as Andrew rolled his eyes.
"Says you..." Andrew mumbled as Neil laughed at the comment.
"Oh god, is it confession hour then?" Allison questioned, taking a quick glance over at Renee; the goalie smiled sweetly back at her.
"Seems that way," Neil replied as Andrew shoved him back onto the couch, the two of them curling up against one another. Neil wrapped an arm around Andrew, pulling the blonde boy close to his side. Andrew wasn't upset by this; instead, he rested his head against the striker's shoulder.
"Okay. I want to go next. I'm dating Renee," Allison explained, extending a hand towards the female goalie. Renee's cheeks went red as she grasped onto the defensive dealer's hand.
No one had been expecting this, either. Well, all except one person, who was actually smiling over at his goalie counterpart. Of course Renee had told Andrew all about her crush on Allison; the two of them were rather close friends and spent a great deal of time talking with each other at practice. What else was Andrew supposed to do? After all, his boyfriend (fiancé?) was spending his time with his other love: Exy.
"There is so much new information going into my brain that I'm not sure if I can handle it..." Matt muttered as Dan stared at the other two girls with wide eyes; however, there was also a huge grin on the Captain's lips.
"How long have you two been together?" Dan demanded as Renee weakly smiled and looked down at her feet.
"Two months," Renee answered as Nicky screamed with excitement, making everyone jump at the sudden loud sound.
"Jesus, Nicky!" Andrew scolded, grasping tightly onto Neil's arm while the two girls blushed and laughed while informing their broken family about their relationship.
"I'm sorry! I'm just so happy! And I have a confession of my own," Nicky admitted, grinning so widely that it was a miracle his face didn't hurt.
"Well, go ahead," Allison prompted as Nicky nodded and inhaled a shaky breath. He smiled while taking a moment to look between each and every Fox that was currently inhabiting the room.
"Erik and I are adopting a little girl," Nicky blurted as shock consumed all of the Foxes for the third time that night.
"No way! That's awesome, Nicky!" Neil admitted as the cousin smiled and nodded, grabbing out his phone and showing the Foxes a photo. It was his wallpaper, which was Erik Klose holding a baby swaddled in a purple blanket.
"Her name is Alice. And I already love her with my whole heart..." Nicky breathed, a smile stuck to his lips as he looked down at the photo of his boyfriend and new daughter.
"Katelyn is pregnant..." Aaron muttered from the windowsill, looking down into his amber glass bottle. Andrew's head snapped upwards, observing his brother almost immediately. The other Foxes followed the goalie in this action, seeing Aaron's cheeks glowing bright red while his attention remained focused on the beer bottle in his palm.
"You're really all up to some huge and life changing event, aren't you?" Matt demanded, blinking as he observed the Foxes and processed all the news that they'd brought with them.
"You got her pregnant?" Andrew demanded as Aaron looked up at his twin brother; he held his brother's unwavering gaze.
"Yeah," Aaron answered as Andrew slowly nodded, not entirely certain what to do with all of that information.
"On purpose?" Andrew questioned next as Aaron nodded.
"Believe it or not, yes," Aaron honestly replied to his twin. Andrew allowed this statement to hang over the room for a moment before finally nodding in acknowledgement.
"Okay," Andrew whispered, leaning back into Neil's side while the other twin nodded.
Kevin Day took this opportunity to throw three packets of paper down on the coffee table. The Foxes all looked down at them, locating the name of the organization before Nicky gasped and Dan quickly snagged one of the packets to skim through.
"The Olympics?!" Nicky screeched as Andrew arched an eyebrow and picked up one of the other packets; the blonde boy froze as he read the name written on the packet he was holding onto. This one belonged to his fiancé: Neil Josten.
"Yep. I made it to the Olympics. So did Neil and Andrew. I was going to tell you two at the next practice, but this seemed like a fitting time," Kevin explained as Andrew and Neil skimmed over the packet that the goalie was grasping onto.
"Do you know anyone else who was asked to be on the team?" Matt questioned as Kevin nodded.
"I know that Jean Moreau and Jeremy Knox were asked to be on the team, too," Kevin informed as Allison and Renee took the last packet off the tabletop. Everyone was skimming through the paperwork, but Kevin was staring at Neil and Andrew.
"Are you two in?" Kevin asked as Neil looked over at Andrew; truthfully, Andrew was the one that no one knew about. Neil Josten loved Exy too much to not be on the Olympic team.
"Fine. The two of you owe me, but I'll do it," Andrew grumbled, finally tossing the packet back onto the coffee table and looking over at his fiancé. Neil Josten was grinning in accomplishment, so glad that his significant other decided to represent America during the Olympics for Exy.
"Dude, our Exy Olympic team is going to kick ass," Dan announced as Matt and Nicky nodded in agreement.
The Foxes learned many truths about their teammates that night. However, that night also brought all of them closer. Andrew Minyard ended up becoming an uncle, loving his new nephew more than he ever thought he could. Then there was the team meeting Alice, which all the girls and Matt adored. Then there was the Minyard-Josten arrangement, the pair of them becoming a married couple rather quickly with all the Foxes either attending or being a part of the wedding. As for Renee and Allison, they're still dating and doing rather well.
The Olympics were yet to occur, but Andrew, Kevin, and Neil were more than ready to attend.
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