andrew minyard's defense attorney

aftg au where bee adopted andrew and later aaron when they were teens. she owns an apple orchard that the twins and occasionally a few of the foxes help run but it's almost harvest season and she needs help prepping everything for the town's fall festivals so she decided to put up a help wanted ad. neil, tired, alone, and running out of options, decides to apply. bee let's him use the renovated barn loft as residence when she learns he's homeless. andrew is wary, his family means everything to him and neil is a flightly little thing that could only bring bad news, but something about neil is familiar. maybe it's how he checks all his exits or how he flinches when people touch him or how he cradles the key bee gave him in his palm like it was a treasure instead of a piece of metal. he asks neil for truths and it's like bleeding a rock but he finds neil is more willing when truth is reciprocated. they spend their days walking down the lines of apple trees, harvesting and talking, and andrew is only a little mesmerized with the way neil's auburn curls blend with the red of the apples and his eyes match the sky like something deliberate, like he was meant to be here. andrew thinks that maybe he doesn't hate how neil looks at him like he's worth something. andrew thinks that maybe he doesn't want to lose this. he's still learning how to accept that not everything is transactional, he doesn't need to make deals to keep people close, hes still figuring out how to want things without the fear of them being snatched away. his mind screams at him to turn away and push any feeling aside but then neil is handing him an apple and smiling and telling him stories he says he's never told anyone else and andrew doesn't think he deserves this but he wants it

guys stay with me here while i say something really dumb but you know how people don't actually know if dan and phil are dating but also pretty sure they are and have been for the past ten years and maybe they're not dating but it's obvious they're the most important people to each other and you can't imagine one without the other and maybe they're past dating maybe they're a secret third thing that transcends being 'boyfriends'.... yea that's how i imagine andrew and neil are when they're in their pro careers

i wonder what it's like to be an edgar allen cheerleader

if i was kevin day id be more annoying actually

aftg au where andrew is a burnt out musician who's sick and tired of writing/playing shitty music bc his label says it sells better. he meets one deaf neil josten at some no-name pub on the east coast. he's a little mesmerized by the way neils hair catches in the bar lights and how his eyes track the woman playing bass on stage. andrew offers to buy him a drink and then he offers to blow him. it's a no but at first neil looked at him confused and andrews about to start wondering how someone who looks like that would be confused about an offer like that but then neil asks him to write his question down. he does. (there's something humbling about writing a proposition down). neil says no but they trade notes back and forth until the line of indie artists waiting their turn for the stage dwindled into nothing. the last thing andrew writes is his phone number. they talk, well, they text. neil doesn't know him, not the way magazine covers and top 40 radio hits know him. to neil, andrew minyard is just a guy that plays the drums and occasionally writes lyrics. one day, when he asks why neil loves watching him play his drums so much, why he goes to indie night at the pub when he can't hear the words they sing, neil tells him that he likes the thumping in the ground. it steadies him, calms him down as if his ear was pressed to someone's heart. he likes the way the artists lose themselves to their music in a way so obvious. its with neil peering into andrew's grand piano, his eyes watching the hammers pop, that he remembers why he started making music in the first place and for the first time in months he actually wants to compose something

just call me neil josten with how people keep telling me i'm cagey as fuck and have a staring problem

one day andrew goes as aaron for halloween and neil tells him he's never been more frightened in his life

You're all good! I've been shipping out orders in waves and the earlier group is receiving them around now. I've still got like 30 people to get through so just keep an eye out for a tracking update soon!