Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Ready?” Andrew asked, idly swinging his car keys around in circles on his finger.

Neil looked up from where he was knelt down in the foyer, tying his shoes. “Almost. Wine in the car already?” he asked. 

Andrew nodded once. “Never took it out after we bought it.” 

“Okay,” Neil replied. “Is that what you’re wearing, or did you want to change?” He finished tying his second shoe and stood up. 

Andrew looked down at himself, then gave Neil a pointed once over, slowly dragging his eyes from Neil’s hair down to his shoes and back. 

“Yes, bunny, this is what I’m wearing. I’m not taking fashion advice from someone who couldn’t properly dress himself until age twenty.”

Neil wrinkled his nose, offended. “Shut up! We all know you love playing dress up with me,” he argued. “And I wasn’t implying anything. You just like to change at the last minute a lot of the time.” He paused and gave a considering look. “You do kind of look like Aaron right now, though… That outfit is something he’d wear.”

Andrew narrowed his eyes at the suggestion and pointed an accusing finger at Neil. “I’ll leave without you. You’re on thin ice, Josten.”

Neil narrowed his eyes right back. “And what, you’ll socialize with Katelyn’s friends by yourself?” he asked sarcastically and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

Andrew’s answering silence was telling. When it was obvious he wasn’t intending to reply, Neil huffed out a breath and rewound the conversation. “Anyway, yeah, I think I have everything else, then.” He patted down all of his pockets, rattling off items as he did so. “Wallet, keys, phone, those tickets Katelyn wanted…” he trailed off.

Satisfied, Andrew turned on his heel and started down the hall toward the garage. He had only managed a few steps before he heard Neil shout.

“Wait!”

Andrew turned around and quirked an eyebrow at him in question.

“You forgot something!” Neil called.

Andrew’s eyebrow raised ever so slightly higher. “Do enlighten me,” he implored flatly, backtracking a few steps to return to his partner’s side. “Last I checked, I was pretty notoriously good at not forgetting anything.”

Neil stuck his left hand out in between them, palm toward the ceiling, and wiggled his fingers. 

Andrew just stared at it. The other eyebrow rose to join its sibling. His gaze lifted back up to Neil’s face with an unimpressed expression.

Impatiently, Neil wiggled his fingers again, paused, wiggled them again, paused, and wiggled them again —  growing more insistent after each pause until he was basically doing jazz hands in their front hallway, for his adoring audience of one man and two cats. 

Andrew pressed his lips together to fight back a laugh. He recovered quickly, though, and disapprovingly said, “Drama queen.” 

That made Neil pout and give up on his little performance in an instant. Andrew rolled his eyes at the dramatics but didn’t hesitate to grab hold of Neil’s hand. 

Neil’s pout instantly turned into a grin. “Okay, that’s better,” he sighed. “We can go now.”

Andrew heaved an extremely put-upon sigh and muttered, “I hate you so much. You are the bane of my existence. I regret the day I ever met you.” 

“Now you sound like Aaron, too,” Neil accused. 

An exaggeratedly sharp gasp fell from Andrew’s mouth. He yanked his hand away from Neil’s to slap it onto his chest like a scandalized middle-aged woman clutching her pearls.

“How dare you!” he shouted, putting on a voice to match his persona. “We are nothing alike! Take that back!”

Neil snorted. “You and your baby brother grow more alike every time you see each other,” he argued. “Now come on, drama queen, we need to leave.” He stuck his hand back out between them and returned to wiggling his fingers impatiently. Despite his teasing, he couldn’t quite stop the soft smile that grew across his face, which allowed the single dimple in his right cheek to make itself known. 

Seeing that, Andrew felt his fake indignance start to melt away – he was such a sucker for that dimple. The light glinting off the ring on the third finger of Neil’s wiggling hand caught Andrew’s eye next. Knowing the ring matched the one on the chain around his neck, Andrew felt his resolve crumble completely. Damn, this man was making him soft. He was powerless to do anything except slot their fingers back together and lead Neil, still smiling widely, out to the car.

“By the way,” Neil said conversationally, “I know it’s what the back of my jersey says, but if you ever call me Josten again, I absolutely will divorce you and go back to it legally. I’m sure Browning and the FBI would be thrilled to let me change my name again.”

Andrew’s silence was as loud as Neil’s snickering echoing throughout the garage. 

—   —   —

If there was one thing everyone knew about Neil Josten, it’s that, now that he wasn’t running for his life, he loved to stick his nose where it didn’t belong. Predictably, then, it was Neil’s meddling that led Andrew and Aaron to remain in contact with each other after leaving Palmetto. After graduation, Aaron and Katelyn had moved to Boston for medical school, while Andrew moved out to Illinois to play for the Chicago Blues. 

Neil refused to let his first intervention (sorry, and thanks, Bee!) go to waste just because the twins were no longer living under the same roof. He constantly prodded Andrew to call and text his brother, and he even recruited Katelyn to poke at Aaron to see how his brother was doing, too. Slowly, the twins’ relationship grew from stunted and awkward, to slightly-less-stunted but still awkward, until they could both grudgingly admit they wouldn’t mind seeing each other more often than just holidays and the odd free weekend. Neil would accept a win where he could. 

The relationship between Neil and Aaron remained antagonistic, and likely always would, but it had stopped being openly hostile somewhere around Neil’s third year at Palmetto. Neil, Aaron, and Katelyn became closer friends when, after two seasons in the National Exy League, Neil signed as a starting striker with the Boston Whalers and moved to a neighborhood not far from Aaron and Katelyn. 

Another year later, Andrew failed to reach a new agreement with the Blues, and he became a free agent. When Boston’s starting goalie unexpectedly retired after a devastating injury at the end of that same season, Neil jumped at the opportunity to inform his coaches that Andrew was available. Not wanting to miss their chance to acquire the NEL’s top goalie, the Whalers’ coaches and team executives scrambled to put together an incredibly generous offer for Andrew before he signed elsewhere. Despite his agent’s insistence to reject and counteroffer, Andrew accepted the deal without argument. 

After several years of fleeting weekend visits and single-night meetings when his and Neil’s teams played each other, Andrew was finally able to reunite with his partner. They moved into a new condo together. They got married. They adopted a gremlin rescue cat. Andrew was glad to finally have all of his ducks back in a row in one place. Well, almost all of his ducks – but Nicky was happily back in Germany with Erik, and Kevin had learned how to stand on his own two feet without an Andrew-shaped crutch. Two of his ducks had left the nest, Neil said, so it only seemed appropriate that they adopt a second cat to settle that score, right? They adopted a second gremlin rescue cat. They bought a house. 

With the four of them living in the same city again, Neil and Katelyn began (not-so-)secretly plotting ways to get the twins to hang out frequently. They planned date nights with their partners that just so happened to be at the same place on the same night, isn’t that such a funny coincidence ? They signed up for cooking classes and then realized they had accidentally reserved four seats instead of two, so why don’t Aaron and Andrew just come along so the spots don’t go to waste ? They went to coffee shops in the other couple’s neighborhood, so why don’t we just grab something for them and go visit ?

Andrew, of course, saw the interventions for what they were, and he was sure Aaron wasn’t fooled either. Truthfully, though they both appeared to resist their partners’ attempts, the twins enjoyed their group outings just as much as Neil and Katelyn. 

It also helped that, just before starting their respective residencies, Katelyn and Aaron learned she was pregnant. When baby Josephine was welcomed into the family, Andrew’s protective tendencies returned with a vengeance. Although he had let go of his and Aaron’s deal their second year at Palmetto, family was still family, and Andrew always protected his. Many years older and more therapized, however, he was able to turn his protection from a suffocating, iron-fisted chokehold into more of a firm but pliable embrace. 

Now, nearly ten years removed from the collective hell of their family’s first years of university, Neil and Andrew were happy to attend Katelyn’s 30th birthday party at her and Aaron’s house in the suburbs. 

The trip from Andrew and Neil’s condo in Back Bay to Aaron and Katelyn’s house in Medford was only a few miles, but the dense Saturday evening traffic meant that the journey lasted a good half hour. When they arrived, Andrew knocked twice on the front door to announce their presence, before opening it and stepping inside. Neil was close on his heels. 

They found Josie playing with her big Lego-like block toys on the floor in the living room. Neil rushed to scoop her up and kiss her chubby cheek, and Josie giggled excitedly. Andrew crowded in close and pressed a kiss to her other cheek before continuing farther into the house. Neil set Josie back down with her toys, then followed his husband through the dining room and into the kitchen, where they found Aaron and Katelyn preparing to make dinner. Aaron was rifling through the fridge and pulling out things to hand off to Katelyn. There were mixing bowls scattered around the countertop with half-prepared components of dinner. Katelyn was stationed at the island, slicing up cucumbers for a veggie tray. She looked up and smiled when she heard them approach. 

“Hey, guys!” she greeted, glancing up from her work.

Andrew surveyed the kitchen—which was, frankly, a mess— and, with all of the tact he could conjure up, asked, “Need any help?”

Aaron snorted. “Nah, Kate’s already made me promise not to let either of you help this time. She said—”

“Um!” Katelyn interrupted. “You guys always end up doing everything for us!” She pointed the knife accusingly at first Andrew, then Neil. “This is my house, and you are guests , so you do not have to do any chores. If you want to ‘help’,” she mimed air quotes with her knife-less hand, “you can keep Josie entertained.” 

Right on cue, they heard a loud crash from the living room, followed by an excited shriek. 

“Sounds like she has that handled all by herself,” Andrew said flatly. 

Neil snorted at Josie’s impeccable timing, before turning to Katelyn. “Alright, well, it’s your birthday, and while I’d love to see Aaron do all the work himself, we all know how poorly that would end up,” he said with an exaggerated shudder. He nudged Andrew forward with his shoulder until they came to rest at the other side of the kitchen island. “So. What are we making?”

Aaron closed the fridge door and turned to the counter near the stove where he had previously flung several baking sheets. “Ha ha, very funny, Josten. At least I actually know how to cook.”

Neil opened his mouth to snark back at Aaron, but Andrew cut him off before he could get a word out. “Neil never claimed to be a professional chef,” he said, patting the other man’s shoulder. “But he is very good at following orders,” he added thoughtfully.

Aaron paused his work lining the baking sheets with aluminum foil and shot a disgusted look over his shoulder at his brother. “Gross. I didn’t need to hear that”

Andrew titled his head to one side, feigning innocence. “I don’t know what you mean, my dear brother.”

Before anyone could reply, Josie came barreling through the doorway, holding two of her blocks in her little hands. She whined, “Daddy! They’re stuck! Help!”, then made a beeline toward the adults. She let out a frustrated noise as she struggled to pull the blocks apart. 

Aaron paused his work covering the baking sheets with aluminum foil and turned toward his daughter. 

Josie, however, didn’t notice his attention. With her focus still locked on her blocks, she took a step forward and bumped into Andrew’s legs. “Daddy!” she squealed again.

Andrew looked down at her, slightly amused. “Not quite,” he hummed, but bent down to pick her up. He plucked the blocks from her hands, separated them, and handed them back. He pointedly ignored Neil’s smug expression visible from the corner of his eye. 

It was harder to ignore the poke to his cheek that followed two seconds later. “I told you that you looked like Aaron today,” Neil whispered conspiratorially. 

“Shut up, bunny,” Andrew muttered.

Katelyn watched the exchange, shaking her head lightly in amusement. Then, a thoughtful look passed over her face. “Actually—,” she started. She looked at Aaron, then seemed to think better of what she was about to say, and abruptly cut herself off. 

Everyone turned to face her.

“Actually…?” Aaron prompted with one eyebrow raised. Andrew mirrored his expression. Katelyn caught Neil’s eye, and the two of them tried to suppress their laughter at the similarity of the twins’ responses.

“I really don’t think I should say it!” Katelyn tried. 

Satisfied with the resolution of her block dilemma, Josie started wiggling in Andrew’s arms, leaning forward and trying to grab a grape from one of the bowls on the counter.

“Well now you have to,” Andrew said dryly as he adjusted his grip. He looked down at his niece and continued, “You have us on the edge of our seats, here.” Neil nodded his solemn agreement. 

“Alright, fine,” she sighed. “I’m just saying, since you guys are identical twins,” she said, nodding toward Aaron and Andrew across the island, “genetically speaking, Josie is just as much my and Andrew’s daughter as she is my and Aaron’s.” Katelyn pressed her lips together and wrinkled her nose. 

No one spoke for a minute as they considered her statement. Andrew was the first to process. His expression cycled through a wide range of emotions, starting with alarm and ending with something vaguely resembling nausea. Neil’s initial confusion quickly turned to hysterical glee as he watched Andrew’s reaction. Aaron’s face went through a similar journey as his brother’s before it settled on a somewhat constipated expression. His ears turned pink and he stared at his wife in disbelief.

After a pause that was just slightly too long to be comfortable, Aaron finally spoke. “Kate?” he said, blinking rapidly. “Kate. I love you so much. Do not make me think about you and my brother fucking. I will file for divorce if you ever say that out loud again.”

Neil snorted and hid his reaction behind Andrew’s shoulder as Aaron shot him a withering glare. Andrew, even more distressed by his husband’s amusement, turned his stare sharply toward Neil, who just started cackling. The twins turned to look uncomfortably at each other.

“Aaron. I would like to assure you,” Andrew said haltingly, his discomfort growing by the second, “that I do not want, have never wanted, and will never want, to have sex with your wife. She is a woman. And I am extremely gay.”

Neil barked out a loud laugh. He leaned his upper body forward onto the countertop and folded his arms under his head, the shaking of his shoulders giving away his continued uncontrollable giggling.

Aaron pulled a face that resembled his brother’s disgust and shot back, “And I would like to assure you that I have never had any desire to have sex with your husband. I am extremely heterosexual.”

Neil’s laughter grew in volume as he picked his head back up. He was able to compose himself just long enough to say, “Don’t worry, the feeling is mutual!”

Katelyn couldn’t help but laugh along with Neil. “I warned you! I tried to tell you that you didn’t want to hear it!” she said. She pushed aside her knife and cutting board to turn her attention to arranging the fruit and veggie trays. “Now, Aaron, will you go put Josie down for a nap? I don’t want her getting cranky later after everyone shows up.”

Aaron stood quickly and accepted Josie when Andrew passed her off. He shuffled out of the kitchen, his face still a little red.

Neil’s giggles subsided, leaving behind only a wide grin turned toward his husband’s face. 

Andrew heard Neil’s unspoken I told you that you were the same! and poked a finger into his husband’s chest. “Not. One. Word.”

Neil scurried across the kitchen to avoid Andrew’s wrath and tried to change the subject. “Kate! Andrew and I can finish up with the food, if you want to go get ready before everyone starts showing up,” he said. “Just tell us what you were thinking and we’ve got it covered.” He looked to Andrew to confirm he was on board with that, and he gave a nod.

“Guys, seriously, you don’t need to help!” Katelyn protested. “Aaron should be back down soon, so don’t worry about it.”

“Hush. It’s your birthday, you can go shower and do your makeup or whatever,” Neil said with a dismissing wave of a hand. “Is it the veggie and fruit trays, mini sandwiches, and those little fruit tarts?”

“And a charcuterie board!” she added excitedly. “I got crackers and fresh olives, cheese, and salami from that little market on St. James over by your place. You know, the one around the corner from Arlington Station?”

“You have excellent taste in cheese,” Andrew chimed in approvingly. “Wish I could say the same about your taste in men, though…”

Katelyn rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, you made your opinion clear a long time ago,” she said dismissively. “Can you guys handle the charcuterie board too, or should I do that before I head upstairs?”

Neil looked uncertain. “Um, maybe you should take care of that?”

Andrew curled his lip at Neil in disgust. “I can handle it, ignore him,” he told Katelyn. 

“Got it. Okay, then I guess I’ll go get ready!” She patted the counter twice approvingly, then turned and left the kitchen. 

Faintly, she heard Neil ask, “What the hell do you know about charcuterie boards?”

Andrew’s reply was muffled as Katelyn climbed the stairs. “Bunny. I am a rich, gay, Old Millennial. I know everything about charcuterie boards.”

—   —   —

Katelyn’s friends started trickling in shortly after she and Aaron came back downstairs, dressed and ready. Andrew noticed that all of them, somewhat unsurprisingly, were straight couples. One couple–Kay and Sid, Andrew later learned– brought along their young daughter, who appeared to be around the same age as Josie. Aaron had told Andrew and Neil earlier that the attendees were a mix of doctors and nurses, former roommates, and even one fellow Vixen from their time at Palmetto who had also relocated farther up the East Coast. Neil had said he felt like that gave them a pretty good idea of what to expect. Aaron had simply shrugged and said, “Probably.”

One thing Andrew and Neil hadn’t anticipated, though, was that Katelyn and her friends held weekly board game nights. And, several snack plates and glasses of wine later, the group was apparently extremely competitive where the board games were concerned. They found themselves getting roped into the latest installment. 

As everyone started bickering about which game to play first, Kay bopped off to the kitchen with her daughter, most likely to let her join Josie, who was coloring at the table. Kay returned a minute later, sans child, and made her way back into the living room.

She accidentally kicked Andrew’s leg as she stumbled over a pillow on the floor. “Sorry, Aaron!” she said, then looked down. “Oh, sorry, Andrew!” she corrected.

Andrew waved away her apology. “It’s fine,” he said. His amusement at being confused for Aaron again was fading, and now it was feeling a bit more like irritation. It probably had something to do with the overwhelming noise and movement of sixteen adults and two small children running around the house, he thought. He shrugged it off, leaning against Neil’s side, and tuned back into the board game selection debate.

“Oooh, someone brought Telestrations!” Jess yelled at a volume that could only come from a tipsy woman in her late twenties. “Kate, you’re so good at this game, we should play! And we could turn this into a real competition!"

Katelyn, also tipsy-bordering-on-wine-drunk, gasped. “Oh my god, you’re so right!” she said, then excitedly turned to the rest of the group. “Do y’all wanna play? It’d be a little unorthodox, with this many people, but we could split into teams and keep score somehow,” she suggested.

“How exactly would we keep score?” Aaron asked.

Katelyn hummed. “I guess we could pair up between teams and all vote whose final result is closer to the original prompt? And then that team would get a point for the round. What do you guys think?”

There were scattered nods and agreements. A few of Aaron and Katelyn’s friends decided to simply observe instead of play, and one man left the room to supervise and play with the two toddlers present in the kitchen.

Katelyn grinned. “Cool! Then how should we do teams?”

“Maybe we could pick team captains and choose teams?” Aaron offered.

Maddie wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know, that feels like it could end up a bit like middle school dodgeball,” she pointed out.

Katelyn’s eyes widened and she nodded sagely.

“Oldest versus youngest?” Cal suggested.

Emma playfully slapped her husband on the shoulder. “Babe, ew, no. Don’t make Kate do math on her birthday!” she chided.

While her friends continued bickering, Katelyn looked around at the others in the circle. Her gaze landed on Neil, who had his lips pursed in thought. She raised an eyebrow and asked him, “Neil, do you have something to share with the class?”

Neil tilted his head side to side a few times in consideration. With a mischievous grin slowly taking over his face, he said, “We could do husbands versus wives…”

Katelyn’s mouth dropped open. “You’re an evil genius! I’m so in,” she said. “Aaron, you’re going down!”

Andrew rolled his eyes. As the girls started congregating on one side of the table, he scooted over slightly to make room for Neil on his left side. But, rather than coming to join him, Neil was moving to sit next to Katelyn, across from himself and Aaron. He raised his eyebrows at his husband.

“What?” Neil asked innocently.

Katelyn looked over at him in confusion, too. “What are you doing? Go sit with the guys!” 

“I can be Andrew’s wife today,” he shrugged. “How am I supposed to beat him at the game if he’s on the same team as me?”

Andrew rolled his eyes again, much more dramatically this time.

Aaron snorted. “Typical,” he muttered.

Everyone laughed. Katelyn took the lack of protest from anyone as general agreement to the terms. “Okay, I know a couple of y’all haven’t played this before, so I’ll explain,” she said. “Normally, this game is done in a round robin, where everyone chooses a prompt from one of these little cards,” she paused to hold up one example, “but they suck so we usually just make up our own. So everyone starts with their prompt, draws it out, and then passes it to the next person.” She started passing out booklets and markers to each person. “Then, that person has 90 seconds to make their guess, and we pass again in the same direction. The next person draws out whatever was just guessed, and we repeat that until we get our own booklet back.” 

“I figured, since we’re doing this as spouse versus spouse,” she continued, “maybe we could pair up with our partners when it comes to scoring? So, like, Aaron and I would each show the progression of each of our booklets, and then everyone would decide if mine or Aaron’s end result was closer to the original, and whoever has the better result gets the point. And I guess if both of ours suck and were completely wrong, we can vote on whose result was funnier… Does that make sense?”

Maddie’s eyebrows were creased in confusion. “I’m not sure I get it, but I’ll figure it out once we get going with it,” she said.

“No worries! It is a pretty substantial change of rules,” Katelyn assured with a smile. “We’ll help you figure it out.” She looked around the table. “Alright, everyone, think of your first prompt, write it down on that first page, and then draw it out on the second page. When everyone is done with that, we’ll pass to the next person and start the timer.” 

When everyone had their own booklet back and the round was complete, the painful yet hilarious results were shared out, couple by couple. Aaron and Katelyn shared first, with the group consensus awarding the point to the birthday girl. Emma and Cal’s were both wildly different than the starting prompt, but Emma’s was deemed slightly less awful—which wasn’t saying much—which brought the Wives’ team to a 2-0 lead. When it was finally Neil and Andrew’s turn to share, the score was tied at 5-5, and both teams were getting rowdy. 

“Andrew, you better not have fucked us over!” Aaron yelled to his brother. 

“When have I ever done that?” Andrew asked pseudo-sincerely. Aaron opened his mouth to reply, but Andrew cut him off. He flipped open his booklet and showed everyone his starting prompt. “I chose to draw Neil playing his favorite sport–” he said. 

Neil brightened and sat up straight with a big grin. 

“–which, obviously, is baseball,” Andrew continued as he flipped to show his drawing. It was a poorly-drawn non-stick-figure person with extremely messy medium-length hair, short shorts, and ridiculously

Neil’s jaw dropped open in shock, and he just stared at his husband.  Andrew glanced over to him and mockingly said, “Close your mouth, my dear wife, or you’ll catch flies.”

Neil did, in fact, close his mouth, though it turned into a pout instead.  There were several snickers around the table as everyone watched the exchange.

Andrew soldiered on. “Anyway, my brother has let me down yet again,” he sighed. “Aaron guessed ‘guy playing baseball ’ .” He shook his head disapprovingly. 

Aaron looked at his brother in pure bewilderment, still too stunned to speak.

“And then Cal drew this,” Andrew held up the booklet to show a stick-figure person, holding a stick-baseball bat, on a baseball diamond. “I’m assuming that tiny little dot near the top of the page is supposed to be the baseball?”

Cal smiled and nodded, pleased that Andrew had noticed.

“...And it looks like Amir also saw the tiny dot, because he guessed ‘scoring a home run’, which isn’t a bad guess from that drawing.” He flipped the page again. “And then we have a lovely comically-large baseball and a tiny stick-figure man holding a stick-figure stick from Mo–” Andrew flipped to the last page “--and our final guess was ‘baseball game ???’ from Sid.”

Sid laughed and said, “Sorry, lads, I think we might be in trouble!”

“Andrew, I swear, if you threw this game on purpose…” Aaron threatened.

Andrew cocked his head to the side. “How exactly was I supposed to know that, first of all, Neil and I would go last, and second of all, that the score would be tied when we started?” he implored. Aaron glared in response, and Andrew glared right back.

Katelyn was grinning in excitement when she interrupted their impromptu staring contest. “Alright, boys, we’re almost done, you can fight each other in a couple minutes,” she laughed. “But first, you have a game to lose!”

Everyone turned to Neil, who had a shit-eating grin on his face. “My starting prompt,” he said, and paused for dramatic effect, “was Aaron crying while taking the MCAT!” He flipped the booklet open to his drawing, which, somehow, was clearly Aaron crying during his first attempt at the MCAT—a story everyone at the table knew about.

There were conspiratorial giggles from all the women on the Wives team. Almost all of the Husbands, none of whom had previously known the prompt, burst into surprised laughter. Aaron, however, eloquently said ‘ gah! ’ and put his head down on the table, then covered his face with his arms to hide how he turned red. A few seconds later, everyone heard a muffled “I hate you so much” from between his arms. Mohamad leaned over Amir and patted Aaron on the shoulder to comfort him.

Neil grinned and replied, “Aw, I love you, too!” He flipped his book to the next page, laughed, and read out, “And Emma guessed ‘Aaron crying at the MCAT’, with a little frowny face after it.” There were several more giggles from around the table.

He flipped the page again and burst out laughing. Katelyn had drawn a very short, crying stick-figure man with glasses, a huge rectangle with squiggly lines, and a pointy stick with stripes off to the side of it. Amir and Cal cackled when Neil turned the page around to show the rest of the group.

Neil turned the page, gasped in a breath, and said, “And then Jess–” but he cut himself off. He was laughing too hard to finish the sentence, so he just turned the booklet around to show everyone. Jess had written ‘poor bb Aaron crying @ MCAT </3’.

Katelyn’s face was turning red from how hard she was laughing. Sid fell backward to lay on the floor, laughing and clutching his stomach. Aaron had sat back up, still slightly pink in embarrassment, but he was laughing along quietly.

After gasping in again, Neil flipped the page, and managed to say, “And– and then, Kay drew this!” It was a drawing extremely similar to Katelyn’s, except the tears on the stick-man’s face were huge and there were way more of them. Out of breath, Neil didn’t even bother to read out Maddie’s final guess, he just tossed the booklet down onto the table flipped open to that page and continued laughing. Maddie had written ‘Aaron crying while taking the MCAT!!’ on the final page. 

Now it was Mohamad’s turn to gasp for air. “Oh my god– she– oh my god! – she even got Neil’s exact wording right!” he said between bouts of laughter. 

Andrew’s hands were covering his face, but his shoulders were shaking from how hard he was laughing.

When the laughter subsided enough for her to be heard, Katelyn said, “Okay, well, I don’t think we need to vote, Neil obviously won that point…” Nearly everyone nodded in agreement, unable to form words quite yet.

Though he was still laughing, Aaron groaned and snatched Andrew’s booklet from the table in front of his brother. He flipped the page and stabbed a finger at Andrew’s initial drawing. “Andrew, what the fuck! How was I supposed to know that was Neil? He just looks like a dumb little gremlin!” he said breathlessly.

Suddenly, Andrew whipped his head back around to face his brother, eyes wide and face completely serious. “Don’t talk about my wife like that!” he yelled, completely deadpan.

That only made everyone laugh even harder. Jess and Mo even started to wipe tears from their eyes. Neil joined Sid, who was still laying down on the floor, and the two of them kept laughing hysterically and gasping like fish out of water. 

Andrew recovered first, and stood up to announce that he was grabbing another drink. “Anyone else want something?” he asked.

Neil nodded and made to stand up, but Andrew waved a hand dismissively. Neil took that as Andrew-speak for don’t be dumb, obviously I’ll bring you something , so he stayed on the ground.

The sounds of laughter faded slightly as Andrew turned the corner into the kitchen. The friend that had volunteered to hang back with the kids was sitting at the table in the chair facing the doorway. He looked up, and they made eye contact.

He grinned and stood up. “Hey! Tough loss, dude,” he said as he walked over to clap Andrew on the shoulder. “I wasn’t paying super close attention, but it sounded like you guys got totally wrecked in that last round.”

Andrew raised one eyebrow as he looked at the man in front of him. “It could have gone better,” he conceded. “Do I know you?”

The man moved his hand back to his side. “Oh, my bad, I thought Katelyn would have told you—I’m Hayden, Kay’s brother. She brought me along since I was already in town visiting her and Sid.”

“Ah.” Andrew understood what happened. How was this the third time in one night that someone had called him Aaron? “I believe you are looking for my twin brother,” Andrew said slowly.

Hayden’s eyes went a little wide. “Oh! Sorry man, I knew Aaron had a brother, but I didn’t know he was a twin!”

Andrew nodded. There was a brief strained pause.

“So… Are– are you and your wife close with Katelyn, too, then?” Hayden asked awkwardly. “Or are you guys just here because of Aaron?”

Andrew’s eyebrows pinched together. “I do not have a wife,” he said.

“Oh? I thought you guys played husbands versus wives in that game?”

“We did, yeah.”

Now Hayden was confused. “…And I thought I heard you yell at Aaron for talking shit about your wife?”

“I did, yes.”

“But you don’t have a wife…?” Hayden asked again, looking at the ring hanging from the chain around Andrew’s neck. It had probably slipped outside of his shirt when he stood up just now.

“I do not,” Andrew replied simply.

Hayden paused for a moment, then nodded in understanding. “Ohhh, gotcha. She’s your fiancée?”

Andrew blinked several times. He felt himself getting mildly irritated, but he didn’t show it outwardly. Damn it, Neil was right , he thought. Andrew had unfortunately chosen an extremely heterosexual outfit to wear that day, and now he was paying the price for the third time in one night. He sighed and said, “No. We are married,” he said, looking down at his ring as if it were obvious. Which, it was, to him.

Except clearly it wasn’t obvious to Hayden, who now looked extremely puzzled. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he was frowning. “Okay…” he said, dragging the syllables out long. “Right.”

As if sensing Andrew had gotten himself into a situation , Neil appeared in the doorway just then. He walked over to the two men and stopped at Andrew’s elbow.

Hayden’s eyes lit up slightly in recognition, though it took him a moment to place exactly why. “Neil Josten? From the Whalers?” he asked excitedly. 

“Neil Minyard-Josten,” Neil corrected with a smile, and went to shake Hayden’s hand.

A little bit of Andrew’s irritation sloughed off at the pride in his husband’s voice when he said his last name.

Hayden shook Neil’s hand, but then he froze. His eyes went slightly wide again and he looked over to Andrew.

Andrew pressed his lips together and tried not to laugh at the man’s expression. “This,” he said, nodding to Neil, “is my ‘wife’.” He mimed air quotes around the word. 

Neil cocked his head, mildly confused, and watched as Hayden turned a little red.

“Oh– my god, I’m sorry!” he stuttered. “I– I don’t know why I assumed… I mean, I knew Aaron was straight, so I– Fuck, I’m going to stop talking now, I’m sorry!” 

Neil laughed a little, flicked a glance to his husband and back quickly. “What did Andrew say?” he asked knowingly.

Hayden grimaced. “Well, I mistook him for Aaron at first, since I didn’t know they were twins… But– then I asked if he and his wife were close with Katelyn, because I knew y’all were playing husbands versus wives in that game, so I just– I just sort of assumed that he was married to a woman!” he babbled. “And then he said he didn’t have a wife, and– I was confused and asked if she was just his fiancée, then, but he said he was married–” he trailed off in shame.

Neil snorted. “It’s fine– sorry, what’s your name?”

“Oh, it’s Hayden!”

“It’s fine, Hayden,” Neil amended. “I told Andrew he looked like the straight twin in that outfit,” he teased. 

Andrew side-eyed his husband. “Shut up,” he muttered, then sighed. “No, it’s fine, seriously. Straight is still the default assumption for most people. I’m more annoyed that you thought I was Aaron than I am that you thought I was straight.”

Hayden cringed slightly. “Well, still, I’m sorry for assuming.”

Just then, Kay and Sid’s daughter turned around and called out, “Uncle Hayden! Come look!”

He sheepishly looked at Andrew and Neil and said, “I’ve been summoned. Sorry again, guys. It was nice to meet you both!” Then he scurried away to the table.

Neil laughed silently and turned to his husband. “Did you still want a drink?” he asked quietly.

Andrew just shook his head. He took a couple steps to the side so he could lean against the countertop.

Neil followed, his eyes searching Andrew’s face. “You okay?” he asked, reaching out to hold one of Andrew’s hands in both of his own. “You seem like you’ve had enough people time for one night.”

Andrew sighed again. “M’fine,” he said. “But you’re right, I have.”

Neil smiled, a soft little thing that he saved for Andrew alone. “Me too. Let’s go say goodbye to everyone before you get too crabby,” he said lightly.

Andrew nodded, then tilted his face up just slightly and looked into Neil’s eyes.

Neil’s smile grew a bit bigger, and he obliged his husband’s silent request with a sweet, chaste kiss on his lips. 

—   —   —

Andrew drove them home. Even now, ten years after he got that first Maserati, Neil knew that driving was still one of the ways Andrew cleared his head and decompressed. When it came to his husband’s moods, Neil knew when he needed to be quiet or when to distract; tonight, it was definitely the former. He didn’t say a word on the drive home, just held Andrew’s hand and ran his thumb soothingly across the back of it.

He was turned slightly in his seat, gazing at Andrew’s profile. Neil traced his eyes over the prominent line of Andrew’s eyebrows, and the hole below his right brow where a piercing used to sit back during their college days. His gaze wandered over the slope of Andrew’s nose, the curve of his lips, the sharp line of his jaw, his neck and the chain around it. That soft, private smile took over his face again as he looked at Andrew’s wedding ring hanging from its chain. 

Given Andrew’s reputation, largely leftover from his first two years at Palmetto, almost everyone assumed that Neil was the bigger softie between the two of them. Neil knew, though, that it was really Andrew. His husband refused to wear his ring on his finger most days, claiming that it was because his big, bulky goalkeeper gloves made it uncomfortable, not to mention a little dangerous. Neil knew, though, that Andrew preferred to wear it on a chain, so it would hang right next to his heart every day. 

As if he could hear Neil’s thoughts, Andrew finally broke the silence in the dark car, at a red light three blocks from home. “You’re staring, bunny,” he said as he met Neil’s eyes.

Neil just smiled. “Yeah, Drew,” he said, and squeezed his husband’s hand. “I still am.”