Chapter Text
Neil sits sprawled on the bleachers, wisps of smoke curling around his head like a particularly ironic halo. The pitch is practically empty by now but Neil still holds himself as still as possible while appearing unbothered to an onlooker.
Renata still hasn’t calmed down. She’s twisting and snarling quietly beneath his oversized hoodie, slipping between forms so quickly that even Neil can’t keep up with them. The cool scales he feels against his torso barely have time to wrap around his torso before they become coarse fur which melts into downy feathers. She’s supposed to be a hare. Neil Josten’s daemon is a hare. Neil doesn’t rush her, just looks out on the court with a deceptively lazy gaze.
Finally she is a quivering lump on his chest, tiny paws (still bigger than a rabbit’s) pressed over where his heart is. He waits a second before speaking.
“ Okay? ” he asks in the rolling tongue of Italy (Not English. Never English in a country like America.) because he knows it will calm her. Lessen the soreness of the question for both of them. (They had liked Italy. As much as you could like any place with a life like theirs.)
She crawls up his chest with surprising grace for a hare. (No one ever expects twitchy creatures like hares to move with liquid ease like she does. It’s part of what makes this form so perfect.) He cradles her to his chest so she doesn’t have to strain to keep from slipping down his torso.
“ Okay. ” she murmurs back. Even shaken like this, her voice does not waver. “ I am sorry, Abram. ” she adds.
“ Not your fault. Never your fault. ” he assures, kissing the top of her head. He doesn’t say that this is the third time in one week she’s gone feral and unresponsive like that. He doesn’t say they’re fucked. (He doesn’t say we’re dying- )
They both know it anyway.
“Josten”
They both still.
Coach Hernandez stands above them looking apologetic at catching them being affectionate, his German Shepard daemon shifting at his feet. Neil stands and Renata hops onto his shoulder, not even wobbling at the movement.
(She’s always on him when others are around. His mother used to force her to hide in Neil’s clothing but ever since she died Renata has refused to do so. Not that she’d ever had to actually verbally refuse him. He’s always felt that if someone were to attack him she would be vulnerable on his torso and then they would both be out of commission.)
“There’s someone here to see you.”
Renata’s foot thumps against his shoulder in half irritation, half anxiety. She doesn’t like beating around the bush, and there's no one who would want to “see him” in Millport… Well, no one friendly anyway.
The man hovering behind Hernandez steps into Neil’s line of sight. A middle aged man with broad shoulders. Average height. Tribal tattoos on his biceps. Those are familiar, something about them tugs at the back of his brain. The pitbull at his feet has light brown fur and the lightest pair of gray eyes Neil has seen on a dog of any kind. Neil looks back at the man’s face, his crows feet and tired eyes, and frowns.
“I don’t know you.” It’s not a question and it’s definitely not polite but it’s the truth. His legs are already shifting, poised to run even as Renata hissed in his ear that he needs to fight.
“He's from a university. He came to see you play," Hernandez cuts in, drawing Neil’s sharp, accusing gaze back to him. Renata’s teeth chatter, making a chit chit sound as they rub together.
"Bullshit, no one recruits from here. No one knows where it is." Neil retorts, keeping his voice as even as possible. So the guy isn’t one of his father’s men, come to remove his skin from his scalp to his toes, that doesn’t dissipate Neil’s paranoia.
"David Wymack.”
Oh.
Neil blinks at the hand David Wymack offers him, involuntarily noting the broad palms and rough calluses.
Well that explains how he knows him. And the pitbull, which Neil recalls is named Esperanza.
"Palmetto State Foxes," Neil says, cautiously clasping his hand with Wymack’s. Wyamck doesn’t react much to Neil’s recognition of his school, just nods in agreement.
"I gave him your file when he put out a note he needed a striker," Hernandez goes on, "I tried calling your parents, but they didn't answer. You said they'd make it tonight."
Neil shifts into his back foot, putting distance between him and Wymajc again, and shrugs with practiced nonchalance. "I'll tell them they didn't miss much.” he responds. Poor Neil Josten and his absentee parents, even his teachers were getting tired of their inability to take responsibility for their son.
"I can't wait for them. The ERC has been hounding me since Janie got locked up.” the man said, a slightly pained pinch in his brow. Janie Smalls was the foxes last recruit who tried to kill herself. Neil vaguely recalls the news report mentioning her best friend finding her, radial and ulnar artery bared to the world.
Neil frowns. Renata’s teeth clack. Chit chit.
“Can’t wait..?” he repeats, shuffling an inch backwards as his shoulders begin to hunch. Wymack can’t mean what he thinks he means. He knows who’s on the Foxes team and going with them means being recognized. Means being dead. (Not that it matters, they’re already dying anyway.)
"I want you to come play for the foxes if it wasn't already obvious.”
Ah. Right. Okay. Time to go.
“Right.” Neil deadpans and then bolts for the locker room. Millport’s starting getting a little crowded. He’d stayed here too long anyway and there was no way he was signing onto a college level team with a reputation like the Fox’s-
He sees the racket too late to actually stop before he’s seeing stars. He goes down hard.
Renata leaps from his shoulder and bounds off the ground instinctually running for the door as Neil is gasps in pain (if one of them is being attacked then both of them are and everyone knows to go for the daemon first-) but she is pinned quickly beneath the giant paw of a-
Well. Mother of bludgering, shitting Christ.
Neil can see the leopard’s ribs and even then it’s huge, thin and a little wobbly looking but shocking with it’s all black coat. The spots are darker than the actual coat, so dark they seem to absorb the light around her. Her eyes are bright amber, flashing pennies in the locker room lights and her silvery claws glint against the red brown of Renata’s fur.
A black leopard. Accompanying one David Wymack.
Neil looks up through his fringe of dark hair to glare at Andrew Minyard, who’s grinning his medicated grin back at him.
“Better luck next time!” the blond cackles, twirling the racket and resting it across his shoulders with the dorkiest salute Neil’s ever seen. It would almost he funny if Neil could breath around the bruising pain in his lungs.
“Fuck you.” Neil snarls.
“Dammit Minyard! This is why we can’t have nice things!”
Neil’s eyes catch on Renata. Shit. She’s shaking. Anyone else looking at her would think it’s from fear, but Neil knows what rage looks like on his daemon, can feel it writhing in his own gut. He uncurls himself slowly placing his hands down flat on the tiled ground and maintaining steady eye contact. He pushes the panic and anger down hard, inhaling deeply through his nose and out through his mouth. If Renata starts shifting here everyone in this locker room will know and no one forgets a nearly nineteen year old kid with an unsettled daemon that quickly.
We are safe. He thinks and wills himself to believe it. Renata is a part of his soul and if he pretends hard enough that he is calm, she will settle with him.
We are safe.
Chit, chit.
Renata stills.
Neil raises his eyes slowly, peering at the leopard through his lashes. It feels too bold to make direct eye contact with her. Sezia, Neil recalls her name, is the beast behind Andrew Minyard’s madness. She looks back at him, expression unreadable and Neil cock’s hs head to the side minutely.
“I think that belongs to me.” he says quietly, suddenly aware of the silence that has fallen over the locker room. There’s a long pause as Sezia surveys him and Neil stays very still. “She would appreciate it if you let her go.” he continues, a slight edge to his voice now. Renata bristles at his tone.
Chit, chit.
Silence. Sezia steps off of Renata. Slinking back over to Andrew she sits down, officially bored of all further developments. Renata is on Neil’s shoulder in two seconds flat hissing intelligible curses in his ear. He flicks his hand at her, a warning to shut up as he gets to his feet.
“Who’d you steal that from?” he croaks out, eyes refocusing on Andrew whose gaze is oddly piercing.
“Not stealing, just borrowing.” Andrew replies, tossing the racket at the ground.
“Jesus Neil, are you alright?" Hernandez questions concern lining his face. Neil shoots him a look that very clearly says do I look alright? and Hernandez quiets.
Neil turns to Wyamck and Andrew, Renata shifting and chittering on his shoulders in a way that Neil feels is distinctly un hare-like. "I already gave you my answer. Now let me leave."
"I paid for three people to fly out here and see you, don't you think you can give me five minutes?" Wymack asks. Neil fixes him with an intense look, cocking his head to the side in a way he knows puts people off.
"You brought Kevin here.” he sighs, less of a question and more of a statement of fact.
"Is that a problem?" Wyamack huffs, seemingly done with Neil’s cryptic answers. Renata huffs a breath that could almost be a sarcastic laugh. Neil himself is struggling to not break into his own hysterical giggles. Is it a problem? Is it a problem? The Foxes have problems (granted, they have more than they are aware of with Kevin on their team) Neil only has near disasters or death.
"I'm not good enough to play with a champion."
"True, but irrelevant.” Ah. Neil hasn’t heard that arrogant voice in a while. Granted Riko did most of the arrogant monologuing back then but Kevin Day has never once in his life been modest.
Fake brown meets steely forest green and Neil scans the Exy prodigy before him. He’s the same long sprawl of lean muscle that Neil remembers, cold in his odd brand of dark beauty. Neil remembers all of the Raven’s having the same air of untouchable perfection about them, wielding their sculpted faces and bodies like formidable weapons. The eagle is new though. Baysan looks just as majestic and prideful in person.
"Why were you leaving?" Kevin asks him.
“What are you doing so far from your nest birdie?” Neil snaps back, annoyed at his tone.
“ Trading one master for another. ” Retana hisses in his ear giving Neil heart palpitations as she reveals their knowledge of the Italian language. He lets out a short whistle between his teeth as a warning to not speak in front of them.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Andrew tense at the sound of the foreign language, even as Kevin bristles at the rudeness.
“What was that?” Kevin snaps.
“She says it’s my mistake.” Neil lies easily. “You’re in a den now aren’t you?”
Kevin huffs dismissively and Neil is grateful for his self absorbed stupidity, despite all his trauma Kevin doesn’t seem smart enough for suspicion.
“We're here to sign you, so stop wasting our time with your petulance" Kevin snaps impatiently.
"I’m wasting your time?” Neil snarled, agitation rising with Renata’s as she chitters on his shoulder. “I’m not the one who flew all the way out to bumfuck nowhere to try and recruit some high school kid for their shitty Exy team.”
Silence. Chit chit. Andrew’s haunting laugh.
"We should have thrown out your file as soon as we saw it.” Kevin says a dangerous edge to his voice. Well his tone would have been dangerous if Neil hadn’t seen bigger and stronger monsters than anything Kevin day had ever seen. “But we didn’t, I saw you play. You play like it's all you have.”
Both man and daemon still at that, giving Kevin their undivided attention
"As you can see, we aren't taking no for an answer," Wymack interjects smoothly. "Kevin says we have to have you, and he's right."
"I should ask my mother." Neil says finally, glancing back at the exit that Andrew and Sezia had very firmly placed themselves in front of.
"What for? You're nineteen. You don't need a parent signature." Wymack protests.
"I should still ask." Neil responds, shrugging lamely. (Sometimes he hates how easily it is to fold Nathaniel up so that he fits between Neil Josten’s meek shoulders. Sometimes it’s the only thing that lets him sleep at night.)
"She'll be glad."
"Sure," Neil says, a wry note to his voice that says a little too plainly that his mother would beat him bloody if she knew about this.
"Want a lift home?"
"I'm fine." Neil assures. He moves towards the door, fully intending to knock Andrew on his ass at this point, but Kevin steps in front of him before he can.
Chit chit.
"Go wait in the car," Wymack barely glances at his two players as he watches Neil, eyes all too knowing. Unfortunately for him, or Neil depending on how you look at it, he doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does. "Give us a minute?" he says to Hernandez.
Hernandez hesitates but eventually turns to walk back into the school. Wymack leads Neil away from the cars and into an open space in the parking lot.
"You need one of us to talk to your parents?"
"I'm fine," Neil repeats. He’s starting to get annoyed by his own mantra.
"Are they the ones who hurt you?" The blunt question has Neil blinking rapidly.
"I'll rephrase. Hernandez thinks there's something wrong since you don't change out in front of teammates or let anyone meet your parents. That's why he sent me your file. He thinks you fit the line. I can fly you out early after your graduation. We'll tell everyone you're there for early practices to get you ready for the season. Half of them will probably believe it, but it doesn't matter. Foxes are foxes."
Neil stares at him, searching his face for any hint of deception.
“Why.” The word comes out harsher than he meant, more of a demand than a request. Old habits die hard he supposes and suspicion is a primary pillar of his personality at this point.
"Neil, I built this team for second chances to people like you. Not some stupid PR stunt." Wymack huffs out. "So I'll ask again: are your parents going to be a problem?"
Neil examines him, maps out his face and notes the genuine worry in his eyes and the gentle tilt of his brows. He opens his mouth to refuse and then Renata speaks.
“ We can not live like this Abram. I cannot live like this.” Neil stops, tilting his head as her whiskers brush his ear. “ We are not runners, no matter what my skin says. It is not enough for us to survive. Give us something to live for.”
There is a pause, Wymack’s eyes bounce between man and daemon.
“This will be our death.” he answers finally, a tremble in his voice.
“No Abram. This will be our beginning.”