Work Text
Nathaniel Wesninski meets his fiancé when he is ten years old.Her name is Allison, three years older than him at thirteen, the heiress to the Reynolds fortune and all of their high-class resorts. Nathaniel is familiar with them; his father stays only at Reynolds resorts when travelling for business.His father, Nathan, greets her parents, then sends them off to his bedroom to play. Allison doesn’t like any of the toys he has, but then again, most of them aren’t exactly common toys. Lola had bought him a set of knives, and he was supposed to be playing “butcher” with them, his own version of a classic plastic kitchen toy set, but Allison takes one look and says it’s barbaric. Nathaniel silently agrees with her, wordlessly pushing them away back under his bed.“What else do you have?” Allison asks, looking around his plain room. The only thing that gives it life is the bed cover, and even that was picked out by his dad – a plain red cover with black sheets. It reminds Nathaniel of Edgar Allen.Nathaniel shrugs. Allison is loud, and the one thing he knows for certain is that when other people talk, Nathaniel is supposed to be quiet. He’s not supposed to speak until asked a direct question, but even then, he’s not supposed to answer loudly.His dad says children are to be seen, not heard.“I have an exy racket,” he says. It’s clearly the right thing to say, and Nathaniel smiles softly in pride as Allison lights up, scrambling to her feet from where she had been sitting crisscross applesauce, exactly the way she had been told never to do in a dress.“I love exy!” she says, pulling Nathaniel to his feet as well. “I’m hoping to play defensive dealer at my high school next year, but I don’t really know much about it. My grandfather promised to show me more when I go to stay with him this summer. What position are you?”“Backliner,” Nathaniel says, leading her downstairs and through side rooms so as not to disturbs their parents as they talk. They reach the back door quickly, and after making sure the door is firmly closed, Nathaniel grabs Allison’s hand and runs them over to the shed. The first floor is Nathaniel’s and the groundskeeper’s, where gardening and landscaping tools are kept alongside Nathaniel’s exy supplies. In the back corner, where Nathaniel is never allowed to go, is a trap door Nathaniel knows leads to the basement in which his father does his “business”.“I play in the little league a few towns over.”Allison scrunches her nose in confusion, making her eyes crinkle. Nathaniel watches her in awe. It’s the most emotion he’s seen in his whole life, at least the kind that doesn’t make him scared.“Why a few towns over? Isn’t there one here in Baltimore?” she asks, reaching out to pick the racket off the wall.Nathaniel shrugs again. “The people here don’t really like my dad.”“Oh,” Allison says, then decides to just leave the room. Nathaniel follows her back outside, content to sit and watch her mess around with his racket on the grass. She starts using it for fake martial arts moves after a few minutes, but she’s smiling so wide that Nathaniel can’t bear to stop her and show her the correct way.Eventually she tires of this and turns back to him. “Do you only have one racket? What about a ball?”Nathaniel goes back into the shed and grabs the single ball he has, showing it to Allison. She smiles again, and then they begin to play together, Nathaniel tossing the ball her way while Allison tries to catch it and toss it back.“This is boring,” Allison finally says. “I wish you had another racket and we could really play.”Nathaniel agrees with her, nodding. Allison tosses the ball back to Nathaniel one last time before putting her arms down, letting the racket rest on the grass. She comes over and sits next to him, so Nathaniel sits again as well.“I know!” she suddenly bursts out. “I’ll ask for a racket as well, and then whenever you come over you can bring yours, or whenever I come over, I can bring mine! Then we can actually play.”Nathaniel smiles wide. It feels weird – he doesn’t do it that often.Allison leans closer and holds out her pinky, like she’s an old Victorian lady having tea.“Here. I promise to get my own racket so we can play.”Nathaniel doesn’t know what to do.“Why are you holding your pinky out?”Allison’s eyes bug out. “Haven’t you ever heard of a Pinky Promise?”Nathaniel can hear the capitalization from the way she says it. He shakes his head.“You can’t ever break a Pinky Promise,” Allison teaches. “You lock pinky’s when you promise the other person something, and if someone does end up breaking it, then their pinky gets cut off!” Allison frowns. “At least they used to a long time ago. Now you just have to trust the other person.”Nathaniel thinks of his dad. He’s never going to make one with Nathan.Allison pushes her hand farther out, pinky still extended and waiting. Nathaniel slowly locks his own with hers – the pressure on his knuckle is uncomfortable as the finger stretches backwards, but it's not painful, so he can deal with it.“I promise to get a racket so we can play,” Allison repeats, then adds on, “I also promise that we will be friends forever.”Nathaniel’s jaw goes slack, then he tightens his grip on Allison’s pinky with his own, nodding intensely.“Your turn,” Allison instructs. “Both people have to promise something or its unfair.”Nathaniel wants to say Life is unfair – he’s been conditioned to think of that response, given the number of times he’s heard his father say it to him, but he doesn’t want to make his new forever friend mad.“I promise to never hurt you,” Nathaniel swears. “And even if my dad orders me to, I won’t kill you.”Allison’s eyes bug out again for a few seconds, but then she seems to remember what kind of family they both come from and nods.They hold it for a couple of seconds, and eventually, Allison breaks it, and just in time too.The back-door opening makes him whirl around. Both of their fathers are standing in the doorway, and Nathaniel scrambles to his feet, internally scolding himself for getting grass stains on his pants. He knows his dad will be furious and punish him for it later, after the Reynolds leave.“Come inside, Nathaniel,” his father orders, and Nathaniel nods before picking the racket and ball up from the ground, running to the shed and back to put them away as quickly as possible. Allison and their fathers have already settled into the sofas in the living room with their moms by the time Nathaniel joins them. He sits quietly between his parents with his feet flat on the ground and hands folded in his lap, head lowered slightly out of respect for the adults.Allison, sitting directly in front of him, sits back against the sofa, feet dangling so only her toes touch the ground. Her head is raised as she looks around at the art on the walls and vases on pedestals in the corners of the room.His father clears his throat. “Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds here have come to us with a proposition, and after much discussion, we have come to an agreement.”Nathaniel nods once, like he knows his father wants.“Like me, Mr. Reynolds runs a very successful business, and we have worked together many times in the past, but now, thinking of the future of both our empires, we have come to the realization that uniting will be beneficial to both of our families. Do you understand, Nathaniel?”He thinks he does, but he’s more focused now on how his mom is tense, hands clenched where they sit in her lap. Nathaniel risks a glance up at her face and sees her glaring at Allison of all people, like her gaze alone would be enough to cut Allison into tiny pieces like his father’s knives do.Nathaniel nods. His father waits for him to answer, so hesitatingly, Nathaniel says, “You want us to get married when we are old enough to.”Nathaniel wants to feel proud that his father smiles and nods at him once, like Nathaniel finally was worth something to him, but Allison frowns and looks disgusted, so instead Nathaniel wants to beg for forgiveness. He doesn’t want to marry her, and it’s clear she doesn’t want to marry him. He just wants a friend, and Allison is the first person he ever liked. The only other kids he knows are on the Exy Little League team, and they don’t get along the way friends should. They like each other well enough, but none of them go out of their way to hang out with their teammates. They all have friends from school with whom they hang out. Nathaniel has no one.But now he has Allison who loves exy too, but could also just stay with him to play other things since they’re supposed to one day be together and live in the same house and do whatever else married people do. Nathaniel hopes he doesn’t have to hurt her. His dad hurts him and his mom a lot, and if that’s one of the rules of being a dad and husband, he really wants no part in it.His mom reaches out and grabs his hand, squeezing hard enough to hurt.Nathaniel doesn’t pay attention to the rest of the conversation, as his father returns to speaking to Allison’s parents. She’s fuming, face red and arms crossed, kicking her feet so they thud every few seconds against the couch until her father scolds her to stop. She turns to pouting instead, slouching down and glaring at the floor, every once in awhile glancing up at Nathaniel. He tries to show her how sorry he is, and that he doesn’t really want to do it either. She must understand, because she doesn’t ever turn her petulant glares at him. She just looks at him with her sad eyes, like she doesn’t think she’ll ever be happy around him again.Nathaniel wants to cry. They had something so good starting.Later that night, after Allison and her parents went home, his mom tells him to stay in his room, and she’ll bring him dinner later. He ends up going hungry that night, knowing his mom is too busy taking care of the bruises and cuts his dad gave her after she yelled at him loud enough Nathaniel could hear all the way upstairs.He knows his mom doesn’t like Allison, and he wishes he could convince her that Allison was amazing and fun and wasn’t going to be the death of him like his mom screamed.
How could he choose between them?Six days later, he plays exy in Edgar Allen stadium with Riko Moriyama and Kevin Day, and the day after that, Nathaniel no longer exists.Three states over, Neil Josten is born.Allison is sixteen when she passes out on her high school exy court, hitting the ground hard after feeling her legs wobble and give out on her five minutes into the game. When she wakes up, she’s in the hospital, there are security guards standing sentry by her room, and most likely paparazzi outside the building.Her parents are sitting in the chairs provided, elegantly looking out the window in her mother’s case and reading something on his phone in her father’s. Allison wishes it were her grandfather here, not the people who caused her collapse in the first place.Allison tries to clear her throat, but coughs instead and feels like she’s choking, realizing too late that there’s a tube stuffed down it. Her parents look up sharply, her father calling for a nurse as her mother rushes over, petting her hair back and blubbering things Allison knows mean nothing in the long run. Her parents have their own appearances to keep up, after all.The nurse comes in and helps remove the tube. It feels weird, the way she can feel it sliding along her throat, burning just a little bit, but Allison has long become used to the feeling. She’s more familiar than most with sensitive teeth and burning in her nose and throat, the shakiness of exhaustion following her around all day long.The nurse talks nonsense for a while, telling Allison things she already knows: underweight, decay on the teeth, anemic, eating disorder.Her mother tuts and crosses her arms, looking the part for the concerned yet frustrated mother who wishes she had known, if only she could have done something. Allison rolls her eyes. The nurse thinks it’s at her and speaks harshly.“This isn’t a joke, Allison. Bulimia kills girls like you every single day. You need help, not to mock our attempts at getting you healthy again.”Allison grinds her teeth together to keep from talking back to the nurse. She knows the nurse is worried about her, and its refreshing, if frustrating at the same time.“I understand. I won’t do it again,” Allison promises, voice scratchy and soft.The nurse nods, then leaves the room, letting Allison finally face the full anger of her parents.“How could you embarrass us like this?” her father starts. “We allowed you to play your stupid game, but you agreed you wouldn’t slander our good name in any way. How are we supposed to go about this?” He holds up his phone, then reads off what are likely the titles of articles in the gossip magazines he tries to stay out of. “Reynolds heiress collapses at exy game, Parents shocked as Allison Reynolds’ eating disorder is discovered, At it again – Allison Reynolds in the spotlight for Bulimia.”Her father puts down his phone. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you spend that summer with your grandfather. Look what he’s turned you into. You were never supposed to be an exy player. Your fiancé was supposed to be the athlete for the Moriyamas, you were supposed to be the arm candy, the gossip for the magazines, not some jock who can’t even eat right.”Allison flinches at that. She hasn’t thought about Nathaniel in a long time. She knows his mother took him and ran. Only a small part of her wishes she could have gone with, escaped from this hell of a life. She’s glad he’s still gone though, hiding somewhere where the politics of being in one of the Families can no longer affect him, can no longer hurt him like it still does her.A hard rap on the door startles all of them, and the nurse from earlier comes back in. She begins unlocking the brakes from the bed, but when she starts to wheel Allison out of the room, her parents interrupt.“Excuse me, where are you taking her?”The nurse pauses to answer, though Allison can tell she’s reluctant to do so. “Now that she’s awake, we have a few tests we need to run. You won’t be allowed in the testing room with her, but don’t worry, we’ll keep you updated on the results.”It’s a lie. Allison can tell, she’s gotten good at identifying them, but her parents aren’t as fluent. Her father waves his hand dismissively as he and her mom sit back down, and the nurse takes her away.“Why did you really bring me out here?” Allison asks as they travel down the hallways, doctors and nurses stepping aside to make room for them.“I heard what they were saying,” the nurse answers. “You looked like you needed an escape.”Allison doesn’t respond until the nurse has wheeled her into an empty room and closed the door.“I’m sorry for being so harsh earlier,” the nurse says. “I have my own experience with eating disorders, and seeing young people like you just throws me back to that mindset.”Allison hesitates a few seconds. “Was it you?”The nurse frowns, then shakes her head. “No. My son, he ended up hospitalized for anorexia and I had no clue that he was suffering. He’s better now, but it was very touch and go for months.” The nurse debates for a few seconds, then reaches out and grabs Allison’s hand.“Your parents seemed like they didn’t care about anything other than their image.”Allison tries to hold it back. She really does – she hasn’t cried in years, not since the day she met Nathaniel and sobbed the whole way home about how it was unfair. Her parents hadn’t done anything, hadn’t responded other than telling her to shut up and stop whining, and ever since then, she hadn’t been able to. She’d become closed off just to keep sane.But here, with the nurse, she broke.Her eyes welled up and slowly overflowed, thin lines running down her cheeks. “They hate that I play exy,” she whispers. “They wanted me to be their perfect princess, but I love playing so much. They said if I could stay thin and pretty, and not become ugly with a bunch of muscles they would allow me to, so I started…” she stops. She can’t bring herself to say it out loud still, even though everyone else around her can.“And this fiancé they mentioned? That sounded pretty harsh too.”Allison nods. “I met him a few years ago. The whole thing is arranged - they want to make sure their business doesn’t fall to pieces. He was only ten then. But I don’t want to. I haven’t seen him since. I think he ran away to get out of it, but I can’t.”“They can’t really force you to do that, you know. Once you’re legally an adult, you get to make those decisions. They can pressure you, but unless you sign a marriage license of your own free will, it doesn’t legally count. ““It doesn’t matter with them. They’ll still find a way. They’re rich, remember?” Allison laughs brokenly.“So get away from them,” the nurse says. Allison just looks at her. How is she supposed to do that?“You’re sixteen. You can file for emancipation. Courts will grant it if you can prove you can support yourself on your own. If you start eating healthier, maybe get a job, they’ll likely rule in your favor. And on top of that, as a mandated reporter, legally I’ll have to report this as child abuse. Once Child Welfare Services investigate, you can tell the case worker everything you just told me. Normally children aren’t taken away from the families, but if you push for it, it might happen.”Allison wipes away the leftover tears from her face. It’s an idea. She has plenty of money stashed away – her grandfather, estranged as he was, taught her about backup plans. She had several accounts with large sums in them collecting interest. As long as she didn’t spend money too quickly, she could do it.Her parents would never let her get away with it. She’ll have to get them out of the picture.“Thanks,” Allison says. “I’d like that.”The nurse nods, then pulls out her phone. “I have to report this now, it’s part of the policy, but would you like to listen and add your own information?”Allison nods, then answers the questions the woman on the other end of the phone asks – her age, name, signs of abuse. The nurse has to answer first with what she noticed, but Allison gives extra details – the number of times she’s been forced to skip meals, the verbal attacks she’s endured for ruining her parents’ image, how her mother made an appointment for liposuction and forced her to wear push up bra’s despite how Allison protested.She thanks the nurse after the call ends, and once she’s been wheeled back in and a fake report has been given to her parents, she asks for her phone back. Her parents don’t want to give it to her, but once she promises that she’ll fix everything, they agree. The first thing she does is text her grandfather and ask for his opinion. He gives his blessing, says he’ll even let her stay with him until she graduates. She thanks him and pulls up the application for emancipation right in front of her parents.It’s easy enough to fill out; the hard parts will be getting a lawyer competent enough to win against her family’s money and going to court to get it approved, but Allison has faith in her abilities. She’s shadowed her parents her whole life, learning how to run their business from the sidelines, how to lie, how to get away with anything. She knows she’s going to succeed.The courts find her parents guilty of three separate cases of child abuse and negligence, in addition to several cases of tax fraud, smuggling, and human trafficking.Allison has always known her parents were bad people, but she hates having it spelled out in front of her. She hates knowing that they became rich off the misery of others.Her emancipation is processed at the same time, leaving her an independent adult in the eyes of the law, yet due to the additional criminal charges her parents were facing, she ends up the lucky new owner of the entire Reynolds empire. Legally, she won’t be able to run the company until she turns 21, simply due to company policy – in the meantime, the COO of the empire will keep things running smoothly – but assets and financial earnings will still belong to her. She will be able to pay for her private school education, her exy supplies, help her grandfather with his house payments, and most importantly (at least to her) finally be able to buy what she needs to regain her strength. In the past month with the trial, she had slowly started gaining weight, but her muscles are still barely there.The home gym she buys is more than she will probably use, but just knowing she is allowed to run long distances, lift weights, do cardio, any form of muscle-building exercise she wants makes the whole thing worth it.When she returns to school, Allison knows she will be the center of attention and gossip. She plans her debut, waiting until she is strong enough to play again, even better than before.Her shirt flows like water around her, showing off her arms, how they’re finally curved and strong like she’s always wanted. Her jeans are tight and dark wash, making sure everyone who sees her knows that her kicks hurt. She can’t wear heels to school unfortunately, so she doesn’t get the extra flare of calf muscle to show off, but she does put her hair up in a ponytail so her shoulders are visible as well, defined and beautiful. She feels the best she ever has in her life.Everyone parts for her as she walks, head held high, smirk on her lips. She’s become what the rest of her peers always aspired to be – they can no longer look down on her and claim she only plays because of her parents’ money. They’ll all know how hard she fought to get where she is, and that she will fight with everything she has before she ever lets slip even one inch of ground.She’s the Queen of this school, and the Queen of her own life.They win every single game for the rest of the season. Tabloids stop talking about the tragedy of her life, and instead start talking about her victories.When Neil is sixteen, he moves back to America. His mother comes with him, of course – he never intended on leaving her permanently, but so does his Uncle. He enrolls as a junior in the local high school, and during their first week there, they set up the operation.Mary had fled to England with him five years earlier, realizing that only her Family could protect them from the combined efforts of the three other Families looking for them. Now, they’re a united front, ready to take down Nathan permanently. They can’t take down the Moriyamas, not yet at least, and the Reynolds aren’t that big of a threat on their own, so eliminating Nathan will eliminate the danger.The first step is Neil’s job – he joins the school exy team as a striker and begins to help the team make a name for themselves. He has all of his junior year for this, from summer conditioning to the fall competitive season, then winter conditioning and spring competitive season. Really, it’s one competitive season in total, but due to how new the sport is, most high schools give the prime practice and game times to the more established sports, leaving exy practice and game times to be stretched out to when facilities are available. Neil thinks it was a desecration to the spirit of the sport that it gets shoved between them like an undesirable cousin in the family picture.That being said, having a full year to bring up the team and get them noticed will only help them in the long run. They want Nathan to notice Neil, after all. What better way to find someone looking for them than to send up a flare?Stuart and Mary are always available – should Neil ever see evidence of his father or his people, he’ll contact them and from there, the ambush will occur.Neil keeps a GPS tracker in an inside pocket in his shirt. Every day, after charging it all night long, he slips into the pocket and goes about his day. It’s nearly a year later, after he turns seventeen, that Nathan finally strikes. Neil and the team had won the district championship game, and after the team changes out and starts to head for the bus, Neil sees Romero watching him from a little way away.He messages both his mom and uncle, hanging back as the rest of the team gets on the bus. When they text back an affirmative, that he should give Romero an opportunity to seize and bring him to Nathan, he tells his coach that he thinks he left one of his shin guards in the locker room. His coach just sighs, waving him off with an order to run back and not dawdle. Neil makes a show of jogging to the locker room and pretending to search around, hearing Romero and whoever else was there trying to sneak up on him.He pretends to be surprised when they grabbed him, to fight as they dragged him out and away from people, but they didn’t make it very far. The moment they were out of sight, Neil heard the soft pop of a silenced gun going off, then the person behind him jerked and dropped to the ground. Neil heard three more pops as he turned around, in time to see Romero, Jackson, and Patrick hit the ground, a bullet between their eyes. Lola was trying not to swear in pain from the wound in her thigh, and Neil smiled his father’s cold smile at her as his mom and uncle emerged from the shadows.“You okay, Abram?” his mom asked, kicking roughly at Lola’s wounded leg.“I’m fine mom. Not a scratch. I’ve got to get back to coach before he starts to worry though.”Mary holsters her gun, leaving Stuart to keep an eye on Lola as she approaches her son. She pushes back the hairs that always fly into his eyes, pressing a single cold kiss to his forehead. “See you at home, Abram. We’re almost free.”Neil smiles back. “Love you, mom. See you at home.”He doesn’t see her again.By the time the bus has arrived back at their school and Neil has jogged home, there are police cars outside, red and blue lights making Neil’s head hurt. Stuart is outside, blood on his clothes, talking with one of the officers. When he sees Neil, he pushes past the officer without a second thought, reaching out to hold Neil close to him.“Thank goodness you’re alright, Ram,” he says.“What happened?”Neil wants to see his mom, but the longer his uncle hugs him, the more scared he becomes.The officer Stuart had been talking to approaches them. “Son,” he says, and Neil wants to snap at him that he’s not his son, “there was an incident. Your uncle here has identified the bodies, and what we think happened is that your father broke in while you were all out at your game, and he attacked your mom when she entered the house. Your uncle fought him off and killed him once he went inside, but your mother was already dying from her wounds.”“No,” Neil says, pulling away from his uncle. “I just saw her an hour ago, she was fine. How did he even get in? We were supposed to be safe from him.”He pushes past everyone that tries to stop him from entering his home, coming to a stop only a few steps inside, where he sees his mothers bloodied body, laying prone on the floor. At the entrance to the kitchen, his father lays, one of the kitchen knives buried in his back, multiple wounds leaking out blood.At least his uncle made his father hurt for everything he’d done.Neil turns back to his mother, sinking to his knees, uncaring of how the detective walking around shouts at him about contaminating the scene. He pushes his mom’s body to her back, closing her eyes for her. She’s wearing the necklace he bought her for her birthday only a few months ago – a simple, thin gold chain with a small pendant of the Hatford Coat of Arms. He unclasps it from her neck – he knows if he lets the coroner take her with it on, he’ll never get it back. It’ll be lost into the case file and the evidence locker, and Neil can’t lose this one last piece of her, what connects him to his family on the other side of the world.It takes a few weeks, but his Uncle’s trial goes as expected – the murder of Neil’s father was committed in self-defense, and Stuart is released. The FBI pressures both of them to go into Witness Protection, but they both know there’s no need anymore. Neil only cooperates with them long enough to legally change his name to Neil Abram Josten, then they both move back to Baltimore, back to the very house that Neil grew up in.Things look almost exactly the same, preserved from his childhood almost like a museum.Stuart helps enroll him as a senior this time in the nearby high school, and Neil once again signs up for the exy team. He really doesn’t have anything else to lose anymore, so he might as well continue to play the sport he loves so much.When people start to show up in the night, looking for work or for new orders, Stuart offers to take over for him. The Wesninski Family was large and controlled the entire city, and Nathan’s lieutenants were the only ones who truly wanted to harm Neil. The rest of the enforcers, dealers, snitches, and more were only too happy to still have someone of the Wesninski blood to follow, and Neil was raised for this.By the time his senior year finally starts, and Neil has to wake up in the morning and head to class, he’s controlling the underbelly of all of Baltimore. Nearly half of Maryland is his through association, and the rest of the East Coast knows there’s a new butcher in town. He may not hurt or kill people like his father did, but he runs his territory with an iron fist. He has his own enforcers, who only take out the people Neil okays – and he only ever okays the truly bad – and other workers continuously monitoring Moriyama activity. He doesn’t want them to catch him unaware when they eventually decide to strike, and Neil knows they will one day. He’s too big of a threat to them now that he’s grown up, allied himself with his Uncle’s side of the family, and taken over what used to be theirs.His life so far has been bloody, but hope still burns in him for the future.Meeting Coach Wymack fans those flames even higher.He’s kept up with Allison’s life through the tabloids. He knows she had a hard life just like him, only she wasn’t able to just run away from it. He’s proud of her for overcoming her eating disorder, proud of her for continuously choosing exy, and proud of her for how she overthrew her parents. He knows she’ll be taking over as the CEO in only a few months, once summer hits and she turns twenty-one, and he hopes that she remembers him.He tells his uncle she would be a good ally in their fight against the Moriyamas – she already knows him, and it had once been planned that they would merge the Families – but the real reason he wants her to remember him is because the day they played together is still his fondest memory. She was, and still is, the only friend he’s ever had.He knows it’s pathetic to be eighteen years old and still only have ever had one friend in his life, and to have only known her for one day, but he can’t help it. His life hasn’t given him many opportunities to make friends with people who didn’t have ulterior motives – he wants desperately to keep her.Wymack can’t even get through his whole speech before Neil interrupts, agreeing to sign whatever he must if he can play alongside her once again. Even knowing that Kevin Day is on the team isn’t enough to scare him, not when he had support at his back and an old friend in his future.Kevin somehow doesn’t recognize him, which Neil thinks is hilarious. He almost can’t wait for him to find out.He arrives at Palmetto State University the same day the rest of the team is flying in. He knows Kevin and his lot arrived earlier, but he had no reason to show up in the middle of his summer, especially not when he had a significant amount of work to get done before he could leave his city for a long period of time. His uncle flew back to England earlier that week, knowing Neil could handle himself, so the flight from a private airfield just outside of Baltimore to a different private airfield one town over from Palmetto is lonely, despite the short duration.Andrew is waiting to pick him up. He’s off those horrible meds in an attempt to pretend to be Aaron, but Neil had prepared before coming. He knows more about every team member individually than they probably know about each other combined.He meets the rest of the team as they arrive, smiling politely at each new person, shaking their hand or nodding. He doesn’t really care, he knows they’re nice enough, and he wants to be friends with all of them, but later.The door banging open causes the small talk around him to cut off. Neil looks to the open doorway with rapt attention, waiting impatiently as footsteps travel down the hallway. There’re two sets – one is heavy and loud, thudding each time a foot touches the ground, the other is light and doubled, the telling click-clack of high heels.The first one through the door is the man – Seth Gordon, entirely unremarkable to Neil. He knows Seth had saved Allison at a party once, but he also knows their on-again-off-again relationship is hurting her. Anyone who hurts her isn’t someone of whom he’s a fan.And then, finally, Allison is there.She greets Abby, ignoring Wymack like that is the greeting. He rolls his eyes in easy familiarity that Neil aches to have. Allison continues her perusal of the room, glaring a bit at Andrew and Kevin’s group, smiling softly at Renee, Dan, and Matt.Then she catches sight of Neil and freezes.Neil smiles and stands, leaving his arms open at his sides. “Hey Stranger. How’ve you been?”Around them, everyone is frozen in surprise, not expecting what’s playing out in front of them.“How?” Allison marvels. “I thought you were dead.”Neil shrugs. “I almost was. Dad caught us and got mom, but my uncle got him right back. Now I’m in charge.”It’s vague enough that everyone else in the room won’t realize what he’s admitting, but Allison does.Seth frowns and demands, “How do you two know each other?”Allison rolls her eyes and smiles mirthfully at Neil, waiting for him to answer.“She’s my ex-fiancée,” he says.“And thank god for that ‘ex’ part,” Allison adds, before finally breaking as she runs forward, wrapping her arms around Neil. She’s much taller than him, especially in the heels, so she easily manages to pick him up and swing him around in a circle. Neil could die happy right then and there, his arms tight around her in the first hug he’s gotten or given in years.In the background, Neil registers Seth swearing at him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Kevin figures it out not too long after that. The rest of the team has disappeared, leaving only him, Allison, Kevin, and his guard dog Andrew behind. They’ve completed their physicals – poor Abby wasn’t prepared in the slightest for the canvas his body is – and Kevin has started grilling Neil.“I can’t believe we didn’t know,” he says under his breath. “If word got out, especially right now with the Ravens…” Kevin trails off, white as a sheet, before coming back to himself and his train of thought. “The scandal, a failed relationship that was that serious? At least you’re still friends. It won’t be an issue, right? You’ll play together and this won’t come between you?”Neil shrugs. “Nope. Trust me, the fiancée thing wasn’t up to us. We’re both glad to be exes.”Allison nods in agreement, though the way she’s sitting on his lap carding her fingers through his hair would tell a different story to anyone who didn’t know better.“Definitely. You’re a looker, don’t get me wrong, but you’re really not my type. Oh, and while we’re on the topic of looks, where’re the baby blues? And what have you done to your hair?”Neil rolls his eyes, then pulls out the contacts he’s still in the habit of wearing. He prefers not to look like his father when he stares in the mirror, but it’s Allison. If she wants to see his natural coloring, so be it.“On the run from my murderous father, remember? I’ll let it grow out natural.”Allison tuts. “And you’ll let me take you for a proper haircut.”Andrew and Kevin are watching them with varying degrees of interest and confusion. Kevin’s finally got a look of familiarity on his face – he knows he recognizes Neil but can’t tell how yet.“Don’t worry about the Raven’s, Kevin,” he says, giving Kevin his full attention. “I’m handling them.”Andrew’s smile turns murderous as he picks up on the possible threat to Kevin. “And how would you know to do that?”“We all have a past, monster,” Allison interrupts.Kevin says nothing, only stares at Neil, unblinking for nearly a minute. Andrew is on a drugged rant, but Neil pays him no mind as he meets Kevin’s gaze. It’s obvious when Kevin finally gets it, because he inhales in shock and again turns white.“Nathaniel,” he says.“Neil,” Neil corrects.“You work for them.”Neil rolls his eyes and starts to say it’s not true, but Andrew is on his feet with a knife out, ready to protect Kevin.Neil can’t defend himself, not when Allison is trapping him by sitting on his lap, but before he can even begin to think of how to combat Andrew, a hand strikes out, knocking the blade out of Andrew’s grasp. It skids across the floor, holding everyone’s attention for a few seconds.“Damn,” Neil comments in awe. “When did you learn to do that?”Allison sits back against Neil from where she had jumped forward in his defense. Her posture reminds Neil of a dragon – protective of what she considers hers and perfectly willing to hurt anything threatening them.“Interesting,” Andrew says. “The princess can fight like a criminal.”Allison shrugs, unbothered. “I mean when you come from a family like mine or Neil’s, you learn pretty quickly how to fight dirty but look clean.”Kevin looks in shock at Allison. “Family like yours and Neil’s?”Neil looks to Allison. He had always known that the Reynolds were dirty – only someone with criminal ties would ever associate with his father, but apparently no one else expected that Allison would follow in their footsteps. Neil could still remember watching the news when her parents were sentenced to prison and all their sins laid bare, but maybe Kevin had missed it while in the Nest?“The Reynolds family was just as dirty as my own,” Neil answers. “Only Allison got them caught and thrown away to rot for decades.”“And now I rule their empire,” she finishes. “I wasn’t raised for it, but I’ve always been a fan of doing the exact opposite of what people want me to.”Andrew seems to understand this, because he sits back down, gesturing at them to continue the explanation.“Allison and I met a week before you and I did,” Neil says. “My mom and I ran to her side of the family, over in England, but then my dad caught up to us when we came back. His entire organization belongs to me now, and the Reynolds’ empire belongs to Allison.”“Although the business itself won’t for another few months,” she grumbles, looking put out. “Legally, at least.”“The point is,” Neil continues, “that we have three criminal organizations at our disposal – mine, my uncles, and Allison’s, all with the common enemy of the Moriyamas. I know you’re happy just to be free of them, but would you like to help us take them down as well?”Kevin’s shoulders fall, a distant look on his face. A minute passes, then –“Yes.”Practices are annoying. Neil only played with Kevin the one time when he was a child, and he’s starting to be thankful to his mom for running with them when she did. Kevin is a menace.He yells constantly at the whole team, telling them where they’re fucking up without telling them much on how they can improve. Dan does her best to soothe everyone and keep them functioning as an actual team, but it’s difficult managing Kevin’s ego compared to the rest. Most of the time, Andrew doesn’t even play, just sits in the bleachers or leans against his racket in the goal, not even bothering to turn his head as the balls sail past him to smack against the goal.One Friday night, after a particularly grueling practice, Andrew attempts to get Neil to come on their trip to Columbia, apparently where they used to live and still have a house. Neil passes – why would he go out with people who don’t trust him when he could be at the dorm?He doesn’t really like Seth, exactly, but he’s come to accept that he’ll be around. Matt is great, energetic and happy like a Labrador, always ready to help out a friend. He doesn’t know Neil all that well, but he knows that Allison likes him, so it’s good enough. Dan likes him, he thinks. She’s good at hiding her true feelings for the team, wanting to be an unbiased Captain, but she doesn’t seem to be unsettled by Neil or how he can sometimes come off. He knows that his life influences his behavior, that he’s twitchy and can’t sit with his back to the windows or the doors, that he doesn’t like to be touched without forewarning. Dan’s just adapted and doesn’t make a big deal of it.Renee is the only one Neil truly doesn’t know. She puts off a calm demeanor, but Neil knows she’s dangerous, knows that she would be able to hold her own against him in a fight. Anyone who ran with a gang as an adolescent and somehow escaped with their life would be able to. It unsettles him, and he makes sure to never be alone in a room with her. It’s not too hard – she’s always with Allison or Dan, so Neil is secure enough in his surroundings to not focus on her one hundred percent. It makes it easier to practice, knowing that the threats to his own safety are right now not focused on him.They lose their first game against the Jackals. Neil is furious about it – he hasn’t lost a game since he started playing as a striker, and this team that won’t get along with each other for five minutes just ruined that. Kevin is even more furious, somehow, but then again Kevin has always been like that, even as an eleven-year-old.Neil is sure it doesn’t help that he’ll have to make an appearance on a talk show early the next morning and go into detail about how they lost but hope to get better and a whole bunch of other stuff he’d rather not do.He’s especially furious about how the team doesn’t let him sleep the night after their first game, knowing he wouldn’t get up in the morning for his interview. Kevin was most definitely not a morning person – the only thing to get him up early was exy practice, and even then, he sleeps during the five-minute drive from the dorms to the court. He’s grumpy, but at least he’s awake.Kathy greets them out front, leading them to hair and makeup while practically ignoring the rest of the team. The makeup artists work miracles, somehow hiding the bags under Kevin’s eyes and the half inch of red Neil’s started letting grow in. When they’re done, Kathy looks both at Kevin and Neil like they’re a juicy steak and she’s starving. It makes Neil uncomfortable, but he knows she’s up to something, which is why it comes as no surprise to him when Riko walks out on stage, Edgar Allen’s fight song playing through the studio’s speakers.Kevin is petrified. Neil is livid.Riko and Kathy greet each other, her standing from behind her desk to shake his hand while he kisses her cheek. When choosing his seat, he menaces over Kevin for as long as he can get away with, before speaking.“Kevin. It’s been so long.”Neil, instigator at heart, scoffs. “Not long enough.”Riko shoots him a murderous glare. In the crowd, there’s a scuffle. Neil glances over, sees Renee sitting in Andrew’s lap with Matt and Coach Wymack holding his wrists down. A shudder runs down Neil’s spine. He knows how terrifying and constricting it feels, so he looks to Allison and gestures a little toward the group, pleading with his eyes to do something.Allison leans over from her seat, turning her face away so that no one can read her lips as she whispers into Andrew’s ear. Neil hopes she’s telling him to calm down, that Neil’s got everything under control.She must, because Andrew looks at Neil, waits a few seconds and then relaxes as much as he’s able. Neil knows that Andrew will come for him immediately after Riko if Kevin gets hurt, so he turns his attention back to the real threat in the room.“Oh,” Kathy crows, a mischievous look on her face. “Is that a little jealousy I hear? Tell me Neil, are you nervous about Kevin returning to the Raven’s and leaving you behind?”Neil shrugs. “Nah. Kevin’ll never go back to Edgar Allen. Besides, I don’t need him to help my own career. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t hurt having him by my side, but I would never force him to stay to further myself. I can build it all on my own.”Beside him, Kevin is white as a sheet, looking like he’s about to be sick but trying desperately to hide it. A fragile smile is pasted to his face with visible strain.Riko takes this as a victory and sits, thankfully one couch away.Kathy does her best to salvage the interview, thrown for a loop by Neil’s blasé answer. “Well, you may think he’ll never leave, but people do grow apart. After all, we never thought Riko and Kevin would grow apart either, but here they are, rivals.”Riko juts in. “Yes, it is unfortunate. I never thought this could happen either, but after the accident, and then a year apart… Well. It was just too hard. We had built our whole lives around being together as a partnership, but Kevin shattering his hand beyond repair destroyed everything. How could we stay together? It hurt us both too much.”Kathy nods compassionately, but Neil is just so done with his bullshit.“Well that’s rich coming from you, considering the fact it was you who broke his hand.”The studio goes quiet. Kevin turns a little green this time.Riko looks calm, the kind of calm that only comes before death.“You’re one to talk,” Riko says back to him, slowly, tasting the words as they leave his lips. “How dare you insinuate that I would hurt my partner, shatter everything we worked for, when you’re the one who comes from a malicious background, Nathaniel.”Well then. That changes things.Neil hadn’t realized Riko knew who he was. He had expected to see some kind of revelation on Riko’s face when he discovered it, but apparently, he knew before the interview even started.Neil blinks. Slowly.Kathy jumps in. “Okay then… There’s a lot to unpack there, but I’ll start with this.” She murmurs something under her breath that the mics can’t pick up on, but Neil thinks it was something close to ‘since it seems the least volatile’.“We all thought your name was Neil. Why is Riko calling you Nathaniel? Do you know each other somehow?”Hah! She thought that was the least volatile? Neil smiles his father’s smile. It didn’t happen very often, but when the law was on his side and helping him, Neil relished in using it to his advantage.He shrugs. “I was born Nathaniel,” he answers. “My father, Nathan, decided to name me after him when I was born. It was the only time he ever really liked me – I was never quite… vicious enough for him.”Kathy frowns and smiles at the same time. “How so?” she asks, voice flat.“Well, when your father is Nathan Wesninski, famous and bloodthirsty mobster known as the Butcher of Baltimore, there’s really only so much you can do to make him proud, and I never did a single one of them.”The silence is back. Riko clearly wasn’t expecting Neil to embrace his attack, because he’s gaping like a fish.“And yes, I do know Riko. We played together once as children, but the very next day, my mother took me and fled to England to escape my father. I started going by Neil Hatford, my mother’s maiden name. We bounced around for a few years, and ended up back in the states, in Arizona. Unfortunately, while I was at a game, my father caught up to us. He killed my mom, and tried to kill my uncle, but was killed instead. It was this huge thing with the FBI. They wanted him alive for info, but he was already gone. I, however, had been out of the house. I showed up a few minutes later, and I ended up being able to give them all the information they needed. His entire network of organized crime? Gone. Just like that.” Neil flicks his hand aside, strategically brushing Riko off a well. The audience might not have understood, but Riko sure did.“After that, they let me change my name legally to Neil Josten. I just had to move on, you understand, right Kathy? Having an abusive monster of a father finally leave my life forever? I wanted to get as far away from the last remnant of his as possible. It really was cathartic.”Kathy looks scared and horrified. She wasn’t expecting Neil’s story – no one in the audience was, really – but she jerks back to professionalism in an instant. “Of course we unders- “Neil interrupts, looking over at Riko. “Oh, wait. Riko. Was you saying my birthname supposed to hurt me? I think we’ve already determined that you’re bad at that. I mean, honestly,” He puts a hand on his chest, wrist poking out as he gestures towards himself like a scandalized old woman.“Here I am, unbothered. And here’s Kevin. Still playing, and of course, still better than you.”Riko finally breaks, snarling at Neil. Kathy does the right thing for the first time and interrupts him loudly, “And that’s all we have time for tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed our show and don’t forget to tune in tomorrow night with our special guest-” she flounders for a moment, unable to remember the name, then continues, “someone. Whoever it is that’s coming. It’ll be… great.”The red lights signaling that the cameras are recording blink off, and a second later, Riko is out of his seat, storming off stage and back to his room to lick his wounds. Neil smiles, satisfied.Neil Josten is a savage.The whole interview will forever be burned into Allison’s memory as one of the best days of her life, one of the best hours in the entirety of history. She doesn’t think anything will be able to top it, but for the first time in her life she looks forward to being proved wrong.She loves seeing this side of Neil, fierce and unapologetic in what he says. She remembers how Nathaniel had always waited to speak, had whispered or murmured, or had done everything he could to seem smaller, quieter, less obtrusive.Neil is everything she wished for him to become, and here he is, taking life by the reins and making it his.She wants to think his mother would be proud of him, but she knows better. She’ll just have to be proud of him for her.On the bus back to Palmetto, she sits with Neil, arm around his shoulder and middle finger up at Seth who grumbles. Renee takes the seat next to her, a bodyguard against any threat.Allison loves Seth, she really does, but he will never understand her the way Renee does. Even when they first met and got off to a rocky start, they respected each other. Renee knew of her past, and Allison suspected, but when they finally became friends and came clean about everything, Renee had looked at Allison in a way no one else had before. At least, no one other than Neil and the one nurse who had saved her.From then on, Renee had been her protector in the shadows. Both knew Allison could protect herself, but it never hurt to have backup.When they get back to Palmetto, Kevin disappears, but Neil follows the girls into Allison’s room. He looks exhausted, so she pushes him down onto the couch they have, sitting next to him. Renee and Dan don’t comment, only put on a movie and sit nearby. About halfway through, Allison is surprised when Neil moves. She thought he had fallen asleep, but he reaches out slowly, before very gently looping his pinky around hers.Allison is struck with the memory of the day they met, how Neil had been so scared and surprised and hopeful when she promised to be friends forever.She leaves their pinkies tangled and returns to watching the movie, but she doesn’t really pay attention anymore, especially when Neil finally does fall asleep. His head slowly slips until its resting against her arm, and his soft, tiny breaths and mewling snores remind her of a tuckered-out kitten.“Renee,” she whispers. “Take a picture.”Renee does, her characteristic smile on her face.Allison wakes him for dinner, smiling behind his back at his rumpled, sleepy face, but Neil is only a few bites into his bowl of pasta when there’s a knock on the door. Outside are the Monsters, dressed for their usual night out, and in Andrew’s hands are clothes.“You’re coming out with us tonight,” Aaron says, arms crossed as he watches Neil. “We don’t trust you, and after the stunt you pulled today, Andrew wants to keep his eyes on you.”Neil just blinks slowly, then reaches out to take the clothes. Allison shuts the door in their face.“You don’t have to go,” she says, but Neil shakes his head.“I brought a lot of heat down on us today. If this is what it takes, I’ll do it.”Allison frowns. “Then I’m coming with you.”Neil blinks again. “Okay. Does that mean Seth is coming too?”“And Renee,” she answers.Neil frowns. Allison knows he doesn’t like Seth and is uncomfortable around Renee, but he gives in and nods.They end up taking two cars, despite Andrew protesting in his own drugged up way. There’s just no way for his four and Allison’s four to fit in a five-seater, especially with how big Seth is. They follow behind the Monsters until they pull into a parking lot at a diner called Sweeties. Neil is still a bit hungry from not finishing his dinner, so he’s happy he’ll be able to eat. Allison, on the other hand, isn’t looking forward to it.Even though she’s healthier now, she still has issues with eating. Most of the time she makes herself eat, keeps track of her daily intake so that she’s not undereating, and reaches out to Renee now when she wants to purge, but she’ll never be fully comfortable eating in front of a large group of people.Neil grabs her hand as they walk toward the doors, offering that silent comfort.Inside, the Monsters head straight to a table without waiting to put their name in. The diner isn’t super busy, but enough so that they should’ve waited to be seated by a server. Either way, the waiter shows up within a minute with menus, but only passes them to Allison’s group.“The usual?” he asks the Monsters. Nicky nods back, a wide, flirty smile on his face.When the rest of them have finally decided what they want, the server comes back with the others’ order – a bowl of ice cream for Andrew and Nicky, a sandwich and shake for Kevin, and a bowl of Mac-n-Cheese for Aaron.The Monsters finish by the time the rest of them are fed and sit there, watching them. Nicky tries to make conversation, but its hard when the only other person talking is Seth, taking every chance to bring Nicky down.Neil, bless his little heart, finally snaps. “Look, Seth, they invited us out and are paying for our meal. They’re even getting us into an exclusive club. The least you can do is shut up about Nicky’s romantic and sexual habits. He’s really not going to jump you, okay?”Allison tries not to laugh at how red Seth’s face gets. He would just get mad at her for not taking his side.But, well. It’s true.When they leave and get to the club, Allison lets everyone out of the car, then pulls out after Andrew. She follows him around the block to a parking structure, even managing to snag a spot only a few parking spaces down from him.Surprisingly enough, he waits for her to catch up to him before walking to the club.There’s a line outside the building, but they just walk right in. Andrew bumps fists with the bouncer while people complain, but only a moment later someone asks, “Is that Allison Reynolds?”Allison ducks inside before anyone can snap a picture.The place is deafening, a thrum of heavy bass and neon lights combining to make her wish she could shut off all of her senses. She loves it.The rest of the group are already at a table, a ring of drinks and empty shot glasses in a circle. Seth is looking tipsy already, a truly impressive feat for a man his size. Allison sits between Seth and Neil to make sure there’s no blood spilled tonight.After a while, Seth gets up to go dance, followed by Aaron, Nicky, and Kevin. Allison laughs once under her breath - that’s definitely going to cause a fight – but ignores them, only looking to Renee. She smiles and slips after them, content to make sure they were safe.Allison doesn’t leave Neil’s side, preferring to present a united front with him against Andrew, though she does tune them out to people-watch. Even if she had listened, she wouldn’t understand – they’re talking in German, having discovered a few weeks earlier they both knew the language.Well, Andrew is. Neil is responding in English, though at one point he does swear under his breath in French. Allison laughs at the twitch in Andrew’s eye when he realizes Neil also speaks a language he doesn’t know. Allison makes a mental note to make use of that in the future, since she knows enough French to get by.At one point, Kevin returns with Aaron to the table to sit and get their breaths back. Renee is still in the crowd, monitoring Seth and Nicky to make sure they don’t kill each other, and Allison tries to find them. She only sees Renee and Nicky though – Seth is nowhere to be found.“He’s in the bathroom,” Aaron interrupts her thoughts. “Someone offered him Cracker Dust, so he went to go take it in the bathroom.Allison sees red. Seth had promised her that he was trying to stay clean, that he was turning things around, but if he thinks he can just sneak off for a quick fix in the bathroom without her noticing, he’s got another thing coming.She heads toward the bathroom, pleased when Neil immediately stops listening to Andrew to follow her. She’ll always have his back, he’ll always have hers.Allison pushes the door open roughly, not really caring if it hits someone. She angry, and anyone who sees that either gets out of her way or gets run over.“Seth!” she shouts into the bathroom. The answer is a grunt and the slam of something heavy against the only closed stall door.Neil creeps in, then ducks to look under the stall. “There’s a second person in there,” he says, then pulls himself under. Allison’s heart leaps into her throat when Neil lets out an “oomph” of pain and then there’s more of a clamor.There’s another thud against the door.The skid of the metal lock sliding back.The creak of the hinges as it drifts open.Three people burst out.Neil is on a stranger’s back like a koala, arms wrapped around his neck and legs locked around his chest. The stranger is standing behind Seth, one arm wrapped around Seth’s throat while the other arm waves around wildly, a full syringe in his hand. Then there’s Seth, red faced and trying desperately to breathe and fight off his attacker while simultaneously attempting to keep the syringe-hand away from his neck.Allison sees her chance and takes it, shoving her hand hard up against the nose of Seth’s attacker. Blood immediately gushes out all over Seth’s head, but the attacker at least lets go to grab at his broken nose. Neil takes that moment to bring his elbow down hard on the man’s shoulder, and Allison aims a kick at his kneecap with her stiletto. It sinks into his leg nicely. Sure, it’s gruesome, but it’s also satisfying how he screams and falls to the ground. Neil slams his head against the ground, and the attacker is out cold.Allison smiles cruelly at his splayed body. No one messes with her people and gets away with it scot free.Seth coughs as he stumbles to his feet, leaning heavily on the wall to stay upright. He looks around madly, then finally relaxes when he sees his attacker is unconscious and Allison’s there. She takes his arm and slings it over her, supporting him as she leads him out of the bathroom.“C’mon,” she says. “We’re leaving.”The Monsters aren’t happy to be leaving early, especially because of Seth in Nicky’s case, but Andrew finally shuts them up by going to get his car. Allison hands her keys to Renee, and a few minutes later, they’re all loading up into their rides to head to the Monsters’ home in the city.Allison is glad to be out of the public view, having heard three separate calls of her name and noticed two paparazzi surreptitiously taking photos of her holding up Seth.At the house, Allison hands Seth over to Renee.“Take care of him?” she asks. For a split second, Allison sees Renee’s eyes harden in anger, but then she’s smiling and nodding.“Of course,” she replies.Allison gets back in the car. Neil gets in the passenger seat beside her.She pulls out onto the suburban street and just drives. She doesn’t have a destination, she just can’t bear to not be doing anything right now, even if it means wasting gas driving in ever-expanding loops.After half an hour, Neil points to a driveway, so Allison pulls in. They left the residential areas of Columbia behind fifteen minutes earlier and ended up in the business and urban area, so the driveway leads to an empty lot. Allison parks, looking out at the warehouse just on the other side of the chain-link fence. A floodlight on the building illuminates the painted White Satin Sugar on the surface. The air smells just a little like burned sugar mixed with oil when she finally opens her door, grabbing her hidden pack of cigarettes she keeps for occasions like these.She doesn’t allow herself many vices, not when the entire world is still watching for her to slip up and go back to her old ways, but sharing a cig with Neil sounds like the one thing that will finally let her relax.She lights it and takes in a deep breath by the time Neil has joined her, holding it for a few seconds before letting it out in a cloud. She uses it to light a second one, passing it to Neil. He takes the first drag, blowing it out slowly, leaning into the smoke with closed eyes.“It reminds me of my mom,” he says.Allison doesn’t reply, only takes another drag.“She died a little bit ago, you know. I saw her body next to my father’s, my uncle covered in their blood…”He lifts his cigarette to his lips for a rare second inhale.“He’s still alive, Allison. We stopped it. He’ll be okay.”Allison sneers at the ground. “He shouldn’t have even been in danger in the first place.”Neil flinches and looks away. “I’m sorry.”Allison rolls her eyes. “What for?”“For running my mouth. The attack tonight? It was probably retribution from Riko.”Allison barks out a laugh. “Oh, don’t even go there. You were amazing in that interview. If Riko decided to attack us because of it, that’s on him, not you.”Neil shrugs. “Still. He’ll probably try again.”Allison sighs. “What are we going to do about him? We have to stop him somehow, but we’ll need help from everyone. Going against the Moriyamas would be a death sentence otherwise.”“You get your people together,” Neil says. “I’ll deal with mine, and I’ll get my uncle to come over to the States. We’ve already been making plans to overthrow them. We’ll stop them, Allison.”Allison looks up at him, smiling softly. “Yeah?”Neil smiles and holds out his pinky. Allison grins and locks hers around his.“Yeah. I promise.”