Chapter Text
Neil may have been able to duck the racket flying towards his stomach, but that didn't stop his face from colliding with the floor.
Behind him there was a scoff of amusement and Coach Hernandez tried to help Neil up, but Neil stared at the offered hand until it dropped. A rough voice berated whoever clobbered Neil but Neil didn't care, he had to leave and he had to do it fast. Seeing Wymack, the Coach of a poor excuse for a Collegiate 1 Exy team, had made him panic.
While Wymack wasn't necessarily a threat, him being here could risk everything. Neil was full of questions, why was Wymack here and more importantly was he here alone. If he wasn’t, Neil had no doubt who would be with him. Wymack’s team, while made of mostly nobodies, held a few threats, the biggest of which being someone from his past, a connection to his father.
He heard what he thought was only three heartbeats in the locker room quickly become four. Someone else was here and Neil could only think of one other person it could be.
Kevin Day was raised in the Nest by the most ruthless alien hunters on Earth, the Moriyamas. Of course most people didn’t know that, nor their involvement in the Japanese yakuza, what they did know was that the Moriyamas were an influential family that managed the best college Exy team. This was to be expected considering they helped to invent the sport along with Kayleigh Day, Kevin's mother, who tragically died years ago.
So, the Moriyamas took in Kevin and raised him alongside their son, Riko Moriyama, training them in both Exy and alien hunting. Many joke that the Day family line must be cursed, because similar to his mother, Kevin was also in a tragic accident which left him with a broken wrist and the threat of never playing Exy again. Much to the surprise of every Exy fan, Kevin appeared as an assistant coach for none other than the Palmetto Foxes last year. And this year he signed on as their starting striker, going from the royalty of the Ravens to the failure of the Foxes.
Even more surprising was Kevin’s sudden familiarity with Andrew Minyard, a blonde man known to most as a violent, unstable criminal. They were never seen apart, and he just tried to split Neil in half with an Exy racket. If Andrew Minyard was here, then so was Kevin Day.
Neil knew that if Kevin remembered him his cover was blown. He could feel his mother's hand pulling his hair, screaming at him to run, but the blood dripping down his face and the pounding of heartbeats was all he could process. If Mary could see him now, she’d be rolling in her grave— only she never got one, unless you count the ashes scattered across the California coast.
Neil is interrupted in reminiscing over his mother’s dead body when Wymack sighed. “Minyard, what was even the point? Did swinging that racket make you feel better?” A painfully cheerful voice replied over Neil’s head “ My bad, coach, it's not my fault the kid can’t keep his feet on the ground.” He then looks down at Neil with forced sympathy, “ 10 points for dodging, but next time maybe try to stick the landing.”
Neil decides he won’t stand for this, “Fuck you.” He grits out between bloody teeth, but no one is listening to him. Wymack and Andrew continue to bicker and Neil has had enough ” If you’re not gonna listen to me, I’m just gonna go.” Neil finally gets to his feet, noticing that they still aren’t listening. Eventually, Neil loses his temper and clears his throat loudly “If you dickwads wanna keep arguing all night, I’m leaving!”
Despite this, he doesn’t move to leave. Andrew turns to him expectantly and when nothing happens he holds up his hand “ Your volume level is up here,” he moves his hand down, “and I’m going to need it down here. Inside voice.” Neil prepares to start a fight and most definitely lose it, but Wymack tells Hernandez and Andrew to scram.
Finally two heartbeats leave the room and Neil can breathe again. Wiping his nose, he sees blue blood staining his hand. David Wymack starts speaking “ Listen kid, I flew all the way out here to sign you and I can't imagine you’ll get another offer. ”
Neil wants to get the fuck out of here, the voice is harsh on his sensitive ears and he knows someone else is in this room and that it's likely Kevin. “ What makes you think I could be a fox? I have no interest in joining the dumpster fire that is your team. Joining a team full of addicts, psychos, and ex-Ravens is not on my bingo card. There’s no place for me on a court next to Kevin Day and there never will be.” Wymack begins, but is cut off by a voice that fills Neil with dread.
“ I’ve seen your tape, you have potential given some proper coaching. Are you saying that I can’t recognize talent, although sloppy, when I see it? I can help you, it'd be idiotic to refuse me.” Neil hates when he’s right, why couldn’t he be wrong just one time; it's really not helping with his inflated ego. “ I said I’m not interested, I don’t intend to play Exy after high school and I never have.”
With a flat face Kevin says “ Do you think I’m blind. I’m not a dumbass. I can see that you play like a stray dog fighting for scraps in an alley.” Neil gives up denying it, he obviously won’t fool Kevin, and starts looking for the emergency exits.
How Kevin can look at Neil and not remember that week in the Nest, he has no idea.
He had been taken to the Nest for about a week when he was younger to play Exy. He played hard and non-stop, for once he was free from Baltimore and he planned to enjoy it for as long as it would last. At the Nest, Lola couldn't give him his lessons and he was hours away from the basement— he could stay with the other kids Kevin, Riko, and Jean. Obviously, it didn't last very long, once his father cut a man like deli ham on the court in front of everybody, his friends quickly lost interest in playing with Neil.
It didn't help that they had been weary to befriend him in the first place, considering what he was. That night his mother snuck him from the Nest and they'd been on the run ever since. Well, he had, his mother stopped running about a year ago after she was caught and killed.
Once Kevin stopped his tirade, Wymack cut in “ Neil, if you sign with us you can play Exy and go to college and yeah yeah all of that is great. But you'll be provided with food and a room which honestly is more than you have now from what I'm seeing. And you'll live on campus away from whoever you need to be away from.”
Neil felt backed into a corner, defenseless and small. He wanted to yell, to fight, to scratch out Wymack's eyes, and run. The only person he needs to get away from is Kevin and Neil is about to say as much when it registers, Exy. It may have started as a way to get away from his father, but he's been drawn to it ever since. His mother basically had to drag him away from every court the first year they'd been running, but that’d been quickly beaten out of him.
Before he could think about what his mother would do to him, a quiet “ Ok” slips past his lips. At first he thinks it was too quiet, that Wymack hadn't heard him, but a contract is handed to him and a gruff “ I hope I'll see you this Fall” is muttered and Neil is left alone. Neil can bullshit himself all he wants, but he knows that he’ll be seeing Wymack in the fall.