AFTG; All the lies in your name
May. 16th, 2020 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ephitomisTitle: All the lies in your name
Fandom: All for the game
Pairing: Neil/Andrew
Notes: Written for the prompt "Rating: SAFE | warning: Alternate Universe | genere: Romantico" & "Sweet but Psycho, Ava Max | il fanwork deve essere ambientato, in parte o tutto, in una scuola o istituzione scolastica" for Esploratori del Polyverso
Wordcount: 5190
Summary: High School/powered AU; Neil trasnfers to Columbia High in the middle of the school year. And he catches the eye of someone
Neil transfers in the middle of the year. Normally he would have avoided this in any way he could. Transfering so late in the school year was bound to attract attention towards him, and Neil has built his entire life on never being the center of attention.
There’s nothing to be done this time, however, not enrolling in school would just attract even more attention on him.
He needs the cover story of school, and he needs them to believe that his parents are present, just a little distant. He has been perfecting this with his mother his entire life, and while it’s harder now that he’s on his own, he’s had practice.
For these reasons he isn’t really surprised when he gathers more attention that he would have liked. And as much as he tries to avoid the looks of the people around him, by the end of his first school day, he has heard outlandish voices about him.
Neil doesn’t like to think that his life might be consider even crazier than some of them.
Still, he manages to close the day without having talked to anyone, so he takes his victories when he can.
A couple of girls in his class had tried to talk to him, probably to gather the new gossip before anyone else, but Neil had brushed them off quickly and effectively.
There’s only one problem, because Neil’s life is never as easy as he would like it to be. There’s someone watching him, someone who has been watching him ever since the second period.
It would seem impossible to have a stare constantly at his back, even with all the classroom changes, but Neil could swear that it never left him.
It had seemed random in the beginning, when everyone was looking at him and whispering between themselves, but Neil can recognize a pointed stare when he’s the victim of one.
His first instinct had been to run, of course, his legs starting to vibrate under the table faster than what was normal, but he had known that was an exaggeration. His father couldn’t find him there, he knows, not so quickly, and it’s extremely difficult for anyone to recognize him.
After three hours, Neil had been able to pinpoint the owner of the stare, following him in the corridor. A small boy, smaller than even Neil, walking boredly from one classroom to another.
Everything from his stance, to his eyes, to the slouch of his shoulder screamed bored and disinterested, but Neil had always been extremely good at reading people, even someone as closed off as this man.
There was a purpose in his walk, a concentration to his eyes. A single mindedness to his breath.
Whoever that man was, he had noticed Neil, and he hadn’t liked what he had noticed.
It’s a problem, Neil thinks that afternoon. He’s renting a small room that’s entirely too distant from the school, but that allows him a modicum of freedom. It’s a roof over his head, and that’s more than he usually had.
Still, he doesn’t like that there’s someone in this school that seems to be intelligent enough to look under Neil’s mask and catch a glimpse of his lies.
It worries him. The idea of running again makes him feel incredibly tired. Neil’s alone now, and without the motivation from his mother, the idea of leaving seems like an unwinnable challenge.
He will have to, sooner rather than later, but he just bought these new documents, and it hadn’t been cheap.
Without his mother he doesn’t have the same connections she had, nor her skill in exchanging favors with them.
Not for the first time, Neil thinks about the possibility that he might not be able to survive on his own. The only thing that keeps him moving forward are his mother’s words, the promise that he wouldn’t have stopped, wouldn’t have let them catch him.
But what can Neil do on his own?
He wonders if he was using his own powers without realizing that day. If maybe he had been lying to her, and hadn’t even realized it.
Neil, like almost everyone in this world, has a power. Being born without a power is rare, so Neil doesn’t hide his ability. There are more people born with superspeed than there are people born without abilities.
So Neil enrolls in school and runs as fast as he wants to show them when they ask him to demonstrate his power. He’s not put in the classes for prodigies, but he’s in the middle. That’s what he likes.
Of course, if Neil has run as fast as he could, things might have been different, but he has learnt his lesson.
There had been a place, once, for him at Evermore, the most prestigious superpowered school of the entire country, but that was a long time ago.
Now Neil is one of the average. He’s just another face in the middle classes, and that’s what he likes.
Of course, unlike almost everyone in the world, Neil has a second power. It’s a rare mutation, something he keeps hidden. Something that helps him more than his first power does.
Neil’s power is lies.
He can lie as well as he can breathe, and when he tells a lie, the person listening believes it. Even if he has to change his own memory to make the lie work.
It helps a lot, of course, but it’s not a miracle cure. It works only with people he can talk to, for starters.
Still, he makes sure to keep his ability under wraps and use it only when he needs to. Unlike superspeed, this power isn’t common, and he knows that his father or his men could trace him quickly if words of a liar reached their ears.
Neil plans to finish the school year without attracting too much attention and then vanish into the night, stare or no stare.
Neil’s second day is, unfortunately, not as quiet as his first one.
Everything starts when he realizes he doesn’t have his history book, and has to ask his classmate to follow along in his book. Matt, the person he asks, smiles and agrees readily.
And that’s Neil’s mistake.
Matt seems to think that this means they are friends now, and even if Neil tries to avoid him, by lunch time he’s seated in the cafeteria with Matt on one side and Dan, his girlfriend, on the other, telling him everything about the school.
Neil eats, and tries to pay enough attention not to appear rude, but he would really prefer to stay on his own. It’s then that he feels a glare at his back, familiar enough.
He waits a couple of minutes before looking back, and encountering the gaze of the same boy from the previous day.
Dan must realize after a couple of seconds that Neil isn’t listening to her anymore, because she stops and looks back as well. “Fuck, that’s Minyard,” she says, low.
She doesn’t like him very much, Neil can tell by her voice and the way she immediately stiffens. He can also tell it has something to do with Matt because of the concerned look she gives in her boyfriend’s direction.
Maybe Neil should let the discussion return to the idle chatter from before, but if this Minyard is someone he has to avoid, he needs to know who he’s facing.
“Minyard?” he asks, then, hoping Dan would tell him more.
Surprisingly it’s Matt that continues, without even looking backward. “Yeah, Andrew Minyard, he’s a little bit of a psycho,” he says, slurping some of his juice. “I mean, he’s… he has some loose screws in there, that’s for sure.”
“He’s a fucking psychopath,” Dan says, with much more venom. “He shouldn’t be allowed to be here, but since he’s medicated…”
“Medicated?” Neil wonders, blinking. That’s… surprising. He knows perfectly well what Dan means, of course, and it’s one of the worst punishments that can be assigned a powered. Of course that’s not what doctors say.
The official story is that these type of medications are only administered to safeguard the health of the patient in cases where someone’s power is too destructive to be controlled.
But Neil can’t even imagine how it must feel like to have your power so close and yet so far. Not being able to call upon it in full.
“Yeah,” Matt continues, looking back as well. Minyard, noticing their gazes on him, simply lowers his gaze, but Neil knows that he’s still watching them. If Neil moved, he’s sure that Minyard’s eyes would follow him. “He kicked the shit out of a couple of people and now he’s under the pills.”
That’s it? It didn’t really seem something that warranted the use of such extreme measures. Dan might have picked up on his skepticism because she continues: “He almost killed them all. Their powers were nothing against his, a lot of people say that without the medications he’s one of the strongest powered out there.”
Neil nods, thinking that almost killing four people might be reason enough for the pills, at least for those that are forced to follow the law. His father never seemed to have any problems avoiding it.
“Now he’s in the middle classes like all of us,” Matt continues to explain, shrugging. “His twin is in the school as well but…”
“Aaron is in the first classes,” Dan finishes, shrugging.
First classes were usually reserved for people with little to none abilities. Those who had some kind of ability, but it wasn’t strong enough to really shine.
“So is his cousin, but that’s because he doesn’t have any powers. Aaron at least has some healing capabilities,” Matt continues. “Still, they don’t have the same lunch hour, so Andrew usually eats alone.”
“Ah,” Neil comments, before going back to eating his own food. He can still feel Andrew’s stare on him, but more covert now.
Someone else might not have picked up on it, but Neil is used to noticing these kind of things.
“Why is he watching you?” Dan asks him, evidently noticing Andrew’s interest as well.
Neil shrugs, and for once he doesn’t even have to lie. “I don’t know,” he replies honestly, “he’s been doing it since yesterday.”
Matt shifts quickly at his side, and Neil looks towards him. He’s tense, and he has lost most of the friendliness from before. “If he gives you any powers,” Matt says, looking into Neil’s eyes, “come to us, okay? We can help you.”
That… seemed like a very worried tone. “Didn’t you say that he’s medicated? I mean…”
“Andrew is crazy,” Dan stops him, with a huff. “It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have his powers anymore, okay? He’s… he’s just dangerous with or without them. And if he has taken an interest in you... “
Neil doesn’t know how to tell her that he’s had people interested in him all his life, and that Andrew Minyard is the least of his worries. Still, he understands that these people don’t know real evil and a school bully might actually be their biggest worry.
He doesn’t know how it would feel to be like them. Is he envious? Annoyed? Maybe a mix of the two.
“It’s okay,” he says, looking back into his own bowl, “I can take care of myself.”
Dan seems ready to say something else, but Neil sees Matt stop her. Maybe, Neil thinks, Matt has actually paid more attention to Neil than what it seemed.
“Well, let us tell you about everyone else you need to stay away from, yeah? There’s Jack and that dude sucks.”
Andrew seems to be content with just staring at Neil for the rest of the week and not even in a subtle way. Everytime Neil catches his stare, the other simply keeps staring at him with a placid expression.
Neil would have said he was starting to get used to it, but Neil would never be able to get used to something like this. It makes him think of his father, of people hunting him, of his mother’s hurried whispers.
Still, he doesn’t give Andrew the satisfaction of actually reacting to him in any way besides sometimes stare at him right back.
He won’t give the other the satisfaction, nor show a weakness in such a obvious way.
After all, what other reasons did he have but try to get to Neil. Of course, he still doesn’t know why, but it’s obvious that Andrew wants to unnerve him, even if he’s not sure why.
It appears, however, that Andrew is rather content in the situation, and doesn’t want to do anything more than watch him. Neil… soldiers on as well as he can.
It’s why it surprises him to see Minyard one day in the library, head bent over a book and definitely not watching Neil.
It’s the first time he has seen him looking away from Neil and it’s… surprising, to say the least. Then, after a second, Neil notices the different shirt, the sligh lighter hair, the red bag (where Andrew never had anything but black).
A twin, he remembers out of the blue. Of course. Dan had called him Aaron, if he remembers correctly, and he watches him for a second. He’s curious, he realizes, for no particular reason but the fact that he has been worrying about this guy’s twin for so long that it’s strange to see a Minyard completely disinterested in him.
Nice, but strange.
Still, he looks around the library and sees that most of the tables are already full of people talking to each other, or generally being obnoxious. Neil needs to study.
A problem of transferring in the middle of the school year and having led a life that allowed him few times to actually study, is that Neil is behind most of the curriculum.
He debates for a second returning to his home, but he also knows that it’s completely impossible to focus there when his neighbors scream at practically every hour of the day.
In the end Neil sighs and sits down at the same table of Aaron Minyard.
The other doesn’t even look up from his book to acknowledge his presence, so Neil does the same.
He focuses on his own books, and ignores the other boy and he realizes that they can actually work well together. In the sense that they manage to avoid making eye contact with each other, and Aaron seems as motivated as him to ignore anything else in the library but his books.
It's only after half an hour that Aaron curses and then slams the hand on the table in frustration. Neil jumps, a little surprised and too used to being spooked by loud noises, but tries to contain his reaction.
Aaron doesn't seem to notice him, however, he stands up cursing and then walks away in the direction of the vending machines.
Neil should really go back to his own books, he knows that very well, but he's curious, and so he glances at the other's book, without moving from his place. It's calculus, he can tell, and nothing too difficult by Neil's standard.
He likes math, used to do some exercise during particularly long car rides. He knows not everyone agrees with him, but Neil likes the simple and clear solutions that math offers.
Before he can really stop himself he's leaning forward and already solving the problem in his own head, and enjoying the challenge, when he feels someone stop near him. Neil turns, then, and sees Aaron watching him, with a snack in his hand.
"What are you doing?" Aaron asks him, and Neil know that he should be lying. After all, he can tell him he was watching the other side of the room and Aaron wouldn't have any other choice but believe him, but... but.
"The solution is 13," he says, in the end, cursing himself.
"What?" Aaron asks him, furrowing his brow and moving towards his own books.
"13," Neil repeats, with a sigh, pointing towards the book. "You fucked up in the middle. But everything else is good."
Aaron watches him for a second, and then his own book, before glancing back at him. "You're good at math?"
Neil is good at math, but he's not really one to brag. He simply shrugs and then goes back to his own book.
He assumes their conversation is over, but then Aaron talks again. "That's chemistry," he says, looking at Neil's book.
Neil hesitates a second before nodding, is there really any way of denying it? And why should he? Still, he probably shouldn't add: "I've never done it before, I'm trying to catch up with the class."
Aaron doesn't say anything in response, and so Neil goes back to his own homeworks. A couple of minutes later, Aaron curses again, but this time instead of storming off, he looks up towards Neil.
"What's the answer here?" he asks, and pushes his book towards him. Neil blinks, surprised, and looks up at the book.
He's already solving the problem in his head before he realizes that he doesn't have to. "I'm trying to study..." he says, trying to ignore him without being too rude.
Aaron, however, doesn't seem to believe in respecting people's warnings.
"I don't know what I'm doing wrong here, and by what I can tell you're rereading the same thing for the sixth time," he says, a little gruff. "Help me with this, and I'll help you with your homework. I'm better at chemistry."
Better didn't really mean good, Neil wants to point out, but he sighs. He can already tell that Aaron is one of those persons he doesn't enjoy interacting with. Someone who believes that Neil is entitled to talk to him.
Still, he looks up, and makes a couple of corrections in his solution. "There," he says, and then, because he's not going to work for nothing, he points out to a place in his book. "Now explain to me what this is, and why should I care."
Aaron doesn't look up from his own book for a second, studying Neil's corrections, but then he looks up and starts talking.
After a while Neil has to concede that he's understanding much more now, with Aaron explaining it to him than before.
They continue to study like that, with Neil helping the other with math, and Aaron explaining things to him and three hours have passed.
Neil is... strangely optimistic that he might have understood almost everything he has studied today, and even Aaron seems happy about his progress.
"If you need," Aaron says, standing up, "I'm here almost every other day. I think we managed to get somewhere..."
Neil looks at his own books, thinking for a second. He looks up to say sure, why not when he sees a figure on the other side of the library.
Andrew stands there, watching Neil and his twin with a heated espression. He looks even more alert than usual, and Neil feels a shiver down his spine.
Fuck, Andrew really doesn't look happy.
He doesn't even know why, after all he hasn't really done anything to Aaron beside study with the guy. Still, he doesn't want Andrew to watch him even closer than before.
"Sorry," he says then, standing up, "I'm usually busy in the afternoon. This was good, but I can't do it anymore."
He stands up, takes his book and walks away before Aaron can say anything. Neil doesn't know if the other would have stopped him, but he walks past Andrew on his way to the door, and he's glad he made that decision.
He doesn't want to have more problems than what he already has.
The next day, Andrew doesn't watch him. It's not that he's not at school, Neil catches a few glimpse of him here and there, but he doesn't seem interested in Neil anymore.
Maybe, he hopes, his refusal to study with Aaron the previous day had finally convinced Andrew of whatever he had needed to gather.
He keeps being on alert for the entire day, of course, but by the last period he has started to believe that, maybe, he's really free from the stare of death.
Neil should have known better, really. How can he have seen so much and still be this naive?
His mother would have beaten him black and blue for this, he knows that very well.
So it's completely his own fault when Andrew Minyard manages to corner him in the bathroom at the end of the day.
No one else is in the bathroom, nor seems to be coming here. There's only Neil and Andrew, and the other seems to be looking at him like he has finally decided what to do.
Neil should be worried, he knows, and maybe a little cowed, but he's never been good at it. So instead he squares his shoulders.
"Can I help you with anything?" he asks, with a demure bow of his head. Maybe, if he manages to convince Andrew that whatever idea he has about him is wrong, the other will leave him alone.
Of course, he probably isn't lucky enough.
"No," Andrew answers, "Why would I need the help of a liar?"
Neil blinks, surprised, and wonders what the other means. He has never said anything to Andrew, and whatever he has said to Aaron - beside the last little excuse - was always the truth.
"I'm sorry?" he asks then, genuinely confused.
Andrew doesn't seem to be bothered by it, and he advances, looking at him. He's assessing him, Neil realizes, at the same time that he notices the larger cuffs of the other.
He had never seen Andrew from up close, so this is the first time Neil actually notices it. He has armbands under his shirt, big enough to hide knives.
Is that really what it's happening? had he miscalculated that badly?
"I heard you lie," Andrew continues, watching him. "And I don't like liars."
Neil opens his mouth to ask again what he meant, but Andrew continues without leaving him the time. "Third day, talking to the teacher. I hear you lie lie lie. That's bad, Neil, don't you know that?"
And then it clicks.
When Neil had given his permission slip to his teacher, that first day, he had used his powers to convince her that his mother had already talked to the president, even if her signature wasn't on the slip.
He had used his powers to make sure the teached hadn't asked any more questions. But... no one should have been able to know that.
No one.
Neil then watches Andrew, the bulk of his frame, the danger sleeping inside his chest. He seems to be completely in control, but there's something else.
An emptiness that Neil can feel deep inside his bones.
Oh.
"You're a void." It surprises Neil, being able to say something like this so easily.
If people without powers were a rarity, and people with two abilities were a miracle, voids were a curse that was almost as uncommon as the second.
Also, voids were usually hated by the majority of Powered since they were immune to any type of ability.
Is this why they put him on the pills? he wonders, surprised.
Still, it's obvious that there's nothing to say, no way to lie his way out of it. Neil should just run, as much of a threat Andrew is, there's no way for a Void to catch him. Maybe with his full powers, but like this?
Void could extend their powers to incapacitate someone else's ability for a time, but Andrew's been medicated for a reason, he thinks.
Still, Neil has never once done what he should. So he doesn't run, instead, he smiles.
Neil knows very well how that smile looks, the one he has inherited from his father, the one that will never allow him to forget that he's nothing more than a Wesniski and he will never be anything else.
Andrew doesn't flinch, doesn't even blink.
"And what if I lied, Andrew?" he asks, speaking slowly. "Are you going to punch me? Almost kill me? I hear you're good with that."
Andrew stays silent for a couple of seconds before he says. "No, I'm here to make a pact. You never lie to me, or in front of me ever again," he says, watching him, "and I'll make sure you don't have to keep being afraid at this school. You look over your shoulders often enough."
Neil doesn't say that the reason he looked over his own shoulder was because of Andrew, because that would be a lie as well. Andrew is certainly a big part of it, but N eil had been paranoid long before Andrew.
"Why would you care?" he asks, instead. "Can't you always tell when I'm lying?"
"Why I care is my problem, understand?" Andrew simply answers, but he's tenser than before.
Neil doesn't understand, after all as a void he should be able to hear Neil's lies clearly unlike everyone else. And then... then he thinks about it.
The medication, of course.
It's not unusual for medicated powered to have their powers flicker, laying dormant sometimes. Maybe Andrew wasn't able to hear Neil's lies all the time, and that's why he had been looking at him so intently.
He couldn't trust his own powers and Neil's lies were a clear danger to that.
"I don't need your help," Neil says, with a huff. "No one here wants to harm me but you." It's not really a lie, since he doesn't think that his father's people have found him, but it's not the truth either.
Andrew thinks about it for a second and then says. "I'll let you study with Aaron. You need the tutoring, I hear."
He does, of course, but that seems a rather strange concession.
"Shouldn't Aaron make this deal?" he asks, but Andrew raises one eyebrow silently.
Right, sometimes tells Neil that if Andrew were to tell Aaron to never talk to Neil ever again, the other wouldn't fight him. Still... he doesn't like the idea of this deal.
When he doesn't say anything more, Andrew sighs. "I'll help you in history too. I've watched you trying to bluff your way in class, it's pathetic."
Neil thinks about it for a second and then asks: "Can I lie to others?"
Andrew thinks about it for a second and then nods. "Not in my presence tho. And I can ask you questions. You can ask me questions too."
That seems... strangely more convenient for Neil than for Andrew. But... "And you'll stop watching me all the time."
Andrew seems to think about it for a second, but in the end he nods.
Well... it could have gone worse.
"It's a deal, then," Neil says, "unless you want to stab me to make sure I understand." He says it so that Andrew knows that Neil has noticed the armbands and the knives. So that he knows that Neil isn't an idiot.
Andrew looks at him for a second, and something warms his eyes. Maybe he's amused, maybe he's just thinking of the best way to shiv him.
"Everyone thinks you're so sweet, but that's just another lie," Andrew simply says, before sighing. "Come on, I have questions and you're going to buy me ice cream."
Neil blinks, surprised, but complies.
The next day, both Andrew and Neil are at the library and sit down in front of Aaron. When Aaron sees them he looks annoyed for a second, but then starts asking Neil questions about his homework.
Neil answers, and then asks Andrew something about his history homework.
It goes better than he expected, really, but every time Andrew makes fun of Neil because of his memory, Aaron squirms in his seat.
it's strange enough that at one point Neil just flatly looks at him, annoyed.
"What is it?" he asks, and Aaron just sighs.
"I just don't really like seeing my twin flirt, okay? What do you want from me, man."
Neil stops, surprised, and he looks towards Andrew. The other is looking boredly at his twin, but there's something there.
And then it clicks. Andrew had said that he had heard Neil lie the third day, but the other had started watching him the first day.
Oh. Oh.
"You like me?" he can't help but ask, surprised.
Andrew glares at him, annoyed. "I hate you."
"Oh God," Aaron moans from the other side of the table, but Neil doesn't pay him any mind.
"You don't feel anything," Neil says, quoting something Andrew had told him the day before, "but you hate me?"
Andrew doesn't say anything for a moment before cursing and then standing up. "I'll kill you," he says.
And Neil... Neil should make sure that this thing doesn't get farther than this. Neil won't be here forever, he probably won't even be here the entire school year but... but.
He thinks of the ice cream they shared yesterday, of the tentative truths. And maybe... maybe...
"What if I buy you ice cream today as well?" he asks, with a smile.
"Oh God, are you really asking my twin out in front of me?" Aaron moans again and Neil simply shrugs.
"No," he lies, and he sees the moment Andrew notices, watches him like a hawk.
It was a gamble, because it goes against their deal, but he hopes Andrew appreciates Aaron immediately dropping it.
"Fine," Andrew says in the end, "but you'll buy me Ice Cream for a week."
"It's not a date," Neil says, with a smile.
Fandom: All for the game
Pairing: Neil/Andrew
Notes: Written for the prompt "Rating: SAFE | warning: Alternate Universe | genere: Romantico" & "Sweet but Psycho, Ava Max | il fanwork deve essere ambientato, in parte o tutto, in una scuola o istituzione scolastica" for Esploratori del Polyverso
Wordcount: 5190
Summary: High School/powered AU; Neil trasnfers to Columbia High in the middle of the school year. And he catches the eye of someone
Neil transfers in the middle of the year. Normally he would have avoided this in any way he could. Transfering so late in the school year was bound to attract attention towards him, and Neil has built his entire life on never being the center of attention.
There’s nothing to be done this time, however, not enrolling in school would just attract even more attention on him.
He needs the cover story of school, and he needs them to believe that his parents are present, just a little distant. He has been perfecting this with his mother his entire life, and while it’s harder now that he’s on his own, he’s had practice.
For these reasons he isn’t really surprised when he gathers more attention that he would have liked. And as much as he tries to avoid the looks of the people around him, by the end of his first school day, he has heard outlandish voices about him.
Neil doesn’t like to think that his life might be consider even crazier than some of them.
Still, he manages to close the day without having talked to anyone, so he takes his victories when he can.
A couple of girls in his class had tried to talk to him, probably to gather the new gossip before anyone else, but Neil had brushed them off quickly and effectively.
There’s only one problem, because Neil’s life is never as easy as he would like it to be. There’s someone watching him, someone who has been watching him ever since the second period.
It would seem impossible to have a stare constantly at his back, even with all the classroom changes, but Neil could swear that it never left him.
It had seemed random in the beginning, when everyone was looking at him and whispering between themselves, but Neil can recognize a pointed stare when he’s the victim of one.
His first instinct had been to run, of course, his legs starting to vibrate under the table faster than what was normal, but he had known that was an exaggeration. His father couldn’t find him there, he knows, not so quickly, and it’s extremely difficult for anyone to recognize him.
After three hours, Neil had been able to pinpoint the owner of the stare, following him in the corridor. A small boy, smaller than even Neil, walking boredly from one classroom to another.
Everything from his stance, to his eyes, to the slouch of his shoulder screamed bored and disinterested, but Neil had always been extremely good at reading people, even someone as closed off as this man.
There was a purpose in his walk, a concentration to his eyes. A single mindedness to his breath.
Whoever that man was, he had noticed Neil, and he hadn’t liked what he had noticed.
It’s a problem, Neil thinks that afternoon. He’s renting a small room that’s entirely too distant from the school, but that allows him a modicum of freedom. It’s a roof over his head, and that’s more than he usually had.
Still, he doesn’t like that there’s someone in this school that seems to be intelligent enough to look under Neil’s mask and catch a glimpse of his lies.
It worries him. The idea of running again makes him feel incredibly tired. Neil’s alone now, and without the motivation from his mother, the idea of leaving seems like an unwinnable challenge.
He will have to, sooner rather than later, but he just bought these new documents, and it hadn’t been cheap.
Without his mother he doesn’t have the same connections she had, nor her skill in exchanging favors with them.
Not for the first time, Neil thinks about the possibility that he might not be able to survive on his own. The only thing that keeps him moving forward are his mother’s words, the promise that he wouldn’t have stopped, wouldn’t have let them catch him.
But what can Neil do on his own?
He wonders if he was using his own powers without realizing that day. If maybe he had been lying to her, and hadn’t even realized it.
Neil, like almost everyone in this world, has a power. Being born without a power is rare, so Neil doesn’t hide his ability. There are more people born with superspeed than there are people born without abilities.
So Neil enrolls in school and runs as fast as he wants to show them when they ask him to demonstrate his power. He’s not put in the classes for prodigies, but he’s in the middle. That’s what he likes.
Of course, if Neil has run as fast as he could, things might have been different, but he has learnt his lesson.
There had been a place, once, for him at Evermore, the most prestigious superpowered school of the entire country, but that was a long time ago.
Now Neil is one of the average. He’s just another face in the middle classes, and that’s what he likes.
Of course, unlike almost everyone in the world, Neil has a second power. It’s a rare mutation, something he keeps hidden. Something that helps him more than his first power does.
Neil’s power is lies.
He can lie as well as he can breathe, and when he tells a lie, the person listening believes it. Even if he has to change his own memory to make the lie work.
It helps a lot, of course, but it’s not a miracle cure. It works only with people he can talk to, for starters.
Still, he makes sure to keep his ability under wraps and use it only when he needs to. Unlike superspeed, this power isn’t common, and he knows that his father or his men could trace him quickly if words of a liar reached their ears.
Neil plans to finish the school year without attracting too much attention and then vanish into the night, stare or no stare.
Neil’s second day is, unfortunately, not as quiet as his first one.
Everything starts when he realizes he doesn’t have his history book, and has to ask his classmate to follow along in his book. Matt, the person he asks, smiles and agrees readily.
And that’s Neil’s mistake.
Matt seems to think that this means they are friends now, and even if Neil tries to avoid him, by lunch time he’s seated in the cafeteria with Matt on one side and Dan, his girlfriend, on the other, telling him everything about the school.
Neil eats, and tries to pay enough attention not to appear rude, but he would really prefer to stay on his own. It’s then that he feels a glare at his back, familiar enough.
He waits a couple of minutes before looking back, and encountering the gaze of the same boy from the previous day.
Dan must realize after a couple of seconds that Neil isn’t listening to her anymore, because she stops and looks back as well. “Fuck, that’s Minyard,” she says, low.
She doesn’t like him very much, Neil can tell by her voice and the way she immediately stiffens. He can also tell it has something to do with Matt because of the concerned look she gives in her boyfriend’s direction.
Maybe Neil should let the discussion return to the idle chatter from before, but if this Minyard is someone he has to avoid, he needs to know who he’s facing.
“Minyard?” he asks, then, hoping Dan would tell him more.
Surprisingly it’s Matt that continues, without even looking backward. “Yeah, Andrew Minyard, he’s a little bit of a psycho,” he says, slurping some of his juice. “I mean, he’s… he has some loose screws in there, that’s for sure.”
“He’s a fucking psychopath,” Dan says, with much more venom. “He shouldn’t be allowed to be here, but since he’s medicated…”
“Medicated?” Neil wonders, blinking. That’s… surprising. He knows perfectly well what Dan means, of course, and it’s one of the worst punishments that can be assigned a powered. Of course that’s not what doctors say.
The official story is that these type of medications are only administered to safeguard the health of the patient in cases where someone’s power is too destructive to be controlled.
But Neil can’t even imagine how it must feel like to have your power so close and yet so far. Not being able to call upon it in full.
“Yeah,” Matt continues, looking back as well. Minyard, noticing their gazes on him, simply lowers his gaze, but Neil knows that he’s still watching them. If Neil moved, he’s sure that Minyard’s eyes would follow him. “He kicked the shit out of a couple of people and now he’s under the pills.”
That’s it? It didn’t really seem something that warranted the use of such extreme measures. Dan might have picked up on his skepticism because she continues: “He almost killed them all. Their powers were nothing against his, a lot of people say that without the medications he’s one of the strongest powered out there.”
Neil nods, thinking that almost killing four people might be reason enough for the pills, at least for those that are forced to follow the law. His father never seemed to have any problems avoiding it.
“Now he’s in the middle classes like all of us,” Matt continues to explain, shrugging. “His twin is in the school as well but…”
“Aaron is in the first classes,” Dan finishes, shrugging.
First classes were usually reserved for people with little to none abilities. Those who had some kind of ability, but it wasn’t strong enough to really shine.
“So is his cousin, but that’s because he doesn’t have any powers. Aaron at least has some healing capabilities,” Matt continues. “Still, they don’t have the same lunch hour, so Andrew usually eats alone.”
“Ah,” Neil comments, before going back to eating his own food. He can still feel Andrew’s stare on him, but more covert now.
Someone else might not have picked up on it, but Neil is used to noticing these kind of things.
“Why is he watching you?” Dan asks him, evidently noticing Andrew’s interest as well.
Neil shrugs, and for once he doesn’t even have to lie. “I don’t know,” he replies honestly, “he’s been doing it since yesterday.”
Matt shifts quickly at his side, and Neil looks towards him. He’s tense, and he has lost most of the friendliness from before. “If he gives you any powers,” Matt says, looking into Neil’s eyes, “come to us, okay? We can help you.”
That… seemed like a very worried tone. “Didn’t you say that he’s medicated? I mean…”
“Andrew is crazy,” Dan stops him, with a huff. “It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have his powers anymore, okay? He’s… he’s just dangerous with or without them. And if he has taken an interest in you... “
Neil doesn’t know how to tell her that he’s had people interested in him all his life, and that Andrew Minyard is the least of his worries. Still, he understands that these people don’t know real evil and a school bully might actually be their biggest worry.
He doesn’t know how it would feel to be like them. Is he envious? Annoyed? Maybe a mix of the two.
“It’s okay,” he says, looking back into his own bowl, “I can take care of myself.”
Dan seems ready to say something else, but Neil sees Matt stop her. Maybe, Neil thinks, Matt has actually paid more attention to Neil than what it seemed.
“Well, let us tell you about everyone else you need to stay away from, yeah? There’s Jack and that dude sucks.”
Andrew seems to be content with just staring at Neil for the rest of the week and not even in a subtle way. Everytime Neil catches his stare, the other simply keeps staring at him with a placid expression.
Neil would have said he was starting to get used to it, but Neil would never be able to get used to something like this. It makes him think of his father, of people hunting him, of his mother’s hurried whispers.
Still, he doesn’t give Andrew the satisfaction of actually reacting to him in any way besides sometimes stare at him right back.
He won’t give the other the satisfaction, nor show a weakness in such a obvious way.
After all, what other reasons did he have but try to get to Neil. Of course, he still doesn’t know why, but it’s obvious that Andrew wants to unnerve him, even if he’s not sure why.
It appears, however, that Andrew is rather content in the situation, and doesn’t want to do anything more than watch him. Neil… soldiers on as well as he can.
It’s why it surprises him to see Minyard one day in the library, head bent over a book and definitely not watching Neil.
It’s the first time he has seen him looking away from Neil and it’s… surprising, to say the least. Then, after a second, Neil notices the different shirt, the sligh lighter hair, the red bag (where Andrew never had anything but black).
A twin, he remembers out of the blue. Of course. Dan had called him Aaron, if he remembers correctly, and he watches him for a second. He’s curious, he realizes, for no particular reason but the fact that he has been worrying about this guy’s twin for so long that it’s strange to see a Minyard completely disinterested in him.
Nice, but strange.
Still, he looks around the library and sees that most of the tables are already full of people talking to each other, or generally being obnoxious. Neil needs to study.
A problem of transferring in the middle of the school year and having led a life that allowed him few times to actually study, is that Neil is behind most of the curriculum.
He debates for a second returning to his home, but he also knows that it’s completely impossible to focus there when his neighbors scream at practically every hour of the day.
In the end Neil sighs and sits down at the same table of Aaron Minyard.
The other doesn’t even look up from his book to acknowledge his presence, so Neil does the same.
He focuses on his own books, and ignores the other boy and he realizes that they can actually work well together. In the sense that they manage to avoid making eye contact with each other, and Aaron seems as motivated as him to ignore anything else in the library but his books.
It's only after half an hour that Aaron curses and then slams the hand on the table in frustration. Neil jumps, a little surprised and too used to being spooked by loud noises, but tries to contain his reaction.
Aaron doesn't seem to notice him, however, he stands up cursing and then walks away in the direction of the vending machines.
Neil should really go back to his own books, he knows that very well, but he's curious, and so he glances at the other's book, without moving from his place. It's calculus, he can tell, and nothing too difficult by Neil's standard.
He likes math, used to do some exercise during particularly long car rides. He knows not everyone agrees with him, but Neil likes the simple and clear solutions that math offers.
Before he can really stop himself he's leaning forward and already solving the problem in his own head, and enjoying the challenge, when he feels someone stop near him. Neil turns, then, and sees Aaron watching him, with a snack in his hand.
"What are you doing?" Aaron asks him, and Neil know that he should be lying. After all, he can tell him he was watching the other side of the room and Aaron wouldn't have any other choice but believe him, but... but.
"The solution is 13," he says, in the end, cursing himself.
"What?" Aaron asks him, furrowing his brow and moving towards his own books.
"13," Neil repeats, with a sigh, pointing towards the book. "You fucked up in the middle. But everything else is good."
Aaron watches him for a second, and then his own book, before glancing back at him. "You're good at math?"
Neil is good at math, but he's not really one to brag. He simply shrugs and then goes back to his own book.
He assumes their conversation is over, but then Aaron talks again. "That's chemistry," he says, looking at Neil's book.
Neil hesitates a second before nodding, is there really any way of denying it? And why should he? Still, he probably shouldn't add: "I've never done it before, I'm trying to catch up with the class."
Aaron doesn't say anything in response, and so Neil goes back to his own homeworks. A couple of minutes later, Aaron curses again, but this time instead of storming off, he looks up towards Neil.
"What's the answer here?" he asks, and pushes his book towards him. Neil blinks, surprised, and looks up at the book.
He's already solving the problem in his head before he realizes that he doesn't have to. "I'm trying to study..." he says, trying to ignore him without being too rude.
Aaron, however, doesn't seem to believe in respecting people's warnings.
"I don't know what I'm doing wrong here, and by what I can tell you're rereading the same thing for the sixth time," he says, a little gruff. "Help me with this, and I'll help you with your homework. I'm better at chemistry."
Better didn't really mean good, Neil wants to point out, but he sighs. He can already tell that Aaron is one of those persons he doesn't enjoy interacting with. Someone who believes that Neil is entitled to talk to him.
Still, he looks up, and makes a couple of corrections in his solution. "There," he says, and then, because he's not going to work for nothing, he points out to a place in his book. "Now explain to me what this is, and why should I care."
Aaron doesn't look up from his own book for a second, studying Neil's corrections, but then he looks up and starts talking.
After a while Neil has to concede that he's understanding much more now, with Aaron explaining it to him than before.
They continue to study like that, with Neil helping the other with math, and Aaron explaining things to him and three hours have passed.
Neil is... strangely optimistic that he might have understood almost everything he has studied today, and even Aaron seems happy about his progress.
"If you need," Aaron says, standing up, "I'm here almost every other day. I think we managed to get somewhere..."
Neil looks at his own books, thinking for a second. He looks up to say sure, why not when he sees a figure on the other side of the library.
Andrew stands there, watching Neil and his twin with a heated espression. He looks even more alert than usual, and Neil feels a shiver down his spine.
Fuck, Andrew really doesn't look happy.
He doesn't even know why, after all he hasn't really done anything to Aaron beside study with the guy. Still, he doesn't want Andrew to watch him even closer than before.
"Sorry," he says then, standing up, "I'm usually busy in the afternoon. This was good, but I can't do it anymore."
He stands up, takes his book and walks away before Aaron can say anything. Neil doesn't know if the other would have stopped him, but he walks past Andrew on his way to the door, and he's glad he made that decision.
He doesn't want to have more problems than what he already has.
The next day, Andrew doesn't watch him. It's not that he's not at school, Neil catches a few glimpse of him here and there, but he doesn't seem interested in Neil anymore.
Maybe, he hopes, his refusal to study with Aaron the previous day had finally convinced Andrew of whatever he had needed to gather.
He keeps being on alert for the entire day, of course, but by the last period he has started to believe that, maybe, he's really free from the stare of death.
Neil should have known better, really. How can he have seen so much and still be this naive?
His mother would have beaten him black and blue for this, he knows that very well.
So it's completely his own fault when Andrew Minyard manages to corner him in the bathroom at the end of the day.
No one else is in the bathroom, nor seems to be coming here. There's only Neil and Andrew, and the other seems to be looking at him like he has finally decided what to do.
Neil should be worried, he knows, and maybe a little cowed, but he's never been good at it. So instead he squares his shoulders.
"Can I help you with anything?" he asks, with a demure bow of his head. Maybe, if he manages to convince Andrew that whatever idea he has about him is wrong, the other will leave him alone.
Of course, he probably isn't lucky enough.
"No," Andrew answers, "Why would I need the help of a liar?"
Neil blinks, surprised, and wonders what the other means. He has never said anything to Andrew, and whatever he has said to Aaron - beside the last little excuse - was always the truth.
"I'm sorry?" he asks then, genuinely confused.
Andrew doesn't seem to be bothered by it, and he advances, looking at him. He's assessing him, Neil realizes, at the same time that he notices the larger cuffs of the other.
He had never seen Andrew from up close, so this is the first time Neil actually notices it. He has armbands under his shirt, big enough to hide knives.
Is that really what it's happening? had he miscalculated that badly?
"I heard you lie," Andrew continues, watching him. "And I don't like liars."
Neil opens his mouth to ask again what he meant, but Andrew continues without leaving him the time. "Third day, talking to the teacher. I hear you lie lie lie. That's bad, Neil, don't you know that?"
And then it clicks.
When Neil had given his permission slip to his teacher, that first day, he had used his powers to convince her that his mother had already talked to the president, even if her signature wasn't on the slip.
He had used his powers to make sure the teached hadn't asked any more questions. But... no one should have been able to know that.
No one.
Neil then watches Andrew, the bulk of his frame, the danger sleeping inside his chest. He seems to be completely in control, but there's something else.
An emptiness that Neil can feel deep inside his bones.
Oh.
"You're a void." It surprises Neil, being able to say something like this so easily.
If people without powers were a rarity, and people with two abilities were a miracle, voids were a curse that was almost as uncommon as the second.
Also, voids were usually hated by the majority of Powered since they were immune to any type of ability.
Is this why they put him on the pills? he wonders, surprised.
Still, it's obvious that there's nothing to say, no way to lie his way out of it. Neil should just run, as much of a threat Andrew is, there's no way for a Void to catch him. Maybe with his full powers, but like this?
Void could extend their powers to incapacitate someone else's ability for a time, but Andrew's been medicated for a reason, he thinks.
Still, Neil has never once done what he should. So he doesn't run, instead, he smiles.
Neil knows very well how that smile looks, the one he has inherited from his father, the one that will never allow him to forget that he's nothing more than a Wesniski and he will never be anything else.
Andrew doesn't flinch, doesn't even blink.
"And what if I lied, Andrew?" he asks, speaking slowly. "Are you going to punch me? Almost kill me? I hear you're good with that."
Andrew stays silent for a couple of seconds before he says. "No, I'm here to make a pact. You never lie to me, or in front of me ever again," he says, watching him, "and I'll make sure you don't have to keep being afraid at this school. You look over your shoulders often enough."
Neil doesn't say that the reason he looked over his own shoulder was because of Andrew, because that would be a lie as well. Andrew is certainly a big part of it, but N eil had been paranoid long before Andrew.
"Why would you care?" he asks, instead. "Can't you always tell when I'm lying?"
"Why I care is my problem, understand?" Andrew simply answers, but he's tenser than before.
Neil doesn't understand, after all as a void he should be able to hear Neil's lies clearly unlike everyone else. And then... then he thinks about it.
The medication, of course.
It's not unusual for medicated powered to have their powers flicker, laying dormant sometimes. Maybe Andrew wasn't able to hear Neil's lies all the time, and that's why he had been looking at him so intently.
He couldn't trust his own powers and Neil's lies were a clear danger to that.
"I don't need your help," Neil says, with a huff. "No one here wants to harm me but you." It's not really a lie, since he doesn't think that his father's people have found him, but it's not the truth either.
Andrew thinks about it for a second and then says. "I'll let you study with Aaron. You need the tutoring, I hear."
He does, of course, but that seems a rather strange concession.
"Shouldn't Aaron make this deal?" he asks, but Andrew raises one eyebrow silently.
Right, sometimes tells Neil that if Andrew were to tell Aaron to never talk to Neil ever again, the other wouldn't fight him. Still... he doesn't like the idea of this deal.
When he doesn't say anything more, Andrew sighs. "I'll help you in history too. I've watched you trying to bluff your way in class, it's pathetic."
Neil thinks about it for a second and then asks: "Can I lie to others?"
Andrew thinks about it for a second and then nods. "Not in my presence tho. And I can ask you questions. You can ask me questions too."
That seems... strangely more convenient for Neil than for Andrew. But... "And you'll stop watching me all the time."
Andrew seems to think about it for a second, but in the end he nods.
Well... it could have gone worse.
"It's a deal, then," Neil says, "unless you want to stab me to make sure I understand." He says it so that Andrew knows that Neil has noticed the armbands and the knives. So that he knows that Neil isn't an idiot.
Andrew looks at him for a second, and something warms his eyes. Maybe he's amused, maybe he's just thinking of the best way to shiv him.
"Everyone thinks you're so sweet, but that's just another lie," Andrew simply says, before sighing. "Come on, I have questions and you're going to buy me ice cream."
Neil blinks, surprised, but complies.
The next day, both Andrew and Neil are at the library and sit down in front of Aaron. When Aaron sees them he looks annoyed for a second, but then starts asking Neil questions about his homework.
Neil answers, and then asks Andrew something about his history homework.
It goes better than he expected, really, but every time Andrew makes fun of Neil because of his memory, Aaron squirms in his seat.
it's strange enough that at one point Neil just flatly looks at him, annoyed.
"What is it?" he asks, and Aaron just sighs.
"I just don't really like seeing my twin flirt, okay? What do you want from me, man."
Neil stops, surprised, and he looks towards Andrew. The other is looking boredly at his twin, but there's something there.
And then it clicks. Andrew had said that he had heard Neil lie the third day, but the other had started watching him the first day.
Oh. Oh.
"You like me?" he can't help but ask, surprised.
Andrew glares at him, annoyed. "I hate you."
"Oh God," Aaron moans from the other side of the table, but Neil doesn't pay him any mind.
"You don't feel anything," Neil says, quoting something Andrew had told him the day before, "but you hate me?"
Andrew doesn't say anything for a moment before cursing and then standing up. "I'll kill you," he says.
And Neil... Neil should make sure that this thing doesn't get farther than this. Neil won't be here forever, he probably won't even be here the entire school year but... but.
He thinks of the ice cream they shared yesterday, of the tentative truths. And maybe... maybe...
"What if I buy you ice cream today as well?" he asks, with a smile.
"Oh God, are you really asking my twin out in front of me?" Aaron moans again and Neil simply shrugs.
"No," he lies, and he sees the moment Andrew notices, watches him like a hawk.
It was a gamble, because it goes against their deal, but he hopes Andrew appreciates Aaron immediately dropping it.
"Fine," Andrew says in the end, "but you'll buy me Ice Cream for a week."
"It's not a date," Neil says, with a smile.
