Work Text:
It had been a normal day for the foxes, nothing special had happened that day. They all went to their classes, had lunch together, went to practice, nothing particularly interesting. But that night when Andrew went to sleep with Neil cuddling in his arms he didn’t know what he would wake up to the next morning. Andrew woke up and didn’t immediately feel the warmth of Neil’s body right to him, he moved his hands around trying to find him without opening his eyes. His hands found skin but it wasn’t Neil’s, no this skin was too soft and not covered in scars. Andrew opens his eyes and sees a small boy probably around the age of 4 asleep in his bed.
“What the fuck?” The boy stirs and opens his eyes to look up at Andrew. The boy has wild curly auburn hair and piercing blue eyes. “Neil?” There’s no way that this child is Neil, the other foxes had to be playing a really bad prank, but he looks just like his Neil.
“Who are you?” The boy says as his eyes start to water. The boy had a slight lisp as he spoke. Andrew didn’t know what to do, he’s never felt with children before, much less crying children that he doesn’t know where they came from. “Where’s my mommy?” What am I supposed to do?
“Let’s go find your mom, I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.” Andrew said that last part mostly for himself. There’s no way that this baby is Neil, even though he looks just like Neil but smaller. Andrew climbs down from his bed and grabs the child and realizes that he doesn’t know his name. “What’s your name?” “Nathaniel” Fuck, ok just because he has the same name doesn’t mean it’s Neil, it could just be another blue eyed, auburn haired boy named Nathaniel. It’s just a coincidence. Andrew holds Nathaniel on his hip as he walks out into the living room and sees Kevin sitting on the couch watching some old exy game. “Neil come watch this with me.” Kevin says without looking up. “I don’t think he’ll be able to hold still for that long.” Kevin looks up at that. “Who the hell is that?” “I woke up and he was in my bed, says his name is Nathaniel.” At that Nathaniel clung tighter to Andrew. “Where’s Neil?” Kevin asks as he gets up and walks over to them, studying the boy in Andrew’s arms. “I don’t know, haven’t seen him” Kevin looks at Andrew and back at Nathaniel. “I don’t like what you’re hinting at.” “I’m hungry” Nathaniel wines as he pulls on Andrew's shirt.
After talking to all the other foxes and realizing that no one has seen Neil and no one knows where the boy came from Andrew gets worried.
“I’m hungry!” Nathaniel was wailing at this point and all the foxes were scrambling trying to find something the four year old would eat. Andrew hands the boy a bowl of fruit that he had been cutting up while everyone else was freaking out, because if this boy really was Neil then he would eat this. “Thank you Andew!” the boy tries to say Andrew’s name but it’s slurred with age and happiness. Andrew tried not to smile at how happy Nathaniel looks but it’s really hard, the boy is happy shoving all of the fruit into his mouth without care. Most of the other foxes coo at how cute Nathaniel is. “What if this really is Neil?” Kevin says from somewhere behind Andrew. “Then we now have a child, congratulations.” Andrew answers deadpan. “Andrew I’m serious!”
“I am too, what else are we supposed to do with him? He doesn’t have any parents and his only other family is the mob in England, and I don’t think they would want him. He’s still Neil, and I still have a promise to protect him.” Andrew grabs Neil, the boy started to drift off almost immediately after finishing his fruit. Andrew carefully holds Neil and puts the boy’s head on his shoulder to not wake him up, he walked over to the couch and sits down. Andrew turns on the TV and puts on Wheel of Fortune and turns the volume down low. “Shouldn’t you put him in the room to let him sleep?” Nicky ask as he walks up to Andrew. “Neil doesn’t like to sleep alone” is all Andrew says before refocusing on the TV, he doesn’t say that he doesn’t want to let Neil out of his sight, or that Neil has a tight grip on Andrew’ shirt in his tiny hands.