Chapter Text
The Rebels were already half-way through the season, and they knew next to nothing about their newest recruit, Neil Josten. Sure, they knew about him from what they had seen in articles and on news stations, but they didn’t really know him as a person. All the articles referred to him as a smart mouthed rookie who somehow became a captain of the PSU Foxes and led them to victory through several championships. The other news talked about his sketchy background and the horrible incident that had given him the scars on his face.
Most of his new team had given up on trying to get anything out of the man himself, he never answered questions about anything other than Exy. There were a few stubborn members who hadn’t given up hope yet. Hollis was one of them. She was the captain of this foolish boy and she was going to get to know him whether he wanted her to or not.
Hollis had gotten to the stadium early for practice, wanting to have some time to herself before the rest of the heathens arrived. Which is why she was surprised when Neil arrived only ten minutes later, phone pressed tight against his ear.
“No, you can’t feed the cats ice cream.” He says, rubbing at his eyes. “I don’t care if Sir is asking for it, you’re supposed to be the responsible parent here.”
Hollis tries not to make it too obvious that she is listening to his conversation, but it doesn’t matter, he waves a hand in her direction and returns to his call, completely unbothered by her presence.
“I left Sir with you for one weekend and this is what you do with her?” He sighs. “If you give it to her then there will be less for you.” He says as if that solves everything. It must, because he smiles as he begins opening his locker. “Thank you. I have to get ready for practice, I’ll call you when I’m done.”
He listens for a moment and hums pleasantly. “I love you, too.”
This surprises Hollis so much that she nearly slams her hand in her locker door. As it is, she narrowly avoids it and pretends like nothing happened. Of all of her team members, she never would have guessed that Neil was with someone. He seemed to live and breathe Exy and it was difficult to believe that he had a life outside of that.
There’s a bit more shuffling in the silence of the locker room before Hollis grows uncomfortable and clears her throat.
“You have cats?” She asks because she is almost positive he wouldn’t answer if she asked about who he was talking to. She spins around to see him leaning against his locker, phone still in hand.
“Yeah, we got them in my fifth year.” He says carefully. She doesn’t miss his use of the word we.
“But you couldn’t keep them in your dorm, right?”
He shakes his head. “We got an apartment that they stayed in for that year, even though I didn’t get to live there until I finished school. Now, Sir lives with me most of the time, they hate flying though so sometimes I’ll leave her at home when I come back here.”
She didn’t miss his use of the word home either. Here wasn’t home for Neil and she was dying to know where home really was.
She decides to risk it and ask anyway. “Where is home?”
Neil hesitates, but there is a soft smile fighting it’s way onto his face.
“Right now it’s in Atlanta.”
That surprised her enough to earn a raised brow. Atlanta was a long way from Chicago and she couldn’t imagine trying to have a relationship from that far away. There wasn’t time for her to ask anymore questions, because the rest of the team was now arriving in waves and Neil retreated to the bathroom to get changed, leaving her with more questions than she started with.