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Assistant: Title: The Sun Still Rises
        Author: mordax mordax 
        Chapter: 1/95 
        Summary: Somewhere on the road, Mary Hatford gets pregnant with her second child. When she passes, she leaves behind not only Neil, but his toddler brother. Survival is difficult without also raising a kid. Worn out and desperate, Neil still somehow ends up at Palmetto, only this time, he brings his four-year-old brother with him.
        Contents: Chapter 1: Millport
    

    


      
        
          
          (See the end of the chapter for  notes.)
          
      
  

  
  
    
    Neil held his lit cigarette close and breathed in the acrid smoke. He kept his knees drawn up to his chest as he stared out at the track field, running numbers and feeling his familiar desperate need to move. Even after an exhausting game of Exy, his feet itched to run. He had been at the court for too long. Been at Millport for too long. He ought to go pick up Alex from the daycare center, but then again, picking up Alex could mean putting him at risk. It also meant another night in an abandoned house that made Neil paranoid and Alex quiet.It was time to move on and change identities. Neil knew that. He had gotten indulgent and kept one name for nearly a year. He argued with himself, saying that it was more difficult to move and take on new identities discreetly without his mother. A family of three moving cities was far less noticeable than a teen and a four-year-old. Still, it was no excuse. Neil clutched the cigarette closer, inhaling. It was almost burnt down to the filter. Neil always saved this ritual for when he was alone. The smoke was at once revolting and comforting, reminding him of gasoline and fire and hard feminine hands. He read somewhere that secondhand smoke was harmful to the lungs, so he kept it away from Alex.Neil stubbed out the cigarette and stretched his legs. They pulsed with a pleasant soreness that he reveled in. Peeking up at the sky, he determined it was nearly six judging by the shadowed and light-polluted gray sunset that was more of a haze than anything. Fortunately, that meant the daycare would have fed Alex dinner, which was one of the many benefits to Neil participating in Millport’s Exy team. Any food the daycare provided was better than the sandwiches and granola bars Neil scrounged up. Neil toyed a bit with the cheap pay-by-the-minute flip phone in his pocket that would only go off in the case of an Alex related emergency. It was blissfully silent.A door squealed open behind him. Neil stood and his hands tightened on the strap of his duffel slung over his chest. Coach Hernandez stepped out, the fragments of white stadium lights washing out the warmth of his skin and hiding the nuance of his expression in shadow. Hernandez was a man who may have played Exy once but had since kept himself on the sidelines with a beer and one too many Exy fundraiser cookies. It showed in his waistline. He came to stand near Neil, only a few bleachers between them. Neil counted those bleachers, then he counted the ones to the field below. There was no need to run, but it was habitual.“I didn’t see your parents at the game,” Coach Hernandez mused.“They’re out of town.”“Still or again?”“They both work in different cities,” Neil responded drily. “They’re always out of town.”It was an easy lie and most believed him. Coach Hernandez was irritating because he was one of the few that didn’t.“I thought they’d show for the last game of the season, at least.”He was prying. Neil could see his intrigue and concern from a mile away and it made him bristle. “They’re not really fans of Exy.”“What about your brother?”The bristle turned to a stabbing, just at the base of his neck. “What about him?”“Does he like Exy?”“He’s four,” Neil answered.Coach Hernandez shrugged, brushing off his failed attempt at getting any gritty details about Neil’s personal life. It had been an ongoing back and forth between them since the beginning of the year, and if not for Exy, Neil would have distanced himself long ago.“There’s someone here for you,” Coach Hernandez said.Neil reflexively backed away. After years on the run and even longer with his father, the words sparked instant dread. Five stairs up and seven steps out would get him into the locker room. Through the locker room, there was a door leading to the lobby and an exit to the parking lot. He could run and pick up Alex— or no,  he couldn’t lead his father’s men to Alex,  don’t be stupid, Abram —A shoe scuffed on concrete. Neil’s eyes whipped to find the source. A large man stood in the doorframe of the locker room dressed in jeans and a wife beater that showed off the tribal flame tattoos tracing up his well-muscled arms. One hand was tucked in his pocket and the other held a thick file. He was, in all ways of the word, broad—from his square jaw to his shoulders and to his wide splayed stance. Neil didn’t recognize him but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.“Who are you,” Neil stated rather than asked. He felt like an animal cornered: hackles raised and itching to flee or fight.“He’s from a university,” Coach Hernandez answered, oblivious to the showdown between Neil and the stranger (a showdown where Neil stared intently, guarded and skittish, and the man stared intently back, nonchalant and confident). “He came to see you play tonight.”“B@llsh@t,” Neil blurted. “No one recruits from Millport. No one knows where it is.”“There’s this thing called a map,” the stranger said. “You might have heard of it.”Coach Hernandez sent Neil a quelling look. “He’s here because I sent him your file. They are short on the striker line so I thought to give it a shot. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you getting your hopes up.”Neil turned his stare on Coach Hernandez. “You did what?” Neil shouldn’t feel betrayed but he did. The Exy team had been his one indulgent solace, and now it could be his downfall.  Stupid, stupid  , he scolded himself.  Never should have played in the first place —“I tried contacting your parents but they didn’t answer. You said they would try to make it to tonight’s game.”“They did. They couldn’t.”“I can’t wait for them,” the stranger said, stepping up beside Coach Hernandez. Neil’s eyes darted between them, feet itching to move. They were both far larger than him in width and height, and they had the advantage of bleacher steps. “It’s stupid late in the season for me to be here, I know, but I had some technical difficulties with my last recruit. Coach Hernandez said you still haven’t chosen a school for the fall. Works out perfectly, doesn’t it? I need a striker sub, and you need a team. All you have to do is sign the dotted line and you’re mine for five years.”It took several beats for Neil to find his voice. “You can’t be serious.” It sounded like a sick line from those old satire shows poking fun at corporations.  Sign here, don’t read that, oh that clause? not a problem, just sign sign sign the dotted line and all your dreams come true . Yeah f@ck@ng right.“Very serious,” the man said. “And very out of time.”He tossed the file onto one of the bleachers near Neil. On the front was Neil’s name scrawled in slanted, black sharpie. Neil wondered just what lies and truths were inside. Neil Josten wasn’t a real person, only one pretending to be for a year and not much longer at that. He had to leave, and he had to do it soon. The fire had been licking at his heels for some time now.He thought of Alex. This would be their second move without their mother. Alex was getting a bit too accustomed to his name, and Neil wasn’t sure if he would adapt to changing it quite as quickly as Neil could. Twenty-two names, that’s how many traced from now and back eight years. Ten names for Alex. Signing on a college Exy team was, in every single way, a horrible f@ck@ng idea. It locked Neil Josten in place, gave him responsibilities outside of taking care of Alex, and worst of all, put him under a spotlight where he could easily be found. Prison was hardly a deterrent for his father, and it would only be a matter of time until he caught up with Neil.The math added up to the very conclusive answer that Neil could not sign that contract. Concreting this decision in stone was the obvious: the contract didn’t include Alex in the guarantee of housing, food, and care. The possibility of a future Neil wanted and was being offered wasn’t remotely within the realm of reason.So, he said quietly but not weakly, “No.”“You haven’t heard me out,” the man hurried to say. “I know it’s sudden, but think it over. You’d be a great asset, and we have a lot to offer you. Take a look at that file.”Neil glanced down at the file again before his gaze darted to the locker room door behind the man’s shoulders.The man shifted, drawing Neil’s eyes to him. “Give me five minutes. I’d like to have your ‘yes’ by tonight. The Committee’s been hounding me since Janie got locked up.”Neil’s eyes snapped to the man’s face, stomach plummeting to his shoes. “Foxes,” he said. “Palmetto State University.” The man—Coach David Wymack—looked a bit surprised. “I guess you saw the news.”Neil eyed him warily. The technical difficulties Wymack had referenced with his last recruit was a mild way of saying Janie Smalls tried to kill herself. Typical of a Fox, the anchorman jeered in crass aside. He wasn’t exaggerating.The Palmetto State University Foxes were a compilation of talented rejects that Wymack decided deserved a second chance after the world had trampled all their previous ones. It was a nice theory (if you liked the idea of fixing people and thinking yourself a saint), but unsurprisingly, putting broken people together didn’t make them less broken. It just made them volatile. The Foxes were notorious for their small size, rampant fighting, and getting ranked dead-last in the NCAA three consecutive years. Granted, this last year had been among their best, but even still, there was debate among critics on whether they would be kept in Class I.But Neil didn’t have a problem with the Foxes because they were poor at the game and coached by a man with a savior complex. Neil’s problem with the Foxes was Kevin Day. Kevin Day was a former national champion turned battered stray with an injury making his talent a mute point. Neil hadn’t seen Kevin in nearly eight years, and he hoped to never see him again. Kevin was a part of Neil’s past and knew of the person behind twenty-two names. For the sake of his life, he would leave that memory buried there.“I’m not playing for you,” Neil said, looking past Wymack to the locker room door. Five steps up and seven strides forward. He had to go pick up Alex. He had to leave this town and change his name. He had never been a Henry before. He wondered what name Alex would pick for himself.“Five minutes,” Wymack asked.“Not interested,” Neil responded.“Come on, give me five—”Neil took quick, decisive strides up the five stairs and through those seven steps to the door. He was done entertaining Palmetto’s coach. He needed to get Alex and get out of town.He was halfway through the locker room when he caught sight of someone blocking the exit. A breath rattled in his chest as he tried to stop, but his momentum carried him straight into the wooden stick of a yellow Exy racket. It crushed into his gut, and his body curled around it. The force pushed against his diaphragm and squeezed the air out of his lungs so a feeble gasp stuttered in his chest then went still.He fell to the floor on hands and knees, scrabbling vainly for his breath and his balance. He had to get up. He had to run. He had to f@ck@ng  breathe .As he gasped ineffectual puffs of air, his ears buzzed with Wymack’s deep and furious voice. It was all fuzzy, like the ringing after a loud gunshot.“God d@mn it Minyard. This is why we can’t have nice things.”“Oh Coach. If he was nice, he wouldn’t be any use to us, would he?” someone said over Neil’s head. Alex,  Neil thought frantically.  I need to f@ck@ng move and get Alex. “He’s no use to us if you break him.”“You’d rather I let him go? Put a band-aid on him and he’ll be good as new.”Finally,  finally,  a gust of air filled his desperate lungs. Neil inhaled sharply, the sound louder than any furious voice or delighted drawl. He wrapped his arm around his gut while he gasped, piecing himself together bit by bit. When he had the energy to do so, he glared fiercely at his attacker.It didn’t take an introduction for Neil to recognize Andrew Minyard. Possibly the only college level Exy player shorter than Neil himself at five feet even, and yet Andrew’s reputation was a deadly one. He was the resident psychotic of the Foxes. He’d already spent three years in juvie and had another close call after pummeling four men nearly to death outside a club. It was this most recent crime that gave Andrew his token drugged grin after the court mandated he go through intensive therapy, weekly counseling, and medication. His violent reputation prevailing, it was questionable how effective the drugs really were.Worse, Andrew was the only person publicly known to turn down an offer to be goalkeeper at Edgar Allen University, and it was suspected it was because of him Kevin decided to transfer to the Foxes. One year without his mother and already, Neil was nearly getting himself killed. She would strangle him just for his failures.Andrew looked down at Neil, face twisted into a manic grin more vicious than amused. Psychopathic was the general term newsmen threw around when referencing Minyard. Looking up at him now, it was easy to understand why.Andrew lifted two fingers to his temple in a salute. “Better luck next time,” he drawled.“F@ck you,” Neil spat.“Neil,” Coach Hernandez broke in, catching Neil’s arm to pull him up. Neil brushed him off and stumbled to his own feet. “Jesus, kid, are you alright?”“Andrew’s a bit raw on manners,” Wymack said, placing himself between Neil and Andrew. Andrew backed away a step and raised his hands in mock innocence. Wymack shot his goalkeeper one last warning look before turning to Neil. “He break anything?”“I’m fine. And I’m leaving. Let me go.”“We’re not done,” Wymack said. Neil’s temper flared.“Coach Wymack,” Hernandez began as if he hadn’t started this mess in the first place.“Give us a second?” Wymack interrupted.Coach Hernandez looked between Wymack and Neil before nodding. “I’ll be right out back.”Neil listened to his retreat, counting the steps. He wondered if Andrew would strike him again if he ran. The runt still loomed behind Wymack, eyes wandering distractedly over the locker room, Neil seemingly forgotten.“I already gave you my answer,” Neil said. “I won’t sign with you.”“You didn’t listen to my whole offer. If I paid to fly three people out here to see you, the least you could do is give me five minutes, don’t you think?”Neil’s blood went cold.  Three  . He stumbled back a step, eyes darting over each space he hadn’t yet scrutinized for potential enemies because he was a  f@ck@ng idiot —“No,” Neil muttered, trying to keep the fear from his voice.  If you look afraid, you look suspicious,  a voice rang in his mind.  If you look suspicious, you are noticeable. God f@ck@ng dammit, he needed to get out of this locker room and get to Alex. Did they know about Alex? They weren’t ever after him, only Neil. But like his duffel, Neil liked to keep what he protected close.But it was far more complicated than that. His mother had managed to keep Alex a secret from their father while on the run so if Neil was ever caught, his father had no reason to continue searching for the younger heir. This is what made Neil precariously balance keeping his distance from Alex and watching Alex closely. It was among the reasons he had decided to join the Exy team in the first place. It gave an excuse to leave Alex at the daycare center longer.“Don’t be needlessly stubborn,” a new voice said.Neil spun before logic could order him not to. Kevin Day was sitting on top of the entertainment center along the back wall, his legs dangling over the side. He watched Neil’s ineffective efforts at hiding his fear with a cool look, so disdainfully unimpressed.Kevin was nationally renowned but even without the publicity and the eight years between their last meeting, Neil would have recognized him. He still had his dark hair, his green narrow eyes, and his high flat cheekbones. One of those cheekbones was inked with a Roman numeral two just like it had been as children only now the ink was permanent. Neil felt like Andrew had hit him with the racquet a second time.Neil waited for Kevin to call him by that horrible name beneath layers of names. This would be the unearthing of his past, and Neil was sure it would ruin him. Him and Alex.The moment was heavy and silent and unchanging. Neil blinked. Kevin didn’t recognize him. Relief guttered through his chest not unlike that first breath of air after his lungs had seized. By sheer horrible f@ck@ng luck, Kevin had decided to recruit Neil without knowing who, exactly, he was recruiting. Neil supposed it made sense. He had been ten when they had last faced each other, and he had made alterations to his appearance since then.The lack of recognition felt like a delay in execution. Neil could breathe easier and the itch to run subsided. His answer, however, remained unchanged. He said, “I wouldn’t call this needless.”“Declining something without knowing the details is needless,” Kevin said. “And annoying.”“There are a thousand strikers that would jump at the chance to play with you. Why don’t you bother them?” It was a serious question, but Neil guessed he had laid the derision on a bit thick because Kevin’s face went sour.“We saw their files,” Wymack said. “We chose you.”“I won’t play with Kevin.”“You will,” Kevin said like his word was law.“Maybe you haven’t noticed,” Wymack said, shrugging. “But we’re not leaving here until you say yes. Kevin says we have to have you, and he’s right.”“We should have thrown away your coach’s letter the second we opened it,” Kevin said. “Your file is deplorable and I don’t want someone with your inexperience on our court. It goes against everything we’re trying to do with the Foxes this year. Fortunately for you, your coach knew better than to send us your statistics. He sent us a tape so we could see you in action instead. You play like you have everything to lose.”“It actually works in our favor that you’re all the way out here,” Wymack said. “No one outside of our team and the school board even knows we’re here. We don’t want your face all over the news this summer. We’ve got too much to deal with right now and we don’t want to drag you into the mess until you’re safe and settled at campus. There’s a confidentiality clause in your contract, says you can’t tell anyone you’re ours until the season starts in August.”Confidentiality was good. Not that it mattered. Neil couldn’t accept, even if he wanted to. He had Alex to care for, who he still needed to pick up from daycare, and who Kevin f@ck@ng Day surely didn’t know about. Neil intended to keep it that way.“Well?” Wymack prompted.“I have to talk to my mother,” Neil said because his outright refusals only brought on more arguments. He had to get them away so he could get out of this city.“What for? You’re legal, aren’t you? Your file says you’re nineteen.”“I still need to ask.”“She’ll be happy for you.”“Maybe,” Neil lied easily. “I’ll talk to her tonight.”“We can give you a lift home.”“I’m fine.”  Go, go, go , he silently pleaded.Wymack stared at Neil with a hard, assessing gaze before turning to his Foxes. “Go wait in the car.”Kevin hopped off the entertainment center and trailed after Andrew out of the locker room. Neil didn’t feel any safer with them gone. He slid his eyes over to where Wymack was now facing him, jaw set and serious.“You need one of us to talk to your parents?” he asked.“I’m fine,” Neil repeated.“Are they the ones who hurt you?” Wymack asked.The question was so odd—so completely random—that Neil blinked for a startled moment. Lies and a common lack of parental guidance made people question his living situation, but almost everyone had some modicum of tact.“Let’s try again,” Wymack said, seeming to realize the hostility of his question and shamelessly rewording it. “I’m asking because Coach Hernandez made some comments. He said you won’t change out with the others and you won’t let anyone meet your parents. That’s why he nominated you to me; he thinks you fit the line. You know what that means, right? You know the people I look for. I don’t know if he’s right, but something tells me he’s not wrong. Either way, if your parents are a problem for you, we’ll move you to South Carolina early.”Neil blinked again. He had to give it to the man. He took his savior complex seriously.“I can’t,” Neil said, then cursed himself because he should have stuck to the lie that he would speak to his mother. When Wymack opened his mouth to push the point, Neil interrupted him. “I’ve got my brother.”Realization dawned on Wymack’s face, slightly widening his eyes. If Wymack thought him an abused boy, Neil could use that to his advantage. Abused boys didn’t leave their four-year-old brother to continue living with their abuser.“You need us to help get him out of that house?” Wymack offered as if it were that simple. Even if Neil’s implication hadn’t been a lie, it was never that simple. “We can work something out with the system. Get him removed from the home.”Neil ran through his options. He could flatly decline, but Wymack might do something anyway. People who thought themselves a savior tended to act in spite of their victim’s direct requests. If CPS took a look into Neil, he knew his and Alex’s identities wouldn’t hold. Neil and his mother had kept Alex a secret for this long, and he wouldn’t let Wymack ruin that with his pity.So, he said the only other option he could think of. “I’m my brother’s guardian.” It was partially true, if not in the legal sense.“We can include him in your contract,” Wymack responded without pause. “By signing with us, we can provide your brother with any necessities he may need, including his education and housing.”Neil hadn’t expected that. It took two tries to get the word out. “Why?”Wymack was quiet for a moment. Neil scrutinized his sun-tanned and weathered features for signs of deception. “Did you think I made the team the way it is because I thought it would be a good publicity stunt?” Yes , Neil thought but didn’t say.Wymack seemed to notice the unspoken word anyway, and he sighed. “It’s about second chances, Neil. Second, third, fourth, whatever, as long as you get at least one more than what anyone else wanted to give you.”Neil was torn between incredulity and disdain. Wymack truly was the idealistic idiot the press referred to him as. All his second chances got him was a team intent on fighting itself and losing the game they were paid to play. “Is there anything else we can offer you to help care for your brother?” Wymack asked after giving him a second to think.Neil stared at Wymack, unsure how to respond. He was thrown from his depths, tossed carelessly away from the comfort of his lies and the everlasting road. He was being offered not only a future for himself, but a permanent home for his brother. Food, a roof, an education for Alex after four years of living on granola bars, appropriated houses, and motel rooms. At the very least, Neil had memories of his own bedroom and possessions. They came with the threat of his father, but he had a name and sense of permanence. Alex had not even an identity to ground himself in, and Neil saw how he drifted aimlessly from time to time, not quite solidified into reality.It was too large a risk, and too great an opportunity. Kevin doesn’t recognize you  , a sickly sweet persuasive voice whispered in his head.  You could have a life. Play Exy. Go to college. You could rest .“I need to think about it,” Neil finally choked out.Wymack nodded. He didn’t look smug at gaining ground with Neil’s previously unshakeable refusal. Instead, he just looked weary.“Keep the papers tonight,” he said, handing the folder to Neil again. This time, Neil took it. “Your coach can fax the signed copies to me on Monday and we can work out adding your brother into it later. If you decide to sign, we’ll have someone pick you up from Upstate Regional Airport the day after your graduation. May twelfth.”Neil debated saying thank you, but instead just stared at the floor. Wymack seemed to understand something Neil didn’t in the silence because he huffed a resigned sigh and strode in search of Coach Hernandez.As soon as he was alone, Neil sucked in a shuddering breath. It racked up his chest and had his shoulders hunching. His mother would be in a fit of rage if she knew he was even considering it. He felt phantom fingers yanking at his hair and boxing forcefully at his ears.  Keep moving  , was the mantra.  Moving is survival .Constant movement was making Alex a husk of a person. Neil knew there was little hope for himself, but what good was his life if he only managed to continue the legacy of torment for his brother? And what good was living if there was nothing to live for?Neil’s gaze darted around the locker room in search of lingering eyes. When he checked every corner and every crevice, he dragged himself to the sinks and stared hard at his reflection. His dyed brown hair and faux brown eyes made him unremarkable. Even still, Neil saw his father in his face; in the cut of his jaw and the sharpness of his eyes. Often, Neil looked at himself and felt like the reflection was someone else. He grimaced and looked away from the things that made him his father’s son and leaned closer to check the roots of his hair. They were as dark as the ends.He sighed and leaned back, pulling his duffel around to his front to slip the file inside. When he returned to the main room, both Wymack and Hernandez were waiting on him. Neil ignored them and strode past to the front door.Andrew was idling beside Coach Hernandez’s gray SUV, leaning against the back door. He glanced up when Neil walked past and shot him a taunting smile. “Too good to play with us, too good to ride with us?” he crooned.Neil flicked him a cool look, his gut still smarting. His urge to run took hold and he sped to a jog then to a sprint, leaving the Foxes and nosy coaches and their desperate arguments behind while a contract offering possibility and risk bounced on his back.
   All you have to do is sign the dotted line and you’re mine for five years. 
There was one benefit to not being a real person. Promises cemented with signatures were unbinding. He could very well accept and leave just a few months later. It would give Alex a moment to rest, and him a moment to pretend.Neil ran the three miles to the rundown daycare center. By the time he arrived, sweaty and panting, it was well past dinner and the sky had gone dark. A twinge of worry had him quickening his pace until he reached the door, dragging it open in a hurry.“We were supposed to close thirty minutes ago,” Janette complained with an irritated huff. All the other children and employees were gone, leaving her at the front desk with a frown and poorly aged makeup.“Sorry,” Neil said reflexively. His eyes darted around in search of Alex. “Where is he?”“Hiding somewhere,” Janette said, waving a plush, uncalloused hand. Her two chins enlarged as she leaned back in her seat to resume reading her magazine.Neil shot her a scathing look before stalking past. Alex was good at hiding and he did it often. The first few days Neil had dropped him at the daycare center, Alex had found a spot to hole up and no employee could find him for hours. The center called Neil while he was in class, and he skipped school and ran as quickly as he could only for Alex to reappear once he was present. After several days of the same, the employees stopped calling.The daycare was a collection of cheap donated toys and childish drawings done in primary colors. On the walls were faded handprints that looked more threatening than playful. If anyone were to ask Neil, the center was dismal and downright ominous, but it was inexpensive and they never asked after his parents. Places like these, which lacked a few too many permits and far too much care, tended to be discreet.Neil didn’t bother looking for Alex. Finding Alex in a hiding place not only took an insane amount of time, it also usually served to make him panic. Instead, Neil stood in the center of the main room and glanced around at the miniature table sets and cupboards. “The sun is out and the sky is clear,” he said.A head peeked out from one of the storage closets. When Alex spotted Neil, he poked the rest of his body out and closed the door with a quiet snick. Neil held out his hand in invitation.Alex hurried forward and clutched it desperately, his little palms clammy. Neil hoisted Alex to his chest. He was quick to wrap his arms around Neil’s neck and his legs around his waist, his grip strong enough to rival a monkey. Neil instantly felt more at ease. Even though the support was unnecessary, he placed the flat of his palm on Alex’s back as he made his way out of the center. Janette shot him a look as he passed, huffing and turning the page of her magazine pointedly.Neil walked the dark and empty street towards the neighborhood they were currently squatting in. Alex buried his face in the crook of Neil’s neck so Neil could feel his breaths in small puffs, even and warm.He wondered if it was a talking day. Some days Alex could speak in full, coherent sentences which were surprisingly articulate for his age. Other days, he couldn’t make a sound. No amount of questions or prying could prompt him to even whisper. Neil often wondered if it was their mother that made him this way or if it was Neil.He was trying to fix it. He had stolen books from the library on learning sign language and ASL and they were tucked with his binder at the base of his duffel. He and Alex could share small, simple conversations in sign on the non-talking days.His wondering was answered when Alex’s voice sounded, quiet and careful. “You were late.”“Yeah. Got caught up with something at school.”“Bad something?”“No. Just something.”Alex took this for the truth and relaxed fully, melting against Neil. Holding him like this made Neil feel endlessly incapable. How was he meant to keep Alex safe? Even his mother couldn’t manage it, and she was strong and clever and patient. Neil was foolish and impulsive and antagonistic. He was the wrong person for this job, and somehow he ended up the only person for it. If he thought he had sh@t luck, Alex had him beat.Alex’s bad luck started with his conception—an assault on the run that his s@d@st father committed before attempting to kill his former wife. There was the failed abortion attempt. After that was labor in the back of a stolen sedan while fourteen-year-old Neil (Chris, at the time) panicked and scrambled helplessly at his mother’s spewed orders. Then came ten names, only one of which Alex ever claimed to like. He lived in hiding and never ending secrets that their mother was all too eager to drive home the importance of. Neil had the sky, at least. He had the weapons his mother supplied, he had ‘Abram,’ and he had the ability to run instead of hide.Alex’s bad luck got him a blurry and ambiguous existence that only Neil knew about. The only good thing that came of Alex’s bad luck was that the universe seemed intent on keeping him alive. Neil was alive by his mother’s force of will. Alex only ever had Neil’s protection, and yet here he was, curled against Neil’s chest and breathing deep, even breaths.Neil would protect him for however long he could. He would be better with Alex than his father and mother. This, he promised himself.Despite the heaviness of both the duffel on his back and Alex on his front, Neil tightened his grip when he turned into the neighborhood. He thought again of the file in his bag.When he reached the home they were squatting in, Neil tapped Alex’s back three times. Alex released his vice-like grip, and Neil lowered him to the ground. Without prompting, Alex crawled into the bushes lining the wall beside the front door and instantly disappeared in the foliage.Neil scouted the house with customary acuity. When he determined it was empty of threats, he went back to the front door and knocked thrice. Alex crawled out of the bushes and followed him inside.“Are you hungry?” Neil asked him as they both made their way to the upstairs room they slept in. It had a window with a far but safe drop into the backyard. It was also furthest from the front door, giving them ample time to react if they heard an intruder.“No,” Alex answered quietly, his voice a bit garbled by the sleeve in his mouth. Neil reached down to tug it away, and Alex turned his large brown eyes up at him. Unlike Neil, his color was natural. In a rare stroke of good luck, he got their mother’s eyes instead of their father’s. Although, his auburn hair was an unfortunate trait passed by the patriarch. Neil had taken to dying Alex’s mess of curls the same shade as his own.“What did the daycare feed you?” Neil asked, shutting the door to their room and locking it before settling on the nest of blankets he had assembled in the corner.“Mac’n’cheese and fruits.”“Did you eat it all?”“Yes.”Neil gave Alex a look and he shrunk a bit.“Most of it,” he amended.Neil decided not to push the point and grabbed one protein bar from his pile for himself. While he tore the wrapping and shoved a bite in his mouth, he watched Alex. Alex watched him back. They sat knee to knee, Alex looking up with doe-like eyes and pouty lips that were a bit too stern for a toddler.After his second bite, Neil reached out and pinched Alex’s cheek. Alex scowled and batted his hand away, making Neil smirk.“I won’t be late again,” he said—lied, because he could never know if that was true.But Alex nodded and eased, crawling forward into Neil’s lap so he could press his ear to Neil’s chest and listen to his heart. Neil let him, a hand curling around Alex’s bony body to act as a barrier between Alex and the world.When he finished his bar, Neil tossed aside his wrapper and used his now free hand to comb through Alex’s curls. Alex’s eyes fell shut, lashes fluttering against his round and freckled cheeks.“The bag has a lump,” Alex murmured, eyes still closed. Neil looked up to where he had set his duffel beside their makeshift bed. Indeed, the outline of the file was visible through the top flap.Neil stared at that outline for several seconds before his eyes dragged to stare at Alex instead. The moments before he spoke were heavy and panic-ridden, his breaths kept even only because Alex was pressed so close he would hear if they hitched. As it was, Alex probably heard how his heart sped.It took three attempts before Neil could speak. “How would you like to stay Alex a little longer?”
  
  

    
      
        
        
          There's the first chapter! As I said, there's a lot of similarities with the canon first chapter, but that will gradually change.Also, rereading the first chapter of AFTG is so funny, Neil was sassy from the get-go, I don't know why any of the Foxes were surprised with his later sassiness. Mr. "No one recruits from Millport. No one knows where it is." I think Nora Sakavic mentioned in later content that Neil doesn't have much of a sense of humor, but that's disputed in literally every one of his dialogue scenes.I hope you enjoyed first chapter! I enjoy writing Neil as a brother and Alex as that brother. Let me know if you think I should add any other warnings or what your thoughts are. :)))'
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User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
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