#(< me when I'm convinced aaron and allison or kevin and allison could be power duos)

[thespineoftherighteous]

I'm thinking that a Matt and Aaron bromance is an inevitability, actually

between them being roomies and the thing with Matt's mother bailing Aaron out and Aaron being free from his deal with Andrew to actually make friends, it's bound to happen

and i know that some of Aaron's general distaste for the upperclassmen is just him, but because a lot of it came from the isolation of being one of Andrew's people, once that's not a factor and the thing standing in the way is mostly just Aaron, it's just a matter of time

and if anyone's going to get through to him it'll be Matt. if Matt can sometimes balance Kevin out on the court, Aaron should be lightwork

(Matt also has Dan behind him imploring him to take advantage of his proximity to Aaron to further strengthen team bonds because he was always the monster that felt most unreachable)

also like. backliner solidarity

and also i really like to think Aaron develops some kind of relationship with Matt's mother, because that scene in the EC where she gives him a hug is everything

one might say Matt is Aaron's first actual friend

anyway so like

video games are a big part of their bonding. Matt is better than Nicky and Kevin and on par with Andrew so it gives Aaron a refreshing competition and it also gets him to loosen up a bit

it takes a little time for Matt to break Aaron of his habit of needing to immediately reimburse Matt every time he so much as picks up coffee for him..Aaron is at first uncomfortable with letting this kid he's never been very nice to just casually spend money on him but then he realizes it's a two way street. the first time Aaron brings Matt ice cream Matt has a whole Moment..until Dan, who was hanging out in their apartment, pipes up with a "and you didn't get ME any?" which effectively killed it

Aaron subtly watches Matt with Dan and subconsciously picks up on the way he treats her and mirrors Matt’s behavior when he's with Katelyn (because 1. Matt is smooth and suave as hell and 2. they're one of the first healthy relationships Aaron has seen up close so he uses them as a blueprint because he wants to make sure he's doing it right) and Matt is oblivious

Renee notices though and she quietly keeps it to herself but thinks it's sweet. Allison too picks up on it and she mentions it to Dan and Dan thinks it's the cutest thing and now whenever she notices Aaron behaving similarly or quietly observing them, she starts grinning and Matt will be like "what? what's so funny?" and she refuses to tell

even though it stopped for the most part once the team smoothed out their bumps, after spending time with Aaron Matt gets the others (mostly Allison) to quit talking about Andrew like he's a freak for good

you could see how Matt had a concerned-parent streak in him when Neil wasn't sleeping well and when he was getting involved with the monsters and that streak eventually carries over to Aaron too. especially where Aaron is both a university athlete and a premed student..kid has it rough. so Matt will wake him up when he falls asleep at his desk to tell him to go to sleep (the first time or two Aaron responded with a pleasant "fuck off" but now he just peels his face off his textbook and slouches to bed) and subtly make sure he's eating decent

when Matt wakes up one night to find Aaron trying to drink away his anxieties about his trial, it doesn't take him long to realize that he can't help but Andrew probably could. and something changes between Andrew and Matt when Andrew sees the concern for his brother in Matt's face

when the girls come over to hang out and Aaron is there he'll usually melt into the corner or go in the bedroom but they usually rope him into their conversations anyway. and somewhere between the tenth and eleventh time he was forced to play tiebreaker for one of their arguments he became comfortable enough around them and lost the need to disappear whenever they showed up

it's actually really beneficial to have them over sometimes because Matt is a hard person to be an asshole to, so having Allison around gives Aaron a good outlet

Matt learns quickly to leave Aaron alone for at least half an hour after his therapy sessions with Andrew

Aaron is good at being able to notice without being told when to leave Matt and Dan the apartment and spend the night down the hall or at Katelyn's

Katelyn and Matt hit it off immediately from the first time Aaron brings her over (very few people are immune to the Matt Boyd charm, I'm telling you) and he doesn't know how to take it because he's just getting comfortable with Matt after knowing him for two years whereas it's been ten minutes and these two are already exchanging phone numbers and discussing last Friday's game as if they've been friends for years

also when Katelyn becomes friends with the girls it's even worse and they just completely steal her from him

and, like Neil, they enjoy watching Aaron become a completely different, lighter person when Katelyn is around

Matt is big on like jocky terms of endearment and uses them casually all the time and though Aaron shoots him a look of distaste when he calls Aaron "bro" or "my guy" for the first time, it starts to grow on him

to the point where one time they're watching a film and Matt (who's a big talker during movies) keeps making comments until Aaron is just like "BRO shut UP" and Matt just grins and he's like "so we're bros huh?"

and because Matt knows that, even though it's casual, insignificant guy talk, that's the most affection he'll ever verbally get out of Aaron, he makes sure to be annoying about it and puts a "bro" in every one of his sentences

"I'm not your bro"

"ah but you don't get to decide that. bro"

"fine well you're not my bro"

"that hurts bro"

"stop calling me bro"

"can't, my guy. we're bros"

*sighs*

*nods confidently* "yeah we're bros"

(they’re bros)

#this entire blog is just me taking two foxes with either a nonexistent or a pretty underground relationship and being like 'here. this #is why they're family' #mentally‚ i just have one of those lottery device things where you crank the handle and it spits out a ball #these balls have foxes names on them and i just spin them around and pluck out a couple #'yeah they barely interacted once in canon and that one time was them biting each other but. #family <3' #(< me when I'm convinced aaron and allison or kevin and allison could be power duos) #matt boyd #aaron minyard #aftg #all for the game #the foxhole court #tfc #mine aftg