niche hc but when Neil is having a Learn Every Language In The World day, he’s just being annoying with Andrew and going through every European language and stopping to google a few phrases before moving on. Eventually he gets to Ireland and Kevin’s not really paying any attention to him until Neil says a word like ‘thank you’ or ‘goodbye’ and he freezes up in the corner of the room.
Andrew notices straight away obviously and stops Neil but then Kevin just starts to cry.
When Kevin’s mother was alive she would call him pet names in Irish, and use some Irish words sporadically here and there when she was speaking, like most Irish people do, and he hasn’t heard anyone speaking Irish since she passed away. Thank you is one of those phrases that a lot of Irish people use day to day just to keep the language alive, and it was always one of those things she made him say as a younger kid to help her feel close to home.
Nobody really knows what to do, and he’s not sure whether he’s happy or sad or both or neither, but just hearing the language out loud causes such a visceral reaction for him that he can’t help it. It’s the first time in a while he’s caught himself thinking, I miss my mom.
whatever you do, don't think about 12 year old Sirius Black becoming very suspicious as to why his new friend disappears from school periodically and returns looking exhausted, sometimes with bruises and cuts riddling his body.
don't think about him getting worried when Remus lies, "Oh, it was a family thing".
don't think about him trying to do research on abusive households out of concern that perhaps his friend is living in dire circumstances.
and please don't imagine him coming to the realization that Remus isn't the one in an abusive household... he is.
can we just talk about how scary it must’ve been for everyone to see riko try to literally murder neil after the championship game, but especially for andrew who had to watch his person almost get taken from him just as things were getting better. this is not the first time or even the second time he was almost without neil — as in forever if riko or his father has succeeded the times before — but this was the first time that he saw it for himself and had to experience the in the moment feelings of “this might be it” as he watched riko raise that racquet to neil; i know for a fact it was one of the scariest things he’s ever witnessed.
(Trying out the whole simplification thing, and I fvck with it hard)
Also what’s with the people who draw Neil with teeny tiny paper cut scars? My man was mutilated. Don’t undermine his physical trauma cause you think he looks cuter “smooth”.