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sissytobitch10seconds · 2 years

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Dead or Alive, Cis or Trans

Fandom: My Dead Ex Summary: Luke and Ben are both 'real men' even though neither of them are exactly conventional. Warnings: Pre-transition trans character, mentions of transphobia, and outdated gender binaries Word Count: 4,029 Ship(s): Luke Sullivan/Ben Bloom

Archive link!

A/N: Writing another My Dead Ex fic because my bf got me obsessed with this silly little show even though all of the writing is horrible and the plot is half-baked. Hope you like it babe, because I know yo're the only one reading this. Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

As soon as the fourth period bell rang and released all of the kids to lunch, Lila was out of his seat and barrelling down the hall. It didn't take him long to find the lunch line that he wanted and move through it since almost no one else wanted the weird 'club' sandwiches that the school served. As soon as he had his food he was able to find the back corner table where his girlfriend was sitting. He sat his tray down with a loud 'thump' that caused her to jump and look up from her phone. "Wren, I think there's something wrong with me," he stated. He slipped into the booth across from her and began to pick at the ranch in the container of carrots he had grabbed.

"Oh?" she asked, raising a brow at him. She was ripping at the edges of her home packed sandwich and bringing little bits to her mouth.

"I think I'm a boy?" he said it like a question, but he had never been more sure of anything in his entire life. It was the only thing that felt right in the whole tumultuous time that they were going through. Everyone around them was already figuring out who they were and assigning themselves with labels that they understood whole heartedly.

Wren was quiet for a second, and that second felt like it had taken thousands of years to pass by. Lila's heart was beating up in his ears and he felt like his throat was closing entirely. "Oh thank God," she finally groaned, letting her head fall back so that it was lolling around her shoulders. "I thought that there was something wrong with me, because I don't wanna kiss you and you're like, the hottest not-girl in school."

Lila felt like he was going to cry when he heard his girlfriend (though maybe not anymore) call him anything remotely close to a boy. "You don't want to kiss me?" he asked, trying to avoid talking about the direct issue at hand.

"No, and I thought that there was something massively wrong with me. I mean, I know that I'm a lesbian, and I know that I love hanging out with you, but I couldn't figure out why I couldn't make myself have a crush on you. I've done it before with at least six other girls, not that you're a girl, and I just couldn't with you. If you're a boy then that makes perfect sense and there's nothing wrong with me," Wren shrugged. She tore off a big hunk of her sandwich and then popped it into her mouth.

The other tweenager nodded and then began to stuff his face with his lunch. His stomach had been flopping back and forth between nervously nauseous and ravenously hungry. Now that he knew the girl who was pretty much his only friend in the entire Hell-school they had to attend accepted him as him, he had settled on the latter and abandoned the former.

"So," Wren started when he was about halfway through his sandwich and all the way through his carrots.

"So?" Lila responded, lifting a brow at her.

"You need a new name," she said decidedly. "I can't go around calling you 'Lila' because that's a girl's name."

"I mean, you can," he shrugged. "It's the name on my birth certificate and the one that everyone calls me."

"So? Change it," she shrugged. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped through the half dozen apps that she already had open to get to YouTube. "Here, look, I found someone that made a video on being trans the other day. I thought she was just an artist but it turns out she wasn't."

Lila shifted uncomfortably. He had already done his fair share of research when it came to his gender identity, but he hadn't been as bold as to watch videos where his parents or the school might be able to see what he had been getting up to. He reached over to take the offered device as he asked, "Does being trans mean that you're something else?"

"Kind of like being a lesbain does," she shrugged. "It makes me something more than just a person. Like an extra descriptor."

He let out a small hum and then looked down to the phone that had been handed to him. His eyes flickered over the white subtitles at the bottom of the video so that he didn't have to turn the sound up. It took a lot for his mind to be able to process the information that he was being given while he was still riding the emotional high of Wren actually accepting him.

"Come on, we have STUDY next hour, so we can go to the library and look through books until we find a name that you like. Then we can come up with a game plan for how you're going to come out to your parents," she said plainly. 'STUDY' was the backronym that their school had used for the free period each of the grades had so that they could go and get more one-on-one help with some of their teachers with homework or assignments they hadn't finished. They had good grades, which meant that they were free to go almost anywhere they wanted if it wasn't already full.

Lila just nodded as he handed the phone back over and settled back on eating his meal. He knew that something like this was going to happen when he came out to Wren. She was a force of nature when it came to all things, and when she decided that she was going to do something a certain way, she was going to follow through come Hell or high water. He wasn't sure when/if he was going to be able to come out to his parents or anyone other than Wren, but he knew that it would make him feel better to have a plan at the very least.

Once they had finished eating, they threw away their wrappings and food scraps. They stopped by Wren's locker so that they could deposit her lunchbox inside. The next place that they found themselves was outside of the library where the eighth grade teachers were having their weekly lunch meetings. The conversation turned back to something that they normally talked about, which was a nice break for Lila who was feeling rather overwhelmed about the whole situation.

As soon as the end of lunch bell rang, they slipped into the library after checking in on the STUDY sheet so that the teachers could find them if they were needed. Wren grasped his hand, though it was different from the other times that they had tried to hold hands, dragging him over to the dictionary section. She pulled out a big book of baby names and then sat down right in front of the Encyclopedias. "What kind of name do you want?"

"Maybe something that starts with L? That way I can have the same initials," Lila suggested. He dropped his backpack and then sat down next to her. Their shoulders were knocking together but there were no sparks or warm feelings like he had been trying to imagine there were back when they were dating. While Wren hadn't flat out told him that they weren't together anymore, it only made sense. He was a boy and she was a lesbian.

They began to flip through the book, past all of the girls' names as quickly as they could, and then to the 'L' section. Wren would scan through the huge lists of names and the meanings of them until she found one that she liked. She would point on out and sound it out loud so that they could see what it felt like with Lila's last name as well.

He tightened up when he heard the newest name that she had picked out. They had worked their way all the way down to the 'u' section of the 'L's. "Luke Sullivan," he repeated the words that had come out of her mouth to test how it felt. "I like that! I think that's it!"

---

"How important do you think liking fruit is to Charley?" Luke asked as he flopped down onto the bench beside her.

Wren let out a little groan and turned off the video that she had been watching. She sat up, tucking her leg underneath her so that they could both fit in the same space. "What did you do this time?"

"I was trying, Wren! This time I really was, she's just so fucking dense," he groaned. He placed his elbows on his thighs and then leaned his head forward so that he could bury his face in his hands.

"So what did you do this time?" she pried again.

He let out a long-lasting sigh before he finally worked up the courage to admit it. "So I asked her to come out to lunch with me so that I could talk to her and try to clear everything up. But just like every other time I've tried to do this she mistook it as something romantic. Like I was asking her out on a date."

"I hate to break it to you, but the other times were kind of your fault," she shrugged.

"Why? Because I was trying to be nice to her?" he asked, peeking through his fingers at his childhood friend and ex-girlfriend. Ever since they had dated in eighth grade they had basically been inseparable. She had been with him through every step of his transition process, including holding his hand while he came out to his parents. They had gone to a different high school than one that a lot of the other kids in their middle school had which made his social transition a lot easier. They didn't hang out a lot when they were actually in school because other than their middle school bonding there wasn't a lot that they had in common now, but they were still close.

"You can't be nice to girls like Charley, because they're not going to get it," she shook her head. "I mean, you've tried how many times now?"

"Wren," he said morosely. He was aware calling her name was going to do nothing now that she was on a roll. She hadn't changed all that much since they had first met each other.

"The first time that you really talked to her was when you were at your dead gay crush's wake, and you asked her for her number. I don't know how she was supposed to think that you weren't hitting on her there, that's on you, bud," Wren continued.

Luke let out a small scoff, "She and Ben were childhood friends, I thought that we were going to be able to console each other about how sad we were that he was dead. Excuse me for trying to be nice."

"Then, you texted her within the first forty eight hours even after I told you that you shouldn't do that," Wren continued like he hadn't even spoken. "After that, you asked her to meet up with you after school in the morning for some reason instead of just being like 'Hey Charley, I saw that nifty art on your Instragram, can you do something for the Homecoming dance so that my stupid student council lackeys can steal it?' instead of making it sound like you were going to ask her out to homecoming!"

"In my defense, it was her fault for immediately assuming that I was going to ask her out. I was still in mourning after Ben died and I thought that she would be too," he grumbled.

"Then, after all of that, you pushed her and Ben into going to Homecoming together! This time it's not a combination of you being awkward and her being dense, you literally made it sound like you were going to ask her out. I know that you were trying to find a way that she would feel comfortable going to Homecoming stag so that you could be with Ben but the girl is head over fucking heels for you so that wasn't going to happen," Wren sneered a little bit. The whole Homecoming situation was a little bit of a tender spot for her with everything that had gone down with Bethany.

"Wren," Luke said morosely as he let his head drop back into his hands. He knew that he had made a lot of mistakes when it came to Charley, including getting her alone to talk about Homecoming before Ben did his adorable little dance at the party. He was well aware of every single misstep and miscommunication that he had with the girl when trying to comfort her about the death of someone they both should have been mourning and after he had discovered his crush was still alive. That didn't stop his childhood friend from reacquainting him with every single one of them.

"And after that! You pushed Charley and Ben together so that they were at the dance and you were there stag. Then you let her think that you were asking her to dance instead of asking Ben like you actually were. Then you asked her out to lunch! How was she not supposed to think that was a date after you asked her to dance?"

"Well I didn't do that on purpose," Luke groaned. "I was asking Ben out and then I got too awkward and flustered to tell her that she was the wrong person."

"What did you do this time then? How did you fuck it up more than just making her think that it was a date?" she asked.

"I was trying to figure out a way to explain to her that not only am I trans, I'm into the guy that she's magically tied to with a weird cursed love necklace, and instead I just told her about the fruit thing. She went on and on about it and I couldn't think of a way to redirect the conversation back to what I actually wanted to talk to her about," he grumbled.

"You tried to come out to someone who thought that she could date you and she got obsessed with your fruit issues? Jesus Christ man, I don't think a single person has been as unlucky as you have!" she cackled. She had to bend forward and hold her stomach to stop the ache there from how hard she was laughing. Luke just stared blankly ahead of him at the wall of the school while he waited for her to finish. As soon as she had finished, she folded her arms in front of her chest and rolled her eyes. She was a lot more upset than Luke had realized when he came up to her, but he was also upset about something very similar so he figured that they could be miserable together. "You're absolutely hopeless," she sneered.

"I could go on and on about how you're always chasing after the wrong person too," Luke snapped at her. He sat the way that her face fell and then immediately apologized as he reached a hand out to rub her back, "Sorry, birdie. I know that you didn't want to get hurt when you went after Bethany. Or me."

"Dating you was the best thing I ever did. I regret that a lot less than I regret making out with Bethany at the party," she let out a small chuckle.

They were both disturbed from their quiet moment by the girl that they had just been talking about rushing up to them with the police officer that had been following Ben around the school. There was also a woman with the same kind of chalky white skin that Ben had, which made Luke assume she was suffering from the same spell/curse that his crush was. She had a man in a wheelchair that was heaving for breath and had a full oxygen mask over his mouth. Luke and Wren sprang up from the bench and began to talk with them to figure out what was going on. As soon as they realized that Charley had done something stupid and selfish, again, they began to rush all over the school to try and find their missing undead friend. They finally found him up on the roof, standing while staring over the courtyard of the campus from the couch that was up there. Luke felt his heart hammering up in his chest like it had been back when he came out to Wren and when he had discovered himself.

Charley rushed past the group so that she was standing up beside Ben. He was still wearing the clothes that he had on at Homecoming. "Why isn't it working? We're close together, why aren't the necklaces healing him?" Charley asked. Her eyes were wide and desperate as she looked back to her childhood friend and then over to the other undead she had brought.

"It's too late," the woman shook her head.

"No, no," Luke objected. He walked over to them while holding his hand flat out in front of him. "Take off your necklace and give it to me."

"What? Why?" she asked, her brows furrowed together in confusion.

"Well, the spell first worked when you put the necklace on after he died, maybe it'll work again if someone else does it," Luke glanced back towards the duo that he assumed was also suffering from the same curse.

Charley had already reached up to undo the back clasp of the necklace. She found that unlike when she had tried on the first night of Ben's unlife, it came undone and fell down to the ground. She and Luke both lurched for it, but he was able to pick it up before she did and began to put it around his neck. It had been a long time since he had done anything remotely similar to that so it was a bit of a struggle to get everything to latch.

The undead woman stepped around the man in the wheelchair and walked over to them. Her eyes were soft as she spoke to him, "My dear, what you're doing is very noble, and I can tell that you love him a lot, but this isn't going to work. The spell is only designed to work on one man and one woman because that is what Ben bought them for."

Luke's eyes flickered up towards the rest of the group. Wren's eyes furrowed together with concern and he could see the way that her hand reached down to hold onto Bethany's so she could steady herself. He wished that she was closer so that he could have the reassuring presence of the one person present that knew his secret closer to him. He then flashed back so that he was looking at the duo in front of him instead. "Then it's a good thing that I was born a woman," he snapped the necklace into place and then turned to look at Ben.

The man let out a startled gasp and all of the rot that was covering his face began to recede back so that all was left was the pale chalky color. Luke held his breath as he reached out to take Ben's hand. "Ben?" he asked, his voice full of desperation and fear. If this wasn't going to work then he had just come out to a huge group of people for no reason, possibly outing himself to the entire school.

"Luke?" he asked, his eyes fluttering as he woke up from the weird trance that he had been in.

"You're okay!" he nearly screeched as he flung his arms around the other man's shoulders to bring him in for a hug.

"I am?" he still seemed a little dazed as he returned the embrace after a second. "I am! Holy shit, what did you do?"

Luke pulled back. He reached down and instinctively grabbed hold of Ben's hand so that he could reassure himself that Ben was there and as alive as he could be nowadays. It had honestly been so hard for him to lose someone he considered a friend and had a crush on, but he hadn't quite realized how bad it had been until he had almost lost Ben again. He gave the other teenager a little sheepish look as he explained, "Well, I, um, we came up here and found you because Charley remembered this is where you came when you were upset. We found you up here all covered in rot and not acting like yourself and the lady over there said that it was because the necklaces had been apart for too long, so I figured I would just restart the spell. I know that this was something intimate between you and Charley but I couldn't just let you die again. It was hard enough for me the first time around."

The other teenager blinked at him for a moment, and Luke assumed that he was still trying to come back and realize what had happened. "Why was it hard for you? Charley was barely affected by it and I talked to her the most out of anyone."

"It's not obvious?" Luke asked as he glanced back to Wren. She gave him an encouraging thumbs up which only caused a flush to cross over his face. "I'm in love with you, Ben Bloom."

Ben opened his mouth to say something but then a smile crawled out over his features. "This is what love is supposed to feel like," he whispered. He leaned forward so that their lips continued in a gentle kiss, and it felt like everything in the universe had finally settled into place.

The group, minus Charley and that cop, was cheering in celebration of the couple finally realizing that they were into each other. Luke left their hands held down at their sides but reached up with the other hand so that he could cup Ben's cheek and bring him even closer. Ben reached behind him and placed his arm across the hips of his new partner's back to keep him stable as they kissed.

After a while, everyone else removed themselves from the rooftop so that they were alone. When they broke apart, Luke could feel the nerves and worries he had been struggling with for the last four years bubble back up to the top. "Uh, sorry that you didn't exactly get stuck with a real man."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked, brows furrowed.

"The necklaces only work for a biological female and a biological male. I was only able to bring you back to life because I'm trans," he answered, shifting uncomfortably. He was half terrified that Ben was going to turn out to be transphobic and hate him, which would be awkward now that they couldn't be more than thirty feet apart from each other for more than an hour or two at a time. He knew that it wasn't likely because while Ben was a buffoon, he was widely accepting and did away with most gender norms when he wanted.

Ben let out a little laugh, "I'm still confused, Luke."

"What?"

"You said that I didn't get stuck with a real man but you're right here, wearing my necklace," he reached up and brushed his fingers over the charm resting above Luke's collarbone.

The living teenager felt a smile so wide that it made his eyes water spread over his face. "You really mean that?"

"Of course I do. If you think that you're a real man, then you're a real man. I mean, I'm dead so I'm technically not real either if we're going down that hole," Ben laughed.

"I'm so glad that I chose you to fall in love with," Luke laughed. The thumping of his heart and butterflies in his belly didn't stop as he leaned forward and gave Ben another kiss.

#writing #fanfiction #fanfic #archive of our own #ao3 #oneshot #trans characer #trans luke #trans luke sullivan #trans man #trans #ben bloom #luke sullivan #charley albright #wren #bethany #my dead ex

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sissytobitch10seconds · 2 years

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Girls Only

Fandom: My Dead Ex Summary: Charley only wants to hangout with girls, but Ben hasn't picked up on this. Warnings: Trans characters, uncomfortable situations, mentions of transphobia and children not fully understanding what being trans entails Word Count: 3,322 Ship(s): Charley Albright/Wren, Ben Bloom/Luke Sullivan

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A/N: This is the second half of an art swap that I did with my bf! The first half was an art piece that he did for my fic The Perfect World. If you like My Dead Ex, please go check out some of his works!

Charley looked up from the peanut butter and jelly that she had packed herself the night before as she saw her girlfriend walking over to her. The wind fluttered around her and pushed some of her hair into her face. As she pushed away the brown locks she became sharply aware of the fact that Meghan didn't have to do the same. "You cut your hair?" she asked, scowling slightly.

They had been friends since the first day of Kindergarten when Charley had spotted Meghan sitting over by the swings all on her lonesome. Charley had, of course, already had a couple of friends from the playdates that her mother had set up with some of the women she knew from her country club. When she had seen the other girl looking rather morose and put out, she had rushed over and introduced herself. They had become thick as thieves after that. Meghan loved playing on the swings but also played along with Charley's imaginary games, especially when they got put in the section of the classroom with the fake kitchen set during playtime. After that, they had worked to get paired together for projects when they were in class and often pleaded with the teacher to sit them together. They had been in the same classes all the way until now, when they were placed into different fourth grade rooms. They had immediately rectified that by deciding that they were going to be girlfriends. Surely, Meghan had assured Charley, the step up in their relationship would remedy their physical separation.

"I did! Do you like it?" Meghan asked as she slipped into the table on the other side of Charley. The picnic benches were small enough, fitting the children that used them, that their knees knocked together. She lifted her hand up and proudly showed off her shorn locks. The day before, she had hair longer than Charley, getting close to ten inches, and now it was barely an inch long even on the top of her head.

That was another thing that had been driving them apart, other than being placed with different teachers for the first time since they had become friends. Recently, she had noticed that Meghan was changing. She wasn't able to do classwork with her like they used to, but when they did their homework together she noticed that the other girl was going much faster in math than they used to. She had even been placed into the advanced reading/science group. When they hung out at each other's houses Meghan was a lot more inclined to suggest video games and TV shows than dolls like she did back when they were in the same class. They used to try and match their outfits, but recently Meghan had taken to wearing cargo pants and t-shirts instead of the cute dresses and skirts that Charley wanted to wear. Now that her hair was cut off, Charley felt the growing feeling of worry and confusion

She pushed away the anxiety building inside of her as Meghan grinned. "So the other day my mom took me down the street that has all those small shops, right? And I got these!" she pulled a small box out of her pocket and then revealed two matching necklaces. "I got them from this really pale lady who kind of smelled like cheese."

"They're really pretty," Charley cooed. She reached out and took the necklace that was on the left. She undid the clasp so that she could hold the chain in both hands while she redid it around her neck.

Meghan sat the container down next to her lunchbox and then removed the second necklace. As she latched it properly, she continued, "I know that you've been feeling really bummed out about us not being in the same classes because you're acting more distant than you used to. I mean, we didn't even hang out this weekend and we hang out literally every weekend. So I thought that the necklaces would be something nice for us to have so that we can always be thinking of each other even though you're in Mr. Evan's class and I'm in Ms. Farnsmen's."

"Meghan?" she asked.

The other girl paused the rant that she had been giving (not that Charley had been listening), her hand halfway inside of her lunchbox. It took her a moment to be able to reset and complete the task. She placed the box full of her sandwich down on the painted picnic table in front of her. "Yeah?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Do you want to be a boy?"

Charley had been thinking about the changes after Meghan had brought them up again. She had seen something about transgender people on the internet the week before since her mother was often too tired or out of it on Ambien and wine to set a proper lock on her phone like Meghan's mother had. She was able to discover all sorts of things that she shouldn't have been seeing at her age, but she was actually grateful she had stumbled across that YouTube video now that it might help her girlfriend.

"Yeah," Meghan responded immediately.

"Really?" Charley wrinkled her nose. She didn't have a problem with Meghan not wanting to be a girl anymore, and it would explain the shift in appearance recently, but the idea of holding hands with one sounded boring at best and gross at worst.

"You don't?" the other fourth grader asked quietly.

"Not really," Charley shook her head. "I like being a girl even if I don't like the clothes that my mom dresses me in. I like having long hair and playing with dolls. I guess boys can do those too, though."

"I don't like long hair. And I want to be like the other boys. I don't like my name very much either," Meghan was shifting uncomfortably on the seat.

"That's okay. I learned about this thing on the internet called 'transgender'. It's people that were born with the wrong body parts or something. They stop being whatever they were born as and start being what they want to be. Kind of like when your mom quit her job at the hospital so that she could take care of you all the time," Charley informed the other.

"Can you talk about me like I'm a boy, then? If this is normal, then I want to do it. I didn't know that not everyone wanted to be a boy sometimes," Meghan fiddled with the edge of the tupperware lid from his lunchbox.

Charley shrugged, "Okay. Do you want a new name? I heard that's something that transgender people do too."

"Yes, please," he nodded immediately.

"What about… Joseph?"

"No."

"Stephen?"

"Too old."

"Brad?"

"That sounds like a skater. I want to be a chef."

"Benjamin?"

That caused a pause in the boy. He worried his lip between teeth that were just barely too big for his mouth. His brows had furrowed together completely.

"Do you think that I could just go by Ben? Ben Bloom has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" Ben's face was split open in a bright smile as he said the name that he had just picked out loud with his last name. Despite the way that dating a boy made Charley feel, she had to admit that she liked seeing the kid that she had grown up with so genuinely happy.

She gave him a big smile as she said, "I think that you get to call yourself whatever you want!"

---

Almost a month later, Ben had gotten his mom on board with the whole idea of him being a boy. He had to go and see the counselor every Tuesday, both the one at school and the one up at the hospital on the other side of town. He complained about it a lot to Charley because apparently they made him do all sorts of extra work and he already had so much homework that he could never get it done in time for his favorite show. Despite how much he disliked having to go to therapy, he did like the fact that the teachers were now using a different name and pronouns for him. The other kids in their class struggled a bit and some of them outright refused to listen, but Ben had never been popular before so didn't mind it now.

One thing that Charley really didn't like was the fact that Ben was still wearing the necklace he had gotten before they realized he was trans. She didn't want to be dating him anymore, not when he was Ben and a boy.

She walked over to the table that they normally sat at, clenching the bag containing her lunch tightly in her hand. "Hey Ben," she cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Hey!" he chirped as he beamed up at her. Her heart ached in her chest and guilt began to bubble up in her stomach, mixing with the hunger from skipping breakfast in her rush to get to school. Ben was so much happier now that he was living as a boy, but she just didn't feel the same way that she had when he was the person she thought he was. She didn't feel betrayed or anything, but she didn't want to date him anymore. She was okay with hanging out with him on the weekends and doing their homework together, of course, but she didn't want to hold hands or kiss him now that he was a boy.

Ben's face fell a little as he noticed that the shiny gold chain around her neck was no longer there. "You're not wearing our necklace anymore."

"Oh, sorry," she shrugged. "I guess I forgot it," she cringed internally at herself as she backed out of telling him that she wanted to break up like she had originally planned.

"Are you going to sit down for lunch?" he asked curiously.

"Well, actually, Jessica invited me to go over and sit with her friends so I was going to do that," she explained awkwardly. The plan had been to tell him that she only wanted to date girls and that Adrienne had asked her if she wanted to be her girlfriend, but she wasn't able to get up the guts to do it.

Ben began to pack up the meal that he had out over the table. "I'll come with you!"

She opened her mouth to tell him the truth but instead all that came out was more lies, "It's kind of an all-girl thing. And you're not… a girl…"

"Oh," he looked uncomfortable and upset as he lowered himself back down onto the picnic bench. "I didn't think about that."

Charley quickly tried to rectify the situation, "We can still hang out this weekend if you want." As much as she desperately did not want to be dating a boy, she still loved her friend very dearly and didn't want to lose him.

"Yeah, I'll talk to my mom," Ben nodded semi-dismissively. She gave him her best smile but he didn't return it. Charley hovered there for another moment before she turned and walked over to where the popular girls were sitting so that she could eat her lunch before the recess bell rang. She and Ben never ended up finding a time to hang out with each other after that, and a week later Ben moved to a different elementary school.

---

"Oh, so he gets a date but I don't?"

Charley whirled around as soon as she heard a familiar voice coming from behind her. She struggled just as much with admitting the truth about herself now that she was almost an adult as she had when they were back in fourth grade. Ben had gone to a different elementary school than her two months after he had socially transitioned, and they had been sent to different middle schools because of the school boundaries. Somehow, they ended up in the same high school despite living further apart from each other than they had as tweenagers. The school was big enough that it had taken him until their Sophomore year to realize that she was there and exactly who she was.

Once he had, things between them had been awkward to say the least. Despite the fact that when they had been dating back in fourth grade he had been presenting as a girl, and they had separated almost as soon as he had realized he wasn't, he still seemed to think that there was something between them. He would appear behind her like a jump scare and ask her to go out with him in many different, increasingly not-subtle ways. He had even moved his locker closer to her earlier that week. Ben still had issues picking up on social cues and was so sweet that she almost couldn't bear to let him down, even if Wren had given her a textbook full of tips and walkthroughs on exactly how to do it. She was able to turn him down every time he asked her out, but she was unable to let him know that there was absolutely no chance at them getting together. Wren had been standing next to her when she almost let her resolve break and agree to go out with him just so that she could tell him in a less public place, but the hand of her girlfriend on her back reminded her that she couldn't even give him a hope that there was a chance.

He had just done it again, appearing behind her without her being at all aware that he was going to be there. She whirled around and looked him up and down. "Ben! What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Well I was actually trying to find Wren when I saw you. You two are basically attached at the hip so I was going to ask you where she was but then I saw you talking to Luke," he pointed to the back of the aforementioned senior as he retreated around the corner.

Charley flushed and kicked at the ground. She always seemed completely inept when it came to interacting with people, and her brain was coming up with new interesting ways to do that. She was always snappish and short with Ben even when she didn't want to be, but she was flustered and awkward with Luke despite not being interested in him romantically. "Luke and I aren't together. You know that picture of my drawings that Wren posted on my Insta yesterday? He saw it and liked it, so he asked me to come up with some ideas for Homecoming. I was just in there making an absolute fool of myself in front of the entire Student Council."

"So if you're not going out with him then do you think that you could come out with me?" he asked. "I'm free after school and I-"

She reached her hands up so that she was cupping either side of her face. She noted somewhere in the back of her mind that she could feel pointy stubble pressing into her palms instead of soft downy hairs like when she held Wren's face. "Ben," she said loudly to catch his attention out of freaking out that she was touching him. "I. Am. A. Lesbian! You. Are. A. Man!"

She released him and then turned on her heel so that she could go and find her girlfriend, who was most likely getting high while glowering at the blond republican she had become obsessed with recently. She wasn't able to get far before she heard the familiar sound of footsteps approaching her. Charley let out a groan and rolled her eyes when Ben caught up to her. "What do you want?" she asked, thoroughly exasperated and tired.

"Do you think that we could hang out? Like friends. We grew apart because I had to move schools so that I could transition but I liked being friends with you. And it's not like you can really date in elementary school anyway. Also, you've still done more with Luke than I have and I really want to ask him out to Homecoming so I need your help trying to figure out how to do that."

---

Wren was sitting on the edge of her girlfriend's bed and watching the two childhood friends interact. They were all getting ready to go to Homecoming, though the last member of their party had yet to arrive. It had been easy for her to get ready, but Charley and Ben were both taking forever to manage it. Charley had taken almost half an hour to get the silvery and blue eyeshadow around her eyes to actually work, and it had taken another half hour for Ben to get the glue to work so that he could help her with the elf ears. Homecoming this year had a theme that went with how they dressed up, which meant that Wren had to sit through even more of their nonsense.

She had to admit that all the work Charley had put in paid off. Wren was wearing a sleek black dress that cupped her figure just enough to be alluring to the other lesbians around the school but not enough for the straight boys. It had tulip sleeves, at the request of the aforementioned girlfriend to make it look more magical or something. Charley was wearing a silver dress that went all the way down to the floor, just barely letting her blue heels peek out from the hem. She had delicate makeup on that made her look ethereal and somehow even more beautiful.

"Are you sure that he's going to like this?" Ben asked as he fiddled with the edge of his suit.

"No. He's gonna hate it," Wren replied. Before she had a chance to laugh at her own joke or the reaction that they both had, the doorbell rang downstairs. She sprang off of the bed and went to go get it. As she teased Luke about his arrival and the stupid crown that he was wearing as Homecoming King, Ben and Charley came downstairs.

Luke's mouth fell open and his eyes almost sparkled as he watched his date descend the last few steps to the ground floor. "Wow," he whispered. "You look great, Ben."

"Thanks," he flushed a little. He was wearing a pale pink suit with a floral shirt underneath and had a small amount of makeup on so that he and Charley matched. He and Luke had somehow managed to match even more than the duo that was actually trying to coordinate. Luke had on a black button down and a maroon suit over the top of it. The two red-hues were perfect together, mixing in the most wonderful way with just enough difference to make them stand out.

"I do think that you're missing something, though," he smiled warmly as he reached out and hesitantly took the other man's hand. He removed the crown from his head and placed it on top of Ben's fluffy hair. "There."

"Thanks," he flushed darkly. The two of them had only agreed to start going out a few days ago, with Homecoming being a first date of sorts for them. Ben leaned over and placed a kiss on Luke's cheek before he turned back to the girls. "Are we ready to go?"

"I think we are," Charley nodded. She was absolutely overjoyed that she was finally back to being friends with Ben without the expectation of them dating. She got to have the girlfriend of her dreams and the best friend from her childhood, while he got to be who he really was and have someone who loved him like he deserved. It was perfect.

#my dead ex #writing #fanfiction #fanfic #ao3 #archive of our own #ben bloom #luke sullivan #charley albright #wren #why doesnt she have a last name #writing fics for my bf #art swap #commission

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