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When Geoff brought home a wriggly, clumsy kid who was prone to making bird noises all the time, Michael just sighed fondly at him and shifted to make room for them both on the couch. When Gavin introduced himself, she admitted that maybe he wasn’t quite a kid- at least, until he stole one of her pizza rolls.
“Fucking- what the hell Gavin?” Michael glared at him, jolting his elbow so that he choked on his mouthful. Okay, maybe she was childish too. It was totally still his fault.
“Play nice, Gav, come on,” Geoff rolled his eyes, reaching over to take his own pizza roll from Michael’s plate, ruffling her hair as he went.
“How come-“
“Because he’s my boyfriend and you’re not.” Michael rolled her eyes before sharing a warm look with Geoff, leaning around Gavin to kiss Geoff’s cheek.
“Oh.” Gavin wrinkled his nose, raising an eyebrow at them both. “Well, I’ll just stick with stealing then. I thought you said you were asexual too though, Geoff-?”
“Yeah.” Geoff smiled at him, all warm eyes and ridiculous facial hair. “I’m not aro, though, so. So I keep this cute motherfucker around, when she’s not ditching me for Lindsay-“
“Who is way cuter than I am, just saying.” Michael interjected around the last mouthful of pizza roll, standing up to go put her plate away.
“Huh. So- is the sound system in this thing as impressive as it looks?” Michael laughed quietly to herself at the way Gavin tilted his head with the question, rearranging all the dirty dishes until it looked like she had actually cleaned up rather than just leave it all for later.
She didn’t go sit back down on the couch though, instead leaning against the doorframe and listening to Geoff and Gavin talk, biting her lip to keep herself from grinning. Gavin was pretty cool, though she wasn’t willing to admit it yet.
Gavin made her admit his coolness out loud a less than a week later. They were both sat with their feet trailing in the water of the local community pool, and Michael was still feeling a little bit tipsy from the drinks they had had before walking over from the house.
It was late, and the pool was mostly empty, which was a good thing considering the direction their conversation had somehow taken.
“So, yeah, always go to see that guy’s films. Like, one of the only filmmakers who was never too much of a pleb about all my shit. Even the trans shit, which is pretty awesome.” Gavin normally gestured as he spoke, but at this his hands froze, glancing up at Michael. “Well. That was a lot sooner than in most of my friendships.”
Michael frowned for a second, thinking back over his words before realising what he meant. “Oh, you’re trans too? Sweet. Definitely gonna go see his movies then.” She knocked her shoulder against his, smiling.
“Too?” Gavin looked at her, biting his lip and almost concealing that tiny hopeful smile that Michael was familiar with on other people, but totally recognised on him too.
“Yup. I’m your… angry neighbourhood trans girl. Lindsay’s trans too, if you hadn’t figured that out from faer pronouns.”
“Oh- oh! Oh, woah, okay. Sweet. That’s pretty damn top, yeah?” Gavin grinned freely, raising a hand for a high five that Michael almost ignored, but. High fiving him felt cool as shit.
“Yeah, Gav.” Michael paused, watching as a kid on the far side of the pool leaped in with a yell.
“Also, uh, since you know that and you’re pretty cool- might as well tell you that. Um. I’m demisexual- so like, no sexual rubbish unless I’m like, really smegging close to someone- also I don’t experience romantic attraction. Like, at all.” Gavin’s eyes flicked from her face to his knees, his words much smoother than usual. It still sounded weird in his asshole accent, but there was definitely that atmosphere of been-here-before that Michael probably also had every time she came out to someone new. Weird.
“Cool.” She paused, resting a hand on his shoulder. “You know what you do experience though?” Michael smirked, biting her lip to stop herself from giggling.
“What?” Gavin frowned at her, already starting to flail a little.
And then Michael shoved him into the pool, narrowly avoiding getting smacked in the face by one of his arms. “Motherfucking gravity.”
Michael laughed as Gavin floundered around in the pool, spluttering at her when he resurfaced. “Michael, why?” He pouted, pulling at his soaked shirt and managing to splash himself in the face in the process.
“That was fucking amazing,” Michael clutched her stomach, so distracted by laughing that she didn’t notice it when Gavin surged upwards and grabbed at her knee, hauling her in with a loud victory call. Michael squeaked in shock, instinctually clutching at Gavin as she flew into the water.
“Yes!” Gavin grinned, dodging Michael’s elbows and laughing when she glared at him.
Michael couldn’t even pretend to be grumpy for long, though, so she pushed her drenched hair out of her face and went after Gavin again, yelling “Come here, you motherfucker-“ before she tackled him.
“So, welcome to the first- what the fuck did you call it, Gavin?” Michael frowned at him, pausing with her arm across the door.
“What- oh- tippy toppy trans time!” Gavin grinned, squeezing past Caiti and Lindsay and trying to wriggle under her arm.
“Jesus- I can’t do an opening speech for a- what the fuck ever you called it. It’s a big trans sleepover. Get the fuck inside.” Michael rolled her eyes, gesturing towards the door before heading through it herself. “Basically this is just what happens every time Lindsay stays over, just with less sex. Sadly.”
“Aww, I was promised lots of oral.” Lindsay pouted at Michael, rising up onto faer toes so fae practically towered over her to give her a kiss.
“You have a really nice place, Michael,” Caiti commented as Michael practically herded them all inside before shutting the door. Michael didn’t really know Caiti all that well, but they complimented her shit and ignored the pile of take out boxes in the corner, which was nice.
“Thanks- I picked it out all by myself.”
“What- your mom didn’t choose it for you? Woah, you’re a real grown-up,”
Michael grinned when Caiti laughed and snarked at her, bumping their shoulders together and rolling her eyes. “Thanks. Come on, we should totally build a blanket fort and shit.”
“You know, we should totally play truth or dare.” Gavin rested his chin on his hands, leaning back against one of the chairs that held up the roof of their totally awesome fort and narrowly avoiding knocking the whole thing over.
Caiti spotted the problem as soon as Michael did, and they were totally Michael’s favourite person, because they managed to move Gavin away and make the whole thing actually sturdy at the same time.
“Gavin, just because we’re eating marshmallows and wearing pyjamas at 3 in the afternoon doesn’t mean we’re actually little kids.” Michael rolled her eyes, and Lindsay lifted faer head off her shoulder to shove at her.
“Shut up, Michael. Sure Gav, if you want.”
“Piss off Michael-“ Gavin glared, kicking at her shin with all the force of a fucking baby bird. “Can I go first, then?”
“Truth or dare, Gavin,” Michael said, trying to pretend her smile was reluctant.
“Truth,” Gavin grinned at her, all goofy and warm, and Michael inwardly rolled her eyes at the little my-friends-are-happy flutter that her stomach did. God, she was a fucking loser.
“Ideal superpower, go.” Caiti offered, sprawling out on the floor and stretching their arms up into the air while they waited for Gavin’s answer.
“That’s a bloody good one- I think, well.” Gavin bit his lip, and then his eyes lit up. “Got it- fire, yeah? Burn some pricks, cook your food from bed, and you’d be like, always warm.”
“You’re worrying about warm, in Texas?” Lindsay asked, raising an eyebrow and resting faer head on Michael’s shoulder again.
“You could totally get one of those steam engines too, to run your house.”
“Yeah! Okay, I don’t regret bringing you anymore, thanks Caiti.” Gavin nodded, laughing when Caiti blinked at him, unimpressed. “Totally makes up for stealing the good blanket.”
“Of course,” Caiti laughed, and Michael rolled her eyes. It hadn’t taken long to work out that rolling her eyes and sighing at Gavin was an incredibly effective strategy.
“We should totally be a superhero team.” Michael said around a mouthful of marshmallow. Gavin nodded emphatically and Michael’s grin in response almost made her choke, but. Superheroes.
“I’m totally in. I want Tony Stark though, before anyone else takes him.” Caiti rolled onto their front, grabbing a marshmallow from Gavin’s hand before continuing. “I’m not sure about being Iron Man, but how fucking cool does Iron Void sound?”
“Iron Void the billionaire agender philanthropist?” Lindsay asked, high-fiving Caiti when they nodded and almost collapsed the ceiling.
“You all suck.” Michael began, smirking when Gavin pouted. “Shapeshifting is obviously the best power to have. Like, you could do fucking anything.”
“Aww, shit- you’re totally right. No fair,” Lindsay pouted, sliding away from Michael and shaking faer head.
“Sorry babe,” Michael laughed, crawling across the new distance between them to kiss faer, smiling the whole time.
“Okay, I wasn’t gonna go for this- but since Michael forced my hand,” Lindsay hesitated, grabbing a piece of chocolate and chewing it almost painfully slowly.
“Come on Lindsay,” Gavin laughed, shaking his head as he watched faer slow down at his words. “This is just cruel.”
“Okay, okay. See, I totally beat all of you- I’m practically a demigod, right? Demigirl, demigod- I’m basically a superhero already. Fuckin suck it!” Lindsay flipped them all off, practically smearing her hand across Michael’s face.
And then the fort started to collapse and they all started shouting to each other to desperately try and keep it up, but they totally saved it in the end. (Until Gavin tripped partway through his victory dance and landed on one of the sides, at least.)