Work Text:
Gansey
“You know, Jane,” Gansey started amicably, and Blue already rolled their eyes at the name, “I think that we should go to the beach house over the summer for a week. The weather is lovely this time of year, and Adam’s never been.”
“Which beach?” they asked. Their hair was fluttering in the breeze, and they absent-mindedly noted that they really did need to get a haircut.
“The one in the Hamptons,” he replied. Because of course it was in the Hamptons. “Helen certainly likes it there.”
The implication that because she was a girl and because Blue was a ‘girl’ so they would both like the same things made them feel all sorts of wrong in their skin. They were staunchly of the belief that there was nothing wrong with lots of girls liking similar things—they were usually pretty cool things—but they just…weren’t a girl.
And it struck Blue that they hadn’t actually told that to Gansey. They lived in Virginia where it was already pretty difficult being a girl, and so to be someone who looked like a girl and had to constantly say that they weren’t was just another level of uncomfiness that they usually just didn’t bother. Their family was always good about it at home, since they all believed that gender was a patriarchal social construct anyway, but pretty much everyone else didn’t know.
“Hey, Gansey?” they said, deciding just to go for it. After all, they were soulmates. They doubted that something like this would come in the way of their relationship after all they had been through together.
“Mhmm?” he hummed, glancing at them before returning his eyes to the road.
“I’m not a girl.”
“Oka—wait, what?” The steering wheel swerved a little before he properly regained control of the car. “What?”
“I’m not a girl,” they repeated. “I’m nonbinary.”
“Oh.” He blinked, and Blue followed the motion of his eyelashes brushing against his cheek. “That was rather unexpected.”
“Thoughts? Opinions, comments, concerns, questions?” They grinned. “Those are usually pretty common.”
He stayed quiet for a moment, but Blue was unconcerned. “No, not really,” he finally said. “I don’t know much about it, but I will certainly be looking a few things up once I get home. It doesn’t change anything.” Blue knew. Gansey had always had a slightly obvious obsession with Chris Hemsworth that was just a little bit more than a straight man would have. They hadn’t said anything yet, though. “Would you—do you use different pronouns?”
“Yeah. Yes. They and them pronouns, preferably.” Blue pressed their lips together. “Using them with other people is a no-go, though. Raises too many questions. Just with the group and my family.”
Gansey nodded, his right hand finding Blue’s knee and squeezing in a familiar way. “Of course. I’ll do my best to change it as quickly as possible.”
“That’s all I can ask for,” they replied cheerily.
-
Adam
Adam was a little more difficult. There was nothing soulmate-y connecting them and him to be friends, and while they knew that he and Ronan were dating, being gay or bisexual was different than being neither a girl nor a boy.
It took them a few days to find the right time to bring it up, since they wanted to do it when it was just the two of them, no Gansey or Ronan. It was a little awkward when it did happen, because it was only because Ronan was at the Barns and Gansey was at some charity event in DC that he didn’t want to be at—so both of them were missing their respective boyfriends—but it did the job.
“Adam?”
“Yeah?”
They leaned back against the cabinet in the kitchen. “How much do you know about other people who are queer?”
Adam’s expression became three shades more unreadable than usual. “A fair amount,” he admitted after a moment. “I got curious and looked a few things up when I was younger and was tryin’ to figure a few things out.”
“So if I said that wasn’t a girl, that I was nonbinary, you would know what I meant?” Blue’s accent was a little stronger, but if Adam noticed, he didn’t say anything about it. Gansey had looked up what Blue was talking about and sat down with them and made sure to clarify a few things to make sure that he was getting everything right. He had, and Blue could’ve kissed him. Now that they could, they did.
Adam shrugged. “I would have a good idea, yes. Is that what you’re saying?” Blue nodded. “Cool. I always had a feeling. Ronan did too, but we were just waiting for you to say something.”
“Oh.” Well. They hadn’t expected to be that easily read by their friends, even if they had gotten rather close over the past year. “I haven’t told him yet.”
“I won’t say anything to him, if you don’t want me to. Or, if it’s easier, I could tell him for you,” he added. “Completely up to you.”
Blue thought about it. They had come out to two people in just about as many weeks, and it felt at least a little nerve-racking. They weren’t scared of Ronan, not by a longshot, but if there was an out for them to take, they were going to at least consider it.
“I’ll do it when he gets back from the Barns. Tomorrow morning,” they decided.
“Sure,” he said, grinning a little. “Oh. They and them pronouns, I assume?”
“Yeah, but—” Blue proceeded to repeat the information they had given to Gansey about who to use them with, and by the end of it, he nodded.
“Cool, I can do that,” he said. Blue smiled.
Two down, one more to go.
-
Ronan
“Lynch.”
“Sarge.”
“Jumped Adam’s bones yet?”
“I will be once you get whatever you need out of you,” he said, grinning sharply. Well. If that was how it was going to go, Blue could roll with that.
“I’m nonbinary. You’re the last person to know, by the way,” they added. Because of course they had to.
Ronan rolled his eyes. “Of course. Who was first? Gansey?”
“Wow, how did you know?” they deadpanned.
“Magic, obviously.” He shrugged. “Yeah, okay. Cool. Pronouns?”
“They and them. Only with our friends and my family, though.”
“Sure.” He rolled his shoulders out, no doubt sore from whatever he had been doing at the Barns. “Anyone gives you shit about it, I’ll beat them up.”
“I can do it myself,” they muttered, offended.
“I know,” he replied, unbothered. “A good fight’s never something I’d pass up.”
Because of course, but the response was so Ronan that it finally let Blue get off their guard For the first time in two weeks. Even if they were telling someone who they knew was going to have a positive reaction, it was still nerve-racking. There was always that tiny niggling doubt in the back of their mind, whispering what if ?
“Hey, maggot.” Blue glared at Ronan who unflinchingly met their gaze. “I mean it, though.”
“I know you do.”
“Cool. Now scram. Unless you wanna see more of Adam than you want to.”
“What about me?” Adam asked, walking into the room with messed up bed hair. Ronan shamelessly let his eyes roam up and down his boyfriend’s body, and Blue took the chance to get out of there.