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lb_leeHey everyone! This story has been posted previously, but I wanted it in editable post form, so I gave it a quick revision.
Coming out to the Family Rodriguez
Prompt: Stuff100 ‘Family’
Summary: Thomas comes out bi and poly to his family.
Notes: No matter how cool your family is, I think there’s still just a twinge of anxiety for almost everyone who comes out, whatever it is they’re coming out for.
Thomas sits Raige and M.D. down to talk about his plan first.
“You’re going to tell your family?” Raige’s eyes are wide. “Wow…”
“Yup.”
“Jeez, Thomas, I mean, good luck, I can’t imagine telling mine…”
M.D. doesn’t say anything, but her crossed arms and curled upper lip communicate exactly how she feels.
“You know, there is such a thing as a decent family,” Thomas says to her, a little nettled. “Just because y’all’s families are freaking insane—”
“My dad isn’t—” Raige starts.
“Yes he is,” M.D. and Thomas say in unison, and Raige subsides with a wince and hunched shoulders.
“So what’s brought this on?” M.D. asks as she touches Raige’s arm.
“What do you mean, what’s brought it on?” Thomas asks. “This ain’t new. It’s driving me nuts not flirting or touching either of y’all at home, or talking about it. I’d planned to tell them from day one. Didn’t you?”
Raige only hunches his shoulders even more and gives an apologetic (and panicking) grin. “I… was kind of hoping to let it slide until maybe I’m out of the house…”
Thomas waves a hand. “Not you, man, I get that. But kid, you?”
M.D. looks wry. “I don’t think Number One would approve.”
“You know what I mean. Your real family. Scorch and Flame and… uh…” He can’t think of anyone else. “You know!”
“Biff?” Raige supplies helpfully.
“No, don’t tell Biff. I don’t know who he’d try to kill first, you or me.”
“Probably me,” Raige says. “I live the closest.”
M.D. rolls her eyes. “I’ll tell eventually, I just hadn’t thought about it. It doesn’t exactly come up in casual conversation, you know: ‘so how’s it going? Have I mentioned I share a boyfriend today?’ Anyway, why are you asking our permission? They’re your family; you get the power to decide what to tell them.”
“My folks’re great, but…” Thomas shrugs. “Having a back-up never killed anyone, you know?”
Raige bites his lip and tugs at his forelock. “Hey, you know, if there’s any problem…”
“There won’t be, there won’t be,” Thomas says quickly. “They know y’all, they like y’all. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
They sit in stiff silence for a moment. Then Thomas grimaces and says, “Just in case it is a problem, kid, could I…?”
“Sure, you can stay with me,” M.D. assures him. “Scorch and Flame ask after you all the time, and they’re not the only ones. You should come visit Treehouse anyway; the rumor mill misses you.”
Raige is fretting with his hair. “You sure it’ll be okay? Because, you know, you can stay with me too…”
“Dude, you’re freaked out enough about coming out to your dad. No offense, but I’d rather not be stuck with you and him under the same roof, even if y’all do have indoor plumbing. But don’t worry. Like I said, it won’t be a problem.”
Surely it’s true. Raige is just antsy because he’s antsy about coming out to his dad, and it’s splashing on everything else, and M.D.’s cynical because… well, she has good reason.
Thomas’s family isn’t like that. His family is sane, unshakeable. They were okay with him during the rough times in school, they were okay with him when he came back after a year and a half missing in another dimension. Surely they’ll be okay with him having a boyfriend and a co-date at the same time. That’s nothing.
But still. There’s just that tiny twinge, that nagging worry, what if…
He shoves it back. See, this is why he needs to get it over with. The longer he waits, the more he’ll think about it, and the more he’ll agonize about it.
He’s in luck; his older brother Marcus has time off deployment in a couple weeks, so Thomas puts his head down and clocks in some overtime to keep himself busy till then. Finally, Marcus makes it in, Christopher tears himself away from his N64, his mom isn’t on the beat, and his dad comes home from work. This is a once-a-year event, so Thomas takes advantage of it before any of them can find something they need to do, sits them all down and says they have to talk.
Little brother Christopher whines about it, of course, but Ma gives him a look and he shuts up. They all sit down, fidgeting with their hands in their laps, staring at the family photos on the wall. Thomas has always been the clown of the family; a serious talk like this, they probably fear the worst.
Thomas figures he might as well come clean right off, so he does. “I’m dating M.D. and Raige now. Thought you’d want to know. Any questions?”
For a few seconds, there is complete, flabbergasted silence. Then his dad slumps against the armchair, clutches his chest, and says, “Praise Mary. I worried you were sick or something.”
“I was guessing he got someone pregnant, myself,” Marcus says.
“Too obvious,” Ma says immediately, but then she squints at him suspiciously. “You haven’t, have you?”
“Ma!”
“Because I know you, mijo, I don’t want you caught with your pants down and your pockets empty just because—”
“Ma! Nobody’s pregnant—Jesus, how could they be, M.D.’s from outer space—”
“That’s no reason to get full of yourself. She works with sick people all day,” Ma warns. “God only knows what she could pass on to you.”
“Just because she’s a super-soldier from another planet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful, mijo,” his father says gravely.
“Yeah, and the other one’s a guy, now stop acting like it’s funny!” Christopher shrieks.
This whole time, Marcus looks like he’s been choking down laughter, but that makes him crack up good and proper. “I love this family,” he declares.
That just pisses Christopher off more. “Will y’all stop acting like this is normal? Bad enough you vanished for a couple years, people still haven’t let me forget that, no, now you’re… I don’t even know what you’re doing.”
Thomas leers. “Do you really want to know?”
“No! God, you’re such a freak.” And he gets up and stalks out. Nobody stops him.
Marcus straightens up, and his face is serious again. “Hey, don’t listen to Christopher, he’s fifteen. Let him cool off and calm down, you know how he gets.”
“Yeah, I know,” Thomas says, trying to play at being casual. “No big deal.”
Apparently Marcus can still tell he’s a bit rattled, because he leans over and shakes Thomas’s hand, like they’re both adults. “Congratulations, bro.”
Thomas feels his shoulders relax. “Thanks, man.”
Ma and Dad stay quiet. Ma has her arms crossed and brow furrowed, lips thin; she’s obviously not happy. Dad is more composed, but he rarely ever looks upset, and he jokes like the rest of them to clear the air, so that doesn’t mean much. Thomas waits and tries to look as calm as his dad. It’s no big deal, he tells himself. If they take it bad, he can shack up with M.D. for a while, do work in Treehouse. Nothing he hasn’t done before, nothing to lose, nothing to worry over. Everything will turn out okay in the end; it always does. Life loves him too much to give him something he can’t handle.
He braces his elbows on his knees and clasps his hands so nobody will notice they’re shaking.
Then his dad gets up and hugs him with a warm smile, and his mother sighs and says, “You always were the maverick in the family. So how exactly did this happen?”
And he knows everything will be fine.
…
A couple hours later, Thomas comes to Christopher’s bedroom door. It’s shut tight, and he can hear the music and gunshot sounds of a game through it.
Thomas knocks. “Hey, little man. You in?”
Silence for a while, and he thinks maybe Christopher is going to ignore him. Then, “yeah, whatever.”
Thomas comes in. Christopher is sitting on his bed, N64 controller in his hands. The reflected glow of the TV screen renders the lenses of his glasses almost opaque.
Thomas leans against the doorway. “You wanna turn the game off for a second?”
With every air of reluctance, Christopher reaches over and flicks off the power switch. “You gonna come give me crap now?”
“Nah,” Thomas says. “You already know you acted like a turd.”
Christopher glares at him, but he looks like he’s blinking back tears behind his glasses. “You never said, man. You’re freaking gay this whole time, and you never tell me? What the hell?”
“I’m not gay,” Thomas says. “I’m bi, I guess. And it never came up before this.”
“So… what? You need one of both to keep happy now?”
Thomas sighs and comes over to sit next to Christopher on the bed. “No. That was actually an accident. I didn’t even ask them out, they asked me.”
“What? At the same time?”
Thomas nods.
“How does that even work?”
Thomas shrugs and shifts uncomfortably. He’s the charmer of the group, the smooth talker, but he’s lousy for explanations. He doesn’t have M.D.’s intellect, or Raige’s empathy. As it is, all he can say is, “Well, you know. I’m both you and Marcus’s brother, and it’s not a big deal.”
“Not the same thing, man. Not the same at all.”
“Why not?”
“You can’t cheat on family.”
“I’m not cheating on them either,” Thomas goes. “We’re all in it together. Everyone knows, everyone talks. It’s not like we’re all lying to each other.”
“Doesn’t it freak you out? That maybe they do stuff without you?”
Thomas tilts his head, thinks it over. “Nah. I mean, Marcus does all sorts of stuff overseas, and that doesn’t freak me out. He always comes back home. And… Jeez, man, have you met Raige? He couldn’t hurt somebody if you set a rabid dog on him.”
“What if it bothers you? What if you get sick of sharing?”
“Easy. I stop dating them.”
Christopher is silent for a while. “You should’ve told me,” he says. “Jesus, man, I even knew something was up, you were looking like something was bugging you for weeks, and here I thought it was just work and stuff, but no, you were hiding this from us.”
“I wanted to wait till Marcus was back. Tell all of you in a go.”
“Yeah, well, don’t do that. Jesus. Makes me feel like I don’t count or something.”
“I won’t. I’m sorry.”
Christopher sniffs, then nods a couple times.
“Okay. For that, I guess I’m okay with you being a pervert then.”
“Oh, like that’s anything new,” Thomas retorts, and they're okay again.
Coming out to the Family Rodriguez
Prompt: Stuff100 ‘Family’
Summary: Thomas comes out bi and poly to his family.
Notes: No matter how cool your family is, I think there’s still just a twinge of anxiety for almost everyone who comes out, whatever it is they’re coming out for.
Thomas sits Raige and M.D. down to talk about his plan first.
“You’re going to tell your family?” Raige’s eyes are wide. “Wow…”
“Yup.”
“Jeez, Thomas, I mean, good luck, I can’t imagine telling mine…”
M.D. doesn’t say anything, but her crossed arms and curled upper lip communicate exactly how she feels.
“You know, there is such a thing as a decent family,” Thomas says to her, a little nettled. “Just because y’all’s families are freaking insane—”
“My dad isn’t—” Raige starts.
“Yes he is,” M.D. and Thomas say in unison, and Raige subsides with a wince and hunched shoulders.
“So what’s brought this on?” M.D. asks as she touches Raige’s arm.
“What do you mean, what’s brought it on?” Thomas asks. “This ain’t new. It’s driving me nuts not flirting or touching either of y’all at home, or talking about it. I’d planned to tell them from day one. Didn’t you?”
Raige only hunches his shoulders even more and gives an apologetic (and panicking) grin. “I… was kind of hoping to let it slide until maybe I’m out of the house…”
Thomas waves a hand. “Not you, man, I get that. But kid, you?”
M.D. looks wry. “I don’t think Number One would approve.”
“You know what I mean. Your real family. Scorch and Flame and… uh…” He can’t think of anyone else. “You know!”
“Biff?” Raige supplies helpfully.
“No, don’t tell Biff. I don’t know who he’d try to kill first, you or me.”
“Probably me,” Raige says. “I live the closest.”
M.D. rolls her eyes. “I’ll tell eventually, I just hadn’t thought about it. It doesn’t exactly come up in casual conversation, you know: ‘so how’s it going? Have I mentioned I share a boyfriend today?’ Anyway, why are you asking our permission? They’re your family; you get the power to decide what to tell them.”
“My folks’re great, but…” Thomas shrugs. “Having a back-up never killed anyone, you know?”
Raige bites his lip and tugs at his forelock. “Hey, you know, if there’s any problem…”
“There won’t be, there won’t be,” Thomas says quickly. “They know y’all, they like y’all. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
They sit in stiff silence for a moment. Then Thomas grimaces and says, “Just in case it is a problem, kid, could I…?”
“Sure, you can stay with me,” M.D. assures him. “Scorch and Flame ask after you all the time, and they’re not the only ones. You should come visit Treehouse anyway; the rumor mill misses you.”
Raige is fretting with his hair. “You sure it’ll be okay? Because, you know, you can stay with me too…”
“Dude, you’re freaked out enough about coming out to your dad. No offense, but I’d rather not be stuck with you and him under the same roof, even if y’all do have indoor plumbing. But don’t worry. Like I said, it won’t be a problem.”
Surely it’s true. Raige is just antsy because he’s antsy about coming out to his dad, and it’s splashing on everything else, and M.D.’s cynical because… well, she has good reason.
Thomas’s family isn’t like that. His family is sane, unshakeable. They were okay with him during the rough times in school, they were okay with him when he came back after a year and a half missing in another dimension. Surely they’ll be okay with him having a boyfriend and a co-date at the same time. That’s nothing.
But still. There’s just that tiny twinge, that nagging worry, what if…
He shoves it back. See, this is why he needs to get it over with. The longer he waits, the more he’ll think about it, and the more he’ll agonize about it.
He’s in luck; his older brother Marcus has time off deployment in a couple weeks, so Thomas puts his head down and clocks in some overtime to keep himself busy till then. Finally, Marcus makes it in, Christopher tears himself away from his N64, his mom isn’t on the beat, and his dad comes home from work. This is a once-a-year event, so Thomas takes advantage of it before any of them can find something they need to do, sits them all down and says they have to talk.
Little brother Christopher whines about it, of course, but Ma gives him a look and he shuts up. They all sit down, fidgeting with their hands in their laps, staring at the family photos on the wall. Thomas has always been the clown of the family; a serious talk like this, they probably fear the worst.
Thomas figures he might as well come clean right off, so he does. “I’m dating M.D. and Raige now. Thought you’d want to know. Any questions?”
For a few seconds, there is complete, flabbergasted silence. Then his dad slumps against the armchair, clutches his chest, and says, “Praise Mary. I worried you were sick or something.”
“I was guessing he got someone pregnant, myself,” Marcus says.
“Too obvious,” Ma says immediately, but then she squints at him suspiciously. “You haven’t, have you?”
“Ma!”
“Because I know you, mijo, I don’t want you caught with your pants down and your pockets empty just because—”
“Ma! Nobody’s pregnant—Jesus, how could they be, M.D.’s from outer space—”
“That’s no reason to get full of yourself. She works with sick people all day,” Ma warns. “God only knows what she could pass on to you.”
“Just because she’s a super-soldier from another planet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful, mijo,” his father says gravely.
“Yeah, and the other one’s a guy, now stop acting like it’s funny!” Christopher shrieks.
This whole time, Marcus looks like he’s been choking down laughter, but that makes him crack up good and proper. “I love this family,” he declares.
That just pisses Christopher off more. “Will y’all stop acting like this is normal? Bad enough you vanished for a couple years, people still haven’t let me forget that, no, now you’re… I don’t even know what you’re doing.”
Thomas leers. “Do you really want to know?”
“No! God, you’re such a freak.” And he gets up and stalks out. Nobody stops him.
Marcus straightens up, and his face is serious again. “Hey, don’t listen to Christopher, he’s fifteen. Let him cool off and calm down, you know how he gets.”
“Yeah, I know,” Thomas says, trying to play at being casual. “No big deal.”
Apparently Marcus can still tell he’s a bit rattled, because he leans over and shakes Thomas’s hand, like they’re both adults. “Congratulations, bro.”
Thomas feels his shoulders relax. “Thanks, man.”
Ma and Dad stay quiet. Ma has her arms crossed and brow furrowed, lips thin; she’s obviously not happy. Dad is more composed, but he rarely ever looks upset, and he jokes like the rest of them to clear the air, so that doesn’t mean much. Thomas waits and tries to look as calm as his dad. It’s no big deal, he tells himself. If they take it bad, he can shack up with M.D. for a while, do work in Treehouse. Nothing he hasn’t done before, nothing to lose, nothing to worry over. Everything will turn out okay in the end; it always does. Life loves him too much to give him something he can’t handle.
He braces his elbows on his knees and clasps his hands so nobody will notice they’re shaking.
Then his dad gets up and hugs him with a warm smile, and his mother sighs and says, “You always were the maverick in the family. So how exactly did this happen?”
And he knows everything will be fine.
…
A couple hours later, Thomas comes to Christopher’s bedroom door. It’s shut tight, and he can hear the music and gunshot sounds of a game through it.
Thomas knocks. “Hey, little man. You in?”
Silence for a while, and he thinks maybe Christopher is going to ignore him. Then, “yeah, whatever.”
Thomas comes in. Christopher is sitting on his bed, N64 controller in his hands. The reflected glow of the TV screen renders the lenses of his glasses almost opaque.
Thomas leans against the doorway. “You wanna turn the game off for a second?”
With every air of reluctance, Christopher reaches over and flicks off the power switch. “You gonna come give me crap now?”
“Nah,” Thomas says. “You already know you acted like a turd.”
Christopher glares at him, but he looks like he’s blinking back tears behind his glasses. “You never said, man. You’re freaking gay this whole time, and you never tell me? What the hell?”
“I’m not gay,” Thomas says. “I’m bi, I guess. And it never came up before this.”
“So… what? You need one of both to keep happy now?”
Thomas sighs and comes over to sit next to Christopher on the bed. “No. That was actually an accident. I didn’t even ask them out, they asked me.”
“What? At the same time?”
Thomas nods.
“How does that even work?”
Thomas shrugs and shifts uncomfortably. He’s the charmer of the group, the smooth talker, but he’s lousy for explanations. He doesn’t have M.D.’s intellect, or Raige’s empathy. As it is, all he can say is, “Well, you know. I’m both you and Marcus’s brother, and it’s not a big deal.”
“Not the same thing, man. Not the same at all.”
“Why not?”
“You can’t cheat on family.”
“I’m not cheating on them either,” Thomas goes. “We’re all in it together. Everyone knows, everyone talks. It’s not like we’re all lying to each other.”
“Doesn’t it freak you out? That maybe they do stuff without you?”
Thomas tilts his head, thinks it over. “Nah. I mean, Marcus does all sorts of stuff overseas, and that doesn’t freak me out. He always comes back home. And… Jeez, man, have you met Raige? He couldn’t hurt somebody if you set a rabid dog on him.”
“What if it bothers you? What if you get sick of sharing?”
“Easy. I stop dating them.”
Christopher is silent for a while. “You should’ve told me,” he says. “Jesus, man, I even knew something was up, you were looking like something was bugging you for weeks, and here I thought it was just work and stuff, but no, you were hiding this from us.”
“I wanted to wait till Marcus was back. Tell all of you in a go.”
“Yeah, well, don’t do that. Jesus. Makes me feel like I don’t count or something.”
“I won’t. I’m sorry.”
Christopher sniffs, then nods a couple times.
“Okay. For that, I guess I’m okay with you being a pervert then.”
“Oh, like that’s anything new,” Thomas retorts, and they're okay again.
