ic We'll Shine Together (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Leroy, darling, Ah would be happy to stand by your side. As for more secrets..." Judy looked up at Ashley, whose reserve broke to give her a questioning look. After a moment's pause, Judy said with a sigh, "Well, um, this is a bad one, Ah guess, but Ashley isn't actually-" 

"No!" said Ashley firmly, stepping close and not quite taking Judy by the shoulders. "We...are not discussing my sex life with your friends, now or ever." 

 

"It was for a good reason!" Judy insisted. "You didn't want a lot of creepy teenage boys making passes at you, and Ah understand that! You know, Ah never would have gone to the GSA if Ashley hadn't suggested it for her disguise," she said in her friend's defense. "And you know how much going there changed mah life!" she added. 

 

[Shofet]

Mia’s expression suddenly darkened at the latest revelation. Her head whipped to look Ashley square in the eyes, and there was danger there. Her lips curled into a sneer, and her teeth were tightly clenched.

 

“You… aren’t… GAY? YOU WERE PRETENDING?” she practically hollered. She waved a finger at Ashley. “☠☠☠☠ YOU! How dare you? How dare you? The amount of bull☠☠☠☠ the community goes through, and you think you can just pretend? What is wrong with you? God, I can’t believe this! I thought you were so cool and then it turns out not only are you pretending to be my friend, you’re lying to my face about being gay!”

 

Mia suddenly looked lost. “I thought… You were… God damnit. You said it so casually and self-assured and I wanted to be able to be like that. I thought hey, Ash is cool, she knows who she is and yeah, maybe she’s a little mean but sort of comes with the territory! But no! You’re just actually a bad person! COOL!”

 

She wiped at moisture from her eyes. “I’m gonna be on the roof,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your stupid secret.” With that, there was a flash and Mia disappeared. Yet just as quickly as that happened, she reappeared, looking around, confused. "Damnit, you've got me so upset I can't even..." She tossed her head and started to head for the door.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by Shofet

[Avenger Assembled]

Fcfcfc!

 

"I'm not-I am gay!" The words burst out of Ashley before she could take them back - and for a moment she and her sister had identical expressions of open-mouthed surprise. 

 

"Wait, _what_?" demanded Judy, pulling back from Leroy to stare up at her bodyguard. 

 

Ashley looked for a moment like she wanted to disappear into the ground. "I...well, I am actually bisexual," she said, her skin flushing. "So I guess not gay, but definitely not straight. I'm sorry, Judy," she said apologetically, "I didn't mean to lie to you." 

 

"You didn't mean to lie to me!?" exclaimed Judy. "Ah asked you to your face when we first met if you were gay and you told me no! Ah understand if you thought you couldn't trust me then, but you know you can trust me now!" 

 

You are a seventeen-year-old child who wants to run away and marry a dragon prince! thought Ashley. What she said was "It was not actually the first time. And...at the time, I thought of myself as straight, but since then I've had some experiences off-campus and on my own time," she added heatedly, "and, uh, well, I am not afraid to say that...I am a bisexual woman." She said the last part tentatively, even as she realized inside her head she'd never said the words out loud before. In front of a bunch of teenagers. Including the President's daughter. 

 

FC! 

[Ari]

Leroy flinched at the sudden storm burst between the three girls. He stiffened under her fingers, like a rabbit when it hears a hawk's hunting cry. Despite towering over anyone else in the room, the boy seemed to visibly shrink and quail before clearing his throat and tentatively speaking.  

 

"This is entirely outside any context I am aware of, but I can sympathize with needing to play a role arranged by others. When your life is not of your own will."

 

Shifting on the bed, Leroy slid into a more comfortable position next to Judy. "However, this is not related to anything I am. A fish cannot imagine life outside water, and my identity as a person will never face such threats. But in this case, I feel the wrong is with the body that gave the command."

 

He shot a look at Judy heavy with should I go too? energy. 

[Shofet]

Mia stopped and thought about what she had just heard. By all accounts, she should have been ashamed of herself. Shouldn't she have? She had assumed and blown up at Ashley and now she was wrong. But she was still angry. She was still hurt. She slumped her shoulders, her bangs slipping over her face and obscuring her face. 

 

"...I am sorry I yelled at you, Ashley," she said quietly, but there was still resentment in her voice, resentment she couldn't mask. "And I'm... glad you were able to come to that realization."

 

The skin of her fingers groaned noisily as her thumbs dragged across them as her hands tightened into fists. Then, just as quickly they relaxed. She sighed, rubbing some more tears out of her eyes. "I... I can't help it. I'm still so goddamn mad at you. I meant it. I wanted to be you. Everything you projected. You were strong, you're... You didn't need to please anyone. Cool... And I... I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be like you because I thought you were my friend and I thought you were cool."

 

"...And it was a lie. I don't know if I can forgive that," she said very quietly. "...I want to, because I know you were doing it for Judy, but I don't know if I can." Her voice was hoarse from her throat being tight. 

[Avenger Assembled]

There was a lot Ashley wanted to say - about how a lie made in service of a promise wasn't a lie, and how there had never been a day here when defending Judy wasn't her number one priority. But ultimately she'd opened up enough of herself tonight (and was intimately aware that she was going to have a conversation with her ward about some of those revelations!) and at the end of the day, it didn't really matter what Judy's friends thought of her. "If I learned anything at Claremont," she finally said, "it was that the only person you should try to be is yourself." She walked back and leaned against the wall by the bed, assuming a watchful demeanor that was all-too-familiar - and all-too-professional. 

 

Judy was distracted from staring at Ashley to looking at Leroy. "Leroy, honey," she said, "we will talk later. But you've got to answer your texts this week, okay?" She smiled at him. "Even if things get crazy." 

[Shofet]

Mia looked off at the side, and sniffled slightly, nodding curtly. "Yeah... Yeah, of course," she said very quietly. She pinched her brow, and stood there in silence until a stray thought came to her. "...Judy, I'm sorry I ruined this revelation with my... being me. Look, I'm going to see if my babo can pick me up for Thanksgiving early... I... Keep in touch this Thanksgiving, okay? Text me and... Maybe don't use that group chat we had." At the last request, she tried not to look at Ashley. "Unless, I guess, you have to for like security stuff."

 

She sighed, and quickly texted something out to her granddad. Just said she wanted to come home early, that she had a fight with a friend. Everything was already packed, of course. That was easy with a dimensional pocket for stuff. There was a vibration, and she nodded, putting her phone away once more with a neutral expression.

 

"Alright," she said. "...He'll be here in a bit..."

[Ari]

"I will write every day." Leroy smiled back as he stood up, stretching his arms over his head to work out a kink in them. "My mother sees no significance in this time of year, and thus has agreed to my staying on Prime over the holidays. I have heard people without any homes make camps in the Bayview woods all winter. Bringing them light, shelter and energy is the least I can do, when I can carry infinite fire and food to them." The elephant looming over him that was the now-simmering tension between the three women was as studiously avoided as his preferred topic was in earnest, the very idea of being without a settled place drawing a shudder and a solemn mien from the boy with a house on two worlds.

 

"Good luck with your family, Dee. I know they cannot quell your light." Kneeling for a moment to press a last kiss on Judy's lips, the Dragon Prince of Earth-2 rose, bowed politely to Mia and Ashley and took his leave. For someone so tall and broadly-built, Leroy stepped lightly, and soon the carpet muffled his footsteps into silence.