Chapter Text
After things don't get better with Dan, when Aled still can't explain himself to him, when him being the Creator of Universe City becomes public knowledge because of Frances' mistake, when Aled has to leave for university and he hates it like he knew he would, nothing gets better. Nothing is good.
His mum ruins Universe City for Aled, knowing she's ready to yell at him for every episode, he's lost the joy of doing it. Her destroying his room, killing his dog, putting him down like he was a nuisance, it's all too much. He doesn't feel like he can do UC anymore and he ends to show, and the hate mail starts. All of it becomes too much.
He misses Dan. He misses Frances. He misses Carys. But he doesn't know where Carys is and he's ruined everything with Dan and Frances. He doesn't know what to do. It's all awful.
***
One of the few things about university is that Aled has some more privacy. He doesn't have to constantly worry about his Mum finding out what he's doing.
He decides to finally start looking for a label. He knows it won't help fix things with Dan, nothing will, but he starts to feel like it might make one tiny aspect of his life better. But he also feels kinda fake and like he's just trying to be different and special, for not just accepting his gayness. He is (was?) with Dan, a boy, isn't he? What does anything else matter?
But 'gay' doesn't feel right to Aled. Not the way it feels for Dan. So he starts researching. It's hard to really even know how and where to look. How do you google 'I only like my life-long best friend sexually, I don't feel like that towards anyone else'?
He tries looking at sexuality labels and definitions in general, maybe something will strike a nerve.
Eventually he finds out about asexuality. It does and does not feel right. He's been with Dan already. And even though he didn't manage to convince Dan of that, he does want him. Looking into it more, he finds out that asexuality is actually a spectrum. There are so many different types of interesting labels, which kinda makes him feel better. So many different possible ways of being.
He spends some time examining them all but one label he saw early on keeps bringing him back.
Demisexuality. No attraction without emotional connection. He's not quite sure about the labe, yet. But the feelings it describes feels right.
***
Later, when Frances and Dan and *Carys* (and a girl introducing herself as Raine) came to rescue him, first from university and then from his Mum, he and Dan finally have some time to talk things through. Aled hasn't really slept, and Dan woke up in the middle of the night. It's not really the best time for it, but they've spend so much time not talking that it's good to get it out in the open.
Coming out goes better than he could have hoped. Dan doesn't hate him. He doesn't think being demisexual is silly. He still wants him. They hold hands, because that's the only thing they can do with this crowd in Aled's tiny room. They go back to being 'us', Dan and Aled, again.
Aled doesn't have all the answers about his future, but for the first time in a long while, he's not scared of it. He has Dan and Frances and Carys and Raine, and he feels like things will work out. He might get to be happy, after all.