Work Text:
Travis is lying face-first in bed, his running shoes still tied tightly to his feet, when Sal gets home.
Sie's only about an hour later than Travis coming home every day, but it looks like Travis has been there a long time. He's breathing evenly - that's the first thing Sal anxiously looked for - though not snoring. He's awake and his shoes are still on their bed.
"Travis, are you all right?"
"I'm okay." The sound is muffled, his nose pressed into Sal's pillow. Judging by his voice, he isn't as okay as he could be.
Sal sits on the bed beside him, rubs soothing circles over the flat expanse of hir partner's back. "Hard day at work?"
"Ugh. Yesh." Travis turns over, careful not to roll over Sal's fingers. He keeps an arm over his face, covering his eyes. "Some protesters showed up. It was a mess."
Sal works primarily with queer youth, helping them find hope (as well as more practical things, like jobs and queer-friendly doctors), but Travis had decided to turn his anger into something bright and productive. Travis does good work as an activist, giving surprisingly rousing speeches to groups of people who may not otherwise hear from someone like him.
"I want to be the person I needed to see when I was young," Travis had admitted to hir once. "I need to be loud and visible and honest. Proud."
It was hard on Travis at first, but since then, he's really blossomed under the pressure. Sal had been so worried, but Travis is better now than he's ever been, even starting to add debating to his job description. It's a stressful new responsibility, but Travis is good at it.
"Counter-protesters?"
"Yeah." He sighs. "Technically, at least. My group was just sitting outside and waiting for some local politicians to come out to meet us so we could talk about some things we could do together for the city-"
"Wait, really? That's great!"
Travis smiles tiredly. "It really is. But then a bunch of assholes showed up to 'peacefully protest' our being there. With violence."
Sal stands, stepping closer in hir shock. "No! Are you hurt?"
The arm covering Travis' eyes twitches. "Don't freak out."
"Oh, Travis…" Carefully, sie reaches over and moves his arm. What sie sees makes hir gasp. "Oh, shit. That eye again?"
Travis look up at hir, squinting through a familiar black eye. "At this rate, I'm just going to go blind one day."
"I hope not…"
"At least we'll still have two eyes between us."
Sal laughs, breathless and quiet. "Silver linings, I guess," sie says. "Would you like me to get you an ice pack or something for that?"
Dismissive, Travis waves a hand at hir. "No, no, none of that. Honestly, I'm just ready for bed."
"I second that."
Sie loves hir work, really and truly, but a bigender person isn't always the best thing to be, even around other queer people. Despite hir many years of experience, despite the fact that sie's there to help them, sie receives a shocking amount of vitriol from the youth at the shelters sie's helped build.
"That's not a thing," a young man told hir today. "You make the rest of us look like a joke."
Sal isn't sure what's more insulting: the idea that sie's the reason anti-queer bigotry exists or the implication that sie's too stupid to know how gender works.
"I've been nose-deep in gender studies and queer studies since before you were born," sie'd wanted to say. "I'm not the one preserving and presenting embarrassing bullshit. You are."
But he was just a kid - and anyways, most people already have their minds made up about hir. Sie's long since learned sie can't fight the individual. Sie can only move forward with strength and grace and hope that others will follow.
Sal helps the shoes off Travis' feet, socks too, then pulls his jeans down his legs. Sie removes hir own day clothes, removing hir prosthetic and glass eye carefully before flopping on top of hir husband.
Head pillowed on Travis' chest, the weight of the day washes away immediately.
"You're the only woman I'll ever love," Travis jokes. His voice grows even sweeter. "Thank you for taking care of me, baby."
Sal hums contentedly. "I better be the only man you love too."
Travis laughs. "Of course, angel. Fidelity first. Every time."
"Good. I love you too Travis." Sie snuggles into his chest, grinning. Already, sleep is reaching to pull hir into the dark. "Do you want me to wake you in the morning to make breakfast together?"
"Always." He kisses hir forehead, hir ear, the top of hir head. Then he sighs and suddenly begins to snore.
Sal isn't far behind.