Work Text:
The Elite Force did not often go out, when fighting a battle for your city, fun tends to take a back seat, but they weren’t fighting a battle anymore. The Shapeshifters were locked up and they could take a breather, so they did what any normal group of people did to have fun. They went out clubbing, well, Chase didn’t- he was a natural fun killer.
Bree was sitting at their booth, people watching. Skylar and Oliver had gone off to dance, Kaz was getting drinks, but he had been for the last ten minutes, and Bree was sure he’d gotten distracted.
Bree took a sip of her drink and returned to the focus of her people-watching: the bartender, it was the bartender, who looked sort of like Owen from high school, and he was her type. Her type, the male protagonists from the high school movies she watched, all tall, with cheekbones, grins, and the personalities of dish basins.
The bartender, that’s who she was watching, she was watching him. Her gaze certainly wasn’t wandering to the woman at the bar, talking to him. She wasn’t looking at how her dress sat just right, or how her hands held her drink perfectly, or how her hair curled at the nape of her neck, or how her face lit up when the bartender made her laugh… Bree was not noticing that, she was noticing the bartender, the man because she was a girl.
The bartender made a comment and the woman turned and met Bree’s eyes. Shoot, Bree looked down at her drink, she wasn’t a creep, she couldn’t just stare at people she found attractive, wait, scratch that she didn’t find the woman attractive, because she was a woman and Bree was a woman and that wasn’t how it—
“Hello.” The woman was over here now, sitting down in the booth next to Bree, holding her drink in her perfect hands. “Noticed you from over there, Emmie.” Emmie gave Bree her hand.
“Yours?”
“Oh, uhm, Bree.” Gosh her voice was beautiful.
“Well, Bree, I was wondering if you wanted to get to know each other a bit better? Maybe go back to my place, or yours?”
“Oh, oh, no, I can’t, I mean we can’t, I mean I’m not?”
Emmie raised a perfect eyebrow and god was there nothing about her that wasn’t stunning. “You’re not?”
“I mean, I’m a woman and you’re a woman.”
“Yes? And? You know, darling, if you don’t swing that way I understand.”
“If I don’t… what?”
“Well, what’s going on here?” Kaz had returned with drinks, finally.
“I’m going to go.” Bree grabbed a drink and downed it. “Nice meeting you, Emmie.” Then she sped out of the club because that was not how it was supposed to go. Bree was a girl, and Emmie was a girl, therefore Bree could not like her how she was liking her, she couldn’t want to kiss her, to hold her, she couldn’t, because Bree was a girl, and this wasn’t normal.
Bree crashed into one of the tower walls because being drunk, lost in thought, and bionic speed was not a good mix. Bionic speed… her bionics! She’d glitched before, surely this was what this was, a glitch, Chase could fix that.
“Chase!” He was in the lab, of course, he was because that was fun for him. “I need help!”
“Bree? What’s wrong? Did the shapeshifters come back?”
“No! I’m glitching!”
Chase turned off what he was working on. “Glitching? But you’ve been sleeping in your capsule.”
“I have, but I’m still glitching.”
“Alright, what’s happening? How long?”
Bree frowned trying to remember when it had started. Had she ever really liked boys the way she was supposed to? Not noticed girls in the way she was not? “Forever, Chase, what if it’s a manufacturing error? What if Douglas broke me?”
“Hey,” Chase had been fairly relaxed up until now, he could handle glitches, but at Bree’s outburst, he straightened. “It’s okay, I’m sure it isn’t a manufacturing error, and if it is it’s nothing we can’t fix, and it’s nothing too bad. Now, what’s going on?”
“I like girls wrong.”
“You… like girls wrong?”
“Like the way I’m supposed to like boys wrong. Except I don’t like them either, but obviously that’s not how it works because I’m a girl!”
“Oh Bree, that’s not a glitch.”
“It’s not?”
“No, it’s called being a lesbian, it means you like girls romantically and that’s fine.”
“Fine? How is it fine, Chase! I’m a girl, I’m supposed to like guys! Something’s broken!”
Chase flinched. “No, nothing’s broken, science knows this.”
“But… babies.”
“Bree, you’re bionic, who knows how babies would’ve worked for you? But adoption is a thing, so don’t let that stop you.”
“But like… doesn’t that make me a bad person?”
“How would that make you a bad person?”
“I don’t know! Like Owen and Sebastian—”
“You thought you liked them, or you wanted to like them, or you did like them and you’re somewhere under the bisexual umbrella and that’s okay too.”
Bree was quiet.
“Bree, the shapeshifters are not morally better than you if they’re straight, they’re still awful. You’re still the hero.”
Bree sat down. “Douglas must’ve messed up. There’s no way he wanted this broken piece of crap.”
“Bree, no." Chase's voice was firm, he knew what Bree was feeling, and he knew it was bullshit. "You’re not a piece of crap, you’re the amazing bionic speedster. And as for Douglas, I’ll call him, and you can hear for yourself.”
This was an impulsive decision that probably wasn’t the smartest decision Chase made because he wasn’t outing Bree to Douglas, before she was ready, but he certainly wasn’t allowing Bree to keep thinking that her sexuality was a manufacturing defect.
Bree watched as Chase dialed the number. Part of her wanted to grab the phone from him and toss it off the tower before he could tell Douglas, but she needed to know, if it wasn’t a manufacturing defect she needed to know and if it was she needed to get him to fix her.
“Hey Chase, please don’t tell me you’ve already gotten into some trouble.”
“Oh, no, I just had a quick question, Douglas.”
“You? Asking me? A question?” Bree could hear Douglas’s grin. “Ah, let me bask in that pleasure. What can I do for you?”
Bree waited to hear it out loud.
“Is my liking men a manufacturing defect?”
Bree stared at Chase. He liked men? Like she liked women? Wait, what?
“Liking men?” Douglas repeated. “Like how?”
“Like being gay, Douglas. Is my being gay a manufacturing defect?”
“Oh no, Chase no, my goodness no. Of course not.”
Chase looked up at Bree with his I told you so face on.
“No, I’m proud of you! This is great! I love you, either way, honestly, I tried to murder you a few times, and if I stopped loving you because of this I would be a worse father. If anyone tries to give you crap for it, let me know, and I’ll give them the old one-two.”
“Thanks, Douglas.”
“Wait.” Bree stopped Chase from hanging up the phone.
“Yes, Bree?”
“Oh, does Bree know too?” Douglas asked.
“Douglas, I think, I like girls? I think? Like in the way I’m supposed to like boys, but I’m not supposed to like boys? And it’s okay.”
“Yeah, Bree, it’s okay,” Douglas agreed. “What I said for Chase goes for you too. It’s certainly not a manufacturing defect, I still love you and I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks, Douglas.” Bree let Chase hang up.
“You… like boys?” Bree asked.
“Yup, and it’s not a manufacturing defect.”
“And it’s okay?”
“It’s okay.”
Bree thought about Emmie back at the bar. "I'll be back soon, I've got someone I want to get to know."