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The noon had started in Stilwater, as Shaundi finally woke up from a king-sized bed in a familiar Downtown Apartment. It has been about a month and a half since the Boss and her started seeing each other, and their relationship has progressed to become more serious as Darius was securing his title of the Stilwater’s Underworld’s king. Ronin have been long dead, while the Sons of Samedi were on their way to being decimated. The Saints already figured out their Loa Dust recipe, and their market started to cripple.
While still laying and resting in the Boss’ king sized bed, Shaundi thought about their relationship. She thought about how the Boss was the only person she ever dated that actually treated her with respect and created an environment where she actually felt loved. A majority of her pervious relationships weren’t bad, they just didn’t work. Shaundi hasn’t felt love in a single one of them, it just felt like being friends with benefits with a lot of people, to the point where she never felt like anything was serious enough for her to grow up a little on focus on her personal growth. She never moved in with everyone, she never started her own career path, and she never truly felt loved. But now, all that was changed.
Shaundi started getting out of the bed to get ready for the day. She has been taking care of the Saints’ drug business for the last month, and it was going smooth as the gang tried to topple Samedi’s established business. She headed towards the apartment’s bathroom. Boss was nowhere to be seen, so the lieutenant assumed he left to take care of the business with the rest of the gang. She walked into the bathroom, thinking it wasn’t occupied, but what she saw inside left her in shock.
“Uh… Boss, you okay?” She said, with a confused tone in her voice. She had caught the Boss doing his own make up.
“Oh, Shaundi-“ Darius yelled out nervously, as he tried to hide the fact that he was doing his own make up “I didn’t hear you wake up. Ummm, how are you…?”
“Are you doing your own make up?” She asked directly
“Umm…” He chucked nervously, as she tried to get him to open. “Yes...?” The man said, hoping she would not see him as any less of a man because of this.
“Are you a drag queen?” Shaundi had suspicions that Boss might be queer, judging by his previous behavior and the hints he left behind. From the way he’d use perfumes or knew too much about the shoes, she just accepted that the Boss isn’t like other guys she dated, and that was completely fine to her, as long as both of the are happy and can make it work.
“No, not really.” He sighed “I, uh, have a secret.”
“You can trust me, D.” She replied, she is one of the few people in the gang that know Darius’ full name, but refrains from using it around others as much. “I have a lot of LGBT friends, I won’t judge.” She held back on coming out to Boss about her own sexuality.
“I’ve…” He sighed once again “I’ve been insecure about my face my entire life.” Darius replied, as he put down the blender on the bathroom sink and approach Shaundi. “I have freckles, and I’ve thought all my life I looked ugly with them and kept hiding it with makeup.”
“It’s okay, Boss.” She encouraged him “A lot of us girls do that all the time, it’s nothing to be ashamed. You are supposed to be comfortable in your own body.” The lieutenant gave him a small peck on the lips “Besides, I bet you’re beautiful with freckles too.”
“But that’s the thing, Shaundi.” Darius grabbed Shaundi’s hand. “I am not a girl. Fuck it, before you even say boys can do it too or some hippie shit like that, I don’t feel like I’m particularly a boy either.”
“How come?” Shaundi’s curiosity was peaked.
“I don’t know. I just don’t feel like I’m either that much of a guy, despite my muscles and all…” He paused to flex his muscle. “But I also don’t feel like a guy… Like I’m failing at this whole gender thing.”
“Well, maybe you’re in between.”
“What do you mean?”
Shaundi picked up her phone as she let go of the Boss’ hand and started searching the internet for something. “My friend from college, Bailey, they are non-binary.”
“The fuck does that mean?” He interrupted her as he got more curious about her statement.
“Wait, hold up I’m search.” She continued talking to the Boss as she was scrolling through the internet “Basically, they’re neither a man nor a woman but in between. Kinda like you described.”
“How does that work?” Darius asked, the idea of being neutral when it comes to his gender identity was quite interesting to him.
Shaundi handed him her smartphone, as the front of it is opened on an article about non-binary gender identities for the Boss to read about. “I think you’ll find yourself in it.”
“Damn…” He said, as he slowly started reading through it.
“By the way, would you like me to referred to you as they from now on or…?” Shaundi asked after a short pause.
“Honestly…” Darius said after reading through the first paragraph, he was a quick reader. “Let’s try it out. See how it feels and I’ll decide for later, but I’m honestly fine with anything.”
“Okay, I’ll try my best on they pronouns, Boss.” She gave Darius a kiss on their cheek, trying to be a supportive girlfriend as much as they were supportive to her. “We should do each other’s makeup one of these days.”
Darius went to his bed and laid down to read the whole article in a more comfortable position, as their girlfriend went to the bathroom to do her morning routine. They read every work of an article and realized, everything that was talked about in the article was almost exactly how they felt.
“Yeah… I’m definitely non-binary…”