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The roar of the crowd was loud in his ears, as Nessa’s Dreadnaw fell in a cloud of red and black smoke. With a grin, struck his iconic Charizard pose, letting a grimace cross his face as soon as his long hair his his expression from the cameras. His binder was cutting in to his ribs and he couldn’t breath. He knew he wasn’t supposed to wear it during battles but Rose had told him his sports bra didn’t compress his chest enough.
His breathing began to pick up and he quickly made his way to his locker room, he pulls his cape and hat off dropping them on the floor. Leaning heavy on his locker he unzipped his uniform top and lets it fall to the floor on top of his cape before ripping his binder up over his head so he could breath easier. He slowly sank to the floor shirtless and rested his head on his knees, fighting against the anxiety in his chest so that it wouldn’t escalate into an anxiety attack. His stomach hurt, his chest hurt, everything hurt, and he couldn’t stop the tears falling.
“Hey Leon! That was an amazing battle!” Raihan barges in, to the locker room.
Leon’s head snapped up, eyes meeting Raihan’s, both realizing Leon was shirtless at the same time. Leon scrambled to grab his cape to cover his chest, but it was too late Raihan had seen his chest, his very female looking chest. “Don’t look at me, please just go away” Leon sobbed, clutching his cape to his chest, burying his face in the fluff of the collar.
Leon couldn’t hear Raihan walk over to him over his sobs, couldn’t see Raihan with his face in his cape. It was however the weight of Raihan sweater being draped over his shoulders, the other teen gently coaxing his cape away from him so Raihan could zip the dragon themed hoodie up. Raihan sat down next to Leon, and held him until his sobbing calmed down.
“You know Leon, I prefer they/them pronouns.” Raihan whispers quietly, rubbing their hand up and down Leon’s arm.
Leon pears up at the taller teen, “What?”
“I get it, my gender identity doesn’t line up will my assigned sex either, I don’t feel like a boy, but I’m not a girl either. So I get it, that’s not what bothers me. What I don’t get is why you didn’t tell me.” Raihan let their arm drop from around Leon and scooted up against the lockers.
Leon leaned his head on Raihan’s shoulder, and tangled his fingers into their shirt. “Rose doesn’t want anyone to know. He told me he wouldn’t have endorsed me if he had known. He said I lied to him. He didn’t even find out until I was thirteen. My name isn’t even Leon, it’s ---” Raihan slapped their hand over his mouth.
“Your name is Leon, I’m assuming since we’ve known each other since we were nine, and I’ve never heard your mom call you any other name, so I assume it’s something you’ve used for a long time. Raihan is a unisex name in Unova, where my dad is from. So I’m happy with it, but I’m assuming your legal name is a girls name?”
“It is, Rose found out when I got my first period. He almost stripped me of the champion title, but my mom and therapist saved my ass, explained that I wasn’t lying to him, that I was just too young to start a physical transition. The told him that I wasn’t pretending to be a boy, that I was a boy.” Leon pulled himself away from Raihan, crawling up on to the wooden bench. “He tried to force me to take hormone blockers, but I refused. He hates that I let my hair grow out the stylist keeps cupping it shorter and shorter every time, he hired a trainer to make my body look more masculine, and a stylist for my clothes.” Leon pushed himself up of the bench and wrenched his locker open. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s all stuff I want, I look as masculine as possible. And my therapist signed my forms last week, I can start HRT in two weeks when I turn sixteen. But these,” He grabs his breasts through the material of the sweater, “They grew a full cup size last month, and now none of my binders fit right, and all the good ones are are all manufactured in Kanto so it takes two months to get them over here.”
Leon pulls a towel out of his locker and some body wash, he makes his way into the shower area, out of view from Raihan. Raihan got up off the floor and sat on the bench, rubbing their hands up and down their arms as the chill in the room caught up with them now that Leon wasn’t curled into their side. Raihan looked around the locker room, there were posters of past champions on the wall, including Master Mustard, who they had both studied under when they were younger. Notably though, there was a champion that didn’t appear in any posters, the one who had defeated Mustard, there was no trace of him in the room.
“Rai?” Leon poked his head around the wall, “Can you close you eyes while I put some underwear on?”
Raihan shut their eyes and turn away from Leon’s locker. They could hear Leon shuffle quickly from the showers to his locker. He hear the snap of his boxers on his hips, then the zip of his jeans. “Okay you can open your eyes now.”
Raihan turned to face Leon who was slipping his t-shirt over his head “What do you have to do this afternoon? I was thinking we could get lunch.”
Leon zipped up his baggy sweater and tossed Raihan’s back to the other teen, who gratefully slipped it around their shoulders.
“Honestly I don’t feel that great, I’m feeling quite dysphoric right now, I kinda just wanna crawl in bed die, you probably don’t want to hear this but, my tracker says my period should start tomorrow and I’m definitely feeling the cramps now that the adrenalin has died off.” He tossed his dirty clothes into his gym bag and tossed his ratty orange trainers on the floor before setting his uniform trainers and cape in his locker.
“Do you want company? My sister used to get really bad cramps too, and I used to cuddle with her, she always said that it was nice to have a warm body next to her. Said I was better than a hot water bottle.” The soft smile on the dragon trainers face was a comfort.
“Are you sure it’s not weird?”
Raihan stepped up and grabbed Leon’s smaller hand, pulling the smaller boy in to their arms. “Why would it be wired?”
“Well, boys aren’t supposed to have breasts, or menstruate, or have feelings for people they thought were their male best friends, and I know now that you aren’t a boy but I didn’t know that until today, and really, I don’t think that changes anything.” Leon’s entire face was red, and it was quickly spreading down his neck, “You’re really not supposed to have feelings for someone who doesn’t even know who you truly are.”
“Yeah, and people like me ‘don’t exist’, yet here we are.” Raihan rubs the back of their neck, “and trust me I understand having feelings for someone who doesn’t truly know who you are. But I think you’re right, it doesn’t seem like all that much has changed.”
Leon stepped up to Raihan, fisting his hands into their sweatshirt, letting his head drop to Raihan’s chest, as if they would disappear if he let go. “Why don’t you hate me? I’ve lied to you for so long.”
“Leon, are you a boy?” Raihan asks him in a hushed tone.
“Yes, I am.” Leon whispers, meeting Raihan’s gaze with a determined look.
Raihan covered Leon’s grip in their sweatshirt with their own hands, “Then you absolutely haven’t lied to me. Besides it’s not like I told you my preferred pronouns either.”
Leon’s eyes flicked down to Raihan’s lips for a second, before he pulled on the front of their sweater to kiss them. It was quick and clumsy, and they bumped their noses together but it was perfect. They were both grinning like linoones. “I guess you can come over if you want to, the company might be nice.” Leon whispers against Raihan’s lips.
They stayed in that moment, together, until the locker room door swung open, revealing Chairman Rose, who was sporting his ‘I’m angry with you Leon’ smile.
“Hello boys, Raihan I’m surprised to see you here, young man. Can you please give me a moment alone with the Champion?”
“Actually, Chairman, I’m really not feeling well, I was just about to head home.” Leon spoke while Raihan mumbled “Not a boy” under their breath.
“Leon, this will only take a moment. Raihan what did you say, my boy?” Rose turned his sharp gaze to Raihan.
“I said I’m not a boy, Chairman Rose, I use they and them pronouns, and I would like you to respect that.” They raised their chin, Raihan might only be fifteen abut they were already taller than the Chairman.
Rose quickly turned his sharp gaze back on Leon. “You stupid GIRL! You are poisoning others with your sick ideas that gender is something you can CHOOSE!” Rose pointed his finger at Leon, Visibly shaking with anger. “Listen up you two. You are a little girl who ran around the country side mucking about like the little hick you are. No wonder you think you’re a boy! No one taught you how to be a civilized young lady. Just see if I don’t tell all of Galar that their Champion is a FRAUD!” Rose’s angry gaze turned back to Raihan, “AND YOU, of course you’re a boy, you can’t be both or neither or whatever the hell letter of the Arceus damn alphabet you claim to be. Learn your place and get yourselves together. Don’t think I won’t replace you as Champion and take away your apprenticeship.”
Rose turned sharply on his heels, and left the two teens in the quiet of the locker room.
“I’m sorry you had to see that, are you okay Raihan?” Leon asked taking the other teen’s hand in his.
“Has he done something like that before?” Raihan asked, hands shaking in Leons.
“About once a month since he found out I was trans.” Leon confirmed.
“Rotom did you get the whole thing?” Raihan pulled their hand from Leon’s and snapped for his phone, which had been floating around since Raihan had come into the locker room.
“Wha-?”
“When I saw the look in Rose’s eyes, I got Rotom to start recording. I could tell it wasn’t going to be good. What he is doing is wrong. He shouldn’t be allowed to talk to people like that especially not kids. He is a bigot, and now we have the proof.”
“I don’t want to get him in trouble though. If he takes away my title, I won’t be able to pay for my medication, or my therapy, or my surgeries. Mum’s wooloo farm barley keeps the homestead afloat. I can’t loose my title.” Leon gripped Raihan’s sweater again, a look of panic marring his face.
Raihan pulled the smaller boy into his arms, wrapping him up in a hug. “I won’t show any one the video I promise, but I’m also not going to get rid of it. This is going to come to a head eventually, and we need to have all the evidence possible, I can teach your Rotom how to do an automatic audio recording if you want.”
Leon nods into the soft material of Raihan’s hoodie, before a cramp over took him and nearly made his legs give out. Feeling Leon wobble, Raihan wrapped their arms around him a little tighter. “You ready to head home?”
“Yeah, I need to lay down.”
Raihan grabbed Leon’s bag from the floor and guided their friend out of the locker room. Despite the whole interaction with Chairman Rose, Leon could still feel the tingle of Raihan’s lips pressed against his. All in all he would consider it a pretty good first kiss.