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Steven was once again standing in front of the wardrobe debating what to wear. Layla had messaged Marc last night that she was going to finally be coming back to London today. Turns out there was a wizard or something disrupting the transportation of souls from earth to the underworld and it took her longer than she thought to deal with him and then help the souls who had been affected.
Hence why she was gone for almost two entire weeks.
Long enough for Steven to make some rather large changes to zir lifestyle.
Also long enough for zir to start getting comfortable with the experimentations going on and make it even more nerve racking to think about telling her about said changes.
Just pick one, she isn’t going to judge you Steven. If she didn’t judge us for our DID she’s not going to suddenly hate us for wearing a skirt. Marc promises, echoing the argument the two of them, and occasionally Jake, have been having since he arranged to meet Layla for coffee after Steven’s morning shift.
“You don’t know that for sure. Last time you said nobody would care what we wore we ran into that awful man on the street.” Steven grumbles, flipping through zir choices of skirts for what seems like the hundredth time.
Are you really going to compare Layla to that asshole from the street? Marc sounds a bit angry at the suggestion and Steven is quick to backpedal.
“No! No, of course not. Layla is lovely and that man was a right twat. But just because she probably won’t shout rude names at us does not mean she won’t find it odd or think that there is something wrong with me.” Ze says, starting from the beginning of zir choices once again.
Por el amor de Dios. Just let me. Jake suddenly pushes forward and Steven is taken by surprise as ze is pushed from the front.
Oi! A little warning next time would be nice. Steven complains as ze watches Jake flip past zir assortment and barely even glance at his choices before picking one for himself.
“You would have stood there all day and we would have missed the meeting bonito . Trust me, I’m doing you a favor here.” He says, turning around to get a shirt to go along with his choice.
At least choose one that covers all our bits please! Steven begs, but Jake ignores him and slips on his clothing, standing in front of their full length mirror to check how it looks, ignoring the flushed look on Steven’s face in the reflection.
“Eh, it covers enough.” Jake replies, spinning around and grabbing his jacket and hat before making his way to the door. “Not like she hasn’t seen everything anyway, right Marc?” He throws an amused look to the face in the fish tank before exiting the flat and slamming the door shut behind him, ignoring the exacerbated sigh it draws from Marc.
~~~~~~~~
Layla is already at the cafe when Jake gets there, drink in hand with another cup sitting on the table next to her. Jake makes a point to ignore Steven’s worried rambling and focus on holding himself with the utmost confidence. When he makes it closer to the table Layla’s eyes dart to look him up and down quickly, taking in his outfit with surprise evident on her face.
“Sup’ señorita ?” Jake asks, making sure to swing his hips more than usual on his way over. If he is going to do this he is going to do it with style and confidence damn it!
“Hey Jake.” She greets, standing up and giving him a smile. “I see you’ve certainly made some changes while I was gone.” She doesn’t seem upset by his choice of outfit, so he figures they are off to a good start. He shrugs and does a little spin, showing her the backside.
“Makes my ass look muy bien ¿no?” He says, shooting a teasing smirk over his shoulder. He gets a laugh in return for his efforts.
“Oh yeah, looks great Jake. Gotta say if Marc had worn something like that when we had been together, lets just say I would have had a lot of ideas to try out with him.” She says, voice teasing.
Damn, Steven you definitely should have said something sooner. I hadn't really thought about that. Marc musses, giving Steven the closest thing to a teasing nudge he can manage. Could have spiced things up for me at least.
Oi, don’t try and turn this into a flirt fest. Besides, that’s the whole point of Jake’s clothing choice anyway, to get laid right? Steven replies, sounding a bit flustered at what Layla and Marc had been implying.
Jake smirks at the exchange. “Seems like Marc agrees with you on that one, and Steven isn’t far behind him either.” He says, chuckling at the uproar that causes in his head.
Hey, don’t tell her that man.
I did not say that! If you are going to be putting words in my mouth, you best just let me up front and let me tell her stuff myself. Steven complains, and Jake doesn’t need a reflective surface to visualize the pout on the alter’s face.
Jake rolls his eyes, but lets Steven take control anyway, falling back to let him have a go. Steven blinks for a second, not expecting Jake to actually give him the reins so easily and quickly, before letting out a small yelp and a hand shoots to his thighs once he feels just how breezy it is outside.
“Bloody hell, I told him not to wear such a short thing out. I feel like I’m starkers like this.” Ze tugs uselessly at the end of the skirt, desperately trying to get it to go lower, but there’s not much room before the top threatens to expose him on that end. Layla’s chuckle draws zir out of zir attempts and causes the flush to deepen.
“Why don’t we sit down Steven, it’s a little easier that way. Just make sure to keep your legs closed and you should be fine.” She suggests, sitting down in her own chair and taking a sip of her drink. Steven follows her advice, but almost jumps out of his skin at the cool feeling of the chair on the back of his legs. Ze glances around quickly before grabbing a napkin and unfolding it before laying it across his lap, giving zir at least some kind of feeling of modesty. When he glances back up at Layla she is still smiling, looking thoroughly amused at zir.
“Mine are much longer than these, I promise.” Ze says, flushing even darker if possible. “Mine aren’t quite so, uh, form fitting either. I prefer mine a bit more loose and flowy than Jake does.” Steven explains.
“Oh I believe you, even I would be a little careful wearing something like that out and about. One slip and woops! There goes your bits, all out for the world to see.” She says, letting out a small laugh at the wide eyed reaction it gets from Steven.
“Oh, gods I hope not. I’d absolutely die. Right there on the spot.” Ze says, shuttering at the thought.
Calm down, ain’t nobody going to see your bits Steven. Just don’t try and do any cartwheels and you’ll be fine. Jake grumbles, trying to sound annoyed but comes out as more amused than anything else.
“So Steven,” Layla starts, shooting Steven a smile over the lid of her drink. “What else is new with you? Seems like I have a lot to catch up on.”
“Oh, uh, just a few things really. Not all that much.” Steven stutters out, reaching forward and taking a drink of the cup in front of zir. The warm drink is sweet and tastes a bit like caramel, making Steven let out a hum of approval. Ze takes a long drink, trying to stall the conversation long enough to figure out what ze wanted to say and how to say it.
“Would you like me to go first? I can tell you how my mission went if you want.” Layla offers, seeming to sense that Steven is having difficulty starting.
“Oh yes please.” Steven says quickly, welcoming the distraction. Ze loves hearing about Layal’s missions and all the people she has helped. Every story ze hears from her is so different from those ze has heard Marc talk about as his experience as an avatar. Khonshu was more focused on hurting those who did evil, whereas Taweret had Layla helping those who were hurt more often than focusing on punishing those who had hurt them. Although she did still kick quite a bit of arse along the way.
As Layla jumped into her story, Steven followed along with every word, fully entranced by the events that took place. So entranced in fact that ze forgot why ze had wanted her to go first in the first place. It isn’t until she wraps up her story that ze realizes ze probably should have used some of that time to think of what to say.
Just be honest Steven, you of all people know about how much she likes when people are truthful with her. Marc urges, trying to encourage Steven to start somewhere. It works a bit and Steven takes a deep breath to steady zirself before starting.
“Well, I met a new friend about a week or two ago. First time I wore one of my skirts outside in fact.” Steven starts, and Layla nods in encouragement for zir to keep going. “Some twat was upset with my choice of clothing and was quite rude about his opinion, calling me all sorts of names.” Layla looks upset at hearing that, but stays quiet for zir to continue. “But then (Y/N) came along and told him to piss off. He came at them so they punched them in the face, then kicked him between the legs and grabbed me to book it out of there. It was terrifying actually.” Steven laughs at the memory, a smile making its way to his face as he tells the story.
“Then they gave me their number and we have been talking for a while now. They are studying history and actually like listening to me talk about Egyptology! They’ll even share other pantheon’s myths with me when we are talking.” Steven’s hands are waving wildly as ze speaks, and the movement reveals the small red and black ‘he/him’ pronoun pin that Jake had pinned on before they left the flat. Layla’s eyes are drawn to it and she points it out when Steven pauses and before ze can start the next subject of discussion.
“Oh, you have one of those pin things. With your pronouns on it, I’ve been wanting to get one of those, I see a ton of people have been wearing them.” She says, taking another sip of her drink to give Steven a chance to respond. Instead of jumping into where ze got it or anything like that Steven stares down at if for a moment longer than strictly necessary before quickly moving to take a drink from zir own cup to avoid answering, only nodding along in agreement.
The odd reaction draws a raised eyebrow from Layla that does not go unnoticed by Steven, or Marc for that matter.
You can tell her about that too Steven, she didn’t care about the skirts and she isn’t gonna judge you about the pronouns either. I told you, she’s gonna like you either way Steven. Marc tries to assure zir, and Steven waits a moment to see if Jake is going to jump in too, but it seems like he has retreated back into their mind and isn’t there to give his input.
Steven brings zir hand up to fiddle with the button on zir shirt, not taking it off, but still messing around with it while zir gathered zir thoughts.
“This one isn’t actually mine.” Steven says quietly, not wanting to look Layla in the eyes. “This one’s Jake’s pin.” When ze doesn’t elaborate any further, Layla takes that as her cue.
“Does yours maybe say something else?” She questions slowly and softly, as if not to spook zir. Steven is quiet and nods, not trusting zir voice. “That’s fine that it does Steven. I’m glad you told me, means you're keeping track with being the honest one out of you lot.” She says teasingly before continuing, “What does yours say?”
Steven clears zir throat before answering, “I have more than one actually. I’m still figuring it out myself actually.” Steven chances a glance up at Layla and she is still smiling at zir. “B-but just because I like wearing things like this and I am trying out different pronouns does not mean I am a girl. Or that the body is gonna change or anything. Marc and Jake like the skirts too and they both still use he/him. I am the only one who is modifying their pronouns.” Steven clarifies, trying zir best to make sure Layla can fully understand what zir is trying to say.
“Of course Steven, I will do my best to respect your pronouns and try to keep everything straight when I talk to you.” Layla assures zir, “I will apologize now though, because I’m sure I am going to mess it up at least a few times by accident until I get used to it. But don’t be shy to remind me if I use the wrong ones, I don’t want you to let me misgender you if it can be avoided. Do you each have your own pins?” She asks, and Steven jumps to show her all of their pins.
“Look at this Layla, my friend (Y/N) had a bunch of these pins and told me I could have as many as I wanted. Jake has this one, Marc has a white and gold one, and I have three! (Y/N) had a whole bag of them with different colors to choose from, and said I could take as many as I wanted. Mine are all in our bag.” Steven points to the red and black pin on zir shirt before opening zir bag and rummaging around for zir own. “I can show you mine if you’d like.” Ze says excitedly, happy to show them off.
“Sure Steven, I’d love to see them.” Layla says, smiling encouragingly at him once again.
*In their inner world.*
Once it seemed like Steven and Layla had everything sorted out and were just chatting, Marc lets himself slip further into their mind to their inner world. Jake is already there in the living room of sorts that they have set up, spread out on a couch and idly flipping through the TV of old sports games.
“Everything going good?” He questions, eyeing Marc as he sits down in one of the other chairs.
“Yeah, they seem like they are fine so I figured I’d give them some alone time to gossip or whatever they wanna do.” Marc says, watching Jake from where he is sitting. After a minute of quiet staring, Jake huffs and flips off the TV to settle his full attention on Marc.
“What do you want?” He questions, sounding bored and annoyed, but Marc just smirks at him.
“I know why you did that out there.” Is all Marc says, crossing his arms. Jake glares at him and mimics the movement.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He grumbles in return. Marc shakes his head and just smiles.
“You did that so that if Layla did get upset, you could take the heat instead of Steven.” He says confidently, and Jake growls and stands up from his spot.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Steven was taking too long and would have missed the whole thing if I didn’t get our ass in gear.” He says, turning around and leaving to go to his own room before Marc can get anything else out of him.
“Sure you did!” Marc calls after him, laughing when Jake slams the door shut behind him. “Always knew you were really a softie under all that tough guy act you put on all the time!”
There's a loud thump from Jake’s room before a muffled,”Say that again and this time I’ll be the one to throw us off a cliff, Spector!” is heard through the door, sending Marc into another fit of laughter.