Chapter Text
“If you ever need a safe space to talk about this kind of stuff, that’s the place to do it.”
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Raphael looked down at the flier April had handed him just under a week ago, comparing the room number to that of the one in front of him. Yep, this was definitely the right place. Was it the right place for him though? He had only just started even thinking about this kind of thing recently, maybe he wasn’t ready. Maybe he never even would be.
“Hey, you good?” someone asked Raph, startling him out of his thoughts.
“What? Yeah, I just-” Raphael cut himself off upon looking up at the one who had spoken to him. Curley, black hair draped over their face and nearly covering their deep brown eyes, snake-bite piercings just under their bottom lip, and that led his eyes to their lips, where they lingered for what he knew was too long. Then, the lips parted to allow them to speak, and he noticed the large gap at the front of their mouth. Strangely endearing. Mysterious, too. What could have caused it?
“Uh- you’re kinda blocking the door.”
“Huh?” Raph asked, snapping out of his stupor for a second time. “Oh, right. Yeah.” So that person was going in THERE. Good to know. Not for any particular reason. He stepped out of the way to let the person move past him, not missing the way their much too baggy pants brushed up against his own.
“You coming?”
“Yes.”
The first thing Raphael noticed when he entered the room was how quiet it was. Not an awkward kind of quiet, and honestly not even REALLY quiet at all. It was quite loud when he really listened. It was a soothing kind of quiet. The kind of quiet that used to fill his and his brothers’ room at night when they would stay up talking. The kind of quiet it was when everyone would gather in front of the TV to watch their favorite show. That kind of quiet wasn’t common in the sewer anymore now that all of their cousins had moved in, and Raph hadn’t realized how much he really missed it.
The second thing was that the chairs were set up in a circle, like some kind of group therapy. Once he had sat down and the room went quiet, he expected the person who had managed to silence everyone to say something along the lines of “Hello, my name is Carrie, and I have been sober for three weeks now.”
Instead, they said, “Hey everyone, thanks for coming! For those of you that are new this semester, I’m Willow, she/they, and I’m one of the co-leaders of Pride 98 along with Sam here who’s gonna tell you a little bit about the club!”
“Thanks,” the person next to them said as Raph fidgeted nervously with the end of his shirt. “Yeah, I’m Sam, they/them, and I’m obviously the other co-leader. Basically, we just get together a few times a month to chat or hang out in a safe place. It’s pretty chill, we’re pretty much all just here to get to know people like us, or to find people throughout the school that we know we can go to if we need help or anything. I was thinking for the first meet of the semester we’d just go around and say our names and pronouns, and maybe like- I don’t know, your least favorite ice-breaker.”
Everyone laughed at that, and Raphael found himself laughing along. He started thinking about what he’d say when it got to him. He hadn’t exactly done many ice-breakers since he’d been living with the same five other mutants most of his life, but there were a few he could use. He sort of zoned out, until he heard a familiar voice right next to him pulling him back into reality again.
“Hey, I’m C.J. and I use he/him pronouns.” Did he have that subtle lisp earlier? Another strange yet endearing trait. Raph seemed to be finding a lot of those. “And… as a hockey player” -that would explain the missing teeth- “I really hate when the ice breaks at all, but I think my least favorite ice-breaker has to be the whole ‘one interesting thing about yourself’ thing. First of all, unoriginal much? And second, why do you wanna know something about me?”
Everyone laughed at that, and Raphael found himself laughing the loudest. He realized he was next, and quickly conjured up his response. “Uh- I’m Raphael. Raph I guess. And uh- I guess he/him? I don’t know, I don’t really care that much. Just don’t ask what I did over the weekend.”
Once everyone had finished introducing themselves, Willow and Sam dismissed everyone from the circle to “just hang out and meet people.” Which, of course, led to Raph standing awkwardly by his chair, waiting for anyone to come and talk to him. Turns out, being different than everyone else didn’t help much in this room. Just his luck. Then, by impossible odds, someone did come and talk to him. That someone just so happened to be no other than C.J., his official new best friend.
“Hey, Raph right? I’ve heard a lot about you. Didn’t really expect you to show up here though.”
“Yeah- well- don’t expect it again. I’m just here to see what this is all about. I’m not- …” Great going, Raph. Getting all defensive during your first ACTUAL conversation. Stop being such a piece of-
“Yeah, I get it. Said the same thing when I first came.” He shrugged. “You never know though. Being somewhere like this- where you can just BE- can have a lot of power. I didn’t even know whether I actually LIKED guys then, much less that I was one.” So he might not like guys? Okay, good to know. Not like it meant anything to Raph. “Turns out I just didn’t like the idea of being some guy’s girlfriend. Now I’m straight as those weird sin equations from pre-calc.” An awkward silence. That was a joke. Laugh.
Raphael laughed awkwardly. “Yeah, I guess.” This really wasn’t his area of expertise. “So, you play hockey?”
“Yeah, ever since I can remember. My dad was a pro at one point, so he taught me some things.”
“Woah, really? That’s so cool.”
C.J. shrugged. “He doesn’t really play much anymore. Bad injury or whatever. It’s pretty sweet though, I have him to thank for being the best player this school has ever seen.”
“Yeah- uh- I’d love to see you on the ice sometime.”
“Perfect, I’d love to see you in the stands. We play Thursdays, make sure to look out for lucky number seven. I’ll see you there, door blocker.” An alarm went off somewhere in the room just as C.J. winked- WINKED- at Raph and filtered out of the classroom with the others, leaving him alone in the now empty room, his heart beating out of his chest.
Yep. Definitely the right place for him.