Work Text:
Enot woke up with a pain in their stomach, the all too familiar pain of their body demanding food, nothing to worry about this time. They slowly rose from their bed, tossing off the rib-crushing weighted blanket that covered them, before checking their phone for the time and it momentarily blinded them with a flash of 2:32 AM. Another early rise it seems. Their stomach growls again and orders them to consume something while they run a short inventory check in their head, remembering what they had to eat this week.
Enot had always had an appetite, always feeling hungry when they woke up no matter what they had eaten before. So they tended to try to eat as much food as their budget allowed, which often wasn't a whole lot when factoring in all the other, far more important, expenses that needed to be paid for the right to live. Despite their attempted frequent eating, they were quite skinny, almost malnourished. Their friends would occasionally tease them for it. Then their stomach cut their thoughts short again with another demand and they quickly started to make their way into the kitchen. Making their way through their apartment via mostly memory and touch they eventually made their way to the kitchen. It was simple, a barely used oven, a frequently used microwave, a sink with only hot water, cold tiles, and an air fryer, but it all got the job done, they didn’t need fancy foods most of the time, just something to keep themselves from dying.
What to eat... There were a few things Enot could eat without digging into any planned meals, but most of those didn't catch their eye, or more so, didn't seem like they would appease their growling stomach. But they could try something simple, just a sandwich with some deli meat, cheese, and butter. The worst they could mess it up would be burning it somehow. So they assembled their meal while resisting the urge to just eat the raw materials by themselves and quickly soothe their hunger.
They could also throw it in the air fryer they got to make it taste better. The air fryer was certainly worth the hefty price, even if they had been reduced to ramen for a week or so because of it, once they got some better food they tried out the fryer and had practically fallen in love with the machine, the speed of a microwave but with the strengths and benefits of an oven! So, they did just that, throwing the sandwich into the air fryer and estimating a temperature and time that sounded vaguely correct, and now all they had to do was wait.
Enot opened up their phone and wasn’t very surprised by the lack of notifications, it was two in the morning, after all, but they were still disappointed that there wasn’t anything new to distract them from the hunger in their stomach as it threatened them with another strike of pain. They glanced through their email for anything vaguely interesting to distract them, but all they found besides spam and scam mail was an email from a dead social media account, informing them that they had received a message. Curiosity getting the better of them, they decided to click the link in the email and see who had messaged them after all this time. Only to discover it was from the horribly familiar username of their ex-boyfriend.
The contents themselves were… hateful to say the least.
They had only been in a relationship for two or three years, and they said they loved each other so many times that it must have almost been true. Yet towards the end, things started to become sour. Neither of them could agree on anything anymore and compromise was rarely an option for him. Enot was getting tired of feeling like they had no control in the relationship.
They had also started to feel... wrong.
Enot had told him that, at that point, they had gone from a he to a she, and it felt right at first... They felt like they were a girl and liked to be called more feminine things but after some time they began to not feel right. As if they weren't themself, like they were instead wearing someone else's skin and pretending to be someone else, but they still didn't feel like a boy either. They/them could work, in theory, but it still didn't feel right, nothing did at this point, but they stuck with them despite the incorrectness that accompanied them, it was all they had, after all. When they told this feeling to their ex, about how they didn’t feel like themselves, and how everything anyone called them felt wrong, he didn't take it well. He practically broke up with them on the spot.
As much as they didn’t want to admit it, they still missed him, if not for a romantic relationship then at least they would have liked to have someone else to talk to.
Suddenly, Enot’s phone buzzed in their hands and made them lose their train of thought. Before processing the message they had received one of their friends.
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CRITR: "Why are you up so late? Get a sleep schedule lol"
Sofantheil: "I Could Say The Same, WYD Messaginf Me?"
CRITR: "I was studying and saw you were online, also you didn't answer me"
Sofantheil: "... L8 Night Snack"
CRITR: "Lmao"
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Enot didn't bother to respond, as their air fryer beeped at them to turn the food. Despite their love for the mechanical marvel, they always hated how loudly it beeped whenever it tried to get their attention. They wished they could turn it down so that it didn't further damage their poor tinnitus-ridden ears...They quickly opened it up so they wouldn't wake any of their neighbors with their poor late-night decisions. Inside the tray of the air fryer was their sandwich, the edges of the cheese slightly burnt and melted butter leaking from under the bread. They removed their snack from the tray and didn't even bother putting it on a plate before eating it. It was a step above average, which was about as good as they expected it to be. They mostly just needed it to help with their hunger, which it did, for now. But they still didn’t feel satisfied, and Enot didn't feel like making another sandwich. So instead they unwrapped a piece of gum and started to chew on it, the intense mint flavor stinging their tongue only working to make Enot enjoy the taste more.
Enot made their way back into their bedroom and brought up their laptop, they were tired, but they knew from experience that their body wouldn’t let them sleep from this point. So they instead just curled up on their blanket and pillow-covered bed and opened up a game they had been getting into recently instead and sunk some hours into that before the sun rose high enough to drag Enot out to tend to their responsibilities.