Work Text:
The first time Mina met Arin was her 14th birthday party. She was wearing a bright red and pink princess cut dress. Her own design. She had fallen in love with fashion design over the last year after her parents bought her a Singer Machine for her last birthday. For her birthday this year she had asked for the original muslins for the Dior New Look collection, or at least to go to France and see it. She had accepted a betrothal to America's richest man as adequate compensation for her parents' failure. The boy was tall and slim, shy, almost nervous looking. He wore a dark brown suit even though it was mid June, so not a fashion icon but she could work with it. His hair had been slicked back and combed into a neat swooping quaff, which he actively ruffled apart the moment his parents took his eyes off of him. Mina hated to admit it but he was in fact cute, in the way a puppy is cute. She really wanted to pet his head to see how soft his hair was. She would have to ask him to bend over to get a handful of his hair but maybe..?
But there was never a chance throughout the night. He stayed with a group of his friends, a wall of three to five boys always separating him from Mina to a degree. Eventually, as the night grew to a close, she got fed up with him avoiding her, and making it so obvious that he was doing so as well. “Hello, I’m Mina, I’m super happy to meet you.” She put on her most bubbly smile, inserting herself into his conversation with the other boys. Good first impressions and all. The boys did not return the smile.
“Hello Miss Ha, my name is Arin Fairfax, heir to the Fairfax fortune, and future CEO of Fairfax industries. It is a pleasure to meet you.” He bent to grab her hand clumsily and kissed the back of it. Mina was a bit disappointed by the surely scripted introduction. She knew who he was. She had chosen him. Her frustration must have shown on her face because the waif-like boy continued, crinkling his nose, “Sorry, I know that introduction is a bit stale.” The other boys in the huddle looked at her warily. She had developed a reputation as her mother called it. That was the reputation of speaking her mind when someone made a mistake.
“It’s fine, and call me Mina. Everyone I like does.” Mina smiled warmth in the slight admonishment. Arin knew how to correct his own mistakes. That is good to know. It's a good quality in a husband. The group behind him shifted a bit from her abnormal reaction. She saw a few glances passed back and forth.
Focusing back on Arin she watched him as he blushed a bit, mumbling something out. Quick to fluster, another good quality. It would make him submissive. She liked that.
But just to prove the point she blundered the conversation forwards, “What was that, sorry I didn’t quite hear you.” Intentionally clumsy wording.
The flush moved from Arin’s cheeks down through his neck. Mina could barely contain her glee, this was fun. “I-I said that… your dress is… really pretty.”
Mina did her best not to feel the shock of a boy calling her pretty. She failed tremendously. “Well- Well uhhhh, huummm, haha,” She paused to get her bearings, “You know- uhhhmm… thanks... I made it.” She could feel the flush of embarrassment rushing up her face. She was probably the same color as her dress.
The group behind Arin exploded into cries and jeers. One of the boys shouted expletives as he slapped a crisp ten dollar bill into a different boy's hand. Another threw his arm around Arin, looking deep into Mina’s eyes, “If I knew you could look like that I woulda tried to lock you down myself.” He smirked. Revolting, Mina recoiled from the group.
Arin grinned down at her “Your move Ha.”
Her move indeed. She stepped forwards, plucking the lapel of Arin’s suit forcing it to be a casual action. “You thought you flustered me huh?” She smiled like a shark. She was going to ruin this poor boy. Mina slowly slid her hand up the jacket feeling the material. It was very nice, quite expensive, she could hardly wait for the boy to marry her so she could get all of his money. She moved her hand to his neck, feeling the heat of his pulse as it skipped a beat. She had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing at that. The compliment had been genuine at least. Mina swayed into his space, her pink skirt flowing around his legs. She grabbed his jaw, maybe a bit rougher than intended but still effective. The crowd of boys around them had fallen dead silent. In fact the whole hall was silent. Everyone was waiting for her next move. “Cute.” Her word cut the tension in the air like a rubberband. Arin’s face turned from a neutral skin tone to bright red in an instant. If this was a cartoon, there would have been a little heart shaped explosion of smoke above his head. Good, he was distracted. She shifted her weight forwards a bit. She batted her eyelashes, and drove her knee into his dick as hard as she could. When he bent over she grabbed his hair and repeated the action to his nose. Arin fell back onto the floor holding his face, expression contorted in surprise and fear. She giggled, “Aw, that's the face I love to see.” She mocked him. Mina crouched down until she was sitting on her stiletto heels. Perched, as one of her friends once described it. “Your move Fairfax.” She cut the name like she had cut the silk of her dress. Quick and efficient.
Letting go of his nose Arin scrambled to his feet. Mina rose to meet him. He wiped the blood from his upper lip as it freely flowed into his mouth. Eyes locked into hers Arin pulled a five dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to the creep that had made a comment earlier. “Lets call it one to one eh?” Mina felt as the anger rolled through her, but this was neither the place nor time to call him a fucking asshole.
—
“Hey Mina?” Arin sat on the roof with his feet tucked under him and his head resting on his knees. He was looking at her.
“Yeah?” Mina leaned back onto her elbows to get a better view of the stars.
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Depends.”
“You win if you can keep this one.” Arin was offering her the win to their back and forth. This must be a life changing secret. She needed to have it.
“And if I can’t?”
“I break off the betrothal.”
“Uhhhhhgg… You’re mean, you know I love gossip.”
The boy flashed a smile at her, "That's what you love about me though, that I refuse to take your shit.”
It wasn't untrue. Mina looked pointedly at the night sky. “What's the secret Fairfax.” She grumbled.
“I- I… Sorry I’m looking for the words. Ummm…, Well… I guess I’d put it like this, I am not a man.”
Mina snorted “Yeah, your the fucker I gotta marry. What's the secret.” She deadpanned
“No, I mean like. I can’t see myself as a guy. Like I look in the mirror and I like don’t see myself. I don’t know. It's just that you always look so comfortable in your body, and I want that and I was hoping that you could like maybe help me be more… I don't know. Just more?”
Mina stared at him a bit dumbstruck.
“Like every time I hear someone call me the Fairfax Boy it like physically hurts for some reason,” Arin started to ramble, “For a while I could ignore it, but recently its been getting worse. Like my voice, my fucking voice. I hate the way it sounds. I know there are so many people who are like ‘Wow, it's so masculine and cool. You sound so strong’ But like I just cant stand it. Or my fucking clothes, I feel like I am being strangled sometimes. Like I cant breath when Im in those fucking Arrow Collar suits. I get it, i need to look the part, but I just want the ability to feel like a human, not like a… I don’t wanna be a man Mina.” He started crying into his hands. “I hate being like this. I want to fucking throw up when I see my body after a shower. I hate how my dad makes me do my hair.” Tears broke into sobs, and sobs, and sobs, and sobs, and sobs. Until the sound of Arin crying felt like a normal nighttime noise.
Mina took a while to process what her fiance had just half-shouted half-cried to her. “Arin-” Mina began after he had calmed a bit.
“And that fucking name… God I hate it.” The boy cut her words by turning away from her.
Mina bit her lip hard in annoyance. She felt blood begin to pool in her mouth. Whoops. She swallowed hard, “Fine, Pocket,” She snapped at the person next to her. They flinched at the sound of the name. Mina sighed, “Look Pocket, I am a fashion designer, I can only help you with so much. I can give you ways to dress and style yourself, but I can’t change your voice, or your body, or what other people call you.”
Pocket sniffed, wiping their nose on their sleeve. “You’d do that? Help me look how I want?”
“Yes Pocket, I may have a heart of stone but I don’t want to see you suffer. There is no pleasure in it if I am not the one to inflict it.”
“So you do like to torment me.” Her friend whipped their head around to smirk at her, though the effect was a but lessened by the tears still coating their face.
“Ew,” She tossed them her handkerchief, “Wipe your face, you look like you just cried your eyes out.”
“I did just cry my eyes out.”
“Yeah, but we cannot let anyone else know that we talk about our feelings together. What would the public think!?”
Pocket huffed out a sort of laugh, the one that she knew meant that they were now okay.
“I mean really Fairfax, they might start gossiping that we like each other. Think of the scandal.”
“No Fairfax”
“Okay Pocket it is and Pocket it will stay.” Mina smirked, letting the moment sit for a bit before continuing, “So I win right?”
“I lied. You are never winning.” The freak next to her smiled with a devious glint of foretold betrayal, “But you can have two points.”
“Three, three points.”
“No, two, no more no less. What? You think I’m just gonna give you the lead like that? Be so for real Mina. Being tied with me is the best you will get and you know it.”
“That is not fair, you are making me keep the juiciest gossip in the world from all of my friends. I deserve the lead, at the very least.”
“My life isn’t gossip Mina.”
“No, but ‘The Fairfax kid hates themself’,” She mimicked a radio announcer, “is the juiciest tid-bit I have gotten my hands on for years.”
Pocket laughed, “Yeah it is, and you cannot tell a soul.” They smirked, “Deal with it Mina, its two points or nothing.”
“Fine” Mina sighed.
The night slipped into silence as the two friends watched the night sky begin to break into a bright dawn. Mina leaned over to her betrothed and whispered, “Happy 18th birthday Pocket.” Then she kissed their cheek and slipped back into the house almost silently. She had a bunch of work to do before tonight.
—
Mina stormed across the room, fury rising through her cold skin. “Five years!” She hated how her voice screeched and broke. “I thought you were dead for five fucking years, and nothing! Not a letter!? not a word!? not a postcard!? Really!? I thought we were friends Pocket.” She felt her eyes begin to fill with tears. “I thought we were friends.” She hiccupped while crossing her arms to trap her fists in the bend of her arms. She refused to cry over this loser standing there in the jacket she had made for them. She hadn't cried at their funeral, she would put a stake through her own heart before doing so now.
“I- I" They started, "Mina, I’m sorry. We are friends. I thought you knew that you will always be my friend.” Pocket looked at her with those fucking puppy dog eyes they used when they knew they had fucked up but didn’t know how to fix it. It made it impossible to be angry at them. Mina felt the tears begin to brim. She looked up to stop them from falling.
“Mina?” She heard the genuine worry in their voice.
“Fuc-” She felt a tear slip into her mouth as she snapped her face to look at the person in front of her. “Fuck you Arin Fairfax.” She bit into the name like a fresh blood bag. She knew just where to press to break her old friend.
Pocket's face crumbled in front of the name.
“One hundred to ninety three, your win, congrats. I want my jacket back” Mina spun on her heel, not waiting for them to return the jacket, before stomping past the other ritual contestants. As soon as she was tightly locked in her hotel room her barely contained sob wriggled out of her chest forcing memories and emotions to crawl out of her grave and pull at her hands as she tried to cover her leaking eyes. “I hate you, I fucking hate you Pocket. Why couldn't you stay dead.” She whispered into the nothingness in front of her.