Stuck in Heaven

Chapter One: Only In Fanfiction...

TW: DEADNAMING, MENTIONS OF AN ABUSIVE PARENTAL RELATIONSHIP, BREIF MENTION OF PHYSICAL ABUSE.

"Megan?" A voice called. 

Not that they heard. They were mentally exhausted, and that meant only one thing: they were theorizing. Not quite daydreaming, but plotting nonetheless. You'd think that when they were mentally exhausted that would be the last thing they'd be doing. They'd essentially spent the entire day speaking in their second language. They were helping their parents out at a trade show in Montreal, which meant French all day- especially since they was the only one in their family that spoke it. Getting the opportunity to think of something they actually enjoyed instead of the next word they needed to say was a relief. And it's not like their parents needed them for anything at that exact moment. It was tear-down time, and their parents had deemed them too weak to carry any of the large boxes- which was bullshit. They were more than capable. But oh well. 

"Megan!" The voice repeated. Their head snapped up and they looked towards the sound. Oh. It was their dad. 

"Sorry... yeah?" Megs sighed. 

"Did you get the reservation in for Cosmos for your birthday dinner?" Their dad asked.

"Yeah, got that in a few hours ago. We're all set for seven o'clock." Megs nodded. 

Some way to spend a 20th birthday- working on a hard concrete floor speaking a languiage you don't even fully know. Putting up with your mom's shitty attitude because these shows were about her and her only. Didn't matter if you were in the process of making a $1000 sale, apparently. But that was just typical of their mom. She had somehow made her child's birthday about her again. At least Megs was getting a dinner. There was that. And it was at a really nice place. Montreal had a lot of nice places, but this one was really nice. It didn't cancel out the shit they'd had to go through, but at least it was something. 

The truth was, this was the kind of behavior Megs had come to expect from their parents. They weren't good people, and they were showing more and more of that every day. Their father was better than their mother by far, so long as you could keep his anger at bay. He was working on becoming more understanding, and on learning about what he didn't know. But their mother... was a nightmare. Every day, she became a little more bigotted it seemed. Not that that was any surprise to them. After the incident two years ago when they came out as bi... they'd seen their parents true colours, and their parents were less afraid to show them every day. It had become normal. It shouldn't have become normal, and Megs was eagerly anticipating the day they could move out. 

They hadn't even come out as genderqueer to their parents yet (they had initially gone with the term demigirl, but they had since decided labels weren't entirely necessary). They were terrified it would go down like the last time. They still couldn't be touched below the chest area without warning... two whole years later, and it had done that much damage. The physical damage hadn't lasted long- a bit of discomfort for about a month, a bruise on their side that no one saw anyways. But gut punches, especially from those you love, sometimes do more mental damage than physical damage anyways. They blocked out that night. They tried not to remember any part of it, but that... never went away. It ruined so many things. They and their father had used to lave playfighting. Now, he couldn't even touch them without them going on edge. They both known a line had been crossed, and they both knew that phase of their relationship was done. Were they in a better place now communication-wise? Yes. They were talking, and there was a genuine bond there. But would either of them forget what he'd done? Well, Megs knew they wouldn't.

This was far from what they wanted to be thinking about on their birthday, but sometimes their brain went to places they would never want it to go. They thought too much, they supposed. Their brain was constantly exploring new avenues. They brought themselves back to something more pleasant- like Honey Queen AUs. They had a whole Honey Queen AU for their OC Harriet that they'd actually written out and posted a oneshot for a long time ago, and though it was already published and extremely angsty... they had many more thoughts. For one, they were considering writing it in script format. Lord knows they had the friends to perform it. They were heavily involved in the fan-project side of the Starkid fandom, heading a project of their own as well as participating in the works of some of the more notable groups. But they also had so many other concepts, other AUs featuring Harry that they could write- especially with the addition of Roman as a character. Roman was one of their favourites. They lost themself in this again, before a voice brought them back out.