TRANS // ot4

Ten

((I'm sorry I had to unpublish this and then republish it because I forgot to add the trigger warnings. Also, last chapter before the epilogue :(

-Mel))

((Tw suicide))

Michael's first day back to work makes him cry. His coworkers misgender him constantly and his customers give him strange looks. His name tag still says Isabella, and Michael's too shy and nervous to say anything.

The tears come as soon as he walks out the door, welling up in his eyes and falling down his hot, pink cheeks when he finds Luke waiting outside for him.

"Bad day?" Luke asks, swinging an arm around his shoulder and tucking him close. Michael nods and wipes his face on Luke's flannel.

His second day of work is a little better. He gets put on stocking duty, which means he doesn't have to deal with a lot of customers or coworkers. It's great, he almost asks to be permanently switched to stocking, when his manager pulls him into her office.

"Bella," she starts, and Michael's heart sinks down to his stomach. He sits in a chair on the other side of her extravagant desk and fidgets, picking at his nails and biting his lip. "You've worked here for how many years? Two?"

"Three," Michael says quietly, ducking his head down and frowning.

"Three, of course," she nods quickly, picking a pen off her desk to fiddle with it. "You've given us three great years-"

Michael's mouth drops open, partially in surprise, partially to gasp sharply. He stares at his managers mouth while it moves, even though he's barely listening anymore. This can't be fucking happening. When he tunes back in, she's saying something along the lines of, "-We're going to have to let you go, unfortunately. Budget cuts-"

She's lying, Michael decides. They're up in sales and low in employees. They need him, they have more customers and less workers. They need him to work, so why are they firing him? Michael knows. He doesn't want to admit it, but he knows.

When she asks him to turn in his lanyard (he doesn't get a two week notice, fuck), he stumbles out and stares at Luke blankly. Luke looks back, albeit in confusion, and waits patiently for Michael to sort himself out.

"I- I-" he gasps and stares at Luke in complete shock. There's got to be a law against this, he thinks. They can't fucking do this. He's so lost in his internal shock, he misses the range of emotions flying off Luke's face. He settled on sad, lips turned down and eyebrows tilting down, then reaches his hand out patiently. Michael grabs it and doesn't bother lacing their fingers together, too upset to try to slot his fingers in the spaces between Luke's. Their palms clasp together tightly, while Luke tugs him in, pulling Michael against his chest and hooking his chin over the smaller boy's head.

"Let's go home, okay?" He says gently. Michael nods and sucks his bottom lip into his mouth.

****

Ashton drags Calum around to various stores directly after he gets off work, so neither of them make it home until dinner time. Luke doesn't do many gigs anymore, and they all work less than before, so they can have proper sit down dinners and spend time together. Michael compares it to before he came out, before she became he, before he was forced out of his mother's house and into Ashton's apartment, before Calum and Luke willingly joined them so they could be together more often. Back before everything, when Ashton was the only one with a job and a reason to be anywhere except together.