Questioning - A Draco Malfoy AU

The Tin of Beans

New chapter for ya!

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Then, that Saturday, I recognised that same person at Coles, standing in the pasta aisle.

I knew I needed to talk to them, and soon, so I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and strolled down the aisle to where the mysterious person was.

They were examining two types of gluten free pasta, and I'd just reached out my hand to tap their shoulder and make my appearance known. But, without even looking up, they said,

"Don't touch me pretty boy."

I felt the back of my neck warm up at that and put my arm back at my side. It was odd how this person could command me into silence like that. Usually no one but my Uncle Tom could do that.

I took a deep breath and asked, "Look, can I know your name at least? I've seen you around a bunch of times and-"

"Zane." They interrupted, strolling away holding the pasta, bumping my shoulder on the way past. The contact made me shiver a tiny bit but I stopped. What was wrong with me?

Ugh great, I thought. A unisex name, what a great way of finding out this persons gender and pronouns. I needed to find out more.

I quickly grabbed a tin of beans so it wouldn't look weird if I exited the shop without buying anything, and took long strides to catch up with Zane.

"Sooo what sports do you like to do?" I asked, trying to get the conversation flowing.

"Soccer," they said abruptly, and turned into the bread aisle.

(A/N Idk what soccer is for you other country people but it's the one with the white ball with black hexagons on it (I don't do any sport in case you can't tell))

After lifting up different brands of bread, they chose the Coles Redkite White Bread.

Genuinely confused, I asked, "Why gluten free pasta if you're just gonna buy normal white bread?"

They shrugged, simply stating, "Gluten free pasta tastes better."

(That's not my opinion, that's Zane's, he's got some weird opinions aight. Like, they play soccer. I hate everything to do with most sports. Unless it's laughing at my brothers or something cos they missed the ball with the cricket bat or something, which rarely happens cos they're actually pretty good. Or state of origin, I love decking out in blue while most of my friends are morons- in maroon. It's really funny every time the morons lose a game- I'll shut up now and go back to the story.)

They walked off to the self serve registers and paid for their food. In my fruitless attempts to make conversation, I nearly forgot to pay for my beans.

After walking out of the store, Zane turned around and blurted out, "Look, what's your deal?!"

I blinked once and sighed. "I just- I saw you around school a bunch of times and was really confused about your gender and stuff cos you seem to be a different gender every time I see yo-"

"Alright fine then. I'm bloody genderfluid." Zane crossed their arms. "Go on, laugh, make fun of me. I know it's not 'normal'."

I kind of just stared blankly up at Zane (as tall as I was, Zane was pretty darn tall).

"Dude," they started, and their arms sort of relaxed a bit. "Dude, why aren't you laughing." Their face had genuine confusion displayed bright and clear upon it.

"Um... I..... what does genderfluid actually.... mean?"

They facepalmed and groaned. "Great, a bloody uneducated bingdoodle."

A little hurt, I started to say something, but they interrupted.

"Basically, genderfluid is where you associate as a different gender every day or every few days or something depending on your mood. So some days I'm female with she/her pronouns, others I have they/him pronouns, et cete- why in the world aren't you laughing ye-"

"Why would I laugh at something like that? It's awesome that some people are like that. My dad doesn't think so... there's an orphanage down the road from our place you know, and there's some trans kids there but he doesn't reckon they deserve to be there. He thinks they shouldn't have homes and be left on the roadside to starve. Mum doesn't reckon so though. Sometimes I hear them arguing about it..." I trailed off in the unpleasant memories of laying in bed as a toddler, hearing dad screaming about Sally who 'shouldn't be Sally and is actually Samuel', and mum yelling equally as forcefully that Sally is Sally, and she's just as valid as the rest of the kids there-

"Y-you're Lucius Malfoy's son?" I snapped back to reality at these words.

"I- yes," I stammered, caught by surprise. "How'd you know?"

"I- um, my mums were on a walk one day and heard him ranting to himself outside that orphanage. They had a row. He- uh, he also shouted at them a lot for- for being lesbian."

"Yeah he... he does suck a lot of the time. He has his moments though."

A heavy silence filled the air, each person engulfed in their own thoughts.

"So um, I'll see you around?" I asked awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck.

"Yeah. See you." Zane turned around and started walking away.

Sighing, I walked away in the other direction towards my house, holding my tin of beans in my right hand.

—-

So, whatcha think? Did you guys like this chapter?

QoTC: What do you think the beans were about?

PoTC: Toilet paper over or under?

Aight that's it for today, see ya later

Have a gay day!

-BJ