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To learn each other.
Just as Oliver finished editing one section, he heard footsteps on the stairs and turned to see Leo wandering into the kitchen. His sibling was dressed in tight, shiny yoga pants and a loose, tunic-like blouse. His hair was pulled into an intricate knot on the back of his head, and he was wearing a smear of gold shadow over his eyelids.
“I thought you were staying in,” Oliver said.
Leo looked down at himself, then rolled his eyes. “I am. Well, until Mikey gets here. It’s not a crime to want to look pretty, you know.”
Oliver snorted. “As you like it.” He glanced at his last sentence, deleted a few words, but his head wasn’t in it anymore. Leaning on his elbow, he turned back to his sibling. “Leo, are you trans?”
Leo, who had a glass of juice halfway to his mouth, froze. “Er, yes, I suppose I’m under the trans umbrella. Why?”
“You’ve never really explained it,” Oliver replied with a shrug. “Haven’t really said much after joining your group, and I was wondering. Am I misgendering you? I call you my sibling sometimes, and I still call you Leo. If it’s wrong, will you tell me?”
Leo’s face softened into a sweet, patient smile, and he turned, leaning against the counter. “It took me a while to sort it out. Even now, I’m not entirely sure how I define myself. I keep reading more and more about being genderqueer, and there’s just…somuch. But I’m comfortable with my name right now, and I’m alright if you call me your sibling.”
Oliver relaxed a little, then nodded. “Alright. But, if it changes just…just say something, yeah? You know I want you to be happy. I want you to be you.”
Leo chuckled fondly. “Yeah, I know. Anyway, you should go get ready. Shower. I’m pretty sure that smell is coming from you.”
“Oy!” Oliver lifted his arm to sniff himself. “I smell like a fucking field of roses, you miserable little twat.”
“Only because you’re used to the stink. You’re never going to get laid like that, you know.”
“I hate you,” Oliver grumbled. But he went upstairs anyway and busied himself with getting washed and fresh for the night.
By the time he was done, wearing loose jogging bottoms and a tight black t-shirt, Gabe had arrived and was talking with Leo and Coco at the kitchen counter. Beers were already cracked, one of the pizza boxes open.
Oliver let out an affronted gasp. “You started without me?”
“No one’s fault but yours, mate. I didn’t think it was going to take you two hours,” Leo said, shaking his head back and forth. “Also, how is it you can spend so much time in there and come down still looking like that?”
“You are so rude. How are we related?” Oliver complained as he slid up next to Gabriel. He leaned over to nuzzle his boyfriend, reveling in the smell of espresso. “Mm, delicious,” he muttered into Gabe’s ear.
Blushing just a little, Gabriel reached up to cup Oliver’s cheek and pull him in close. “I think you look very nice.”
“He’s biased,” Leo said.
“So what if I am?” Gabriel gave Leo a winning smile before Coco announced they should take everything into the living room and start the movie. The three deferred to Coco who put on a romance with subtitles, but they were talking and laughing, paying no attention to the plot.
By the time Mikey arrived to take Leo, Oliver was a little buzzed and surprisingly relaxed about his sibling spending an entire weekend away from him. He got up though, to hug him goodbye, and held him tight for a second.
“Be careful. Please.”
Leo huffed, but squeezed Oliver’s shoulder fondly. “I will. And you know you’ll get a text if anything comes up.”
“Just don’t let it,” Oliver stressed, then gave his sibling’s cheek a hard pat before he was out the door.
“That’s my cue,” Coco said as the door shut.
Oliver lifted his eyebrow as he came back to the sofa, nuzzling back into Gabe’s side. “Cue for what?”
“Oh, Andi and I are redecorating her apartment, so I decided to let you two lovebirds have the place to yourselves and get up to your naughty business. You can thank me in the form of a giant gift basket full of chocolate. I like the dark stuff.” With a wink, she jumped up from the floor and stretched her back.
Feeling completely mortified, Oliver hid his face in Gabe’s neck as his roommate sauntered out of the room. “I’m sorry. They’re horrible. I swear I have no expectations for this weekend.”
Gabe reached over, pinching Oliver’s chin between his fingers and thumb, and turned his head. “What if I do?”
Swallowing thickly, Oliver cleared his throat. “Well, erm…I think I’d be alright with that.”
