cinderblock garden - muke

two

michael never felt trapped inside of his own body at any point in his life, unlike luke's mother, michaels parents were very open minded, they made everything in his life gender neutral. as he grew up he played with toy cars, action men and bratz (he said barbies were too 'boring'). when it came to bed time he'd tuck the toy cars into the bratz beds and put the bratz in the garage, he'd sing them the hannah montana theme song then his mother would read him a disney princess or superhero story book and 3 year old michael would fall into a deep slumber, dreaming of being a superhero or princess, depending on what story his mother read to him.

when michael started reception class the other mothers looked down upon the way his own mother had raised him. karen had allowed michael to wear whatever he felt comfortable in, whether it be jeans and a camp rock t-shirt or a pink skirt and a band t-shirt. however, the other mothers were nowhere near as open minded as karen, they told their children to stay away from michael, and reported her to social services multiple times, claiming she was forcing michael to wear 'girls' clothing because she wanted a girl and was dissapointed that she had michael.

michael hated those women with every cell in his body, he was different, so what? he was who he wanted to be and thats all that mattered to him. his mother forced nothing upon him. he wanted to be a boy and a girl, or on some days, neither, what was so wrong with that? he never understood as to why nobody accepted him, not when he was 5, not when he was 15. he was a little bit different. he was genderfluid, why would nobody accept that?

michael never had any friends, he didnt mind being alone, he didnt mind the constant bullying, he was happy as long as he could express himself freely and thats what he did.

when he was 13 his family were relocated from london to los angeles because his father was offered a promotion which paid a lot. with the move being to somewhere as diverse as california he was excited to finally fit in. michael was instantly popular, everyone wanted to be the kid with the bright pink hairs best friend, but michael was picky, he wanted someone who wasnt begging, he didnt want an easy friendship, he wanted a friend who was actually a person; not that the other children werent, they were far too obsessed with material objects. through the sea of overly privelidged children he spotted calum, leaning against a tree looking ready to stab all of the children, which is pretty much how michael felt. so, he pushed through them, politely telling them to fuck off and walked to the asian looking boy, who wasnt asian.

calum and michael instantly became friends, partially due to the fact calum told michael that he liked his skirt and that it went very well with his my chemical romance shirt. michael quickly explained he was genderfluid while calum responded by telling michael that he was bigender. calum was instantly jeallous of the older boy, he had a feminine build but masculine looks, his face was breathtaking, calum envied the fact he could wear what he wanted without being judged by the others in his class. despite his jealousy, he accepted michaels offer of being his friend gratefully, much like michael he had never had any friends before.

michael remembered every little detail about the younger boy, he knew when he was having 'girl' days or 'boy' days, he knew which name to refer to him as, he knew what pronouns to use, he knew his favourite colour, the lyrics to his favourite song, he knew everything. and calum knew everything about michael, not even his family could tell his 'girl' days from 'boy' days, or from his neutral days, they never knew which name or which pronoun to use.

the pink haired boy was eternally grateful he found calum, and calum was eternally grateful that the pink haired boy had found him.

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chapters will be getting longer, i just need to introduce michael and luke before i can do anything else

- lottie