Chapter Text
The next morning Avery woke up on the couch. He was laying with his head on Derek's chest and the other arm was over his back. He lifted his head up to see what time it was on the clock across the room before deciding he could lay back down for a while. As he settled back into the spot he was in he saw his phone light up with a text. He wasn't able to see it from where he was so, regretfully, he got himself up off the couch and grabbed his phone, taking it into his room so as not to disturb Derek who was still sleeping.
He opened his phone as he was walking to his room and saw that it was a text from his mother to him and his father
“Shit” he muttered to himself, completely forgetting Derek on the couch
He closed his bedroom door behind him before sitting at his desk chair, clicking open his phone he saw that there had been multiple texts sent in a short span
Mama
Ivy, please call us when you get this message
Avery cringed at the use of his deadname before continuing to read
Mama
This is incredibly important and has to do with your grandfather
Avery sighed before calling his mom, if she was right he would have to make the six hour drive back home that he didn't particularly want to do alone, much less with Derek. If he could avoid Derek coming into contact with his parents forever he could die a happy man.
The phone rang twice before his mother picked up
“Ivy! How nice it is to hear your voice!” His mothers voice was shrill as she spoke
“Hi Mama, is everything ok with Grandpa?” Aver found himself forcing his voice to go higher. He had been out to his family for years now but none of them supported him besides his younger sister who still lived with his parents
“Oh he's just fine, sweetheart! Just a little bit of a scare this morning but everything is all good now!” she laughed lightly as she spoke
“That's good. Why else are you calling me? You know it's early and you know I've asked you not to contact me unless it's an emergency.” Avery's voice was flat and uninterested as he spoke “And I don't appreciate you using the concern I have for Grandpa as a weapon against me”
His mom was quiet for a moment before finally speaking, “We saw your stream Ivy.” her voice was laced with anger “Does that man know what you're hiding?”
Avery was too shocked to say anything, he took a few seconds to process what his mother just said “What?” his voice was barely more than a whisper
“You heard me. Does that man know your little secret? Does he know you're a woman?” Her words hit Avery like daggers. “You put on this little show for all those people watching you too. Do they know?”
Avery’s breath picked up and he felt the now familiar pressure of tears building behind his eyes, “Do you not care that a random man is in my house mama? Do you only care that he needs to know I'm a woman?” His voice shook as he spoke
His mother scoffed “Of course I care about that but the only reason I do is because you're a woman Ivy. If you truly were a man it would be different.” Her voice was filled with a fake comfort that Avery leaned into, though he knew it was fake the feeling of being safe in his mothers voice even for a moment was something he always longed for.
“I'm sorry Mama” was all Avery could manage in the state he was in. All he wanted was to hang up but the comfort of his mothers voice kept him on the phone. He was barely listening to the words she was saying, only focusing on the warmth of her voice. The way that it felt like a hug from her after he fell as a child. Before he knew it his mother was saying goodbye
“Alright well I best get going. Your sister needed some help with some stuff for school. I love you Ivy. Talk to you soon alright?” she spoke in a rushed voice and Avery could hear his sister in the background
“Bye Mama. I love you” The second he pressed the button to end the call he let out the sob that he had been holding. He pushed himself away from his desk and stood, immediately almost running out of his room, throwing the door open to see Derek still laying on the couch, playing some game on his phone. Quicker than he thought he went and laid on Derek, throwing a blanket over the two of them in the process.
“Avery?” Derek could barely hide his surprise as the shorter man made contact with him “is everything ok?”
Avery didn't respond, he just sobbed into Derek's shirt
Derek set his phone down and immediately put his hand on Avery's back, “What happened Aves?”
Avery sniffled and without looking up from Derek’s shirt answered “My mom called. She just… She doesn't like that I'm like this and I hate it. I hate how much comfort I find in her. She was just so nice before I came out and now it's like she hates me but she's still nice to me and I always answer her calls just to feel loved again” He sniffled again
Derke truly didn't know what to say so they just sat there for a few moments before finally he spoke. “You know I love you right?”
Another few minutes of nothing.
Then Avery looked up at him, “What?” His eyes were puffy and his cheeks were shiny from the tears
“I love you Avery,” Derek held Avery’s face as he spoke “I love you so much and I want you to know that”
Avery moved his hand to be holding one of Derek's, “What happened to not wanting to rush anything?”
“Ive thought about it and I'd rather figure out the aftermath of being possessed by a cosmic entity as your boyfriend than just as a roommate. Avery you make me feel something I don't think I’ve felt before. I want to be with you. I want to wake up in the same bed as you, I want to make you breakfast in the mornings, I want to be someone you can come to when things like this happen, I want to be your boyfriend. I want you to feel loved” He spoke evenly, not letting the fear he felt be expressed in his voice.
“Do you mean it?” Avery's voice was the exact opposite. It was soft and shook. His eyes showed every single fear running through his body “And you won't leave?”
“I won't leave” Derek smiled softly before leaning forward and giving Avery a kiss on the forehead “I promise I won't leave”
They sat like that for a while until Avery sat up “We should probably get something to eat I think”
“I think so too. Do you want me to make something or should we order?” Derek had already grabbed his phone to order food before Avery spoke
“I think order but only because I want to do something while we wait. You can pick this time” Aver had a small smile spread across his face
Derek nodded and added what he wanted before handing his phone to Avery, “what did you want to do?” he rubbed at his eyes
“Well, only if you'd want to, we could start moving some stuff around to different rooms” He spoke as he placed the order
“If it's ok with you, I'd like to keep my stuff separate for now. We can sleep in each other's rooms and stuff but I like having my own space and I don't want to mess with your streaming stuff, if that's ok.” He flinched at his own words, he didn't want to offend Avery but he also wanted to keep his own space.
“That's ok!” Avery leaned up against Derek “Whatever works works.” He moved himself so that he was face to face with Derek before kissing him.
Avery never wanted the moment to end. It felt like everything was right in the world when he was kissing Derek. He could smell the faint smell of mahogany from his cologne he had put on the day before and could taste the cinnamon from his toothpaste.
At that moment Avery knew that everything would be ok. He found Derek and they lived together and were boyfriends. Avery also knew that this was just the start of something great that he couldn't even begin to comprehend.