Author's Note: This is my first attempt writing anything for the The Fosters fandom. I really want to write something involving some other characters sometimes, I mean I love Mariana, and Jude, and Callie, and idk… but for now this is what I have. I wrote this for the Femslashex Fic Exchange, and this in particular was as a gift for InTheWind and was first posted this on Archive of Our Own on October 18th, which was the deadline. The fics were revealed on October 24th and now, today, I've finally found time to post my fic here to Fanfiction DOT net too. InTheWind also ended up writing me a Lena/Stef fic for the exchange as well, also posted to AO3, and gosh I loved her story so much. Please check it out. Both of our fics barely go past the 1000 minimum word limit, btw, so they're pretty quick and easy reads.
Enjoy my fic now, below!
The first three times Stef had needed to come out to people as a lesbian, she did it with a lot of planning. Lena had been well equipped to help prepare her, with over a decade of prior experience personally coming out, and with knowledge gained from her other gay and lesbian friends. Stef had braced herself for her conversations with Mike, her parents, and her closest friends on the police force. She had been pleasantly surprised, overall, by how things had gotten a bit awkward for only a short period of time and that (luckily) no one had reacted particularly negatively about the truth – other than her father, of course, but she'd also completely expected that, so it wasn't so bad. Lena had been there to come home to, waiting to find out how her coming out had gone each time, and had been such a wonderful support.
Each time she'd come out, Stef had felt just a little bit freer, like a huge weight, the lie that she was straight, had been lifted off of her shoulders; and each night that followed included some of the most amazing sex Stef had ever had in her life. It had been amazingly easy, those evenings, to revel in how beautiful Lena was, to both give and receive pleasure in this relatively forbidden woman-on-woman way, because she was embracing being a lesbian in a way she never had before as she came out to people, and it was a surprisingly exhilarating thing.
The first time Stef experienced true homophobia from someone other than her father, the kind directed at her from a stranger? It completely caught her off guard. She was out picking up groceries with Lena and her at-the-time twelve-year-old son.
"Hun, I'll go grab the milk while you pick out the perfect head of lettuce, okay?" Stef had offered.
Lena had nodded in return, and Stef had left her in the produce section of the store, Brandon already busy in the cereal aisle picking out something he'd enjoy. After Stef had a gallon of one-percent in her hand, she started heading over to catch up with her son, and she overheard something unexpected.
A woman in the store was talking to Brandon, telling him she didn't think his mom and dad would approve of such a sugary cereal choice, and Brandon had replied, "It doesn't matter what my dad thinks. My moms let me eat whatever breakfast cereal I want when I'm at their house. They said it's no worse for me than eating pancakes or other popular breakfast foods anyway."
"Your moms?" the woman had said, a bit of horror evident in her tone, and Stef stopped in her tracks, a few feet away from her son.
Stef wasn't used to being outed by Brandon, but she was also happy to realize how easily he considered Lena one of his moms, and how casually he was outing her because he didn't realize it was sometimes a big deal to people. It made her heart swell, but in this moment, it also made her terrified, because this woman didn't seem to be reacting too well. Sure enough, the woman continued.
"Are you… are you trying to tell me you… you have two mothers?" she said in a hushed tone, like it was the kind of thing that should never be voiced at a normal volume.
"Mmm-hmm," Brandon had confirmed. "My mom realized she was a lesbian." Stef smiled at how comfortable he was with that fact and walked the rest of the way to her son, gently touching his shoulder.
"Hey, sweetie. What do you have there?" she asked, looking at the box in his hands. He was holding a box of Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios.
"Are you his mother?" the stranger asked harshly.
"Yes," Stef answered simply, innocently, as if she hadn't noticed the woman's tone of voice.
"You should be ashamed of yourself," the stranger bit out. "What you're doing to your son is child abuse!"
Stef's eyes went wide and she looked down at her boy, who seemed confused.
"I… I really don't think the sugar cereal is going to kill me," he mumbled hesitantly.
Stef was a cop. She had seen child abuse first-hand. The accusation made her blood boil. She tried to mentally remind herself that this woman had no clue what she was talking about, didn't know what real child abuse was, and was just a homophobic idiot. It was surprisingly difficult, though.
"Not the cereal, honey," the stranger said, talking to her boy. Stef pulled Brandon closer to her, defensively.
"My son is fine. He understands that love can come in many forms. If only you were so enlightened."
The woman walked off in a huff, and Stef told Brandon the Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios were fine.
They caught up with Lena, who was still in the produce section, having gotten distracted by wanting to pick out some perfect avocadoes for homemade guacamole, and Lena pecked Stef gently on the lips, a quick show of romantic affection, and instead of the usual happy feelings the gesture usually gave her Stef felt a pang of nervousness that someone might have seen them.
Brandon didn't seem to think what had happened with that woman in the supermarket was significant enough to mention to Lena at any point, it seemed, as Stef never found herself being asked to clarify what had happened. Stef never revealed it at all to her partner. Stef tried to fully enjoy Lena's sexy curves and beautiful naked body that evening, but she found it was harder to let herself be free, and act in such an obviously lesbian way. Suddenly, she felt things all-over-again that she hadn't felt for a few years – guilt, like maybe she really was a bad mom, like maybe being a lesbian really was a horrible thing, like maybe she was a horrible person. It took her about a week before she was able to shake those feelings and get back into fully enjoying the experience of sex with her lovely lady.
Stef was afraid to ever tell Lena about that moment. She didn't want Lena to pity her. Lena had about a decade of experience being a lesbian before Stef had woken up to her own similar truth, and even if Lena was a few years younger than her, this fact always made Stef feel younger in a lot of ways. She could just see Lena wanting to help, comforting her, assuring her she was fine just as she was, and Stef didn't want any of that. Stef wasn't a child needing comforting from a parent. Stef wanted to be Lena's equal in every way. She wanted to be stronger than that.
It was one year later, when Stef was Lena's plus-one to Lena's cousin's wedding, that the roles were reversed. Brandon, Mariana, and Jesus were at home. Brandon, the oldest of the three, was left in charge. Stef had to answer a call to her cell phone and had waited in the lobby of the reception hall while Lena had gone to pick up the seating placement markers. Stef had assumed they'd all be laid out on a table for the guests to find on their own, but this wedding had not chosen to do things that way. By the time Stef was within earshot of what was going on at the table, what she was overhearing was not the typical pleasantries.
"Actually, Stef is… short for Stefanie," Lena was clarifying. "She's not my husband."
The young black man handing out name tags looked up at her. "Is she just a friend? Your plus ones are supposed to be dates."
Stef wasn't sure if she should continue hanging back, or if she should come to the defense of the woman who was practically her wife. Stef was annoyed that the man seemed to have taken it upon himself to be the 'plus one police'.
"She's my partner," Lena said defiantly. "We are definitely more than 'just friends'."
"You can't bring your lover inside," the guy replied, his voice dripping with disdain. "This is Dave and Melanie's wedding. It's a sacred celebration of a holy union."
Stef stepped up to Lena's side. "Lena is Melanie's cousin, and Melanie wanted her here; that's why she invited her! The invitation said she could bring a plus one. No one ever said that plus one had to be a guy."
"It's okay, honey," Lena said quietly, trying not to cause a scene, and Stef was shocked by how… defeated Lena sounded. This didn't seem like the proud lesbian she had fallen in love with. Lena sounded... afraid to make things worse, but Stef didn't like to think of Lena as afraid of anything. Lena had taught her everything she knew about being proud of who you are deep down regardless of the ignorant bigots who might populate the world around you.
"Has a placement card been made for me?" Stef asked, noticing Lena was already holding her own in her hand.
"Well, yeah, but-"
Stef cut the man off. "Then please hand it over. Now."
The man did as he was told, and Lena shot a small smile at her lover.
"Let's go," Stef said softly, leading the way inside the reception.
Stef never again let herself feel ashamed of being in a relationship with Lena. If people around her expressed anti-gay sentiments, it rolled off of Stef like water off a duck's back. She realized that even for people like Lena, it was hard sometimes to confront homophobic jerks, to stand up for oneself, to feel pride in one's own lesbian identity. But Stef found herself able to remember, if she ever doubted if it was okay to be who she was, that she was definitely proud to be Lena's plus one; proud to be in such a wonderful relationship with such a wonderful woman. And she never let herself forget it. She hoped Lena would remember that too, and she had a feeling Lena would.