summary: in which connor is a princess, zoe is a dragon, and larry is not pleased

prompt from rachel p

tw: toxic masculinity

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From day one, Connor adored Zoe, he always looked for her during playtimes, and growing up they played everything together, from LEGOs to Barbies to matchbox cars. However, their all-time favorite game was dress-up.

Over the past few months, Cynthia had amassed a significant number of dress-up costumes for the children, and they would spend hours in the playroom pretending to be everything from dragons and superheroes to policemen and chefs. While Zoe was over a year younger than Connor, at four she was already an inch taller than him. Connor was small, a little on the skinny side, but he was a little ball of energy. And because of their similar sizes, they were able to fit comfortably into each other's costumes.

One night, they'd just finished dinner and had just over an hour left before bedtime. Connor took Zoe's hand and they scrambled upstairs, while Cynthia cleaned up and Larry went to watch a baseball game on the television.

"Let's play princess and dragon," Connor suggested, pushing the door open to the playroom. The two bounded in, yanking open the door to the large wardrobe.

"Can I play dragon? I was princess yesterday," Zoe begged, pulling down the green and orange costume from the hanger.

"Okay, then I'll be princess?" Connor asked.

Zoe nodded, putting a foot into the costume and pulling it up. "Zip." She ordered, turning around. She'd always been the bossy one, and even though Connor was older, he was more than happy to listen to her. He obliged, fumbling with the zip briefly before getting it to work. Then, he pulled the pink satin dress over his head before checking himself in the mirror that leaned against the wall. Zoe helped to zip him up.

"You're a very pretty princess, Connor," she giggled as he twirled. "And I'm a hungry dragon! I'm going to eat you! Rawr!"

Connor gave a little shriek and scrambled into the blanket fort the two had spent the afternoon building with Cynthia's help. "I'm in my castle, you can't eat me!"

And so, she chased him around the room for the next thirty minutes, both of them laughing and screaming, until she caught him and pretended to eat him. Finally, they plopped down in the blanket fort (or rather, what was left of it) to catch their breath.

"That was so fun," Connor grinned, smoothing out a wrinkle on the dress. Zoe nodded, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Just then, the playroom door opened. "Kids, time for bed!" Larry called, poking his head in.

"Coming!" Zoe yelled back and the two crawled out.

"Did you two have fun—" Larry paused, slightly startled. "Uh, Connor… why are you wearing a dress?"

"I'm a princess!" he smiled gleefully, twirling. "See! I can spin with the dress so nicely—oof!" Dizzy, he stumbled backwards and fell into one of the toy boxes. Zoe doubled over in laughter.

Larry gave him a hand, pulling him out. "Why don't the two of you take off your costumes and brush your teeth? It's getting late."

"Okay," they chorused, helping each other out of their costumes and running off to the bathroom. But Connor had not missed the disapproving look on his father's face when he had first seen him wearing the dress.

Later that night, he was fidgeting with his duvet, trying to get comfortable as the glow-in-the-dark arms of his clock pointed at nine and twenty. Cynthia had just left his room after reading him a bedtime story. She made it a point to read him and Zoe a bedtime story each, every night before they slept. Yesterday it had been about the Gruffalo—that one was actually kind of scary. He wondered if there was a Gruffalo hiding under his bed, or maybe outside his window? He shivered a little, pulling the duvet up closer to his chin.

Tonight's story wasn't so bad. It had been about Joseph in the Bible, who had a colorful shirt. Connor wanted a colorful shirt, maybe he'd ask Cynthia for one when she went shopping. Joseph's brothers didn't like his shirt, but that was not a problem for Connor because he had no brothers; and besides, he would share his shirt with Zoe because he was a good brother and wasn't selfish, and—

There was a knock at his door.

"Connor?" It was Larry.

"Yeah?"

Larry opened the door and came in, sitting on the side of his bed. Connor shifted a little so that he would have more space to sit. "Can I talk with you or do you want to sleep?"

"Talk!" He was wide awake now, and anyway talking was always more fun than sleeping.

Larry paused, trying to gather his thoughts. "Um, Connor…" he started, a little unsure of how to say it. "Is there a reason you were… you were playing princess just now?"

Oh. It was about still that princess thing. Connor didn't really know why Larry wanted to talk about it. Had he done something wrong? "We played princess and dragon, so we take turns."

"Connor, boys… don't wear dresses." Larry scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"It's play pretend. And Zoe wanted to play dragon. You always tell us to take turns." Parents were so confusing sometimes.

"You can play something else, like a prince or a knight," Larry offered. "You have a knight costume with a sword and a shield, remember?"

Connor frowned. "But that's not the story. It needs to have a princess in it."

"Well, let Zoe play the princess," Larry sounded impatient.

"I already said Zoe wanted to be the dragon! And we needed a princess so that was me!" Connor whined, his volume rising. "That's how the story is supposed to go." It wasn't that hard to understand, was it?

"Then play something else—"

"No! We wanted to play princess and dragon! We already played knight day before yesterday!" Why didn't Daddy get it?

"What's all this about?" Cynthia demanded, poking her head through the open doorway. "Lower your voices, Zoe's already sleeping."

"Daddy doesn't let me play princess and dragon with Zoe," Connor cried, bursting into tears.

Larry groaned. "Stop crying, Connor, that's babyish." He pulled a tissue from a box sitting on the bedside table and gave it to him. Connor wiped his eyes, sniffling indignantly. "He was dressing up as a princess with Zoe," Larry explained, turning towards his wife.

"So?"

"He was wearing a dress!" He shook his head, as if in disbelief.

Connor shredded the tissue, not looking up.

Cynthia shrugged, like it was no big deal. "Just let him have fun, Larry. They're kids, they want to play, it's no harm." See, Mummy got it. Maybe she understood him better. Or she was just smarter.

"He's a boy, Cynthia," Larry said, getting off the bed and walking towards the door. "He can't be wearing girls' clothes."

Connor dropped the shreds of the tissue onto the floor next to his bed.

"It's just a game," Cynthia insisted.

"No, it's not 'just a game', if he does this now, he'll think it's okay when he's older. You can't let him think it's alright now and then suddenly change your point of view when he grows up."

Connor kicked the wall angrily. He hated it when Larry kept talking about him like he was not there. Larry looked at him and sighed. "We'll talk about this tomorrow," he finally said, stepping out of the room.

Cynthia lingered in the doorway for a while after he walked past. Then she kissed Connor goodnight and shut the door behind her without saying a word, leaving him with his thoughts and what remained of the tissue still clutched in his small hand.

He wished that she would say something—anything—to reassure him that he hadn't actually done anything wrong.

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please comment and leave kudos! im needy :))
also the star wars ep 8 trailer is coming out and I NEED SOMEONE TO SCREAM WITH ME
anyway hmu on tumblr thewickedverkaiking and feel free to leave me prompts