A/N: Warning for homophobic slurs.


049. Stripes
Characters: Francis & Arthur
Genre: Friendship
Rating: T+
Time Period: sophomore year of high school


The Gender Police

There were a lot of things that had not been well-thought out when it came to how high schools were run in this country. School lunches and standardized testing, for example... Not that Francis would be caught dead eating a school lunch, but he'd seen enough of them to know that this was a serious, serious problem. And probably the main reason why so many Americans actually thought that McDonald's counted as real food. But he digressed.

His main issue with high school at this exact moment was unrelated to biohazard food and was instead focused on one particular class. Gym class.

He honestly didn't mind gym class for the most part. Although he thought it was moronic for people to complain about kids not exercising, and then force them to run laps outside in the freezing cold in an attempt to change their minds.

What he was really annoyed by right now, however, was the fact that they never gave the students enough time after gym class to actually make themselves presentable before they had to be in their next classroom. Francis was not going to spend his entire day sitting in a pool of his own sweat. Absolutely not. And if he that meant he'd end up constantly late to his next class, then so be it.

Especially right now. Since they were currently involved in a swimming gym class.

Did gym teachers not realise how damaging chlorine could be to hair?

He'd already taken the time to shampoo his hair, something which a horrifying amount of people had skipped, and was now standing in front of the mirror in the locker room's bathroom, blow-drying his hair and really wishing he had time to do this properly...

"Hey, Francis, what are you doing here? I thought you had gym third period?"

Francis turned his head at the voice coming from behind him. Ah, Javion. He was one of the students that Francis tutored in French. Francis rather liked him; he was absolutely awful at French, but he was funny and sweet.

And, as Francis was now learning, he looked really, really good in a blue and white-striped swimsuit. All long, muscular legs and a nicely-toned body, dark skin and eyes and curly hair. Hmm, Francis was going to have to see if he'd be willing to move the tutoring sessions to somewhere more private next time. From the looks that Javion tended to send him during their sessions, he rather doubted he'd be refused.

"I do, but I haven't finished drying my hair yet."

It was really the only problem with having longer hair. It took forever to dry.

Plus there was the occasional clogged drain in the shower and Leon getting annoyed at him because he just assumed it was Francis's fault.

"So, would you be available tomorrow after school? Ya know, for a study session. I still think I need some work on tenses and stuff..."

"Of course." His hair was at least dry enough for him to tolerate now, and—if he hurried—he probably could make it to class without being too horribly late this time.

He really hated throwing his name around, but there had to be a way to switch to a different gym class, one that met right before study hall or even at the very end of the day so he could go straight home and get all of this disgusting chlorine out of his hair...

His first attempt at explaining the situation hadn't gone over particularly well. But if he went high enough up the ladder. Despite his parents' insistence on avoiding this town (and him) like the plague, the Bonnefoy name definitely still held a fair amount of influence.

And really, this was important.

"What the fuck are you doing in here, fag?"

And this was definitely not going to be pleasant.

Javion turned his head at the unpleasant-sounding voice coming from behind him. Francis, unfortunately, also knew this guy. A rather unpleasant individual named Chad who seemed to find Francis's existence a personal affront.

"I was just about to leave."

"What are you doing with this fag, Javion?" He thankfully turned his attention from Francis who hurriedly unplugged the hair-dryer from the wall and folded the handle up into the closed position.

Javion shuffled his feet for a moment, uncomfortably glancing between Francis and Chad as a number of other guys started to move in to see what was going on. "Uh, he tutors me in French class. We were just talking about getting together to study..."

Chad was an asshole and if there was one thing that Francis didn't want to see happening right now, it was him going after anyone else. Especially someone who Francis got the feeling wasn't entirely comfortable with their sexuality just yet. Since it was pretty clear that there was some interest there, but there was also definite hesitation. Which was the main reason why he hadn't flirted more overtly just yet...

And it also meant that this was probably going to hurt. "Leave him alone, ami. We were just talking."

Chad attention now returned to Francis, and he didn't miss the look of relief and shame that flit across Javion's face for a moment. "You trying to tell me what to do, faggot? What the fuck are you doing in here? You get off on watching dudes change?"

"Depends. You? Not particularly."

He heard a few snickers from the crowd standing around them and saw Chad's face flush slightly before it twisted into fury. "Fucking..." And he stepped forward, fists raised.

This was definitely going to hurt.

He flinched as the boy drew closer, closing his eyes and preparing for the blow.

And was surprised when it didn't fall. And instead he heard a yelp of pain and the sound of something heavy falling to the floor.

"So this is what you're doing instead of attending class, frog. Why am I not surprised?"

Ah, his crabby little knight in white armour had come to save him.

Arthur had entered the room at some point in the commotion and was now standing behind Chad, his caterpillar eyebrows drawn together in irritation, as per usual. Chad, on the other hand, was kneeling on the floor with one of his arms twisted behind his back at an angle that didn't look particularly comfortable.

"The term 'faggot' actually has more to do with gender identity than it does with sexual orientation," Arthur stated, incredibly calmly. The boys surrounding them barely seemed willing to breathe as he hiked the arm to a more painful angle. "It's a way that you've found to assert your own masculinity, since society likes to tell us that being effeminate in any way is obviously the greatest crime a male can commit. You don't want anyone to think that you're not a perfect specimen of masculinity, so you throw the term around at anyone that isn't conforming like you are. It's rather pathetic, honestly."

"Wha—" Chad seemed too shocked to put together a coherent thought, which really wasn't that surprising since most people wouldn't expect their straight-laced student council president to know the first thing about incapacitating someone.

At least people who didn't know him two years ago. It was amazing how much someone could change in a couple of years.

"Ah, cher, it's so nice of you to show up."

Arthur sent him a withering look as he straightened up, releasing the boy who jerked his arm forward and immediately cradled it against his chest. "This is what you get for skipping class to fix your hair, git."

Francis smiled and fell into step beside Arthur as he moved through the immediately-parting crowd. "I wasn't skipping class, cher. I almost would have made it on time if I hadn't been so rudely interrupted. Besides, good hygiene is important. Isn't that something they should be teaching us?"

"You're a git." He suddenly paused and turned back to where Chad was still kneeling, apparently still unsure how to respond to what had just happened. "By the way, consider this a warning. If I ever hear of you using that sort of terminology in my school again, there will be consequences. Also, feel lucky that I was the one who came here and not Antonio. You really would have not wanted him to hear what you were saying."

Francis wasn't going to think too hard about that one. Antoine was wonderful, but he did have a bit of a temper issue...

"And you are going to figure out some way to pay me back for this. I've wasted an annoying amount of time that should have been spent on student council work on this venture."

"Ah, I'm sure we can think of something, cher. I can be very creative when I want to be."


A/N: I think Arthur just made me fall in love with me even more than I was already in love with him. Go, Arthur, you shame that boy for his stupid gender policing! Also, he and Fran have a really cute friendship/rivalry thing... xD

So I want to do something in the next few days leading up to Valentine's Day kind of like last year (or the year before, whenever I wrote that Valentine's Day series). But I can't think of anything that would make a good series of short fics. Anything you guys want to see that would fit with a fluffy romance theme? All I can think is a sort of cohabitation series, but that doesn't work since Francis and Leon are the only coupley-type thing who actually live together right now. And I'd rather not get into future events for spoiler reasons. SO ANY IDEAS WOULD BE HELPFUL.

I cheated with the prompt and described Javion as wearing striped swim shorts. IT WORKS. SHUSH.

Next prompt is BREAKING THE RULES. And that'll also be the halfway mark for this series!