This is a Khary and Rafael fic!
Wait who are Khary and Rafael? Well, I'm glad you asked! Khary is Wasabi's younger brother (my oc) and Rafael is Wasabi's nonbinary partner (my oc).
There are a lot of fics with Khary, for the purpose of this fic I recommend reading "Proud To Be Your Brother" and "Thrifting." Rafael has fewer fics, Starting with Awkward Dance Class, then A String of Incidents That I wouldn't classify as Dates, Couples' Skate, and finally 23 Candles and a Turtle. This fic is theoretically somewhere between A string of Incidents and 23 Candles.
Khary is my favorite BH6 OC and Rafael is another beloved OC of mine, so this story is purely self-indulgent. No one has to read it, but I don't want to hear anyone complain because this story is A. Only about my OCs or B. About LGBTQ+ things.
Khary was sprawled out on the couch when Rafael rocked in. From the look on the teenager's face, he was still lost in the funk he'd been in since being kicked out of his home for simply wearing makeup.
Of course, Khary's older brother, Wesley "Wasabi" Ginger had been quick to take him in and shelter him from Deborah Ginger's hatred. He'd been quick to take in Rafael as well when Rafael was in a bad place, about a year ago a bit before they'd started dating. Wasabi's generosity was boundless and he knew what it felt like to not be accepted for your identity.
"Hey, Khare Bear, want to talk?" Rafael didn't spend every day at their boyfriend's place, mainly due to the fact that Wasabi wasn't their only partner, so they hadn't gotten the chance to give Khary a pep talk yet.
Khary let out a groan, "Are you going to say the same things Wesley says?"
"I don't know, what's Wesley been saying?"
"He says I'm perfect exactly how I am."
"Right, so what's the problem, bud?" Rafael sat on the edge of the couch and Khary sat up, hugging his knees to his chest.
"How can I be perfect if I don't even know who I am? Mom's stupidly scared I'm gonna be gay or trans like Wes, Wes called me genderqueer, I just wanted to wear makeup."
"Hey, that's okay, Khary. You can just want to be someone who wears makeup, it doesn't have to have anything to do with your identity. If you want, I can tell your brother that it makes you uncomfortable when he speculates about your identity."
"The thing is that I don't know if he's wrong! I don't feel like I'm trans, I've seen what that looks like in Wes but I don't think I'm cis because, well I've seen what that looks like in Damon. Maybe genderqueer is the right word but I feel like I'm in over my head when the word gender is thrown around at all." Khary looked like he was about to shatter like one misplaced word was going to break him into a billion pieces.
"So let's ditch the labels you don't like and figure out what you do like. Cis and trans are out, gender's off the table, what makes you happy?"
"I like when I'm trying things, somewhere in the middle. I like wearing makeup and skirts but I don't think I like those things because they're feminine, and I don't think I like other things because they're masculine. I don't even like things because they're androgynous, I just like things that feel like me. And none of the words have felt like me."
"It took me a long time to find the right label, too. I didn't want to be a girl but I didn't feel like a boy, I didn't want to be a boy but I didn't feel like a girl. Plus my attraction to people muddied the waters, I didn't know how to label everything because I didn't know how I felt about anything."
"I'm not attracted to anyone so that's not a problem… So how did you come up with your answer?"
"I met other people like me. And I tried on their labels and their pronouns and eventually, I found mine. I discovered that I was nonbinary and that I liked they/them pronouns."
"But I like my pronouns," Khary whispered, not wanting to commit to anything that would cost him a piece of himself.
"Then keep them. Pronouns and self-expression aren't what makes your gender."
"So I could use he/him and still possibly be nonbinary?"
"Absolutely. You could use any pronouns or neopronouns you wanted," Rafael promised.
"Huh. And I could keep my name?"
"I did. Not everyone changes their name, you don't have to do anything to be nonbinary. Or you could be agender, which is someone with no gender, or any subset of demi, which means you're sort of something, like how a demi-boy is sort of a boy, and sort of not. Or you could simply be gender nonconforming. You could be anything, and that would be okay. There are a lot of labels and you can try as many of them as you want." Rafael carefully avoided the word trans in their explanation of identity. Though trans was an umbrella term that nonbinary fell under and Khary certainly wasn't transphobic, being boxed into one term could be a little overwhelming and limiting and Rafe thought it was best if he didn't tell Khary what he was, instead offering the range of options and letting Khary figure himself out.
"Huh." Khary, for the first time that evening, looked more thoughtful than anxious.
"I'll tell your brother to lay off while you're figuring things out. Take as much time as you need. It isn't easy, but you have a lot of people who will always love and support you."
"Right now I'm just Khary, no labels." But a seed had taken hold in his mind, and he was excited to see who he grew into.