I can't believe that when I started writing this I thought I was cis. Haha, no, I'm nonbinary, they/them. All identities aside from pedophiles are valid and welcome in my comments section.
Enjoy the angst.
Happy Asexual Awareness Week! Both Seth and Morgan are Ace :)
"Are you ready, Seth?" Seth's doctor asked as she undid the surgical binding around Seth's chest. Seth could hardly breathe or speak in anticipation but nodded, keeping their eyes on the mirror. It had been a week since the surgery and this was the first time Seth was seeing their chest in all of its glory.
When the binding was removed Seth let out a gasp. The scarring would take some time to get used to, but the rest was perfect, beyond perfect. Tears welled up in Seth's eyes as they stared at themself. Their doctor went through a couple more instructions but Seth could hardly pay attention, could hardly look away. Fortunately, everything was written down and handed to Seth as they reluctantly buttoned up their shirt and headed out to the lobby.
For once, Morgan wasn't the one in the waiting room. Morgan and her mom were at home, setting up brunch a day later than usual and chatting about Morgan's new job, which would start after class tomorrow. So Sadie dropped Seth off and walked them to their apartment.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Seth," Sadie promised, before rushing off to her part-time job at the senior center teaching art to the elderly. Seth barely had time to say goodbye.
Seth was a little nervous as they entered the apartment. This was their first brunch with Adrianna Lynch and they were worried that they would do or say something wrong.
"Hello, dear," Adrianna said when Seth walked in, the warmth of her welcome surprising them, "How was your appointment?"
"It was good, ma'am. Thanks for asking."
"Oh, of course! If Morgan loves you then I love you too." Seth blushed and studied the floor.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Oh, dear, you don't have to call me ma'am. You can call me Adrianna. Is there anything you want me to call you?"
"Dear is okay," Seth blurted, "I mean, Seth is fine."
"Okay, dear." Adrianna smiled knowingly at Seth. Morgan appeared from the kitchen carrying a crockpot full of mac and cheese, which she had insisted was her famous recipe. Morgan froze when she saw Seth, gawking a little.
"You look nice. You look happy."
"I am…"
"How are you feeling?"
"A little tired, definitely hungry."
"Food will be ready in three minutes. Go ahead and have a seat at the table," Morgan encouraged, setting the crockpot down before ducking back into the kitchen to finish last-minute things. Seth took a seat, no longer worried about what was going to happen at brunch. Of course, they had other things to worry about, but they didn't know that yet.
Seth was still getting used to waking up to Morgan's alarm instead of their own but they had just managed to get back to sleep when their own phone went off.
Seth grabbed their phone and answered it, feeling a bit delirious.
"Good morning?"
"Drake, you're late for your shift," their manager barked.
"What? No, I'm off this whole week, I'm recovering from surgery."
"That was last week, get down here immediately."
"No, I requested two weeks off. It was approved!"
"It's not approved anymore. If you want to keep your job, you need to get down here now."
"I can't, sir, I had a major surgery, I can't do my job safely."
"It was just cosmetic, you're making excuses."
"I'm not making excuses!" Seth was getting angry.
"You're fired, Drake. You can clean out your locker when you recover." Their manager hung up and Seth was left feeling angry and tired at the same time, kicked while they were down. If they weren't recovering from a surgery that certainly warranted two weeks of time off from work, Seth would have told Sadie to bring over margarita mix for sure. Instead, they asked Sadie to bring over doughnuts. Seth felt like eating a whole lot of doughnuts.
While Seth was eating depression doughnuts in a Super Mario-themed bathrobe, Morgan was preparing for her first day of work with Krei. She was not excited, but she was pulled together, in a button-up with purple and grey vertical stripes that she'd snatched from the men's section at a thrift store and that Seth was likely going to steal in the near future, grey slacks, purple heeled boots, and starry silver earrings. She'd wanted to wear something that made her hatred towards Krei clear, but first impressions weren't the right place for it.
Well, not quite first impressions.
"Malefactor," Krei said, looking bored, "you'll be reporting to Ethan. Judy! Show Morgan where she'll be working."
"Right away." Morgan followed Krei's apathetic assistant through the building, feeling a little too small for small talk. She tried to stand up to her full height, which was bumped up to about 6"0 with heels. She tried to believe that she was confident, but she had no idea who she was trying to fool, Judy didn't care, and her new boss was… Interesting.
"You must be Morgan. I'm Ian."
"I thought your name was Ethan?"
"Krei doesn't learn names."
"Well, he knows my name," Morgan mumbled, "though he's called me a malefactor more than he's used my name."
"Well, you stole thousands of dollars from him."
"Right… Can't say that was my best plan." Judy left and Ian began to laugh.
"Oh, you can say it if you want to. It was a good plan. Krei should have gotten more backlash with what happened to the city, to Mel-"
"Mel?" Ian nodded at a picture on the wall, of Ian with his arm wrapped around another man.
"My boyfriend. Krei ripped him off for some of the tech used for the buddy guards. I have my own projects in the works, I'm not going to let it get stolen from me the way Mel did."
"Yeah, I can see why that would piss you off. What was the tech your boyfriend created?"
"A cloaking device."
"Huh." Morgan didn't say what she'd heard about this Mel guy in the articles and videos discussing the situation. Angering the guy above her was a bad idea, and cloaking tech seemed interesting and potentially useful.
"That's enough personal shit," Ian said, waving his hand and letting out a sigh, glancing once more at the picture while Morgan looked around at the rest of the office. There was a 3D printer, a coffee maker, a poster for DJ Parasite, and a few very noticeably locked compartments.
"Right, of course. Sorry to pry. Just um, tell me what you need me to be doing and I'll do it."
"Well, you could start by stealing the good creamer from the break room. I have my own space in here but Krei shills out for the fancy creamer and I don't get paid enough not to steal it."
"Alright, uh, where's the break room?"
"One floor up and to the right. You'll find it. The vanilla flavor, or the caramel if they don't have the vanilla."
"Oh, uh, okay." She really thought she would have some idea of what her job was supposed to be at this point but she was content to get paid 15 dollars an hour to fetch dairy products for a bitter programmer. She still felt out of place while she headed upstairs and hunted down the fancy creamer for Ian.
When she made it back down to his office he had poured them each a mug of coffee. His mugs had video game characters on them, from a game Morgan knew nothing about, though she was pretty sure Hiro played it. They added the creamer and sugar and drank in silence for a minute, Morgan waiting for Ian to say anything, to tell her what her job was.
Finally, "Let's get down to business."
It took Morgan everything within her not to start humming the song from Mulan, but she kept quiet and nodded.
"You don't have to work in my office, heaven knows it's already crowded enough and I'm sure we both need the space to think, but check in with me every day. I will give you a facet of Krei's digital security to work on. If you can figure out how to crack it then you can definitely figure out how to strengthen it. Just hole up in a secure corner, you're dealing with important data. Bring me any notes you have at the end of the day."
"How long will I be working?"
"However long your task takes. You're paid by the hour, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then milk it, malefactor," Ian grinned. "Get your job done and work as long as you think you need to."
"I'm just a student, what if I can't do any of this?"
"Study harder," Ian advised, "We all had to. Alistair Krei isn't the sharpest tool in the shed but he does hire them. If you want this to turn into a full-time position you're going to have to be the best you can be."
"I don't know if I want this to be a full-time position," Morgan said, running a hand through her hair. She thought about Tadashi, about how highly he had thought of her, "but I do want to be the best I can be."
"Well then, get to work. You brought your laptop?" Morgan nodded and Ian held out a thumb drive.
"Let me know when you're finished for the day. For now, I'll stay at least until you finish."
"That's it? That's my training?"
"Consider stealing thousands of dollars from a wealthy and powerful CEO your training."
"Right. Thanks again." Morgan finished her coffee, took the thumb drive, and left.
Several frustrating hours later, Morgan checked back in with Ian and then headed home. She knew that in the end this job would make her sharper, likely keep her out of jail, and help her fill out her savings account. But that didn't mean she wasn't frustrated working for the bourgeoisie. She was just glad to get home to Seth and their meal-prepped dinner.
Her tune changed when she saw Seth lying on their couch, leaning against Sadie and watching a sappy k-drama, a small and empty box of doughnuts on the floor next to them.
"What's wrong?"
"I'll go check on dinner," Sadie said, hastily getting up and leaving them to chat. Seth sighed and paused Meteor Garden.
"Sadie made dinner?"
"Apparently Dalton just had a whole ass homemade lasagna in the freezer so it's our lasagna now."
"That's nice of her. What inspired Sadie to be frozen lasagna levels of nice to you?"
Seth took a deep breath and avoided eye contact with Morgan, "I lost my job today."
"What? How? You didn't even work today!"
"That was the problem. My boss tried to tell me that my approved days off were reversed. Obviously, I'm not recovered enough to go in so I argued with him and he fired me."
"That's discrimination! We need to fight this!"
"No! I don't want to fight this. I just want this to be behind me. To pick myself up and move on. Just drop it, Morgan. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
"Seth-"
"You can't help me, Morgan, so let it go."
Question of the week, what Big Hero 6 characters are you hoping to show up in the fic?
I called Hardlight an asshole on Tumblr so I thought I'd make that up to the Hardlight fans by bringing him into my fanfic. He's... Interesting.