This chapter is Unique's point of view.

It is set around the same time as the last chapter. Late season 5 in an AU where Unique and those other new kids are still at McKinley and in Glee Club, immediately after Marley attended that ace meet-up. It is another M-rated chapter.

Chapter 10: Emergency Contact for Life

"Wade, how about you go practice your piano now," Betty Adams told her daughter. The woman insisted upon using Unique's birth name in sentences as often as possible. "Your father and I can take care of the dishes. Right, hun?"

"Sure," Rob replied with a shrug.

So Unique pushed herself away from the table. That Friday evening, they'd had meatloaf for dinner, with green beans and cornbread as the sides. She was full and she figured she might as well follow her mother's suggestion. It had been a few days since she'd touched her fingers to the keys.

She always started off with a simple melody, just to warm up. She decided to do "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" this time, and after playing the melody, slowly added in some harmony, some chords using her left hand, and a little bit of a background pattern to make the piece more exciting. It was such a beautiful lullaby. One day, she hoped to have a child, probably though adoption. When she did, she hoped to be able to play lullabies like this on the piano for him or her. Even if her parents weren't accepting of her trans identity, she still had fond memories of when her mom had played piano like this for her as a toddler.

Unique then transitioned into playing some Mozart and Beethoven sonatas. They were so complex and she wasn't quite skilled enough at piano yet to pull them off without tripping over her fingers a few times. But they were amazing practice, and sounded so beautiful, yet also recognizable.

She played for about an hour, and then she changed into some pajamas. She yearned for the day when she could live alone and own whatever nightwear she wanted, even if it came from the 'Women's' section of the store. For now, she was wearing the most feminine-looking set of a pants and shirt she had come across in the 'Men's' area. They were a deep indigo, and were amazingly soft too, so at least she could be happy about the way they felt as she slipped into them.

Unique fell asleep that night with only one thought on her mind: tomorrow she would be going on another date with Ryder, and his parents weren't going to be home. Her dreams flitted through images of varying possibilities of what could happen. She wanted to make out passionately with Ryder. She wanted to rip off his clothes and suck his cock and enjoy an orgasm herself while in his presence. She wanted to lie naked, beside him, in bed for hours on end. She wanted their life to be more than a rated-G movie with only hand-holding and dinner dates. She had tasted Ryder's lips before, but the kisses had been so brief, and she yearned for so much more.

The next day was Saturday, and after Ryder and Unique had gone ice skating together, having a pretty good time despite tripping over their own feet and falling down a few times, they headed back to Ryder's deserted house. Unique took off her bright pink winter jacket and revealed a sexy green dress underneath. She had carefully made sure her bra was stuffed the right way to fill it out nicely, and she felt truly beautiful. She had even worn high heels to the rink, knowing that most of the time she'd be in rented skates anyway, and her plus-sized pantyhose had been purchased in a thicker, winter design plenty warm enough for being on the ice.

Now, she entered his home for the very first time. She knew she could never invite Ryder over to her own – her parents would never allow her to date a boy and continue "pretending" to be a girl. But Ryder said he had told his parents about her, and they were happy for him to have his first girlfriend, and were accepting of trans people and hoped to meet her sometime. She hoped to meet them sometime, too. They sounded like amazing parents, and she was pretty jealous of how open-minded they seemed.

Ryder hung her coat up for her in the closet by the front door, and then removed and hung up his own red one, revealing a casual pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt underneath.

"Whoa," Ryder said as he took in the sight of his girlfriend. "I feel underdressed," he joked.

"No, I'm the one who overdressed," she said. "I was just… excited about tonight," she tried to explain.

Ryder tensed up a bit, and nervously asked, "What were you expecting?"

Unique smiled meekly. "We can do whatever you want," she said with a shrug. "I mean, I would love to… be with you, but we don't have to."

Ryder nodded. He seemed to have seen that answer coming, and didn't seem to relax at all at hearing it.

"Okay, well, would you like a drink?" He was walking toward his kitchen, and Unique followed. "My mom keeps some red wine in the fridge. We could probably get away with drinking a glass each," he said with a wink.

Unique was surprised to see how dangerously Ryder wanted to live.

"Would your parents still want to meet me if they found out I'd engaged in underage drinking in the house?" she asked.

"Probably not, but they never have to know," he said.

"Let's stick to just… water," she replied, not wanting to risk it. She'd also hate to get her boyfriend in trouble, regardless of if it'd affect her.

"Okay," he said, sounding a bit disappointed. He got out a couple of glasses and then opened the fridge. He pulled out a pitcher of filtered water and poured a roughly equal amount in both glasses. Unique grabbed her own and took a sip, finding it wonderfully refreshing.

"And the living room is over here," he said, leading the way into a room that contained a television, a few armchairs, a coffee table, and couch where they both then sat down. "Would you like to watch something?" he asked.

"Not really," Unique replied honestly, with a bit of a smile. She was mere inches from him, and facing in his direction. When he turned to look at her and their eyes locked, she began to lean in for a kiss. All of their kisses prior to this had been fairly chaste, and done while they were both standing up. She hoped this one, sitting on the couch with him, could be more intimate.

He reciprocated, leaning into the kiss as well and they did share some tongue and it was everything Unique could've hoped for. She felt a powerful feeling inside of her whole body, especially in her chest, and she was already getting a bit of a boner, but she tried to ignore that and focus on the amazing sensation going on in her mouth. Her nerves were on fire and she reached up and put her right hand in his hair. She put her left hand behind his back, and they kissed for what must have been five whole minutes, parting only for seconds here and there to catch their breaths.

"Wow," Unique said as she exhaled heavily, once they finally had parted more permanently.

Ryder gave her a shy smile back. "Yeah, that wasn't so bad," he admitted, clearly having enjoyed it immensely too.

"Do you think you might like a blow job?" Unique asked, still feeling high off of the kiss and surprisingly courageous. She knew sex was going to be such a tricky subject for them, but with his parents out of town for just this one weekend, it felt kind of like it was 'now or never'.

Ryder blinked a few times, considering it. He seemed a bit scared, like he wasn't prepared to do so much so soon, but then said, "Sure, I'd be crazy to turn that down, right?"

Unique faltered, not wanting to do it unless he really wanted to. "Well, are you… hard?" she asked, hoping maybe the kiss had helped turn him on.

His smile grew, although his face then tinged pink with embarrassment. "Yeah, I am."

"Me too," Unique told him softly. He bit his lip and then closed his eyes hard, seeming to be wishing away the image. Why did she have to remind him she had a dick? Dammit, she thought to herself.

She reached out toward the zipper of his jeans and slowly began to undo them, knowing he'd stop her if he really didn't want this. He allowed it, so she pulled them down a bit and then went down on him, placing her head between his legs, and hoping she was doing it right. She knew he was a virgin and wasn't the least bit worried about him not being clean.

"Keep going," he encouraged her, and with that she felt relieved and more confident. She proceeded to try and get him off with her mouth. He moaned appreciatively, and she was so thrilled to be doing this.

After he'd ejaculated into her mouth, she decided to spit it out in the trash can she spotted to the left of the couch, hoping that wasn't rude. She thought maybe she'd try swallowing some other time.

"Thanks for that," Ryder breathed as he recovered from the experience. "That was… amazing."

"It was really hot," Unique replied. "Do you think maybe you could…" she trailed off, hoping he would understand where she'd been going with that.

He didn't. "Could… do what?" he asked.

"Return the favor?" she asked in a small voice, trying to brace herself for the inevitable 'no'.

It didn't work. She wasn't prepared for when he looked down toward her crotch and despite her dress, she could just feel that he wasn't seeing her as a girl anymore. She felt tears well up in her eyes, and she attempted to blink them away. She wasn't very successful.

"I don't think I can do it," he told her. "I'm so sorry. Maybe after you got it cut off-"

"I'm not going to get it 'cut off'!" she yelled defensively, shuddering a little at the thought. "That is such an ignorant, mean thing to say. If I did get surgery it'd be inverted, you should look it up sometime, you never just cut off someone's penis! But I don't even think I want the surgery."

"What?" Ryder said with genuine surprise. "Why wouldn't you want the surgery?"

"Why can't I be a woman just the way I am?" she shot back.

"Maybe we should just break up," Ryder said harshly.

"Yeah, I guess this is never going to work out. At least you got a blow job out of all this," she said bitterly. She stood up quickly and walked as fast as she could despite her heels toward his coat closet.

"Wait!" Ryder said.

"Why?" Unique replied. "I drove myself, remember? I can get myself home."

She didn't drive home, though. Without even realizing what she was doing, she ended up at Marley's door, fresh tears streaming down her face.

Millie let her in with a sympathetic smile, assuring her Marley was home and up in her bedroom. Unique was grateful that Marley's mom wasn't trying to do more to comfort her. What Unique needed right now wasn't a parent figure, it was her friend. Her best friend.

Unique knocked, and when Marley opened her bedroom door, she took in the sight of her friend and then pulled her into a warm hug.

After a minute or so, they pulled apart.

"What happened?" Marley asked.

"Ryder and I broke up," she said as she looked down toward the floor. She walked over to Marley's bed and sat down, then kicked off her shoes.

"I'm so sorry," Marley said as she closed the door for privacy and then joined her friend atop the vibrant green comforter. Marley was already in her pajamas, and her guitar and some handwritten notes were sprawled out on the other corner of the bed.

"Were you writing a song?" Unique asked.

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry to interrupt."

"No, don't worry about it, it's not a problem at all," Marley assured her. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Ryder did more than what ninety-nine percent of guys on the planet would ever do. He…" Unique stopped herself. She knew how sex-averse Marley was, how her asexuality might make her never want to even hear about these kinds of things. "Do you mind if I talk about… sex and stuff related to it?" she asked, needing Marley's permission before she would continue.

"Go ahead," Marley said.

"Thanks," Unique replied. "Well, I… gave him head tonight."

Marley's eyes went wide. "Oh, wow."

Unique pressed on. "But then he wouldn't do the same for me! And if Ryder can't bring himself to accept that I have a dick, how can I ever expect anyone else in the entire world to ever be okay with it either?" she asked, her voice breaking a bit as she voiced one of her deepest fears.

"Don't think like that! Unique, you're the most amazing person I've ever met," Marley said, and she sounded like she truly believed that.

Unique wondered what she had ever done to earn such admiration.

"You're still in high school! You have your whole life ahead of you, so many years to meet someone special who wants you, for everything you are."

"I guess you're right."

"I am!" Marley replied, oddly sure of herself. "You're not going to end up alone." She said it like she could actually see the future.

"I don't even know how to start, though. I only got on Ryder's radar because I put up that stupid picture of Marissa Reynolds-"

Marley cut her off. "So how about you make a more honest online dating profile? I'll help you. You can explain exactly what you need. You can specify that you're trans and all of it."

"No one wants to date a black, trans, high school girl."

"You'd be surprised," Marley said. "Worst case scenario you have to delete your profile and start over. What do you have to lose?"

"I guess you're right," Unique replied. "Thanks for wanting to help," she said softly, truly appreciative.

"Well, you're my best friend," Marley replied softly. "Actually, I had been meaning to ask you something."

"Sure, anything," Unique replied.

Marley seemed to be struggling to get her words out. Unique waited patiently. Finally Marley smiled. "I have been having some trouble figuring out my romantic orientation, and part of my confusion has been caused by, well, my feelings for… you."

Unique took a second to try to understand what Marley was saying. "Wait, are you… in love with me?" she asked.

Marley laughed. "I don't know! But… I was thinking that it might not matter whether I am or not. What matters is that I really want to… be your queerplatonic partner. I mean, I want you to be mine. I want us to be each other's!"

"What?" Unique was confused.

"It's a queering of a typical platonic relationship – so similar to a typical friendship like ours, but acknowledging that my feelings for you are more intense, and maybe with some commitment involved."

"You want me to be dating you? Marley, I'm straight," Unique reminded her. She hated potentially hurting her friend like this.

"No, no, it's not romantic. It's queerplatonic. You could still date someone, and I could still be that person to help you with your online profile if you want! But you'd… promise to be my emergency contact for life, or something. You would never move away to a different state without at least first talking to me. Even if you get married and have kids, I'll always be your best friend, we can't just drift apart, because we're…. we're more than 'just friends'. We'll have discussed these things and somehow we'd be queering what a typical friendship is. That's all."

Marley clearly had thought this through.

"Wow," Unique said. "I'm going to have to think about this, alright?"

"Yeah, of course, take your time," she said. "I just… I love you," Marley explained, desperately vulnerable. "It doesn't matter to me if it's a friendship kind of love or not, I know you will never want to just date me and no one else, and I wouldn't want you to. I want you to be happy. I just… would love to be able to call you my queerplatonic partner, so I figured I'd let you know I've been thinking about all this."

Unique smiled. "I think I get it. How long have you been thinking about this?"

"Probably since Jake and I broke up. Well, really since I learned the term, which was more recently."

"Wow," Unique replied. "Well, you know what?" she said.

"What?" Marley replied.

"I love you too."