BAKUGAN BRAWL!!

AjYEET: hey Kurin are you skipping class or smthn

sleep supremacist: yeah

AjYEET: oh ok gotcha

obvious prankster: Kurin's skipping class???? :00

sleep supremacist: or smthn

Private messages: Kurin - Aay.

Kurin: where are you right now?

Aay: at work.

Kurin: I'm omw

Aay: what the heck I thought you were like skipping class in the toilets not skipping school

Kurin: yeah well I need to talk to you

Kurin: it's kinda important

Aay: ok it's like super quiet rn but Magnus is here so is that ok

Kurin: yeah that's fine, telling him would be good too

Aay: sweet ok I'll tell him you're coming

Kurin: thanks. I'll be there in about ten minutes

irl.

So. Maybe Kurin had a secret.

Maybe for all that he seemed calm he was panicking on the inside.

Maybe as mockable as Aay was and as well, Magnus, as Magnus was, they were the only people he could trust with this right now.

And just maybe he wasn't as much of a he as Kurin had originally thought.

These thoughts had started a while ago, a mix of a stupid and chaotic day where their whole group of Magnus, Aay, Riot, Emily, Bee, Cee, Dee, E, Trey and Kurin had all gone to town...

It had involved a lot of annoyed sighing from Magnus about having to be there, a few arguments amongst the group and the exit knocked over a whole rail of clothes. That was when the thoughts had started actually, when everyone was picking them up.

The entire group was picking up the clothes that had fallen off the rail and were sorting everything back out when Kurin picked up a skirt, he'd looked at it for a minute until Riot elbowed him and asked "What are you doing? C'mon were supposed to be putting the things back on the rail."

"What? Oh, I just thought it looked cool."

"Who for?"

Kurin had paused then, he'd been thinking he wouldn't mind wearing it himself, but Riot asking the question made him think how, well... Aay or Magnus wouldn't wear a skirt... Or want to wear one.

"Well?" Riot had prompted then.

Kurin shrugged trying to pass it off casually, "No one, I just liked the pattern." Only half a lie, as he did think the pattern was nice.

Riot nodded, "I guess so." And turned away again. That was when Kurin had looked around to see if anyone had noticed the conversation and caught Magnus quickly looking away.

He didn't say anything at all, although both knew it was obvious Magnus had heard the conversation and noticed Kurin's lie.

Literally, human lie detector. Kurin's convinced Magnus will be some kind of detective in the future, then again, he technically already is.

Magnus never mentioned what he saw and Kurin's pretty sure Riot forgot all about it.. But for him it kept playing on his mind, whenever he was scrolling though Instagram or YouTube and he saw someone wearing an outfit and found himself thinking "Hey, I'd wear something like that." Before realising that it was not something any of his male friends would wear and instantly closing whatever app he saw it on, panicking for a few seconds, asking himself what the hell, then reopening YouTube to find some funny video or good music to take his mind off it.

He didn't know why though, it scared him.

And it didn't help at all remembering that one time back when he was three of four...

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.
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"What the hell are you doing!?"

Kurin turned around and saw his mother standing there in the doorway, "Um.." He responded, unsure what to say.

His mother marched into the room. "What did you do to your face?" She demanded angrily, "Why would you do that!?"

Kurin looked down, "I don't know... You put it on your face and I wanted to see-"

He was cut off by a slap across his face. His mother glared at him. "That's different. Makeup isn't for boys, same way boys can't wear skirts or high heels or have long hair. Clear your face off this instant."

Standing up and hanging his head in shame, Kurin began to walk towards the door but was stopped again by his mother hitting him hard on his back. She didn't say anything so Kurin just ran out of the room.

He got to the bathroom and washed his face off, then dried it with a towel only to see there was still water drops rolling down his face beneath his eyes. He rubbed them hard with the towel then looked in the mirror, more water droplets formed in his eyes this time, he blinked and they began to fall down his cheeks.

That's when he realised he was crying.

Again.

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.
.

Kurin remembered that he was never allowed to cry in front of his mother or she'd hit him even more, so from the age of three he started pinching himself or hitting himself everytime he started to cry to remind himself of the pain he'd feel if he did cry in front of her.

Thank God he was taken away from her at the age of seven.

A neighbor heard Kurin's mother hitting him and abusing him and called the authorities: The AAAnimus security force. After forcing their way into their house and restraining and handcuffing Kurin's mother, one of them took Kurin outside and told him they were here to help him and he'd never have to go through this kind of abuse again.

In normal circumstances Kurin would've been taken to an orphanage, however he was taken in by one of the people working at AAAnimus who'd been in charge of the security force that day. Karina Kravitz.

It took him sometime to stop being scared but after a while, filled with a lot of therapy sessions, he began to grow used to the way things were going to be and began to realise that this alien kindness was the sort of thing he was supposed to have had all his life.

For the first time he began to make friends, felt at home and was allowed to express himself and have interests that weren't forced onto him. He didn't have to live life in fear, he was allowed to be who he wanted to be, even allowed to change his last name to that of the one who'd taken him in and actually treated him like their own child. He could be himself, Kurin Kravitz and he could enjoy life.

However some negative memories, habits and ways of thinking were still there, he was sure he wouldn't forget them for either forever or for a long time.

Which is why Kurin is currently paused in the alleyway before going into The Exit Cafe to talk to Aay and Magnus about everything, that one memory kept replaying in his head. The fear his friends would hate him for being different, even though they were all different in their own ways was there screaming that he should just text Aay that he changed his mind and go back to school and ignore all the thoughts in his head.

But knowing his fear was just paranoia and unrealistic, he imagined the tune of his favourite song in his head to give him more confidence and stepped forward, out of the alley into the light of the street, then again, into the cafe.

After Aay, Bee, Cee, Dee and E left school they didn't really know what they wanted to do for ages, but then one day they were all hanging out at the park and they had an idea, open up a café, they decorated the place in a series of bright pop art colors and patterns with a black background to contrast, there was always some loud music playing and it was quite popular with kids and teenagers around Los Volmos.

Today as he stepped in, Avril Lavigne's song Rock n roll was playing over the cafe's speakers. Looking around it was completely empty other than Magnus and Aay sitting at a table in a corner and debating?

Kurin walked over to them, reaching the table both older boys quickly shut up about whatever they were debating about, "Hey." Kurin greeted. Aay moved so Kurin could sit on the inside of the table, so in case a customer arrived he could quickly get up.

Magnus nodded, "Hi."

They went silent, the music in the background making the silence even more awkward.

Then Aay broke it, "Oh man sorry this is so awkward right now, just it sounded kinda serious and I don't know what to say."

"Yeah," Magnus agreed, "Are things okay?"

Kurin gave a small smile, "Well, I mean I'm fine but I can't stop overthinking about something and I guess I kinda need your help with it all..."

The two nodded, Kurin took a deep breath then spoke. "I have no idea how to word any of this but... I keep getting confused about things, simple things. Like," He paused before speaking it out loud, "My gender." The words felt weird coming out of his mouth and he instantly closed his eyes, waiting for the others to start telling him that he's crazy or asking how he can be confused about something that's decided for you.

He didn't get a reaction like that at all.

"Oh." Magnus spoke, "That makes sense."

Kurin opened his eyes, "It does?"

"Yeah, I had a feeling for a while now." He replied, "Anyway, when did you first start thinking about it?"

"I guess back when I had that conversation with Riot when the rail was knocked over..." He began, looking at Magnus to spot his reaction, a barely noticeable look of suprise followed by embarrassment flickered across his face. "Then things like that just kept happening really often and last week I wasn't sure what toilets to go into and I keep thinking of changing my appearance like longer hair or stuff like different type of clothes.. You know, like things in the female section and then I think about how neither of you would ever wear stuff like skirts or have longer hair and it feels so weird that I think about that stuff.. I don't know.."

For a moment everyone was quiet then Kurin felt Aay shaking beside him, he turned to look and saw him silently laughing, Magnus shot him a glare and Aay started laughing out loud, "Sorry, sorry.." He apologized when he calmed down from laughing, "Just.. Dude. You're right that I wouldn't wear stuff like that, even the thought of it makes me feel weird but in a different way to why you thought I'd be weirded out by thinking about it."

Kurin looked confused while Magnus rolled his eyes, "Aay he doesn't know and didn't catch on. You're going to have to tell him in a more obvious way."

"Oh." Aay paused, thinking, "I'm trans, born female but am male."

Silence.

"HUH?" Kurin practically screamed, "I have known you for years and I had no idea!"

Aay burst out into a cackling laughter again, "I don't know man, that's the funniest part!"

Infected by Aay's laughter, Kurin began to laugh too. While Magnus just sat there wondering how and why the people he considers his closest friends are this stupid.

When the laughter stopped Magnus spoke up, "In my case wearing things like that just isn't my sort of thing."

"However!" Aay announced, "Noah showed me a picture of Magnus at the amusement park yesterday and his hair is actually a lot longer than you'd think it is!"

"Well, true." Magnus admitted, "Either way Noah's an asshole for showing you that. I bet he didn't show you the photo of him with drenched hair."

"Actually he did, it was the same photo."

"Oh."

Kurin had been silent the whole time the two were speaking, "So I was wrong about everything." He sighed.

"Yeah, but you couldn't have known so eh.." Aay shrugged, placing an arm around Kurin's shoulder.

Deciding not to ruin it and tell Kurin he could have known if he'd payed more attention, Magnus just nodded, "Yeah."

A few moments passed before Kurin asked a question, "So wait, what does this mean..?"

"Uh I don't know..?"

Magnus let out a loud sigh, "It could mean you just have a different taste in your clothing and style, however since you said something about being confused as to which toilets to go into and about being confused about gender it could mean you're transgender or something under the umbrella of that, like gender fluid, non-binary, agender, a demiboy or demigirl." He answered cooly.

"I might have to Google a few of those.." Kurin laughed nervously, taking his phone out of his pocket.

While Kurin began to Google the definitions of all the names for different identities Magnus mentioned, asking occasionally for how they were spelt, Aay got up to get them all some cake to eat, when he returned to the table, Kurin was asking Magnus some questions about the last identity he'd googled the definition for.

"So it just means no gender? Nothing?"

"Yeah."

"And it doesn't matter what you were before or how you choose to present?"

"No.. Seriously, how do you not know any of this?"

"I don't know, I just never thought about it... How do you know so much about it?"

"I was bored and decided to research it one day."

"Hmm..." Kurin went silent as he put a fork full of cake in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully, then swallowed and spoke again, "I think... I think I'm non-binary." He admitted.

Magnus smiled and Aay gave a full on cheer, "WOO! Awesome! Congrats on figuring it out dude!" He grinned, hugging the other.

"Are your pronouns changing?" Magnus questioned.

The youngest of the three blinked, "Um, huh?"

"Pronouns. You know what they are right?"

"Yeah, of course I know! Just what would they change to?"

Magnus shrugged, "Whatever you're comfortable with, or whatever you prefer."

"Oh." A moment passed, "I'm not sure? I guess I'm fine with he and they?"

Aay nodded, "Absolute twins."

"Except you're four years older than me."

"So? We can still be twins with different ages!"

Magnus rolled his eyes, "That's just siblings Aay."

"Oh..."

This time all three of them burst out laughing, their laughter continued until they were interrupted by a customer opening the door. "Oh, hi!" Aay greeted getting up to go welcome them.

While Aay spoke with the customer, Magnus and Kurin spoke.

"I'm going to guess you're not going back to school for the rest of today?" Magnus raised an eyebrow at his younger friend.

Kurin nodded, "Yeah, probably not. I think I'll just wander around town for a while."

"In that case I'll come with you." Magnus stood, picked his purple hoodie up from beside him and pulled it on. "I have an idea."

"What idea?" Kurin asked, also standing up and putting their satchel over their shoulder.

Magnus paused, then gave a small mysterious smile, "You'll find out."

"Alright?"

The pair waved goodbye to Aay, who waved back from behind the counter where he was sorting out the customer's order.

After walking through town for a while Magnus stopped outside a store, recognising it Kurin asked, "Magnus, what's going on, was this your idea?"

Magnus nodded, "I came in here with Emily a few weeks ago and they have that skirt you looked at back then and some other things like t-shirts and hoodies that are probably your style so I just thought..." He trailed off, knowing his thought process was self explanatory.

Kurin's expression turned from one of suprise to one of happiness and they reached forward and hugged Magnus, "Thank you.. Seriously, thank you." For a moment Magnus stood there not knowing what to do, then he hugged back.

"It's fine, I'm glad you finally figured yourself out."

"Yeah.. Me too..."