So of course, the ever-active passage of time eventually dragged the moon from her hiding place and beckoned her to come to work. I could relate to that, oh moon. The neighborhood where my dad lived required a password to open up the gate, but being the grungy, cheap, and practically homeless teens, we were, we just waiting for a car to come home and open the gate for us before sneaking in behind it. I'm sure that looking shift as heck, but hopefully we could get to his house before we got arrested.

The house itself was very nice. It was definitely bigger than my mom's and that was saying something considering how tightly packed in some of the places in Los Angeles were, it must have been incredibly expensive. Just standing on the lawn made me feel like I wasn't supposed to be there. There was a long concrete sidewalk leading up to a nice set of large dark brown doors. I hesitated before reaching forward and punching in the glowing doorbell bottom. Even the doorbell that followed was particularity fancy. Dylan squeezed my hand reassuringly once more and I smiled weakly back at him.

There was a muffled 'I'll get it' from inside and the door opened and a younger man stood there. He looked to be about a few years older than me, with almost familiar curly brown hair and lanky figure. He didn't look so fancy, which was both reassuring and confusing at the same time. I opened my mouth but no words really came out so Dylan, like the angel he was, stepped up.

"Are you Daniel Grey?"

The dude raised an eyebrow. "I'm... Matthew Grey? if you're some kind of paparazzi I want to know how you got in here, and why you think it's okay to disturb our peace at this hour."

Matthew? Matthew? I didn't know any Matthews. My heart starting picking up speed as I struggled to figure out what I was supposed to do next now that this Matthew had thrown a kink in our chain.

"Uh..." Dylan look over at me.

"P-please." I stammered out. "If you know where Daniel is you have to tell us, we've come a really long way."

"Who are you?" He demanded.

"I'm..." How do I introduce myself? How do I introduce myself? Oh God.

"I'm," I winced, "Allison...Grey."

Matthew's eyes widened slightly. He didn't say anything he just closed the door. I thought for a moment that was it, mission failed. I turned towards Dylan and prepared to let out all of the jitters I had and continue on with life. However, the next thing I heard was some muffled shouting, and I met Dylan's eyes and saw he was as confused as I was. This while situation wasn't quite blue-orange, in was more purple-orange, which I guess is just me being slightly upset.

Then the door reopened and Matthew was still there, but he was in the background. Standing in front of me was a rather tall man wearing a casual suit. His dark hair was slicked back with just a few streaks of grey were starting to emerge from the sides. You know when you first hear Zac Efron's name and get this image in your head of a stock-photo male model who's fashion sense is very 2017, only to later find out the dude looked slightly different? That was my dad only older, assuming this guy was my dad.

"Allie?" He blinked.

"Dad?" I asked hesitantly.

He beamed, like a main character in a spy movie who's just come across a hundred million thousand dollars. "Allie! Come in come in, who's this?"

He gestured towards Dylan, who waved awkwardly.

"This is my boyfriend, Dylan." I replied quickly.

I watched Matthew squint ever so slightly, but that was probably just me blowing everything out of proportion. Every second felt like at least five as we were ushered inside and my palms were getting nice and clammy.

"Oh boyfriend, eh? I guess I have to keep an eye on you, young man." He imitated a tiger growl and laughed heartily.

I laughed nervously as well. Was this going well so far? I think it was. Oh God. Dylan was faring better than I was. Or at least he was outwardly. We were both probably dying slowly. Dylan also laughed at his joke, though there was always two layers to every innuendo-implied joke aimed at a trans person.

"Allie!" He greeted loudly again and pulled me in for a rib-crushing hug, and this is coming from someone who knows what that feels like. "Ah... what are you doing here? Your mom called me so many times, I told her you weren't with me, but here you are! What's the old bat doing that has you up and gone?"

I had never heard my mom described as an 'old bat'. Seeing as she was one of those soccer moms who never missed a PTA meeting and therefore owned a small portion of the town. It was refreshing I'll admit.

"Oh man." I laughed nervously again, I had to stop doing that. "Uh well, the home life wasn't great, and I wanted to see the world."

It wasn't the entire truth, but I don't know if he can handle the truth just quite yet. He clapped me on the back and nodded approvingly.

"Atta' girl. I'm surprised you held out this long, that woman used to drive me up the walls. Oh! Where are my manners? This is Matthew, he's kind of your bother, well half-brother."

Matt stuck out his hand in greeting, though it was set up sub-textually more like a blade than a gesture of kindness. I gulped as I shook it. Then my mind started to put two and two together. I made an educated guess as to what might have happened with my parents based on the fact that Matt exists and the age I assumed him to be.

"So, you're Allie, I've heard a lot about you recently." Matthew grunted, shaking my hand (which I didn't even offer).

I cringed. "Ah yes. Allie. That's me."

"We were just having dinner, please come sit with us, we've got plenty to go around." My dad patted my shoulder, leading me into another room.

I really wanted to stop hearing my deadname first. "Actually, can I talk to you about-"

"You can tell me everything at dinner, eat first, you look like a twig." He cut me off, but the sincere look in his eyes drained away whatever anger I felt.

I can't remember the last time my mom looked at me liked that. "Oh-okay."

They were having mashed potatoes, pork, and vegetables, which was food fit for kings after spending weeks on nothing but fast-food and the occasional grocery store salad bowl. I forgot about the horrible feeling of my name or my mom and just toned everything out as I ate a home cooked meal for the first time in way too long.

"So, tell us, what happened?" My dad asked eagerly, setting down his silverware.

"I ran away. Dylan wanted to come with me. Mom was going crazy and Janet tried... she beat me up. I mean, that's not the first time that's happened but this time... I thought she was trying to kill me." I shuddered, my skin felt hot from the attention put on me.

My dad nodded respectfully. "Yeesh, good thing you got out of there."

"Yeah."

"And you're her boyfriend?" He gestured at Dylan. "How old are you son?"

He shot a pained glance at me. "Yep, uh Att- er, yes... yes I am. Sorry I get nervous meeting people. I'm seventeen."

Both of our new companions raised their eyebrows, but it was Matthew who said something. "Are you sure? No offense but you do not look seventeen."

Dylan smiled weakly. "Yeah I get that a lot. I can show you my driver's license if you want?"

"No, it's okay." My dad swatted away Matthew's hand. "That doesn't matter, what's matter if you two found me, and you're safe."

I couldn't help but smile as we continued eating our meal. This was going better than anything I had ever hoped. This really felt like home. Dylan started telling one of his dumb jokes and we continued eating and being merry with the knowledge that for once everything was okay.