Bella sat at their booth in the hotel's bar, the King Cole Bar, scrolling through her phone. "Bella!" Ashley skipped over to her, pulling Ethan along with him.

"Hey, Ashley." She greeted; Her twisted face into a slight frown, brows pulled down and drawn together.

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked as he sat across from her carefully smoothing out the fabric of his pink skirt. He'd put a lot of care into his outfit today and was much less scared of wearing 'feminine' clothes around Ethan. Today he was wearing black tights under his skirt, a black shirt, a pink hoodie and black and pink Chuck Taylors.

"I broke up with Matilda."

"Bella..." Ashley reached out for her hand over the table, giving her a reassuring squeeze "What happened?"

"It was something she said after you left, a joke about your dress." Bella sighed, fiddling with her fork. "She thought it was some kind of joke. She apologized, so I didn't think much about it; some people just don't know better."

"Anyway, I was on my Tumblr last night. You know the hellsite. Since I'm apparently gay, I decided to get one. I checked hers' out since she mentioned she had one and..." Just as she paused, the waiter came over, took their orders and set a bread basket down on their table. "...and what I found wasn't exactly great." Bella continued as the waitress left. "It was mostly a lot of posts and reblogs saying some truly horrific shit about Trans and GNC people."

"B-But she's... gay!" Ashley almost couldn't really believe it.

"And she's also a TERF. Apparently, not every letter in our acronym can get along." She shrugged, taking the drink the waitress set in front of her. "I'm fine, just glad I found out now before I got too invested."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." She grinned then took a sip of her drink.

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Ashley flopped back onto his bed, borrowing under the duvet. Today had been marvellous but exhausting. First, he'd gone to the Birdland Jazz Club for their open night then headed to the Guggenheim Museum for one of their silent discos after all that he and Ethan met Bella at The pearl one of the best restaurants in New York.

"Ethan?"

Ethan flopped back down onto the bed next to him. "Yes beautiful?"

"I just realized something. Last night when we..." He blushed and hid his face against his pillow. "There wasn't any more gold."

"I guess you were right; your powers did get easier to control." Ethan wrapped his arms around Ashley's waist, pulling him closer and tucking his chin on Ashley's shoulder. "Although, of all the messes the cleaners could find I don't think they'd mind that."

"Hmm, it would be a fun mess to make at least." Ashley rolled over and onto his side, tucking his head against Ethan's chest.

"Maybe we should try again." Ethan rolled over again, pinning Ashley to the bed. "Just to be sure."

Ashley grinned as Ethan rolled him over till Ashley was sitting on top of him. "I'm nothing if not thorough."

"Prove it."

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Ashley rolled his paint roller over the white wall, staining it bright green.

"What do you think?" He asked Bella, who stood by his side, dressed in a ratty grey tank top, sweatpants, old trainers and grey knit beanie.

"Looks great." She picked up her own roller and dipped it into the open paint tin. "Time to paint!"

They'd eventually bought the place next door, and we're currently in the process of decorating it. "What are we going to do about the last wall?" Bella asked as she finished the last patch of white on the wall. They'd decided to make it an accent wall, but besides that they were clueless.

"Maybe we should get someone to paint a mural?" Ashley asked cluelessly, shrugging his shoulders.

"Damnit Ashley, we're gay we should be better at this."

"Says the lesbian who doesn't know how to use a power drill."

"I still don't understand why you do."

He shrugged. "I had to if I wanted to fix some of the shit my dad broke."

"Who should we get to paint it?" Ashley asked, trying to change the subject as he wiped off the paint on his cheeks with a wet wipe.

"Someone relatively undiscovered. It's not like we could afford anyone else." She paused, cocking her head to the right slightly in thought. "Well... we could, but that's not the point."

"What colour bookshelves should we get?"

"I have no idea." She smiles. "I'll do the furniture shopping, and you'll go find an artist."

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God I'm so tired of Tumblr bullshit. TERFs are the worst.

"TERF" is short for "trans exclusionary radical feminist". The term is used by trans advocates to describe feminists who oppose the inclusion of trans people in female spaces and organizations

GNC stands for: Gender Non-Conforming, which is an very variable term in the LGBT+ community and can encompass everything from Non-binary people to women who present more masculine or men who present more feminine.

Anyway I just learned what an accent wall is.

- I. Tamilore Onkọwe

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