sorry for himself, so he grabbed his copy of Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon and started comfort reading. Lots of pictures and not many words felt like all he could cope with at the moment. Also, he’d always been secretly into Hawkeye because he loved the idea of a superhero whose only power was “I’ve got a bow.” It was less a power, more a lifestyle choice, and the reboot was sort of milking that for all it was worth. Drew liked to think of it as Hawkeye: My Life as Some Dude.
About halfway through the storyline where Clint archives his ludicrous collection of gimmicky weapons, Drew caught himself wondering if Solace had read it, and if he liked superheroes and, if so, which.
And that left him sniffling into The Tape, Part 1.
There was a knock at the door and, without waiting for a response, Sanee and Tinuviel barged in.
Drew threw Hawkeye aside and dived back under the covers, worried he looked exactly how he felt. “This totally isn’t the time guys.”
Sanee annexed the only chair in the room. “You didn’t come to lab, you’re not answering your phone, we haven’t seen you all day, it’s totally the time.”
“Are you okay?” asked Tinuviel, curling up on the end of his bed.
“If I said I was fine, would you piss off?”
Sanee shrugged. “Probably not.”
“Is this about that girl?” Tinuviel gave her patented curious head-tilt.
“Did she turn out to be a dude?” There was an uncomfortable silence. “Oh fuck.” Sanee put his hands over his mouth. “She did.” Then he giggled, which really didn’t help.
Drew burrowed deeper. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s a bit funny.”
“Not for me, it isn’t.”
He poked his head out from under the duvet in time to see Tinuviel giving Sanee a shut up look before she turned back to Drew. “How did you find out? Did you meet him?”
“No, he was leading the Monday raid. And he was definitely a dude.”
There was a long silence.
“Man,” sighed Sanee. “I know I totally told you this was going to happen, but I’m really sorry for you.”
Tinuviel pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. “Well, yes and no. I mean, I think what you need to ask yourself is how much this changes things.”
Drew gaped at her. “Um, it completely changes things?”
“Why?”
Sanee sat forward on the chair. “T, are you being deliberately dense?”
“That’s a very strange question. The way I see it, Drew’s met somebody he likes. He’s clearly sad at the thought of losing him. So the question is: why should he?”
“How about: because he’s not gay.”
“Well, neither I am, but I’ve still had sexual relationships with people who defined as female.”
“Yes, but you’re a girl.”
Tinuviel sighed deeply. “If our friend wasn’t in the middle of a crisis, I’d be quite cross with you right now.”
“I’m not in a crisis,” interrupted Drew. “I’m just bummed.”
“Poor choice of words, mate.”
“Sanee!” chorused Drew and Tinuviel.
He held up his hands. “Oh come on, you walked into that one.”
“Look,” snapped Drew, “something mildly upsetting happened to me. I just want to take a day to feel sorry for myself about it. I don’t need you making gay jokes, or you telling me that’s it not a big deal, because, I’m sorry, we weren’t all raised by polyamorous hippies. How am I supposed to tell my mum I’ve suddenly started dating a boy?”
“You could try, ‘Mum, I’ve started dating a boy,’” suggested Tinuviel. Unhelpfully.
“Or just don’t tell her.” Sanee stroked his chin thoughtfully. “But, you never know, they might be cool. Steff was convinced her mum would freak out at her dating a South Asian guy, but either she was actually fine about it or she was really, really scared of looking racist.”
“So you’re basically telling me, I have to hope my parents are really, really scared of looking homophobic?”
“Or,” added Tinuviel, “they’re just not bigots.”
Drew put his head in his hands. Tinuviel leaned over and patted him gently on the shoulder.
“Can I just point out,” she said, “that your main issues have been that Sanee has laughed at you, and that your parents might not like it.”
“So?”
“Well, this is obviously quite hard for me because, as a pansexual, I really don’t understand people whose sense of attraction is informed by gender identity or biological sex. But I think if I was monosexual, my main objection to a relationship with someone who was not of my preferred gender would be that I just wasn’t into them. Maybe I’m wrong, but your problem doesn’t