Riches To Rags
Love didn’t feel like going to class the next day after what she has just been through. She instead decided to spend the day resting in Ash’s room (mostly because she was terrified to go back to her own).
Eventually Ash and Takeru returned after their classes were over for the day alongside Maka. (Ash did make up a story to cover for Love not being in class), but that didn’t help the nerves of a couple of the students in class. A few minutes after the two boys got back Love got a call on her phone.
“...Hey Violet…How are you?” Love responded while trying to play dumb.
“Love! Thank god! After you didn’t show up to class today I have been worried sick! Where are you?”
Love looks over at Ash and he just gives her a nod.
“I am in Ash’s dorm right now.”
“Me and Candi will be right over!”
After that Violet hangs up.
Barely a minute later Violet is practically knocking down the door with how loud she was banging on it.
Ash let the two girls into the dorm room.
“Alright. Where are…”
Violet and Candi look over at Takeru.
After a brief moment of silence Candi speaks up.
“Let me guess. You two have been dating for a few months, but you didn’t tell anybody because you wanted to keep it on the down low.”
Ash and Takeru trade surprised looks and then look back at Candi and slowly nod.
“I knew it! Also, I am happy for you guys!”
“Right, me too…” Violet interrupts her. “But back to the matter at hand. Where is Love…I…I mean Lev.”
“Don’t worry.” Ash responds. “We know.”
*Phew* Violet wipes sweat from her brow.
“Well that is good. I was getting tired of having to deadname her to keep her secret, so at least I know I don’t have to do that around you two anymore.” Violet shakes her head. “Back to business. Where is Love?”
Ash just points over to his room. Violet gives him an affirmative nod and her and Candi walk over to the room and open the door.
Love and Maka were both just sitting on Ash’s bed talking about whatever was on their minds.
“Love. Are you alright? You weren’t at class today and I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”
“...Well…I am doing fine right now, but…” Love thinks for a moment. “It’s kind of complicated I guess…”
“Alright.” Violet takes a seat on the bed and gestures towards Candi to sit besides her. “I’m ready to listen. And don’t leave anything out if you can. I want to be as informed about this as possible.”
Candi nods and they both wait for an explanation.
Love tells them about everything that Calder did to her yesterday.
“That good for nothing, no good, piece of…” Violet stops to avoid having an ulcer and starts rubbing her temples. “Do you know where the website is? I need to have a good look at this.”
“Takeru was able to get a couple hundred screenshots before the website was taken down.” Maka explains. “If you want to know anything about that you can ask him”
“Thank you Maka. Thank you Love. Glad you are okay.” She bows and turns to go talk to Takeru.
“So…” Candi looks towards Love and Maka. “...Two adult women lying on the same bed…”
An uncharacteristically devious smile appears on Candi’s face.
“...How was it?” Candi says with a smirk.
Love was confused.
“...How was…what?” Love responds without any idea of where this was going.
“...You know what I am talking about…” Candi says with the devious expression still on her face. “...How was…your first kiss?”
Maka and Love look even more confused for various reasons and they are both blushing wildly.
“...First of all, we aren’t dating. Second of all, why did you say it like that?”
“Say it like what?” Now it was Candi’s turn to be confused.
Maka proceeds to whisper an explanation into Candi’s ear.
Candi’s eyes widen and a huge blush suddenly appears on her face.
Now Candi is blushing wildly and trying to apologize to Love. Also, Love is still blushing and babbling so both women are almost completely incoherent with their ramblings at this point.
Maka leaves the room and enters a conversation with Violet, Ash, and Takeru.
“Well I am pretty sure I can set up some sort of investigation to look into this. My parents have so many resources at their disposal that we should be able to apprehend these heathens in no time.”
Suddenly Violet gets a call.
“It’s from my mother. I have to take this.” Violet clears her throat and puts on the most sugary sweet fake voice you have ever heard. “Hi mommy! There is something I wanted to ask you about!”
“Now you listen to me, young lady.”
Violet is surprised in this dissonance from her mother’s usual tone with her.
“Yes?” Violet is now confused.
“What is this that I found on your credit card bill this month?”
“You know you have to be more specific than that mom!” She is still keeping up with the faux innocent voice even though she is starting to get worried because she thinks that she knows what he is referring to.
“Why are you buying estrogen? You know our personal doctors could take care of anything that you need because I don’t need you wasting money on things like this.”
“...The thing is mom…I am not buying it for myself...”
“Then who are you buying it for?” Her mother was impatient waiting for an answer.
“...It is for a friend…”
“Explain further, daughter. I need more information than that.”
“...Well…she recently discovered that she was a girl so I was trying to help her by…”
“For heaven’s sake daughter! I don’t want you associating with that kind of riff raff! You hear me!”
“...But she is my friend…and…and it is making her so much happier. I just thought…”
“Well you thought wrong! I demand you to stop buying this for him and for you to stop being friends with him immediately!”
“...Her…”
“What was that?”
“...Her…My friend wants to be a girl. I already explained this…”
“No daughter of mine is going to be friends with a…creature like that! I absolutely refuse it!”
“...no…”
“What did you say to me? Speak up? I don’t believe I heard you clearly! You weren’t disobeying me just now? Were you?”
“...What…what if I was?”
“I beg your pardon!”
“Not only am I not going to stop being friends with her! I am going to keep buying her estrogen which literally is making her happier than she has ever been in her entire life!”
“No! No. No. No. This won’t do. No daughter of mine would…”
“Well what if I didn’t want to be your daughter anymore!” Violet is now yelling at her mom. She didn’t mean this. She wasn’t trans. More of a hypothetical situation to gauge a response from her mom.
“I would immediately send you to a conversion therapy camp until you were back on the straight and narrow!”
“That is it! I can’t take this anymore! I wish I was never born into a family of such stuck up, self centered, racist, homophobic, transphobic people!”
“I never! Don’t dare speak to me in such a way! I am your MOTHER!”
“Not anymore! I don’t want to be a part of this family for a moment longer!”
There was about a minute of silence.
“Well. I guess that’s settled.”
“What do you mean?” Violet responded in a confused tone.
“If you are no longer a member of this family, then you are also cut off. We are turning off your credit card immediately. Don’t bother coming back to the mansion or calling me, or your father, or any of your servants ever again!”
Violet’s mom hung up after that.
After another moment of quiet, Takeru spoke up.
“So…I guess we need to get the funds for the investigation another way, huh.”
Violet dropped her phone on the ground. She shortly followed suit and she crumpled to the floor.
Maka put a hand on Violet’s shoulder.
Violet then started to cry.
After hearing this, Love slammed open the door to Ash’s room as her and Candi followed the sound of sobs.
Love immediately goes over to Violet.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“...M…my parents…they just…CUT ME OFF!” Violet says followed by her wailing sobs continuing.
“...That is terrible…Why would they do this to you?” Love said with an empathetic tone.
“...They…c…caught on to the f…fact that I was…buying you estrogen…”
“...Oh no…I’m sorry Vi. If I’d have known this was going to be such a big issue for you I wouldn’t have…”
“No!” Violet yells through her tears. “Don’t finish that statement!”
“...B…but…”
“Don’t apologize!” Violets wiped tears from her eyes with her sobs starting to die down. “Not for this! Never for this!”
“...But it is my fault that…”
“It is not your fault! You are not my parents!”
Love is speechless at this point. Eventually Violet is just about done crying.
“You know what? I weirdly feel better now. I almost feel…free…in an odd way. I was getting sick and tired of dealing with their racism and homophobia. I no longer have to be tied to that old patriarchal clan of dinosaurs anymore. I am glad to not be one of them anymore.”
A thought just hit Love at that moment.
“...I…I won’t be able to afford my estrogen anymore…”
Maka cuts Love off.
“No! Don’t think like that!” Maka turns to Violet. “You must have some sort of backup funds. Right?”
Violet shakes her head no.
“My parents didn’t allow me to have physical cash. I used to have a near infinite amount of money on this…this.” Violet gestured towards her old credit card that she proceeded to throw against the wall. “...Sorry Maka…I am broke now.”
Maka stands up and looks around the room.
“Okay. Does anybody here have enough money for Love’s monthly dose of estrogen?”
Maka herself has a…let’s just say complicated family history and doesn’t have access to a lot of money right now.
Love can’t tell her parents anything ever again. Especially not after the fact that she found out she was trans.
Violet of course was just cut off right now.
Takeru moved out of his parent’s house vowing to not return until he was able to make his dream of becoming a DJ profitable. This hasn’t happened yet.
Ash is from a family that has about an average income and he does have an allowance, but he is already spending a good amount of that money on his own testosterone.
That just leaves Candi who raises her hand.
“Love. I can buy your estrogen using some of my monthly allowance. I usually just use it to buy more sweets anyways. I now get a good supply of that from the school to use in combat scenarios so I suppose I can just…learn how to ration. I guess.”
Candi is immediately crushed in a hug initiated by Love herself surprisingly enough.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Love is crying again, but these are tears of joy.
“...Don’t…mention it…” Candi tries to say and she is being crushed.
Love realizes how tight she is hugging and let’s go of Candi.
“...Sorry…” Love says sheepishly.
“...Don’t…worry about it…” Candi says while trying to catch her breath.
Everyone takes a moment to process everything that just happened. Eventually Ash breaks the silence.
“Okay. Back to Calder. I assume he is not smart enough to run this whole operation by himself so somebody else must be hosting the website. He must just be collecting data for it, but how are we going to figure this out…”
They thought about this for about an hour, but unfortunately none of them were able to come up with anything.
After a while everyone started to go back to their own dorms. Luckily enough for Violet, her dorm was still paid off until at least the end of the semester.
That just left Ash, Takeru, and Love who slept in the same places that they did the previous night.
‘...We have got to think of something…right?’ Love thinks to herself as she slowly drifts to sleep.