Nothing Like You and I

Three hours and one hasty apology from the waitress later, Oli finds himself standing outside the old building that Matt apparently calls home. They'd already dropped Jona off at his place. Oli felt it was the decent thing to do, offering Matt a ride home after bailing him out. And now here he was, looking up at this building, and is currently wondering just how many people Matt lives with. If they barely have the money to pay for a normally priced bail, Oli guesses that there are at least three to four people living in whichever apartment Matt lives in.

"You, uhh, want to come up for a minute or something?"

Oli snaps out of his thoughts and looks at Matt, who has already opened the door and is holding it open for him. Honestly, he's got no other plans for the day. If he hadn't left his place to go and pick up Jona, the day would have undoubtedly consisted of sitting around his apartment in pajamas watching TV; he didn't work on the weekends. Matt is a rather interesting character, and since Oli wants to know more about him, his apartment seemed an excellent place to start the learning process.

"Okay. Just...keep my secret around your roommates, yeah?"

"All right."

Ascending the steps and following Matt through the door, Oli gets a good look at the interior of a building that was obviously constructed in the early 1900s. On each floor is three doors each labeled with a number and the letter A, B, or C. The two of them stop on the sixth floor after climbing a set of steps in desperate need of repair. Matt takes a key out of his back pocket and inserts it into the keyhole for apartment 6B. When it swings open, the first thing Oli notices is a mess of long, wavy brunette hair and blankets on the overstuffed couch in the middle of the room.

"That's Nathaniel," Matt says as he closes the door behind them and walks over to the couch, gently shaking the figure laying on it.

"Nat. Hey, Nat, wake up, I'm home."

Nathaniel groans and turns over, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Matt? They said you needed bailing out again."

"Yeah, well, she took care of it for me," Matt gestures over his shoulder at Oli, "What happened to you? You look awful."

Nat runs his hand over his face and lets out a sigh. "Got used too hard. Six hours. I got home around four-thirty in the morning and crashed on the couch."

Matt murmurs, "Prostitute," under his breath at Oli as Nat yawns and stands up slowly. He heads for the bathroom, leaving Oli and Matt alone once again and giving Oli a chance to look around the apartment.

It's a bit smaller than his own. An open archway leads off into the kitchen, and near it the door which is obviously the bathroom, which Nat had just entered. A hallway leads to what Matt points out as the two bedrooms in the apartment, which the four of them share, two to a room. A few more doors lead off to random rooms, such as a closet and where they store cleaning supplies. Matt sits down on the couch Nat had previously occupied, removes his hoodie, and tosses it onto a nearby coffee table.

"So...how long have you been doing this whole...tranny thing?"

Oli bites his lip, frustrated, and tries his best not to snap. It always starts out this way. "I'm not a tranny."

Matt raises an eyebrow and nods in the direction Nat had left. "Pros-"

"No! I'm gender dysphoric. Transgendered."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Oli sits down next to Matt, rolling his eyes and trying to explain things as simply as he can.

"It means I don't feel right as...as a man. A female trapped in a male's body. I prefer people to know me as Oli. Olive, Olivia, however they want to interpret it. Outside of my friends and family, nobody knows I'm Oliver."

Matt's gaze slides down Oli's body and rests between his legs.

"Do you still have...?"

Oli blushes, a rarity, and crosses his legs.

"Yeah. I hate it, though. I'm just...kind of scared. To be a woman completely, y'know? I want it, I really do, but I'd have to undergo so many surgeries. I've got the tits, obviously."

He runs his hands along his waist, smiling at the curves.

"And these. They had to take out my bottom two ribs, but I've got the perfect waist. There's still so much to be done..."

Matt lets out a tiny, amazed sigh.

"Well, if that waitress hadn't slipped up, I never would have figured it out. You're damn good at being a woman."

Nat, having properly refreshed himself after his rough night, steps back out of the bathroom, toweling his long hair dry.

"Matt, you never mentioned your pretty savior's name."

Matt, this time, is the one who's looking into Oli's eyes, which ironically kind of remind him of the color of olives. "Her name's Oli."

Nat flashes a heart melting smile at Oli. "Well, thank you for bringing him back in one piece. Fucker is always making us worried sick about him."

He leaves the room a second time, this time heading for the kitchen. Oli's gaze is still upon the archway through which Nat left the room.

"Are, uh, all your roommates wh-...prostitutes?"

"Nahh. Nat, obviously. Danny too, but he was doing it before we got this place. Josh is the only one with a respectable job, some electronics store or something. That kid is a genius with computers. He makes sites in his spare time, for some extra cash."

"What about you, Matt? What do you do?"

Matt tilts his head slightly to the side, biting his lip gently. His fingers pick at a stray thread on the blanket Nat left behind.

"Whatever I can."