#sm:task

If he had to describe where he falls on the gender spectrum, he would say “somewhere between man and neutral.” His family, friends, and ex-partners know this. While he has no objections to people knowing that he’s non-binary, he doesn’t want to have to explain himself to everyone he meets. Additionally, people are generally more accepting of binary trans people than non-binary trans people. Sometimes, people assuming he’s a man is just easier. 

“What would it turn into for you?” “Hm?” “The boggart.” “Spider. A big, creepy spider that wanted to eat me... without proper seasoning. What about you?” “Probably a gross, badly made pair of shoes.” “You’re ridiculous.”  “It’s pronounced riddikulus.” The answer had Minjoon slapping at Brandon’s arm with no malice. It wasn’t until long after the move had ended that Minoon was still thinking about his response. Spiders. It was easy to say. He was frightened of big spiders but that wasn’t the thing he was most scared of. That’s what Boggart’s did, right? They appeared in the form of your greatest fear. He wondered how that would work, how it would even apparate what he really feared, what it would look like to actually see that he would never feel like he was enough. The thought alone left him feeling cold.

Minjoon looked at the knives Brandon had gifted him and pulled the red box closer. "What do you want for Christmas?" The question had Brandon's hands going to the lid to stop him from opening it. "My perfect Christmas gift isn't going to be in any of these boxes and if it was, it would have shown up in mine. Besides, I love the necklace you got me." "How do you know about the necklace?" "Because I snoop around your room whenever I know you've got me a gift to see what you bought me." "Brandon!" "I don't know why I told you that." "Don't you trust me to get good gifts?" "I do. I want to see what you got me so I don't accidentally buy myself the same thing. You'd feel bad and I don't want to be telling you this. Why am I telling you this?" The pair argued with no real malice about it, which ended when Brandon said that he could apologise but he'd keep doing it. With the amount that Brandon kept saying things he usually wouldn’t and followed it with “I didn’t want to say that.” it was easy to make the assumption that the mysterious boxes had something to do with Brandon's uncontrollable honestly. “If you’re willing to believe whatever weird shows you’ve been watching that magic comes with a price, is it one you’re willing to pay?” Joonie simply told him that he had no secrets from him as he opened the green box and took out the vial. He hesitated before drinking the contents and waited. For something. Anything. “I don’t feel any different.” “Do you have to tell the truth?” “I don’t know.” “Tell me the sky is chartreuse.” “Don’t be so fucking pretentious, say yellow or whatever it is.” The reply had Minjoon covering his mouth, eyes wide as Brandon simply laughed at him. “Minjoon! Oh my god!”  “Don’t laugh!” Joonie threw the box lid at him but it did nothing the stifle his laughter until Brandon retaliated. It stopped mid air when Minjoon raised his hand to shield his face and small flick of his wrist had the lid launching across the kitchen. “Holy shit.” He covered his mouth again but this only had Brandon laughing again. “Joonie! I don’t.. I don’t think you just have to be honest. Oh my god, my perfect gift was in there after all. You can’t censor yourself at all!” “...fuck.”

After stumbling out of bed, Brandon hadn’t thought anything of it as he eyed the four boxes set out in front of Joonie until after he’d made himself coffee. He made a comment about it being too early to be opening Christmas gifts but his interest was piqued at the response he’d received that two of them belonged to him. Joonie pointed out the probably serious point of how did the sender know to leave Brandon’s outside of his door but Brandon brushed it off when his best friend had mentioned that there were boxes outside of all the apartment doors. He read the labels out loud before Minjoon spoke up. “Do you ever feel like something is a bad idea?” “Oh, all the time. That’s how I know I’m about to have fun.” Brandon pulled the red box closer before opening it. "Huh. You know, I always say that I don’t really want things because I just buy myself anything I want but I guess this proves it." "What? What is it? What's in there?" Brandon reached into the box to pull out another box and pushed it across the kitchen island to Minjoon. "The knives I really wanted to get you for Christmas. Your weird chef crush has the same ones and it was a huge pain in the ass trying to get the exact ones but then I couldn't and the assholes still haven’t given me a good enough excuse why." "It.. It's real?” “It must be because I never told anyone.” “It’s real.” “Yes, I think so. We just went over this.” “There’s really either something you want or magic?” “Yep.” “It's real and you just wasted it on me." "Shut the fuck up, it wasn't a waste. You're my best friend. Now, which one are you going to pick?"