Mathew's hand hovered over the door, a bare inch from connecting with the gloss painted surface, bright blue, his favourite colour. Sighing softly to himself he lowered his arm, and was turning around to walk away when a voice stopped him.

"Matty! Hey, were you coming to visit me?"

He didn't need to turn around to know who the owner of the voice was, despite the fact there were ten people living in the house and Mathew only knew one of them. He turned back, his stomach playing tag with his intestines, and gave Ford a weak smile.

"I, ah, I can go if it's a bother."

"What? Are you kidding! Hah, it's so good to see you! You wanna come in?"

The tall dark skinned guy in front of him indicated the wide open doorway, but Mathew just bit his lip and shook his head.

"I, uh, don't want to intrude.. I..can't stay long."

"It's no intrusion man," Ford took a step closer to him, peering at him in the dim lighting provided by the street lamp on the corner.

"Have you been crying Matt?" he asked softly, intimately close to Mathew now.

"N..no..," Mathew lied, shifting his heavy pack on his shoulders, "I umm, just came to say goodbye."

"What? No, you can't leave! Mathew?" Ford grabbed his shoulders, staring into his face now.

"I..don't have any choice," Mathew tried his best not to let his voice crack, he was done with crying, at least he wanted to be, his eyes had other ideas.

"What happened?" Ford's dark eyes were deep pools of concern as he wiped a stray tear off Mathew's face.

"I lost my job... my bus back home leaves in a half hour."

"No..no way, you can't go.. I don't want you to go back to the other side of the country, I'll never get to see you."

Mathew shrugged sadly, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't going to cut it Matty, there must be something I can do, some way you can stay?"

Mathew sighed, "You know the rules as well as I do Ford, if you don't have an assigned job, you have to go."

"That's such bullshit," Ford muttered, "it's not fair to drag you all across country, make you start over here and then just throw you back again like it's nothing."

Mathew shifted uncomfortably, the pack on his back was getting heavier by the minute, along with his thoughts.

"I know, I hate it, but what can I do? I have to go."

"Can't you at least come inside for a minute? I want to get to say goodbye properly," Ford sounded as choked up as Mathew felt.

"I..I guess, just for a minute," he let himself be pulled inside, past the living areas, and into Ford's bedroom.

Ford shut the door firmly behind them and leaned against it, almost like he'd decided to just trap Mathew there with him, to prevent the inevitable parting they both knew had to happen. Mathew let his pack slide to the floor and sat on the edge of Ford's bed, staring up at his only friend.

"So how did it happen?" Ford finally broke the silence.

"Somebody complained about me," Mathew felt himself shrugging like it was no big deal, when really it was the biggest deal in the world.

"What!? What kind of asshole would do that?" Ford pushed himself off the door and started to pace the tight confines of his assigned living space.

Mathew wrung his hands guiltily, "I..I don't know who did it, but I know why."

Ford stopped mid-pace and swung around to stare at Mathew, breathing a low, "why?"

"Be..because of what I am.., " Mathew swallowed bile, he hadn't wanted to bring this up, to admit it, but it was too late now, soon he'd be gone, and if Ford hated him for it, then it wouldn't matter so much, he'd be so far away it wouldn't be a problem.

"...because you're gay?" Ford was frowning at him, "you know it's illegal for them to discriminate against you because of that right? You could go demand your job back and be awarded compensation."

Mathew shook his head, tears flying off his cheeks at the movement, "..no.. not because of that."

Ford came and knelt down in front of him, taking his hands, "..because you're trans then?"

Mathew blinked at him, "..you.. you knew?" He breathed the words, unable to believe Ford was right there in front of him, admitting that he knew Mathew's darkest secret and not seeming to care about it.

Ford smiled, "yeah, I thought you knew I knew... God this is such bullshit, what difference does it make, you're a man, why do people get so hung up on what's someone else's personal business?!"

Mathew shrugged and pulled a hand free to wipe at the tears still flowing down his face, "I.. I don't know, but this is the men’s city, and I'm.. not.. enough of a man to be here..according to HR."

Ford pulled Mathew into a hug, startling him, so he sat stiffly while Ford mumbled in his ear, "We'll find a way to fix this, I can't lose you Matty. It's not right, and it's not fair, and I won't let them do this to you, to us."

"T..to..us?" Mathew's brain blurred out the rest of what Ford had said to focus on those two words, words which made his heart beat faster and his face heat up.

Ford pulled back and took Mathew's face in his hands, "yeah, to us. I..I really like you Matt, I thought you knew that." He sighed, "I guess I should have been more obvious, while we still had time."

Mathew could feel his cheeks burning under Ford's cool hands, and he bit his lip, "..I..I really like you too Ford.. I'm..so sorry."

He couldn't stop more tears falling down his face, over Ford's fingers. It was so unfair that he'd had to wait until he was being thrown out to find someone who accepted him for him. He'd had a crush on Ford for so long, but had been too afraid to do anything about it, too afraid of what Ford would say once he found out Mathew was trans. His life had been so lonely for so long he wasn't even sure what to do with these feelings now.

"Don't be sorry Matty, it's not your fault, it's whatever asshole reported you, and the stupid system that's so out of date it lets shit like this happen." Ford pressed his forehead against Mathew's and hummed to himself, "Chris works in HR, maybe he can pull some strings, get you reassigned, or reinstated?"

Mathew chewed his lip, distracted by how close Ford was, his breath hot on Mathew's face. He knew Chris was one of Ford's housemates, but he didn't know what kind of person he was.

"..would.. would he be ok with.. what I am?"

Ford pulled back and stared at Mathew, his dark eyes locking on Mathew's hazel ones, "he's ok with it, everyone in the house is ok with it, not everyone around here is an asshole, just the dick who complained about you."

"..you told them? All of them?" Mathew could feel his pulse racing and his throat clogging up, cutting off his air, so many people knew his secret!

"Not directly, geeze, calm down Matty, I'm not going to out you to the whole world. I just scoped them out, to make sure I wasn't living with a pack of 'phobes." He rubbed his hands up and down Mathew's arms, trying to calm him down.

"..I.. I don't know.. isn't it too late?.. I have to go in in less than twenty minutes." He felt the weight of helplessness that Ford had momentarily lifted settle back down on him.

"How long before they deploy against you? If you miss the bus, how much time do you have to catch the next one?" Ford was giving him a serious, steady look, like he had an actual plan, Mathew let just a tiny spark of hope light in his belly.

"Uh, twenty four hours, I.. I figured I should leave right away, I didn't want to be run out by an angry mob if HR informed my work crew about what I am." He twisted his fingers together in his lap, wishing he had a lifetime, not just a day.

"Brilliant!" Ford dropped a kiss on his forehead and lurched to his feet, "stay here, I'm gonna go find Chris!"

Mathew sat silently as Ford hurried out of the room. The spot on his forehead where Ford had kissed him tingled like a promise, and his stomach did a little somersault. Ford liked him! Ford knew what he was and still liked him! Then the gloom settled in again, in twenty four hours he would have to be gone from here, and he'd probably never see Ford again. He shook his head and pressed his face into his hands, why now? Why did he have to be like this? Why couldn't he have been born in the right body so that none of this would have even happened? Taking a deep breath he pulled out his phone with shaking hands and rescheduled his bus ticket, even if Ford couldn't find a solution, at least they could spend the last day Mathew had here together.

He was dragged out of his thoughts by Ford returning, with a groggy looking Chris in tow. Chris was dressed in blue striped flannel pyjamas, which made Mathew smile to himself, Chris didn't seem nearly so intimidating like this.

"This better be good," Chris grumbled, rubbing his face tiredly.

Mathew swallowed, the intimidation back in full force, and stuttered, "uh.. umm."

Ford ruffled Mathew's hair as he flopped down on the bed next to him, "what my entirely eloquent boyfriend here is trying to say is, can you pull some strings with HR and get his dismissal reversed?"

Mathew felt like he was about to go up in flames, Ford just called him his boyfriend!

Chris let his hands drop from his face and sighed, "how in hell did you of all people get fired, you're like, the model employee we wish everyone in sector eighteen was."

Mathew hung his head, ashamed, ".s..someone found out I'm trans, and complained."

"Janus hecking bots!" Chris ran his hands through his hair, "that's disgusting, nobody should have signed off on that, whoever reported you should have been reprimanded!"

Mathew found himself staring at Chris open mouthed, "..r..really?"

"Really," Chris nodded, pacing across the small room, "the only problem is, once a dismissal goes through, reversing it is tricky. I'm going to have to call in some back up, and they're going to have to know about you. Are you okay with that?"

Mathew chewed his lip, the choice between being outed but maybe being able to stay, versus definitely having to leave wasn't that hard, but it was still scary to give permission for more people to know about him. It was private knowledge that would change how people looked at him, he didn't want to be labelled as 'trans', he wanted to keep being seen as a man.

He sighed, "yeah, yeah I'm okay with that."

Chris nodded, "all right, I'm gonna go make some calls, how long do we have?"

"Twenty four," Ford answered for him, sitting back up and sliding an arm around Mathew's waist, "want me to go stick on a pot of coffee?"

"Yeah.. yeah do that," Chris nodded as he headed out the door, leaning back in to add, "if worst comes to worst, I know someone who knows how to get around the kill-bots, we can eke out another couple of hours that way if we absolutely have to."

Mathew swallowed the sudden terror he felt at the mention of the bots. He'd been trying not to think about the company policy that allowed terminated employees to be literally terminated if they hadn't left company grounds by the end of their termination time.

Ford squeezed him, "hey, relax, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."

Mathew let himself lean against Ford's side, waiting for his hammering heart to slow down.

"Do you think I stand a chance? That maybe I'll get to stay?"

"If anyone can fix this, Chris can, and if he can't, then I'm coming with you." Ford gave him another reassuring squeeze.

Mathew pushed himself off Ford and stared at him, "what? No, you can't, they'll hunt you down if you just leave!"

Ford pulled him back in, "then I'll get myself fired too! I'm not going to lose you, I couldn't handle that."

"Please don't Ford, you know nobody ever wants to go back to the cloning towns, there's nothing there for us." He pressed his face into Ford's shoulder and breathed him in, trying to lock the smell away in his memory, something else to hold onto when things got bad.

Ford sighed, then pulled him up with him, "come on, we better get that coffee going, it's going to be a long night."