Vian's heart was still pounding as he made his way across campus, he hadn't taken snow into consideration when he chose this outfit in the morning, but seeing that guy's face as he looked up at Vian after almost knocking him on his ass was worth a little bit of shivering. The, very, handsome guy had called him miss. Vian knew he could pass as a girl if he wanted to and enjoyed the attention it brought him more often than not, nowadays. It never failed to amuse him how dead set people were on their black and white way of viewing the world, especially when he couldn't imagine not living in the endless shades of gray between both extremes.

He walked confidently towards the offices in the athletics complex of the university, which was comprised by an arena for the major events; three smaller gymnasiums divided among the basketball, volleyball and individual sports teams; an Olympic-sized indoor pool; a five-story building with the coaches' and nurses' offices, and a regular exercise gym which could be used twenty-four hours a day every day by the entirety of the student body, outside of the designated training times for the school's athletes. Vian should already have known the layout of this place by heart, he was supposed to have been here a year ago but after… everything, both him and Ethan deferred their acceptances. Ethan had done it for a year, Vian had needed a bit more time. Now that he was finally there, Vian was going to take the reins of his life and make the most of it.

He knocked on the doorframe of the cheer squad's head coach's office, the middle-aged woman looked up from her tablet and smiled at him in the way that had etched lines in the corners of her eyes. 

"Glad to finally meet you Vivian!" Coach Vega exclaimed, standing up to shake his hand and motion for him to sit down. "I was just watching your junior homecoming performance again, you're one impressive dancer."

"Thank you," Vian blushed, he wouldn't bat an eye to a man calling him pretty or whistling at him, but someone recognizing the fruits of his hard work and he had no idea what to do with himself. "I… uhm… I go by Vian, if you don't mind."

"Vian, of course," she nodded, closing the video and reading his file. "Your application two years ago mentioned that, my apologies. I'm stoked to have you join us at long last. I know you requested to wear the girls' uniform, I see clear as day that you can pull it off… you'll still have to change with the guys since you don't actually identify as a girl, I hope that's okay." She waited for Vian to respond and he simply nodded. "My boys know better than to entertain bigotry of any kind, still if there happens to be an 'adjustment period' I wanted to make sure you hear me say this to your face: come to me if you ever feel hurt or disrespected by any member of my squad, alright? You are welcome here, Vian, you've earned your place just like the rest of them with your hard work and talent, don't let anyone convince you otherwise."

"Thank you, coach." Vian managed to reply with burning eyes.

Back in high school his parents had had to fight the school's board to get him a spot on the squad, he had tried joining as a spotter and dancer his freshman year, but when he didn't grow enough to carry the girls he was told there simply wasn't space for him. It didn't matter that he had been training jumps and acrobatics since he was a toddler, or that he was more than happy to dress like the other fliers so as to not "raise any brows", they simply didn't want to bend for him. Regardless, he kept dancing and practicing jumps for the fun of it. When the time came to start considering university, his parents intervened. Cheerleading scholarships were scarce, they all knew that, so he worked his ass off to take as many college level courses as he could while his parents fought the school about their baseless discrimination on an extra-curricular activity. Vian was allowed to rejoin the squad as a flier but it wasn't the same, to the rest of them he was the "special case" with rich parents who thought the world revolved around him. Thankfully, that resentment remained surface level and the worst he got was the cold shoulder from the people that should have been his friends. In the end, he lost his scholarship after deferring his acceptance for longer than a year, but he was assured there would be a spot for him in the squad when he was ready.

Coach Vega walked around her desk and, as Vian collected himself, rummaged through a box of brand new uniforms. She pulled out four sets of gold and crimson outfits, two winter and two summer versions, and handed them to him.

"Wash them with like-colors on the delicate cycle and hang-dry them." She explained. "We'll meet at the basketball gymnasium at seven in the morning on Monday. When classes start on Thursday we're moving up morning training to six, plain workout gear only, got it?"

"Yes ma'am, thank you for welcoming me to your squad." He replied, a lump in his throat.

"It's my pleasure, sweetheart. With talent like yours we're finally getting back on track for nationals this year." She smiled as brightly as the sun. "Now, off you go, I got a whole lot of paperwork to get through."

Vian walked out of his new coach's office so excited he bumped into a wall as he rummaged through his tote bag to find space for the uniforms without wrinkling them too much, dropping everything to the floor instead and remembering his previous encounter with a sudden barrier in his path.

"Sorry miss."

Vian giggled, taking a moment to actually gather himself this time. He organized his bag, and hoped he was lucky enough to see that guy again, even if it was to enjoy the eye-candy from a distance.

His phone buzzed incessantly in his pocket, Ethan was calling.

"You know, if you ask me to help you move your shit into your new dorm, I expect you to be here on time." His twin's voice blared through the speaker.

"Hello to you too, ass." Vian rolled his eyes even if Ethan couldn't see him. "You do know you're only older than me by an hour, right? You have no right to be so bossy."

"Whatever. Are you almost here yet? I have other shit to do that does not include guarding your luggage in my car all day."

Vian didn't remind him that it was technically both of their car, it was a moot argument when Ethan was the only one with a driver's license.

"I'm five minutes away, the meeting with my academic advisor ran a little long." He said instead and it was enough to improve Ethan's disposition.

"What did he say? Are your credits going to transfer and all that bullshit?"

"Yup! Well, almost." Vian grimaced both from the cold hitting his exposed legs once more as well as from not achieving all of his goals for the day. "I'm only getting enough credits for first year, so I'm technically a semester behind, but Uriel says I can catch up if I take a couple courses in the summer and a seminar on one of the winter breaks."

"It's not like you have to graduate at the same time as me, you know." Ethan sighed. "Just take autumn and spring classes like everyone else, who cares if it takes you longer?"

"You know why." Vian replied simply and Ethan went silent as Vian spotted the car. "I see you, let's get stuff into the lobby so we don't have to keep coming out into the cold."

"If you wore normal winter attire," Ethan replied, cutting off the call and exiting the car, "instead of dressing like a lady of the night looking for her next prey, you wouldn't be so cold."

"I'm telling mom you called me a whore." Vian stuck out his tongue, making his twin roll his eyes as he grabbed his letterman jacket from the backseat and tossed it carelessly at Vian, who nearly dropped it. "I am not sewing it again if it gets torn in the pavement. Also, I may be less cold but I'd definitely look less fabulous as well." He added while putting on Ethan's jacket. 

"Debatable, though I'm sure your johns love it." Ethan smirked popping the trunk open and picking up a couple of plastic crates.

"You're such an ass!" Vian laughed loading up on as many bags as he could carry and closing the car before jogging the short distance between it and the building's front entrance. 

There were still four crates and two suitcases in the backseat, and his sewing machine and computer bag in the front, making the whole ordeal a three-trip endeavor. Once everything was inside, the trip on the elevator and down his corridor was cumbersome but uneventful, both twins too focused on balancing Vian's belongings to strike up a conversation. Ethan almost startled Vian by speaking as he unlocked his door.

"I still can't believe you got a solo room and I'm stuck with stinky Stu." Ethan complained for the hundredth time.

"Need I remind you it was your choice not to room with me?" Vian replied casually, as they hauled everything into the matchbox sized room. It was a simple dorm, fitted with a desk and chair to one side of the no-open window, a dresser under a loft bed and the smallest en-suite bathroom Vian had ever seen, but it had everything Vian needed with one notable exception. "Is the cafeteria really that bad?"

"Nah, your vegetarian ass is gonna be fine between the veggie options and the salad bar. Stay away from the collard greens though, they make two versions but almost always mix up the labels until someone comes back to complain." Ethan answered, looking out the window. "At least you have a decent view of downtown across the river. Did you want help putting stuff away?"

"I thought you had other plans today?" Vian quirked a brow at him.

"Meh, nothing I can't get out of if you need the help." Ethan tried to play it cool, but Vian knew his brother better than he knew himself.

"Well, if it's not much trouble, I would love to catch up with you." Vian smiled earnestly at his twin. They hadn't seen each other for months, the longest time they had ever been apart really, so having the chance to learn first hand what Ethan's life was like now, felt oddly exciting.

They unpacked most of Vian's belongings as they talked about the university and Ethan's courses, they ordered pizza for dinner while they watched a movie on Vian's laptop and for the first time in what felt like forever, Vian truly felt like his life was back on track. He had his brother back, a degree he was actually excited to pursue and a promising future doing one of the things he loved most in the world.