(TW for transphobia. None of it is born of malice, just lack of exposure.)

"Dude! You're a girl?!" Dylan cringes, and suddenly the poofy skirt of his costume is much more dysphoria inducing than it was five minutes ago. Michelangelo doesn't seem to realize.

"I am not a girl." He snaps, teeth bared. Fuck, he'd just gotten away from a weirdly confusing conversation with these guys dad and now he had to have this conversation. He breathes in, doing his best to tame that ugly twisting in his chest.

"I'm a guy and my name is Dylan." It falls flat in the room. Raphael is leaning against the couch, twirling his sai. Michelangelo is still leaning forward, bright eyed. Leonardo is staring at Dylan, with big wide eyes, and Donatello is also staring, a slight frown on his face.

Dylan breathes in. Does he have to do this? Now? Can't he just...go? And never speak to these guys again?

"If you're a guy, than why are you.. wearing a dress? Not that it's not cute I just kinda was wondering." Leonardo stumbled over his words, and Dylan sighs. These guys grew up in the sewer, it made sense they'd never had the opportunity to talk to... anyone queer.

"I'm not having this conversation standing up." He announces, than flops on the couch. "And I wear a dress cause it's cute, no other reason."

"So could I wear a dress?" Mikey questions, bright eyed and eager.

"Why would you wanna wear a dress?" Raph questions, eyebrows furrowed.

"Have you seen some of the dresses on those magazines and stuff? They're all shiny and sparkly and they look like so much fun, dude!" Dylan grins.

"And that's why I wear 'em! Plus, this particular brand of fashion has a lot of history that I really enjoy." He admits, glancing down at the soft grey lace and purple dress. "I do have to repair it, though, I think your shell tore my dress."

"Sorry about tearing your dress while I carried you to safety." Raph snarks, flopping onto the couch across from Dylan.

"Ooo, can you make me a dress! An orange one, like my mask, and really poofy with lots of ribbons!!" Mikey looks absolutely enthralled by the idea, and Dylan hums, thinking.

"I'd need you measurements, but maybe we can start with a skirt? The shell may be a bit of an issue to adjust for." Dylan explains. "And I'd have to get the fabric and materials, and I'm really only good at making costumes."

"I could help! I know how to sew, also." Leo volunteers, brightening. "It would be a fun project."

Dylan wonders just how quickly these guys got distracted.

"Ah, may I ask a question?"Donatello pipes up, having sat criss-cross on the floor. He looked bizarrely comfortable.

"Shoot." Dylan hums, feeling a fair bit less tired than before.

"Are you transgender? I had some suspicions but I wasn't sure whether they were accurate or not, and I've never met someone who's trans before, although I've done extensive research after it was mentioned in a conversation with April." Dylan doesn't know who April is.

"Yeah. I'm trans. Female to male, specifically, I'm wearing a binder right now." Granted, it was a compression top, but it was functionally the same thing and Dylan had carefully layered the fabric of his shirt and collar to disguise any extrusions in the chest area.

"Oh! That does explain the bone structure. Have you begun HRT yet?" Donatello hums, leaning forward. Fuck, Dylan sees why they used nicknames for each other.

"What does that mean? Transgender?" Raph sounds confused, and before Dylan can open his mouth, Donnie pipes up.

"Transgender is when a person identifies with a gender separate from the one they were given at birth. Dylan, for example, is female to male, meaning he's a guy but he was born with female secondary and primary sex characteristics. There's also several identities that fall under the trans umbrella, it's really quite fascinating!"

"So... he's a guy, but he has the wrong.. uh, bits?" Dylan snickers at Leo's bashful description.

"Yeah, kind of. It's a fair bit more complicated than that, because gender and sex are two separate things, but that's the rough approximation."

"So if gender and sex are separate, does that mean that someone can be neither? Or both?" Raph looks confused by the idea, but borderline curious.

"Yeah, actually. There's specific labels for that, but gender is generally really fucky and weird." He explains. "I have one friend, Maria, who's genderfluid and extremely proud of it, and another friend, Jinn, who's non-binary."

"What's genderfluid? That sounds neat!" Mikey questions, his face propped up on his hands as he leans forward. It's actually kind of adorable.

"It's when you don't always identify as the same thing. Like Maria, sometimes they feel prefer they/them pronouns like today, or sometimes they'll feel like a girl or a boy, or they won't use any of them."

"Oh! So like.. if some days you felt like a guy and a girl, would that fall under genderfluid? Or if some days you didn't feel like either?" Dylan squints. That was oddly specific.

"Yeah, actually. We can go over the general stuff later, and labels and stuff." Dylan can't believe he hadn't realized this kid was queer earlier. Mikey seems delighted at the idea.

"Alright! Weird gender stuff is over, I wanna know what Sensei asked you." Raph announces, pointing directly at Dylan.

"He basically just asked me about what happened. And uh.. offered to train me, since I don't have any formal training at all."

"None?!" Leo looks extremely alarmed, and the sneaking suspicion that Dylan maybe shouldn't be alive rears it's head. He beats that suspicion back with a stick. He didn't need another crisis, please and thank you.

"Dude, you must have killer instincts if you aren't like.. dead! We've been training since forever and those Foot guys were kicking our butts!" Mikey grins.

"Not as bad as his was." Raph really just had no fucking chill, huh?

"Thanks, Mikey! And uh, yeah, absolutely none."

"Wow." Apparently Leo has nothing else to say to that.

"Yeah." Dylan puffs a bit of bangs out of his eyes. "So, I'm probably gonna be down here a fair bit more."

"Oh, isn't that just great." Raph huffs.

"Well, actually, this could be a good thing, Raph. We can practice against someone that isn't us, or Sensei." Leo chirps, looking weirdly enthusiastic about the idea.

"Yeah, yeah." Dylan cracks a tired grin at Raph's apparent exhaustion, and sighs, running his hand through his hair.

"I actually should head out." He admits. "I have school tomorrow, and not just that, I'm about two hours past when usually turn in."

"Didn't you also mention not having slept for the past day or so?" Leo sounds extremely worried, and Dylan nods.

"Mhm."

"Yeah, you should probably get going than. Donnie, do you think you can whip up a T-phone for him to use, later?"

"Dunno what a T-phone is, but I'm going home and blacking out so hard I sleep through my alarm tomorrow. Night." Dylan sways when he pushes himself up.

"Night! Don't get jumped on the way back!" Raph calls. It's oddly considerate after a night of hell.