#at least he can be assured his girlfriend and themfriend will always come to his rescue!

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Polyship Week 2024, Day Three: Reverse Tropes – Convinced Not Actually Dating (Modern AU)

It's Day Three of Valicer Polyship Week 2024, as presented by @polyshipweek, and we're up to an interesting prompt: "Reverse Tropes!" Basically taking a trope and switching it around into its opposite -- the classic "Only One Bed" becomes "Too Many Beds," for example. Now, I wasn't originally going to do this prompt for this day -- I was more interested in "Queerplatonic Partners," as I felt I could write something interesting about Smiler and Alice's dynamic within the OT3 for that one --

And then I ended up writing "someone is a jerk to one of OT3 for some reason, and gets theirs by the end of the story" fics for Alice (Valicer In The Dark version) and Smiler (Soulmates AU version) for Days One and Two of this particular week, and decided that I needed to do a third story on that theme from Victor's POV to round out the trilogy. And when I looked at the linked examples of "reverse tropes" provided by Polyship Week in their write-up on the prompt, I came across this list which included the reverse-trope "Instead of fake dating, everyone is convinced that you aren’t actually dating." Pair that with various tumblr posts I've seen decrying people being "gatekeepers" when it comes to queer identities, and I quickly came up with a story where poor Victor gets harassed at his first Pride by a jerk who's convinced he's a "cis het faker" and can't believe he's dating Alice and Smiler. :( Sorry Victor -- I had a theme to keep to! And fortunately, as per that theme, he gets his at the end... Enjoy!

--

“So – first Pride, I’m guessing?”

“What – oh, yes,” Victor said, smiling awkwardly but genuinely at his surprise conversation partner as they – they looked like a man, but Victor was not about to make that assumption at Pride – sidled up to him. “A-am I that obvious?”

“I can spot people like you a mile away,” the person replied, looking him up and down. “Ben – he/him, if you care.”

“Oh, thank you – Victor, he/him as well,” Victor introduced himself, offering a hand. “N-nice to meet you.”

“Yeah,” Ben said, giving him a rather perfunctory shake. Then again, Victor supposed a handshake was probably a bit formal for this setting… “What are you doing here?”

“Just t-taking in the sights – my partner insisted we come,” Victor explained, glancing around hoping to spot Smiler or Alice and wave them over. I know I told them I’d be fine on my own for a bit, but they’re both so much better at talking to people than I am… “I grew up in a rather, ah, r-repressed little village, so I never got to experience this before now. It’s been…” He paused, swallowing as someone walked by in a leather harness and not much else. “Enlightening.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Ben said, folding his arms. “Partner, huh?”

“Yes – I have two, actually, but Alice is as new to Pride as I am – oh, there they are!” Victor pointed at Smiler – resplendent in their non-binary stripes tee, favorite pair of worn black jeans, and bright yellow sneakers – and Alice – proudly decked out in a purple dress with white and black triangles along the skirt hem – standing by what looked like one of the merch tables. Smiler was holding something in their hand, showing something to an intrigued-looking Alice. “Those two, right there. They’re really into celebrating who you are.”

Ben looked over at them, then back at Victor with a raised eyebrow. “You came here with them?”

“Yes – my girlfriend and my themfriend,” Victor said, a warm glow suffusing his body as he watched Smiler gesture at the thing in their hand while Alice rocked thoughtfully on her heels. “They’re – they’re the best. I’m quite lucky to have them in my life.”

“...yeah, I’m calling bullshit on that.”

Victor blinked at the sudden harshness in Ben’s tone. “I – what?”

“I said, I’m calling bullshit on that,” Ben snapped, moving a little closer to Victor. “Fuck me – you really think you can just gesture at anyone in this place and say that they’re your partners? Especially those two?”

“I – uh – n-no?” Victor stammered, automatically reaching for a tie that wasn’t there. “I – t-those are my p-partners.”

“Sure. Sure.” Ben looked him up and down again, appraising him and finding him wanting. “Two people like that are gonna want to hang out with you.”

...Oh. Oh wow. Victor had thought he was used to comments like that, but – he hadn’t expected to hear any of them at Pride. Nor for them to sting like that. “T-t-they do,” he insisted, aware that his nervous stutter was not helping matters. “I – I a-admit, I’m not sure why m-myself, but–”

“Save it,” Ben snapped, inserting himself into Victor’s personal space – and suddenly Victor was hyper-aware that, though Ben was shorter than him, he was definitely more muscular. He backed away on instinct, eyes flicking around for the nearest tall object to climb. “I told you – I can spot some cis het faker a mile away. You asshole – you think you can come here, enjoy the party, and claim to be one of us, then go back to being ‘normal’ tomorrow? Huh?”

“N-no! No, of course not – I-I-I’m bi!” Victor babbled, flapping a hand at his blue, pink, and purple sunset sweater while holding the other up placatingly.

“Sure, yeah, you’re ‘bi,’” Ben growled, complete with square quotes, and somehow that hurt even worse than being told he couldn’t possibly be dating Alice and Smiler. “Just long enough to get a few drinks, anyway. Then you’ll go home to your simpering little girlfriend and tell her all about us ‘queers’ and have a good laugh.” He poked Victor hard in the chest, making him stumble slightly. “Well, I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen. So how about you get your stuff and–”

“Excuse me.”

Ben turned around – and immediately doubled over as Alice’s fist introduced itself to his gut. “How about you get your stuff and clear out?” she snarled, in a tone of voice that Victor somehow knew she had used with Bumby. “Before I decide to show you just how good I am at knife tricks?”

“Alice,” Smiler said in warning – though judging by the expression on their face, they weren’t really all that concerned with stopping her. “No getting us kicked out.” Their eyes narrowed as they regarded the gasping Ben. “But yeah – I’d recommend you fucking skedaddle.”

It was a testament to how angry Smiler sounded that they could use the word “skedaddle” and yet Ben still left, holding his middle and shooting them all confused, slightly terrified looks. “Fucking gatekeepers,” Smiler grumbled, then wrapped a tight arm around Victor. “Hey – you okay?”

“I – I-I’ve been better,” Victor murmured, dropping his hands. “I d-didn’t expect...I t-thought...isn’t t-this whole thing about acceptance?”

“It’s supposed to be, but some idiots think they’ve got reverse gaydar and gotta ruin it for the ‘interlopers,’” Smiler said, rolling their eyes before giving him a squeeze. “Probably would have assumed I was a cis guy too…I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“And I’m sorry we didn’t show up earlier,” Alice said, coming around to give Victor a hug from the other side. “Smiler was rather invested in showing me some of the flag pins they had on display over there – we didn’t realize what was going on until the bastard started getting loud.”

“It’s fine – I’m sorry you had to do that at all,” Victor mumbled, putting his arms around both of them and pulling them against him. “I didn’t...I just…”

“It’s not your fault,” Smiler said firmly, patting his back. “You didn’t anything except exist.”

“Some people are just arseholes – believe me, I would know,” Alice agreed, before stretching up on tiptoe and tugging him to the side slightly so she could kiss his cheek. “But I imagine he won’t be bothering us again now that he knows how prone I am to violence.”

Victor laughed despite himself. “Hopefully...if you don’t get in trouble for slugging someone,” he added, grimacing.

“I think we’ve got plenty of eyewitnesses saying he pretty much started it,” Smiler assured him, looking around at the other attendees before shooting him a grin. “Would picking up a ‘Bi Pride’ pin make you feel better?”

“...I think it would, yes.”