Sometimes you just have to write your gay little cringe. I hadn't written a story specifically for trans!Wasabi so I decided to write this one based on my headcanon that his mom probably put him in dance classes before he transitioned.

This story is kind of dumb but I wanted to write it.

I am warning you now that if you think the Q word is a slur, I do use it once here. I don't believe it is a slur (I believe it was reclaimed) and I definitely don't use it as a slur, but I understand if it offends you.


"Mr. Ginger?" Wesley "Wasabi" Payton Ginger jumped at the sound of his name, standing to his full height of 6"4.

"Wesley is fine," He looked a little anxious as if this wasn't something he'd wanted to do for a while now.

"Have you ever done ballet before, Wesley?"

Wasabi considered his answer, wondering if she was old enough to remember him, deciding she probably wasn't, "I took classes here when I was younger. I uh, I went by my middle name then." It wasn't technically a lie, but it wasn't the only thing that had changed, either.

"Wonderful! It's never too late or too early to get back into ballet. And you're not even the only guy in our adult class. We were just waiting on you to arrive."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know I was supposed to come in. I assumed another class was going on." He worried a lot about doing or saying the wrong thing and at this point, he felt like he should just go home and try again in a few years.

"No worries, I'm glad you're here, and the others are excited to meet you." That should've made Wasabi feel better but it just made him more nervous. He had friends but he wasn't exactly the most outgoing, and he had no idea what was waiting for him on the other side of the door.

Since they'd been waiting for him, it felt like every eye was on him when he walked in. He was one of the youngest people in the adult class, though there were two others who seemed to be around his age, give or take a few years. Everyone else seemed to be somewhere in their thirties, except for the teacher, Ms. Fleming, who was a bit older. Wasabi counted in his head, there was one guy around his age, two other men, and about six women, not counting Ms. Fleming.

One of the older guys clapped Wasabi on the shoulder, which startled him.

"What's up, newbie? I'm Gregory, but you can call me Greg."

"Nice to meet you, sir, I'm Wesley, but, uh, Wes is fine."

"Nice to meet you too." Greg was as tall as Wesley and built like a tank, though there were smile lines on his tanned face so he was probably not as much of a threat as Wasabi instinctively perceived him as. Maybe Wasabi was just intimidated by people who had been alive longer than him. What dangerous secrets did they hold?

"Sydney," Greg called, nodding the other older dude over. Sydney was shorter but just as muscular and he had longish dirty blond hair pulled back in a nice bun, contrasting Greg's lack of hair nicely.

"This is my husband, Sydney. I'm a better dancer but he comes to the class for me."

"That's adorable," Wasabi blurted, his heart squeezing in a reaction that was usually reserved for videos of couples proposing to each other at the same time.

"Thank you," Sydney grinned, "It's nice to have another guy in the class." Wasabi smiled, feeling a little bit more at ease.

The third guy, lanky and wiry with short dark hair and pretty eyes, came over. This guy was probably the best suited for dance.

"I'm Rafael." Rafael held out a hand and Wasabi shook it.

"Are you Filipino?" Wasabi guessed.

"Yeah, good guess. Are you cishet?"

Wasabi looked flustered all of the sudden.

"Why does that matter?" Wasabi asked, fidgeting with his headband.

"Rafael, you're scaring our new friend," Sydney scolded.

"I'm nonbinary," Rafael explained, "I was just wondering because we've yet to have a straight guy-" Rafael paused and looked around the room, "or a straight person, for that matter. I was hoping we'd branch out. Hook a hetero."

Wasabi burst out laughing.

"I am so sorry to disappoint you, Rafael." A huge weight had been lifted off his chest, and not for the first time. It was hard making friends but it would've been so much harder to try to make straight friends. Wasabi was pretty sure he didn't have any straight friends.

"Sorry, I was pretty forward, you don't have to tell me how you identify," Now Rafael looked a little sheepish, they were technically the most recent student before Wes and they'd always had a hard time making good first impressions. Wasabi wasn't fazed, though.

"No worries. I'm bi and trans. I used to take classes here before I transitioned."

Rafael sighed dramatically, "Well, welcome to our queer little ballet class. I'm sure cishets dance too, they just haven't shown up here."

"I think you'd really like my friends," Wasabi commented, "Do you go to school around here?"

"Nope just graduated from San Fransokyo State. I was a music major."

"Oh, one of my friends just graduated from there. He did mostly online classes though. And most of my other friends and I just graduated from SFIT."

"You should invite them to class," Rafael suggested.

"Maybe I will. You should join us for coffee at The Lucky Cat Cafe."

"Maybe I will."

"You guys can exchange numbers later, it's time for class," Greg said.

"I'll introduce you to everyone else afterward," Rafael promised, and they prepared to dance.

As soon as they started the class it all came rushing back to Wasabi. He remembered his lessons as a little boy, though he'd been the only one who knew he was a boy at the time. That had been how he'd met GoGo. He'd kept up dance far longer than she had, she'd stopped coming because her mom hadn't stuck around to take her. When Wasabi looked into the mirrors it took him a moment to see who he was now instead of who he used to be. He'd stopped coming at one point too. Eventually, his mother's expectations of him had ruined the ballet experience. He was glad to be learning and dancing again, comfortable as himself. Maybe GoGo would come to class, she'd been a pretty good student. And he knew his whole friend group would like Rafael.

After class, Rafael introduced him him to the ladies. The woman who wasn't much older than them was named Jules. Then there was Ada, Lauren, Desiree, Emily, and Harley. Rafael really hadn't been kidding, there wasn't a single straight person in this class, and his butch, femme, bi, lesbian, and mtf classmates were all as accepting as Greg, Sydney, and Rafael had been.

"See you next week," Ms. Fleming waved as her students exited the classroom, talking and laughing, layered back up in their outside appropriate clothing.

"Do you want to grab that coffee now?" Rafael asked, pulling on their denim jacket.

"Mm, yeah I'll see if my friends are busy."

"You're going to come back to class, right? You're pretty good."

"Oh, I hope so, unless something happens that stops me. I've wanted to get back into dance for years. I met my best freind in the kids' class here. But my mom was one of those crazy dance moms and I couldn't deal with the pressure. It's already so much better."

"I'm glad. I started this class as a dare but then everyone was so welcoming and fun. We have a group chat and sometimes we meet up for drinks, and Greg, Sydney, Jules, and Harley all showed up to my last piano recital. We're like a mini family."

"You play the piano?"

"I was a music major, I play everything."

"That's impressive," Wasabi remarked.

"What can I say? I'm as talented as I am pretty," Rafael laughed.

"So you think you're pretty?" Wasabi asked, not thinking that sentence through at all.

"What, you think I'm ugly?" Rafael raised an eyebrow.

Wasabi's eyes widened, "No, no, sorry, I just meant… Adjectives are so gendered sometimes. I never know how my trans and nonbinary friends want to be called."

"Oh. Well, I like pretty and cute though beautiful is a stretch and you, sir, can call me any time."

"I don't think beautiful is a stretch," Wasabi commented, and Rafael's whole face tinted red.

"What about you? What do you like to be called?"

"Ah, I freeze up whenever anyone compliments me, but handsome works."

"Handsome is what I would've chosen too. What about your friends?"

"They don't freeze up at compliments. Well, maybe Hiro does a little, but he's 14. Most of my friends aren't children, by the way."

"I figured. I was just wondering about pronouns."

"Oh, GoGo is she/they nonbinary."

"You have a friend named GoGo? Actually that makes a lot of sense for a nonbinary person."

"Well, that's a nickname. My nickname is Wasabi."

"How'd you get that nickname?" Rafael asked, laughing a bit but seeming genuinely curious.

"I dripped wasabi on my sweater once and the nickname stuck."

"Well, if you like it."

"I've definitely gotten used to it. But you can call me Wes."

"Deal. Uh, you can call me Rafe, if you want."

"Alright, Rafe. The cafe is just around the corner."

Wasabi was right, his friends did really like Rafael, which was good since Rafe was probably going to stick around for a while. Neither of them was able to convince any of Wasabi's friends to join the dance class, but GoGo at least said she would think about it, which was a win in Wasabi's book. Wasabi knew that he would be back to the class and the little family that had formed there. He didn't know what he'd been so afraid of.


I never wanted to deadname Wasabi, but I imagined that he might have had a more gender-neutral name that he liked and made his middle name. My next story about the topic is going to go into why he chose the name Wesley, and another one of his hobbies.

Also, sorry not sorry for Rafael? I like them. They were fun to write. The dialogue was a little stupid but I had fun. Rafael will return. :D