Icarus woke slowly. There was a blanket thrown around him, and the world was swimming around him. He felt like he had been run through a wood chipper. His mouth tasted like cotton, and his head ached. With a groan, he sat up and looked around. He was in what looked like a tour bus, and someone had thrown a throw blanket over him. The lights were way too bright, and there was a shower running in the background. He swung his legs over and stumbled to his feet, nearly tripping over the amigurumi on the floor.

For a long moment, he stared at the amigurumi, and it stared back up at him, despite the fact that it had no eyes or face. The bright red and cream thing was studying him in silence, and he reflected that he just finished that on the bus before he got started on the stegosaurus. Had it saved his life? It… might have, actually. He didn’t know. It had clearly done something, and he was a little freaked out at the sight of it. It was alive. It was alive, and he didn’t know what to do about that. Why was it alive?

He had… re-awakened, he realized. He had re-awakened, and he sank down to the ground and buried his head in his hands. He had never wanted to re-awaken. He had never wanted this. Why him? Well, he supposed it was for the best. He would have died otherwise. He would take being A or S rank over being dead. But… What was his class? He didn’t know of any class that could bring crocheted animals to life.

Was he… a specialist?

He stiffened up as he realized he might actually be a specialist, and oh, gods, the media was going to have a field day with that. He didn’t want to be a specialist. Specialists got preferential treatment, and he…

Should he call Aiden?

No.

No, he wasn’t going to call Aiden.

Icarus took a deep breath in and reached into his pocket for his phone, but found that it was missing. Panic immediately spiked, and he looked around wildly for it, and the door to the bathroom opened. A person stepped out, and he fell on his ass and scrambled back, eyes gone wide.

“Awake, sleeping beauty?” Jesse Phillips in the flesh asked, and Icarus stared at him with wide, startled eyes. “Looking for this?”

He held up Icarus’s phone, and Icarus swallowed.

“Please give that back,” he said, and Jesse grinned ferally.

“No,” he said, and flipped it around. “You really should take off the fingerprint lock, by the way.”

“You went through my phone?!” Icarus asked in horror, and Jesse propped his hip up against the doorframe.

“Sure did, Kayla March,” he replied, and Icarus flinched at the deadname. “Or, should I call you something else? You had the trans pride flag saved as your wallpaper, sooo…”

“It’s Icarus,” Icarus muttered, and Jesse grinned at him.

“Icarus March,” he purred. “Your brother know you’re picking for Highlight Guild?”

“Aiden doesn’t talk to me,” Icarus said, and Jesse hummed as he flicked through his phone like he owned it.

“Kpop stan? Really?” he asked, and Icarus flushed.

“You went through my music? Seriously?”

“Sure fucking did. I wanted to know what I was dealing with here,” Jesse said, and Icarus’s expression darkened.

“Kpop is good,” he muttered, and Jesse laughed at him.

“Yeah, okay, Icarus,” he said. “The newspapers will eat that right up.”

“Well, can you please just give me my phone back?” Icarus asked, and Jesse stepped forward, wrapped in nothing but a towel and audacity, and dangled the phone in front of Icarus like he was a dog begging for a treat.

“Ask nicely,” he said, and Icarus snatched the phone out of his hand. His hand moved swiftly, a blur in the air, and Jesse blinked. “Whew. Those S-rank reflexes already kick in for you?”

“I, uhm,” Icarus stammered, and Jesse laughed at him.

“You’re such a nervous little thing,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “You’ll get over that soon enough.”

“What does that mean?” Icarus asked, offended, and Jesse winked at him.

“You’ll see,” he said, and Icarus came to his feet.

“Well, I’m gonna go now,” he said and turned for the door.

“Aw, don’t be like that, Icarus. Why don’t we talk about your brother?” Jesse asked, and Icarus froze. “Aiden, right? He never mentioned having a brother.”

“We don’t talk, and he wouldn’t have mentioned me being a brother,” Icarus bit out, and Jesse lifted his eyebrows.

“You don’t talk?” he echoed, and Icarus clamped a lid down on the rising sense of betrayal.

“No. We don’t,” he said shortly, and then he turned for the door. Jesse watched him go with predatory eyes.

“Interesting,” he murmured.

Icarus got the door open and walked out into the sun, only to realize an ambulance was waiting in front of the dungeon. Oh, gods, did someone else get hurt?

“Kayla March?” came a voice, and he turned to take in the sight of the woman standing there in a paramedic uniform.

“Yes?” he asked, and she tilted her head at him.

“We’re here to take you to the hospital,” she said, and Icarus mentally calculated the cost of an ambulance ride. The mushroom amigurumi at his feet looked up at him, and he gave the paramedic a tight smile.

“Uh, no, that’s okay,” Icarus replied and held up a hand. “I feel fine.”

“You just had a re-awakening,” she said stubbornly. “You’re going to be in pain off and on for another week.”

“Uh, I can handle it,” he replied, and she crossed her arms.

“Well, how are you going to get back?” she asked, and he looked around, only to realize the bus he had come on was gone, along with all of his crochet, along with all of his very expensive yarn. Dammit. They were halfway to Eloy.

“I, uhm,” he said, and Jesse opened the door to the bus.

“He’s riding back with us,” he called with a sly smile, and he flushed.

“I don’t need---”

“Yes. You do,” Jesse said casually, and he realized if he didn’t want to call Aiden, he would have to go back with them. Shit. Or he could pay the exorbitant ambulance fees, which he really didn’t want to do. He made enough for marketplace insurance or testosterone, not both, so he had chosen the testosterone. He had no insurance, and didn’t qualify for AHCCCS.

“Alright,” he muttered and turned back for the bus, only now realizing that the rest of team A were milling around outside of it. Great. Just. Fantastic. He was about to ride back to Glendale surrounded by S and A and B ranks.

With a sigh, he climbed up into the bus, and team A followed behind him. Jesse went back into the bathroom and closed the door, and Icarus climbed back onto the couch, pushing himself to the far corner of it with his phone, pulling up fanfiction to read, because he didn’t care if these people judged him.

Jenny Richards sat down right next to him, reached into a cooler, and pulled out a beer. She cracked it open, and he gave her a nervous look. She winked at him, her muscles on full display, her massive trademark warhammer propped up next to her.

“You want one?” she asked, and he shook his head no.

“I’m twenty,” he said, and she snorted.

“What? I’m not going to tell on you,” she said, and he was quiet. He just didn’t like the taste of beer.

“No, thank you,” he said politely, and she rolled out her shoulders.

“Suit yourself,” she said, and took a long swig of the beer. “Kayla, right?”

“It’s Icarus,” he muttered, and she lifted her eyebrows.

“Female to male?” she asked, and he nodded. “Neat. I’ve never met a tranny before.”

“That’s not…” he trailed off, because she was S-rank, and he was not about to explain to an S-rank why she shouldn’t use slurs. “Okay.”

Wait.

Was he S-rank now? He had to take the test to find out, and he didn’t want to call up his screen right now to see what his mana was at. If he was in the 1000 range, he was probably S-rank, but it was a nebulous thing, and depended on your class. Wait, did he have skills now? Was he going to get more skills? He’d never been one of the lucky F-ranks that had skills.

“So, what’s this little guy’s name?” she asked and bent over to tickle at the mushroom.

“... Mushroom,” he replied, because why the fuck would he name it?

“That’s it? Just Mushroom?” she asked, and he nodded. “You should name him Shrooms.”

“Shrooms, then,” he said, and she nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Shrooms,” she said to the mushroom, and it wiggled down and then executed an impressive leap to get on the couch. It hopped over to Icarus and got comfortable in his lap, and he stared at it with wide eyes. Honestly, why was it alive? This was so fucking weird. There was way too much happening.

“Hey, Jenny, gimme a beer,” Jesse said as he walked past, and she crinkled her nose at him.

“Get it yourself,” she replied, and he laughed harshly and got the cooler opening, popping open the beer and taking a swig before he sat down opposite Icarus. He reached into a drawer and drew out a jar of ‘medicinal’ gummies, cracking it open and popping one down, and Icarus shifted in discomfort before he turned his attention back to his phone.

“Want one?” Jesse asked and offered the jar of gummies to Icarus.

“Uh… no, thanks,” Icarus replied. “I have to ride after this.”

“Oh, that shitty Yamaha in the parking lot was yours?” Jesse asked. “You won’t be able to ride after this. The pain comes on randomly.”

“Oh,” he said, a bit stupidly. “Well, I don’t want to be impaired in an Uber.”

“Then lemme drive you home,” Jesse said with a sly smile, and Icarus paled.

“Uh, no, thank you,” he replied politely, and Jesse laughed.

“You’re so distrustful,” he teased, and Jenny frowned at him.

“Stop pressuring her,” she said, and Icarus internally cringed at the misgendering. Gods. How long did he have to be on T before that stopped?

“That’s a whole man,” Jesse said. “There’s no ‘her’ here.”

“Well, she still looks like a girl, so I’m gonna call her a her,” Jenny sniffed, and Arturo Salinas cleared his throat.

“That’s fucked up, Jenny,” he said and popped a gummy into his mouth.

“No, it’s not! She looks like a girl!” Jenny protested, and he abruptly just decided to focus on his fanfiction.

“Just because someone looks like a girl doesn’t mean you can misgender them,” Arturo said as Icarus scrolled through the my hero academia fic where Izuku had a quirk. There were so many fics where he had a quirk, and Icarus was getting a little tired of the trope. He abruptly backspaced and updated his filters, and Jenny crossed her arms.

“Well, us girls have to stand together,” she said. “There’s too much testosterone in here.”

“I take half a milliliter of testosterone once a week,” Icarus muttered, and she blinked in shock.

“Really? You don’t look like it,” she said, and he flushed.

“I’m only three months on T…” he said, and she tilted her head.

“How long does that take to work?”

“I should look fully male in a year,” he replied, and she blinked.

“Wow. I thought it worked faster than that,” she said, and he pressed a little more into the wall. This was the part he hated about being trans. It was always a discussion, and his phone pinged with a message.

Jacinto: I got tickets to Olivia Rodrigo tonight. Wanna go?

That was very last minute, and he blinked in surprise before he texted out his response.

Icarus: Sure. Pick me up?

Jacinto: Okay!

Hopefully there wasn’t a dungeon break. That would be unfortunate. The Olivia Rodrigo concert was taking place right next to a dungeon that hadn’t been closed yet, and it was a class C dungeon, which tended to open at random. The other ones were on timers, but C rank and below opened at random.

Ah, it would be fine.

Right?