Chapter Text
Luna nervously wrung her hands under the table and glanced around, as if afraid of being overheard. Charlotte leaned back in her chair. She seemed way more relaxed, but her shoulders revealed slight tension as well. Maya was the only one who seemed to not care at all about the men, who walked past them every once in a while. The three of them sat in a kind of break room in the castle, with giant windows, comfortable sitting corners and a few snacks and water bottles filling a shelf on one of the walls. A place to hang out and chill together in the evening or have a break and just spend some free time during the day. Or, in this case, to have a little conference between women.
“So, who’s gonna talk to him? I suppose we don’t need to do it together, right? One on one talk will be easier.”
“Right…”, Luna mumbled and looked away, while Charlotte nodded firmly. “Right.” Both exchanged a look of uncertainty before directing their gaze back at Maya, who had asked in the first place.
Maya stared back at them in silence for a few seconds. When no one said a word, she chuckled. “Alright, alright, guess it’s me then.”
“That would be great!”, Luna breathed in relief and Charlotte nodded once more. “It really would be great. If that’s okay with you?”
Grinning confidently, Maya ripped out a chunk of meat. “Sure is! No problem girls.”
“Th-thank you so, so much!”
“Thanks.”, Charlotte smiled. “Anything else we need to discuss? I have training scheduled in a few minutes.”
“A-and I have important things to do!”, Luna said and pushed her chair over the ground with a horrible screechy noise. Her eyes widened when every pair of eyes in the room suddenly turned to her. “Sorry!”, she exclaimed and immediately dashed out of the room.
Maya shook her head in amusement as they looked after her. They both got up as well, much calmer than Luna, and waved a small good bye to each other.
“Good luck, see you later!”
“Won’t need it!”
The now meatless bone found its way into the nearest trash can, when Maya was the last to leave. Confident as she always was, she was certain she could handle a little talk with their brilliant scientist leader. It might not be the easiest task, but that couldn’t stop her. Evenly optimistic as confident, she made her way to the lab, humming a random melody.
“Hey Xenooo ~ ”, she sang loudly as she entered.
“Miss Maya.”, he greeted calmy, barely looking up from whatever he was doing.
“Everything running smoothly here? Are you having a good day?”
Xeno sighed, but smiled slightly at the test tubes in his hands. “No need for unnecessary small talk, dear. If you come in here like that, I assume you want something from me.” With utmost care he put his test tubes down, turned around and looked her straight in the eyes. “What is it that you need?”
Maya grinned. Always so quick on the uptake. “Well.” In a strong motion of her muscular arm, the door of the lab was slammed shut. “We need to talk.” Suddenly very serious, she crossed her arms.
Xeno winced slightly at the noise, but his flawless composure didn’t falter any more than that. Curios, he looked from the closed door back to Maya and raised his brows. Something in her attitude was… irritating; in a way he couldn’t quite define. His subconscious even came up with the reassuring thought, that he could contact Stanley at any second. How odd.
“Elaborate, please.”
Maya took in a deep breath. “How familiar are you with the female body?”
Xeno blinked.
“If you are referring to the female reproductive system – then I’d say it is not exactly my field of expertise. Even considering my extended knowledge in various fields of science, I’m still a rocket scientist.”, who chose a male partner quite early on in life, he didn’t say out loud.
“Okay, well, you know we have something called a menstrual cycle, right?”
“I am familiar with the concept on a theoretical basis.”
“Good enough. Now that we have accomplished weapons and stuff, we women could need your science stuff to make our life easier. We talked about it and I’m here to announce our request for convenient hygiene products of our liking. And we are not in the mood to discuss the fact, that we definitely need it.” Demonstratively, she stood in front of the closed door. Her radiance was calm and not unfriendly, but her expression was unusual firm, leaving no room to argue. “I don’t want no for an answer, okay?”
For a long moment it was oddly silent, as if the flow of time itself had stopped. No one moved a single millimeter and the strange sensation of utter, unbreakable silence was only softened by quiet beeps here and there from various devices in the room.
Eventually, Xeno tilted his head in confusion. “…why would I say no? I will need your help with the specifics to compensate for my lack of experience and knowledge about the details, but I assure you, I will do whatever I can to re-invent convenient hygiene products.”
Now, Maya was confused as well. He just accepted their request? Without any discussion? No argument, no ‘that’s a you-problem’, no ‘I have more important things to do’. Nothing. Only immediate support. That was… unexpected.
“Uh... oh. Thanks then. I guess I just thought… well I didn’t think it would be so easy.”
“And why is that?”, he asked in genuine curiosity.
“I don’t know…”, she frowned. “In the old world it tended to be a pain to talk to men about that stuff.”
“Then I say it is a good thing we are not in the old world anymore.” His expression softened as something between realization and understanding appeared in his eyes. “My apologies, that I didn’t think of it sooner. I had no intention of neglecting a matter of such utmost importance. As far as I remember, the imbeciles of the old world have already taken up that cause. Neglecting any form of research considering the female physiology, I mean. We could have been so much further along by now, had it not been for the most inelegant rules of restriction. I have no means of doing the same.”
Despite all her confidence, a tiny bit of relief washed over her as she shook her head. “It’s fine, I guess it’s easy to forget if you don’t have a uterus yourself. The old world taught us women well to hide our issues in every situation possible.” For a moment she let her gaze fall to the floor, before showing Xeno a crooked smile. “But I gotta say - not that I expected anything else - it’s good to know for certain, that our leader is apparently not one of those… those men. You know what I mean.”
Xeno snorted. “Brain-damaged, on animal-instinct acting fools who thought themselves better than women, queer people or anyone else not like them?”, he asked way too casually.
“Yeah, exactly.”, Maya said, stunned about his level of understanding.
“I assure you, there is absolutely no reason to worry about those things. Gender equality won’t be an issue in this new world. The specifications of someone’s body, sexuality, appearance – all that simply doesn’t matter to me. It is not relevant to be a functioning member of our society, is it?”
“Of course not. I’m glad you see it that way, many in the old world didn’t.” Sighing, she flexed her biceps. “Even as MMA champion with a body of mine, I still got a lot of disgusting comments and was called the weaker sex.”
A tired smile found its way to Xeno's face. “We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but I would not, ever, assume to stand the smallest chance against any of you women in a fist fight. Like I said, the old world was full of idiots. Why do you think I seek world domination? The intention is not as evil as it may sound. It is a way of creating a new society. A better one. Where never again a brain-rotting gorilla should be in a position of power. They ruin everything. And I even feel like I’m insulting real gorillas by saying this.”
“You probably are.”, Maya chuckled. She didn’t know what outcome she had expected of this confrontation, but it certainly wasn’t this one. It was surprising in a more than positive way.
“Back in the day, I read quite an interesting article. I have to say that I didn’t check the methodological correctness, but a study suggested that pregnant women in stressful jobs were more likely to carry female fetuses. Because male fetuses seemed to be less likely to survive the stress. Isn’t that fascinating?” With his hands behind his back, he looked at her with a glint in those dark eyes.
And after seeing that, a very warm smile formend on Mayas face. Who knew she would feel gratitude of all things during a talk about women’s issues?
“That’s very interesting, yeah. Thanks, doc. You have no idea how unexpected good it felt to hear that.”
When he did nothing but smile in return, she glanced at the clock on the wall and scratched the back of her neck. “Anyway, that was all I wanted. I guess I should leave you to your work then.”
“Very well. Come back tomorrow, same time and we will talk about the details. And bring Miss Charlotte and Miss Luna along, if possible. The more opinions on the matter, the better the result will be for everyone.”
“All right, I will! See ya!”
Right as she turned to the door, it was opened from the other side. The person stopped abruptly, nearly running into her.
“Oh! Hello Stanley!”, she greeted happily.
Stanley froze, millimeters away from her and stared back without a word.
In the background, Xeno's gaze fell on Stanley as well and his smile grew significantly. “Maybe I do have an idea.”
Stanley only frowned as he waited for Maya to step out of the way. When she finally did, he walked over to Xeno without bothering to say hello, but not without a sideways glance as he passed her. “Nice lipstick.”
One would think it was something she wouldn’t expect him to say, but they had known each other for several years now. Therefore, she was only a little surprised that he even noticed the new color. It was a light rose, very discreet and natural. Most people would have missed it, but not him. “Oh, thanks. It’s a new creation by Charlotte!”
“Cool.”, he said unfazed as ever, before he leaned against the edge of the table right next to Xeno and casually crossed his arms. “What did I miss?”
Xeno grinned. “Not much. I was just explaining to Miss Maya, that we are no brain-damaged, women-hating, queer-phobic bastards, as you so elegantly put it once.”
It took about five seconds for Stanley to show any kind of reaction. Then he started laughing. And while Maya wasn’t sure why, Xeno's grin only got wider. What a rare sight to see them like that, so much display of amusement. Another unexpected, but very welcome event of the day. Maya always loved to see her people laugh and have fun, especially the ones who didn’t show their emotions as often as others.
Once Stanley calmed down, he grinned evenly amused as Xeno. “We of all people, wouldn’t that be a fuck of a double standard.” He put an arm around Xeno's waist and Xeno lost no time to mirror the action. “Indeed.”
Maya could only stare at the pair for a quite a while. Finally realizing the implications, she raised her brows. So much for knowing Stanley for years. How good some people were at hiding their private life, even without hiding their honest personality, was impressive.
“Ohh… I see.”, she chuckled, before happily waving at them. “Well, I should really go, good afternoon you two!” Smiling widely, she stepped through the door and went back to where she came from. Time to report this very interesting news to the girls!