AN: Still no fandom stuff, but warnings for mild tansphobia from family members. Main character considers himself a trans man but uses he/they pronouns, and is gender non-conforming. Beyond that, it's mostly more set-up.

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The money was divided as such.

Andania gave their parents a five million dollar gift in cash, to decide for themselves how they wanted to spend it. They opted to continue living in the family home, paying off the remaining mortgage, and proceeded to retire. The bulk of the money was stored in stocks and savings accounts, although their mother seemed to be splurging on home decor and crafting supplies. Their dad was putting together an old pickup truck, mostly to keep his hands busy.

Each sibling had a million granted through various accounts and contracts. Andania promised to donate a quarter of a million to their first house, and locked the rest in a fund that could only be accessed for school, retirement, or certain emergencies. They felt terrible for not trusting their siblings to be good with money, right up until their sister admitted she'd been planning to install hamster tunnels running through her walls. He knew she wasn’t great with money, but he hadn’t realized she was quite that stupid.

No friends received any cash. The first week made it obvious that none of them would be willing to respect his financial decisions, or capable of accepting restricted access without turning the whole situation into a miserable fight. Most of them were only distant high school friends anyways, and Andania refused to feel too bad for cutting them off outright.

And for his own portion? Andania decided that the stress of being around people wasn't worth it right now. Maybe if he'd blown all his money immediately, or if he’d managed to hide it, he would have been fine, but the local news had decided to announce their name pretty much immediately. Faced with constant demands and pleas from everyone withing a twenty mile radius, he opted to retreat instead.

It took a little over six months to find his dream home. Larger than he'd originally been looking for, he eventually settled on a veritable mini mansion, complete with a sprawling piece of land extending in all directions. It bordered between untouched woodland and empty fields, perfect for both a working farm and long nature hikes or camping retreats. The house itself had once contained everything from a library, to a massive kitchen, to an indoor swimming pool- all of which would have been perfect, if they'd been free from the passing of time.

The building wasn't abandoned by any means, but it wasn't perfect either. Paint was chipped and peeling. Gaps in the wood allowed the air to sweep through the hallways. Dust settled heavily where appliances had once sat, and the curtains were bleached an unfortunate off-white from the sun. It needed work- more than the average rich bozo would be bothered to put into a building they could simply build from scratch anyways.

For Andania, it was an opportunity. Cheaper than a building that size had any right to be, and a chance to make it all their own, while living far enough from the closest town that no one would bother visiting. It was a quiet escape, wrapped up in just enough rough edges that they wouldn't lose their mind with boredom. There was enough room to support his habit of collecting anything that caught his interest, and to move in his entire family and more if the need arose. (Not that he intended to do more than potentially adopt a couple of kids later on down the line, but better to be prepared than surprised.) The land gave him the option of starting a working farm- just large enough to support himself, minus a few necessities, while leaving the more wooded areas untouched for exploring. Maybe he'd take up hiking, or maybe he'd take up hunting to cover most of the meat portion of his diet. It was probably more humane then whatever the packaging plants were doing.

Packing was going to be a pain and a half, though. Andania had only moved twice before- from his childhood home into his parents current house, and later to his current apartment, neither of which had necessitated moving many appliances. The previous owners of his new home, however, had seen fit to take everything with them. On one hand, it meant he could splurge on all new appliances and know everything worked, and really make the place his own. On the other hand, the place was practically in the middle of nowhere, which meant he needed to lug those new appliances up there by himself.

He might be a man, but that didn't make him strong enough to move and install a fridge on his own. Thankfully, he had a little help.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that Andania was moving several hours away from the rest of the family, his parents wanted to help him move. He suspected it was mostly his mom's idea, unused to the idea that her kids were no longer ten minutes away from home at all times, and no doubt grateful for the money she'd been given. And of course if Mom wanted to go, she was going to prod the rest of the family into following.

"Are you going to have enough rooms for all of us to stay over?" She asked out of the blue one afternoon while Andania was busy digging out matching socks from the hamper. Honestly, he didn't even remember owning this many socks!

"Are all of us coming then? I'll probably have enough rooms, but I can't guarantee they'll be clean or have beds, so we should probably rent a hotel for at least a night or two while we clean everything up." That was another thing to add to the list. Andania dropped another pair of socks on the pile and reached for the notebook that had become a fixture in his life over the past three months. Flipping open to the third bookmark, he jotted down guest rooms - beds before setting it aside again.

"I'm not sure they'll have a proper hotel close enough, and you know how I am about motels," she hummed. Andania knew exactly what she meant- she'd given him the same complex after all. The last thing he needed in his new home was a fresh infestation of bedbugs- who knew what might have crawled in there already.

"Yeah no, I'm not making anyone stay in a motel. If we can get my bed and the couch set up on the first day, I can set up you and Dad on the bed, and someone can fight for a spot on the couch? The rest of us can bring tents and sleeping bags so we can camp out in the backyard with the kids." There would probably be enough sticks around to make a campfire, maybe a fallen tree if they were lucky. They flipped to another page in their notebook, jotting down s'mores stuff, fire starter, hot dogs, and camping stuff. "We'll need to bring something for Bam-Bam to sleep in, but that's a given. Are you two okay with Lily sharing the bed with you if she doesn't want to sleep outside?"

"That sounds perfect. Are you sure that you don't want the bed though? You've seen me sleep, and I you have first dibs on the couch if you’d rather." Mom offered, sounding far more sincere than Andania knew she felt. Her medical bills were part of the reason he'd given so much to his parents after all, and sleeping on the couch or the floor sounded like a terrible idea.

"Yeah, no, you know how I am with the stars. If anyone's sleeping outside it's gonna be me. If it's too grey or cold we'll just set the tents up inside. I think there's an empty ballroom or something, that ought to be easy enough to clean out." And maybe they needed to think a bit more on how they were going to keep all those rooms clean long term. Sure, they wouldn't be working, but there were a lot of floors to mop. Maybe they'd just take a day every month to do a whole 'spring cleaning' session. Or pay someone else to do it.

"If you're sure," she hummed. "Well, I'm sure you're busy packing still, but I have dinner just about ready over here if you'd rather take a break. I'm making your favorite!"

Oh no, she was making tacos. Tacos had been his favorite ever since the lid had fallen off the spice container once a few years ago, and she'd been forced to scoop out as much as she possibly could, before mixing in what amounted to a fifth of a can of taco seasoning. There was a very firm line drawn after that, between Mom's tacos and Mom's lose your lid tacos. Needless to say, he was a fan of the latter option.

Unfortunately, going over to his parents house came with it's own drawbacks, Most notably-

"I just wanted a chance to see my daughter before she moved so far away, you know? After this, we probably won't get a chance to see each other until Christmas!"

-That. It was bad enough he would have to put up with it for the next week while he was moving. No amount of discussion, gentle reminding, or time had been enough to dissuade his parents from referring to him by his dead name and gender, or worse, the joking 'thing-a-ma-jig' or 'it' comments. The whole family had treated him like a joke ever since he first came out, as if his gender was merely a poor decision he hadn't gone back on yet. They took his lack of visible transitioning as further proof, even when he tried to explain why it didn't work that way.

It was only for a few more weeks though. Once they were living halfway across the country, they'd see their family maybe three or four times a year at best. Work and time zones would hopefully get in the way of phone calls, and from there... Well, from there he would just have to figure things out.

He really didn't want to make his own dinner at this point, though, and tacos were his favorite. He couldn't make them near as well as his mom could, and he wouldn't be eating those for quite a long time either.

"Of course Mom, I'd love to have dinner with you tonight."

Somewhere in his heart, the words tasted like betrayal, but the taste was far to familiar to register.