Chapter Text
Crona was bunched up in their typical corner of their room at the DWMA. It was quite early in the morning, as the bright, warm sunlight was just starting to peek through the singular window.
Crona snuggled their face deeper into the pillow they clutched. Crona knew that some would probably think of them bunched up in this small corner as a pitiful sight (and they probably wouldn’t argue) but, the corner gave Crona some sort of feeling of comfort. Crona tended to just be a naturally anxious person and the tightness of the corner, their pillow acting as something soft and then the stone floor usually being quite cold that helped keep them grounded. So overall it was a very comforting experience in Crona’s little corner!
Though Crona is often anxious, a lot of time it's over for reasons that aren’t always clear to them. So sitting in the corner is not an unusual occurrence.
This time Crona did have an overwhelmingly clear reason for this trip to the corner. The same reason why they’ve been awake to watch as their room gradually becomes bathed in the nice, warm light of the sun.
Crona basked in it, snuggling their face deeper into their pillow. They allowed the sun to bathe them in its warmth. A small smile passed over their lips as they momentarily forgot about what they had planned to finally do today.
Crona had something they really, really wanted to tell their friends. Just thinking about “confronting” their friends about this, causes another wave of anxiety to wash over them. Crona knew deep down that their friends would absolutely be ok with what they had to tell them, but that didn’t make it any less scary.
Maybe Crona would just tell Maka. They do love all their friends very, very much, but there's just something about Maka that makes Crona feel less nervous. Crona’s also just always felt closer to Maka for some reason.
Crona looked up from their pillow, out of the window and at the warm sun. It seemed like it was less early in the morning now. Maka should be arriving shortly. For Crona had told her that they had something to tell her (they told her that it was something that they were gonna tell everyone, but Crona’s now getting somewhat cold feet and they’re sure Maka would understand that).
Crona put their head back down on their pillow, another wave of anxiety yet again washing over them yet again. This time from the feeling of the impending doom of Maka’s arrival. Crona thought of maybe getting up and busying themself to distract themself from the anxiety. But they ended up just falling asleep, the sun warming their back and the top of their head while they slept.
Crona was eventually awoken by the inevitable arrival of Maka.
Maka had slowly pushed Crona’s door open, after knowing to no-reply (since Crona was sleeping). And out of worry for the safety and whereabouts of Crona, she had slowly opened the door to peek her head through to scope out the scene.
Crona was now awake, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Maka sighed in relief of seeing Crona ok, and stepped fully into the room.
She smiled at Crona, “Good morning! I hope you got at least a little bit of sleep!!”
Crona smiled back at Maka, giving her a sleepy good morning in response.
Maka moved closer to Crona, she stood there awkwardly for a second before smoothing her skirt a bit before sitting down next to them.
She would look at Crona for a bit. Crona would look back at her for the most part. But, their eyes tended to drift a bit, to their pillow, the floor, the door, and finally back to Maka.
Maka finally started to try and break the silence, “sooo,” her eyes would flick around the room a bit, and she would also begin to fiddle with the hem of her skirt. “What did you want me to tell you?”
Crona noticed that Maka hadn’t brought up telling everyone. Maybe she had noticed the air around them of anxiousness. And then decided it being just the two of them would be for the better?
Crona started to fidget a bit, shifting weight slightly, looking away from Maka’s gaze, fiddling with their hands and the pillow. Before finally directing their attention back to Maka.
Crona began to think about how much of a good friend Maka’s always been, especially right now. She was being so nice and patient for Crona. It almost made Crona tear up a bit, but they made themselves stop so they could save the tears for when they actually tell Maka.
Maka brought her knees to her chest, leaning on them slightly and looking at Crona. Crona looked back at Maka but then swiftly looked away again, deciding this would be easier without the eye contact.
A few more strained quiet minutes were drawn out, before Crona blurted out, “I’m non-binary!” They quickly buried their head into their pillow, nervous.
At least that’s the word that they read around, Crona’s usually not really sure about much and still wasn’t 100% confident about this. But, when they had found and read about that label it just felt like them. It basically felt like it had clicked immediately.
Suddenly realizing that from the silence that Maka might be confused about this. Since Crona had read about how it’s common but not yet really in the public eye. So Crona launched into rambling, “Um… It basically just means that I don’t feel like a boy or a girl. No, that I’m not a boy or a girl…” Crona continued to ramble after that, slowly gaining confidence in their identity but not enough to stop Crona’s speaking to be a rambly stream of consciousness, about how they found out about the label and all the weird feelings they’ve been having about their gender.
By the end there were tears in the corners of Crona’s eyes.
“Hey…” Maka started. “Can I hug you?”
Crona looked back at her and nodded. She then swept Crona up into a tight and comforting hug. They stayed like that for some time, before Maka gave Crona one more big squeeze before letting go.
“I’m so proud of you Crona! Thank you for telling me this!”
Maka smiled wide, and Crona smiled back at her.
“So... How should I refer to you? Like pronouns and stuff?”
“Oh, umm…” Crona stammered, trying to find the right words to continue with, “I think I like they/them. I mean I don’t mind he/him, but I think that’s just cause I’m used to them. Y’know? So… Ya they/them please”.
They would avoid eye contact and begin to fidget with a piece of their hair.
Maka nods, smiling at Crona once again. “Ok! They/them it is!”
They sat in silence for a minute or two, before Maka began rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “Hopefully this doesn’t come off as weird or anything…”
Crona’s heart would suddenly begin beating intensely. They would look at Maka with fear and then swiftly looked away again. They would brace themself for any bad comments that were going to be said.
Maka was also looking away from Crona so she didn’t see them freeze in fear.
“I feel like I should tell you this, soo… Truth be told, I've already had a feeling about this. So I’ve already done some research into this. Hopefully that was an ok thing for me to do. Just so you know Crona I’ll always support you unconditionally!”
Crona was surprised by this, as they were obviously bracing for some sort of snide remark. Crona would begin to tear up a bit, and hugged Maka.
After their second hug was over Maka would begin to speak again, “ So… I remember that you first told me that you had something to tell the whole group, and I didn’t bring that up until now cause I felt that it would be more comfortable right now with just us two”. She smiled at Crona before continuing, “ So, I just wanted to bring it up to see if you wanted to go and tell everyone?” She paused for a bit. “It’s absolutely fine if you don’t want to! Take your time! I’ll always be here to support you no matter what?”
Crona sunk into their pillow a bit. “I think I want to tell them… But I think I want you to help me do it…” Crona fidgeted a bit.
“Of course I’ll help you!”
Maka got up off the floor and stood in front of Crona, and extended a hand to them.
Crona was a little hesitant to take it.
“And if anyone is mean to you, me and Soul will beat them up!”
This made Crona giggle a little, as they took Maka’s hand.