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Kiran loaded the orbs into Breidablik, taking his place in front of the Summoning Stone. It was April again, and time for yet another wave of younger versions of heroes to make their way to Askr. It was strange, pulling children into the Order of Heroes, but the little scamps had a way of amusing the heroes that knew them as adults, and of filling their adult selves with nostalgia.
This year, the first hero that Kiran successfully managed to summon was, very clearly, Commander Anna herself. She really hadn’t changed at all over the years, that same bright red ponytail bouncing beside her face. This Anna, however, was still convinced that she would one day be a merchant from the way that she introduced herself, and didn’t seem even slightly prepared for battle. It was sort of adorable, thought Kiran, as he called this Zenith’s native Commander Anna to watch over her younger self, and to remain on standby to debrief any more young heroes summoned.
Next, predictably, was a younger version of Alfonse, followed not long after by the duo of a younger Sharena and a pre-Ljósálfar Peony, hand-in-hand and happily trotting over to the others. He wondered who would be next. Fjorm, probably. She had a way of turning up just about everywhere.
Kiran fired orbs at the Summoning Stone for what felt like an eternity, until he finally felt the tell-tale pullings of a brand new hero entering Askr. But when the dust settled…
It took every ounce of willpower he had to stop himself from sending this one home immediately.
The androgynous child looked around, confused, their overly-long side-swept bangs hanging over one eye. Their dark hair was frizzy and brittle from over-straightening, their mouth was full of bright, multicolored braces, and their dark skin was an exact match for Kiran’s own. They wore a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a mustache, a multitude of colorful rubber bands in whimsical shapes, and a T-shirt emblazoned with a legendary creature that Kiran had not seen since arriving in Askr–Nyan Cat. They wore skinny jeans, a pair of high-top sneakers, and enough AXE body spray to singe someone’s nose hairs if they got too close. Most damning of all, they were carrying an off-brand Nerf gun that looked suspiciously like an uglier, plastic version of Breidablik.
Before Kiran could stop them from speaking, they introduced themself in the manner of all new arrivals. “Oh my god hiiii! My name is Alexis and I’m like, really random! The narwhal bacons at midnight XD XD” (to Kiran’s utter horror, they actually said the letters “X” and “D” out loud).
The other children greeted… the child (Kiran just could not bring himself to think of him as Alexis, even if this version of them still called himself that), who very quickly seemed to fit right in with them all, despite the incredibly painful early-2010s vernacular they spoke in.
Commander Anna just looked at Kiran, blinking slowly. “Uhh… is that…?”
He just nodded, stowing Breidablik and shoving his hands in the big, comfy pockets of his robe.
He didn’t want to talk about it with Anna, or anyone, really. Middle school was a weird, confusing time for everybody. He felt a pang of jealousy for all of his friends from weird, pseudo-medieval fantasy worlds. Why did they all seem to know exactly who they were supposed to be at that age? None of the others had to deal with anything this annoying.
He wondered briefly if any of the Mirage Masters would understand his pain. After all, the world they’d come from was almost exactly the same as his own…
No. It was far too specific of a nightmare to be able to explain to someone who wasn’t living it. Kiria might sympathize, but he wasn’t sure how he’d even wrap his head around this embarrassing situation enough to explain it to her.
No, he’d simply suffer alone, listening to those grating, cringey, dated, dysphoria-inducing lines every single time he sent the new hero into battle.
At least, that was the plan.
Word got around fast in the Order of Heroes, and between battles, almost everyone had a habit of socializing, gossipping, and making new friends from different worlds. “Alexis,” clearly, was no different, and it didn’t take a genius to trace them back to Kiran.
One day, Kiran was approached by Kris and Kris.
“Welcome to the club,” the female Kris laughed.
“Huh? What club?” For a few blissful moments, Kiran had managed to forget.
“Well,” the male Kris replied, “You’re like us and the Robins, Corrins, Byleths, Morgans, and Kanas now. I think it’s just us, which is pretty funny considering how many heroes there are in the Order!”
Kiran cocked his head to the side in genuine confusion, lowering his hood to get a better look at the Krises.
“You know, how we’re different genders in different timelines. It’s pretty interesting,” the female Kris clarified.
“Oh. Right.” Kiran could feel the blood rush to his cheeks, grateful that only his absolute closest friends could tell when he was blushing.
“It’s weird that her name is different from yours though,” the male Kris added, stroking his chin. “All of us have the same names in all of the timelines.”
“That’s not exactly true,” his counterpart said. “Some of the Robins are actually Grimas, so Alexis and Kiran are probably the same.”
“Oh! That’s right! I almost forgot! I don’t spend much time with the Grimas, they’re kind of…”
“Yeah…”
It would have been easy to leave it there, but he didn’t really want to be dishonest with his comrades. “I… don’t think it’s the same situation. That kid looks a lot like… how I used to look, at their age.”
The Krises shared a look before nodding sagely.
“Oh, that makes sense!”
“A lot of heroes are trans, Kiran,” said the male Kris, his tone conveying an attempt at comfort. “It’s not a big deal.”
“It’s not even just that,” he grumbled. “They’re so…”
Both of the Krises laughed.
“You should see how Merric looks at his child-self sometimes,” the female Kris laughed. “I overheard him asking Marth once if those pointy hoods were ever actually in style back home, or if he was just a dork as a kid.”
“What did Marth say?” asked her counterpart.
“Both!” she snorted, and Kiran couldn’t help but smile. Maybe he wasn’t so alone.
But he still didn’t like the situation.
It didn’t get any better, either. Alexis (fine, whatever, if they insisted, then he guessed he could begrudgingly use that name) was always getting into some kind of mischief or another. If they weren’t giving Nina way too much encouragement over her doujinshi, they were confusing other heroes with terrible, outdated memes that Kiran had managed to forget until someone asked him about them.
Once, Kiran watched them high-five Lon’qu after a battle, who spent the next ten minutes scratching his head over their non-intimidating vibes.
Later the same day, Kiran watched them get bitten by an unattended pegasus that they were “petting” in such a way that definitely crossed the border into “harassing.” He was about to go check on them, but Hubert appeared (seemingly out of nowhere) and beat him to it.
Kiran stayed back, simply watching the interaction play out.
“You know,” said Hubert, an oddly older brother-ish tone to his voice that Kiran wasn’t sure he’d ever heard before, “something similar once happened to me when I was about your age.”
Alexis just laughed. “Get pwned, noob, boys can’t be friends with pegasi unless they’re from Hoshido. Farina told me.”
Hubert chuckled darkly, meeting eyes with Kiran from across the path, an unreadable smirk on his face. “Oh? You don’t say. My mistake, I suppose…” The sarcasm was lost on Alexis, but the interaction stuck with Kiran for longer than it should have.
A few days later, he was confronted about it again–this time, by Camus and Sirius.
“We couldn’t help but overhear your situation from Kris,” drawled Camus.
“Which one?” asked Kiran, knowing damn well that he wouldn’t actually be able to derail the conversation with these two.
“Both of them,” Sirius said, his voice so identical that Kiran actually had to watch their mouths closely to tell which was speaking.
“It seems that they believed that you and Alexis bore some similarity to themselves, when really, you have more in common with the two of us and Zeke.”
Kiran frowned. Right for the jugular.
“It is a complicated problem. Do you tell yourself all of the things that you wish that you had known when you were in their position–”
Camus cut Sirius off, “--or do you simply leave them to their own devices, trusting that they will learn everything they need to when the time is right?”
“You run the risk of hurting yourself, regardless.”
Kiran frowned. Sure, Alexis was annoying. Everything out of their mouth made him cringe, or made him feel dysphoric. But…
They were right. The problem was deeper than that. They thought about Hubert, obviously biting his tongue instead of potentially crossing a line with Kiran by empathizing with the child. How many other heroes, especially other trans heroes, were doing the same thing? All of them understood implicitly, it seemed, that this was Kiran’s problem and Kiran’s problem alone. If he didn’t tell them… no one should, as much as many likely wanted to.
“I don’t know what to do,” Kiran finally admitted.
“We encountered the same problem with Zeke,” Sirius said.
“We, however, had a perspective that you lacked. Sirius is Zeke’s future, as you are to Alexis. But I am his past, and yet I still know more about the three of us than he does. It is… a painful problem.”
“What did you do?”
The two nearly-identical heroes looked at one another, as if silently deciding who would speak.
Sirius was the one who answered, “We decided against telling him directly. We simply nudged him in a direction that would give him succor in a way that he would understand.”
Kiran thought about that for a moment. Knowing the three of them, they likely sparred with him, which definitely wasn’t going to be the solution that would work for Alexis. Still, it was good food for thought.
“It wasn’t our place to tell him the details of his past or his future. There are many things that Sirius knows that he will not reveal to me, as well. When we return to our own times, it will be up to us as individuals to forge our own paths. Perhaps Alexis’ future will be different from yours. Your responsibility as Alexis’ future is simply to make sure that she is ready to face whatever comes next.”
“Camus, I believe referring to Alexis in such a way is causing Kiran some discomfort.”
“I apologize for any discomfort caused, Kiran, and I do not wish to offend. I merely wish to make it clear that I believe Alexis to be a separate entity from you, much as I myself am from both Sirius and Zeke.”
“Well spoken,” Sirius said, ultimately agreeing.
“Well, no offense, but I’m not sure either of you are experts on trans issues,” grumbled Kiran.
“That is true as well. I shall consult with Sonya on the matter at once,” Sirius said.
“Oh?” Camus seemed mildly surprised by the implication.
“All things that you may learn in time, my friend,” Sirius clapped a hand on his younger self’s shoulder, and the two of them left Kiran to mull over their words.
Soon, Kiran found himself wandering the parapets of Askr castle, picking a spot to gaze out over the land. The Aether Keep floated by in the distance, and he briefly considered warping to the resort’s hot spring for some much needed R&R. No, he ultimately decided; this was something incredibly important that he really needed to give some thought to–it wouldn’t do at all for him to get distracted or sleepy. Instead he simply sat, his legs dangling several stories above the ground, staring off into the evening mist that hung over the land of Askr.
“I thought I might find you up here.”
Kiran leaned backwards and found himself looking up into Prince Alfonse’s beautiful blue eyes.
“Really? Of all the places I could be right now?”
“I know you like to come up here to think,” Alfonse insisted, settling down next to the summoner. “And I heard about the conversation you had with Camus and Sirius.”
Kiran groaned. “Even you like to get in on the gossip, huh, Alfonse?”
The prince laughed. “It’s something to do that isn’t fighting.”
The two young men sat in comfortable, companionable silence for a minute.
“What do you think?”
Alfonse blinked. “Me? Well…”
He sighed, shifting his position slightly. Kiran watched his every move, smiling despite himself. He’d never really thought about it, but Alfonse’s hairstyle definitely would have made him the coolest guy in Kiran’s middle school.
“Truth be told… all I can think of is… how I first felt when you summoned Líf.”
Kiran’s eyes widened. Somehow, he hadn’t been expecting that, which… now that he thought about it, maybe he should have been.
“It was like… after everything that had happened with him and Hel, and knowing what my future could have been like… It was hard to work alongside him, you know? Not because of any lingering malice or anything, just… knowing how different we were, but how easily we could have been exactly the same. Knowing how much pain he’d gone through. Having to look him in the eye and knowing, the whole time, how I would feel if our situations were reversed. I’m not sure I’d ever be able to forgive him, if they were. Not because he would have done anything wrong, but just because… of what he would represent, I guess. How happy he’d be, and how miserable and empty and full of regret I’d be. I felt so… guilty. Like I was parading everything he was supposed to have in front of him. It’s not like I was doing it on purpose, but…” Alfonse sighed. “I don’t know. It’s a totally different situation from what you’re going through, so I can’t imagine how applicable the experience is.”
Kiran frowned, thinking hard about Alfonse’s words. His life was great. Sure, there were things he missed about the World of Steel, but he loved being here in Askr. There was so much to do, so many wonderful people. Alfonse was right, his situation with Líf wasn’t really applicable.
Unless…
Kiran forced himself to remember, really remember, what his life had been like in middle school. He’d been… empty. Like a ghost piloting a corpse. The friendships he’d made, the hobbies he’d had… it all just felt like hollow imitations of life. He hadn’t known who he was yet, but more than that, he had no idea what was missing. It was like he was watching the world through a pane of glass, “normal” people with their “normal” lives, and no matter how much he tried to imitate them, it never… fit. He did his hair like the girls he saw on Tumblr; he desperately tried to find a community on Reddit. He was afraid of his masculinity, he resented his femininity, and on top of everything, he couldn’t even put a word to the way he was feeling. The concept of “gender dysphoria” wouldn’t enter his lexicon until high school, and it wasn’t even until after he’d been summoned to Askr that he’d managed to actually transition (thanks mostly to Ike–the Brave Mercenary, not the Young Mercenary–who was able to share what had worked for him in this weird, low-tech fantasy world). The middle school Kiran was a broken boy, trying desperately to glue his pieces together into the facsimile of an only mildly-damaged girl, and covering the whole thing with a sort of genderless, devil-may-care memelord facade.
And for Alexis… that was still all that life was.
At that moment, everything became clear. His heart broke for the child he’d spent days cringing at, mentally berating himself for begrudging them every bit of self-expression and exploration they’d managed to achieve. It was… painful to look at, sure, but it wasn’t really about him. Alexis was their own person, and damn, they needed help.
“Alfonse,” said Kiran, his voice small and unsteady, “You’re a genius.”
“Huh?”
He swept the prince up in his arms and squeezed him tight, burying his face in his chest. “God, I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, Kiran,” Alfonse said fondly, stroking the summoner’s bleached-blond hair and tilting his face down to press a kiss to his forehead. “I still don’t know why I’m a genius, though.”
“No time to explain,” he said quickly, kissing Alfonse’s lips before pulling himself to his feet, “I have a me I need to talk to.”
He took off running and didn’t stop until he reached the front gate of the castle, where the Gatekeeper stood at attention.
“Greetings, Summoner! Nothing to report!”
“Cool, thanks. Where’s Alexis?”
“Hmm… I think I saw her heading for the stables.”
“Got it, thanks,” Kiran called over his shoulder, already in motion once again.
Once he arrived, he was mildly surprised to find Alexis sitting in the grass, a respectable distance from the pegasus enclosure, snapping the Silly Bandz against their wrist in a gesture that Kiran knew meant that they were thinking really, really hard. It was spooky, like watching a living, breathing home movie.
Alexis looked up, their gaze distant. “Hey, Kiran,” they mumbled noncommittally, not looking the summoner in the eye.
“Hey.” He sat down next to his younger self, pushing his hood back. “There are probably better places to think than on the ground, you know.”
Alexis just snorted.
For all of the energy that had driven Kiran to Alexis’ side, he couldn’t think of anything to say. His thoughts were a tangled mess and no matter how he’d seen this conversation unfolding in his head, he just couldn’t get the words out.
“Are you called that cuz you’re a weeb?” Alexis asked bluntly, their face deadly serious.
“...What?”
“Kirakira is like… ‘sparkle sparkle’ in Japanese.”
Kiran pursed their lips tightly as if they’d just eaten a lemon. “I mean… no, it’s… that’s not the reason,” they said, like a liar, “I just… I like it, it’s a good name.”
“I had a ‘Naruto’ OC named Kiran once. He had a gun. I drew him one time and it sucked so I threw it in the trash and vowed never to speak of him again.”
Kiran’s heart almost stopped. Oh. Oh god. He’d almost completely forgotten. Oh no, why did he have to remember that now? He’d have to start over, change his name, figure out how to wipe everyone’s memories so that they would never–
“Hey, can I talk to you about something that’s like… really weird? And if it’s too weird, we can just pretend it never happened?”
Kiran blinked, turning to look–really look–at their younger self. They’d never looked so small and vulnerable in all the time they’d been in Askr. “Of course. But just know… there are a lot of weird people in Askr. Nothing surprises me anymore.”
“Okay.” Alexis took a deep breath. “Do you know Ike?”
Hm, alright, that one had thrown him a bit, he had to admit. “There are a bunch of Ikes.”
“The one that’s my age.”
Oh, right, he’d come to Askr last April. Kiran had almost forgotten. “Sure, of course I do. I’m actually pretty good friends with some of the other Ikes, too, so I definitely know him.”
“Oh, okay, good.” Alexis fell silent for an uncomfortably long time, save for the sound of Silly Bandz against skin. “Did you know that he’s, um…” Kiran could tell that Alexis was blushing, and he looked away, suddenly overcome by vicarious embarrassment. “Well, it’s like. Okay, so it wasn’t anything weird or gross or anything, but me and him and Mist went to the hot springs at the Aether Resort this morning and I know I probably shouldn’t have looked because he’s a boy, or like, I thought he was? But like… I kiiinda saw him naked, and he… uhhh…”
Kiran nodded slowly, deciding it was probably a good time to intervene.
“Yes, I know exactly what you’re talking about.”
“Do you know, umm… like… what’s the deal with him? Like, he says he’s a boy, but he doesn’t… umm…”
“Did you ask him about it?”
“Well, yeah! I mean, I wasn’t going to because I was really embarrassed, but apparently hot springs aren’t weird in Tellius so he was okay with it? But he just said he was always like that but he was a boy anyway and like… is that… possible?”
Relief flooded Kiran’s mind. Thank god for Askr.
“What do you think?”
“Well…” Alexis scrunched their face up, thinking hard. “I mean, I guess… I’ve been thinking a lot about it. Like, not about him, like, not in a weird way, he’s really cool but he’s not the guy that I’m… uhh, anyway… like… how does someone know what gender they are?”
“That’s not an easy question,” Kiran said softly.
“Like, I’m not stupid or anything,” they continued, “I’ve heard of transgender before, like on Tumblr and stuff, but… that’s like, kind of rare, right? And people know from when they’re babies, right? So you can’t just, like… be trans and not know about it, right? You’d have to be kinda stupid or just bad at gender for that to happen, right?”
Kiran smiled despite himself at the phrase “bad at gender.” That was a pretty good one, actually. “No. I mean… I’m trans, and I didn’t know until I was sixteen. Comparing us, you’re basically still a baby. If you think you might be a boy, you have years and years to figure it out. Sixteen isn’t even very old. I know about people who didn’t know they were trans until they were, like, eighty.”
“Wow. Okay.” Alexis breathed deeply, trying to take it all in. “I guess it would make a lot of sense, though. Like, the pegasi hate me.” From the way they said that, Kiran felt like that particular fact must have hurt more than Alexis wanted it to. Made sense. They were gorgeous animals. “But… wouldn’t it be weird if I was trans, though? There are a lot of girl things that I really like.”
“What’s a ‘girl thing?’” Kiran snorted.
“I mean like, feminine stuff, dipshit,” they said. “I used to play with dolls when I was a kid, and I still really like magical girl animes and stuff.”
“So do I,” Kiran said. “No shame in that. Good stuff is good stuff, and you like what you like. Have you met Forrest yet?”
“Nina’s friend? I’ve heard her talk about him, but I haven’t had the chance to meet him yet.”
“Well, if you see him, you’ll get what I’m talking about. Gender is whatever you want it to be. It’s more about how you feel than what you want to wear or do or anything like that.”
“What if you don’t know what you want it to be?”
“You don’t have to. Just… go with your gut instinct. If it feels right, it’s probably right for now. If it stops feeling right, then it’s not right anymore. Just let it happen.”
“This is really dumb. Do not want.”
“Tell me about it. But, you know, once you do figure it out, I think you’ll actually be saying… ‘Me gusta.’”
Alexis cackled. “Okay. You’re like, too old for memes though.”
“I’m not old, I’m like twenty-two.”
“Bet, Grandpa Surprise.”
“...What?”
“You know, like Grandma Surprise? The advice animal with the old lady at the computer? She reacts to like, shock sites and stuff.”
“Oh god I forgot that one.”
“You’re like, the only other person in Askr who knows memes,” Alexis said, narrowing their eyes suspiciously.
“Oh, well, I just–”
“Hey, wait a second!” Kiran held their breath, waiting for Alexis to figure everything out. “...If I was a boy, and I still like boys… would that make me yaoi?”
The breath that Kiran had been holding shot out through his nose with such force that his septum ached, and he wheezed as tears formed in his eyes.
“Hey, that was an actual question, it wasn’t a joke.”
“Yeah, uhh… I’m sorry. I mean… it’s gay as hell, dude. But I wouldn’t say it’s… ‘yaoi,’ that’s like… that’s a specific… genre? It’s not just… you can’t just be…” Kiran dissolved into laughter again.
“Oh yeah? We’ll see if it’s still funny when you… lose the game! Pwned! Get fucked!”
“Oh, goddammit, I haven’t lost the game in years.” Kiran slowly stopped laughing, wiping the tears from his eyes and sitting up.
“I’m gonna have to tell Nina–”
“Wait, no, hang on.” Kiran srsed the fuck up (oh goddammit le epic memeing was infectious). “Nina’s a grown woman and a lot of her art is… not really for kids. And–”
“I’m not a baby, Kiran, I’m eleven and I’m mature for my age and I’ve seen worse stuff on Reddit, so like…”
“Yeah, that’s… not really the point…”
“But she doesn’t show me anything inappropriate,” Alexis admitted, rolling their eyes. “She said she can show me the rest when I’m older, but now she just lets me look at them, like, kissing and stuff. And straight people kiss all the time in movies for babies, so if you say she shouldn’t let me look at that, then you’re basically a homophobe.”
“I mean… you’re right,” he relented, just relieved to hear that Nina had some actual standards. He was never too sure what was going on in that girl’s head. “Just… I get that things have been hard for you, so I’m glad to see that you’re thinking about stuff and finding out who you are and everything. Askr’s… really good for that, actually.”
“Mhm.” Alexis sighed dreamily. “Someday I wanna be the princess of Askr.”
“What?”
“What?” Alexis very quickly shook themself out of their reverie. “Or… oh, maybe not the ‘princess?’ Since I might be a boy. I don’t know, I have to think about it some more.”
“Um. Okay.” Kiran debated with himself for a solid ten seconds before giving in to curiosity. “How would you become royalty, though?”
“Oh. Well… Okay, but if I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone else. If you do, you’re dead. Okay, like, literally, I’ll murder you, there’s a lot of weapons in Askr, don’t test me.” Kiran just raised his hands in surrender, and Alexis’ eyes darted around, making sure no one else was around. “I really really like Prince Alfonse.”
“Excuse me?”
Alexis waved their hands really quickly, “Wait, no, no, not like, the old Prince Alfonse from this timeline, ew, I’m not some kind of weirdo. I like the one that’s my age that got summoned around the same time as me. He’s really, really cute… But you can’t tell anyone ever.”
Kiran genuinely smiled at that. They really were the same person, after all. “My lips are sealed.”
Alexis nodded at that, seemingly satisfied with the answer.
“Hey, Kiran?’
“Yeah?”
“When do we get these stupid braces off?”
Kiran froze. “I… what? What do you mean?”
“Serious question, dude, just answer me.”
“No, wait, I will but like… you know? This whole time, you’ve known?”
Alexis looked genuinely insulted. “All the other kids I got summoned with have adult versions here, my gun looks almost exactly like yours, you look like you could be my big brother, I’m probably trans and you’re a guy so that would make sense, and literally everyone for as long as I’ve been here keeps fucking up and calling me ‘Little Kiran,’ plus you’re literally named after my shitty ‘Naruto’ OC that no one else in the entire multiverse knows about, you absolute soggy lampshade! How much of a fucking idiot do you think I am!?”
Kiran said nothing to that. What could he say? They were right. “Like a year and a half from now. If you’re still here then, we’ll have to see if any of our healers can help with that, we don’t… uhh… exactly have orthodontists in Askr.” He let out a sigh. “And… look… Please… don’t… ever, ever, ever tell anyone where I got my name from?”
“If you don’t tell anyone what I told you earlier about the boy I like, then we’re even.” Alexis reached out a hand and Kiran shook it. “And, uhh… hey… could you tell people to maybe start using ‘he’ instead of ‘she’ for me? I might change my mind, but like… I don’t know, I kinda wanna try it out for a while.”
“Absolutely.”
“But I’m absolutely not calling myself ‘Kiran,’ though, that’s a pretty epic fail.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I was thinking maybe… Max?”
“Wow, you’ve already got a name picked out and everything.”
“Yeah. Like… I’ll be honest, I’m still really bummed about the whole pegasus thing. So I was thinking, if I can’t ride a pegasus, I can just call myself Maximillion Pegasus, and it’ll be a fun joke that no one else here in Askr would get.”
Kiran just stared at him open-mouthed.
“...You little shit.”
“Huh?”
“You’re calling me cringe, but you wanna name yourself after a fucking ’Yu-Gi-Oh!’ character!?”
Max laughed. “Get punk’d, dude. Actually, I just like Max because I like having an X in my name, it’s not a ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ reference.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” Kiran conceded, before the realization hit him and he stared at his younger self again, narrowing his eyes. “Wait just a goddamn second, ‘having an X in your name?’ That wouldn’t be for ‘Kingdom Hearts’-related reasons, would it?”
“Oh, wow, look at the time, it’s… uhh, clocks-haven’t-been-invented-yet o’clock. So I’m going to grab something to eat and then go to bed. Later, nerd.”
Max got to his feet, and after changing the angle of his foot slightly, he simply glided away on the small, retractable wheel in the heel of his shoe. It wasn’t until he was too far away to see that Kiran heard him absolutely eat shit on the unpaved dirt road, but at least there wasn’t any concrete for him to hurt himself on.
So, in the end… it had all worked out, after all. His younger self had friends here, and a purpose, and like-minded people who could help guide him through all of the difficulties associated with growing up, let alone growing up trans. He considered for a moment what he might have been like if Anna had summoned him to Askr earlier…
But no. The experiences he’d had had made him who he was today, just as Max’s had. He was already on his own path, diverged from his past self’s, but hopefully, one that would lead to fulfillment and joy.
Kiran couldn’t ask for anything more.
(Also, clocks had definitely already been invented in Askr, little cringe ass nae nae baby looking headass looking ass…)