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The door shuts quietly, and the resulting footsteps of sneakers on hardwood flooring are even quieter. Still, Maka has always had an acute sense of hearing, and her eyes peek over the couch to see who’s here.
“Oh, hey Crona.”
Crona stops suddenly, shaking slightly, hand covering the nape of their neck. “Er, hi…”
“How was it?” Maka asks, hanging over the back of the couch. She’s not really sure where Crona went, but she tries not to ask that directly.
“O-kay…”
Crona is avoiding eye contact, and Maka tries not to stare at them. “Is your neck fine?”
They shrug. “It’s fine… just, uhm. You know… i-imgonnagotomyroom-“ They mutter, trying to shuffle away, but suddenly Maka is in front of them, her hands behind her back, emerald eyes glaring curiously at them.
“Did you do something with your hair?” Maka asks, tilting her head slightly, trying to get a better look. Suddenly, Crona’s face is very dark, their eyes wide, and currently they feel a strong desire to simply vanish from existence for a bit. Maka sees their worry, and retreats slightly.
“I’m not, er, trying to pry… it just looked like you, you know…” Maka says, her voice trailing off. She makes some sort of swiping motion towards the back of her head.
“I guess.” They say, shrugging. Their hand falls away slowly from their neck, though it’s still shaking. It reveals a sharp undercut, the top of their hair hangs off to the back. “S-so, what do you think…?” They ask nervously, still looking at the floor.
Maka studies them for a moment. “It looks… really great!”
Crona blinks a few times, slightly stunned. “Really? You like it?”
“Of course I do,” Says Maka. “Were you that worried I wouldn’t?”
“Well… yes.“ Crona shrugs sheepishly.
“Why?”
Another shrug. Crona is looking at Maka now. “I guess I just thought I would look too… I don’t know. And you’re…” Their voice trails off, not wanting to say the wrong thing. “not... into men...”
It takes a few seconds before Maka puts the pieces of what Crona is trying to say together, but when she does, she laughs. It unnerves Crona slightly, but she smiles afterwards, and that calms them a little bit.
“Oh, I see. Hey, can I hold your hand?”
Crona takes her hand, slowly. Maka moves a little bit closer, her thumbs rubbing Crona’s palm gently.
“I will always love you, for *you*. You know what I mean? I don’t care what you look like, what kind of clothes you wear, or what your hair looks like- none of that will ever change that fact.”
There’s a pause, then a sigh.
“I know.”
She’s rubbing their shoulder at this point. “Then, what’s the issue?”
“It’s just… I don’t want you to see me any differently.” They say.
“Well, what do you mean by that?”
“I just don’t want you to see me as… a man, I suppose. I just feel like more and more recently I look more and more masculine.”
She thinks for a second. “Does that bother you?”
Really, they have no idea how they feel about that. They feel as though they really can’t change it, and it almost feels strange to them to have a concrete opinion of. They’ve gotten taller, their shoulders have gotten wider, their voice is deeper. The other stuff, though? Their hair, the button down shirts they’ve taken to wearing? That feel so much different, and so much more… them.
“I guess not?” They feel helpless at explaining any of this to her. “The stuff I can really control, at least.”
“Great! You should be allowed to feel happy about yourself.” She explains, going into hug them, but she’s stopped by a palm against her stomach. She looks at them quizzically, worried again.
“I… I get that, it’s just… do you still like me? Even if I look like this? I don’t… really look like a girl.” They explain.
“Of course I like you. I -love- you. A lot. Like I said… that’s not going to change.”
As if for emphasis, she leans closer, gently, their hand giving way, and in a second, their faces are so, so close to each other. Their noses are touching, and they’re eventually looking her in the eyes.
“It’s not in spite of anything, either. I love you because of you.”
They blush, with dark shades coming to occupy their cheeks. “…s-so… do you… like the way I look?”
She smiles. “I think you’re really attractive, Crona.” She says this while her arms wrap around them lightly. “You’re really… handsome.”
A part of her is worried they’ll prefer some other word as a compliment, but she takes a gamble that… pays off. They giggle, breaking eye contact, and almost as if by instinct, their hands are on her hips, which startles her a little bit, though not in a bad way. They notice, and they’re almost instantly shattered from their pseudo-trance as they nervously pull away.
“I-I, uhm… sorry… I should have asked if… your arms are around me so…”
Their nervous explanation causes her to giggle a bit, and she grabs their wrists softly, guiding their hands slowly to her hips again. They comply, looking at her, as if asking for permission.
“It’s okay, silly, I like stuff like that. You don’t need to ask me, although you can if you want to…” She says, wrapping her arms around them again. They feel really embarrassed, although at the back of their mind they know they really shouldn’t. They look back at her, her head is tilted, smiling so sweetly and they feel so warm and fuzzy.
“Could you, uhm… kiss me?”
… and after a short pause, she leans forward, whispering something like “of course, darling”, although Crona’s mind feels washed and they don’t hear any of it. Their only sensation is a feeling: her lips against theirs.