Work Text:
Emu had been having a crisis for a while now. She had figured out that she was definitely not a boy and was instead a girl a while ago. However, she had not done anything to present more feminine yet. She was scared to.
She couldn't just start changing things about her appearance without telling anyone. Everyone at the hospital would notice. And then she would get questions. It was better if she said something and then started.
However, getting the courage to finally talk was not easy. It wasn't that Emu thought she would encounter much of a problem, but she had yet to tell anyone. It was just daunting to think of even if realistically she knew at least the ones she worked the closest with should be fine with her.
Emu did debate just starting to transition and see what happened, but quickly decided against it. She didn't know if she could handle getting questions like that. She would rather be the one to start the conversation. If only it wasn't such a hard thing to do.
"Emu? You've been staring off into space for a while now. Are you okay?"
Emu jolted back to reality at someone's voice. Poppy was in front of her, giving her a concerned look.
"I-I'm fine. Just thinking about something." Emu replied.
Poppy didn't seem convinced. Emu gulped nervously. What was she supposed to do? No one was supposed to notice her internal conflict. She wasn't very good at hiding it, it seemed.
"You've been acting strangely for a while now. Why don't you just admit what's wrong instead of dancing around it?" Hiiro spoke up from where he was sitting at the table, his gaze focused on some papers on front of him.
"I..." Emu stopped. There was no point in trying to get around it. Hiiro was right. She really needed to stop dancing around this topic.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" Poppy asked, her concern seeming to grow at Emu's hesitance.
"I... I uh..." Emu didn't know how to say anything. "There's... something I've been wanting to tell you guys..."
Hiiro glanced up from his paperwork to look over at her. Poppy was still right in front of her, waiting for the answer.
"I... I've realized I... I'm a girl." Emu didn't like how blunt she ended up putting it, but her brain was not cooperating in finding better phrasing right now. That got the point across, she hoped.
"So... you want us to call you a girl and all?" Poppy questioned.
"I... yeah. If you could." Emu nodded, avoiding eye contact.
"How long have you been hiding this for?" Hiiro questioned, not sounding that interested.
"A few months..."
His eyes widened at the answer. "That long?"
Emu nervously nodded. "Yeah... I just, could never find the right thing to say."
"Are you not going to change anything about how you look?" Poppy asked. "Ah... if that's too sensitive I'm sorry. You don't have to answer."
"I've been afraid to start transitioning. I didn't want people to suddenly notice and ask me questions. I wanted to be able to tell everyone on my own terms first. I didn't think it would take this long to get here..." Emu replied.
"Do you have anyone else you need to tell?" Hiiro asked.
"Uh..." Emu thought about it. "Your father probably. Besides that... I don't know."
"Do you want me to call him up if he's available?"
"Eh?" Emu blinked at him.
"What? I'm trying to help you. You need to be focused if you want to be a doctor so we need to solve this." Hiiro huffed.
"Aww, how sweet, Hiiro." Poppy teased.
"I'm just doing this so he- she isn't a liability on the battlefield." Hiiro defended himself.
Emu didn't know why, but being referred to by the right pronouns for the first time made her heart pound. She had gotten so used to hiding that she didn't think this would ever happen. It also made her really happy to hear someone use the pronouns she wanted.
"Keep telling yourself that." Poppy rolled her eyes. "Do you want him to do that, Emu? Oh, are you changing your name?"
Emu shook her head. "No. I still like my name."
"Okay!"
"I... guess if you want to see if he can come up, that'd be great. I really do need to get this over with." Emu answered the initial question Hiiro posed.
Hiiro nodded and did just that. Emu took in a deep breath. She was doing it. She had actually told someone. She was finally one stop closer to getting to be herself again. Soon... soon she could start doing what she wanted to her appearance and no one should question her as much. She was almost there.
"Is there anything else we need to do for you, Emu?" Poppy asked.
Emu thought about it. "Well, can you change anything about how you refer to me around anyone else yet? Not until I tell them or I'm prepared for those questions."
"Of course. And if anyone ever gives you problems for being who you want to be, we're gonna kick their asses, right, Hiiro?" Poppy said.
Hiiro sighed. "I suppose maybe I'll do that if I see it necessary."
Emu cracked a smile. "Thank you, guys. It really means a lot to finally have people that support me."