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All of Firefly’s efforts over the past few years led up to this very moment.
A much younger Samuel first started questioning himself and his gender in middle school, all when he couldn’t quite find a hairstyle or general fashion style that made him look like himself. Even his name felt didn’t feel right: always awkward on his tongue and never looking correctly spelt in his handwriting even though he knew it was.
It was his school’s graduation tradition that cracked him wide open. For years, the graduating cohort exchanged uniforms with each other on the day before the ceremony, with the girls walking around drowning in oversized shirts and the boys almost bursting out of tight blouses and flipping the occasional skirt. His entire worldview changed when he saw himself in the mirror dressed in a girls’ uniform that almost seemed to fit him better than anything else in his closet. He almost didn’t want to give it back.
From this point, an older Firefly spent her time in high school navigating excruciatingly vulnerable conversations with her parents and various medical professionals while hiding away from her peers. She grew her hair out because she ‘liked it long’; she shaved regularly because she ‘hated being hairy’. And while it was all technically true, the white lies obscured the truth enough for her to discretely graduate high school as Samuel before biding the name goodbye forever.
The gap year she took before university proved entirely worth it. Her hair was sufficiently long and styled to her liking, Hormone Replacement Therapy had resculpted her body into something much softer and obviously feminine, much like what her voice training had done for her voice.
Now came the next step in her long journey and one of the most difficult challenges she had ever faced: her university’s Queer Collective Guild. At least taking a look was suggested by several people she had consulted in the past few years. Even if she didn’t want to be known as transgender, she was still a lesbian. And that was definitely queer.
Firefly closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath as she fiddled with the strap of her tote bag. This was entirely out of her comfort zone – reaching out to others wasn’t easy for someone as shy and introverted as she was. But she had to do this now or never, with a few days of university life under her belt and before she was left out of all the budding friendships.
Letting out the breath and opening her eyes again, Firefly reached out and turned the door handle before she could overthink anything. The door swung open and she steeled her nerves to poke her head inside.
The room itself was on the larger side and offered a bit of everything. Against the back wall was a small kitchenette equipped with a sink, fridge and microwave, in front of which was a cluster of desks and a few computers lining the adjacent walls. Right in front of Firefly and in the front half of the room was an open area filled with beanbags and the odd couch here and there.
There was barely enough time for Firefly to take in the space and close the door behind her before a mass of pink popped up in her face. “Ohmygosh, are you new here? Hi, you’re so pretty-!” It took everything Firefly had to not let out a startled sound, lest it not come out in her feminine voice.
What turned out to be a young woman with short pink hair was interrupted by someone else picking her up by the back of her shirt. “March, you need to give people space.” The disembodied voice gained its body when a tall young man with black hair moved the pink haired girl to the side.
The girl – March? – pouted at her companion and crossed her arms with a huff, the gesture drawing Firefly’s attention to her cute outfit (her simple white dress and mint green cardigan suddenly felt very plain) and what looked like a pride flag lanyard dangling from her neck. The lanyard was adorned with a couple of specific pride flag badges and oh, she was just like Firefly.
Before Firefly could even consider saying something about this discovery, a third person joined the duo in front of her. A messy mop of grey hair that framed the most gorgeous golden eyes she had ever seen and an easy grin that instantly made her feel at ease popped up from behind March. “Hey, what’re you two up to? Nothing mischievous, I hope?”
The pout on March’s face was replaced by a bright grin and a peace sign as she turned to face the latest arrival. “Not at all, Captain of Mischief, Ma’am! We wouldn’t dream of getting into trouble without you. Right, Dan Heng?” The boy with black hair grunted and rolled his eyes upon being elbowed but didn’t add anything. “Well, anyway, I was just making a new friend! With, um…”
March trailed off as she gestured to Firefly, prompting the grey-haired girl to lean forwards for a better look. Her traitorous heart skipped a beat under the curious gaze of the taller girl and, right when she was about to say something, she noticed the lanyard this girl was also wearing. Why did the lesbian flag pin make her feel relieved?
“Firefly…! M-my name is Firefly…” She somehow managed to squeak out her name in the end and was very thankful for the timid, high pitch for once.
“Hm… Firefly, huh?” The grey-haired girl nodded sagely with a serious expression that only lasted a few seconds until that easy grin was back on her face. She then promptly stuck her hand out between her companions for Firefly to shake. “I’m Stelle, nice to meet you. This is March and her boyfriend Dan Heng.”
March waved in greeting with almost too much enthusiasm and Firefly returned it with a much smaller wave with her hand staying much closer to her body. Now that Dan Heng wasn’t wrangling his girlfriend, she could see that he was also wearing a lanyard, pinned to which was a single badge that had March’s face on it.
“He’s March-sexual, actually.” Her question was answered before she could ask it by a March that was way too pleased with herself. Stelle was holding back a laugh behind her and Firefly couldn’t stop the amused huff that left her at the silly joke.
“Anyway, wanna hang out with us? It’d be nice to finally not be the third wheel here.” Stelle jerked her thumb at March and Dan Heng, the latter of which clamped his hand over March’s mouth to spare them what was obviously going to be a joke about their vehicle finally having four wheels.
“W-well… Since you’re asking…” There was no way Firefly could say no to such a kind, friendly and gorgeous young lady. Who was apparently attracted to girls. Which Firefly was.
Now her cheeks were heating up. The toothy smile Stelle flashed at her did nothing to help.
“Great! Let’s go!” A big hand reached out to gently grab Firefly’s smaller hand and tugged her further into the room. She wasn’t sure if her heart would make it home alive.