“Aria?”
“No,”
“Victoria,”
“No,”
“Sophia?”
“Maybe,” She pressed herself up and leaned back against the headboard.
They had been shooting names back and forth all morning. For it being purely spur of the moment Agatha was incredibly quick with a whole list of names.
“Hmm… Ooh, what about Rose?” Agatha said. “Petra is sometimes called the ‘Rose City’ and if you’ve still got some girl named Petra knocking around that head of yours you could have like a parallel thing going on. Twins or sisters or something I don’t know.”
“That’s interesting I guess but I’m not really sure I feel like a Rose? And also again the thought of just someone else being in my head is weird and I don’t like it. That can’t be what is happening because it makes no sense,” She looked down at Agatha who was only half listening spending the other half of her attention scrolling through a random list of girl names.
“Okay, I just want you to feel comfortable you know?” Agatha dropped her phone onto her chest. “You been going through a hell of a later recently so anything I can do, I’m trying.”
“And I appreciate it,” She leaned her head on top of Agatha’s shoulder for a moment then sat back up. “But it’s early and I’m hungry and I’m sure you are too and we both have to get to work, I assume, so can we do that first?”
“On one condition,” Agatha said. “Just pick one, anyone doesn’t matter, because I am tired of dancing around your namelessness. Doesn’t have to be ‘the one’ just for now.”
She groaned but if it meant getting some blood in her she’d relent. She could kill for some of Gary Saunders’ stuff right about now. Now that guy knows how to undergo haematopoiesis. What a fun word to say. She’d looked it up at some point in the past few days but couldn’t remember when or why, but it stuck with her.
“How about Sophia? That was the last one that kind of sounded nice,”
“Don’t ask me for approval Sophia, it’s your name,” Agatha poked Sophia a few times in the shoulder. “But yes its a good name and I like it too.”
Yeah ok, she definitely liked the way Sophia sounded. Sophia. Sophia Sophia Sophia. She really liked it… at least as a temporary name. She’d have time to look at others, why bother settling for the first one, probably isn’t the best. But for now Sophia is who she’d be and it felt light. Like a breath of fresh air.
Sophia dragged herself out from under the covers and grabbed onto Agatha’s arms and gently dragged her out bed too. They both still didn’t have any clothes on from last night. Sophia definitely hadn’t had that in mind when she decided to meet up with Agatha. Then again that morning prior she didn’t expect to be calling herself Sophia, or herself. Point is time is weird and shouldn’t be trusted. Instead she should be trusting that Agatha has somebody delicious bottled up in one of the bags in the fridge.
Fortunately Agatha most certainly did. A delectable treat of a woman named, Eva Suarez. B- and tasting like fresh citrus and basil. She imagined it had to be better than whatever Agatha was currently drowning in instant coffee. That still grossed her out. There clearly had to be some appeal to it since that was practically Agatha’s go to breakfast from what Sophia could tell. Didn’t stop the fact it grossed her out. Just mixing blood into anything just sounds awful. it’s bad enough when she thinks about what she’s been forced to eat a little too closely. having it be a primary ingredient in something else makes that fact way to known and it just freaks her out. It’s something she’ll likely get over eventually but a couple weeks is clearly not long enough.
Sophia sat on the sofa and happily sipped along, slowly draining the bag. Agatha meanwhile was up standing near the counter shifting back and forth a little awkwardly.
“So about last night?” Agatha eventually said.
“What about it?” Sophia said.
“Did you like it?” it came out as more of a squeak than proper words.
“Like it? I think that was the greatest night of my life,” Sophia twisted in place to better face Agatha. “You made me feel alive again, truly alive. I’d been walking through the past ten years of my life just following the motions. Never really contributing or doing anything but what was necessary. But last night? I wanted to be there in your arms, I wanted to make you feel a good as you made me feel.”
Sophia was starting to tear up a little bit. “This is so weird, being able to cry.” She dabbed at the tears with her thumb.
Agatha’s shoulders dropped a little and a smile grew on her face. “Thank god! I think I really really like you and I’m not sure what I’d do if it was bad or traumatic for you or whatever.”
“Well I did like it and I also like you so… yeah,” Sophia stood up and moved closer to Agatha.
As Sophia got closer Agatha’s face became redder and couldn’t meet Sophia’s eyes. “Well that’s good, anyway don’t you need to get to work?”
And still barely looking up Agatha gently nudged Sophia towards the door. “Aggie, wait I’m still naked.”
“Aggie?”
“Do you not like it? I though it was kind of cute,” Sophia said.
“No it is, just nobody’s called me that in like twenty years,” Agatha said.
“So I can call you that?” Sophia mumbled anxiously.
“Yes,” and she leaned in and gave a quick kiss.
“Can I put clothes on now before you kick me out?” Sophia now glowing an equal amount of red to Agatha.
Agatha snapped out of her strange fugue and aimed Sophia back towards the bedroom where she could get dressed.
It was only as she was slipping into the dress from last night that she realized she wouldn’t have time to change at her apartment. She’d have to straight to work like this. Sophia began to panic. For one thing this dress was completely inappropriate for a work environment. It wasn’t particularly scandalous or anything but it was not the sort of dress he occasionally saw the other women in the office wear. Huh, other women, that’s new and fun. The second thing was the office at this point didn’t even know she was a girl, hell she barely knew she was a girl.
“Hey Aggie? Do you have something sort of professional I can borrow?” Sophia stepped out into the hallway, dress half on collapsed over her waist.
“Do you promise not to get any blood on it this time?”
“Uh what? When did I… no I don’t plan on getting blood on it.”
Agatha flicked through her closet real quick and threw a few things on the bed for Sophia. A white button up and black pants with a wide leg. It was much better than the dress she’d other wise be wearing but it still screamed girl. Her breasts would be clearly visible through the blouse and the pants would emphasize the hell out of her waist. She felt really good in the ensemble, a little cute, a little sexy, but she also felt that dark anxiety come tapping about her mind again.
She didn’t have time to try anything else and Sophia guessed that anything other than this would be a lot more feminine. She thanked Agatha out the door pausing for a moment to return the kiss she she gave earlier. Then she was in the hallway then the street walking downtown towards work just like one of thousands of other women that day. No body looked at her like she didn’t belong or touched her in inappropriate ways. Yet with each step her anxiety grew more and more. She barely even noticed that she was standing in front of the office building. She didn’t remember a thing.
She paced around the front door for several minutes trying to psyche herself up. Just be yourself, they’ll be accepting for sure. Sure it basically came out of nowhere and I have no way to realistically explain the fact that I look exactly like a girl now when just a week ago I looked like a man. Emma would probably be overjoyed, well maybe not overjoyed but enthusiastic? Supportive? One of those words. With her heart slamming in her chest Sophia kept repeating a mantra in her head. “Just be normal, you’re just a normal girl.”
As ready as she was ever going to be she pushed her way through the doors and made her way up towards the office. She could feel the looks of the strangers around her now. The way to her desk dozens of eyes stuck to her chest. Even more eyes looked at her with the a show of barely concealed disgust. She eventually made it close to her desk and there she spotted Emma typing away. Pausing occasionally to sketch something down.
“Oh hey Petra, have a good lunch break?”
“What…”
I really enjoyed what's here, and hope to read more!
I just caught up and I really love this story! And the chapter is so cute, Sophia is a great name tbh
it took me a while to figure out what name to pick for her. I wanted it to stay architecture themed. skimmed though dozens of buildings before remembering Hagia Sophia. Which i crazy because The Hagia Sophia is easily one of my favorite buildings of all time. Its so brilliantly designed, arguably the greatest basilica ever designed.