DetectiveRed

Story's done. Sorry, it's not wrapped up tightly in a bow or anything. I'm never really sure how to end stories so for now have this. Eventually, there will be an epilogue setting up the next story in this universe (I had another ranger idea, oops) For now big thanks to Rooibos, who gave a lot of feedback on early chapters and who wrote the amazing Orange Crushed. Angela, who's been amazing for bouncing ideas off and Whoos who comments on almost every chapter. All your support means a lot to me.

Stella let us know that Angie was okay and that she was still going by Angie. It was a relief to hear that maybe she had fully accepted who she wanted to be, but it made the wait to see her all the more anxiety-inducing. Only a day had passed, but I was still worried. My dad seemed to pick up on it. 

“You okay, champ?”

“I’m fine, Dad?”

“Is it a boy?” 

“Dad.” How did he not know? Or did he and he was just being a homophobe? The latter did not seem likely but I preferred to let myself down before he could.

“What? I just wanna see how my princess is doing. I haven’t had this much time off lately.”

“Lately? Dad, I’ve been reheating my dinners for the last year.”

“Has it been that long?”

“Yes.” 

“That’s going to change then. From now on I’ll be home more. Now, is it a boy?”

“If you’d talked to me properly over the last year you would know that guys aren’t my thing.” Maybe I was laying on the guilt thick. Maybe I was being too casual with how I outed myself. Maybe I just didn’t care since my current father figure was a hologram.

“Oh. Is it a girl issue then?” I had to admire how quick he understood that and how quickly he accepted me for who I was. It didn’t excuse anything but it was better than being kicked out of the house.

“Why do you care?”

“Because you’re my daughter. Now was I right?”

“You know what? Yes. She got hit by the thing yesterday, and we got stuck together and I’m not sure what to do.”

“Is she the one that didn’t turn back?”

“Yes.”

“See, I listen. So your crush turned into a boy.”

“No, she was a friend and she realised she was a girl yesterday.”

“She was a boy then.”

“I thought she was before, but now she seems happy as a girl.”

“Huh, what a champ. Taking the whole being turned into a girl thing in stride. Can’t imagine how I would have reacted.”

“Based on how Alex and Blain reacted. Badly. Unless you secretly want to be a woman, Mum.” I joked. He was trying to keep things light-hearted. The least I could do was reply cynically. 

“God no! I’m quite happy as I am.”

My communicator beeped. Finally, a way to remove me from this conversation.

“I gotta go, Dad. It’s about my friend.”

“The girl you like?”

“Yes. I have to go.”

“Be back before dinner. I’ll cook for us tonight, it will be like when you were little.”

“Okay.”

“Love you, kiddo.”

And I ran out the door. I needed to know what was going on with Angie. 

------

Astrus teleported us outside their house. She’d requested we all come over and see her. The entire thing had Stella written all over it. I wanted to see her. I wanted to hug her. I wanted to meet her again when I wasn’t trying to apologise or delirious. My heart thumped in anticipation. We were going to see her as a group of friends. To check up on her, but I still couldn’t help but feel anxious. I’d hurt them, I ruined what could have been the best day of their life because of my selfishness. I needed to forget all that.  I needed to be there for her. Blain knocked before my spiral could finish itself. I took a deep breath, and then another, and I waited for the door to open. 

“Angie, your friends are here!” A voice shouted from behind the door. Her mum, presumably. The door opened, and I could immediately see the family resemblance, Angie was the spitting image of her mum if her mum were twenty years younger. 

“Hi, we are here to see our friend,” Blain said with his best defence melting smile. 

“Oh, I know. Hello, again Stella.”

“Hi, Angelica’s mum!” Stella responded cheerfully.

“Now she is going by Angelica or Angie, just so everyone knows.”

“Oh, no problem! She already told us!” Blain chuckled, as he gave me a look, a look of mockery. By now everyone knew about the angel thing. And they would never let me live it down. Then again what are friends for if not mocking you for your delirious ramblings? 

“Angelica! You can’t chicken out of this!”

“I’m not trying to chicken out, Mum!” Her voice was music to my ears. Was I that useless? Just her voice was enough to make me blush. “I just can’t find my boxers...”

“Honey, you threw those out remember? Now get out here!”

“Do I have to?” This was a lot more fun to watch when the reveal was someone I cared about. 

“Yes!”

“I’m coming”

The girl who walked down the hallway was gorgeous. I couldn’t think of any other way to describe her. The hair that used to be shaggy, and messy was now brushed, and cut. It was slightly tomboyish, but that was contrasted by her outfit choice. She was wearing a dress! A floral sundress that swished as she walked down the stairs! I was conflicted between pride and gay. Had Stella specifically picked this out for her to mess with me?

“Hi,” I squeaked.

“Hi,” she squeaked back. 

-------

Stella dragged me into one of the edgier clothing stores. That sort of emo style never appealed to me, despite almost always wearing black hoodies and jeans. Thinking back on it, the edge lord assessment of me wasn’t unfounded.

“You shrank a lot so most of the on-sale stuff will fit you. This place has the best dresses.”

“Okay. Are you sure no one’s going to think I’m weird?”

“I’ve come here with Blain cause he digs the dresses here. No one bats an eyelid. Additionally, a cute girl looking at cute clothes is not going to raise any eyebrows.” I blushed. Why was she being so nice? 

“Hi! Are you looking for anything in particular?” I jumped, before turning around. There was a punk-looking sales assistant. Why was I so jumpy? I was going to give myself away. “Wait, Stella?”

“Becca?”

“Yeah!”

“Oh my gosh girl, you look great.”

I was missing something here. Did they know each other?

“So you got some of that Clown Fish Orange?”

“Yeah! This much transition progress doesn’t happen overnight most of the time?”

“I am so happy for you! I was going to call if you didn’t get some.” Stella stood on her tiptoes to whisper into the punk ladies ear. “I might have snuck some cans out while I was volunteering.”

“Nice. Thanks but I already got my hit of the stuff and I have no intention of going back. Who’s the tiny one.”

“Did you say you drank the clownfish stuff?” I had to ask. It sounded like she was like me? Was she trans? How was she coping?

“If you’re going to make a big deal out of it--” I had to stop her. I didn’t want this lady to think I disliked her or anything.

“I’m not! I promise! How are you coping?”

“It’s not coping as much as it’s living. I was only six months on HRT but now I’m not sure how much of that matters. No more misgendering or dirty looks from customers. I’m looking forward to throwing those customers out when they notice I’m ‘gone’.” She was so much more comfortable about all this than I was. “Why do you ask?”

“She had a rude awakening yesterday,” Stella said solemnly.

“You mean.”

“I was a guy.” I wanted to shout. Instead, I whispered it. I didn’t need looks from the other two customers in the shop.

“Then why did you want to buy a dress first thing? And why aren’t you back to your old self?” I wasn’t going to let Stella pull apart my arguments.

“Because I don’t know!”

“She cracked didn’t she?” Rebecca said. At least I assumed it was Rebecca based on her name tag.

“Cracking,” Stella confirmed. What did cracking even mean?

“Can you just help me buy a dress?” I said, defeated. I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about or how they knew each other, but I needed clothes. 

“Of course. I’ll just go help this other customer. Stella knows what she’s doing.”

“It was good seeing you, Rebecca.”

“Good seeing you too.”

The racks of dresses were all so appealing. I wanted to try on all of them. Was that normal? Wanting to try on everything. Before this, it was just whatever was comfortable and covered my body the most but now everything looked like it would be fun to wear.

“Sorry, that was Rebecca we met at an LGBT group in town.”

“It’s okay. What colour do you think would look good?”

“I think you’d look good in something floral. It would go well with your hair.”

“And you think I’d look good in a dress?”

“I know you would. I also know Joanne would love to see you in one.” 

No amount of hiding my face could make my blushing less obvious. Damn this expressive body and damn my want to look good for Joanne.

---------

“Angie, you look. Wow!” I said eloquently. Good job Joanne. Real articulate.

“Thank you,” she squeaked. There was no way she didn't know how cute she was. She had to.

Her dress was white and covered in a sunflower pattern. She looked so positive. Like the depressed nerd who I’d spent the last couple of weeks struggling to get to know had completely melted into this gorgeous girl in front of me. There were still parts of her I recognised. The way she tried to make herself smaller, she still swayed as she stood, and even her apprehension about meeting us. That was all her.

“You got short,” Blain observed. “I know you are smaller than you used to be, but weren’t we the same height?”

“I think so?”

“Wow, that stuff is powerful. You look cute.”

“Hey, no flirting in front of me.” Her mum joked.

“Not flirting ma’am, my boyfriends right here. Besides, I’m not the one you should be worried about.” He glanced at me. I was going to throw a bot at him the next time I got the chance, there was no need to expose me.

“I don’t think I’m into guys,” Angie mumbled. Was she looking at me? There was no way after all of that dumb delirious flirting she was into to me. Was it bully Joanne day? ‘Make her want to squeal’ day? 

“How about you kids sit down?”

--------------

Why was I being so obvious? Why did I look at her? I was so stupid! What is a girl meant to do about her feelings? I never studied for that! I was too busy focusing on how guys do things! Now I was a girl and I think I wanted to stay that way and everything was a new type of confusing!

“So, you still thinking about going back?” Clay’s question seemed like a gotcha. When this happened I lashed out, I hated being forced to make decisions. 

“Not really,” I confessed. “I got some great advice from Stella. I like being like this. I like being able to talk to my mum.”

“I swear I have gotten more words out of her in the last two days than I have in years. I feel like I have my baby back. Did you know when she was younger she was a little chatterbox? Can you imagine her as a chatterbox?” She rambled in a way that I had learnt was normal for mums to do.

“Mum!”

“What? Is my little girl getting embarrassed?” Her little girl. I was her little girl. Her daughter. I was that. How could I want to go back to being my old self? When right now I was my mum's daughter. There was pride in her voice like she was proud of who I was. I couldn’t have done that before. Did she feel like she’d lost me? Would she have lost me if I stayed like that? 

“I’m not going back,” I said. I was tearing up. I tried to imagine a future if I had never drunk that soda. Would it have been possible for me to talk to my mum like I could now? Was it even possible to have a future from where I was? I always figured I would just disappear... “I’m sorry, Mum.” The tears had become full-blown sobbing. Mum seemed happier than I had seen her since I was younger as well. Like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. She looked like she’d got her child back. What would have happened to her if I’d disappeared after Cuttlecopier? What if the MegaMech’s sword had hit me? What if I’d succeeded?

Once again I was wrapped in a hug. I wasn’t ever going back to being a guy.