"You... you kept them all."

Miles knelt over an opened plastic tub. Inside was an assortment of girl's clothing.

"You were right," she said, "I... I couldn't let go."

As he sifted through the clothes, looking at the different types and styles, he turned around, and looked at Mom.

"You... you want me to wear these, don't you?"

"I...," she started, then stopped. "If you want to sweetie. You seem to like it, but if you don't -"

"I do," Miles smiled.

It felt weird to hear the words come out of his mouth, but they did reflect what he actually had been feeling.

"Do you...," she asked, "think... that you might like... pretending to be a girl for a while?"

"How long is a while?"

"Maybe a week?"

Miles thought about it, and stood up off his knees.

"Could I try it... for a month?"

Mom seemed surprised. "Yes, yes we could... Miley."

Miles smiled, "Like... you would call me Miley... and I could act like a girl too?"

"Sure," Mom smiled, "If... if you want to."

"I do," Miley grinned. "For the next month... I want to be treated just like a girl."

*****

"I love it," Miley smiled, standing up from the chair.

In the past hour, they'd made Miles into Miley. He'd shaved off his body hair, he used Mom's hair products on his hair, and when he'd gotten out of the shower, he'd put on a pair of panties.

Now, Mom had finished straightening his hair. It looked beautiful, flowing down the sides of his head into a little curl on the end.

"You make a very pretty girl Miley," Mom smiled.

Bolstered in confidence by seeing how she looked, she urged Mom to take it a step further.

And so, a few hours later, Miley walked out of the mall with two amber earrings dangling from newly pierced ears.

After eating out that night, Miley felt incredible.

The rest of the summer was just as fun with her Mom. She was instructed on how to do everything with her clothes, hair, and makeup.

On top of that, Miley began practicing making her voice sound more feminine, and simply talking, walking, and sitting like a girl.

That month seemed to go by in a blur. Neither her nor Mom noticed until several days had passed from the initial month Miles had said he wanted to try it.

And so continued the rest of the summer. The days stopped being fun, and started feeling more and more drained. Their fun would soon be over.

Miley and her Mom sat at lunch, outside a small restaurant at the beginning of August.

"Sander is going to be home next week," Mom remarked.

"Dad won't be home for another month," Miley said.

They poked at their salads.

"You don't want to stop doing this," Mom said, stating it more than asking her.

"No," she confirmed.

She looked up at her.

"Miley," she said, "I... I think it's time that you face the music."

Here it comes, he thought.

"You're transgender Miley."

"I know," she sighed.

Mom laced her fingers together. "I think I remember, back when Sander came out that Dad said, 'this is going to be difficult.'"

Miley nodded with a frown.

"This will be difficult Miley," Mom said. "But that doesn't mean it has to be painful."

"Dad isn't going to like this," Miley said. "Having one trans kid has turned out to be hard enough on him."

"I honestly have no idea how your father will react," Mom said. "We will just have to wait and see. Do you want me to talk to him about it before he comes home?"

"I.... I'd have to think on it," Miley said. "How do you think Sander would react?"

Mom chuckled. "You know Sander better than I do. Again, we'll just have to see."

"I don't want to see Mom," Miley frowned, "I... I want it to be. As in, be that way already. I feel like when me and Sander were born our genders got switched or something."

Mom laughed. "I don't know. But honey, I don't know how they'll react. But I want to tell you that I think you're a beautiful girl, and that I'll help you the best I can."

Miley smiled.

She sat there with her Mom, and listened to the sounds around her, enjoying the last bit of her summer.

****

Miley now understood keenly the pain that Sander had felt before he'd come out almost a year before.

She sat on the couch, wearing a mint-green skirt and a blue t-shirt.

Sander was coming home sometime today. Never had Miley felt more nervous.

Strangely, she found herself feeling anxiety about whether her brother would laugh at her for doing something girly.

But then, she heard the front door open.

"Hello," Sander said as he came through the door.

"How was the drive?" Mom asked.

"Long, boring, and fueled on more mountain dew than gasoline," he answered. "I still think that I didn't need to stay at a motel."

"After all that hard work," Mom said, "you really think I want my son to sleep on the seats of a pickup truck?"

"They are very nice seats," Sander laughed.

Miley listened to them talk in the hallway. Sander... he sounded... no, not like himself. He sounded better than how he usually did.

"Where's Miles at," Sander asked.

There was a pause.

"Mom?" Sander asked.

"Sh - um, in the living room."

Miley heard the fall of boots against the floor. As he rounded the corner, Miley mustered all her willpower, and met her brother's eyes.

His jaw nearly popped off.

"Sh*t," he said, completely stupified. "I... I was not expecting that."

Miley slowly stood up. "Hi Sander," she said.

He made a soft, nervous chuckle. "So... you've decided to become a girl."

She nodded with a quivering smile.

"I... I saw the longer hair and nails," Sander said, "but... gosh. I never expected to come back to this."

He looked her over.

"You pull off that skirt better than I ever did," he laughed softly.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sander gave her a hug.

"Congrats on discovering yourself," he said. "I'm happy for you."

Miley smiled, and held her brother lovingly.

The next month there was a very different feeling between them. Sander seemed to have changed a lot over the summer. But the fact that Miley now kind of understood what he'd been through helped both of them.

By the time Dad returned home in September, Mom had slowly broken the news to him. Like with Sander coming out, it wasn't easy.

But it was more pleasant. Dad saw that Miley and Sander were gettting along a lot better, and a bit of that normalcy from before Sander came out seemed to return.

By the time the twins graduated high school, they had both begun hormone replacement therapy.

And as time passed, their parents began to wear their kids' identity as a badge of honor, wearing shirts that said "I love my trans kids."

Although life wasn't always easy for them, they regained the friendship they'd once had, and weathered it all together. 

IWannaBeAMergirl

So... I'll admit it. This story... didn't turn out very good. I think part of it had to do with my lack of knowledge about FtM trans people. Also, I couldn't really come up with a good entrance for Miley into discovering she was trans.

Plus, these past two stories have been me trying to do some shorter fiction, and do it more quickly. It has a lot less polish than the other ones, and sadly, the character actions can feel a bit contrived.

My big problem is, I'm starting to exhaust, I think, my ability to come up with interesting new tg scenarios. I'm sure that there are plenty to be discovered in the future, but I think that I'm a Mermaid, Not a Merman has really been my most original story.

My other ones have felt similar to ones already existing. I haven't really enjoyed forced fem stories... there's something about reading how the individual has that spark and makes the choice themselves to me.

I also have stayed away from more smutty writing. While I haven't had too much of a problem with reading that stuff, as I can glaze over if it becomes too much for me, writing it myself feels a bit weird.

Thanks for reading!