It was a large fire. Apparently a gender reveal party got out of hand when somebody ignited a tree, and subsequently, set the nearby small forest ablaze. Firefighters and a couple of water-spewing superheroes were quickly on the scene, controlling the burn as best they could. By the time it was over, a large section of the forest was nothing but cinders and ash. That’s when Bloom was called in.

Bloom was a superhero. Sort of. She didn’t do the whole fighting thing, preferring to leave that to the types that actually enjoyed violence. It wasn’t that she couldn’t fight, since her powerset was flexible enough to be useful if needed. It was that Bloom didn’t want to. She preferred using her powers for healing and creation.

Due to how Bloom’s abilities functioned, she wasn’t bound by any time constraints. Bloom would get the call when something required her abilities, and she would schedule an appointment with the relevant parties. It was disturbingly corporate.

Once Bloom arrived at the center of the destroyed section of the forest, she allowed herself a moment to take in her surroundings. Though, she looked massively out of place for such a bleak scene. Her chestnut hair hugged her face, as if to shield her from the grisly sight. Bright green eyes and lipstick complemented each other, with a splash of green on her nails for good measure. She had time to prepare for her appointment, and figured a few accents reminiscent of a Dryad would help her image. Plus the makeup was cute on her.

Bloom’s attire was a mix of functional and expressive. A white tank top covered her midsection, with a pair of blue shorts below it. Accompanying her feet were a simple pair of sneakers, comfortable enough to walk through rough terrain in. Her outfit would merit a ‘back to the drawing board’ if presented to an expert on superhero costumes. Not like she had to worry about concealing her identity. 

Bloom kneeled down in the burnt grove, trying not to let the charred and smoky smells of dead greenery get to her. Another slice of nature destroyed because of stupidity, Bloom frowned while cupping her face with her hand. By instantly healing the earth, would she be enabling more idiots in the future? No, the injuries the culprits sustained should have taught them enough of a lesson, Bloom hoped.

Bloom shook her head, she had to focus for this. Bloom closed her eyes, and planted both of her hands in the soil, building up the energy inside herself, and subsequently letting it flow out of her. The black, scorched earth slowly began to glow green. Soft at first, but growing stronger moment by moment. It takes a few minutes to get in the zone, but Bloom was a natural. 

“I’ve got this.” Bloom smirked. With one burst, she released all of the energy she had stored up, and it rapidly spread throughout the devastated area. Charred land turned into vibrant grass, beautiful flowers regenerated throughout the landscape, and dead trees turned into a lovely mix of greens, reds, and oranges. 

Bloom fell over on her side, panting. Even though she could only see a fraction of the changes through her eyes, she could feel every one. Coupled with how much she leaned in to her power reserves, she was quite wiped. She could already tell this was a contender for the best work she’d ever done. 

She laid there for who knows how long, letting herself both recover and admire the scenery around her. Eventually, she spotted a fireman out of the corner of her eye. He jogged over to her prone form, and awkwardly offered a hand. Bloom took it, appreciating how easy it was for her lithe body to be hoisted upright.

The fireman expressed his gratitude, and added that their new guy was geeking out over her back in the truck. Drinks were offered, but Bloom politely declined. While a night of celebratory drinks sounded fun, social calls made her too nervous. Instead, Bloom planned on ordering an extra-large pizza and staying inside for the night. She spun on her heel and walked back to her car, tired but at the same time enjoying the brand new scenery around her.

***

“They really asked you to go for drinks?” Bloom’s roommate, Lindsay, asked.

“Yeah, that’s never happened before. I mean, they work with Mertillery too, usually she gets all the attention.” Bloom shrugged while summoning a vine made out of pure energy from her hand. The vine delicately approached the pizza box on the table, and wrapped around a slice inside. It then retracted and presented the slice of pizza to Bloom, who happily grabbed it and let the vine vanish with a *poof*.

Lindsay rolled her eyes. “Show-off.” She muttered. To which Bloom responded by blowing her roommate a kiss, and then shoving the slice of pizza in her mouth.

“A-anyway, you shoulda taken them up on that. Free meal!”

“No no no.” Bloom shook her head vigorously, wiping her face with her hand. “I know what those guys were thinking. One of them was gonna ask me out.”

“And then you say you have a boyfriend. Or...ah!” Lindsay’s eyes bulged out and she grinned. “Even better, say you have a girlfriend! Problem solved.” She got up off the couch and grabbed her own piece of pizza, pausing to brush a couple stray black hairs out of her face before taking a bite.

Bloom turned away from Lindsay, blushing. “That’s-“ Bloom started, pausing for a bit while she parsed the words in her head. “I’m more worried about them.”

Lindsay shrugged. “You’ve got superpowers. They couldn’t hurt you.”

“I - you got me.” Bloom sighed. “It’s one thing doing this to be a hero. I’m not going to start living more of my life like this.”

“Iunno.” Lindsay mumbled, swallowing the last of her pizza. “We’ve been sitting here for two hours. I’d call that living your life.”

“I-“ Bloom put two fingers over her lips and concentrated, scrunching her eyes shut. “You already know the situation though.” 

“Okaaaay.” Lindsay elaborately rolled her eyes. “The point is, there’s nothing wrong with splitting your time. I mean, you’re being all flexible and showy...” Lindsay winked, causing a shudder from Bloom. “Nothing wrong with...spending a little more time every day like this.”

Bloom frowned then let a forced chuckle escape her throat. “Haha no, I’m switching back.” She turned and opened her backpack. She felt around for the staff that had originally gifted her superpowers, and pulled it out of the backpack.

“Bloom…” Lindsay started, but Bloom wasn’t listening.

Bloom grasped the small wooden staff and felt for the power within her. Once hitting the invisible switch in the back of her mind, the power began to flow out of Bloom and back into the staff. A wash of sensations opposite those when she powered up swept over Bloom, as the rush of energy steadily left her body. Bloom left reality for an indeterminate amount of time and became a whirlwind of thought while her body was reshaped from a distance.

Limbs contorted, certain parts of her body grew and shrank in various ways, none of them comfortable. Bloom suppressed a pang of disappointment and shoved it back in the metaphorical basement where those feelings belonged. 

As Bloom slowly snapped back into reality, she realized she forgot something. Something important. Something that could threaten to completely destroy her on the inside.

“You uh, forgot to switch out your clothes again.” Lindsay said, blushing.

Bloom, no, Trevor, looked down. He was in his guy- his real form again. He forgot to take off the Bloom costume. He looked at Lindsay, his cheeks burning with shame. 

So he ran.

Dropping the staff on the floor, Trevor ran into his room, ignoring Lindsay’s pleas for him to wait. He slammed the door and started to hiss steam. He desperately attempted to free himself from his top, but a small ‘creak’ behind him changed his priorities. Trevor whipped his head around, already knowing the cause of the noise.

Lindsay was there. He didn’t lock the door.

“Don’t look at me!” Trevor cried, deciding to turn his head in any direction that wasn’t Lindsay’s.

“Why can’t I?” Lindsay queried. “You’re just wearing the same things you wear as Bloom.”

“Because…” Trevor started, but the subsequent words caught in his throat. Lindsay had just broken a cardinal rule. Bloom and Trevor were supposed to be separate entities. Any kind of a crossover always invited disaster. Sure, Lindsay was the type to tease but this was the first time she was speaking with a serious tone.

“Well?”

“Don’t make me say it.” Trevor’s voice cracked. His shoulders slumped, and his feet began to demand he find a place to sit. Instead, his body settled for collapsing on his bed, and rolling over to envelop himself in the covers.

A small dip in the bed indicated Lindsay had sat down, uninvited. Trevor popped his head out of the blankets to glare at her. Upon seeing her stern look, he gave up trying to make eye contact and looked off to the side. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lindsay’s gaze softening for a moment, before going hard again.

“Trevor, you can talk to me. I’m here for you.” Lindsay reminded him.

Trevor for some reason, was blinking much more than usual. “I’m supposed to be a guy. Guys don’t-they don’t do this.” He stammered, blinking becoming much more rapid. 

Lindsay raised her eyebrows and her face progressed into a worried expression. “Guys don’t do what?” She asked carefully.

Trevor wiped some perspiration from his face, getting a flash of the bright green nail polish he had on. He stared at his hand as if doing that would wipe the polish off. “Guys don’t turn into a girl and save the planet.”

“Maybe some guys can.” Lindsay countered, folding her arms underneath her chest. “Are you comfortable right now?”

“Hell no.” Trevor automatically replied while rolling his eyes. “I’m fucking pathetic.”

“Why?”

“Because I look like this.” He waved his hands around his body, only realizing he still had the green lipstick on. He covered his mouth with his blanket, wondering how much deeper he could dig the hole of indignity he found himself in.

“Why is that pathetic? You look cute to me.”

Trevor stopped the train of self-pity. Cute? That wasn’t possible. Bloom was cute. She was everything anyone would want to be, as a hero of course. See, Trevor was just an average guy. Not really standing out. Lindsay was clearly making stuff up. He better fire back with something witty to move the conversation in a different direction.

“Cute?” Trevor mumbled. Oops.

“Yeah. You’re really pulling off the look. I mean, you grew your hair out so it would look nice in both your identities.” Lindsay’s eyes seemed to focus on Trevor, staring right into his soul. He couldn’t get away. Lindsay had him thoroughly cornered.

“That was for practical purposes.” Trevor protested, though he already knew he liked his hair better when it was long.

“And the way you enunciate your words is deliberate.” Lindsay began, ignoring Trevor’s whining. “Your posture is very controlled. Seriously, you’re scarily good.”

“That’s not fair...I just needed to get into the role.” Trevor said, his voice becoming sharp enough to cut a diamond. Double oops.

Lindsay narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice. “You’re happier now than I’ve ever seen you. Even when you’re complaining about not being normal. Just...let yourself do what makes you happy, kay? I care about you, Trevor. It’s been six months since you registered as Bloom. Every third time you go out it ends up with you throwing a fit and hiding in here. Please think about what you want to do.”

Trevor slumped back in the bed as Lindsay silently got up and left, giving Trevor one more sympathetic smile as she left his room. 

The intricacies of self-reflection are best expressed through acknowledging one’s feelings. For Trevor, this amounted to screaming into a pillow for ten minutes before their voice became too hoarse to continue. Getting up to grab a drink of water was too big of an ask at the moment.

What kind of conclusion was Lindsay hoping for Trevor to make? Obviously something about their repeated switches from boring guy to badass nature lady. If you compare the two, obviously badass nature lady wins, right? With her cool powers and her efforts to regrow the Earth after disasters....

Wait, take away the powers for a second. Bloom was a hero, of course people were supposed to look up to her. Did that include Trevor? Was he looking up to her in the same way those firemen did? Putting her on the pedestal to live up to those perfect standards?

Oh no, that made too much sense. Bloom as a hero would be different than Bloom as a person. Trevor shuddered. They originally didn’t want to start doing normal stuff as it would cut too much into their time as Trevor. Yet, maybe Lindsay was onto something. Trevor did have more fun just hanging out in Bloom mode.

Or should that be girl mode? If their issue was living up to who Bloom was, maybe take the Bloom part out entirely and just...do what makes them happy.

Were they seriously considering being a girl all the time? Would that even be possible? Was there a word that would perfectly encompass how they felt at this moment? Is letting go of being a guy in the cards?

Trevor gulped. A large part of how they defined themselves was by being a guy. Then again, whenever they said the word 'guy', it was followed by something disparaging about what they had to deal with because of it.

Maybe, being a guy wasn't the option after all. Maybe they could be a girl, like Bloom. Bloom was happy where she was. 

"Do what makes you happy.", Lindsay had said. As of now, Trevor was unhappy whenever they associated themselves with being a guy. Therefore, being a guy was the problem. That made sense. They didn't have to define themselves to any gender structure assigned to them. It was up to them to find what worked. Woah. Did that mean they weren't actually a guy?

Oh.

Ohhhh.

Trevor got up and with a little bit of mental encouragement, gave their mirror a cursory glance. 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Wow, the person in the mirror really is cute. Definitely androgynous and adorable all in one bundle. That wasn't even with the power of the staff coursing through them. They didn’t have to be Bloom or Trevor to live the way they wanted to. Lindsay was right. Maybe...maybe they would be okay after all. Being not-a-guy fulltime wasn't unattainable. 

A few moments of deliberation and an awkward staring contest with their reflection later, they decided what to do. Being a girl felt the best to her. She had done the work to fit in with the powers the staff gave her as Bloom before, and now she can do the work again but without any masks, personas, or forced gender roles to hide behind. It was time to live authentically.

The girl that definitely needed an all-night name brainstorming session decided now would be a good time to get some water, without changing out of her pretty clothing and makeup.