“Mercury Surging Wave!”

Lani drew in their hands over their chest as a ball of blue energy bloomed to life in them. Drawing in a deep breath, they forced the energy ball downward which caused a torrent of water to flow up from the ground. At their feet, the water began to crystalize into a thin, oblong plane of ice while the remaining water continued to flow outward as if from a spring. Lani leaned forward as a wave of water manifested behind them, carrying them forward on the wave as a cataract of water continued to manifest under them, following their movements.

They rushed forward with surprising speed over the somewhat uneven terrain of the construction site and towards the steel barrel we were using as a makeshift target. They leaned to the right and steered the ice board around the barrel, circling around it, faster and faster as they began to pick up speed on their ice board. A dish of water was beginning to form around the barrel until finally, as Lani shot off the crest of the wave, the dish of water froze solid. The target was walled in by a fifteen foot wall of thick, frozen ice.

I was stunned. It was more impressive control of their powers than I could dream of. Certainly more creative than what I’d seen of the originals. But given Lani’s knowledge and instincts on water based on surfing, it wasn’t exactly surprising to see the scale of their skill in action.

We’d been coming here on and off for a few days straight, after Rita got off her work and me and Lani got out of classes. It was still daytime, but the locals knew well enough to ignore our antics and just let us do what we wanted. The construction site itself was still in legal limbo as Queen Consolidated was wrapped up in some kind of zoning dispute for the property, leaving us with our own superpowered training ground.

They landed next to me, their ice board crunching onto the hard, rocky gravel of the site, without the benefit of water to cushion their fall. They looked tired, but happy as they looked at me expectantly.

“How’s that?” they said, beaming, “The moon gravity takes some getting used to, but the moves I can get off it, are sick.”

It was uplifting to see them in such high spirits. Truthfully, I had found joy in these powers, too. It wasn’t just about the ability to fight, but also the ability to move so much more freely and readily. Being able to do acrobatics and amazing jumps were their own reward.

Behind us, I heard the clang of metal hitting metal and I turned to see Rita hard at work in releasing some aggression on the other steel drum target. She twirled her chain-belt around over her head with a whir and snapped it down on the drum with another clang of impact.

“Is the chain working out okay?” I asked.

Rita had been very insistent that I not call it the “Venus Love-Me Chain” as Mina called hers. She insisted strongly that she wasn’t planning to be a dominatrix now or ever. So it was just called the Venus Chain and she had gotten very good at using it.

Rita nodded to me, her face twisted in concentration as she aimed a blow at the drum. She jerked down her arm and, surging along its links, crackling energy followed along the chain as it crashed into the drum, denting it and scorching it.

“So, you wanna try out an actual attack?” I asked gently. “I told you that you don’t need to adhere to the attacks the other Senshi use. It’s about visualizing what you want and naming the attack.”

Rita sighed as she snapped the chain back and wrapped it around her arm, amazingly without hurting herself. The chain was a powerful weapon, but it took practice to use it effectively.

She rounded on me as she impatiently clipped her belt back around her waist. “I really don’t see why I have to say the stupid words to use the stupid powers. It’s stupid.”

I sighed. Rita hadn’t grown up with anime or any kind of tokusatsu media so I had to admit that getting her up to speed with the tropes and eccentricities had been a learning process. I had tried to show her the Sailor Moon anime directly but she hadn’t found it particularly interesting and truthfully, she had some valid points about why we had to say magic words instead of just kicking some ass.

“It’s just how it works,” I sighed, “I know it sounds silly, but I think that’s how the magic of it works. You have to activate the powers by saying the words. It’s about the spectacle, I guess.”

“It’s still stupid,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest, “Fuck, it’s almost like…” She trailed off for a minute as something seemed to cross her mind. “Huh…” she pursed her lips. “Wait. Spectacle? Okay… okay, let me try something.”

She took a step back and insisted that we follow suit. I watched her carefully as Lani and I sat down on a nearby pile of concrete mix bags. Rita crouched down and with a yell, leapt into the air, easily twenty feet high. As she reached the apex of her jump, she began to recline in the air slightly, sticking out her elbow. My eyes widened in shock as I realized what she was going to do a half second before she announced it.

“VENUS ELBOW DROP!”

Her body became suffused with a bright yellow energy which pooled around her elbow making it look like she had become a falling meteor. She fell faster than her moon gravity should allow, causing her to land with an ear-shattering noise of impact and with a burst of energy on the steel drum. As the dust cleared and the energy faded, she stood triumphantly over the crushed drum.

“COME ON!” she said, gesturing to the two of us. “LET ME HEAR IT!’

Me and Lani exchanged glances for a moment before beginning to cheer and clap. Rita nodded gratefully and turned back to the twisted remains of the barrel and picked it up in her arms. With another grunt of effort, she leapt into the air and began to fall quickly. More energy suffused her as she forced the barrel to bear the brunt of her fall.

“VENUS POWERBOMB!”

Another crash and another explosion of energy. The barrel in her arms had been flattened with impact, sizzling and popping as heat deformed it.  She turned back to us expectantly.

“IT’S WRESTLING!” she said in excitement, “HOLY SHIT, IT’S JUST PRO-WRESTLING!”

I looked back to Lani in alarm, who just shrugged in response. “She’s not wrong,” Lani said quietly.

I had to consider the idea. From what I knew… she really wasn’t wrong.

“I was all over pro wrestling when I was a kid,” said Rita excitedly, swinging out a few punches experimentally, “I was still kind of trying to be manly and wrestling felt like a good fit.” She blushed a little. “I mean… it also had hot, muscled guys grabbing each other, but… I still remember how those moves worked. I used to try them on my little brother before he got hurt and my mom’s boyfriend told me to stop. But I can still perform them. It’s a lot easier when you can jump and float like this.” She shook her head. “It’s seriously just wrestling. The spectacle. Like you said. The good guys and bad guys. The shouting and crowd… It’s just wrestling. But with superpowers.”

Lani narrowed their eyes. “It’s a little more involved than that, you know.”

I put a hand on their shoulder. “It’s fine… seriously, however it makes sense to Rita, I say it’s fine.”

I frowned as I felt my phone vibrate in my extradimensional pocket. I hadn’t quite gotten used to the fact that all of my possessions after transforming were stored there, but I couldn’t deny that it was handy. I reached into it and pulled out my phone to see who was calling.

It was Jess. 

My heart skipped a beat as I saw the name. I looked at the others. “Uh… just keep training,” I said, a tad nervously, “I need to take this.”

I hopped into the air and landed onto the cement flooring a few stories up. Seeing that the others hadn’t followed me, I answered the call. “Jess! Hey!” I said excitedly.

“Hey yourself,” said Jess on the other end. “Sorry it took me so long. Had some issue with the Martians to settle. Big mess. But I’m back on Earth if you want to get that coffee.”

I checked the time. “Actually… it’s almost dinnertime. I know a good place. My treat?”

I had tried not to take too much advantage of Izumi’s charity, but damn it, this was a date with a beautiful girl, and I was going to treat her right. My adopted Sailor Guardian Mom would understand. What better use for a bottomless credit card could there be?

“Oh! Sure! Hm… what were you thinking?” she asked.

“I know a great Japanese place down south. Right off State Boulevard next to the theater.”

“Are they going to be vegan-friendly?”

I had to think about that for a moment. It had been some time since I had been there, but I was reasonably sure that there were dishes that Jess could enjoy too.

“Yeah, they have a broad selection,” I said, hoping that I was correct.

“Okay,” said Jess, the smile audible in her voice. “What time?”

“See you in an hour?” I said, trying to gauge how much time I had to get back to my dorm and change.

“Okay! See you then, Serena.”

“See you then, Jess!” I echoed, feeling my cheeks burn in excitement. This was actually going to be a real date! With a girl! This was going to be incredible!

“So, who’s Jess?”

I jumped and hit my head on the ceiling with surprise as I heard Rita’s voice behind me. I turned around to see her stepping out from behind a pillar, with Lani looking particularly guilty as they also stepped out behind her.

“Seriously?!” I said, rubbing my head and blushing furiously. “Seriously?!”

“I told her to mind her own business,” insisted Lani, still looking embarrassed. “But she insisted.”

“Look, if you’re going to be the big bad moon queen lady, then I have to know that you’re on the level,” said Rita, crossing her arms defiantly. “You could be calling your moon friends in Japan or selling our souls to the devil or something. Trust goes both ways, you know. So, who’s Jess?”

I sighed. “She’s a girl… and a friend…”

“Traditionally known as a girlfriend?” said Lani, raising an eyebrow.

“I… it’s our first real date,” I sighed, “She travels a lot for her work, so she only just freed up.”

“What does she do as a job?” asked Rita curiously.

“Space police,” I said bluntly. We were superheroes now, there wasn’t any reason to beat around the bush. “She’s Green Lantern. Well, a Green Lantern at any rate. We met by catching the same bad guy.”

“So she’s a superhero, too?” said Rita.

I nodded.

“Didn’t you say your ex was a superhero?” asked Lani.

I blushed harder as I turned away from them. Both of them had been. I didn’t want to be reminded of Carla right now, and I didn’t want to be answerable to them regarding my dating life either. While nobody save for Mako knew about Toru, that was another painful can of worms I didn’t want to dive into.

“Look… I haven’t been asking you about all of the details of your lives and it’s not my place. I’ve had some really rough issues from this life and right now, I want some small fraction of happiness. I’ve found a girl who is funny, cute and understanding and damn it, I want to actually try to make it work this time! Just… mind your own business, okay?”

They fell silent. I didn’t give them a chance to object as I leapt into the air and began to bounce my way back to campus. I was furious at them for intruding like that. Maybe I could appreciate that they were just concerned, but I was tired of having to justify my life and choices to others. I just wanted to feel some small fraction of love with another human being who saw me as a real woman again, without having it ripped away from me.

As I detransformed and made my way back to my dorm, I began to feel a little regret. I sighed, resolving to apologize to them later. These were my teammates, and while boundaries were important, there was no reason for me to be an asshole.

But for the moment, I had to find something nice to wear.

I stepped back into my dorm room, surprised to find my roommate was also there. And also in some state of undress.

Last semester I had barely even seen my roommate, as he had been some football-playing dudebro who was out doing fraternity stuff most of the time. It was helpful for me to spend time with Carla and do superhero stuff, but occasionally, especially as I had become more feminine near the end of the last semester, things got awkward.

Granted, this was a different kind of awkward as I was now a lesbian in the presence of an underwear-clad, attractive coed.

Charlotte “Charlie” Gage-Radcliffe was an attractive and energetic redhead and a pre-law student. Her brief moment of surprise became a relaxed smile as she continued her act of changing into a blue top and black leggings.

“Hey Serena,” she said cheerfully. “Classes just got out. I got me a night on the town planned. You?”

“Uh…” I said, flustered as I tried to bury my nose in my closet. “Um… I have a… uh… date…” I tried to mumble the last word but apparently Charlie’s very active ears caught me instantly.

“OH MY GOD!’ she shrieked, “Oh my god, oh my god! I’m so happy for you! You kind of had me worried, with you being all antisocial and gloomy all the time, Sera.”

I sighed. She was nice and she was friendly, but Charlie could sometimes be too friendly.

“So… what’s his name?” she asked, intrigued. “Is he cute?”

I sighed. I didn’t have the energy to make up a lie and it was going to come out sooner or later. “Her name is Jess.”

I expected some kind of reaction, but not another squee of joy. “AWWWW! Oh Sera, I’m so happy for you!”

I looked over my shoulder, a possible blouse in my hand. “Huh?”

“Oh come on, Sera,” said Charlie, waving aside my shock, “I had a feeling that you were gay from the moment we met! You couldn’t keep your eyes off my tits after all.” She cupped them to make a point and I had to turn away, my face heating up like the surface of the sun. “I mean, I’m flattered,” she continued, undeterred, “But you’re just not my type. And I’m already spoken for, anyway.”

“Uh huh,” I said, blushing furiously as I continued to dig through my closet.

“That green one is cute!” insisted Charlie, pulling it out of my closet as she reached into my closet. “She’d like this!”

I examined it. It felt a little too revealing, but honestly I had no sense of modesty because up until now, I didn’t really feel like I had anything worth revealing.

“Maybe?” I hazarded, holding it up against myself, “I don’t feel like I have anything to wear with it. Like, maybe if I had a decent necklace…”

Yes, there was obviously my brooch, but it wasn’t something I could wear all the time. For one, it would attract attention and two it just was too gaudy for this dress. I would have to tuck it down my top for this date.

Charlie held up a finger and ran over to her own dresser to rummage around. Finally, she picked out a silver pendant. “Here, I barely wear it anyway. So let’s see how you pull it together…”

I nodded, throwing on the green blouse, black skirt and leggings. I had to admit that she was right in how the pendant hung off my neck. It really did make the dress look better. I pulled a pair of dangling earrings out of my own jewelry chest and inserted them to match. After a brushing and a good application of makeup, I had to admit that I looked good. I hoped that Jess agreed, but at the very least, Charlie seemed impressed.

“You look amazing,” said Charlie, pressing her hands against her cheeks. “Like… damn, girl.”

“You sure?” I asked, turning slightly as I examined the mirror for imperfections. “The skirt isn’t too short?”

“It looks fine,” she insisted. “The belt does a good job of cinching the waist.” She threw on her purse. “I need to go. How do I look?”

She gave her short tunic-dress a spin. She looked good. “Nice,” I said gratefully.

“Groovy,” she said, beaming, “So let’s both go knock 'em dead, yeah?”

I nodded and we stepped out into the hallway. I checked my watch, and while I was going to be cutting it close, I could moon jump to the restaurant in no time at all. It was one of the fringe benefits of superpowers that you didn’t need to rely on public transportation.

“Hey Charlie, thanks for-” I turned around, but only found that she was gone. I sighed. Among her many positive qualities, Charlie was unbelievably flighty and possessed of such a short attention span that she had a habit of disappearing suddenly without warning. It was almost a superpower.

I shrugged. I had enough superpowered women in my life and right now, there was only one that really mattered to me at the moment.

___________________________________________

Jess had gotten to the restaurant a few minutes before me, but didn’t seem phased by the wait. She had been staring at the size of the restaurant and its façade and while others tended to find it gaudy, I always liked the look.

Jiro’s had apparently started as a smaller establishment but had grown to a massive restaurant. The sign glowed in vividly red neon with the fake paper paneling façade accented with a large red torii archway over the front door. As we stepped inside, there was a small grove of potted bamboo flanking us on either side as we stepped into the lobby. It wasn’t too dissimilar to the sushi places back in Japan, just scaled up.

As we waited to be seated, I couldn’t keep my eyes off Jess. She had chosen to wear a sky-blue dress and some colorful wooden bracelets on her wrist. She had visibly done up her hair as it now came off her head in waves as it rested on her shoulders. Her lips were a stunning shade of red that matched the visible blush she wore on her cheeks. We sat next to each other in the lobby, each of us stealing glances at the other.

“You look amazing,” I said, breathlessly.

She giggled self-consciously. It was like music. “T-thanks. You too…”

“So… I’m assuming you’ve never been here before?” I asked, gesturing around us.

She shook her head. “Nope. Too pricey. And income is a little sparse when you’re an artist.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? You don’t get anything from the League or the Core?”

“The Core? Absolutely not. The Lantern Core isn’t about money, but duty. And as for the League,” She shrugged. “I mean, my boss shares some of his merchandising money with me and my partner, but it’s not like Green Lantern is any kind of big money maker like Batman or Superman.”

I considered that. While Batman and Superman-branded merchandise always sold like hotcakes, I had to admit that the Green Lantern had never really pulled in the same kind of marketing appeal. I couldn’t expect the original Green Lantern to share money he didn’t have, but it certainly felt wrong that Jess was being screwed so badly just because she didn’t have the right branding or whatever. We were just expected to do the hero thing for free?

“Christ…” I shook my head, “That’s going to be something I’ll have to have to think over when I graduate. How to balance a career with a cape. I’m beginning to see why all the other Senshi basically retired, given they all had bills to pay.” I looked at her seriously. “You should all unionize or something. I know that the bigger-name heroes have money to spare.” 

Batman/Bruce Wayne would, certainly.

“Green Arrow and a few others have been pushing for that, actually,” said Jess with a faint smile, “But it’s still making its way through committees. And the world governments, mostly the US, have actually been opposing it strongly. Saying that they’ll pull funding and support if the Justice League shows support for “Marxist and socialist ideology”.” She snorted. “It’s fucking crazy…”

“Excuse me?” said a waitress dressed in a kimono, “Your table is ready, ladies.”

We followed her back to a secluded table in the corner and sat down. It was a traditional, recessed bench that sank into the floor, which closely emulated how the tables were set up in Japan, while still being reasonably comfortable for customers. Jess and I picked up the supplied menus to consider them.

“I’ve never had Japanese food before, honestly,” she said, scanning the selection with a look of concentration. “It’s not all raw fish, right?”

“Nope,” I said, pointing to my own menu, “See, they got a vegan sushi roll selection right here. And they have some mapo tofu over here… I mean, it’s Gotham, so it’s not like they don’t have other vegans.” I blushed faintly. “Um… you’re not going to be upset if I order something not vegan, right?”

She shook her head. “No, no… eat what you want. It’s a personal choice for me. I’m not going to impose my beliefs on you,” she snorted, “I mean… I’d be no better than my priest…”

I looked up at her. “So… are you Catholic?”

She gave a noncommittal shrug. “I mean, my family is… and I’ll sometimes go to Mass. But I’m not that observant. Given how the Church treats people like us, I generally try to keep my distance.”

“My parents are baptists.” I nodded. “So, yeah… uh… they basically disowned me the moment I came out.”

She winced. “Oof… I’m so sorry. I really don’t talk about being bi with my extended family for that reason. They still don’t know about my moms being together. When did you come out?”

I sighed. “I came out to my parents on Christmas. They basically turned me out in the cold and slammed the door in my face.”

“Dios mio…” She gave me a tender smile as she grabbed my hand. “That must have been hard.”

“Hard…” I said, squeezing her hand tightly, “But necessary. A friend of mine told me that you need to give the people in your life a chance to love you. The real you. I couldn’t live in suspense anymore and I couldn’t let myself be ashamed of who I am. I’m not wasting the rest of my life pretending to be someone else..”

I swallowed back a lump in my throat. I still hadn’t told Jess who I used to be. I thought that it didn’t matter given that I would never be that person again… but there was so much empty space in my life I couldn’t share otherwise. Jess had lived the life of a real woman with a real girlhood that I never would. We had lived in completely different worlds. 

“‘Give someone the chance to love the real you’,” she said, nodding. “I like that.”

“Can I get you two something to drink? Or maybe an appetizer?” asked our waitress, showing up out of nowhere. Her voice was stern and reproachful and I realized that our hands were still being held across the table as she stared at them. Blushing, we released one another to peer at our options. Jess ordered a green tea and I ordered a soda and a plate of vegetarian gyoza dumplings.

“Gosh, I’m still not used to that,” I said, blushing as I watched the waitress stiffly leave. “Holding hands and stuff in the open?”

Jess eyed me. “You said you had a girlfriend though. Were you trying to keep it a secret? Or did you not go out much?”

I winced. I was getting tired of having to address all of the inconsistencies of my old life with my new one. Every lie and excuse was another page in the fiction I had to carry inside my head. Part of me wanted to tell her outright… but…

As I looked in her eyes, I realized that her rejection would utterly break me. I had just found love again and had no desire to lose it.

“We tried to keep stuff about our relationship on the down-low,” I said, vaguely. “She didn’t want to be known as a lesbian and I wasn’t sure what I wanted.”

She clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “Now, that’s what I hate more than anything else in the world. Dishonestly. I really can respect you coming out to your parents like that. I’m sure it was hard, but it’s so much easier to tell the truth, you know?” She swallowed hard. “I’m… hoping to come out to my dad… you know,” she looked up to me hopefully. “If I have a girlfriend to bring home.”

My heart pounded in my chest as my brain essentially shut down. I was grateful for the waitress to deposit our drinks and dumplings. I stuffed a trio of gyoza in my mouth and used it as the cover to think about what to say and cover my shock. Holy shit she was actually wanting to be my girlfriend?! For real?!

It felt like we had barely met, but I couldn’t deny that my mind hadn’t been consumed with her since we last met. Hell… there had been some distressing (if enjoyable) dreams with her in them. I really was in love, I had to admit that.

But… I was, as she said, being dishonest with her. I hadn’t always been a woman, at least not physically. I owed her the truth.

“Are you two ready to order?” asked the waitress, looking visibly disgusted with me.

“はい！” I shouted, swallowing the mass of food to clear my airway, “食べものは鰻丼がいいです。ありがとうございました!”

The waitress stared at me for a solid minute before she snapped out of her shock and shook her head. “Bitch, I’m fucking Korean! Jesus Christ, can you just order in English!? You know, what we speak here in America?” She gritted her teeth and in a stage whisper, hissed, “Fucking weebs...”

“Unagi donburi. Eel Bowl,” I said, trying to sink into my chair.

“Uh… I’ll have the vegan mapo tofu and the fried egg sushi roll?” asked Jess sheepishly. 

The waitress nodded without speaking further and walked away. As soon as she was gone, I buried my head into the table in sheer embarrassment. “Jesus Christ, I’m a fucking idiot.”

“It’s fine,” said Jess, giving me a brief pat on the head. “I could tell that you were kind of losing your mind when I brought up the idea that we could be girlfriends.”

I made a brief croaking sound in reply.

“Look, I’m not trying to force you into a relationship here, Serena,” said Jess warmly. “But I’m also trying to be honest with you, too. Life is too short not to go into things wholeheartedly. So, I want you to know that I’m not looking for a fling. I’m looking for a partner.”

I stared at the table, hard. One thought was crystalizing in my mind. I had to tell her.

“So… I have a friend… a coworker, I guess,” I said slowly, trying to ease my way into things. “She’s attractive, kind and-”

Jess held up a hand. “Wait, are you seeing someone else?” she said, sounding hurt.

I shook my head, blushing. “No… I’m just… she’s sort of the group leader for our LGBT support group. And… she told us-“

“Wait,” interjected Jess again, frowning. “If this is something said in confidence at a support group, I don’t know if I’m okay hearing it…”

I took in a deep breath and forced myself to release it. She was being reasonable, but this was going to be difficult if she kept interrupting.

“Jess… there’s something very important I need to tell you,” I said, enunciating the words carefully. “Like…I’ve been really unsure about it for a while, but you’re right. I can’t be in a deeper relationship with you unless I’m being perfectly honest about my past.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Whatever you have to tell me, I’m willing to listen.”

“I… I used to be a different person,” I said, nervously wringing my hands. “I only really began to change in college as I realized what kind of person I honestly wanted to be. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been, but in the days before, I couldn’t stand to look at myself in the mirror. I was a bitter asshole and I let that attitude isolate me from everyone else.”

I gulped down the complimentary water, both to quench my dry throat and to give me another moment to gather my courage.

“But… when I was on the brink of death, someone rescued me. Gave me a chance to be honest with myself…” I looked up at her with a faint smile, “Usagi. My mentor. She handed the brooch. My brooch.” I fished it out of my dress and squeezed it in the palm of my hand. Its presence was comforting and fortifying. “And it gave me the power to not only fight for what was right, but the power to fight for myself.”

I hugged myself. “The world is in so much more color now. I feel things that I’ve never felt before. Jess… I feel alive now. But… no matter what, I can’t change the past of who I used to be and… I need to confront it. Especially with you.”

Jess stared at me quietly for a moment before speaking up. “Serena… whoever you were… I’m falling for the woman in front of me.”

I swallowed hard. “Even if I wasn’t always a woman?”

Jess frowned. “I don’t understand.”

I forced out a sigh. The moment of truth had come. “Jess, I’m transgender.”

It was during that extremely tense moment that our beleaguered waitress made her presence known with a small cough as she set down our soups in front of us and visibly rushed to get out of view. I was mortified beyond words, but I tried to focus on the conversation at hand.

I silently stared at the miso soup bowl in front of me, waiting for Jess to respond. She was still. Her lips pressed together in quiet consideration. The silence felt like a crushing vice in my chest. It took all of my power to keep my breathing steady and not to break apart on the spot.

“So…” said Jess, finally speaking up after a minute or so, “You… used to be…” she shook her head, “no… I mean… you are a woman. But you were born with… a male body?”

I nodded. “More or less. I’ve been wanting to be a girl for most of my life, and by taking up the mantle of Sailor Moon, I was finally able to become who I always was on the inside. My body is now fully female.”

Her brows knitted together. “So… you’re completely female anyway… so why are you telling me this?”

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Because, like you said, relationships are built on honesty. If I saw that you weren’t willing to be with me because of my history, it would help me make a decision on how I wanted to spend the future. And I’ll be honest… some of this girl stuff is new to me and I’m still learning. I… I needed to know that I could trust you. I’ll need help and support through this as I make up for lost time.”

“Right,” she said, nodding, “I… I get it. I just… I never would have guessed. I mean…” She gestured to me helplessly. “You act like a woman. I mean, you’re kind of an anxious wreck, but so am I.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my teammates and from the community as a whole, it’s that there is no one perfect way to be a woman,” I said, quietly. “Only the way that makes sense to you. And that’s where I’m at right now…”

“You’re right,” said Jess, nodding, “Okay… thank you for trusting me with this. I promise you that I won’t treat you any differently than I would any other girlfriend.”

I blinked in surprise at that. “G-girlfriend? You still want to…?”

“Yeah,” she said, chuckling a little bit, “Unless it’s too much…”

“No!” I insisted, heart hammering in my chest, “I just thought… that you wouldn’t…”

She put her hands into my own. “Look… I’ll admit that I’m a little scared. I have a complicated life and I never thought I’d find anyone… male or female, who would understand.” She broke into a wide smile, “But you get it. Not just the hero thing… but the fear… the uncertainty… And you push forward anyway.”

“I mean…” I looked down at her hands, feeling their warmth mingle with my own, “I’m done letting that fear rule my life. I’m becoming the woman I always wanted to be. And right now…” I looked into her shimmering eyes, “I want to be the kind of woman who’s in love with you.”

She broke into a watery smile. “I can’t promise I’ll always be beside you… I have a tendency to get yanked a million light years away at a moment's notice.”

“I mean, we both have our own responsibilities,” I said, squeezing her hands. “Comes with the territory.”

“Yes… but I can promise you this: I’ll be there when it counts. And not even the Guardians of Oa themselves could stop me,” she returned my squeeze.

We leaned across the table and kissed. It would have been a tender moment, if it weren’t for the waitress again arriving at the most awkward possible time. 

We managed to make it through the rest of the meal without embarrassing ourselves further, and I made sure to provide the waitress a decent tip for the soap opera that we had unintentionally put her through.

Stepping out into the night with her hand in my own felt magical. After a brief check-in with Charlie that we would have the dorm to ourselves, Jess followed me back to my room and the night got even better.

I thought that I had long since given up hope for love like this. Ever since Toru, I’d assumed that it was a lost cause. But Jess had taught me that it not only existed but could last longer than one night. Regardless of the past I once had, she saw me in the present and as I was now.

And while the future would remain uncertain, I could relax in her arms, knowing that I wouldn’t face it alone.