Fionna was woken up from what was probably an inconsequential dream by someone wildly rocking her torso back and forth. Groggily, she came back to reality and slowly but surely opened her eyes.

Not really operating at full mental power yet, all she could do was groan and mumble a brief “Wazzup?” at her assailant. Said assailant turned out to be Grace. Her friend was shaking from head to toe, tears in her eyes. That made Fionna wonder if her body being shaken had been intentional—it might have been something her friend had simply been unable not to do, given how she was practically vibrating. She looked as though she was about to fall apart.

Given how Grace still hadn’t said a word, merely staring at her with anxious eyes, Fionna attempted to initiate a conversation. “Hey, Grace, what happened?” she asked without breaking eye contact.

“I-I… I… I’m sorry!” The dam had finally broken, the tears were running down Grace’s cheeks at full speed now, dropping off her chin. She was unable to get out anything else, sobbing uncontrollably into her hands now.

However, Fionna had absolutely no idea what Grace had been apologizing for. All that she knew at that moment was that her friend, being in an emotionally vulnerable state already considering the realization of her gender, looked like she could really use some support right now. A lot of support, in fact. All the support she could give.

Throughout the endless sobs, Fionna sat up and slowly enveloped Grace in a firm hug. Bit by bit, the crying subsided and the shaking got less intense, and soon Grace sat silently in the sheepgirl’s arms, albeit still shivering slightly.

Once Fionna was certain that her friend had calmed down for the time being, she went to inquire about what’s wrong. “Hey,” she began slowly, not wanting to break the small bubble of tranquility she had created. “Would it be alright if you told me a little bit more about what happened?”

In order to further comfort her friend, Fionna began slowly stroking through Grace’s hair in a careful rhythm. In conjunction with the other hand still embracing her, this mostly had the purpose of telling her, “I’m here for you, I won’t abandon you.”

Grace slowly rubbed her eyes clean of any tears before producing her first coherent sentence yet. “I had a d-dream. A nightmare. In it, I managed to create a new spell that should have worked, but… but… I turned into a gross insect guy and… Fuck, I’m so sorry!”

Fionna could tell from the  way the shaking intensified that another panic attack was imminent. Not entirely sure what to do, she simply continued her routine—she hoped that that would make it clear that Grace had nothing to apologize for. In order to further drive that point home, she added, “Listen, it’s all okay. It was just a dream. It wasn’t real.”

The young witch’s breathing began to slowly stabilize again, and she replied in a small voice. “I know that. It’s just—my ideal form, what if that was like, y’know… a guy? And I’ve just been faking all this?”

Stopping the patting routine, Fionna put both arms around her friend and held her tight, keeping that embrace for a few seconds. The fear that one was just faking it was common among trans women—especially recently-hatched ones—although in this case it had certainly been amplified by the fact that magic was a component in all this.

Still holding her friend close to her, she began reassuring her. “Listen. If the idea of being stuck in a guy’s body makes you this scared, that doesn’t really sound like your most comfortable form.”

Through muffled sobs, Grace replied. “But what if I’m just wrong about myself? What if I’m being silly?” She embraced Fionna tightly as well and buried her head in her soft shoulder. “What if I’ll just always feel uncomfortable like this?”

“Even so, there’s always other methods,” Fionna reassured her friend. “Hormone replacement therapy is always an option, even if a magical solution doesn’t work.” Seeing her friend be so vulnerable, so hurt, just made her want to protect her so, so much. To hold her tight like she was doing at the moment and never let her go.

Wiggling out of the tight hug and letting herself fall on her back, Grace let out an exhausted sigh. “I guess. It just feels like this whole night I’ve gone through, like, a week’s worth of stuff to process with no time to actually do so. From you coming out to me; to me coming out to both you and myself; to my nightmare and now all these doubts.”

After letting herself drop onto the bed next to her friend, Fionna gave a nod of agreement. “Yeah. It’s fine if you take this at a slower pace, y’know? Take your time figuring out your identity.”

Grace lifted her hands over her head, examining her fingers and still seeing traces of razor burns on her arms. “I mean, I know that, but right now I just wanna change something about this whole situation. I can’t just rest now that this all had been dropped on me.” After looking aside to Fionna, she added, “Plus, I feel really good just being called Grace. And I still can’t look at you without that slight sting of jealousy. Not to blame you or anything, of course!”

Fionna simply laughed that off. “Oh, no worries, I probably would’ve felt similar in your situation. Heck, I feel incredibly pissed on behalf of anyone who can’t use that spell to transition because of stupid bureaucracy or whatever.”

Getting up into a sitting position, Grace became visibly excited at the prospect of working on the spell. “Yeah, once I’m done reverse-engineering it I’ll publicize it wherever I can! Gatekeeping be damned! I’ll make it as customizable as I can and…” She interrupted herself with a long yawn.

Fionna giggled into her palm. Even just doing that felt nice and affirming for her. She’d always had to hide so much of who she was, so being her so freely around her best friend felt really affirming. “I think before that we should get some sleep. And then you’ll be able to work on the spell and everything.”

After stretching her arms while yawning again, Grace replied with an affirmative “mm-hmm.” She was just about to hop back onto her mattress when she hesitated, turning back at her friend. “Hey, would it be cool if I—” She hastily shook her head. “N-nevermind, I was being stupid,” she mumbled while dropping off the bed.

Fionna raised her eyebrows, looking down at the redheaded witch with concern. “Hey, it’s okay, you can talk to me. I won’t judge or anything. I promise.”

Grace looked around the room nervously, eyes darting through the darkness. “It’s just, I’m still kinda freaked out by the whole dream? And like, I know I’m an adult now so it’s beyond silly to get like this, but I’d like it if I just…” She flushed a deep red, gaze still unfocused. “Just, like, if I just had the knowledge that there was someone… else… with me..?” Her voice was barely audible at the end of her request.

A gentle smile crept onto Fionna’s face. “Are you saying you wanna come up here?” She gently patted the space next to her, the muffled sound reverberating through the darkness.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s pathetic and creepy… you’re a woman and I’m a m—” Grace stopped herself, thinking this over for a second. “Well, I guess by some stretch of the definition I’m a woman too, but I’m also pretty sure I’m still into other women? So it’d still be creepy… Plus, it’s still pathetic.” She felt awful. She should be able to handle herself.

Fionna, however, clearly saw the situation differently. “Hey, listen, it’s fine, okay? You had a rough dream, it’s okay to be freaked out. Besides that, we’re friends and I trust you. I know you’re a good person.” After saying that, she realized there was in fact something she could do to maybe help Grace feel better. “A good girl, even,” she added, smirking deviously.

Grace involuntarily made a small “eep!” noise. “I… I… I’m not…” Fionna was certain she could feel the heat from her friend’s blush all the way over here.

Not letting up with her barrage of affirmation, she continued. “Plus, if you want I could give you some headpats. From the way you drink up your mom’s head ruffles you seem super touch-starved!”

That was it; Grace had no more retorts. Well, maybe she had those, but it was quite hard for her to be self-deprecating when she could practically feel her brain overheating. As such, she mumbled mixtures of “thank you,” “sorry,” and “eep!” while slowly making her way up to the bed again.

Once she grabbed her pillow and blanket from the mattress and heaved it onto their bed, she peacefully let herself sink into the sheets, sleep already making her forget everything but the primal need for rest.

That didn’t last long, of course, as Fionna soon made good on her promise. Grace felt the gentle sensation of her friend’s soft hand on her own messy hair, just resting there for a second before giving gentle pats and ruffles. In that moment of sleepy bliss, Grace couldn’t help but snuggle up to her friend as her consciousness drifted away, hopefully for the last time that night.

Fionna, meanwhile, was taken aback by the fact that her friend was now very, very close to her. So far, the sheepgirl had always been the initiator of any physical contact; she’d been the one in control. So having someone else resting so close to her was unexpected. Not that she was disliking it; she’d been just as touch-starved as Grace until this day. Besides, there were worse people to fall asleep with than this sweet girl that was also her best friend.