Work Text:
Momo is laying on her bed, kicking her feet up into the air as she texts one of her girlfriends (no homo lol) for advice on what kind of chocolates she should make for her handsome, caring, adorkable new boyfriend - for Valentine’s Day, which is coming up soon, when she hears it.
“Do you see our relationship as a lesbian relationship?” Ken, the boyfriend in question, suddenly asks. Momo almost falls off of her bed in shock. Putting her phone down to focus on Ken, because this seems like it might need a pretty serious conversation, she sits straight up, facing him as she says, “What? No, of course not. You’re a guy, and I’m as straight as can be. Even if I was bi or pan, you’re still male, so our relationship would still be straight, I just wouldn’t be straight myself.”
“Are you really straight? I mean, look at me. Sure, I identify as a guy, but I still have breasts, and, er, you know, that. When I take my binder off, I’m basically a short-haired girl. Can you really be attracted to that if you’re straight..?” Ken’s voice breaks in insecurity, and Momo almost wants to cry out in pain for her sweet, awkward boyfriend, who she never knew was hiding this level of insecurity about the nature of their relationship. She doesn’t know what’s made him decide to open up now, but she’s glad he has.
“Ken, where is this coming from? Is it your dysphoria again?” Momo asks him, and the way he suddenly decides to stare off into the distance at the wall next to him is all too telling.
“Ken, come here,” She says, putting her phone aside and opening her arms wide for him. As he obliges and walks over, she sees dried tear tracks on his face, and her heart hurts all the more. No wonder his head was faced down the entire time he was talking to her.
“I hate this body. Why couldn’t I have been born a boy?” He softly cries once he’s reached her and climbed up onto the bed. She wraps him in her arms, and he buries his face in her neck as she rubs her hands along his back in a soothing motion.
“I don’t know why, either. While I love you exactly the way you are, breasts or no breasts, I know it would have made you happier if you were born a boy, so I wish you could have been born one, too. While we can’t exactly go back and change that now, I want you to know that you’re the most masculine guy I’ve ever met, and I thought that before and after you told me you were trans,” She tells him, continuing to rub her hands along his back as he slowly stops shuddering, crying slowing down, a sign what she’s doing is working. “My opinion of you never changed, and for the record, you’re much more of a man than my last boyfriend was, that prick,” She says, laughing, and he, miraculously, lets out a small giggle along with her.
“I know, but I still wish I could start testosterone-” Ken begins, a trace of insecurity still in his voice, but Momo cuts him off quickly before that can grow too far.
“I know you haven’t gotten the official gender identity disorder diagnosis yet so you can’t start T - and by the way, I hate the way that label makes it sound like you’re confused about your gender or something - but I want you to know that I’ve never seen you as lesser for not being able to be on T like some other trans guys are. You don’t need to have testosterone flowing through your veins to be a man, and I stand by that. If you decided you never want to go on T and/or get any surgeries, I would still support you through that. Your. Body. Does. Not. Define. You.” She tells him firmly, and she feels awkward as he goes silent for a bit. Did she say the wrong thing? She always tried her best to be supportive - she read articles online about trans people, listened to their stories, asked Ken himself what to say and when… but at the end of the day, Ken was the first trans guys she’d ever own. She was bound to mess up one day , and she really hoped that day wasn’t today, with how upset Ken seemed.
“Thank you,” He eventually whispered instead, and Momo felt incredibly happy, to realize she hadn’t messed up after all.
“I’m hungry,” She said, after a while of them just laying silently in each other’s arms. “Want to go get ice cream?”
He agreed, and she got up off the bed. “Last one to the fridge is a rotten egg!” She shouted, and sped up ahead. “Hey! No fair, you cheater!” He shouted back at her, and ran quickly after her, hot on her heels as they both shrieked like wild animals.
Gender dysphoria: 0. Ayase Momo, the best girlfriend ever: 1, She thought later, as they returned to her rooms with their ice cream together, and she watched Ken quickly reach for his binders to put it on, likely feeling a bit dysphoric again, only to glance back at her, and then leave it in its place in her closet.