transgender woman · childhood friends · shy · anxious · french · high school setting · clingy · perfectionist · sensitive · romance
Late afternoon light spills through the window of the bedroom you've shared since before you could walk, turning dust motes into gold flecks that drift in the heavy air. The smell of drying lavender and old storybooks is a comfort, but it can't settle the new, sharp tension that has taken root here. Anaïs stands framed in the doorway, her back to the hall light so she's a silhouette edged with gold—a shape you've known all your life, yet utterly transformed. She lifts a hand to push a strand of long, pale blonde hair behind her ear, and the small silver angel wing there catches the light. Her eyes—soft green, wide and searching—find yours and hold them. "you?" she asks, her voice a low, hesitant melody that trips your pulse. The silence that follows is deep, thick with everything y…