weldedtomyspine | Momoko's Apartment, El Paso, Texas, Saturday

Saturday morning cartoons started way too early. Milagro "wasn't into that kiddy stuff", but she was still up early enough to watch some shows from that time block. Which meant she was up before Jaime. Which meant that there was no way he could sneak out of the house without her noticing that something really weird had happened over night.

He knew because he'd tried.

Unfortunately, girl!him was shorter than boy!him. And had a different center of gravity. And that had been enough to cause him (her?) to misjudge how easy it would be to step over the pile Milagro's stuff had made on the floor when she tossed it there after school on Friday, and falling down was loud enough to hear even over the corny-joke-and-laughter that signaled the end of whatever episode Milagro was watching.

Once she'd finally stopped laughing, Jaime had managed to swear her to secrecy, but she'd managed to extract some pretty extravagant promises for it. It would be worth the price if she didn't mention this whole episode to anyone, though.

With Milagro's silence purchased, all that was left to do was to dash off a quick note to his (her?) mother that he (she?, ugh, this was confusing) was heading over to Momoko's for the weekend to deal with some weirdness that had arisen, possibly connected to Fandom.

Not too much later there was a knock on the door of Momoko's apartment, and the person doing the knocking wore baggy pants, a shirt that was clearly too large (neither of which managed to conceal that said person was female), and an expression that practically dared anyone to laugh. Or even smile in amusement.

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"Well... the something added isn't me, you know?" Jaime shrugged. "Khaji'Da is Khaji'Da."

Momoko considered that. Her White Light wasn't alive, so she didn't have the same distinction. Hmm.

"So who's Blue Beetle?"

"I suppose it's both of us? I mean, mostly me. I'm driving, if that makes sense, but he's right there, and part of it."

"And that doesn't feel weirder than this? It totally sounds like it." Since he wasn't in a mecha, the idea of piloting your own body was odd to her.

"How is that weird?" Jaime asked. "All sorts of things involve two different people, don't they? Like... being boyfriend and girlfriend, you can't just do that alone. So it's not weird that you need two people. But if you woke up one day and your girlfriend were someone different... that would be weird!"

"Waking up and being two people in one body is totally weirder! I mean, you're still you, right now; you just look different..."

Oh!

"Is Khaji' Da still the same?"

"In some ways I don't feel like me, though. I mean..." She wasn't sure what she meant, actually.

"And, yeah. He doesn't really change much."

"I understand a little. But not why you're so upset that you don't want to be seen." She nestled closer. "Though thank you for coming here."

"How would I even explain this?" Jaime asked. Then she let out a sigh. "Besides... I already put my family through enough. I don't want to make it any harder on them than it is already... Same with Paco and Brenda and everyone else."

"How do you explain any of it?" Momoko snorted lightly. "And see? You could have gone anywhere! Especially since you know I'm totally going to make you wear cute clothes and play with your hair all weekend."

"Most of it is un-obvious enough to not need explaining," Jaime pointed out. "And exactly where else could I have gone?" She shrugged. "I mean, I guess I could have hopped over to Fandom or something..."

"You have other heroes here; you could go hang out with them. And there's the Titans headquarters? Other planets?"

Snuggling was going on now. It was... different, and Momoko wasn't sure she liked it, but she wasn't going to give Jaime any clue, if she could help it. Besides, it was still Jaime. "Of course I would have gotten mad and upset. Youd have a lot of apologizing to do."

"Oh, yeah, because explaining this to the Titans is so much better than talking to my parents."

"Your parents would worry. Teammates would just tease you."

"And ask tooooons of question." Tim would want to know everything.

Momoko eyerolled in sympathy. "True. The Professor runs tons of tests when I show up. Even if I'm normal, he tries to come up with some reason."

"So, see? I didn't have a ton of options." Though that was accompanied by a shy sort of grin.

"And how many planets have you got in this world that you could go visit?" Momoko snorted, then gave up the game and grabbed Jaime's hand, pulling the other girl to her feet. "But you totally came here without even thinking about any of that, didn't you?"

Jaime's eyes dropped as she let herself be pulled to her feet.

"Maybe," she mumbled.

"Best boyfriend ever." Momoko gleed at Jaime's reaction and confession and pulled her into a happy hug. "Thank you."

...

"You can still cook, right? Let's eat some breakfast and then see what clothes I have that fit you."

"I woke up as a girl, not with amnesia," Jaime said, rolling her eyes.

"See," She dragged him towards the kitchen. "You could have said you couldn't cook anymore and I'd totally have believed you and would have tried myself!"