The Cumbrian Confusion - Part 2 (Patreon)

“You seem happy,” Hyacinth called out from her armchair as Lily returned from the grocery store.

“I met a cute gay girl,” Lily replied, putting down her shopping bags on the kitchen counter.

“That didn’t take long,” her great aunt said, sounding a bit surprised. Happy, but surprised.

It was a reasonable response, in Lily’s opinion. She hadn’t expected to find any fellow sapphics so quickly. And, while she wasn’t sure about general opinions, she had at least heard that lesbians in the UK were pretty accepting of trans women. So, likely a smart dating pool.

“Is she nice?” Hyacinth asked.

“We only chatted for a few minutes in the grocery store,” Lily replied. “But… she seemed nice. The weirdest thing, though, is that she seemed so unfamiliar with femininity… I guess she might be trans and just won the genetics lottery, because otherwise I’d have figured a girl who passed that well to have been on hormones for a while.”

Her great aunt nodded, sitting quietly for a few moments. Lily used the time to put some cans away.

“Maybe… maybe she’s one of those—oh, what was it that you called them? Inter-somethings,” Hyacinth mumbled.

“Ah, right. Maybe she is intersex. That could definitely make sense,” Lily said, nodding to herself. “Sometimes doctors and families make odd choices when pushing labels onto folks like that… I suppose I’ll find out; if she feels like sharing. If she doesn’t, then she doesn’t.”

“Either way, I’m glad you found a fellow lesbian girl to flirt with, I didn’t know we had any in town,” her great aunt replied.

“Auntie, I’ve told you before, I’m bi. I just mostly prefer girls,” Lily mumbled, her mind still mostly focused on the mystery of Ridley Gardiner.

“Ah. It’s just that you’ve only dated girls, so it’s easy to forget,” aunt Hyacinth said, half to herself.

Lily found her mind floating on the question for a few more moments, but then shook her head, dismissing it. “Either way, we should be heading for bed.”

-

Standing under a tree in the town centre park, Ridley couldn’t help but feel nervous. He was worried the maybe-date-thing he’d agreed to go on with Lily might go as poorly as his last week of job hunting efforts.

He should have remembered that you needed ID to get a real job, and all his ID showed his old face. It also all said he was a man. Sure, he knew he technically had some connections to possible more informal work, but that required talking to the very people he’d been hoping to be free of with the transformation. There was no way he was going to run over to them and ask for help.

At least not until his bank account got a bit emptier.

“Sorry I’m late,” Lily’s wonderfully deep voice called out, drawing him out of his thoughts.

She looked stunning, wearing a high waisted long skirt, a dark cardigan, and a choker that all together left him feeling a little flustered. It seemed playfully youthful, while she carried it with a self confidence that spoke of maturity.

“I—ah… you were late?” he mumbled, when he finally managed to get an actual sentence out of his mouth. “I didn’t notice.”

“So, where are we going?” Lily asked, adjusting her purse on her shoulder.

“Oh, well… I was hoping to be a bit further along job hunting and be able to afford to take us somewhere nice, but, uh… employers want to see ID and whatnot, and, well, all mine is a little… y’know, outdated,” he mumbled. “So, I guess we’ll have to go somewhere cheaper.”

Lily’s eyes had lit up a little at the mention of ID, which surprised him. Had it simply been so long since she’d been changed that she’d forgotten what the early days were like?

“Can’t you talk to your doctor? Or someone like that? I know the UK is a bit worse for all this, but there must be someone you can talk to?” she said.

“I… uh, I’ll look into it, I suppose?” he replied.

If there were so many people getting gender bent that Lily talked about a community existing, then maybe there would be some sort of standard procedure. And it wouldn’t end in him being dragged off to some terrifying basement laboratory, never to see the daylight again as they experimented on him.

“Since you have so many expenses ahead of you, I’ll pay for lunch,” Lily said, a statement that was true music to his ears.

It may have been one of the most romantic things anyone had ever said to him, if he was being honest.

“Though, I only have so much money,” Lily said, blushing a little. “So, we should still go somewhere a bit more affordable.”

“Sure, sure. There’s a kebab place down a few blocks. Good food. Greasy, but good,” Ridley replied. “That’s… um, that’s still acceptable, right?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Lily asked, tilting her head a little.

“Well, we’re supposed to act feminine now,” he said in a quiet voice.

She shrugged. “As feminine as we want to be. There’s no point in crossing the gender boundary and coming out just as obsessed with stereotypes as cis folks.”

“Oh,” he mumbled, while some part of his brain tried to remember what ‘cis’ was. It sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Still, he could understand the rest of it. “That’s—that’s a relief to hear.”

He then led the way, heading away from the main green space at the centre of the small town. They went past the pub he usually drank at (since it was the only one he hadn’t been kicked out of due to his ‘friends’), though he didn’t point that out to Lily. He was trying to put that all behind him.

“Oh… a circle of mushrooms,” Lily said, as they passed a field. “My great aunt was saying those are seen as connected to fey around here.”

“Hm? Oh… yeah. Old folks in town tend to be seriously superstitious about fey-stuff. Small towns and all that, I guess,” Ridley replied.

However, staring at the ‘fairy circle’ in question, he found himself remembering a bit more about the night before he’d woken up changed. Specifically, that he’d stumbled home severely hammered that night, and had thrown up in the circle they were now looking at.

A week or so of rain and weathering had cleaned it enough no one could tell now, but it was still an embarrassing thing to remember.

Also, possibly another point of suspicion as to why he’d changed sexes. If he was going to believe that the local superstitions were true.

Which, to be honest, was probably better than thinking the sauce he’d cooked with was secretly a magical potion. If only slightly.

“I sort of makes sense,” he muttered.

“Wonder what?” Lily asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing. Nothing that matters now.”

Lily hadn’t once mentioned if he might want to turn back, and so he figured that meant there was no point in dwelling on it. Instead he led her the rest of the way to the kebab joint. To his surprise, Lily ordered the same thing as him, though he supposed it was less food for her. She had a good six centimetres on him, at least.

He envied her there, having started out short enough before being turned into a woman. Whatever had changed her must have let her keep more of her height and been a kinder sex-swap.

Or she’d just been that tall before changing.

“I will admit,” Lily said, as they sat at a bench in the parking lot near the kebab joint. “I’m surprised your doctor didn’t tell you more about how everything would work.”

“Oh, well… I haven’t told him, yet. I was worried about how he might respond,” Ridley mumbled, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Ah. DIYing?” she asked.

Not sure what that meant, he made a non-committal noise and then focused on eating his kebab. After taking a few bits and spending some time chewing, he realised there was one thing he needed to figure out.

“Um… could you help me with a bit of shopping?” he asked.

“Sure. What did you need help with?” Lily asked.

-

Standing outside the small shop for undergarments, Lily had to admit she was surprised by just how frazzled Ridley was. The poor girl clearly hadn’t had much support in her transition, still muttering about worries of being seen as a pervert. It all gave Lily a strong instinct to protect her, even if things did not turn out romantically. As much as hoped they would, as Ridley was pretty adorable… though in a way that felt like she might end up butch in the end? It was odd, but the other girl had some sort of energy to her that made Lily suspect it.

“Come on, let’s get you measured. Especially since I have no idea how UK sizes work, and so can’t really help you,” Lily said, assuming that, as a European nation, the UK would use a centimetres based system.

“I—just… it’s a big step. And, I mean… what if they know?” Ridley squeaked.

“Either they’ll be professionals or we’ll take our business elsewhere,” Lily replied in a gentle yet firm tone she hoped sounded supportive.

She then gave the smaller girl a slight nudge to get her to actually approach the door. A bit of gesturing and gentle prodding managed to encourage Ridley to go in the store, where the short brunette seemed to almost turn incandescent with her blushing.

“I—I would like to purchase a bra,” Ridley announced in an incredibly stiff voice, though Lily thought the result was delightful in her Northern accent.

“Well, you’re in the right store,” the one attendant said, seeming surprised by how overwhelmed Ridley was at it all. “What size?”

“Uhh… I don’t know?” Ridley said. “There—uh, there’ve been recent changes?”

“Um—alright. We can measure you then, miss,” the woman said, sounding a touch confused as she pulled Ridley over.

Lily decided to give her a thumbs up before looking around. After a bit of poking, she started to think that maybe UK bra sizes weren’t that different from Canadian ones.

That thought, however, was interrupted when she heard the woman tell Ridley her size. A level of development that seemed deeply improbable for a girl so early in her transition. At least a girl as thin as Ridley.

Well, maybe her great aunt had been right. But, surely someone with that amount of chest would have at least been buying sports bras? Or… a binder? Which would have given her a guess at a size?

Thinking it over, Lily realised there was one other thing she could check before jumping to any conclusions. Once the attendants had pointed Ridley to some bras that were about the right size and then backed away to give her time to think, Lily slipped over.

“Have you given underwear a thought?” she whispered.

“I—not really? The, uh… the old stuff still works, no?” Ridley replied in a similarly hushed tone.

“Somewhat, but it maybe doesn’t hold things in place as well as women’s underwear does. Which can be awkward.”

Ridley blinked, turning to her. “Things? What thi—like… pads or whatever?”

Lily stared at her, really not sure what to say to that. Surely a trans girl could figure out what ‘things’ down there needed containing. And, well, one as far along as Ridley’s chest indicated surely would know she wasn’t going to be having any period blood flow to worry about?

Surely?

“Uh… something like that,” Lily whispered, collecting herself again. “We—we can deal with that another time. Just get a couple of bras. I’ll pay.”

Ridley nodded, before picking out what looked to be the most utilitarian grey bras possible. The attendants then showed Ridley to the changing area, where the individual of now somewhat mysterious gender tried them on.

Apparently they fit well and Lily offered her credit card to cover everything.

Then she led Ridley out of the store and down the street. There were a few people walking nearby, so Lily kept her voice quiet when she finally spoke up.

“I don’t want to pry, but… I am more than a little confused about your situation.”

“My—my situation? What’s weird about it?” Ridley asked.

“Your bust size, the fact you seem to think you might need period products, the way you’re apparently successfully DIYing your hormones while seeming to have no idea at all how to handle the legal part of your transition…” Lily explained, struggling to stay quiet as she did so.

“I… what,” Ridley replied, staring at her like a deer in the headlights.

“Are you not trans?” Lily whispered.

Ridley just stared.

“I’m not upset with you if you aren’t. I just… I just want to understand what’s going on so that I can better help you,” Lily said, trying to offer the most gentle and reassuring tone she could manage.

She worried she’d maybe sounded too judgemental and aggressive with her earlier explanation.

“Uh—trans…” Ridley stammered. “Oh. Transgender… right. That’s a thing.”

Lily nodded slowly.

“So… um… I guess that this means you didn’t also suddenly wake up and find out you were turned into a woman one day?” Ridley asked.

She stared at him, feeling her jaw hanging open. “Pardon?”