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"My victory will be total, I demand a friend of the girl variety" I stared at Temperance in befuddlement as my brain put together what she had just told Chiro, was Temperance crushing on my sister? I put my head down in my hands as I tried to piece together when Temperance might have started crushing on Chiro was it before she'd hatched was that why Temperance had always been trying to get Chiro to admit she was a trans girl?
Chiro had been out to us for barely over a month and she'd been evil for most of that time. It was hard to think of my new big sister as having ever been evil but I also knew that the fact that she felt that no one would acknowledge her decisions was a big part of why she'd embraced sin in the first place so I forced myself to acknowledge her stint as our enemy.
My thoughts spun in circles until Ida spoke up "I guess I'm the token cisgender heterosexual on the team and I don't really get this stuff. But, like, you'd just know if you were gay or trans or anything, right? Like, people just have an internal sense of that kind of thing"
That was just so wrong I had to correct her but based on her reaction to what I said, was Ida bi? I tried to think of any times she may have acted weird and I'd dismissed it since I'd assumed she was straight. Only one stood out when Chiro had shown up to school, evil and disguised, Ida had seemed obsessed with the girl constantly trying to drag her to hang out with us. Were both my best friends crushing on my sister? Ida certainly didn't seem to be at the moment at least, I'd find a time to interrogate Temperance later.
Later as it turned out was the next day during fifth period, that was the first class we shared with neither Chiro or Ida, and therefore the perfect time to try some subtle interrogation of my friend. "Temperance do you have a crush on my sister?" Okay so not subtle but whatever.
Temperance looked at me with her usual apathy "I mean that would be why I told her I wanted her to be my girlfriend, even if it did go over her head" Temperance said it as though it were obvious and she was a slightly surprised and disappointed that it had taken me this long to figure it out.
"Wh-when did you start to like her?" As far as I knew Temperance wasn't really interested in boys and Chiro's fall to sin had seemed to hit her almost as hard as it had hit me, the two had basically refused to be in the same room during Chiro's time on the dark side. Although Temperance had apparently figured out who Chiro was right away and then hid that information from us so... maybe?
"I'm not sure there was always something about her not just the obvious dysphoria but... she has a way of seeing things that stood out to me even when I was Gula. I didn't really realize I was interested in her until just before she had that meltdown and got kidnapped by Superbia" Temperance at least seemed more reflective this time and was no longer looking at me judgingly.
But that was a lot longer than I was expecting, in hindsight Temperance had always gone out of her way to make sure that Chiro was included in the group as much as possible. At the time I'd just been grateful because I was so worried that since she hadn't been a magical girl then that Temperance and Ida wouldn't want her to hang out with us. It also put Temperance's reaction to everything that had happened when Chiro was kidnapped in a new perspective, she had come to terms with her feelings for Chiro, gone to try and help her out, had Chiro blow up at her and then run off crying and then she had been kidnapped. I had noticed that Temperance had been particularly desperate to save Chiro, but I had been a bit too preoccupied with my own feelings over Chiro's kidnapping that I hadn't really considered what it would mean for the usually emotionless girl to be so affected.
"So why haven't you been more direct in asking her out?" I was curious Chiro had not so much rejected the confession as just not realized that Temperance was confessing in the first place.
"A lot of trans people have trouble with the idea of being in a relationship before they hatch, the fact that she didn't notice when I asked her out and she still isn't identifying herself as a trans-girl makes me think I should wait before I try again" huh well if that's the case I guess my next step should be to investigate if Chiro had any interest in Temperance. Temperance seemed convinced the answer would be no but it was a sisters duty to meddle, especially when it comes to romance!
The only thing was I was pretty sure Temperance was right Chiro had basically never shown interest in anyone ever, that was part of what made Superbia's attempt to make her the beast of lust seem so ridiculous. Nevertheless my sister would be getting interrogated as soon as I got home.
The rest of the day seemed to drag on once I'd decided I'd interrogate my sister at home, but eventually the final bell of the day rang and I dragged Chiro home doing my best not to seem to eager to leave since I didn't want to arouse suspicion from Chiro or especially Temperance.
"Okay Inessa whats your plan here what do you want?" Chiro began an annoyed expression playing across her face.
"What what makes you think that I'm planning something" I replied nervously.
"You meddle so much I've had to get good at telling when you're scheming something," did I really meddle that much there was no way that was true. Anyways I'd been caught so I may as well just go all in.
"I just wanted to do some sisterly bonding y'know plus I'm curious have you ever had a crush on anyone?" Whatever expression was now upon Chiro's face was as complicated as it was indecipherable.
"Fine I guess there's no getting out of this is there, I'd never really been interested in anyone growing up it always felt like no matter how wonderful the person was that I'd never be able to have a relationship with them work out because I was me. It always felt like for some reason any attraction from me would be universally unwelcome, and since that was the case I never really developed an interest in anyone"
"Oh so you've never had a crush?" I tried not to let any sort of pity show at all Chiro had occasional bursts of incredible emotional insight despite her usual obliviousness and she also tended to not appreciate pity.
"Not for most of my life, I was always kind of insecure about it like I didn't understand why I was never interested in anyone" I couldn't hide the wince at that statement I knew I had teased her about that before, I had no idea it was a real insecurity for her, "I guess the first time I was really had any interest in someone was when Superbia was trying to turn me into Luxuria. He kept trying to hypnotize me into acknowledging my lustful desires and it kinda foregrounded the fact that I had a crush on Temperance that I refused to acknowledge."
Okay so that was maybe a good sign, while obviously she had only been crushing on Temperance because of evil brainwashing the way she said it made it sound like the crush existed at least to some extent apart from that. My sister carried on oblivious to my musings "I guess the only other person I've ever been interested in was Avarita. Ey were really sweet to me while I was working with em and just super lovely in general, plus I felt more comfortable picturing myself in a romantic situation while I was imitating you,"
That one kinda stung, not only was that not a great sign for Temperance, cause it was more recent than Chiro's crush on her, it kinda hurt that I'd been crushing on em for so long and yet really I didn't know em as well as Chiro or Temperance did.
"Thanks for sharing I wasn't expecting it to be such a loaded topic for you but I appreciate you talking about it anyway" I responded trying to focus on the positives that had come out of the conversation and what it meant for my plan to get Chiro and Temperance together. Chiro for her part only looked at me with a soft pitying look as though she had realized a second too late what bringing up Avarita in this context made me feel, and that I had totally failed in keeping that feeling off my face.
It was a few days later, all the saints were gathered at Chiro and I's place just hanging out. At some point someone, probably Chiro, had put on Starlight Princess Orion and I had been totally absorbed for several episodes until Ida piped up, "Temperance and Chiro have been gone for a bit I wonder what their up to?" Was this the dramatic confession I made some excuse to Ida about going to check on them, she was more oblivious than Chiro was, and quietly snuck up the stairs and listened at the door to our room.
"What makes you so sure that you aren't trans?" Okay not a confession just Temperance going for blood on the gender thing again but she had said that that was a necessary first step to getting Chiro to be comfortable in a relationship so maybe their might still be a confession if I kept listening.
"Cause this isn't me, this is just someone who I'm pretending to be, I still don't know who I am"
"Okay but why does that mean you aren't trans?"
"Cause I'm just pretending to be a trans girl"
"Just because you're pretending to be one doesn't mean you aren't also trans, The person you really are do you want them to be a boy or a girl"
"Oh..." I could hear Chiro start to tear up and then saw Temperance stand up and pull her into a hug through a gap in the door. Whatever else happened I decided should probably stay between the two of them I realized sneaking back down to where Ida was sitting.
"They're fine I think the two of them are just talking about gender stuff again," Ida made a noise of acknowledgement but didn't say anything else I got the sense that she didn't really understand what was going on there and was more than willing to leave it to people who understood better.
I decided to leave the two of them alone after that, they definitely seemed a lot closer after that conversation which apparently a lot of people noticed since now whenever I was ego surfing to see what people thought about the saints there was now a flood of Temperentia x Humanitas content from fan art to fics to people talking about how close they seemed to be standing to each other now the internet had locked on to whatever change in dynamic there had been between the two. In particular Temperance had pulled of a dramatic rescue when Chiro had been grabbed by a monster and then princess carried her to safety which had caused the entire internet to lose it's mind.
As for me the next time I noticed a change in their dynamic was at senior prom. Temperance had stolen away to talk to Chiro while we were taking photos telling my mom to take some couple shots of me and Ida, did she think Ida was into me, obviously Ida still hadn't really put together that she was probably bi so she was exceptionally confused, but Temperance just grabbed Chiro and pulled her into the house to talk. When she came back a few minutes later she seemed more relaxed than she had before and she was just barely blushing, although Chiro came back with her and wasn't dressed for prom so clearly she hadn't been convinced to join us.
Once the three of us had been dropped of by my mom and were alone I turned to Temperance, "so what did you need to talk to Chiro about?"
"I asked her out, she said no" Temperance replied as though this were an entirely acceptable course of events to her.
"Wait, what? You have a thing for Chiro?" Ida exclaimed as oblivious as ever.
"You seem pretty upbeat for someone who was rejected?" I said ignoring Ida.
"She confirmed that she was interested in me and the reasons why she does not want to pursue a relationship now are understandable and solvable, I think it was a positive sign for the future" Temperance replied also ignoring Ida who was now looking between the two of us like a fish out of water.
"Well I'm rooting for you two let me know if there's anything I can do to help okay?" I said as the three of us walked into prom.
As prom was winding down after we had dealt with the resinner attack I was looking around for Temperance since it was time for the three of us to leave but I hadn't seen her anywhere.
"Are you looking for Temperance she said something about getting a dance if it was the last thing she did and slipped out one of the side doors" Ida said once I found her.
The two of us walked out the exit and I was just about to pull my phone out to text her when all of the students around me started pointing and murmuring about something happening on the roof of the gymnasium. When I looked where they were pointing I saw Temperentia and Humanitas slow dancing in each others arms on the roof totally absorbed in each other and lost to the outside world. This would if nothing else make the internet go insane once word got around but I was glad to see even if they weren't yet dating that the two of them were making progress together, and I couldn't recall the last time I'd seen either of them so happy as they were in each others arms.
"So..." I caught my sister once Temperance "Seems like someone got to dance at prom after all"
"I just stuck around after the monster was dealt with and I guess Temperance noticed she asked for a dance and it would have been a bit of a dick move to say no" my sister replied with a shrug utterly failing to conceal her blush.
"Yeah especially after you rejected her huh?"
"She told you about that? It's not that I'm not interested in her I just don't think I'm somewhere where it would be a good idea to start dating and she accepted that"
"Hmm so your not dating but you decided to romantically slow dance in each others arms on the roof of the gymnasium in front of our entire graduating class?"
"We just lost track of time, or I did anyway I don't think she cared"
"Of course lost track of time staring into her eyes very platonic," my sister was now blushing so bright her face matched my hair. My sister sped off hone clearly having reached her limit of teasing for the night but she still wasn't faster than me so I caught up in no time. "So I guess your crush on Temperance isn't quite as in the past as you made it sound huh?"
"No I just assumed that she wasn't interested in me so it wasn't important"
"Wow you really missed that time that she asked you to be her girlfriend on your first day back to school huh?"
"Wait she what?" Gosh my sister was so oblivious.
"When she told you she wanted you to be her friend of the girl variety that was her saying she wanted you to be her girlfriend dummy" my sister made a noise like a kettle letting off steam and then opened the door to our house to keep me from teasing her anymore since I now had to be quiet to avoid waking my parents.
A quick google search while Chiro was in the washroom confirmed my suspicion everyone and their dog was posting about Temperentia and Humanitas dancing at prom there were already plenty of artistic renditions of their dance and a bunch of people wishing they had a relationship like the one they assumed the two saints were in I briefly imagined how everyone would react if they knew the truth about the fact that the two girls weren't actually dating. I could only hope they would get their act together soon, but until then I would just have to do everything in my power to help them get together.