Unity

Chapter Twenty Eight

.   .   .

It was only a month later when Kailey had come home with tears in her eyes. She was stealth at school, so nobody knew that she was transgender. They just saw her as a girl. Or at least that's what we thought.

"Hi, Min," Kailey's voice cracked at the end from her recent crying, which I had no idea why she was crying.

"What's wrong?" Kailey sat down on the couch next to me and curled up by me and covered her face. I put my laptop away and held her for her own comfort.

"A group of boys at school found out I was transgender today," I thought of only the worst while I tried to warm her.

"Oh, no," middle school is probably the worst time for this to happen, too. So many dick-heads are their worst during middle school. "What did they do?"

"They called me a 'tranny' and a 'he-she'." Kailey buried her face in her elbow and struggled to get her next words out. "They said that I would never be 'real' and to kill myself. When I was leaving the school building, they shouted 'Go die, you fucking tranny!' and I heard them call me a 'dick-girl' to someone else." That sounds about right... I knew this would happen eventually.

"That's horrible," my arm squeezed around her back and I rolled my hand to rub her shoulders a bit. "How did they find out?"

"Beats me."

"Do you remember Alex?" Kailey nodded and looked up at me with a puffy face. "Well we might see him tonight, if you want to come. Want to know a secret?" which really wasn't very much of a secret, but Kailey didn't know about it.

"What?"

"Alex and his husband are both transgender," Kailey's eyes lit up.

"Them, too? That's awesome! I can't believe that I know so many people like me because there are barely any compared to other stuff!" I nodded and gave her a big smile.

"We can go tonight. I'll call Alex. He'll be very happy to see you, I'm sure." Kailey smiled.

"Thanks, dad," she hugged me and stood up. "I couldn't be in a better family."

.   .   .

"I'm sorry, Eren," another doctor, for Dr. Kohler had retired, talked to both of us in a small and comfortable room. "but investigators have decided to drop the case after 10 years of investigating. There's not enough clues at all," I could see a tiny bit of happiness in the shine of Eren's eyes, but he was smart and knew he had to play the sad role.

"Alright. I understand."

It was about another hour of blabbering from this new doctor that all meant absolutely nothing to Eren. I bet the only thing that Eren would remember from this one-time doctor was the fact that the case of his dad is gone and forgotten and he was safe. He had not transformed in over 8 years, and he was trying hard to stop altogether. Whenever he transformed, he had a reason to, and he kept ridding himself from those reasons every day. Soon he would have not a single reason to transform, and therefore, he won't be able to.

It sounds simple, but who am I to judge? I'm not a titan-shifter.

"I'm so glad that's done with. I've been so anxious the passed ten years." I nodded and smiled at Eren, who was already smiling.

"Me too! A huge weight is now lifted off of our shoulders." Eren bobbed his head in the directions of up and down in a nod and rested his head on the pillow. It was a long silence before I brought up Alex and Jake. "We should go see Alex and Jake with Kailey tonight! We haven't seen them in a while."

"Alright, call Alex! I can't believe we haven't seen them in five years." I held up my phone and called Alex.

"Armin?" Alex picked up almost immediately. We haven't talked to him or to Jake in so long it's crazy. The last time we saw them was their wedding, which was 5 years ago.

"Hi! I haven't seen you guys in so long!"

"Yeah, we miss you two! You guys should come over for dinner tonight. We need to catch up." 

"That sounds great. We're free, so we'll stop by. Can Kailey come? She's thirteen now."

"Yeah, of course! We love Kailey! Meet us here at 6:30," I nodded, even though he couldn't see me, and hung off my phone.

"Alex says that we can stop by at 6:30 with Kailey for dinner," Eren nodded and a grand expression rolled over his face.

"That's awesome! I can't wait to see them. It's been too long." I agreed with Eren and carried on our conversation until it was time to leave.

.   .   .

"Armin, Eren!" Alex leaned in and gave us a gigantic hug, which lasted for at least 5 seconds. "I'm so happy to see you!" Alex let go of me and gave Kailey a firm handshake. "Hi, Kailey! The last time I saw you, you were only 8!" Kailey nodded and gave Alex a smile with her teeth, which had purple braces on them.

"Hi, Alex and Jake!" Alex hugged Kailey and after they parted, Kailey went up to Jake and hugged him. She was already taller than the both of them, because she was already 5'5". In the transgender community, the girls are always taller than the boys.

Alex and Jake sat us down, and they had some food set out in front of us. We all gathered around their table and filled our plates. They had salad, home-made pizza, and some cake for afterwards.

"So, Kailey, how's school going?" Kailey sat uncomfortably in her chair and swallowed the food she was chewing. I could tell that her memories from today were flooding back in her mind, but she slapped a smile on her face.

"It's going pretty, well, but there is a lot of work compared to sixth grade," Alex nodded and smiled back at her.

We stayed there for about 4 hours until Eren, Kailey, and I thanked them and headed to our own home.

"Armin," I turned over towards Eren, who was holding me in his arms warmly.

"Yeah?" Eren felt my hand with his fingers for a while before he slid my fingers between his and locked our hands together.

"We should do something tomorrow while Kailey is at school," now that I come to think of it, Eren and I haven't really gone on a date together where it was just us in a while. 

"Yeah, let's do that. What should we do?"

"I was thinking that maybe we could walk around downtown and get something to eat, maybe." I nodded and curled my head right underneath Eren's neck.

"That sounds great," Eren closed his eyes after a while but never loosened his hold on me. He stayed sound, and I decided to go to sleep, myself. 

But my mind kept wandering.

I couldn't stop thinking about Eren and I and how far we've come... when we first met we were fourteen and we clicked right away. Well, we were both forty years old now and we had a kid and a small and nice life together. I'd never thought I would ever have someone to share this with me, and Eren never thought he would, either.

I know I'm really, really slushy, but it's what I was thinking about at the moment.

A/N: I know, I know, abrupt ending, but I have an important announcement.

Next chapter is the last chapter in the entire "Unity" book, and I have a bunch of stuff planned out! ITS GOING TO BE REALLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY long... probably at least 4000 words, so yeah it will be really long.

I will write other Eremin fanfictions, but I won't write a sequel to this, because I think that the ending I have planned out doesn't need any more to it.

I just want to pre-thank all of the people who have been reading this and voting and commenting on this! It really means a lot to me! There won't be an A/N on Chapter 29, so I just want to say thank you now. I really appreciate 1.4K! Thank you (again) to everyone who's been reading this. I know it's been really long and really complicated, and it's finally coming to an end. 

-Pikachu_ketchup