Fanboy/fangirl = Someone who is a fan of a certain band, anime, or other media. Fangirl is better known of the two, since it's a word often used with girls, but fanboy is getting used more and more too. Some people use the word to make fun of other people, because they don't understand their passion, but I think it's cool. I think it's cool when you love something so much that you identify as a fan of something or someone.

I don't like the way Izzy's surprised that I'm not acting like a jerk, but I guess that comes from dealing with too many people not reacting well to her coming out. And that hurts. Knowing that she's been hurt like that hurts.

I don't know if I've fully realised what Izzy being a trans girl means, at least, what it would mean going forward for our... relationship? Is this a relationship yet? I don't know.

She feels so good in my arms, her body against mine, her arms around my shoulders as she deepens the kiss. This feels so good, so nice. I've never been this head over heels for someone before, I don't really know how to react to it. And even though that could be scary, it just feels right with Izzy.

Then she pulls back, her eyes mischievous. "I think we were on our way to get ice cream." She winks and I want to kiss her again, but yeah, ice cream was what we were going to do.

"Yeah." My voice is low, a little rough. She does things to me that I can't hide from her.

"Let's go get it. Before we..." She smiles, winking.

Before we really start eating each other up in the middle of the street? Maybe.

I slowly let her go, taking her hand. "It's this way. It's not too far. They have really good ice cream." Let's focus on the ice cream, that's a safe thing to think about. Let's not think about the way my body reacts to her being near, to us kissing... Let's focus on the ice cream.

We walk down the street and into a side street Mya and I found last year. The small ice cream shop is still open. Lucky!

It's quieter here, so it's easier to think and easier to just be together. No people around keeping their eyes on us constantly, making sure I'm not going to hurt Izzy in some way.

***

Izzy takes another spoonful of the ice cream between us. We're sharing one bowl of ice cream between the two of us. We've got strawberry, raspberry with vanilla, chocolate, and a lot of other flavours. Some of them we had no idea what to expect, but they had interesting colours so they went into the bowl too, like the black vanilla. Sadly enough, that was just a special colour, the flavour was like normal vanilla, bummer.

Izzy looks so happy with the ice cream, her eyes sparkling as she tries each flavour, then she looks up at me. "Hey... Do you think Mya and Kevin are going to keep seeing each other after this is all over?" Random direction of the conversation.

I shrug. "Wouldn't be the first time that Mya has a con-fling."

She nods. "Yeah, wouldn't be the first for Kevin either." Then she falls quiet, taking a few more bites. I'm not saying anything either, just watching her think. "And... what about us?" She looks down, not meeting my eyes, playing with her spoon over the ice cream, not taking another bite.

My heart hurts, she still thinks I'll push her aside, doesn't she? "I'd like to keep seeing you."

She nods again, still not meeting my eyes. "Me too." Though there is no strength behind her voice, just anxiety.

"Then, let's do that." I reach out, putting my hand on hers. "Let's keep seeing each other. Just, what kind of travel are we talking about, you know, from my place to yours or the other way around?"

"I live in Utrecht." She shrugs a little.

"Groningen, for me." So, travel should be doable... should be.

"Oh." She smiles a little. "I've got friends who live there. They're all Destruction of Elysium players, though." I like how excited she gets when she talks about the game.

I can't help my smile either. "I guess that's a good thing, then. Right?"

"Yeah. Though..." Her face falls again. "It'll be a pretty long trip and between classes and work and..." She lets out a sigh. Yeah, as students, this travelling thing can get pretty complicated, especially since Izzy has a very hands-on kind of study direction.

I squeeze her hand a little. "We're on summer break right now, right? No classes."

She nods. "Yeah, true. It's just... I don't... I don't have a lot of money to travel. This con has taken up most of my savings. And I..."

"That's okay. I can travel for free during the summer holidays." The advantage of living close to my university is that I don't need to use my student travel card to get to classes during the week, so I've got free travel during the weekends instead.

She nods again.

"So? Are we doing this?" I try to get her to look at me, to smile at least. "Am I going to come visit you?"

She finally relaxes. "Yeah." A smile spreads over her face, slowly. "I guess being the one in their home environment is a good thing, not as scary."

"Definitely." I can't help my own smile. "That means I can totally dig around your clothes and you can teach me about making even better cosplay outfits."

"Not that I'll be able to teach you that much. You're pretty good already." She starts taking a few bites of the ice cream again. "And there is of course the problem with you raiding my closet. You'll find out all my dirty secrets."

"Dirty secrets? You leave your dirty socks at the bottom of your closet because you keep forgetting about them? Or is that just me?" I grin, glad that everything feels easier again.

Izzy laughs, shaking her head. "Not exactly... But I've got about ten unfinished dresses hiding there."

"Why? That seems like a waste of space and too bad about the pretty dresses."

"I, ehh..." A blush spreads over her cheeks. "I grew out of them." Her voice is low, like she's embarrassed.

"Grew out of them? They're that old?"

"N—No. Ehm..." She points her spoon at her chest. "These have been on a growth spurt a lot in the last two years. I started the dresses at the end of last summer, and never finished them because I got into autumn fashion, and when I tried them on again a couple of months later... I'd grown out of them." She looks shy and frustrated at the same time.

"That's... an interesting issue." I can't help my laugh. She can't fit into the dresses she started because her body is now more the way she's supposed to look and has outgrown them. Kind of an interesting issue to have, really.

"Although..." She looks me over.

"What?"

"You may be able to fit into them."

"What? I'm much taller than you are. And pretty sure I'm broader in my shoulders."

"The length isn't much of an issue with these, and the shoulder thing should be fine. That's easier to adjust than adding boob size and curves for them." She keeps looking at me.

"I just..." Now my cheeks are on fire. "I may look like this here, at the con, but I don't usually look like this when I go out."

"I know, and that's okay." She smiles. "It just gives me an excuse to finish them, and I even get to see someone cute other than me wear them." She winks.

"Right." I shake my head a little, grinning. This girl's brain has some interesting places it goes to sometimes. But it's also refreshing. I love how Izzy isn't afraid to be herself and say what she wants to say. "Well, then, I guess that means I'll have to visit your place soon, right? Can't let you keep all those unfinished clothes clogging up your closet."

"No, you really can't." She winks. Then she takes a spoon full of the ice cream and holds it out to me.

I wrap my lips around the spoon, eating the ice cream. Part strawberry and part chocolate, not bad, but not the best combination that you can get from the bowl. "Hey, you said that you play Destruction of Elysium. Do you play it a lot?"

Izzy colours again. "What's a lot? I play when I can, mostly."

I grin. "I'm dating a gamer who's also a fashion designer. Impressive." Because both of those things are seriously time-consuming.

"Dating?"

"If you'd like to call it that?" Did I say something wrong?

"Yeah." She looks up. "I'd like that. It sounds nice."

"Yes, it does." It sounds very nice.

At the start of the weekend I was worried about people reacting badly to me crossdressing, and now I've got a girlfriend who not only knows about it but who seems to have her own plans for dressing me up in the future. A weekend can change a lot of things.

I was worried I'd be missing the friends I usually hang out with at anime and gaming cons, but if they'd been here, I'd never have met Izzy as easily as I did, and that wouldn't have been as much fun. I guess this really was a lucky thing to happen.

***

Our final evening is over way too soon, but after exchanging phone numbers and friending each other on Discord, we both had to go to our own rooms for the night. I hope I'll still see Izzy in the morning at breakfast, but after this weekend, maybe we'll both be sleeping in. We did sort of agree that I'd come over to her place next weekend, if her parents were okay with it, taking a couple of days of rest before we see each other again.

I'm sitting on my bed, already wearing jeans and a shirt as I've packed most of my bags.

"You're in looooove." Mya looks at me as she leans back on her bed, scrolling on her phone.

"Hush." I pretend to glare at her, but I can't help grinning. Just thinking of Izzy makes my heart beat faster.

"It's loooove..." She sits up more, her eyes soft as she smiles. "From fanboy to boyfriend in just a weekend. Impressive."

"We're taking things slow. Not like you and that Kevin guy." I raise my eyebrows at her.

"Hey. The sex is good and he's funny, most of the time." She lets out a laugh. "But I don't think there's more to us than that. Not like the totally smitten way you two are."

"What do you think of her?" I've known Mya for so long that I trust her on these things. Better the opinion of a second person and all.

"She's nice. And totally nerdy. And that same obsessive type of fan that you are when it comes to anime." Then her smile turns more serious. "I'm just surprised that she's trans. That really took me off guard me when she told me."

"Yeah, me too. When she told me that she had to tell me something, I guess that I was more scared that it would be something really big or bad. But when she told me that she was trans, I don't know..." Thoughts about what it would mean for doing physical things kind of come in waves, but other than that... I don't know.

"It didn't scare you?"

I shake my head. "Not really. I was just glad she wasn't dying or had some rare destructive illness or something, you know?"

Mya snorts. "Of course, that would be totally you." Then she takes a deep breath. "It's not going to be easy dating Izzy, not in the like... dating her side of things. But there will be people out there who will give you or her crap for her being trans when they find out."

I nod. "Yeah." I remember the way that those guys had been nasty yesterday after the competition, and how that scared me. But I also remember the way that Izzy stood up for me, so strong. I need to be that for her sometimes too. We may have to protect each other like that sometimes. "But I think she's worth it."

"I'd think you insane if you didn't. All of them are amazing. And I think that they're cool people to hang out with again. Also, that Ruby, he's got a wicked sense of humour."

I grin. "He has. And he's very protective of Izzy."

"They all are. After you two left for ice cream, we all talked and I realised that you do not want to mess with these people. But they're awesome and I guess that friendships like that are rare." She leans back, looking at her phone. "Oh." Her eyebrows go up. "It... ehh... It seems I am meeting Kevin this week again." A smile goes over her face and she keeps looking down at her phone.

So much for being the cool and collected one of us. She's definitely into him more than just the chemistry they have with their clothes off. "Congrats. Seems I'm not the only one who made special friends."

"Hush." She makes a sweeping motion in my direction with her hand. "I haven't even accepted the invitation yet."

"You're going to though. I know you." But I grab my own phone, opening a direct message chat with Izzy on Discord. 'Kevin asked Mya to meet up this week.'

It takes only moments before I get a reply and it's a whole row of smilies with hearts for eyes. 'YES!'

I laugh.

'She's said yes, right? And Jason said to tell her to not accept coffee if Kevin offers it, he makes it way too weak, he says it's like tea.'

I burst out laughing. 'No worries, I don't think she'll realise it with him around.'

"What are you laughing at?" Mya sits down next to me on the bed.

"Nothing. Just told Izzy about your invitation." I push my shoulder to hers. "She's happy for you."

"Tell her that I accepted and that I'll try to avoid the coffee." Mya looks down at my phone.

"Will do." I grin.

This is good.

Not just meeting Izzy and the others, but Mya liking them too. It's not always easy for Mya to make new friends and her being friendly with Izzy is definitely a plus. Your best female friend being friends with your girlfriend is definitely not a given but it seems to be the case here.

This weekend only seems to be getting better.