“Oh my god I-” There was the sound of the phone clattering followed by a fair bit of cursing and some shouting. “Sis! Don’t hang up! I’m not! Shit why’d it go under-”

“It’s ok, Erin!” Julienne tried to shout loud enough to be heard. “I need to flip a pancake anyway!” 

As she took care of the now overly brown pancake, she could hear laughing on the other end. “You still cook too much shit? That’s gotta be you.”

The voice sounded closer now, so Julienne lowered her own voice. “Yeah. Well. Not as often anymore. Were you looking for me?”

“Of fucking course I was! I need to hug you, and yell at you, and hang out with you. And show you stuff in my life. I haven’t decided the order.”

Julienne turned off the stove and looked at the pile of pancakes. “ If you want we can meet up for breakfast.”

“At your place?”

“Uh no,” Julienne let out a sigh. “I want to be sure you’re cool before I give you my address.”

“Uh huh, do you have mine?” she asked.

“... ok then. I’m gonna cut off the 15 minute argument because I don’t need to start making muffins too. I’ll text the address and trust you not to tell Mom and Dad.”

“Deal. Oh and sis?”

“Yeah Erin?” Julienne was already turning off the heat to the stove.

“The timing is really funny. I was about to hire a private detective to check if you were ok or not.”

Julienne put on her professional voice. “That is funny. You can tell me about it when you get here ok?”

As the phone call cut off, Julienne looked around her apartment. There was some kibble on the floor that was rapidly being licked up by the pooch. Cowboy wanted out and to have cuddle time, and was showing this by trying to shove the lid of the enclosure off again. And… shit. Her notes were all over the place. 

She quickly texted her sibling the address, with a request to give her at least 30 minutes before knocking on the door. She only got a skull emoji back. Yep, that was the sibling she grew up with. Erin would, of course, follow the request. She just always liked to pretend following sibling directives was painful. The number of times Erin had laid on the floor, pretending to be dead, was astounding. Even to the point where Jullienne remembered holding a fake funeral for Erin, and acting like the dear siblings' voice came from the great beyond. 

It had been a great joke between the two of them for three days. At least until Julienne got into trouble for starting the game.

“Come on, Peter. Can you guard the bacon while I grab notes and hide them?” She quickly slid a pancake onto a plate as she spoke. 

Peter simply scrambled over to the oven and started staring at it. A bit surprising since Julienne was fairly certain a dog fighting ring wouldn’t have taught him that trick. But maybe bacon was a motivation tool? 

Eh. One piece for watching wasn’t going to be that bad for the poor pup.

Probably.

***

After a massive run around of trying to hide notes in a lockable cabinet, some fast sweeping, some more pancake making, and one attempt to keep the dog from opening the oven himself for that salty bacon goodness, the apartment was presentable enough. Just in time too. The doorbell rang just as Cowboy slithered into place on Julienne’s shoulders. 

“You and Peter play nice.” Julienne said softly as she walked to the door.

Cowboy only gave a small hiss as Peter whimpered, wanting the bacon off the counter.

“I know you missed me sis! But you don’t have to whine about it!” Came Erin’s voice from the other side of the door. Definitely higher than it was back in the day. A mix of HRT and voice training maybe?

Julienne opened the door. Despite bracing herself for the difference, she found herself staring in surprise and a bit of shock. There was her 27 year old sibling. When she last saw Erin, Erin had been trying to grow a mustache and beard like their father’s. Keeping a clean, short, professional cut with the wavy black hair Erin had been born with. While her sibling had been steadily getting taller than Julienne, there had been a bit of muscle on the teenage body due to playing things like football and baseball.

Now standing before her was a lovely, tall, slender young woman. A bit of muscle tone still, but not as pronounced as before. The look of being constantly in one's own skin had been replaced with just the general nervousness of whether she would be accepted. Not to mention her hair was now down to her mid back, forming beautiful ringlets.

The only reason Julienne didn’t feel worse about feeling so shocked by the change in appearance, was the simple fact that Erin seemed just as shocked.

“When the hell did you stop wearing contacts?” Erin asked, walking inside holding some coffees. “And the hair… do you even drink coffee now? Because I’m not supposed to drink this much on my own.”

“I stopped two weeks after moving out. I never liked them anyway.” She took a coffee and walked over to the kitchen as she spoke. “You look good. More comfortable.”

“Thanks I… I am more comfortable. I mean it’s more lonely. Mom and Dad kicked me out.” Erin followed. “She/her by the way, if the tits didn’t give it away.”

“I didn’t wanna assume and I was going to ask, I was just more surprised than I expected.” Julienne responded meekly. 

The sound of Erin kicking off the heels she was wearing clattered behind Julienne as she set to work fixing the plates. She casually dropped some bacon down for the ever so behaved Peter who ate it with gusto. 

Erin made her way to the other side of Julienne, carefully reaching a finger out to Cowboy. “So. You weren’t kidding about getting animals instead of kids.”

“I was never the mom type. And I sure as hell don’t want to get married. But animals are nice. And I’m young enough to not worry about their care as I get older.” She gave a smile and blew a little kiss to her snake before handing a plate towards her sister.

Sister.

That felt weird to think about.

Honesty, she was trying to think of any signs when they were younger. It was hard to tell what was a sign and what was their parents forcing strong gender ideals on them. That was going to be a mess to unravel later. In the meantime, she had her pancakes and bacon, plus a coffee to enjoy. Not to mention a sister to get to know. Even without the revelation, it had been almost 10 years since Julienne had any sort of contact with any of the family. 

“This is weird right?” Erin spoke up, setting her plate down on the table. “I mean. What made you even seek me out?”

Shit. How did Julienne explain that without sounding delusional herself? Not to mention doctor patient confidentiality. Julienne's friends were the type to not ask about clients or back off. And the animals weren’t going to tell anyone anything. Erin could always tell if Julienne was being less than honest, so it was time to walk that delicate tightrope.

“Someone mentioned the idea that I’d meet my family again. Of a sister meeting up with me.” Julienne felt a nervous smile cross her face. “Of course I didn’t have a sister but after they were right about my dog I thought, maybe I should check it out.”

Erin’s eyes lit up. “You know a psychic? No way! You know, I’ve been practicing reading Tarot cards. I’m not good at it. My boyfriend is amazing at it though.”

“Boyfriend?” Julienne grinned. “I knew you liked boys.”

Erin ran her fingers through her hair as a love struck grin crossed her face. “Well, yeah. He’s pretty great. Maybe you can meet him sometime.”

“Of course. When we both feel ready for it. I don’t want you to feel rushed.” Julienne watched as her sister finished cutting the pancake up and making the little pool of syrup on the side to dip the bites into. Julienne’s smile softened. “Some things never change.”

Erin gave a small nod. “Yeah. But a lot still has. I was really mad back then, you know. That you left. I mean I get it now after what happened.”

Julienne slowly reached over and put her hand on Erin’s. “Are you ok? After what happened, I mean. You know it’s ok to not be ok, right?”

Erin rolled her eyes. “And you wonder why we were all confused about the no kids thing. You act like a mother hen. And I’m ok as I can be. I kinda wanna scream at you sometimes. Like if you had been there maybe it wouldn’t have been as bad.”

“If I’d stayed, I wouldn’t have been there for you. Mom and Dad would have forced the issue of me getting married, dropping out, having kids.” Julienne gave a squeeze. “But if you want to yell, I can take it.”

“Not. Not right now. Maybe later, we can rent out a rage room or something.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before going after the pancakes. “Right now? I’d like to just have a nice breakfast with my sis and see what she does with her time if it’s not dating and meeting psychics.”

“Sounds good sis.”