Summary: Miki Kaoru is graduating from Ohtori, about to leave Ohtori, and accordingly has come to a very important personal realization, one that Miki has decided to first share with Juri Arisugawa. Light JuriXMiki subtext.

Miki is Miki is Miki

“Congratulations Miki.”  Juri said as Miki walked down off the stage, still clapping her hands.  “You've finally done it.”  He and Nanami, the last of the original members of the student council had just graduated from Ohtori Academy, and so she, along with Saionji and Touga, had come back to Ohtori for the occasion.  Nanami had gone off to give her itinerary to Tsuwabuki as her handpicked successor for Student Council President, while Touga and Saionji were getting in another Kendo match, leaving her and Miki alone together.

“Thank you Juri.”  Miki looked down at the bouquet of blue roses in his hands.  “It's...it's hard to believe I've finally caught up with you and the others.”  He looked up at her; he'd gotten taller since she and the others had graduated, but she was still taller than him.  “It's just, this day of all days, now that you're back here...I can't help thinking...”  His face was turning red, he was looking away.  “There's something I need to tell you...”

“Would you like somewhere private to talk?”  Miki nodded.  Juri wondered what Miki would tell her, but she didn't speculate, she was going to find out soon enough.  They walked together, away from the hustle and bustle of all the crowds and all their chattering, they found some trees and stood behind them, the noise now nothing but a faint din in the distance.  “Whenever you're ready Miki.”

“Okay.”  Miki took a deep breath, looked intently into Juri's eyes.  “Juri...I'm trans.”

“...Huh?”

“It's all right, I, I didn't understand it at first, I should explain from the start; you see, while I was doing some reading on Neurology, I came upon a book about gender identity, and one of the things it talked about was assigned gender and how there are people who don't identify with the gender they were assigned when they were born, and when I read it, I thought about myself; I thought about how much I focused myself on my piano playing and our fencing, my...my issues with my sister...I realized that all that time, I'd been avoiding myself, projecting onto her how I wished I could be, only I didn't know because I didn't realize that something like this was possible, I'd never even heard of it, but now I do know, and now it makes so much sense; I'm a girl, I always have been Juri, and when I finally put it all together, I knew that you were the first person I was going to tell.”  It had all come out so quickly, tidal waves washing over Juri again and again and again, they eroded away her old understanding of her best friend.  “I suppose this must all sound very strange to you Juri.”

“No.”  Juri shook her head forcefully.  “Please, tell me more Miki; I want to understand this, and you.”

“Thank you Juri, I had a good feeling you'd feel this way.”  Miki smiled and Juri felt her heart pound.  “Well, I still have more research I want to do of course, but there are surgical and hormonal options I can pursue if I want my body to be more like...well, yours.”  She blushed.

“Do you think you will pursue that?”  Knowing this now, seeing Miki in this way, it opened new possibilities in Juri's mind, in her heart.

“Well, it is a big decision...I wouldn't mind trying if you were there to support me, Juri.”

“Of course Miki.”  Juri put her hand on Miki's shoulder, her shoulder.  “So what about now?”

“Well, I was thinking it would probably be a good idea to tell everyone now, especially since everyone's here, there really isn't a better chance than this.”  Miki pursed her lower lip in.

Juri squeezed Miki's shoulder.  “You don't have to if you don't really want to Miki.”

Miki shook her head.  “No, it felt really good telling you, I just need a little time to get ready, that's all.”

“That's quite all right.”  Juri and Miki stood together among the trees and said nothing more.  They nodded and departed.

~

Miki couldn't help the trepidation in her heart; they'd gathered everyone there, everyone was there, everyone...well, almost everyone, though who was missing Miki couldn't exactly say.  Still, Touga, Saionji, Nanami, Tsuwabuki, Kozue, Shiori, they were all looking at her now, she'd just told them all what she'd told Juri, about her identity and her journey to recognizing and understanding and accepting it.  Juri was standing with her, holding her hand, she felt the calluses that came from fencing, deeper and stronger than her own, she couldn't afford calluses like those and keep playing piano.  “Hmm, so I suppose I should start calling you my sister then, shouldn't I?”

“Kozue?”  She was smiling in that way she'd come to recognize as her own.

“I have to admit, once you explained the basic idea, everything fell into place, big sis.”  She laughed a little, but it was okay; it was the first time she'd said it after all, the first time Miki had heard it from her.

Saionji's laugh, on the other hand, was not so welcome.  “Okay, I get it now, you realized you'd never make it as a man, and so you've decided to cross the line.”  He laughed some more.  Miki felt Juri let go of his shoulder, she took a step towards Saionji.

“Oh, Saionji?”  Juri stopped, Miki had interposed herself and was talking to Saionji, Miki saw a smile on her face.  “I suddenly feel a bit dirty, do you think you could escort me to the bathhouse?”

Saionji looked at her a moment, got a big smile on his face.  “Well, why not?”  He chuckled.  “I think I will go with the genuine Kaoru sister.”  He had his arm around her shoulders, and just before they were out of sight Kozue gave Miki a look that made her shiver on Saionji's behalf.

“One day he'll learn I suppose.”  Touga said.  He looked Miki over.  “Either way, you're still cuter than Kozue.”

“So, is this another way of being grown-up?”  Tsuwabuki muttered to himself.

“So long as you continue to perform for my parties, I don't see that anything's changed at all.”  Nanami said with a harrumph that suggested that something had changed, but Miki couldn't guess at what.

“Well now,” Shiori said as she stepped in closer to Miki and Juri.  “Do I have new competition...or a new ally?”  Miki gulped.

~

“Just a minute Kozue!”  Saionji took out his diary.  “Dear Diary, today is going to be a red letter day.”  He wrote that down, put his diary down with his clothes, and joined Kozue in the bath.

~

“Dear Diary,” Saionji's voice shook as he got further and further away from the bathhouse.  “Today was not a red letter day, there will be no red letter days ever again.”  Indeed, after what happened with Kozue in the bath, he couldn't look at a soap sud without remembering, and never again did he say anything against Miki, ever.