Marc walked into La Cocina, looking around and remembering all the times he’d eaten there before, and who he’d been with.  He hadn’t been back since Carla had disappeared without a word a few weeks ago.  It had been their favorite place.

“How many?” the waitress asked.

“I’m meeting a... friend,” he said, looking around.  “There.”  Sitting at a booth in the corner, waving diffidently at him, was a face he hadn’t seen in almost four years — since before Carlos had been captured by Dr. Possibility.  A few days later, Marc and the rest of the team had found Dr. Possibility’s secret base and rescued him — but by then it was too late.

The waitress nodded and led him over to Carla’s — no, Carlos’s — table.  Marc sat down and didn’t bother to look at the menu before ordering a cup of coffee.  He wanted to be completely sober for this conversation.

“Hi,” Carlos said.  “I’m sorry I — I really messed up, but...”  He trailed off and looked away, embarrasssed.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Marc said, choosing his words cautiously.  “I don’t blame you at all for changing back.  I know how traumatized you were right after it first happened, and for a long time after, and even once you got used to it and started moving on with your life, you’d complain a little now and then — again, I’m not blaming you!” he added, throwing up his hands defensively.  “It’s the way you did it.  Just up and disappearing and then breaking up with me by email after I’d been searching frantically for you for days.”

“I’m sorry,” Carlos said, still not quite meeting his eyes.  “I had to do it.  For me.  I know I made it look like I’d gotten used to being a woman, and there were certainly some good points to it, but it just wasn’t me, and I was afraid if I talked to you about it, you’d talk me out of it.  When the opportunity came to change back, I had to take it, even with all the strings attached and the risks involved.”

“I would never,” Marc began, then checked himself.  “Go on, sorry I interrupted.”

“And afterward,” Carlos continued after a moment, “when I was... like this again,” gesturing at his face and upper body, which still looked damn fine to Marc, “it just... wouldn’t work, you know?  I looked at the pictures of you on my phone and...”  He met Marc’s eyes for just a moment and then looked out the window again.  “I think I was only attracted to you because of what Dr. Possibility did to me.  And even then, I was conflicted about it for the first few months.”

“You were sending mixed signals for a while there,” Marc remembered.  “I wasn’t sure I wasn’t imagining things until you...”  He blushed, and so did Carlos, who finally broke the tension by laughing a little.

“Yeah, I can’t blame you for pushing me into a relationship I wasn’t ready for.  That was all me.  And I can’t blame you for feeling hurt when I left.  I really should have told you face to face... can you forgive me?”

“Of course,” Marc said.  “We’ve been friends and teammates for a lot longer than we were boyfriend and girlfriend.  We can be friends again, and I’ll put in a word for you with the team... Mandy is going to insist on disciplinary action after you went to a supervillain to get your problem fixed, but I think we can get you reinstated on the team pretty soon if you want.  Or...”  He took a deep breath.

“Or?”  Carlos met his eyes again, looking curious.  “Yeah, I’m not sure I’m ready to come back anyway.  I shouldn’t go anywhere near HQ until I’ve gotten another round of tests to make sure the Biodynatron didn’t put some kind of hypnotic command in my mind, and besides, I’ll need a few weeks to retrain my combat reflexes with this body.”  He paused, seeming to realize that Marc had more to say.

“I’d like to leave open the possibility of us getting back together,” Marc said.  “Wait!” he added as Carlos flinched.  “I don’t need an answer today.  I’d just like you to think about a couple of possibilities.”

“A couple...?”

“I looked up Dr. Possibility’s other victims, and... you know, several of them say their orientation didn’t change.  Others said they’d thought he changed it, but they later realized they were already bi and didn’t realize it until he transformed them.  And maybe I’m reading too much into that, but...”

“No,” Carlos said emphatically.  “I’m a telepath; I’m way more more self-aware than most people, I have to be.  I know myself, and I know how I changed when he transformed me, and I know how I’ve changed again.  I’m sorry, but it’s just not going to work.”

“Okay, fine, but the other possibility I had in mind... was that I be the girlfriend.”

Carlos was silent for a moment, his jaw slightly open.  “How?  You’d go to the Biodynatron and take the same risks I did...?”

Marc shrugged.  “I’m not all that strongly attached to being male, and I’d much rather be a woman than lose what we’ve had for the last three years.”

“Really?  You’d do that... risk the process going wrong...?  Getting mutated in some unpredictable way like Dr. Possibility’s first couple of victims?”

“Look into my mind and see if I’m fooling myself.”  He reached up and turned off the earbud that protected him from hostile telepaths.  Even when they’d been living together, he’d usually only take it off when they went to bed; 100% unfiltered honesty all the time wasn’t good for a relationship.

There were tears in Carlos’s eyes as he opened his mind and connected to Marc’s.  Marc felt traces of his beloved’s thoughts and emotions as he rummaged through Marc’s own thoughts, emotions, and motives.  Uncertainty, fear, hope... joy.

This was going to work.