Ugh...closed mindedness.

Honestly, why can't some people accept that just because they haven't experienced/aren't experiencing something, that it's not valid? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Aiken's views are shared by an alarming amount of the general populace, yes?

FOUR FOR YOU, AUNT FARA, YOU GO AUNT FARA!

To properly tell someone what for, I would suggest wearing a top hat, a mustache, and a monocle while wielding a cane.

O.o I wish more people hat that kind of guts. And arguing skill. Geez. Aunt Fara: Respect: +49237

Go, Aunt Fara?

How is Aiken going to take this I winder

Bam!

WWWWWOoooooooooooooooOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW.

Can't wait for more. To see how Aiken takes it..

great story.

Aunt Fara's so badass, she can speak in air quotes without even raising her hands.

Seriously, though, Aiken finally has the truth. Rather than pursue a head-on confrontation with "Ryan", he's decided to take the backdoor route, speaking to the only other person who would know, and who would tell him: Aunt Fara. Fara's comment - "you clearly figured it out already, or you wouldn't be asking me that" - sounds like an accurate assessment. The pieces have fallen before him, and Aiken sees only one way to put them together - but it's a picture he can't bear to look at, to acknowledge as reality. Hearing Fara corroborate this picture forces him to recognize the truth. His brother Ryan is a girl named Rain.

The second page goes a bit deeper into some of Aiken's prejudices and struggles. His stumble for pronouns, in regard to Jessie, suggests that his image of his fiance is conflicted. She's the woman he fell in love with, yes, but she's also the man who lied to him and broke his heart. Aiken's future (or lack thereof) with Jessica depends on his ability to communicate with her, to try to understand why she deceived him, and to forgive her for it and accept her as she is. Given Aiken's actions and current disposition, that's kind of a tall order. It'll take a paradigm shift - something beyond Fara's revelation - to give him any chance at a reconciliation.

Aiken's comment: "How can you be born in the wrong body? It's YOUR body. You are you. It's the right body!" makes a surprising amount of sense to me. Perhaps it's because I'm a cisgender young man who has never felt like there was anything about his body he couldn't fix with diet and exercise, but the idea that someone could feel out of place within their own skin, when their body is such an important component of that person (arguably, is that person) doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Then it hit me - feelings don't make sense. Could I explain why I sometimes suddenly break down and cry? Do my feelings of frustration and helplessness help me achieve any goals? What Rain is feeling may not make "sense" to an outside observer, but that doesn't change the fact that her feelings are a reality to her!

Fara describes it: "She was TWELVE, telling me that it hurt and it was lonely and that she hated herself!" The dissonance between what the world was telling Rain to be, and what Rain wanted to be, was tearing her apart. Fara saw that, changed how she saw Rain, and changed how the world saw her, allowing that dissonance to be bridged. She saw the hurt within her niece, and sought to save her from her hurt. Aiken saw how his fiance had hurt him, and abandoned her, in what he thought was saving himself. The question now is: how will he act toward Rain? Will Aiken view Rain as a traitor, someone who's "weird habit" will only cause pain to those around "him", and abandon her? Or will he take Fara's words to heart, and try to help his "little bro" feel a little less hurt, even if it means viewing "him" as a little sis instead?

Aiken is at a crossroads. His actions now will determine whether he reintegrates himself into the family, or becomes even more of the "black sheep" than he already was. He should do some serious thinking and reflecting before he does anything that could only further alienate himself.