Emma was seven and Maggie was nine, the younger looking at the older as if she were the brightest star in the sky.

"Here, Emmie, watch this! Do what I do!" Maggie cried out, swinging as hard and fast as she could. Once she was sufficiently high in the air, she jumped off the swing and landed in the creek just a few feet in front of them. Emma's mouth was open in surprise and awe. Maggie turned around, beaming, having landed the jump perfectly. The water was cold but refreshing against her bare feet, running through her toes. "Ok, your turn now!"

Emma's surprise morphed into worry and fear. "What if I don't make it? Or what if I hurt myself?" she asked.

"Awww, don't worry, I'll catch you!" Maggie promised, holding her arms out, but Emma hung her head and shook it shyly. Maggie stuck her tongue out at the other girl, pretending to tease her for being a big, fat, little baby, but Emma only shook her head again, smiling. Even though she was too scared to jump in, she reveled in the feeling of being so high in the sky, emerald grass solid and reassuring under her feet. She reveled in the smell of the warm, midday air. It felt so alive! On the porch, their parents smiled at one another with knowing looks in their eyes.

Once the two were all "swinged-out", they started climbing the trees in the yard, trying to reach the treehouse in the tallest, largest one.

"I'll race you up, and I'll win, because I'm bigger than you!" Maggie teased, grabbing onto the wooden ladder that would lead them up and inside. This competition, Emma felt a bit readier to take on. The ladder was wide enough for both of them to awkwardly scramble up at the same time. Because Maggie was being careful not to accidentally shake the ladder too much or push Emma off, she slowed down and let the other girl win.

"Ha! Yay! I guess I am faster than you!" Emma smiled down at Maggie from inside the treehouse, wood rough under her hands and knees.

"You sure are," Maggie smiled, then she reached up to Emma and Emma was more than happy to pull her in. They spent some time lost in their own little world together, sharing dreams and secrets, braiding one another's hair. Even once the sun set the stars came out, the two didn't feel tired at all.

"Love you to the moon and to Saturn," Emma whispered as she leaned against Maggie's shoulder and admired the pretty lights above.

"Awww," Maggie ruffled Emma's hair. She jokingly asked Emma for a kiss, tapping her cheek, but when Emma leaned in to oblige, Maggie sped down the ladder. "Chase me, Emmie, chase me!" she laughed, and once Emma got her bearings, she was more than happy to comply, also racing down the ladder and after the other girl, back to their house, fireflies swirling around their feet like stars from below with every step they took.

ooo

Maggie was 16 and suddenly she wasn't that little girl that Emma used to see, in more ways than one. Of course, on the one hand, she was more physically developed now, taller and older. She wasn't a child anymore. On the other, she also didn't entirely feel like a woman anymore. She still used female pronouns and didn't mind identifying as a woman, but as she told Emma…

"I…uhh…also might be…nonbinary."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Emma's eyes lit up with a childish delight and Maggie knew she made a good choice in coming out to Emma. "Do you use they/them pronouns now?" Emma asked. Maggie paused and raised a hand, tilting it back and forth.

"Either/or. They/she. I'm…still getting used to it."

"That's perfectly fine! I'd be glad to help you practice and use whatever name or pronouns you want me to!" Emma was still beaming. Maggie's smile wasn't as enthusiastic. That was enough to give Emma pause. "Is…something wrong? It's more than what you're telling me, isn't it?"

It took a little while, but eventually Maggie caved. This was slightly more common knowledge, but she was intersex. In the beginning, she hadn't minded identifying more with her feminine side, but as she grew up, she started to wonder…

"It's not that I don't feel like a woman, or feel any less than how I used to, I guess I just kind of want to honor that other side of me," she said slowly. "But, because I don't feel any different than I used to, per se, that's why I'm not totally sure about switching entirely over to they/them pronouns and calling myself completely nonbinary."

Her words were slow and pensive, but eventually, she sighed and shook her head in frustration. "Gender is confusing!"

"Awww," Emma had no words to offer, but all she needed to do was wrap an arm around Maggie for Maggie to understand. A little while more and Maggie admitted something else. Even though, obviously, she'd been intersex at birth, some of her other friends weren't as supportive as Emma when it came to really identifying with it and potentially using additional pronouns. Some of them were against the change just because it was something new for them to remember. Others thought it was weird to constantly call attention to her being intersex with the usage of new pronouns. But, as Maggie had said, she wasn't doing it for the attention! She was doing it to acknowledge and honor that side of her. They just didn't get it.

"Hmmm," Emma sighed sadly and ran her fingers through Maggie's hair. "I think your house is haunted, your "friends" are always mad and that must be why. Nothing you did was wrong, so it obviously wasn't your fault. I think you should come live with me, and we can be pirates! Then you won't have to cry." If there was one bit of consolation to it all, Maggie's family was entirely supportive. They were also a little confused and put off by what they perceived as a rather sudden change, since they hadn't seen how much thought Maggie had put into all of this, but they were also more than willing to help her experiment with new pronouns, and they apologized ahead of time if they ever said or did anything wrong.

Of course, that didn't erase the pain Maggie felt in watching so many of her "friends" slowly turn away. But not Emma. Instead, after she and Maggie were done grieving together, she stood up suddenly and extended a hand to Maggie.

"Wh-what? Where are we going?" Maggie wiped her eyes with one hand as she reached up to Emma with her other.

"You'll see," Emma's eyes twinkled playfully, like starry lights. She led Maggie back to the creek beds they turned up, the very same ones Maggie used to jump into all the time, whether from a swing or not. It was 2 AM and they were falling in love.

"All I need is you next to me…"

And even when their friendship hit rough waters, as all friendships did, their fights were never so terrible that they were irreconcilable. Even when they screamed ferociously and slamming doors replaced kisses goodnight, they never strayed too far away from one another. And then, in the morning light, everything looked a little less scary and even their worst monsters turned out to be just trees, places that had always been sanctuaries for them. There was something meaningful about that, knowing that even before they truly learned civility and knew peace, the shadows were never as big as they seemed and places of safety, with each other, could be found even in the hardest of times.

ooo

A few years had gone and come around and they were sitting at our favorite spot in town when finally, someone got down on one knee.

"Cross my heart, won't tell no other, I got so much love for you, so take my heart and your sweater, we'll travel the world together. Passed down like folk songs, would you want to see our love last so long?"

And the other one cried out in tearful joy, "I DO!"

Then suddenly, they were walking down the aisle, first a red-carpeted event outside under the treehouse and near the swings just like so many years before, and then walking down the aisle of a plane, ready to take off and fly away. Both families came and their parents cried as the happy couple waved proudly to the crowd, both from under the archway they got married in and from above the clouds as they flew away.

Emma wore a magnificent white dress, and even though it was only that one color, the lace and designs sewn into it truly made it come alive. Maggie would swear up and down it was the most breathtaking sight she ever saw, even after they traveled the world together. Maggie, meanwhile, wore a suit and tie. Emma was certain that history had never seen a more handsome spouse-to-be.

Then, even once the honeymoon was over and they were back home, the magic was still very much alive.

"We'll watch the stars shine on the very same porch after all this time, you and I," Emma snuggled up against her partner. How many years had passed? She lost count. She just knew that, in some ways, everything was the same, and there was something really lovely about that. She wasn't opposed to change, but she liked to think that some things were hers to keep forever, like Maggie. Maggie was, and always would be, her most favorite person in the whole wide world, and she liked thinking that that much would always be true.

Emma was even sure she could see glimpses of the future in her mind's eye, and she whispered them to Maggie as if they were still little girls braiding each other's hair in the treehouse, a secret sanctuary, "I'll be 87, you'll be 89, I'll still look at you like the stars that shine in the sky…" And, passed down like folksongs, their love would last so long.

AN: Mary's Song is probably my favorite song from Taylor's first album (Stay Beautiful is a very close second) IT'S JUST SO CUTE!