Page 8 of Regal Feather
“So,tell me more about the wardrobe change,” I mumbled between bites of pho.
The place had smelled so good I’d almost convinced him to just grab a table there, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know he’d wanted the privacy. He’d sent pictures of himself with his new friends at cafés and shit like that, but I had never seen him sitting down in a place when he could just take it to go.
“It’s just…a thing. It makes sense.” He shrugged. I noted how he hadn’t changed clothes, even though it was the first thing he’d always done when we met up at his place. I’d teased him back then because it had been such an old person thing to do. Now I wondered how much I’d missed. “It feels right, you know? Like, it makes me feel good, and confident, and more stuff, but… Yeah. I went to a store the other day with some of the friends from the club I told you about? They were super supportive. It was nice.”
“I’m glad,” I rumbled. I meant it. I didn’t want to get into a fight less than 24 hours after I landed here, but if someone had been hurting him? Odds were not in my favor. “So is it… Do I use other pronouns for you or something? You know you could’ve told me, any time.”
I cringed.
Fuck, I was going to need a lot of catching up and figuring out what was offensive and what wasn’t.
“No. No, I mean, I use he/him. Well, unless it’s a kink thing, but that’s…different. Obviously.”
I didn’t know if it was obvious. I knew it had my cock stirring to attention, and that it was a good thing I’d grabbed a tray from the barely used kitchen when I convinced him to eat on his bed because it might be childish, but it was one of those small comforts I’d missed more than anything.
Was I stupid to think that I would’ve gotten rid of all feelings for him just because I hadn’t seen him in person in forever?
We could argue it was just habit.
Yeah, habit. Nothing more.
“Right.” I cleared my throat.
What the fuck was I supposed to say to that?
Thankfully, his phone buzzing gave me the out I needed to not have the answer figured out.
“Uh, do you mind if I go to the bathroom real quick?”
I frowned. He looked antsier than usual, too, almost vibrating as he placed his own tray of rolls on the bed, eyes darting between the phone and me.
“You’re okay?”
He didn’t need to ask me for permission to go to the bathroom. It wasn’t a thing we did, but I didn’t know if pointing it out would be the wrong thing to do when he already looked on edge.
“Yeah, it’s just…” He ran a hand through his honey colored hair. “I’ll explain. I swear.”
“Okay…”
He all but jumped off the bed the second he got that okay. I kept an ear out to see if I needed to walk in because he was puking his brains out or something, but no sound came. The walls and doors around here were fucking thick, though, so maybe…
It must’ve been only a few seconds when he appeared by the doorframe again, which meant not enough time to throw up or to have an upset stomach, either. I only stared at him with way too many questions.
“Do you promise not to make it weird?”
I frowned. “Make what weird?”
Had I ever made anything weird between us? Memory was a funny thing, not to be trusted, but I’d say the history of us consisted of me going with the flow of whatever it was that kept or would keep Ever happy.
If I had been more rational about it, we probably wouldn’t be where we are right now. I would’ve bidden my time, not put us in a position to be discovered, not…
I shook it off.
Today wasn’t about that.
“So, you know how I mentioned kink earlier?”
“Yeah.”
