“Holy cow, you scared me,” he said, rubbing his chest.
Tad grinned up at him. “Good.”
The doorbell rang, and since Bryce was closer to the front door now, he opened it. Gem bustled inside immediately, giving Bryce a quick side-hug and peck to his cheek as a greeting. Bryce blinked in surprise at the affection but said nothing as he closed the door behind the Araknis.
“Sorry I’m late!” he cried as he kicked off his ankle boots. “I was totally ready to leave on time, but then I got distracted by… something super important.”
Judging from the thick pheromones clinging to his skin, Zef assumed the “something super important” revolved around intercourse. They tried to keep their tone neutral as they asked, “Did you at least shower upon completing coitus?”
Bryce choked on his water as Willow smothered a giggle behind her hand. All eight of Gem’s eyes widened as his dark gray cheeks flushed. “Oh my gods, Zef! What the fuck kind of question is that? Are you slut-shaming me, right now, because I’ll be honest, that’s so uncool!”
With a sigh, they pointed at the dress. “For the cleanliness and integrity of the fabric, it would be best if you did not contaminate it with bodily fluids.”
Several of Gem’s smaller eyes darted to the dress. “Oh. Right. If you must know, I did, in fact, shower. Hence why I was late.”
“Oh, come off it, Zef,” Tad said as she plopped down in front of the couch and leaned back against it. “A little spunk never hurt anyone.”
“In most circumstances, girl, I agree,” Gem said.
Bryce’s expression matched Zef’s own distaste, but they were both distracted by Gem shedding his coat—a long, drab thing that reminded Zef of an old-fashioned cinematic detective—to reveal he was wearing nothing but a pair of briefs underneath.
“My God, where are your clothes?” Bryce wheezed as he choked on yet another sip of his water.
Willow thumped Bryce on the back as he coughed harshly, and Gem looked almost offended as he gestured to the dress. “Um, I’m putting on that dress in a second, calm down.”
“You rode the train here with no clothing?” Zef asked, nearly as horrified as Bryce, though much less surprised given Gem’s… well, given Gem.
“I wore a trenchcoat!” The Araknis crossed several sets of arms over his bare torso as he scowled. “No one saw.”
“You still took public transportation wearing no clothes,” Willow said, and Gem’s leg fur vibrated a warning hum.
“Oh my gods, you sound like Rusty. He was all, ‘Gem, you can’t go on the train naked!’ And I was like, ‘Bitch, watch me. No one’s gonna know.’” Leaning forward, he jutted his chin stubbornly. “And guess what? No one knew.”
Still smacking Bryce’s back, Willow asked, “Rusty was there? I thought you had sex right before you came here?”
Gem blinked from left to right. “That was before.”
“Before the sex? Or before Rusty?” Tad asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” Gem sniffed.
“Seems like an important continuity error,” Zef said.
“Oh my gods, can we please move on so I can stop standing in Zef’s living room in my underwear?” Gem screeched.
“If you’d worn clothes under the trenchcoat, you wouldn’t have that issue,” Bryce said as he finally caught his breath.
“And if I knew I’d be cross-examined the moment I walked through that door, I wouldn’t have come at all!” Gem stomped his foot childishly before he finagled the dress off the mannequin rather aggressively.
Zef winced at the rough treatment and rushed to aid Gem before he ruined the dress they had spent hours creating. Willow sat on the couch and resumed crocheting the blanket as Tad worked on her own craft, what looked like one of her bodysuits in a camouflage pattern. She was trying to attach a full mask to it that would cover everything except her eyes.
Like he was avoiding sitting close to Tad, Bryce took one of the lounge chairs, a textbook in his lap. He set his water cup on the side table, and Zef knew he would forget it there. But that was okay. They were strong enough to weather it.
As Gem shimmied the material over his well-endowed derrière, Zef retrieved their measuring tape, pins, and tailor’s chalk. The dress was nearly finished, but it still required last minute adjustments and hemming. Deities, the hemming. It was the bane of Zef’s existence.
“It’s so beautiful,” Gem commented as he smoothed numerous hands over the material.
“And you are still pleased with the color?”
