As Zef puttered around in their bathroom, Bryce backed out of their doorway and shuffled into the living room. He meant to sit on the couch but somehow missed the actual cushion. Instead of catching himself, he went with it, letting his ass meet the floor as he leaned against the frame.
His brain—penis or otherwise—was racing a mile a minute, already drawing parallels to the vast amount of organisms in the known universe that didn’t engage in sex, that could reproduce asexually, even some that didn’t have a reproductive system at all. The evolutionary basis and evidence was everywhere. So why was he finding it so difficult to equate that with Zef?
Because he was still stuck in the sex-centric mindset of the culture he was raised in that demanded people like Zef didn’t—or shouldn’t—exist? Maybe. Or, like Zef claimed, he was simply not wired that way and couldn’t quite understand that experience? Very possible.
Shock was a factor too, he reasoned. In all the books he’d read and the research he’d done, he had never come across that fun fact about Mantodean anatomy. So yeah, he was rather shaken.
He wasn’t sure how much time passed before Zef joined him in the living room, gracefully lowering themself onto the floor beside him. Knees up, they rested their top arms on them as their lower arms folded over their stomach. They didn’t look at Bryce, and Bryce didn’t look at them.
“Sorry for freaking out,” he said. “It took me off guard.”
“I could tell,” they said with a smile in their voice. “I thought you knew.”
Bryce shook his head. “Nope. None of my books ever mentioned it.”
“Perhaps it is not as important of a fact as you think it is,” they said, not unkindly.
“You’re right. I know you’re right.” Picking it as his sweats, he chose his words carefully. “It feels important because, in this world, sex is important. Nearly everything we do is, advertently or inadvertently, fueled by our drive for sex and pleasure. So for that to simply not exist for you is wild.”
“I could say the same thing about you and your pursuit of sticking your penis in things.”
That had his head shooting up, jaw dropping, and Zef chuckled quietly, smugly.
“Hey now, us allosexuals ain’t a monolith either.”
“You do not want to put your penis in things?” they asked guilelessly.
“Preferably not,” he snapped back, and Zef’s smile dropped.
They angled their torso toward him. “That is interesting. Elaborate please.”
“It’s called sexual preferences. We all have them,” he said loftily. “Or, well, most of us have them.”
He knocked their shoulders together, making Zef release a snuff of humor. “Elaborate more.”
Enjoying the role reversal, he did his best not to blush like a teenager. “For the most part, I prefer other forms of sex. Using my mouth and hands. Frotting and grinding and stuff. Sex is more than penetration, you know?”
“From my understanding, that viewpoint is not common among the general populace. Specifically, the male populace,” Zef said.
“Patriarchy strikes again,” Bryce said with a shrug. “Maybe it’s not a popular opinion, but for me, penetration is only okay. When me and Jacobwere together, we hardly ever had penetrative sex, and it was… it was just really nice.”
Zef mulled that over for nearly a full minute before they nodded in approval. “Whether it is popular or not, I find it a lovely viewpoint on sex and intimacy.”
“Thanks.”
They sat in a comfortable silence for another few minutes before Bryce gathered the courage to say, “There’s something nagging at me, but I don’t know how to ask delicately.”
“I think we are past delicacy,” they said, gaze heavy on the side of his face.
“Okay, here goes. Doesn’t it bother you?” He hesitantly met Zef’s milky stare. “Don’t you get angry or jealous?”
“Jealous?” they repeated, utterly bewildered.
“Well, yeah, ’cause how is it fair? Feeling pleasure is, like, the most basic human—er person—experience, and not to be able to feel it—”
“Oh, Bryce, my dear, dear… Bryce.” Zef turned, curling their legs behind them as they gazed at him like he was the silliest, most innocent little kid. “I never said I do not experience pleasure.”
Okay, he was getting frustrated now. “But you said—”
