Their fork froze over their plate, and their wings buzzed again. “Perhaps I am being presumptuous, but I wanted to clarify before anything further develops between us. I have no desire to engage in sexual intercourse with you.”
“I know,” Bryce said, hating the tiny piece of his ego that stung at their admission. “I’ve always known that.”
“I will not change my mind,” they insisted.
“I ain’t planning on asking you to,” he said with just as much certainty. “I am attracted to you that way, I ain’t gonna lie, but I don’t need or expect you to do anything about that. I’m a big boy, and I can take care of myself.”
At that, their shoulders loosened, but before they could respond, he kept going. “Since we’re talking candidly about this, I have a question for you. Does it bother you that I have—or at least, that I’m capable of having those types of feelings for you? That my body might respond that way to you.”
“You speak of erections?” Zef asked, and Bryce pressed his lips together to keep from snickering like a school boy.
“Yes.”
They blinked in surprise. “I give you erections?”
This time, he did bark a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck as his face heated. “I mean, I’ve done my best to be respectful, but yeah, it has happened.”
Like they truly had never considered that possibility, they gaped at him. Then they sat back in their chair and released a series of chirps and clicks. In English they said, “May I have a minute to think about it? I will not leave,” they rushed to add, patting the table. “I will stay and think here. With you.”
“Sure, Zef. That’s fine. Thanks for staying.”
They smiled sweetly at him before they turned away and tapped their chin with two green fingers. Thinking. About Bryce. About Bryce’serections, specifically. He didn’t want to think about that himself or else he might actually get hard, so he busied himself with finishing his French toast.
After a fashion, Zef dropped their hand to the table and faced Bryce again. “I do not find that unpleasant. You are wired differently than me, but that does not make it wrong. You find me pleasing, which is flattering and makes me feel, however selfishly, a bit proud. As long as there is never an expectation for me to engage sexually with you when you have those feelings…”
They left their sentence hanging, so Bryce jumped in. “I have no such expectations. I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable if ever I… get worked up.”
“I am not disgusted by your sexuality or desire, and your bodily reactions are natural.” They smiled mischievously. “I cannot exactly fault you for them, now can I?”
“How very understanding of you,” he teased, and they snickered. “But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I don’t foresee any situations arising—”
Zef snorted, but other than a chiding look, he ignored their immaturity.
“—anytime soon where we’d be faced with something sexual.”
“Neither do I,” they agreed.
“Because you’re still figuring out how you feel about me, right?” he asked, and Zef nodded.
“I have never had romantic feelings before, and I have always found feelings, in general, difficult to navigate. But I know you feel different. Or I feel differently about you then I do about any others,” they corrected, and heck, if that didn’t make Bryce feel ten feet tall. “I know I care for you very deeply, and I know I wish to explore what that means and how it might develop.”
Hesitantly, he scooted his hand across the table and teased the tips of Zef’s fingers with his. “I’d like that too. I’d like to court you. Unless that’s still too much for you.”
Their antennas wriggled wildly as they ran the pad of an index finger over the first row of Bryce’s knuckles. “No, I… I think I would like that.”
“Are you sure?”
“We would still be as we are, right?” they asked, finger tapping Bryce’s middle finger. “We would still do all the things that we do together, like cooking and reading and watching documentaries and hanging out with our friends?”
“Of course we would.”
“We would just, maybe, be more to each other. Talk about other, more intimate things. And, maybe, we would be physically closer. Not always. But sometimes, if we both wanted that.” Their words were phrased as statements, but Bryce felt like they were asking.
He nodded. “Yeah, we might do more coupley things, like go on a date. If you wanted to, and if you liked it. And if you ever wanted to… be close, well, I would like that a lot.”
“Like this,” they asked, fingers grazing over his skin until their hand blanketed his.
Bryce swallowed thickly as warmth buzzed up his arm and settled in his chest. “Yeah, Zef, I like when you touch me.”
