Their head lolled from side to side. “I suppose.”
I took a seat. “Hi, I’m Ashton and this is Steven. If you don't mind me asking what's your name and your pronouns? I don’t want to use the wrong one.”
“Yeah, Marilyn didn’t give us a name or show us a picture, just the time and place to find you, and that you’d have sunglasses and a dragonfly,” Steven added.
“That’s dramatic. I kinda love it?” The omega took a sip of the drink. “Thank you so much for asking. I’m Kai Silva and I use she/they pronouns.”
Ah, so I was right.
“Oh, sorry,” Steven said. “She/they? So sometimes you feel like a girl and sometimes you don’t? Not trying to pry, trying to figure it out so I don’t say the wrong thing.”
“No worries.Sheis still fine, and so isher.But I’m not into femme nicknames. Also, I don’t really identify as a woman, but I do often like presenting cute or femme. Mostly, I identify as a trash panda.” They laughed. “I’m still figuring it out. I’m also bi. Not sure if that bothers anyone. I sometimes get pushback because people think you can’t be non-binary or bi, or the fact that my ex had a dick.” Kai’s eyes rolled.
“That's not an issue,” I replied, taking a sip of beer. “My cousin’s trans and I remember us explaining to the older generation over and over about pronouns and chosen names, and yes, he can have a boyfriend even though he’s trans.”
Kai smiled. “I had to have conversations like that when I changed my name to Kai, but fortunately I have some very supportive and belligerent aunties willing to hit people with slippers when they mess up.”
I laughed. “We brought an airhorn to Thanksgiving and blew it every time somebody used the wrong name or pronoun. Christmas and New Years too. By the next event, people no longer forgot.”
“I love it,” Kai replied.
It had beenpretty epic.
“We both use he/him, and I don’t use my first name. I just never felt like aGary,” I admitted.
“Are you thinking of changing it?” Kai asked.
I shook my head. “Probably not. Right now, I’m perfectly happy to go byAshton. In hockey you go by your last name or nicknames most of the time anyway.”
Steven reached over and squeezed my hand.
“You’re hockey players and you lost a bet, so now you’re supposed to show me around town? What kind of bet?” Kai studied us with intensity.
Steven’s head hung. “I lost the bet that I couldn’t stay out of the penalty box. I mean it wasn’t fair. I think the other team knew and they went after my Ashton. So, I had to beat them up. I couldn’t just stand back and let them beat on my boyfriend. I guess Ash didn’t have to come along, but I mean he’s my boyfriend. We’re also a package deal. Not that this is a date, we’re just going out on an activity. But I don’t think I could activity with somebody who wasn’t okay with that, but you’re okay with that, right?”
Wow, Steven was really wound up. Was he super into Kai or was he just nervous because we hadn’t been on any kind of date in so long? We'd hooked up with people a few times, but it was strictly casual.
“You’re boyfriends? Amazing! No problem with that at all. Have you been together a long time?” Kai glanced at a text, then sent a text with an eyeroll. “Sorry, brothers.”
“There’s a reason why it’s only one letter away frombother,” I chuckled. I had brothers and sisters, also a lot of cousins.
Kai snorted, face lighting up with delight. “Love it.”
“We’ve known each other a long time and yeah, we’ve been boyfriends for a few years.” Steven shot me a fond look.
I squeezed his hand.
“I know nothing about hockey. I used to live in Los Angeles, and I think they have a team. But I live in Hawai'i now,” Kai replied.
They had the most amazing hazel eyes. There were so many different colors in them–brown, green, amber, and gray.
My guess was that Kai was a blend of a lot of somethings, including Asian. I was a blend of a lot of somethings, too.
“You live in Hawai'i? That's amazing. I only went to Hawai'i once on vacation, when I was a kid. Are you here for one of the conferences? Let me guess you’re a doctor, right?” Steven flashed a silly grin.
Kai looked maybe twenty-two, if that. I was twenty-five, Steven was twenty-four.
“I’m on spring break. I go to college in Hilo. I’m in my last semester of undergrad.” Kai’s laugh was musical.
