Dex had a feeling they’d made them brand new. For him. To help him. They’d done something nice for someone else for no personal gain. It was weird, but he liked it.
“Thanks, Cy. That’s really cool of you.”
Flustered, they shifted in their chair and spun their gold bracelet around their wrist. “It’s not—I just had them lying around.”
That was a lie; Dex was getting better at noticing their tells. He grinned at them, and they ducked their head and pointed back at the anatomy book.
“It also helps to use mnemonics for better recall.” They tapped on the skeletal diagram. “Like the acrostic for the carpal bones: ‘SomeLoversTryPositionsThatTheyCan’tHandle.’ A bit crude, but effective.”
At the suggestive sentence, Dex snickered. “I didn’t know we were getting all Karma Sutra up in here.”
“Let’s not get carried away,” they said dryly, then added, “It’s TheKamaSutra, by the way. Not karma.”
“Yeah? Is that the kind of ‘anatomy’ you were studying?” He made finger quotes and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Don’t know why I bother,” they muttered under their breath.
“You and Kent spend hours studying ‘flashcards’?” he teased in hopes of earning a huffed glower.
Instead, Cya stiffened, eyes widening in alarm. “Why? What did he say?” And there was genuine fear there, the kind that made Dex’s hackles rise on instinct.
“Um, nothing? Other than that time you bitchslapped the shit out of Niki—which was, honestly, hella impressive—I haven’t spoken to any of those losers. I was just joking around.”
Cya’s relief was palpable. “Oh. Okay. That’s… good.”
“Why—”
He cut himself off. It wasn’t his business what went down between Cya and their wiener ex, and he’d been doing really well lately in respecting their boundaries and holding his own. He didn’t want to backslide into old habits and ruin the fragile camaraderie they’d managed to attain these past two months.
To his surprise, they offered an answer to his unfinished question anyway. It was quiet and maybe a little grudging, but they still offered it, like an olive branch.
“I probably wasn’t a very good partner to him,” they whispered, avoiding eye contact. “But he was a rather atrocious boyfriend, especially at the end.”
From what little Dex knew about the guy, that was putting it lightly. “You should bitchslap the shit out of him. I’ll hold him steady for you.”
They snorted a laugh, their dimple peeking out to wave hello. After a moment of hesitation, they leaned in and lowered their voiceconspiratorially. “Between you and me, I’d win that fight without your help. He’s always been a bit of a pansy.”
Delighted beyond belief, Dex nodded and lifted his hand. “Noodle Boy.”
“Noodle Boy,” Cya agreed, and without him even having to prompt them, they met his high-five, their palm soft and cool. “Don’t even think about saying—”
“Boom!” he blurted before they could finish what was surely going to be an order that had nothing to do with Dex’s favorite catchphrase.
They disconnected their hands with a critical click of their forked tongue, then they flipped him both their middle fingers. “Boom.”
“Don’t love the attitude, but I acknowledge the effort,” he said with a wink and matching finger-guns.
“Mmm, eat glass,” they said with a saccharine smile.
So tutoring lessons turned into mutual study sessions instead. Dex coached them in math, and Cya helped him with anatomy and science. It was nice, like they were finally peers standing on the same level, instead of constantly struggling for the higher ground.
Cya still talked down to him sometimes, their jokes carrying a sharper edge than his teasing ever did, but he’d see the instant realization and regret on their face, and they’d usually apologize. Not right away, and not always. But they tried, which had to count for something.
Even at work, Cya was, well, maybe notnicer, but there was a cautious openness to them now. Not just with Dex, either, but with everyone.
When Willow and Glyma took their break and waited at the end of the counter for their coffees, Cya asked them about their weekends. When Rusty showed Dex the cabin in the Wrath mountains he and Gem had booked for their vacation, Cya slunk over and watched over Dex’s shoulder,recommending several nice restaurants in the area. When Abi started at the cafe, Cya was cordial and shook his hand without blinking twice at his thick, unrefined Wrath accent.
“It’s my understanding there isn’t a large civilian populace in Wrath,” they said, and Abi nodded but didn’t offer anything more.
