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Nick shuddered. “Okay, so, here’s a fun idea: let’s never talk about that again and instead focus on other things that are much more important.” He glanced at the bathroom before lowering his voice, going for nonchalant. “You and Gibby going to… you know?”

“Are we going to what?” she asked, tilting her head back to look up at him.

“Youknow,” Nick said, waggling his eyebrows.

“I do,” Jazz said, “but I just want to see if you can say it out loud.”

“I can! I do it all the time!”

“Cool,” Jazz said. “Then you should have no problem doing it right now.”

“Why are you like this?” Nick muttered, face aflame. Then, because he refused to let Jazz win, he said, “Are you and Gibby going to make the sex?”

Jazz grimaced. “Never mind. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“Youaskedme to elaborate!”

“And now I wish I hadn’t,” Jazz said. “People are allowed to change their minds.”

Nick groaned. “That’s what I get for asking a lesbian for sex tips.”

“Is that what you were doing? Question: when you and Seth finally have sex—which, take your time, whenever you’re ready—are you going to use your powers to like, float lube over to you? That’s whatI’ddo if I was telekinetic.” Her eyes widened. “Speaking of, what other sex things could you do involving your powers? Could you, I don’t know, stretch your—”

Nick sat up in a panic, putting his hand over her mouth—carefully, so he wouldn’t ruin her makeup and cause her to bite him. “Are youinsane?”

She smiled against his hand. “Oh, please, like that hasn’t crossed your mind.”

“Ithasn’t!”

She shoved his hand away. “Liar. I bet that’s one of the first things you thought of after we were done almost dying.”

“It wasn’t!” This was a lie given that, for least a night or two, Nick found himself alone in his bedroom, hand shoved down the front of his shorts, gripping himself as Fantasy Seth moaned in his ear, asking him if he wanted to prep himself with his powers. This, of course, led to an image of Nick doing just that, and then accidently going too far and turning himself inside out, Seth covered in gore. Nick did not masturbate for three days after that. It was the longest three days of his life.

“Riiight,” Jazz said. “I totally believe you. At least when you guys get around to doing it, you’ll be able to answer your dad’s question if Seth can orgasm fire or not.”

Nick crossed arms grumpily, eyeing her with disdain. “Why are youlikethis?”

“Because it brings me joy.” She softened, patting his knee. “Condoms have an expiration date, Nicky. It’s like, five years, or something. You should probably use them so you don’t have to go back to the store and run into more doors while trying to flee.”

“Yet again, not one of my better moments,” Nick muttered.Then, with a glance at the attached bathroom to make sure Gibby and Seth weren’t coming out, he added, “We’re getting there. We’ve got the making out thing down. It’s just all the rest that we haven’t quite worked our way up to.” Handsaboveclothes was pretty damn good. Handsunderclothes meant crossing a line he still wasn’t sure if he was quite ready for. Seth seemed fine keeping things as they were, at least for now. Neither of them pushed for something they couldn’t take back. It would happen, one day, but on their terms. As awkward as it was to talk about (at least for Nick), they were honest about this with each other.

“I’m just messing with you,” Jazz said. “There’s no rush. You’ll know when the time is right.”

“How did you know?” Nick asked. He frowned. “Is that something we can ask each other? Itfeelslike something we can ask each other, but that might only be because we don’t quite understand healthy boundaries.”

“Don’t I know it,” Jazz said, smoothing down her dress so it wouldn’t get wrinkled. “We talked about it a lot before we ever did anything. What we wanted, what we didn’t want. And it was a lot of trial and error.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t perfect because we didn’t know what we were doing. But we took our time and kept checking in with each other. Not exactly the most romantic thing, but it’s better to ask than to assume.”

“Sounds complicated,” Nick admitted, uncomfortable, but pushing through it. “I… want to? And don’t, at the same time. I don’t know.”

Jazz smiled at him. “You’ll figure it out, Nicky. There’s no deadline. You don’t have to do anything until you’re ready. Same with Seth. It’s not a race.”

“I know,” Nick said. “But—”

“No buts,” Jazz said. “You’re either ready, or you aren’t. It’s that simple. And there’s nothing wrong with not being ready to take that step. It’s a big deal, Nick.”

“Is it?” he asked. “Because isn’t virginity just a construct used to—”

“Stop it,” she said, and he deflated. “You don’t need to make excuses, Nicky. It’s okay to wait.”