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Chapter twenty-five

Theoretical Babies

Gem

“Gem?” a voice whispered in his ear a moment before lips pressed gentle kisses down the side of his neck. “It’s nearly midnight, caryd. Do you still want to go home?”

Groaning, Gem turned into the warm, furry body behind him. “Five more minutes.”

Rusty chuckled, whiskers tickling over Gem’s face as he nuzzled his cheek. “The last tram comes in about twenty minutes. I don’t want you walking home alone.”

The sentiment made Gem’s hearts turn to squish, even if Rusty’s worry was utterly ridiculous.

He could take care of himself, but he liked that Rusty cared, all the same.

Blinking his eyes open, he smiled sleepily up at the Pyclon.

Rusty grinned back, head propped on one hand as he traced Gem’s jaw with an index claw.

“Did I fall asleep?”

Rusty nodded. “We both did. ”

“It’s cold,” Gem whined.

Rusty patted Gem’s hip, fingers spanning over the side of his right asscheek over his panties. “Well, you are practically naked.”

“Then warm me up,” Gem demanded, wriggling closer until Rusty had no choice but to snuggle with him. Rough palms rubbed up and down Gem’s spine, and he hummed in contentment as he burrowed into Rusty’s chest. “You smell like my jizz.”

“You did come on me,” Rusty said blandly.

“I know, and it makes me feel very manly. Like, I want to beat my chest and do squats or something.”

Rusty laughed. “Your panties would explode off your ass if you did squats right now.”

“Rude,” Gem sniffed.

Carting a hand through Gem’s curls, Rusty claws caught on something dried and crusty. “I think you have cum in your hair.”

“I have cum all over me. I told you, I need to shower,” Gem said, patting Rusty’s chest before he pushed himself to a sitting position. “I should probably get dressed.”

As Gem retrieved his clothes and tugged them on, Rusty curled up and hugged his tail to his chest, watching him intently. Flustered under the attention, Gem smoothed down his messy curls and laughed nervously.

“What are you staring at?” he finally asked, and Rusty shrugged.

“You.”

Gem hopped from one foot to the other as he tugged his ankle boots on. “Why?”

“You’re beautiful,” he said simply. “Why wouldn’t I look at you?”

Now, Gem was accustomed to such praise. He’d been told he was beautiful more times than he could count, but it was usually flattery used to get him into bed, not a compliment bestowed after he’d climbed out.

His clothes were rumpled, his eyes puffy from lack of sleep, and he was pretty sure he’d been drooling before Rusty woke him up.

For fuck’s sake, he had cum in his hair.

Yet Rusty called him beautiful.

“Stop being cute, or I’m gonna kiss your face off and miss my tram,” Gem threatened, and Rusty rolled his eyes.

Crawling out of bed, he grabbed a pair of pajama pants from his dresser and tugged them on. “I’ll walk you to the stop.”

Hand-in-hand, they walked the short block to the tram stop, arriving a few minutes before it was scheduled to arrive.

For some reason, nerves swarmed to life in Gem’s stomach at the prospect of saying goodbye.

This weekend had been a perfect bubble, keeping their new-found dynamic safe.

What would happen in the morning when they had to return to real life?

“So,” Gem said at the same time Rusty said, “Should we—”

“Sorry, you go,” Rusty said.

“No, you,” Gem said.

Scratching behind his ear, Rusty shifted his weight awkwardly. “We never actually talked about, you know, how it would be at work.”

“Right, ’cause the blowjobs were more fun, so we left the adulting to our future selves,” Gem said, and Rusty chuffed a laugh.

“But now we are our future selves, and I kinda wanna punch our past selves in the dicks for making it my responsibility to have this conversation when they could have done it already. But that’s the catch-twenty-two about procrastination, I guess.

“And now I’m rambling, because I’m uncomfortable, and when I’m uncomfortable, I ramble. And—”

A black claw pressed to his lips, effectively shutting him up. “I like you, Gem,” Rusty said, and Gem’s stomach dropped to his toes.

“I like you too,” he mumbled against Rusty’s claw, and Rusty’s tail puffed up, one of his shy smiles curling his mouth.

“But as much as I wanna eat your face at work, I think Toni might dismember you if he sees. Like, for real, he’s gonna murder your face when he finds out you just-the-tipped me last night. ”

At the mention of the Elas, Rusty’s eyes widened in alarm, “Oh fuck, he’s gonna kill me.”

“I promise to do my best to stop him, but we’ll still need to be strategic about when and how to tell him.

We’ll need a controlled environment, and honestly, you shouldn’t even be there.

I’m stronger than him, but he’ll be fueled by deep-seated rage, so even I might not be enough to protect you.

And he knows people; he’ll hide your body where it will never be found.

“So we’ll put you in a bunker, and I’ll barricade all the exits. We’ll make sure Jude is there to distract him with his body, should I fail to physically confine him or in case I get scared of all his shouting, and surrender.”

“Definitely avoid the phrase, ‘just the tip,’” Rusty said, and Gem made a mental note of it.

“Excellent suggestion. In fact, I’ll tell him we’re celibate. We’re not even sexually attracted to each other. We just hold hands, even though we find it physically repulsive.”

“I don’t think he’d buy that,” Rusty said.

“Well, it’s either that, or I throw you under the bus and say you took advantage of me,” Gem admitted, and Rusty scowled. “Don’t look at me like that. I never said I wasn’t a coward, and I hate when he yells.”

Framing his face in his hands, Rusty tugged Gem down and kissed him, cutting off his next bout of catastrophizing. “Deep breath, Gem. ”

Gem took a deep breath.

“Good girl,” Rusty said, and Gem’s taint tingled.

“Oh, that’s not fair,” he whined, and Rusty grinned.

“We don’t have to stress about this now,” he said soothingly, and Gem inhaled again, exhaling slowly. “I don’t really care if people know about us, but there’s no rush, right?”

“Right,” Gem agreed quickly. “I mean, it doesn’t make sense to blab about something when we’re still figuring out what it is.”

Rusty nodded. “Yeah. I’ve never even done this before, so—”

“And there’s no pressure,” Gem interrupted, those stupid nerves cramping his stomach. “We’ll figure it out as we go, and we’ll tell people when it makes sense to tell people.”

“Okay,” Rusty said, giving Gem’s hand a squeeze. “So we keep things at work…”

“Chill,” Gem finished when Rusty drifted off.

“Chill,” he echoed.

“So chill,” Gem said, and Rusty snorted.

Popping onto his toes, Rusty kissed him, and Gem sighed in relief, kissing him back soundly. They parted as the tram approached, and Rusty stepped back, raking his claws through the fur between his ears.

“You know, Ollie is pretty unobservant,” Gem said with a mischievous eyebrow waggle. “I’m gonna see how many times I can touch your butt tomorrow without him noticing.”

Rusty crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s the opposite of chill.”

“But it’s gonna be hella fun.” Gem danced to the tram door as it squeaked open.

“What if Oliver sees?”

“He won’t,” Gem dismissed easily .

“But what if he does?” Rusty insisted as Gem hung halfway out the door.

“Then we tell him you just-the-tipped me, and he’ll automatically think we’re lying.

” At Rusty’s doubtful expression, Gem doubled-down.

“No, for real. Tad does it all the time. I’m pretty sure everything she’s ever told us has been true.

It’s why I’m terrified of her, but I also kinda wanna be her when I grow up. ”

Rusty blinked, then shook his head. “Just don’t touch my ass at work.”

“Psh, don’t worry, babe. I totally won’t touch your ass at work.” He punctuated his promise with an obnoxious wink.

“That makes me not believe you,” Rusty said as Gem shimmied backward up the steps of the tram.

“Guess we’ll all be surprised tomorrow.”

“Gem,” Rusty growled in warning, but the tram door shut, cutting off the rest of his threat.

Gem took the window seat and waved down at Rusty. The Pyclon waved once, then tucked his paws into the pockets of his jammie pants, his precious pudding pouch pooching over the waistband. Bare-chested, fur a little messy, he looked so sexy Gem wanted to get off the tram and kiss his fuzzy face off.

But then the tram was pulling away, and Rusty faded into the distance, one paw raised in farewell.

When Gem got home, he took a long, hot shower, smoothed a conditioning mask into his hair, then secured his silk bonnet. He collapsed into bed a little after one in the morning and plugged his phone in to charge. A text was waiting for him.

[Rusty] You get home safe ?

Gem snapped a selfie from his bed and sent it.

In bed safe and sound.

Good. Get some sleep.

You too, Care Bear.

A selfie came through of Rusty in bed, fur damp like he’d also showered, and he was flipping Gem his middle finger.

Fuck me? Name the time and place, baby.

Go to sleep.

With a yawn, Gem blacked out his screen and snuggled into his pillow, a smile on his face as he fell asleep.

The next morning, Gem hit Snooze several times before forcing himself out of bed.

Two nights in a row of little sleep had him dragging his feet, but the thought of seeing Rusty and subtly flirting with him all day while everyone else was none the wiser added a spring to his step.

It was exciting, having something all their own, a secret only they knew.

Not that Gem wanted to keep their relationship a secret, but he didn’t want to rush anything or put unnecessary pressure on either of them.

He hadn’t dated often and never anything long-term or committed.

And Rusty had never dated, period! Keeping things “chill” while they figured this out—whatever this even was—seemed like the right choice.