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As we were leaving the restaurant, an orange-striped cat sidled up and rubbed against my legs.

“Hey, there.” I crouched to pet it.

The cat purred and rubbed its head into my hand.

“What a friendly animal,” Kaspian said.

I looked up at him from my crouch. “Have you ever had a pet?”

“No.”

“Me either.” I looked back at the cat, around at the people strolling down the street, then the cat again. “Hey, buddy. Are you hungry? You look pretty well fed.”

“Our animals don't speak.”

I chuckled. “Neither do ours. But that doesn't stop us from talking to them.”

The cat mewed and rubbed against me.

“Can we get him some fish or something?” I asked.

With an indulgent grin, Kaspian nodded at one of his guards. The man went back into the restaurant. As if he knew he'd successfully suckered me, the cat put more effort into his purrs and nuzzled me like a long-lost friend. Then he lifted his tail.

“Ah, I see you're a boy.”

“That's rather forward of you.” Kaspian pushed back a swath of hair that had fallen into my face.

I looked up to find him grinning. “He's the one who flashed me. I couldn't help but notice the big, furry balls. Besides, it's better to know what pronoun to use. I guess I could have been modern about it and stuck with they/them.”

“They/them?”

“Trust me, you don't want to know,” I muttered. Then I asked the cat, “You don't have an issue with me calling you a boy because you have balls, do you? Do you identify as female? Hey, you do you, cat. I don't have a problem with it.”

“What nonsense are you spouting now?” Kaspian scowled down at me.

“Let's just say that something as simple as a person's sex has become a complicated issue on my planet.”

“Why?”

“Because people can change their sex these days.”

“Sex? As in male and female?”

“Yup. They can identify as a different sex or they can surgically alter their bodies to become a different sex. A man can become a woman and a woman can become a man.”

All the Dragons went still and gaped at me.

I glanced at my rapt audience and chuckled. “I'm not making it up. Human medical science has advanced to the point where surgeries are a common thing.” I stood up. “We can repair wounds, remove tumors, and all sorts of other things. That's the healthcare side of it. But with those advancements came another branch of the medical field. Cosmetic. Although, a sex change is far more than cosmetic. But it started as nose jobs and facelifts.”

“Face. Lifts?” one of the knights asked, his hands going to his face. “What is wrong with the humans on your planet?”

“I've often asked myself that very question.”

Kaspian's knight came out of the restaurant and handed me a waxed parchment with some pieces of raw fish on it.

“Thanks.” I set the fish down.

The cat immediately set to devouring his prize.

Meanwhile, the knight who had procured the fish looked around at his buddies, frowning at their expressions. “What happened?”

“Duke Demetrius says that humans on his world have surgeries,” Sir Vadron said.

“What are surgeries?”

“They are medical . . . uh.” Vadron looked at me.

“Medical procedures,” I finished. “We cut people open and fix things that are wrong inside them. That is, unless the person is wounded and already cut open. Then they just seal them up.”

The knight blinked.

I went on, “I was telling the others that surgery advanced into altering things about people that they don't like. Such as lifting drooping skin.”

“They lift their faces!” Vadron tacked on.

“What does that mean?”

“That's what I was about to ask.” Kas grimaced at his men, then looked at me. “Are you teasing us?”

“No, I swear, it's the truth! You don't understand this, but humans, as we age, start to look old. You know. We get saggy. So a doctor can surgically lift that sagging skin. He cuts off the excess, pulls it tight, and sews it back together.” I pushed the skin of my face up.

The Dragons winced, several turning away as they made gagging sounds.

I burst out laughing.

They glared at me.

“You are teasing us,” Kaspian growled.

“No, I'm not!” I held up my hands. “I'm laughing because you're all supposed to be these powerful men with magic and yet my description of a facelift makes you queasy.” I laughed again. “Pussies!”

“What did he just call us, Your Majesty?” Sir Hapsedes asked Kaspian.

Kaspian grimaced, then said, “I believe he just called us a woman's sexual part.”

All the Dragons glared at me.

“It's what we call people when we're teasing them about being, uh, well, weak.” I scowled. “I guess that's kinda insulting towards women. I should stop using that word.”

“Towards women?!” Hapsedes scrunched his face at me. “What about towards us? We trained for many years to become good enough to guard our king.”

“Whoa!” I held up my hands. “I didn't mean to get personal with you. It was teasing. Fuck, dude. Take a joke. Sheesh, you guys are tightly wound motherfuckers. You need to relax.”

The cat mewed.

I looked down to see it sitting beside me, cleaning its face. Only a few bones remained on the waxed parchment. The cat looked up at me, then at the men, and went back to his cleaning as if dismissing their idiocy.

“See? Even the cat thinks you're overreacting.”

“And you need to remember who you are speaking to,” Kaspian rumbled. “Show more respect to your duke and more leniency to his otherworldly ways.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the knights said as one.

“Aw, Kas. It's all right. I shouldn't have said that.”

“No, it's not all right. And no, you should not have said anything about your world, Demetrius.” Kas turned his glare on me. “Did I not just say that we would leave those advances on Earth?”

“Yeah.” I held up my hands. “You're right. I'm sorry. I got carried away. I won't talk about that stuff anymore.”

Kaspian sighed. “You may talk about it with me since I was there. But no one else, Mate.”

“Got it.”

Kas looked at his knights. “And none of you will repeat what my mate says about his world.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” The knights came to attention and inclined their heads.

I rolled my eyes. “So, where are we off to next?”

“I will show you the rest of the city. There are many interesting neighborhoods.” Kaspian gestured down the street, then at the carriage. “Shall we?”

“Why don't we just walk?”

“Walk? I'm the King.”

“You can walk. I've seen it. You just did it. You use those things on the ends of your legs. They're called feet.”

Sir Vadron's lips twitched, but no one else reacted. Except for Kas, of course.

“Very amusing, Mate.” He took my hand. “If you wish to walk, we will. It may indeed be a better way to see the city. But I warn you, it's a large city.”

“Sire?” Sir Hapsedes motioned at the carriage.

“Take it to the White Feather District.”

“That's miles away.”

“Yes, I'm going to walk with my mate through the other districts first and end with Feather.”

“Yes, Sire.” Hapsedes climbed onto the driver's ledge and clicked his tongue as he snapped the reins.

I guess some things were the same on every planet. Cat's like fish, kings don't walk, and horses respond to clicking tongues. I mean, as far as that last one—who doesn't?

The other three knights took their positions around Kas and me as the King of Aravult led me down the street. The orange cat kept pace at my side.

“Hoping for more fish, eh?” I asked the cat. “You'd best know your way home because we're wandering far today.”

“We shouldn't have fed it,” Kas said.

“Him.”

“We shouldn't have fed him . Now, he'll follow us home.”

“You sound like a human.”

Kaspian turned to look at me with wide eyes and a snarl.

“Is there something wrong with being human, Mate ?” I lifted a brow at him.

Instead of feeling guilty, as a normal person would for insulting their significant other, the King said, “Yes, when you compare a Dragon to a human. Definitely.”

I gaped at him.

Kaspian burst out laughing.

“You're an asshole!” I let go of his hand to shove his shoulder.

He didn't budge, just kept laughing.

I swear that cat looked at us and shook his head. It was a shame Serai didn't have Tiktok. That cat would have made me famous.