Kit's Apartment
Not that they had any chance of it failing right now. You kind of needed to be having sex for that because it was highly doubtful that you could fall pregnant through sweet words or a warm touch - not by those things alone at any rate. If that was possible then Shae was well and truly fucked.
As things currently stood, they were drinking the tea without any real purpose. It was a just-in-case, protection against something that they weren't likely to come up against. It wasn't that they didn't want to have sex, it was just that they'd experienced some unforeseen hiccups. Well, they hadn't wanted to foresee the potential snags on their chosen path, that was the truth of the matter, and so they'd ended up a sobbing, hysterical mess and Kit had ended up a far more disappointed, frustrated and uncomfortable mess than he'd been willing to let on.
The whole thing had had its advantages, they couldn't deny that. They could stop thinking that the galdor was uninterested in them or saw them as a child. The shocking possibility of pregnancy had landed in Shae's lap and they now understood a bit about keeping it at bay courtesy of a conversation with Delyth, the delightful witch that Kit was intimate friends with and who seemed quite capable of breaking the raen's galdor host if she put her mind to it. Most importantly, it had allowed them a chance to transition from the couch to the man's bed. It certainly wasn't the way that they'd anticipated and it wasn't full time but it was surprisingly nice to be able to curl up with him and enjoy the warmth of another body, to murmur intimately to one another while they embraced.
Unfortunately, as lovely as those embraces were, they'd given the former wick ample opportunity to think and to feel guilt as a result of their thoughts. Kit liked them that was clear, they got on very well and he hadn't kicked them out onto the street or even hinted that he wanted them gone and that was part of the problem, wasn't it? They'd been noticing it more when they were out and about, how people treated them, how they looked at them. It was this body, this feminine delicacy that made others want to protect them and yet they were also pretty, attracting a particular kind of attention that they never would have before, even with men who were so inclined. They were a woman, except that they weren't. If they'd been in the body they'd been born in then they wouldn't have engendered such responses.
They hadn't known their galdor roommate for very long but they did know that he liked women. Whether his tastes were broader than that was unknown to them. If they were as they'd been before, would Kit want them? Would he be disgusted at the notion that he was really with a man, even one in this shape which he obviously found appealing? They didn't know but it felt horribly dishonest. If he did like men then... well, it'd still be lying to him but it wouldn't feel as awful.
They chewed their lip, grey-blue eyes raising from the hated beverage to the man's back, the galdor having rolled up his sleeves to sort out the dishes that had accumulated in recent days. They could both be a bit untidy, they had to admit but they cleaned up in the end.
The youth worried at a bit of loose skin, considering. They'd spent days debating whether to ask him and every time they thought of it, he just managed to be so damn distracting. It was his hands. He was always doing something with his hands and it was either bloody hypnotic, like when he played the guitar (clock the Circle, they couldn't think properly when they watched him do that) or he had his hands on their person and that was a whole other distraction. It never seemed like there was a good time to ask 'do you like men?' But he currently had his hands in water, the soft clink and clatter of dishes telling how occupied he was. They didn't have to watch his hands either, they could concern themself with drying. That'd be very grounding.
They'd already made their decision, hadn't they?
The raen took a deep breath, grimaced a little and then downed the end of their herbal tea. There were a series of twisted expressions of disgust, including one where they extended their tongue out as if hoping that the taste would fall off their tastebuds, before they rose and dumped the dregs out and went to join him.
"You could have waited you know or left it for me to do," they commented as they pushed their sleeves up so they could work without fear of dampening the fabric. "I might as well do something after all. It's not like I'm much good on the money front. Well, I kind of am. I've given you plenty of rent thanks to what I hocked but... you know what I mean. I didn't really do anything to earn it. Talking to some tight tekaa isn't exactly working for a living."
They laughed at their self-deprecation, swabbing cloth across the ceramic surface of a dish, the action done with care. They still weren't entirely certain of this body, especially with finer tasks and it would be all too easy to drop a slippery dish because of one moment of careless inattention or needless impatience.
They set it aside and picked up a bowl. Their teeth found their lip again - the sting of flesh and the tang of blood likely soon to follow with the way they were going - and they lapsed into thoughtful silence, wondering how they were meant to broach this subject. They did tend to be very blunt but even for them it seemed a bit weird just to blurt it. How were they meant to say it?
"Hey Kit, do you like men?" it rolled off their tongue, syllables almost crashing together from the speed of delivery and the raen's mouth opened and then shut, eyes blinking rapidly as they realised that had actually come straight out and said it. "Uh... sorry, that's a bit of a strange question, isn't it? Don't laugh!" they warned, gaze flicking to him, a little stern although the effect was likely lost given the pink that had bloomed in their cheeks.
You idiot! What is he even meant to make of that?