“Not only am I not into blood and guts, I also hate school. I always have. I mean, I liked the social aspects of school—I was a kickass cheerleader in secondary.” He preened. “A few of my siblings have been homeschooled because they have really bad social anxiety, but I, like, could never. Runningfor homecoming queen was literally my main motivation for even going to class.”
“Queen?” Rusty interjected, and Gem snorted, winking the small eye still trained at him.
“Of course. You think I wanted to be king?” Gem made a face. “Ew. Plus, I wanted to wear a dress when I won. Not that kings can’t wear dresses, but back then, I was young and still deconstructing social gender norms. For a while, I was a they/them because I thought my presentation had to mean something about my gender. And since I liked wearing skirts and heels, I thought it meant I wasn’t a guy. But also, I didn’t feel like a girl either.
“Don’t get me wrong, if a hot guy wants to call me a good girl while he slaps my ass and pulls my hair, you’re not gonna hear me complaining,” Gem tittered, and Rusty grimaced at that unwanted mental image. “But in general, gender just isn’t a thing for me. All pronouns work, thoughhedoes feel the most comfortable. Whether that’s because it’s what I’ve gone by the longest or because it really is what aligns most closely, who knows? I would just rather be seen as me, and not a specific gender. You know what I mean?”
Pausing to spray Rusty’s foot again—and to take a breath—Gem looked at Rusty expectantly. So he said, “Uh, sure.”
Gem beamed at him, then refocused back on his foot. “I knew you’d get it. Anyway, I would have totally won homecoming queen too, if it wasn’t for that bitch-ass Connor! I know it makes me a bad person, but sometimes, I stalk him on socials and every time something bad happens to him, I feel good about it. Which, on one hand, feels hella petty. But, on the other hand, who am I to get in the way ofkarmic justice?”
Once again, Gem looked to Rusty for validation, and since he was, per usual, entirely lost in Gem’s rambling, he cleared his throat and said, “Well, karma’s a bitch, you know?”
“Exactly! And it’s not like being petty is a crime.” The Araknis sighed, then he frowned. “Wait, what was I even talking about before?”
“Med school,” Rusty supplied, and Gem blinked in a wave from left to right.
“Then why am I talking about Connor?”
“I honestly couldn’t tell you,” Rusty said flatly.
“Right.” The crests of Gem’s cheeks darkened, and he hunkered down to inspect his progress with Rusty’s foot. “So, you’re not gonna like this, but I think we should take you to an emergency clinic. This is gonna need stitches.”
“No clinics,” Rusty said, chest tightening at the mere prospect of being poked and prodded by someone in a white coat. “No stitches. Just… put a bandage on it.”
“Rus—”
“No clinics, Gem,” he barked, and Gem pressed his lips into a thin line, before he nodded in resignation.
“Okay, fine. I have some medical glue that should work, but the deepest cut is gonna scar.”
Rusty shrugged; he had plenty of those already. “I don’t care about scarring.”
After studying him for a moment, Gem retrieved a small bottle, some winged bandages, and a roll of gauze. “Alright. I’ll need to hold the laceration together until the glue sets, and it won’t feel very good. Sorry.”
With a heavy swallow, Rusty nodded, fisting his paws until the bones strained under his hide. The gray hand on Rusty’s knee moved to lay overhis closed fist and squeezed. Normally, Rusty would have pushed Gem away, too annoyed or embarrassed to accept the physical comfort. But the nausea and cold sweats were setting in as Gem prepared the medical glue.
“So you didn’t like med school, huh?” Rusty prompted, and Gem sent him a knowing, almost patronizing smile.
“No. I tried, I really did, but the professors just talked and talked, and it was so boring, and I couldn’t pay attention because my brain is an asshole. Then I’d get fidgety, and the professors would get annoyed, so then I’d get annoyed. And after, like, three semesters, I realized I hated my life, and staying in uni for another how-many-years made me wanna scream. So I decided I wanted to be happy, and I quit.” Using numerous hands, Gem spread the cuts wide and applied the glue, making Rusty hiss through his teeth at the burn. “Deep breath, babes.”
Rusty barely managed one before Gem was pinching the deepest wound closed and applying more glue. “Son of a bitch!” Without conscious thought, Rusty grabbed Gem’s arm, claws digging in as he snarled through the pain.
“Keep breathing,” Gem coached.
“I am breathing!” Rusty seethed.
A snicker escaped as Gem wrapped his fingers around Rusty’s wrist, thumb rubbing over his pulse point. “You know, whenever I tell people I didn’t finish uni, they assume I flunked out. I didn’t, though. My grades were good, all things considered. I just wasn’t happy. Then I got the job at the cafe, and I loved it. I get to talk to all kinds of people from all over, every day is different so I don’t get bored, and I’m constantly moving and doing things so my brain doesn’t get too loud.”
He continued to hold the deepest cut closed while he used several other hands to apply winged bandages. “And best of all, I get to work with myfriends. Sure, some people look at me funny when they hear I’m almost twenty-nine and still working as a barista, but I don’t get why it matters. As long as I’m happy, who cares, you know?”
Leaning back, Gem smoothed the adhesive pieces of the bandages flat, then proceeded to add bandages to the other, shallower cuts. At long last, he wrapped Rusty’s foot in gauze. Through it all, his lower left hand continued to squeeze Rusty’s wrist, thumb rubbing soothingly. As his muscles slowly unlocked, Rusty stared at that glitter-painted thumb circling his pulse point. It made him want to shiver, even though he wasn’t cold.
The striped fur on Gem’s forearm was soft against Rusty’s palm, and for a moment, he sifted his fingers through the downy hairs. They vibrated, emitting a low hum, and it made him want to smile.
He didn’t.
When he glanced Gem’s way, he found the Araknis staring at him with all eight eyes, and he froze. Then he jerked his hand out of Gem’s grasp and crossed his arms over his chest, avoiding eye contact as he mumbled an apology. Gem didn’t respond, but Rusty caught the smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
