Rusty took to the stage next, and Gem motioned to Cya to take over the espresso machine so he could give all his attention to the Pyclon. He waved six thumbs-up as Rusty came to a stop in front of the mic, and his ears twitched with nerves as he greeted the crowd.
“Anyway,” Rusty said when the crowd’s applause died down, “I guess I need a volunteer or whatever.”
“Oh, me! Me, me, me!” Gem shrieked, flailing his arms as he climbed over the counter. He tripped and nearly face-planted, but he caught himself at the last minute, wincing when his ankle twinged. “Ah, fuck, my ankle. Rus, me! Choose me.” He caught sight of a Nymph, one of their regulars, cautiously raising her hand, and he practically snarled, “Put your fucking hand down, Brenda. I’m doing it.”
Amusement had Rusty’s tail dancing, and Gem beamed at him as he scrambled onto the stage, grabbing the mic. “I’ll be your volunteer.”
“Uh, okay,” Rusty said, gulping down nerves as he stepped toward Gem. There was relief in his eyes, and it warmed Gem all over.
In his not so humble opinion, he added much flair and pizzazz to the act, but Rusty’s sleight of hand could not be upstaged. When Gem found the card he’d pulled from the deck—a purple three of keys—in his back pocket, he shrieked with excitement and showed it to the audience, who burst into raucous applause.
How Rusty had slipped the card into Gem’s pocket without him feeling it was impressive in and of itself, but the fact that Rusty had touched Gem’s ass—in front of a room full of people, no less—was probably Gem’s favorite part of the trick.
As they stepped off the stage to make room for a patron carrying an acoustic guitar, Gem knocked Rusty’s shoulder, sending him stumbling several steps. “That was impressive.”
“Thanks,” Rusty grumbled. “So was your… pizzazz.”
“I knew you liked my pizzazz,” Gem preened, and though Rusty huffed and rolled his eyes, his tail gave him away. It swayed high and amused, and Gem wanted to touch it. To be honest, he wanted to stroke it. Generously. And judging from the Pyclon’s ever-thickening pheromones, he had a feeling Rusty wouldn’t mind that one bit.
When Rusty demanded his card back, Gem refused, shoving it as deep in his pocket as it could go. “I’m keeping it as a souvenir.”
“A souvenir of what?” Rusty threw up his hands in exasperation.
“Of the night you touched my ass!”
Unfortunately, when it came time to head home, the card was no longer in Gem’s pocket at all. Genuinely distraught, he searched under the tables and in every pocket he possessed, but the card was gone.
“I think it fell out of my pocket,” he whined, glaring down at Bob, the burnt orange bug-thing that lived in Quin’s office. “And then Bob probably stole it, that thieving little monster!”
He would have pushed the issue, but Rusty pointed out that their train to Lust was leaving soon, and he didn’t want to wait half an hour for the next one. So he grudgingly pulled on his hoodie and dragged Rusty toward Purgatory Station.
“It’s just a card,” Rusty said as the train pulled to a stop on Platform L.
“No, it signifies a once-in-a-lifetime event, and now it’s lost to me forever,” Gem lamented dramatically, making Rusty snuffle a laugh.
“Once-in-a-lifetime event?”
Stepping to the side to let the passengers trickle out, Gem hip-checked the Pyclon. “Well, I’m not psychic, but I don’t foresee you touching my ass ever again. So yeah, once in a lifetime.”
Rusty’s tail flicked and an almost mischievous grin curled the edges of his mouth as he angled his head to meet Gem’s gaze. Then he brazenly lifted a paw and placed it in the middle of Gem’s left asscheek. He didn’t squeeze or rub; he simply rested his hand for the span of one breath before he removed it and crossed his arms over his chest.
Since his brain had decided to stop braining, Gem struggled for words for several seconds before he managed to blurt out, “Why did you just do that?”
“Because you’re going to tell everyone that I touched your ass on a crowded platform in the middle of the station,” Rusty said as he boarded the train, throwing a gleefully evil grin over his shoulder, “and no one is going to believe you.”
Gem’s jaw dropped, his hearts thudding hard inside his chest as he practically tripped onto the train with a shrieked, “Rusty!”
And oh, how the Pyclon laughed.
Chapter eighteen
Storm Break
Rusty
For the entire trainride back to Lust, the purple three of keys burned in Rusty’s pocket. Given how upset Gem was that he’d “lost” the card, Rusty almost felt guilty. Like he almost felt guilty for touching Gem’s ass without permission. Almost.
Beside him, Gem was pouting. He kept checking his pockets, then he completely emptied his purse onto the seat beside him, muttering about thieving bug-monsters. The contents of his purse piled high, a lip gloss dropping to the train floor and rolling into Rusty’s foot. Leaning down, he grabbed it before it could roll away and held onto it as Gem upended his purse and shook it, releasing a worrisome amount of condoms onto his lap.
