Page 12 of Gratification in Gluttony

“Can I ask you something?” Toni rested his arms on his knees, raising his voice so Jude could hear him over The Madame’s closing number.

Eyes a little glazed from the alcohol, Jude leaned closer. “I guess so.”

“Do all humans choose their gender?” Jude looked taken aback at the question, and Toni grimaced. “Shit, I just asked something inappropriate, didn’t I? Sorry about that. Never mind, you don’t gotta answer.”

“No, it’s fine,” Jude said, bringing his glass to his lips and tipping the contents back, swallowing it all in one go. Setting the tumbler down, he faced Toni, expression guarded. “We, I mean humans, don’tchooseour gender. Do demons?”

“Some do. Tad did.” Toni pointed at Tad. “Anurlets are genderless until they hit puberty, then they choose. And other species can change it up if they want.”

“They can change their gender just like that?” Jude asked, looking almost envious.

Toni shrugged, the alcohol working its way through his veins until a pleasant buzz took residence there. “I mean, yeah. I’m sure more goes into it, of course, but it’s like an evolutionary thing, you know? Like back when survival of the species was all that mattered. So, you get a community with too much dick, and everyone’s losing their minds. Like, how we gonna make babies with all this dick!”

Jude frowned, blinking slowly like he was having trouble following Toni’s logic.

“So then, they gather some of the dick together, and they’re like, ‘Go change and have a baby,’ or whatever.” Jude laughed, and Toni frowned. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m no scientist! I don’t know how it works. I just know that one day, Jeta wasn’t Jeta no more. Jeta was Jimi. Which was a-okay by me, baby.

“Jeta was hot. Jimi was also hot. He fucked me in the swimming pool locker room.” Toni sighed. “It was only okay. But not because of me. My skills were flawless.”

“Mhm?” Jude hummed, brows furrowed deeply. “Maybe this is the alcohol, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m a little lost myself, if I’m being honest,” Toni admitted, swirling the contents of his tumbler as Jude laughed loudly into his palm. “The moral of the story is that my skills are flawless.” He flashed his teeth. “And I’ll be willing to prove that anytime you want.”

Leaning closer, Jude grinned drunkenly, his words a little slurred as he said, “You’re sexy and frightening.”

And fuck if that didn’t make Toni swell with pride. “Oh, baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Chapter four

Fuck Them Tits

The Madame’s set hadfinished some time ago, but Toni hadn’t noticed. He was too busy chatting with his friends and flirting with Jude, and the third drink he’d gotten for himself had started to alter his experience of time, anyway. After changing into their every-day clothes, Zef joined them at the table, their hair looking fine, thanks to Toni’s skills. Glyma and Quin headed out at some point, and Gem ordered shots. Somehow Toni ended up with two, and by the time the bar gave the last call, he was feeling good.

Rusty corralled them out of the bar, everyone heading to Gem’s to keep the party going. Since that meant more time with Jude, Toni didn’t complain. Instead, he flung an arm around Jude’s neck and breathed in the Gluttony night air.

“I’m jealous of Jimi,” Jude said, words running together.

“What? Who’s Jimi?”

Jude smacked Toni’s chest. “The guy you fucked in a locker room.”

Toni blew a noisy raspberry. “You don’t gotta be jealous of him. I’ll fuck you in a locker room any day, any time.”

Laughing, Jude shook his head. “No, that’s not—I mean, because he could change his gender, just like that, you know?”

“And that’s what you did, right?” Toni asked.

“I mean, I guess. I grew up a girl but never felt like one.”

With a somewhat awkward twist of his arm, Toni reached up and touched his thumb to the edge of Jude’s jaw. “That must have been hard.”

“It was.” Jude cleared his throat, leaning into Toni’s side until their bodies were pressed close. “I used to go to bed and pray that I’d wake up different, that I’d wake up a boy. But it never happened.” Jude looked a little sad for a moment before he shrugged. “Then I got older and decided that, evenifGod exists, I don’t need to beg him to do what I can do myself.”

Toni had never been religious, but the words still barreled into his chest. “Whoa, that’s some heavy, life-epitome shit right there.”

At his words, the melancholy of their conversation shattered, and Jude laughed. “I can be deep when I want to.”

“I feel like there’s a sexual innuendo hiding in that statement, but I’m too drunk to find it,” Toni teased, and Jude smacked him in the chest again, still laughing.

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