Page 40 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly
“Are you okay?”
Callie realised her face was contorted in disgust.“Yeah.I just – I felt stupid for a minute.”
“About most people being queer?”
“No, my thoughts kind of raced ahead.”Callie turned her back to Sparx and leaned against him.He laced his arms around her.It felt like the first time he had flipped.Callie had let him stay with her.He had needed the physical intimacy of being held, but it felt better, more masculine, if he did the holding.And Callie had let him, without question.Without fear.
“How stupid was I to believe that misogyny was a thing of the past?”
Sparx rested his chin on Callie’s head.“In what way?”he asked.
“I was just thinking about those creepy Natalists.And because I’m a self-absorbed arsehole and it doesn’t affect me directly, I just…”
“Shh,” Sparx interrupted.He didn’t need Callie getting worked up any more than she already was.“I’m a bigger arsehole than you, remember?”
Callie punched him in the leg.“It’s not a competition.”
Sparx laughed and squeezed Callie tighter.“If it makes you feel better, rescuing girls is one of the things the Adlets do.”
“So, they’re not a gang, they’re vigilantes?”Callie rolled her eyes.She felt Sparx shrug.
“Gangs rely on the good will of their districts.Fear only gets you so far.Haven’t you watched any mob movies?”
“I guess not.They didn’t really seem like my kind of thing.”
“That’s weird for someone who reads detective novels.”Sparx grimaced.“Well, you’ve just earned yourself a movie night.”Sparx kissed Callie on the cheek as she squirmed away.
“Goddammit, your stubble, Sparx!”
Sparx laughed and brought up a screen on the Hexaline wall with a list of gangster movies.Callie scrolled down the list, reading each blurb carefully.
“You know Talia’s one of them, right?”Sparx stared at his hands, admiring his new, more muscular fingers.
“One of what?”Callie quickly rejected a movie and moved on to the next page.
“A rescue from the Natalists.”
“What?She never told me that?”Callie stopped scrolling, her attention now fully on Sparx.
Sparx nodded sombrely.“It’s why she wears the mask.She’s afraid someone will recognise her.”
“Can’t she just go to a DocPod?”Callie asked.
Sparx shrugged.“Now that I think about it, I don’t know any of them that have been to one for anything cosmetic.”
“I haven’t either.It’s notthatweird.I just don’t want to spend money on it.”
“Yeah, but you’re already hot.”Sparx shoved her playfully.
“You’re full of shit.”Callie shoved back and turned back to the screen.
“Really?How many women have been begging for your attention in the last week?”
“Ugh.”Callie rolled her eyes exasperated.“Just Akna and Talia.”
“And the mixer,” Sparx added.
“That was the week before.And because Sesi told her to.”
