As Lex raises the hem of Sage's robe, he swallows, his mouth completely dry at the thought of finally getting to taste Sage. "Do you mind how I—" he starts to say.

  "First time with this equipment," Sage says over him. "So, you'll have to work things out."

  He nods and hikes Sage's robe up more. They settle themself on the bed and stroke his hair. A damp spot is visible on their cream underwear. He keens at the sight of it. Without thinking, he darts his tongue out to press against it and licks up to the top of that wet patch.

  The soft sound that Sage lets out is everything.

  He pulls down Sage's underwear, exposing them as quickly as he can. They must pull their robe over their head, because the fabric no longer threatens to drop into Lex's way as he repeats the motion — his tongue now unimpeded.

  Their fingers ce through his hair and they keep patting him as if he's a cat as he covers them with his mouth. He starts low in their folds, then drags his tongue up until he reaches their clit. They're slick and salty as he sucks and works his tongue over it and into their folds.

  "Good boy," they say with feeling.

  He darts his gaze up to meet theirs. They smile at him. He'd smile back if his mouth wasn't full of them. Instead, he reaches behind them to angle their hips up, and give himself better access to dip his tongue inside them for the first time.

  He licks in, and up, but Sage's reaction is muted. Their muscles clench down, but release him just as quickly. He moves back up, licking around their clit, rather than on it.

  "Lex…" they say in warning.

  He makes a muffled sound into them, not bothering to try and make actual words.

  The ache of his breasts and dick and balls nag at him, but he forces himself to focus only on Sage. Only on how they respond to his actions.

  "Lex," they say again, their fingers fisting in his hair.

  He continues to work his tongue around, painting them in circles. While they might not be satisfied, the small muscles under his tongue flutter and contract and the period between each of their breaths begins to shorten.

  He drags his tongue over their clit.

  "Shit," they say. "Come on, Lex." They emphasise their words by bucking their hips into his mouth.

  He thinks they like him. The thought sends a rush of heat straight to his dick and he moans against them, committing himself to licking and sucking and pleasing them. He wants to pay them back at least as much as they've given him.

  He feels their orgasm begin before they realise it themself. Once they do, they press the back of their arm to their lips and make a muffled sound, higher and more breathless than any they've made until now.

  He works them through it, and slips a finger inside them to rub them from the inside as well. At the intrusion they squeak and clench and arch their back, but they're too far into the crest of their orgasm to protest.

  "Fuck—!" they say as they tighten a st time over his finger. "Fuck you, Lex," they say as he slows but doesn't stop his work on their clit. He watches them from his position between their legs. Their chest rises and falls heavily, but they don't make any move to pull away from him.

  That's one, he thinks, and sets to work again in earnest.

  *

  Lex pulls a fourth orgasm from Sage before they tap out. Then, they stroke him off efficiently, if only because it barely takes their hand on him for him to come into their palm.

  They snort at the sight of his cum on their hand. They take a moment to wipe it off on a towel before pulling him back to the bed and kissing him, long and sweet.

  "I like kissing you," he says dumbly when they finish.

  "I can taste myself on you," they say and he flushes.

  "Sorry, I'll go—"

  "Stay," they say. "It's hot. You're hot."

  He whines in the back of his throat at their words.

  "How's the libido?"

  "Not bad," he replies without bringing up the menu. "Around seven." Sage was right when they said that getting used to feeling what statuses and stats are like is more useful than bringing up the menu all the time.

  "And how're these?" they ask, and squeeze one of his breasts.

  He swallows. At this point, can he even pretend he doesn't like them? "Still want them bigger," he mumbles.

  Sage chuckles. "I should probably start calling you 'trans boy'."

  "I'm not trans," he says before the words have time to register in his brain.

  "Lex," Sage says, voice gentle, "you have boobs. You like having boobs. And you don't seem exactly phased by this—" they punctuate the word with a squeeze of his junk, "— getting smaller."

  "But it's not like I did this on purpose," he points out.

  A spectrum of emotions py over Sage's face. Lex has no idea what those emotions are. Sage inhales to speak several times before they actually do. "Lex, just because I made the choice to transition, doesn't mean I wouldn't have been just as trans without transitioning."

  "Yeah," he says. "But that's different."

  Sage hesitates. "I don't know that it is."

  "I think it actually makes me more cis." He's being defensive, and he can hear it in his own voice. But he thinks he might have worked it out. "Like, being trans is about your gender not matching your body, right?"

  Sage frowns. "More or less."

  "And even when my body is doing all of this," he gestures at himself, "I'm still a guy."

  "Who wants everyone but me to act like you're a woman," Sage says.

  Lex's cheeks heat at the word 'woman'. It sounds so much more serious than 'girl'. "But I'm still a guy because I know I'm a guy." He knows that part is true. Sage told him as much. "And even if I was in an accident irl and had to have my junk amputated, I'd still be a cis guy. Which is basically the same as this."

  Sage blinks. "Okay." They begin to massage his breast, and it's only then that he realises they've been cupping it through this whole conversation. "But in that scenario, you'd have to like having your junk cut off. Not just accept that it happened, but actively say 'hey, while you're in there could you give me vaginopsty?'"

  "But I'd still be a cis guy if that's what I say I am."

  "You'd have a vagina!"

  "Lots of guys have vaginas," he points out. He's even had sex with one guy who does, though it had been before he transitioned.

  "Yes, trans ones!"

  This time, Lex is the one to frown. "I'm not trans though."

  "You're not even queer, right?" There's an edge to Sage's voice. Their thumb brushes over his nipple and it contracts over the bar through it.

  He squirms towards them. "I am… reassessing that."

  "Why?" The word comes out like a shard of gss.

  Lex blinks. "Because you're not a woman, right?"

  Sage's lips mouth words for seconds before they finally add their voice. "And me not being a woman matters because…?" He thinks he can pce at least one emotion in their expression now: fear.

  He's scared them. He's the freaking worst. "I'm into you. And straight guys are only into women, so…" He shrugs. The gesture moves his breast under their hand. "Can't be straight."

  "Can't be straight…" they repeat.

  "Did you think I saw you as a woman?"

  Sage gres. Nailed it. "It was a possibility I was considering."

  "Why?" He doesn't mean to ask them the same question they'd asked him, but he wants to know so he can make sure he doesn't do it again.

  "You spent an hour eating my cunt," Sage says, but they're fighting a smile now. "Genitals matter to some people."

  "That's stupid," he says.

  "Yeah," they agree.

  They look tired. Lex leans forward and pces a kiss on their cheek.

  "Is it different?" he asks.

  They flush and look away. "A lot different."

  He studies them. Their long eyeshes and the way the light is falling on them in this moment make them look masculine, but all it takes is them returning their gaze to him for them to look more feminine. Anyone who tries to pick a gender for them, without asking them what their gender is, is stupid. "Do you like it?"

  "You should know the answer to that," they say, looking away again.

  A smile pulls at his lips and he kisses the corner of their mouth. "You might have come on my face four times and hated it."

  They tweak his nipple. "Cheeky," they say.

  "Yours," he replies, and wiggles into their touch.

  "The tattoo artist and her enchanter offered to do our tattoos for basically free."

  Unsurprisingly, he has no memory of that. "That's nice of them?" He's not sure that it is. Giving away services for free is no way to run a business.

  "The enchanter — Sepher — said it's because you were picked by Vuide herself."

  A chill that doesn't exist raises the hair on Lex's arms. "But it's just a cursed item."

  Sage speaks carefully, watching Lex as they do, like they expect him to turn tail and run at any second. "I don't think it is. I think it might have been that at first, but then you got that extra effect. Bound by the void. When you got it, it said you'd been blessed by Vuide. I think that might have been important. I don't think that was an ordinary blessing." They release his breast to brush the back of their fingers over his cheek and tuck his hair behind his ear. "Sepher and Liv seemed to think it was special, anyway."

  "Why would a god care about me?"

  Sage shrugs. He doesn't know why Sage cares about him either. It's almost more reasonable that a sex obsessed god would care about him than they would.

  "Main character privilege?" Sage guesses.

  Lex snorts. "You're more like a main character than me."

  "Pyer character privilege, then."

  "I suppose I'm not an NPC."

  Sage freezes.

  "What is it?" he asks.

  "NPCs… I don't…" They pause again. Lex isn't sure that they're even breathing. He brushes their hair over their shoulder and rubs their back in small circles. "Sepher and Liv… they didn't act like NPCs."

  This time, Lex freezes. He casts his mind back over the people he's met. The staff at the inn acted like NPCs, so did the people working in the clothing stores and the owner of the piercing parlour. Then he remembers. "Northly, too," he says.

  Sage nods.

  "Impressive," he says. "I didn't think FEViR were ever going to crack how to make realistic AIs."

  "No one else has," Sage says, still looking through Lex rather than at him. "And they didn't put it in any of the promotions. Shouldn't they be bragging about it?"

  Lex considers. "Or… what if they're not AI? Could be mods pying NPCs to give them that real person feeling. This game is expensive — that could be why."

  Sage chews on their lip as they think. "We should talk to Northly again. If she's a mod, or not an NPC, she might be able to bypass the mind wipe and get word out about you."

  For the first time since he realised he was trapped, Lex feels a spark of hope.

  FEViR