The Dragon

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"A date?"

Six looked utterly confused. As if the word did not exist in his vocabulary.

"Yes, a date," I repeated firmly, "It's where I take you out to dinner. We come back here. We spend time together." Six blinked, his cheeks pinkening, and he averted his eyes almost shyly, as if he couldn't imagine such a thing. I cocked my head and reached up to cup his face and he closed his eyes, clearly adoring the sensation of me cradling his head in my hands.

"Don't worry. It'll be fun. I promise."

"But going out," Six murmured, "That's dangerous."

"We're going to a place where no one will know us. No one will know anything," I answered softly, "But first we need to get properly dressed." Six blinked, then looked at me curiously.

"What's wrong with the way I dress?" He asked, clearly offended. I was unable to resist smiling at that.

"Absolutely nothing," I assured him, pausing to scan him from head to toe in his all black badass outfit, "But it isn't appropriate for where we're going. Just give me a second." He watched me as I went to my closet and opened it up to step inside. Six stared at me, wandering over to watch me as I thumbed through the clothes hanging from the hangers.
"What is this?" He asked, looking around. I frowned.

"A closet?" I asked.

"This is a closet?" He asked in wonder.

"Yes. Why?"

"It's so big," he commented, stepping inside and doing a scan of all the clothes, "There's so many clothes in here. Do you actually wear all of this?" I smiled at that, then turned away as I picked through the clothes, wanting to hide the fact that my smile melted away as I realized something strangely sad.

Six's clothing. He didn't choose to wear any of it. He was wearing it because that was what had been given to him to wear. He never had the opportunity to simply go somewhere to buy clothes he wanted, things he felt comfortable in. I'd never realized how strangely privileged it was to be able to pick out your own clothes and wear whatever you wanted.

I pulled a button down shirt from the folds and turned to the drawers across my apparently large closet. I took out a pair of jeans and some socks. I gave each of them a tug and adjusted the size before turning to Six, who was looking at a sparkly blue dress.

"You've worn this?" He asked me, confused.

"Of course. Blue is my color."

"But a dress?"

"Yes."

"Males don't wear dresses," Six said with a confused scowl. I frowned.

"I am not a male," I responded. Six stopped what he was doing to stare at me. He looked me up and down, cocked his head to the side, then looked at me.

"Are you a shifter?" He asked. I shook my head.

"I'm nonbinary."

"What... What is that?"

"It's an umbrella term for those who's gender does not lie in the binary of male and female. I consider myself an other. If you want me to be really specific, I am genderfluid. I flow between male and female and everything in the middle," I explained, watching Six process it. He furrowed his brow in thought as he considered it. It bothered me that the Mother hadn't taught him something so basic. This was just a natural part of living. Why had she left it out of his classes? She certainly hadn't left sex education out of the equation, so why gender and sexuality studies? What kind of world was she trying to build?