Page 29 of Love Limits

Yeah. There aren’t a lot of people who are excited about what’s between my legs. I mean… some of them are. I am. But it’s a lot to add to the kink and the Deafness.

Well, I’m glad you’re happy with what’s between your legs. Zhong smiled with a slight smirk.

You wouldn’t care at all, would you? I mean, if we were hypothetically dating or something. Ash threw it out there, just because they couldn’t quite get over it. Just looking at Zhong still made their belly feel all fluttery.

Zhong grinned. Never fear. I would think that your between-the-legs bits were just as weird as everyone else’s.

Ash laughed. That’s really how you think about it?

Yeah. There’s all of these squishy, dangly things. And they make goo. His face was twisted in disgust. And just… why?

Ash was cracking up now. Good point. Why?

Right? It’s just all of this… gooey rubbing. And most of the time it doesn’t even make babies! Zhong primly took another bite of his food. Why?

Ash was laughing so hard that Zhong took their bowl away so it wouldn’t spill. He watched them with narrowed eyes, waiting for them to calm down so he could give it back, and that only made it funnier.

Finally, they managed to draw a steady breath again and he tentatively returned their bowl. They loved how he could joke about sex, and he truly was funny.

So, Deaf, kinky, and genderqueer, he summarized. That’s all of them?

Ash rolled their eyes. That’s enough! And I won’t apologize for any of them.

You shouldn’t, Zhong said emphatically. I hope you find someone.

Me, too. It just sucked that it couldn’t be Zhong. I’ve been going on dates, though. Well, two so far.

Seriously? I barely made it through one. Are they all crappy?

Um… so far, yeah. I went on a lot of dates before my last relationship, and they usually range from boring to unmemorable. Mostly a huge waste of time.

Ugh. That’s what Dustin told me. And I thought that just one was bad. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.

Hey! Ash bounced up on the couch. Let’s have a club. We’ll both go on crappy dates and text each other so we don’t have to claw our eyes out while we do it. Ash made sure to make the clawing-the-eyes-out gesture extra dramatic.

Zhong laughed, throwing his head back. That sounds amazing. Much better than clawing our eyes out. Does our club have a name?

Ash rose to their knees on the couch. Yes! We need a name! They played around with some ideas. They wanted a really good one, something that was funny and maybe had a pun in it. DATE was the letter D on both hands, index fingers extended and the rest of the fingers meeting in a circle. The fingertips then came together twice like they were kissing.

They tried something. Maybe… DATE + FINALLY, with the same index finger flicked out on both hands?

Boring. Zhong shook his head. Hey, the boring date club? He moved one hand from the sign DATE up to his nose, index finger still extended, and then flicked it out.

Ugh, no. You’re going to curse us. If we go on bad dates they should at least be interesting. Ash thought some more. They hit their fingertips together, index fingers raised, a few more times as they tried to think of something cute with the word DATE.

Zhong made the DATE sign, then had one of his hands eat the other up.

Ash giggled.

Zhong signed DATE again, then had one hand run away behind his back.

God, he was hilarious. So far he’d been caring but more serious. Ash loved this playful side of him.

On the next round, one of the D-hands attacked Zhong’s face and he collapsed back on the couch with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. He waited a very long moment until Ash poked his knee before sitting up, grinning.

The next one started with the DATE sign and ended with Zhong puffing out his cheeks while they exploded, like a bomb.

Ash swatted at Zhong’s leg, even though they were laughing. They can’t all be that terrible.