Page 81 of Looking for Group
Kit looked so rueful that Drew had to laugh. “How’d it go?”
“Oh, it was fine. He OTs for us all the time. He’s just very Bjorn about it.” His voice slipped into a fairly effective imitation of Bjorn’s self-satisfied drawl. “Don’t worry, this was my main back in vanilla. Did I tell you about the time I soloed Dreadwing after my entire raid died of being noobs?”
Drew grinned. “I dare you to do that in front of him.”
“Gosh, no, he’d shard all my loot for a month.” Kit paused for a moment. “Also, I think it might make him genuinely sad. He’s quite sensitive really.”
“What, Bjorn?” Drew blinked. “Like…Bjorn Bjorn?”
“Well, you don’t carry on that way if you don’t care what people think of you.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve got a mate like that. He’s kind of a dick as well, but I guess he gets away with it because he’s kind of a dick at you, not to you.” Remembering Monday, Drew grimaced. “At least, most of the time.”
“That’s a pretty subtle distinction.” Kit gave him a slightly teasing look over the rim of his mug, and Drew felt somewhere between flustered and pleased. And had no idea how to look back.
“I mean,” he went on, “Sanee’s not nasty to anyone. He just kind of is who he is, and sometimes that’s a bit annoying. But if you tell him he’s being annoying, he’ll try to be less annoying.” He remembered Monday again. “At least, most of the time.”
“Truly, that is the meaning of friendship.”
Drew gave him a mock scowl. “Are you taking the piss?”
“Well, yes and no. Mainly yes. But I also think there’s something really nice about having people you can be yourself with, but who you can trust to tell you when yourself is being a dick.”
“I can’t really imagine you being a dick.”
“Hey, I could be a dick if I wanted.”
It was probably a bad moment to suddenly notice that they were saying the worddicka lot, and Drew felt himself blushing for no reason. “So how’s the book?”
Kit grinned wickedly at him. “Wow, way to imperceptibly change the subject.”
“Sorry, we were just kind of on a dick train and I wasn’t sure how to get off.”
The grin vanished. “Sorry, was I making you uncomfortable?”
He honestly wasn’t sure. He didn’t feel exactly cosy, sitting there talking about dicks with the guy he was on a date with, but he couldn’t tell if that was just him being weird. It wasn’t like he’d be talking about vaginas with a girl he’d fancied.
Tinuviel probably would, but she was a special case.
Also, Kit looked really anxious, and that was really sad-making.
“I’m not uncomfortable. Promise. Honest. It’s just I got into this spiral in my head, like you know when you’re trying not to think of something, so you do.”
“Oh man”—Kit made a frustrated gesture—“I just lost The Game.”1
“Oh thanks, me too.”
They stared at each other helplessly, caught on the verge of laughter.
“There’s a guy on my course,” said Drew, “who refuses to play The Game.”
Kit blinked. “What does that even mean?”
“It’s kind of weird actually. It just means that every time someone loses The Game he goes into this speech about how he doesn’t play The Game because, like, he’s like not a follower or something. I think he actually used the wordsheepleat one point.”
Kit flinched, a bit theatrically, but it was cute.
“But the thing is, he’s basically playing this boring meta game of his own, which means he spends all his time waiting for people to mention The Game so he can object. It’s like he takes it way more seriously than anybody who actually plays it, and has wayless fun.” Drew paused, and picked thoughtfully at his muffin. “By the way, do you want some?”
