Vagabonds

Chapter 3

Chapter Song: The Village by Wrabel

THIRD PERSON'S POV

"Oh— sorry I didn't mean to—" Riley quickly turns around as she sees Alex standing shirtless by the sink.

"It's fine. I'm done. I'm just washing my hands. My nails are a little harder to clean." Alex says nonchalantly.

"You can turn around, you know?" Alex adds after a moment of silence.

Riley turns and looks towards Alex in the mirror who was still washing their nail beds. All traces of the world outside were now absent except for the pile of clothes and weapons on the counter.

After a few minutes of silence, Riley catches herself staring at Alex's chest and unable to stop the next words from leaving her mouth. "Did that hurt?"

Alex looks up and follows Riley's line of sight. "Not really. I mean.. I wasn't awake during the surgery and afterwards I was just numb. There was some pain but... at the same time I was numb. Doesn't make sense but yeah..."

"You don't have... any nipples. Is that the same for everyone?" Riley thought since she already started, she might as well continue embarrassing herself.

"No, not everyone. Some keep them. I didn't want to. They didn't feel right on me either. Plus I didn't like them being touched during sex so... I didn't keep them."

"Oh." Riley hangs her head low and blushes at the mention of sex. She wasn't innocent about it but she was innocent about it (if you catch the drift).

Alex mistakes Riley's shyness for contempt. "Look, I know you're all not comfortable with me—"

Riley immediately looks up and shakes her head. "I'm sorry we didn't mean to—"

"It's fine. I'm used to it. You're not the only ones with those opinions. I've had to deal with unpleasant ones from family but I still had support so I didn't mind. The world's cruel, I get it. Probably why we're in this situation right now. I just hope we can all look past this—" Alex motions towards their chest, which was a major recipient of dirty looks when it came to family gatherings, "—for now and focus on the larger problem at hand."

Riley nods, still feeling guilty about how they initially treated Alex. "I'm really sorry."

Alex smiles at her, knowing that the girl was being genuine. "Let's go. I gotta tell you folks some stuff."

A/N: I'm curious, any non-binary on trans readers out there? Comment or send me a message what kind of representation you want to see :)

+ Give the chapter song a watch. I've been listening to that song for about a year now but this is the first time I watched the music video and damn. That was a rollercoaster of emotions for me.