City of Fire and Ink

All Bark and No Bite

What are you doing?

 I leaped up from my position on the couch. It was a few days after we'd gotten the Nostras to work with us. Work was done, but I didn't feel like doing much of anything. The fridge was empty, I wasn't in the mood for pottery, and my stomach kept growling, though I wasn't sure how much of that was hunger and how much of that was waiting for a deadly disease to sweep through the city. 

Nothing much I typed back eagerly. Even though we texted almost constantly, I still typed with the giddiness of a lovestruck teenager. I couldn't even bring myself to be embarrassed about it. 

I have a proposition for you. Inez added the fire emoji's after their message and I blushed, then gawked at myself. I had accepted the fact that I was completely gone for Inez, but I could still laugh at myself.

Oh?

Grocery shopping. My fridge is completely empty but I don't know what I want to eat so I can't just get it delivered. Come with? We can eat foooood?

I groaned. I actually needed to go grocery shopping but in order to that, I had to leave the house. I don't know babe. I wanna come with, but my dysphoria is being an absolute bitch today and the idea of leaving the house is scary. 

You deal with gangsters all day

I'd rather deal with Dominic then deal with whatever annoying thing my gender is doing today. I swear I've tried everything and it just won't go. Ughhhh

Would it help if I came over?

Probably. But I'm in a funk, so only you're up for it.

I've seen you in your funkiest of funks. I can handle your gender being an ass. What if I kick it's butt?"

"You would do that for me?"  I sent that as a voice message so she could hear the extra sugar sloshing around in my voice.

I'll be over soon idiot. Go drink some water

Yes Omma. I didn't even have to check their last message to know that they were flipping me off. Sighing, I bounced off the coach and started walking through my apartment. Days like this were frustrating, but rare. I hardly ever got really intense bouts of dysphoria. Since I had at least two genders to consistently float between, I didn't get stuck all that often. Usually, I just needed a leather jacket, a cropped tank top that showed off my muscles or some baggy pants to deal with it, but I'd tried those and it just made me feel worse. I went through my femme outfits too, long skirt, short skirt and fishnets, corset layered over a large shirt but I wasn't feeling any of them either. They all made me look good, but none of them made the something's off feeling feel any better. 

I grabbed a glass of water- Inez was right- I couldn't even remember the last time I drank water. I did a bit of cleaning, not much, I hated cleaning to begin with and when I was feeling dysphoric, I really hated cleaning, but enough to make it my living room look decent. I was busy folding the blanket when the door opened and Inez stepped in. 

"Honey I'm home!" 

I couldn't help but smile when I saw her. She had an oversized flannel over her bright yellow crop top and she'd paired it with black combat boots and embroidered light blue jeans.