"Whatever you want to say, just say it." Lucy will come to regret leaving it so open-ended.
The smell of too much cologne fills Lucy's nostrils all over again as Rex cuddles her close. His body heat and muscular frame on top of that are overwhelming.
"Okay then," Rex says. "One of the names you went by before Wyldstyle is Snazzypants. And I know someone going by Dangervest doesn't really have a place to judge, but—"
"People other than Emmet know that." Unfortunately for her dignity.
"You wanna get really personal? Okay. Your funeral." Rex takes a gulp of his shake. "Your carpet matches the drapes. Pink and blue."
Lucy inhales sharply.
"I thought you must have dyed it, but—" Rex eyes her natural coloration.
"Well," she says. "You could have just guessed that."
"That's still not convincing?" Rex leans back and licks his lips. "You want me to talk about the first time we fucked?"
Lucy stiffens. Her freckled cheeks turn red-hot.
Rex lets out a belly laugh. "Don't freak out, what's a little sex between friends? You're reacting like I would've back then."
It's not the concept of sex itself that bothers Lucy. It's how brusquely Rex refers to her and Emmet. Lucy had had sex before purely to rebel against the Instructions, but Emmet had been the first person she'd made love to.
Had she framed it as a friends with benefits situation to try and reassure herself with the idea that nothing had changed between them? Yes, absolutely, but she'd known deep down that after five years of living with Emmet that she loved her special best friend. Sex was one of many ways to show it. And now Rex acts as though it hadn't meant anything.
He takes her silence as a go-ahead. "The first time we messed around, I ate you out on the top level of a double decker couch I'd built. I had no idea what I was doing. One second we were making out and the next I was kissing your tits and then your belly and then right on your sweet little pussy. You liked me to rub really hard on your clit with my fingers while I licked and sucked on you. I was so afraid I was gonna hurt you 'cause you seemed so sensitive there."
Lucy can feel herself getting wet just hearing the story recounted. She remembers everything. Emmet had been so shy but eager to make her feel good.
"Meanwhile, I didn't wanna let you touch me at all. I thought I was gross since that was what the Instructions conditioned me to think. I almost started crying the first time I got a hard-on thinking about you." Rex laughs again, but it's a harder noise than before. "I came all over both of us the second you touched my dick. Then we took a shower together. I was nervous about soaping up your tits. You told me I was silly for being anxious about touching your chest after having my face between your legs a few minutes beforehand. Fair enough, honestly."
Lucy's vulva throbs as she remembers. It's been so long. Apocalypseburg hadn't exactly offered many opportunities to relax enough to have sex.
Rex takes one last heavy gulp of his shake and tosses the empty container into a trash can in the corner without looking at it.
"Was that enough detail for you?" He asks. "Or do you want me to build another couch and go down on you again to prove it?"
Lucy says nothing. She's muddled between her arousal and her shock after having such an intimate event with her best friend described in such a brusque way by a kidnapper. Not to mention the increasingly apparent fact that the two are one in the same. She would have believed him from the first part alone, but describing everything else…
There's no way Emmet would have told someone else about that night. It's him, no matter how much Lucy wishes it wasn't. Her kind, sweet, soft Emmet has turned into a boorish, arrogant, self-centered jerk who didn't so much as blush as he recounted their first time being intimate. She remembers him being bright red just seeing her naked, much less touching her.
"I believe you," she says.
"Finally."
"But that still doesn't explain how you came here from the future. Or why you manipulated Em—your past self. Or where he is."
"One thing at a time. But about that last thing… don't worry about the old me." There's a glint in Rex's eyes that she doesn't like at all. "Like I said, he's right where he needs to be."
Lucy bites her tongue to keep from demanding to know specifics right then and there. If she's going to figure out how to help the Emmet, she's going to have to endear herself to Rex.
"Okay," she says in a vacuous, Systar-esque voice. "I trust you."
She wraps an arm around his middle, feeling the bulge of his abs even through two layers of cloth. She squishes the side of her face against his pec, attempting to make the most demure expression she can as she peers up at him. A ripple of surprise goes through his body, but he is far from displeased.
"That's more like it," he murmurs.
Lucy pushes down her irritation as Rex tugs his fingers through her hair. He wasn't always this rough. She sucks in a calming breath and tries to go to her happy place, which just so happens to be cuddled up to a much cuddlier construction worker.
Then Lucy reaches up, slowly, some part of her afraid Rex will make a snap at her fingers like one of the raptors. He doesn't. He just watches her and swallows once. Lucy tucks a stray bit of his hair behind his ear. Rex flinches at the tiny bit of contact, shoulders drawing up. He has to force himself to relax. His eyes drift shut and he leans into her hand, allowing her to cup his cheek.
"Lucy…" His voice softens. "Lucy, I missed you a lot."
He sounds so much like the old Emmet in that moment.
Her heart melts, just a little.