little fitz perfect

Five

After Dex left Everglen and went back to Rimeshire, he did the only logical thing he could think of.

He shut the door to his room and screamed into his pillow.

It was happy screaming, of course. Dex couldn't believe that Fitz actually liked him. His mind was buzzing with giddy thoughts of he likes me, he likes me, he likes me.

It was almost too good to be true.

Fitz Vacker and Dex Dizznee. Liking each other. Loving each other. Boyfriends?

Dex wanted to tell someone, talk about how happy he was, but he knew he couldn't. Fitz had seemed serious when he'd said it had to be a secret. Dex could see why, of course. And he was going to respect that. He would never force Fitz to tell people before he was ready. Except for Sophie, who Dex had told– but the two of them were supposed to be telling each other everything anyway, so that didn't count. He wouldn't tell anyone else.

And Dex kept that promise. He did his best to act normal the next day, and the next, though Keefe kept giving Dex weird looks every time he glanced at Fitz.

Empaths.

If Keefe knew, and Dex suspected he did, he didn't say anything. That didn't stop Dex from planning how to navigate his way through an awkward conversation, should Keefe ever confront them. For now, their secret was safe.

But... Acting normal with Fitz meant he hardly ever got to see him. When he mentioned that to Sophie, she looked confused.

"You know you can just hail him, right?"

Dex almost slapped himself for not doing that sooner. All the plans he'd had in mind involved sneaking over to Everglen in the dead of night, and that would involve getting past both Lovise and Grizel and Woltzer, not to mention the crazy security at Everglen. Hailing him was easier. More convenient. But visiting him would have been so much more romantic.

Nevertheless, Dex hailed Fitz later that evening. He sat at his desk, brushed some miscellaneous gadgets and tools out of the way, and checked to make sure his hair wasn't a complete disaster.

"Show me Fitz."

Dex's heart was racing. But a smile flashed onto his lips as soon as Fitz's face appeared. "Hi, Fitz!" He gave a little wave.

Fitz grinned. "Just the person I was thinking about."

Dex blushed. "You were thinking about me?"

"Of course I am! I haven't actually gotten to talk to you since, you know, the last time we talked."

"I mean, technically that sentence would be true in any situation," Dex pointed out. "I mean, yeah. It's been a bit." He felt his face turn red.

Fitz smiled his perfect smile. "You're right. I actually think—"

He stopped talking abruptly and looked up from the imparter. "Ah— come in," he called to whoever must have been there. Fitz tilted his imparter away from his face, so that all Dex could see was his shirt.

The imparter picked up on Della's voice, though it was quiet, so Dex had to lean closer to hear what she was saying.

"Who are you talking to?"

"Nobody," Fitz said quickly. "I mean, I was just going to hail Sophie, because there's something I wanted to ask her. Just... Cognate things."

Dex kept quiet, surprised at how quickly Fitz came up with that lie. Granted, it wasn't the best lie, but it worked. If Dex had been in that situation, he would have turned red and mumbled some stupid excuse.