Speechless

[takes place in the Lost Cities, Rimeshire, right after Keefe and Dex's conversation through
Imparters - Dex's POV]

Dex stared at the wall. He couldn't believe Rex was Talentless. He'd agreed to the conversations with Keefe through their Imparters so that Dex could help Keefe feel more confident about his ability but... he never imagined he'd learn something so life-changing during their first conversation.

Well, it wasn't exactly unexpected, given that his dad was Talentless too, but Dex had never considered the possibility that two of the triplets might manifest and the other might not.

And the hardest part was, he couldn't tell anybody. If any of his family members knew, they'd be crushed. Tears blurred Dex's vision as the memory of Rex speculating about what ability he'd manifest resurfaced. He put his face in his palms and let his fingers clench his hair in frustration.

A knock sounded on his door. Dex wiped at his face and whipped around as his dad poked his head in with a grin. "Dex, you've got a visitor..." he trailed away and wiggled his eyebrows. Dex narrowed his eyes at him and he disappeared, letting Biana walk in.

Dex immediately sat up, his heart beating a million beats a second (from surprise and nothing else) as Biana looked around his room.

"Hey, I don't think I've ever been in here before. It's...nice."

"Messy, I know." Dex cleared a pile of alchemy notes from one side of his bed. "Sit here."

His parents always complained about the lack of organization is his room, but Dex preferred this to organizing his room. Not because he was too lazy to do it, but because he couldn't find any of his stuff unless it was strewn around in that exact spot on the floor.

Biana plopped onto his bed and crossed her legs. She was wearing a flowy full-sleeved orange tunic with floral tights and orange heels. Dex tried to look anywhere but at her, afraid he might get caught staring if he looked a second too long. "So... any reason you came over? You never do."

"Oh yeah, about that... Keefe told me I should come and check on you."

Dex's head snapped up so fast that he almost cricked his neck. "What? What did he tell you?"

Biana held her hands out in front of her like a shield. "Woah, calm down. Keefe didn't tell me anything. He just suggested you'd probably be brooding and I should come and distract you."

He exhaled through his nose. "Oh."

"So," Biana said, bouncing on the bed with her thighs and sending the whole bed rippling. "What do you wanna do? Everglen? My brother's in a bad mood today, though. Oh, I'm sure you have some fun stuff here. Wanna go prank the triplets?"

Dex forced himself to meet her beautiful teal eyes. His breath caught as they locked eyes. Wait, what? Beautiful? He shoved the thought out of his brain and cleared his throat. Biana wasn't usually one to initiate pranks. More often that not, she'd be the one getting pranked or laughing as she watched others get pranked. But something about the intensity radiating from her unyielding stare gave him the confidence, the courage, to curve his lips up in a smile and say, "Let's do it."

Biana let out a happy squeal and leaped out of the room. As Dex moved to follow her out, he caught sight of the goofy grin plastered on his face in the full length mirror near the door. He quickly wiped it off. He looked like some lovestruck idiot. Which he was not.

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"... And one can of sweetened and condensed milk," Biana said, pulling a bottle of milk out of the fridge.