“Because you have so many little sisters.” He knows that I have zero little sisters, zero brothers, and one much older stepsister. Sibling relationships are uncharted territory for me, but I like seeing his and how much they all mean to each other.
It’s endearing.
Maximoff leans closer and lowers his voice. “As far as I know, she’s never been kissed.” He pauses, thinking. “Wouldn’t the security team know if she’s been with anyone?”
“Epsilon would know,” I correct, “and if I radioed them to ask, they’d tell me to fuck off.” I’m not interested in Luna’s sexual history enough to extend an olive branch to SFE. On the list of important things, it’s very, very low.
While Moffy contemplates this, I shout, “Luna!”
Spider-Man mask now off, Luna waves and trudges into the small kitchen, and Maximoff jumps on the counter by the toaster. Sitting up high so she has room to stand next to me. Her features are a mix of her mom and dad: soft round face, amber eyes, and long light-brown hair.
Luna slurs a little as she says, “If I die from this, please tell the world that I got into a fight with a space alien and the alien won.”
Maximoff says certainly, “You’re not dying, sis.”
She takes a deep, relieved inhale, happy about being alive.
I hand her the cup with mouthwash and saline solution mix. “Swish and spit.”
Luna swishes and winces, and she tries to say dammit with a mouthful of salt water. Saliva drips down her chin. I guide her to the sink.
“Spit.”
She does, and bloody salt water hits the metal sink basin. “That stings so badly,” she breathes, clutching the edge of the sink.
“It’s happening again,” I warn her. “Stick your tongue out.”
Luna winces already. “Right now?” She wipes her forehead with her arm, her cheeks beet-red. I need to take her temperature.
Maximoff glares. “You plan on going somewhere, Luna? What else are we doing?”
“Jane promised a movie night, and we could always watch the movie, then come back.” She shimmies her shoulders awkwardly. “Yeah?” She gives me a thumbs-up.
“Stick your tongue out,” I say.
Luna frowns. “Moffy is supposed to be the hardass.”
I roll my eyes. “I was a hardass first, and then he copied me.”
Maximoff interjects, “Sounds like fan fiction.”
“Man, I was born before your parents even officially started dating.” I give him a look. “Five years older, ten times smarter.”
He shoots me a middle finger.
I smile and focus on his sister. “Luna.”
She reluctantly extends her tongue. Red streaks run from the silver ball to the tip of her tongue, a little swollen. At least she bought an actual barbell. I leave the jewelry in place to avoid an infection closing inside the wound.
Luna leans slightly over the sink, and I use the syringe to wash near the piercing, places that just swishing wouldn’t reach. When I finish, she spits into the sink again.
“Done?” she asks.
“Not yet.” I dunk a cotton ball in saline solution. “Hold this against your tongue.” She looks ashen, and her forehead glistens with a sheen of sweat. While I stick an ear thermometer in her right ear, I go over shit that I know.
“No kissing or oral sex until the infection is clear.”
She nods, but her brother cuts in, “Have you been kissed before?” No one said Maximoff Hale isn’t just as blunt as me.
Luna says, “Uh-huh.”
“What?” His jaw lowers. “By who?”
She takes the cotton ball out of her mouth. “Guy at school. You don’t know him. He bought me a sandwich afterwards.” She starts laughing at Maximoff’s furrowed brows and hard confusion.
“You’re totally fucking with me.” He pauses. “Right?”
I can’t tell what’s real or fiction with Luna Hale anymore than he can.
Luna just laughs again, followed by a wince. She touches her mouth.
“Luna.” His edged voice deepens, more serious. “Why’d you even choose your tongue? You could’ve pierced your ear—”
“I already have pierced ears.” She rubs her arm across her sweaty forehead. “I just like how tongue piercings look, and I thought it’d be easy to do myself.” She glances between us. “Anyway, I heard it doesn’t do much for pleasure.”
“It doesn’t do a lot,” Maximoff confirms, admitting to being sucked off by someone with a tongue piercing.
I look at him. “They have to be good at using the piercing for you to feel something.”
He licks his lips. “Experience or are you just bullshitting?”
“My last ex-boyfriend had a tongue piercing.” The thermometer beeps, filling a sudden dead silence. I take the thermometer out of her ear and read the temp: 101 Fahrenheit. Shit.
“You have an ex?” Maximoff’s voice is tight.
I raise my brows at him and reach for my phone in my pocket. “Four exes. Long gone.” I scroll through my list of contacts.
Luna rests her elbows on the sink. “Moffy’s never dated anyone.” The world knows that he doesn’t publicly date, but I wasn’t sure if he’d found a way to date privately in the past.
“You’ve never dated anyone?” I ask, pausing on my phone.
“No.”
I can’t help but smile. “Your purity is showing.” I return to my phone.
“Pretty sure I’ve had more sex than you.”
Luna seems unsurprised that he’s had sex at all, and since he trusts his family, I’m sure he’s less guarded around them.
“That’s something neither of us knows for sure, wolf scout.” I find the contact in my phone. “And secondly, you don’t win a prize for fucking around. Just like I don’t win one for being in relationships. Thirdly, you’re still pure.”
He groans.
I almost smile again, but I need to call someone that I’m not thrilled to call. Before Maximoff asks, I explain what I’m doing. “Luna needs antibiotics. I can give her over-the-counter medication to combat the fever, but to get rid of the infection, she’s going to need a prescription.”
He eyes my phone and the contact screen that says DAD. His gaze lifts to mine. “You’re a doctor. Can’t you just prescribe the meds yourself?”
“I never did my year internship, so I’m not medically licensed.” I may have an MD beside my name, but it’s practically useless without finishing my internship and taking a board.
“Now you tell me.”
I roll my eyes again. “I know everything that a doctor does, I just can’t do shit without being sued.”
Luna mumbles, “I’m gonna go lie down.”
Maximoff concentrates on his sister. “Stay with Janie just in case you need anything.”
Luna nods and puts the soaked cotton ball back on her tongue. Right when she leaves, Maximoff jumps to the floor and then takes my phone out of my hand.
“It’ll be faster if I call your dad,” he says.
It reminds me that everyone—the entire security team and all of the families—know that I’m on the worst terms with my father. He accepted every single tattoo, every piercing, every means of self-expression, but the day that I quit medicine, he looked right at me in front of these famous families, in front of the giant security team on a hot Labor Day vacation, and he said loudly and clearly, “You’re a disappointment.”