@BenHawkinsLivesHere @Bluenails @Akuja
Aya froze in her tracks. Was she that transparent? They all knew she was attracted to women now. She hadn't told anyone, but one flustered moment and she might has well have grabbed a bullhorn and shouted it across the entire beach. Did they also know how she wanted more than one person at a time? This place was nowhere near as sexually liberated as New York or Los Angeles. What would happen if her secret were out here? Would her grandfather disown her or send her somewhere even more restrictive? This nude vacation was an embarrassment, but it might also be her last chance to indulge herself before she was sent off to some mountaintop monastery to live out her life in solitary austerity. She took a deep, calming breath and turned to face Ankoku.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to make a scene."
She looked up into his eyes and found them softer than she expected. The judgment she expected to see wasn't there at all. He thought she was attractive? She tried to figure out what his words meant, what he was suggesting, but did it really matter? He was offering friendship, no castigation for her desires... For the first time since coming here, she had a chance to be her real self, to be honest about who she was. Was she brave enough to take it?
"Let's walk back together," she said, blushing and stepping up beside him. "Would you want to hold my hand?"