"They deserve it," Zumi said softly, untensing slightly. Then she shrugged, trying to make it look casual and not show how icky the idea she was going back to made her feel. "But this other guy was one of those few. Stuck around a couple days, spoon fed me compliments like that, earned himself a 'yes' when he asked, then left the next morning before I was even awake, told Sprinn that he had other things he had to get to on his way out."
She gave them a weak smile that was a half-hearted attempt at smiling in face of a status quo that wasn't something to smile about, but what else could one do? "Just made my confusion about my sexuality that much worse, when Yammo felt safe enough to stay at the stable long enough for me to actually get to spend time with a woman. Hadn't I enjoyed it? He wasn't leaving in a hurry to get away from me, life out on the road is tough, he probably did have things to get to, a traveler can't stick around the stable forever. It's not like I didn't say 'yes,' right?"
She waved her hand towards Link in a vague sort of way. "Then along comes this walking ball of exhaustion, drops into a bed for ten hours, lucky that he doesn't snore, because someone might've had to smother him in his sleep if he did."
Link gave her an offended look, although some of it looked a little played up to keep the subject from becoming overwhelmingly depressing. She gave him a bratty smile that was just as genuine but also just as played up. "We were beginning to worry at about hour nine."
Then she smiled, small, but far more genuine. "And for once, I'm around a man that I feel completely at ease around. I don't have that 'walking on eggshells' feeling. Sharp contrast to that other guy, especially in retrospect. Makes me realize that maybe that he had been just like the others."
She looked up at Yammo. "It makes it make more sense why I'd go to a man for a listening ear while I had an identity crisis about my sexuality, if I'd had a guy who'd only acted nice because he had an investment in getting into my panties to contrast with a man that was just a good man who genuinely saw me as a person. I wouldn't worry that he would have that kind of investment and might try to convince me to keep sitting on his side of the fence, in the hopes of getting a bit of his own."