(AN: So I just kept writing this scene and didn't realise how long it was until I'd finished and I couldn't find a place to cut it into two chapters that didn't read poorly without context from the second half so you get a double-length chapter today, though there's a long AN at the end to clarify a few things and also share something quite personal to me that I wanted you guys to know)

I close the door behind Plasma and sit down on the bed, after a few moments patting the spot next to me. He nods thankfully, the bed dipping with his weight as he takes a seat. "So what is it you wanted to talk about?" I prompt, wanting to get this talk over with. I'm done fretting about all this, even if I'm still not quite sure where I stand with Plasma.

"I just wanted to apologise to you."

"Apologise?" I echo, tilting my head to the side. I wasn't really expecting that. "For what?"

Plasma sighs, a hand rubbing his face in a tired manner before running through his dark hair. "For putting such pressure on you. When I got back to the caverns and heard you'd left for the Sanctuary, I thought I'd-"

"You have nothing to apologise for," I cut him off. "Being open about how you're feeling isn't a crime. I have to admit, I'm jealous of how easy you make it look."

"I hate to lie," Plasma shrugs, fidgeting with his fingers absentmindedly. "I know how I feel about you. But that doesn't make it some burden you have to bear."

"And it isn't," I assure him. "I'm just... confused. But I'm not upset with you. That's the one thing I'm sure of."

Plasma's shoulders slump, a soft breath escaping him. "Good... feel free to say no if this is a bit invasive, but... would you maybe like to talk about what's making you confused? I'm not trying to pressure you into anything."

I consider this for a moment, my right hand reaching behind my back to rub my arm. "... I don't know if I have the words... it's not just you I'm confused about. It's how I feel about love and those sorts of relationships in general, I suppose. I don't... I don't know if I feel anything different between those I care for. It's just that I know I care for them. I've never been in love. Not that way, at least. I guess it's supposed to feel different, but what makes that feeling different?"

"I don't know how to explain that," Plasma shakes his head. "But it does feel different. It does to me, at least. When I look at you, I feel... at home, I suppose. Comfortable. Warm."

"Is that an inherently romantic feeling?" I ask. "I don't think so," Plasma shakes his head. "Love is strange. It exists in many intensities and varieties, each just as valuable and unique as the last. It would be too limiting to say there was a form it couldn't take."

Plasma pauses for a moment, then slowly looks to me. "Although... it's perfectly okay not to feel certain types of love. It's not something you can force. And there's nothing wrong with feeling one type but not another, no matter how commonplace a certain type of love may be."

I nod, considering this. "I... I like that... I don't love people differently. It all feels the same. There may be different ways I express how I love certain people, but I don't feel anything different. Does that mean it's all the same type of love, or do different types of love feel the same?"

"I'm sure they can do," Plasma hums thoughtfully. "If you feel the same way, why do you express it differently?"

"I don't know... um, I suppose it's partly dependent on the relationship I have with them. What feels comfortable considering that."

Plasma nods approvingly at this. "That's a fair reason. I suppose you like having labels for these things?"

"I suppose I do," I agree. "I like being in control, I like knowing everything I can. So the idea of not knowing something about myself... I don't like that idea. So having a word to put to it and give it a definition... I guess it helps me feel a lot more in control."

"I see. That must make your feelings about love a lot harder to accept."

"Mm..." is my only verbal response to this assessment. "I've... never really told anyone about this."

"You haven't?"

"No."

"What made you tell me?"

"Seeing you being able to say so confidently how you feel is something about you I greatly envy. I suppose I assumed talking to you might offer me a little clarity."

"And has it?"

"Not much. But I certainly feel better for having this talk."

"We don't have to stop. I'm happy to help where I can."

I shake my head. "It's fine, I wouldn't want to bore you with silly things like this. One day I'll probably feel differently anyway."

"What makes you think that?" Plasma questions. "That you'll feel differently one day, I mean."

"That doesn't mean I'll suddenly fall in love with you or something," I clarify quickly, not wanting to put ideas in his head and get his hopes up. "I just mean that one day I'll probably feel that way about someone or want to feel that way about someone. We're still young, after all. And the dating pool for me hasn't exactly been an ocean of variety. Perhaps it simply hasn't happened yet."

"That's a fair point," Plasma agrees. "But a hypothetical future doesn't invalidate how you actually feel - or don't feel - now. Even if you do feel that way in future. You don't have to have all the answers that will stay true all your life simply because you're young."

"... Plasma, I don't know in what way, but the feeling I have that I identify as love... I feel that for you. But I don't think I can go out with you. I don't think I know what romantic love feels like, and I feel like dating you would be too intimate and come with strings I don't know if I'm comfortable attaching myself to."

"What strings?" Plasma sounds genuinely confused. "Do you think you need to act a certain way to date me?"

"Not you specifically," I clarify. "But don't people who date often do more intimate things with each other? And I don't just mean... well, you know. But there are innocently intimate things they do. And I don't know if I feel comfortable at this time doing those things that would be expected of someone you're dating."

Plasma considers this in silence for a few moments. I think he notes the way the quiet is making me nervous, because he sets a hand on my shoulder. "I'm not upset. Only thinking."

Plasma adjusts his sitting position, cross-legged on the bed beside me. "Feel free to say no to this, I'm not suggesting it to try and pressure you into anything, I'm only suggesting it to hear your honest thoughts on it; what if we had a relationship sort of like a friendship, but with added intimacy at our own comfort and discretion? We can find a word for it, I'm sure there must be one. Then there wouldn't be a reason to adhere to social norms and expectations that come with a wholly romantic relationship, but it would be more intimate - within our own personal boundaries - than a platonic relationship."

"We can do that?" I ask. There's no reason we couldn't, but it was still the first thing to reach my mind. "Of course," Plasma smiles. "Though of course dating doesn't have to adhere to social norms either. Never trust a partner who expects you to change for them in such a way."

"... What kind of things would we do?"

"Whatever you're comfortable with. We can make all the rules."

"I don't even know where we'd begin."

"Well perhaps I can help with that." Plasma takes my hand in his, his thumb lightly grazing over my knuckles.

"Is this okay?"

"Yes?"

He lifts my hand to his lips, pausing before he makes contact, purple eyes looking up at me from behind his lashes.

"Is this okay?"

"... Yes."

He presses a gentle kiss to the back of my hand, then moves closer to me and rests his head on my shoulder.

"Is this okay?"

"Yes."

He wraps an arm around my shoulder.

"Is this okay?"

"Yes."

His arm moves down around my waist.

"Is this okay?"

"Yes."

He sits up properly, turning to face me, cupping my cheek in his hand, so gently, careful not to shift my mask.

"Is this okay?"

"Yes."

He leans in slowly, towards my other cheek.

"Is this okay?"

"... Yes."

He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear before his lips brush against my cheek, lingering just a little longer than necessary. Then his eyes move downwards, the hand cupping my other cheek moving so he can lightly trace my lips through the mask.

"Is this okay?"

"... Not there. I'm not... I don't think I want that."

He nods and pulls away, a small yet almost giddy smile on his face. "Thank you for telling me. It looks like we've established some boundaries already. But you're always welcome to change them if you feel differently in future, all you have to do is say the word."

I nod slowly, finding what just happened leaving me a little flustered. "Thank you..." "Of course," Plasma returns, his voice a mirage of calm betrayed by the earnest sparkle of happiness in his eyes.

"Again, the last thing I want to do is put any pressure on you. I would feel horrible if you made any decisions about this that weren't fully your own. But I also wanted you to know just what I'm asking and that I don't expect anything from you like what you've been lead to believe a romantic relationship would be like."

I do my best to collect my thoughts. Plasma just kissed my cheek. He respected when I said no to anything more intimate than that. But I couldn't do this, right? He's... getting closer to him would mean... no, no, I'm already in a bit too deep for that to work. He's my friend. And he is still a dragon. A dragon already sought after by hunters...

He's like me. The Morphwings are like me. Hidden from the world, a prize for dragon hunters. Just making their way back into the knowledge of the world.

Not getting involved any more than I already am doesn't change that.

So... I have to judge this on the emotional merits, not look for outside reasons to say no...

Plasma shifts a little where he's sat, then rises back to his feet. "It's a bit late. I'll leave you be, I don't want you to feel like I'm expecting an answer right away. I apologise if it feels like I keep pushing."

"It doesn't," I assure him. "I'm... glad we had this talk. Thank you for hearing me out."

"Of course," Plasma nods, a small smile coming to his face. "I'm always happy to, no matter how we feel about one another."

Plasma turns to leave, but by the time his hand reaches the door handle, I stand up.

"Wait."

He pauses and looks to me, purple eyes piercing right through me as if staring into my soul. He has a habit of staring when looking someone in the eye. Or is that just with me?

I take a breath, gathering time to work out how to phrase my next words. "... I... like the sound of what you suggested," I tell him, causing him to blink in surprise. "That relationship between being platonic and romantic. I think I want that with you."

Plasma gapes a little for a moment, purple eyes a little wider than normal. "You... really?" He asks quietly, as if speaking too loud could frighten off my feelings. I nod, then take his hand in mine.

"Is this okay?" I ask him. We both know I mean more than our connected hands.

A smile breaks out on his face, larger than I've ever seen from him, his free hand trembling a little as if he's fighting not to start jumping for joy and has to get the energy out somehow.

"Yes."

(AN: Hey again. Sorry, this is gonna be super long, but I feel this is important to say. There's a TL;DR in the final paragraph if you do wanna skip.

First of all, I wanted to clarify for all of you what's just happened here because, in all honesty, I started writing Indigo at thirteen with the intention of her feeling a certain way, and now at nineteen I think I've discovered I feel the same way. Indigo went from a melodramatic hermit I adored but struggled to write to a character I can use to express the way I feel in writing and find all the right words to something I've never been able to find a label for. So this chapter has been a little personal to me and I want to add a little clarity to what's happened here since the characters don't exactly have the words.

Indigo is aroace. Specifically asexual demiromantic. To anyone who doesn't know what this means, 'aroace' is short for 'asexual aromantic', which mean that you don't feel sexual or romantic attraction respectively. This can be a sexuality on its own, but it's also an umbrella term for other sexualities falling under the aromantic spectrum or the asexual spectrum. 'Demiromantic' is in the aromantic spectrum and means that you can feel romantic attraction, but only once you've formed a close bond - usually friendship - with the person of interest first.

The relationship Indigo and Plasma now have is called a queerplatonic relationship, which is largely used by the aroace community but isn't exclusive to even the LGBT+ community, so anyone can use it even in a completely heterosexual relationship. It's deliberately hard to explain since it's supposed to be the option outside of the options, if that makes sense?

Queerplatonic relationships are somewhere between a platonic and romantic relationship and don't often involve sex but I don't believe that sex can't happen within them? It allows the partners more intimacy than a platonic relationship would normally allow but without certain aspects of a romantic relationship that would conflict with aromantics. It's effectively a 'make your own rules' relationship, in a sense.

If someone can explain it better than this absolutely feel free to and I can edit this explanation if I said anything incorrectly.

Now here's the part where it gets a little personal and not solely book-related, so if you're only here for Indigo-related stuff, feel free to skip from here. I just sort of kept writing and couldn't stop myself.

I'm not demiromantic, I've had the idea of Indigo being asexual demiromantic for a long time now, long before I started questioning my own sexuality. I think even before I came out as bisexual to my family all those years ago.

But over the last... maybe year? I've been considering my own sexuality and whether I could be on the aroace spectrum. And I'll admit, the chapters in which Indigo talks about her own feelings and experiences of love were absolutely me projecting. It felt like, if I put my thoughts into words and shared them as a sexually unlabelled fictional character, I could talk about it safely.

And from there I had some people guessing that, based on these projections, Indigo was asexual or maybe even aroace. And that felt incredibly validating for me, to know that my feelings did line up with that umbrella and I wasn't just thinking about it when I may just experience those feelings later on in life.

But like Indigo, I like being able to put as specific a label on things as possible since I have a hard time identifying feelings and as such it gives me a sense of control over myself to definitively say 'this is what I'm feeling', so I did a lot of research online.

And eventually I found out about not only aegosexuality and aegoromanticism - effectively meaning you like sexual and romantic relationships in theory but not in practice, and may enjoy them in fictional media but wouldn't like it outside of that and don't feel those attractions in real scenarios - but also about alterous attraction, which is effectively the attraction variant of queerplatonic relationships; it exists somewhere between romantic and platonic attraction and is deliberately hard to define due to the nature of the attraction.

I think that, since I lacked the knowledge of 'alterous attraction' when I was younger, I assumed I was bisexual, though I don't think I am anymore. I've been trying out these new labels for myself and I thin they're right for me.

Outside of my sisters, you guys are the first people I've told about this; I'm aegosexual, aegoromantic and bialterous, though I may simply refer to myself as aroace or bi to avoid having to explain in specifics and explain what it all means again. It won't be incorrect, just not as specific.

I wanted to tell you guys here first because, through Indigo, you guys have really helped me to feel validated in my confusion and helped me to find these sexualities and come to the realisation that this is accurate to me. I'm sitting here typing this with a big dumb grin on my face because this is the first time I've said it without hedging it with 'I might be'. I said 'I am' for the first time, and it feels more natural than it ever has. And I think I'd still be wondering if it wasn't for everyone here hearing me out, sharing their thoughts and making me feel so safe to express my feelings. I love all of you so, so much. Thank you <3

Right, I've made this far too long, haha! Thanks for sticking around for all that if you did, and no worries if you didn't.

So TL;DR on the important stuff; Indigo is asexual demiromantic and she and Plasma are now in a queerplatonic relationship. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, have a lovely day!)