"Considering that doing exactly that got Chen to realize that actually loving me and Kaleva was fine, no, you are not going to be able to convince me that body language doesn't count. Also you specifically said that you did want to, and also also we are not in fact having sex right now, because turns out you didn't actually want it with me." 

"It's a bad idea for several reasons, because I might have an STD, and because you are sixteen, and because while I am definitely attracted to you it would be really really hard to sleep with someone who looks and moves exactly like the guy I'm in love with and can't fuck without, you know."

"Yeah. And —" he makes a vague, frustrated gesture at the ceiling — "If what you'd said was 'you look exactly like someone I'm in love with but can't sleep with,' or 'I might have an STD,' I would not have kissed you? But I kept asking questions to see if you had anything other than 'feels like he shouldn't for nebulous reasons' and getting more nebulous reasons and — if someone wants it but feels like they shouldn't want it for nebulous reasons then that's not not wanting it, that's just — Chen being fucked up by morality and thinking it's only okay if he claims not to want it." Another frustrated gesture. "Why are words so hard." 

"My Sasha gets it."

"Well, mine doesn't." 

"Sorry. I-- have an important thing I want to communicate to you and I don't know how and also I'm still really horny and probably not the best at thinking."

"That's fair," he says, and doesn't pull away. 

Snuggles are nice.

"It's not like it's a secret that Sashas are pretty amoral, it's just."

"Just that I go around talking about how good people are mostly awful and morality is stupid and fake?" 

"Yeah, and my Sasha dresses up in spandex to save the world, it's-- a different thing. And my Sasha's thing works better with the person that I am."

"Yeah." Snuggles are nice. "I just — I meant it, you know? Chen would probably still be going around thinking he doesn't deserve to be loved like that means anything if I had decided words were what counted." 

"I wouldn't be surprised if sometimes it works out okay, I just-- it's a really risky thing to do because sometimes when people say 'no' and you ignore them it's really terrifying even if they want to have sex with you otherwise, because-- it's good for people to be able to make their own choices about their bodies even if Marlos will persistently make choices that are really dumb, and if you take away people's ability to go 'no, don't touch me' sometimes it will really fuck them up."

"Yeah. And — I don't have sex with people who arent enjoying it or don't want it, if you hadn't kissed me back I would have stopped, or even people who have a 'should' that makes sense, it's just — it's like, 'water is wet, and therefore we can't have sex,' and when I ask if they want to they say yes they want to but they can't because water is wet, and I can see that they want to, they just think water being wet matters for some reason, and it is not as obvious as you seem to think it is that water being wet does in fact matter?" 

Blink blink. 

"On this earth people have sex that doesn't have a meaningful power dynamic in it all the time."

"....are you..... sure. Because that's another thing Auradonians say that it sure seems like they're wrong about." 

"I don't really have any power dynamic with Z other than, like, consensual stuff we do for kink reasons?" 

"...I guess I don't technically have to have a real gang structure, it's not like me leading keeps us safer than just all of us being friends, but — people in Real True One True Love marriages aren't supposed to have a power thing but even then I get the impression they usually do —" 

"I mean, you can't ever have zero power things, I'm a billionaire and none of my friends are billionaires, if I dated a woman I'd have power over her because of the patriarchy. But in our culture the difference between someone under eighteen and someone over eighteen is actually really big."

"I'm still pretty sure it is not bigger than the difference between me and my gang leader. Or — I could say something about the gang I'm in now but the power thing is weird there —" 

"I'm probably also against the existence of gangs."

"You'd better not be, the alternative is getting beaten up and having all your stuff stolen all the time and also being half-starved." 

"I am against the situation that lead gangs to be your best option, not against creating them once you're already on Garbage Island."

"Significantly more legit." 

Asher holds him.

He's held.