When they get back to the hotel room: "You realize you're attracted to her, right?"

"..............................I had not, actually. Fuck."

"I thought you only liked men."

"So did I!"

"That's sort of impressive. You suddenly become attracted to women and it's still a relationship you really shouldn't have."

Mordred is making such a face. "I --" want the world to be different such that Inaaya can be okay and in a place where she can be brilliant and curious and happy and safe and free -- "hate this."

"Are you going to do something about it?"

"Like what?"

"Fuck her."

"Oh." He had kind of assumed Lev meant 'are you going to do something about how inconvenient your feelings are,' which now that he considers it is a very silly thing to have assumed. "I mean maybe?"'

"God. Zoe's going to kill me."

"Ramon was great at first too."

"I have you to be a reality check? I do still want to spend time with her -- not even just because I want to sleep with her, she's fun to talk to and I am learning useful things from it and I --"

And I want her to be okay.

"I don't think you would want to sleep with her if she wasn't fun to talk to and you weren't learning useful things."

"Man. You didn't even need therapy."

"I still do like men. I have not mysteriously turned normal in the last three hours."

"Oh, good. But Dr. Keaton would have definitely declared it a success if I had liked girls and men." He shrugs. "Maybe he should have tried introducing me to more cultists."

"I think just because I turned out to like weird curious people who like learning first, and men second, doesn't mean you would."

"Maybe. Hold me?"

"Yeah." He does.

Inaaya is SO happy when she comes home from talking to James.

Joan is... glad she's happy, provisionally.

"How'd it go?"

"Great! He told me all about the evolution of English and this person called William Shakespeare who is apparently a very good writer."

They're alone; there is no one but Inaaya to see the way that makes her smile. "And--?"

"He's weirdly sweet."

"None of the--" She gestures.

That's unexpected, and so it's concerning. You don't work for Walker if you're sweet. "Hm."

"I like him."

(There are quite a lot of things she's not saying, because they would worry Joan.)