In the body sitting next to Fift, Shria looked heartbroken. Ve stared down at vir hands, folded in vir lap. In vir standing body, ve looked angry, vir eyes flashing beneath vir red eyebrows, and then ve turned away, controlling vemself.

“Whatever,” ve said, in vir standing body. “Anyway, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

“It’s”—Fift cleared zir throat—“not? What do you mean?”

Shria shrugged. “I mean, it’s fun. Sex is fun, if you—if you’re not scared or upset or thinking about the wrong thing, if you can focus on what you’re doing. I mean, I wouldn’t be a genital designer if I didn’t . . . you know . . .” Ve paused, and frowned, and began again. “So, Vails my age, the sex is supposed to be, like, this sudden explosion, like more of the same energy and wildness as the fighting, right?”

In vir standing body, ve darted a glance at Fift. Ze nodded.

“You do it,” ve said, “and then either you laugh about it, or you get pissed off and fight about it, or you cry. Whatever. Release. But if you get too attached to one person—if you get, like, caught and carried along in their wake . . .” Ve looked away again, vir expression obscure, like the clouded sky they’d seen years ago, up on the surface of the world. “And you want vem, and not just it . . . then you get made fun of. Because that’s staidish, right? Mooning after someone, longing for their love . . . it’s ridiculous. Sometimes I wish I was a Staid.”

“You do?”

Shria shrugged. “Yes. No. I don’t know. Maybe that wouldn’t be any better. I just want . . . I just want it all, you know? Instead of feeling like half of life is cut off by this wall of what’s not allowed.” Ve shrugged. “It’s a stupid way to even think. It’s dangerous.”

“It doesn’t sound . . .” Fift said. “It doesn’t sound stupid . . .”

“It is. You can’t fight ratings,” Shria said. The jaw of vir sitting body clenched tight. In vir standing body, ve said, “My parents found that out the hard way.”

Vir shoulder was a fingerbreadth from Fift’s. Ze could put zir arm around vir broad, powerful back. Ze’d done it any number of times; why was ze afraid to now? What would it be like, ze wondered, if they were a hundred years older, if their Courting Century had begun? Then there wouldn’t be anything wrong with Fift having the thoughts ze was having now. Even then, Staids were supposed to be shy, to care about the emotional connection and not the physical . . . but you could see plenty of grown-up Staids and Vails kissing, and Fift had lingered at times, careful to just seem to stumble on them in the background of something else ze was looking for . . .

“What . . . person?” Fift said.