Coming to terms with your sexuality had been as difficult as downing a bloater. Being a person of color, your parents were strict on their religion and expected you to be too, which led to tons of internalization. It was the girls in class that you wanted to hold hands with, to marry. You tried telling your mother this, once, but it'd ended in disaster. So, you hid. Along came Ellie some years later, and you were smitten instantly. It took years just for a drunken confession, and that was how it started. Problem is; you're terrified. You refuse to hold Ellie’s hand in public. You're reluctant to even introduce her to your parents even just as friends… Even now, on patrol, you refused to go near her until you were all the way up the mountain… And Ellie was getting tired of it.