loop invariant

"Shulk, do you fancy anyone?"

"Me? Ah...not really."

And he meant it, too. No hedging. Only an automatic scratch of hand at nape, not an embarrassed one.

Oh well. It was a petty enough question, and though Sharla knew she asked it in good faith, she always felt the slightest twinge of guilt immediately following, because what if Shulk did fancy someone? What business was it of hers? The blithe conspiratorial, preying upon a smirk or a gasp or a sigh of sudden relief...

Or maybe she was just disappointed that that was the answer she had gotten. No use quibbling about it now.

Just as Sharla prepared herself to reply, "That's alright. Sorry to press you," Shulk continued, "But if I did, man, it's tough to choose between your two best friends, isn't it?"

Oh?

"You've got two girl best friends? You're all set!"

Cripes. What on Bionis had she meant by that?

"No, no." Shulk laughed. "Reyn and Fiora!"

"Oh, you're bisexual, then?" Sharla reminded herself that assuming Shulk was gay really wouldn't have been any better than assuming he was straight.

"Well, no, I've never really thought about it that way. More like, if either of them asked me on a date, how could I choose which?"

He was surely getting a little dreamy-eyed, but then he always looked like that around Reyn. And to consider the way he spoke of this Fiora, it checked out.

"You're thinking of...oh, never mind. Yes, how indeed?"

"Aren't you?"

Sharla blinked.

"Bisexual, I mean."

"I...happen to be, but it was nothing my parents ever encouraged."

"Encouraged?"

Sharla began to see that Shulk really did just perceive a lack of preference toward either men or women as the natural state of a Homs. Freeing, that. He had a perfectly divine innocence about the whole awkward thing.

"Colony's future top medic was always meant to marry a top soldier. That's how it went. No dating, no fooling around."

"I didn't have parents," Shulk remarked, now himself blithe. "Just Dickson."

"I...suppose that explains it."