For Shannon, it was a matter of his life, which he tended to keep in carefully organized mental boxes to lessen the strain on his wildfire thoughts, suddenly not having anywhere to belong. Discovery of his nature as an Aspect had been the start of it, but now that he was together with Eli, it had all cinched out of place and he wasn't really sure what to do with all these things that no longer had a proper spot. Being with Eli was great and he wouldn't give it up, but the fact of the matter was that Shannon was not gay and appreciating the male body of his partner was not something to which he was naturally-inclined. It said a lot that he was willing to work outside of his arranged pile of conceptions about the world to enter the relationship with Eli in the first place. It said even more that he had been the one to initiate it once he realized that it didn't feel wrong, just outside his regular means. He worried that Eli would get frustrated with his adjustment period, having gone on excruciatingly long already, although that worry didn't often make it to the surface to remind Eli that this was work and not an automatic click. It wasn't fair to Eli at all and Shannon was quite aware of the imbalance.

Well, usually speaking, anyway. Right now he simply knew that this was something he wanted, something he appreciated, and even the snow globe that was his mind was glad that they continued to jump hurdle after hurdle to remain together. "You're perfect," he murmured. "You're so perfect. Can we stay like this? Here? Nothing else. Just us."