And your first-meeting pair had the extra disadvantage of the Nice Girls Don't Admit To The Hots societal expectation, too! Man, hurt/comfort is a GREAT way of sneaking around that. It's how Sage and Hearts worked the Redcoat.
At least with a pairing of adult men, while they may have to be circumspect about expressing attraction, it's at least understood that attraction is a thing that they're allowed to feel. Maybe not for each other... but you and I write characters who've come to terms with themselves on that score. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of watching characters angst over their first same-sex attraction and how it makes them wicked, terrible people. I want ones who are either already over that, or so self-confident or just so oddly socialized that their reaction is "society has got it all wrong, because this? feels right." Self-confident: Rockingham. Insufficiently socialized: MARCUS. Marcus is just bad at PEOPLE, and more comfortable with logic, and he can't logically reconcile his own surprising emotions with society's stance on them, so he's going with "society is illogical and I'll just be sure not to make anyone notice anything to object to." Because the other choice is believing that not only is he a bad person, but his dearest friend is a bad person too, and THAT is not a possibility he can accept. The dear.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-07-24 07:47 pm (UTC)At least with a pairing of adult men, while they may have to be circumspect about expressing attraction, it's at least understood that attraction is a thing that they're allowed to feel. Maybe not for each other... but you and I write characters who've come to terms with themselves on that score. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of watching characters angst over their first same-sex attraction and how it makes them wicked, terrible people. I want ones who are either already over that, or so self-confident or just so oddly socialized that their reaction is "society has got it all wrong, because this? feels right." Self-confident: Rockingham. Insufficiently socialized: MARCUS. Marcus is just bad at PEOPLE, and more comfortable with logic, and he can't logically reconcile his own surprising emotions with society's stance on them, so he's going with "society is illogical and I'll just be sure not to make anyone notice anything to object to." Because the other choice is believing that not only is he a bad person, but his dearest friend is a bad person too, and THAT is not a possibility he can accept. The dear.