Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sasha didn't want to make this awkward, but at the moment it felt like things were out of her hands, slipping away faster and faster.

"I don't.. I don't hate you, Rin, I just."

She cleared her throat, loudly.

"I just.. you know, I care about Jerry. He's.. really important to me, and I ... I could never do anything to hurt him, and.. I care about you but.. they aren't the same kind of feelings, they're really, really different."

Color was high on her cheeks, but she forced herself to continue despite the feelings of mortification that throbbed in her chest.

"I just.. It's.. it's confusing, and simple - all at the same time, you know?"

Sasha was quiet for a long time, staring pensively at the rag she clutched in her hands. She'd always thought about having a normal, boring life with a normal, boring husband. They'd live on a normal, boring plot of land. Her husband would raise normal, boring crops. She'd cook normal, boring dinners and someday they'd have a family.

And then her papa had died. She'd come to the island. Sasha bid farewell to any semblance of normalcy when she'd been recruited. She went from having no one - having nothing - to recently discovering that she did have family out there somewhere. She had people here who cared about her. People that she cared about, too.

There might have been a time in Sasha's life where just thinking about kissing a woman would have been out of the question. That a man touching her body in ways that Jerry had - as innocent as those touches were - would have been grounds for a complete and utter mental breakdown.

Sasha would be lying if she said this situation wasn't awkward. It was. It was very, very awkward. But there was something liberating in it, too. The island wasn't the 'real world' and to treat it like it was would be a huge mistake - a lesson that Sasha was slowly coming to realize.

"It's hard to say, Bean." She smiled softly when she finally spoke.

"And of course we can still play cards. I.. you're still my friend."

When Rin smiled, Sasha beamed.

"Rin, let me tell you. I am," she tossed the rag on the counter top, "frickin' famished."

These things would just.. have to resolve themselves naturally. Moving forward, Sasha looped her arm through Rin's.

"Lets get some food? And then we can.. well, I guess we can keep cleaning."

As Sasha smiled at Rin's enthusiasm, her thoughts were racing.

She wondered what Jerry would have to say about it.

She wondered if she should even tell him.

She wondered, briefly, what it would be like to kiss Rin. That singular thought had her cheeks flushing with red, and she quickly banished it.

For now.

"I love sandwiches," Sasha laughed softly as they left the labs, smiling at Rin.