"I suppose it would be," Ibani replies, her tone warm and humorous. "I spent my childhood cold and mostly in the dark or artificial light, to give you some context on the compliment."

Would it be so bad, to be wanted like that, Ben? That it ended badly twice is no guarantee of future disaster, especially since the contexts have radically changed!

Ibani's stress flows away from her, revealing an undercurrent of pain. As close as he is, as good as he is with living things and with her defenses down, he might notice that not all the pain is proper physical pain. Her system is flush with life energy, flush nearly to bursting and straining to contain it within her flesh.