RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist#PennedPossibilities 1045 — When was a time that your MC had to say no but wanted to say yes?
Lightning Bolt, the MC, and Shugh (short for Steamed Milk and Sugar), the reporter, are the source of unresolved sexual tension in the novel, not planned when I started writing, but the characters insisted. In a society like theirs, Shugh the closest to trans as you can get. He has always thought of himself a female, acting and associating with the girls when a boy and with women at university and after—but he's attracted to women. His life has been… interesting. Being accepted amongst his peers (i.e. other women) has been challenging due to societal issues that are completely different from what trans people deal with in our world.
Bolt simply has a masculine attitude, ought to be perceived by the reader as a tomboy, hung with the boys growing up, and competed against them athletically—but revels in being female. At one point, she talks about her high school Flight and Field team (all male) as her "string of ponies," none of whom disliked being ridden. Unlike Shugh, Bolt doesn't think of herself as a man who's attracted to men. She's who she is, and doesn't care squat what others think.
Yet, Shugh and her resonate with the discrimination they've faced; they deviate from typical gender roles. Fact is, the more often they meet and work together, the more they resonate.
However, she's a day angel; she has beautiful wings, blue and shaped (and patterned) like an owl's. He's a saint; he has no wings. To Bolt, raised amongst the featherfolk and new to living in a diverse city, she can't help but see his lack as an amputation. At the beginning, anyway. He also has a roommate—a night angel she now knows and works with in her side gig—and Shugh and the woman have a relationship. An open relationship. It's the rule in their society not the exception, but Bolt sees it as them being close, thus her ethics interfere with her desires.
I've already written a scene where Bolt says no, but for the situation would have said YES. In the same scene, however, he guesses her profession, close yet incorrectly. Added to the mitigating factors above, she flies away. She really likes his feminine side. She finds it attractive. In this one scene, he looked and acted sexy to boot. Her perception, anyway.
Not sure if they'll hook up eventually, or he'll turn out to be the novel's fourth antagonist. Shugh is a reporter and Bolt's day job is a reluctant courier for the mob. When he figures out her mystery, what will he do? Even I don't know!
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
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