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Gwen Poole is hanging out Krakoa, as she often does now. She's a mutant (now) so she can. It's nice. Krakoa is beautiful, and it allows editorial to give her cameos in X Men events. Jeff the land shark is also living with her again, now that her place in the Marvel universe is a bit more stable. She even had an Internet event comic! Which made her realize she's aroace. Which is great, and she really needed that. It makes sense, when she thinks back on her life in the real world (to her, it is still the real world) and most of her actions within this one. She knows some of her actions were wrong and she needs to apologize to people. Starting with Quentin Quire.
Even though they're both on Krakoa, they have managed to mostly avoid each other since she first got the OK to arrive on there. She hugged him then, and he seemed to be fine with her. But there are still things they need to sort out. The odds of them running into each other is high, and editorial might want to do something with them again someday.
Gwen hasn't texted Quentin since she broke up with him by text. Seeing that break up text makes her feel weird. She was in an (literal) existential crisis situation when she send it. She never really flashbacked to make it better either. Breaking up with Quentin was the right thing, she knows it now, but she did it the wrong way.
*Gwen: Hi, Quentin. Wanna talk?
She puts away her phone, not knowing how long she might need to wait for his answer.
'Hi, Quentin. Nice to see you. Bee-thee-dubs, I'm aroace?' Maybe fingerguns?' Gwen practice out loud what to say to him when they talk. She probably won't be as blunt as that.
*ding* *Quentin: Sure. Are you in Krakoa?
*Gwen: Yeah.
*Quentin: OK.
And suddenly, he's here.
"Hi." Gwen is rarely speechless but now she's not quite sure what to say. Her ADHD brain is trying to put her words in order. Quentin reacted well to her being Krakoa the first time, and he came to see her so quickly. But even though realizing she's aroace is very freeing, she is still rusty about saying it out loud. Is Quentin as good about it as Julie was?
Gwen has just been staring at Quentin after that one word, but he hasn't said anything back yet. He comes to sit next to her on the rock, and Gwen's not sure how she feels about that closeness. "Hi," Quentin finally says. He's also uncharacteristically quiet.
"I'm so sorry I broke up with you by text!!!!" Gwen blurts out after the silence continues.
"Thank you for apologizing," Quentin says. "It did hurt, and kinda came out of left field. But I think I get it."
"Probably not all of it," Gwen says quietly.
"I guess you're ready to talk about it?"
"I guess I am." But is she? She starts with the easier bit. "I wasn't, or I didn't know if I was, a mutant when we dated. I find out right before I came to Krakoa the first time. When I had my fight club, I didn't know. I didn't lie to you about that."
"OK," Quentin says thoughtfully. "I'm not surprised about either part. You clearly had some power but you were convincing in your denial. It makes sense."
Quentin's words are kind. When he didn't annoy the shit out of me, as a roommate, as a boyfriend, he could be kind. She can do this.
”There's something else I didn't know when I was dating you…” Come on, Gwen, you can do this. Do it! Quentin lets her keep her silence until she's ready. ”I'm asexual and aromantic. Aroace.”
Quentin takes a moment to gather his thoughts. ”That explains a lot.”
Gwen lets out a breathy laugh, ”It does, doesn't it. I'm sorry I hurt you, though.”
”Look, Krakoa isn't that big. I heard about your love triangle with Kevin and Josh. Was that about this too?”
Gwen cringes. Two more people she should apologize to. ”Yeah. I was trying to stay relevant--”
”By having a love story. I remember.”
More cringing from Gwen. The amatonormativity (what a fancy word! She's learning so much as an aroace) was really strong in her in the past.
”Yeah. And I also found Whither's power interesting, and romantic and appealing. Now that I say that, it makes even more sense.”
”So, you and Julie Power?” Quentin then asks, and while hurts, it doesn't hurt as much as it should.
”We dated, and it was good a lot of the time but… She helped me realize I'm aroace, and we're not compatible because of that. I don't know if I want a romantic relationship ever, but I don't want one right now. I'm happy with my life with Jeff.”
”How is he?” Quentin smiles at the mention of the land shark.
”He's a handful. He climbed into the dishwasher the other day. Tried to attack a balloon at the Macy's parade. He's lucky he's adorable.”
Quentin smiles. ”So… what about us? Not saying I want to get back together, but...”
”I get it,” Gwen says, and then thinks about what how she should say. ”You were basically my age, you were nice sometimes, and when you weren't, well, I've been taught that all tension is sexual. It felt like it made sense, and sometimes it did. You didn't do anything wrong. Well, you handled the towels wrong, but you weren't wrong to date me.”
Quentin nods. ”I'm glad you contacted me. I felt bad about how everything panned out.”
”Me too.”
”I'm not sorry livestreaming you being chased the Hulk, though.”
”Absolutely fair.”
Quentin holds out his fist, ”Hopefully we'll bump into each other more. I'd like to be friends.”
Gwen finishes the fistbump, ”Me too.”