Neverwinter Forest i really miss those days.

HUA COMING OUT DAY WOOO

Obvious? 

She shook her head fiercely and frowned silently, unable to clear the mix of hope and hurt from her gaze. 

His immediate response to her question wasn't exactly perfect. In an ideal world, he'd drop to a wolf knee or whatever wolves would do right then and there, pull out a ring made of twigs and dirt, and propose that they spend the rest of their lives together and grow old. And she'd fall into his arms and they'd be planning their beach wedding soon enough. 

Instead he told her to hold on, and whatever piercing he felt in his heart was felt in hers tenfold. If he really wanted her, why would he tell her to wait? How complicated did it have to be? These were the worries that filled Huā's mind, and as he spoke she felt she was holding her breath, somehow expecting at each point that he would tell her some reason they couldn't be together and end their complex relationship for good.

When some people dream of their future mate, I guess mine was a group where all loved each other, happy together.

A... group?

Back home, a honorable man with high status might have three or four wives- well, in those cases, it was a primary wife and concubines- she didn't want to be a second choice. She didn't want to be the mistress who bore his children and didn't recieve the most of his love. And of course that wasn't what Mal was saying- and she was trying her best to understand, but she already had these preconceived ideas. 

He mentioned his father, but didn't seem particularly overjoyed about that part- not that any of this really came off as ecstatic. 

At the last bit, she was nearly ready to call him selfish, but his clarification helped greatly. Her eyes widened when he suggested that she could have a wife- or two husbands- or anything like that. The way she'd been raised, women weren't the ones who got to have multiple spouses. And women! Huā had always secretly liked them, of course, but it had always been hidden from everyone except pretty strangers upon the beach; she-wolves she was sure she would likely not meet again. 

He finished speaking. 

Huāzhēn was quiet for a long moment. 

He'd already suggested it, but she needed to tell him anyways. Maybe it wasn't a big deal to him, but it sure was to her-

Mal, She croaked, and cleared her throat. I never told anyone this- not even Ying, or Mei, or Aiolos or anyone. But- well, maybe it is normal to you, it seems more often here- but, at home it is not really... we do not talk about this, it is like a, something we can not talk about- but, always I have liked women. Liked, in the way of romance, She breathed, and gulped, And wished to make love. And... I... Miriam, I met her. She was a beautiful woman. I think, a lady like that... I would not mind to have as a wife. I would want it, want her. She declared, voice steadier as she continued. Although...

I do not want to be your... your womb to expand your bloodline, or a body to plant your seed, or anything like this. I want to be your loved wife. Equal to all your other women. Mal was already proposing that, she supposed, but she wanted to be sure they were on the same page. She gulped to imagine becoming to him what she had once been for strangers- only a body- and though in that case she had not walked willingly into it, as she might now, she did not ever wish to be in that position again. 

He'd asked if she'd be interested in a dream like that. 

I would want to meet the other women, She decided, And see, if I could grow to love them, and them to love me. If we... if we do this, I do not want a wife who will fight me for your love always. I want all of us to be in love. She looked hopefully up into his eyes. What if I do not like your other women? Will you pick them over me? Her gaze fell awkwardly.

At a different time, she might've worried over how to break the concept of this unconventional type of marriage to her children and pack. For now, those thoughts did not brush her mind at all.