Hallo, Aro: Allosexual Aro Flash Fiction
(As this project now encompasses twenty stories, I thought I'd celebrate with a master post.)
Is it "aay-romantic" or "arrow-mantic"? What if she hears "Iām a romantic" instead of "Iām aromantic"? What if she says "isnāt that just friendship" or "that canāt be real" or, worst of all, "Iām looking for something more"?
Hallo, Aro is a series of flash fiction stories about allosexual aromantic characters navigating friendship, sexual attraction, aromanticism and the weight of amatonormative expectation.
Contains: Dragons, a duchess's daughter, an autistic who collects pride merch, odd voyages into creative non-fiction, werewolves and gods, hunters of witches and the fae, the power in aromantic discovery, and lots of allo-aro feels and experiences.
Plus many trans, multisexual and sapphic aros!
How do you tell the person you like about the relationship you want when it requires a language nobody speaks?
You leave a trail of people behind you, the cruel and curious and stubborn, until you find someone who understands the word aromantic.
All Eliza wants is to partner a dragonās handmaiden without risking romantic complicationsābut her dragon has something just as valuable to offer.
The only way Piper can survive his workplace's fumbling attempts at aro acceptance is to make a game of it.
Eliza canāt help fearing that her interest in another girl is best explained by a word she doesnāt wish applied to her: romance.
How do you come to terms with your path through life when nobody said the word that describes you?
What does aromanticism mean to an autistic who cannot distinguish it from alloromanticism?
When Paide ein Iteme says the words āI donāt loveā, he doesnāt just refer to romantic relationships.
You submit, obediently, to their chains and collars ⦠until you start to wonder what it is about your beastās nature that requires the loving to demand such restrictions.
When aromantics speak of the social pressures that weight our existence, sex negativity seldom comes first to mind.
Even in a city wrought to display our proud green, many things are shaded purple.
Spending Midsummer night with a pretty man shouldnāt be a problem for Suki ⦠except for everybody elseās romantic expectations.
When people ask about your love life, it demonstrates their acceptance of your queerness. What does it mean, as an aromantic, when they show no interest at all?
Cai likes women, casual sex and an absence of long-term relationships. None which would be a problem if said women didnāt see this as proof of his becoming the enemy...
The forest road promises you the chance of a world beyond marriageās expectation ⦠but the witch waiting by the roadside offers up queerer, stranger proofs of validity.
The Citadel assumes that Prudence obediently searches for the sorcerer potentateās missing twin ⦠but she has her own reasons to hunt the Ringās witches.
When fog creeps and moon fades, the desperate seek out gods few dare name ⦠but even gods struggle to witness the cruel consequences of their peopleās amatonormativity.
Stories speak of heroesā sexual escapades on the night before they risk their lives, but Darius doesnāt dread death as much as he does the complications of surviving to see the day after tomorrow.
When a needlewoman agrees to run away with her fae lover, their fairy-tale ending has little to do with happily-ever-after.
Helping Sala choose an outfit to attract men's attention seems an exercise in absurdity. Yet when Sala asks Daisy about her romantic dreams, the answer just might change her future.