fast forward a couple months to some big ballet performance in new york that she’s flying all her friends out for and she has to explain the whole “i’ve told everyone im dating you so they won’t ask questions” thing to gio and gio (who has been handling a crush on her for a while now) has to be like “that sounds great and not at all like a nightmare for me, The Fumbler” and also sparrow and bayani are standing here like “wow these people are idiots /affectionate”

anyway the week of them all hanging out and doing events or something goes by and gio’s having A Time and val is having a very different time (my oblivious dumbass) and she goes to sparrow and is like “it’s so weird i’m feeling like things towards gio but not the same stuff as what i feel for lyra but definitely the same intensity and im not sure what’s going on” and sparrows like “oh yeah you’ve got a crush on him we’ve known this for months” and val’s like “but that’s cheating??? on my beautiful wife???? i can’t do that?????” and sparrows like “sighhhhh so you know how me and bayani are dating but also sol is dating micha and i’ve got my thing with angel? it’s called polyamory. you can just do that. date multiple people.” and val’s like “woahh i didn’t know i could do that too! wow that’s crazy.” and sparrows like “hey you could try it with me if you wanna test it out and see if it’s right for you?” and val’s like “oh no you don’t have to do that ^-^” because, again, she’s an oblivious mother fucker