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There were a lot of thoughts swirling around in Naga's head. They had just returned from a mission. Said mission had been quite simple, but there was something about where they had been that had struck Naga and left him unable to stop thinking.
It was late now. Everyone was in their rooms or at least was supposed to be. Naga laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to sleep. His mind was refusing to stop thinking. No matter what he tried to do it just kept going.
It was starting to get quite annoying. All he wanted was to sleep. Was that too much to ask for?
Naga let out a sigh as the clock hit the next hour. This was getting him nowhere. He needed to do something about this. But what even was there to do? It was late.
He slowly got out of the bed and made his way into the hall. He had one person in mind that maybe might be able to help him. They should at least still be awake if nothing else.
Naga made his way down the halls of the ship, careful to not make any noise. He didn't need to draw any extra attention to himself.
He soon came to a stop in front of another door. After a moment of preparing himself, Naga knocked on the door. He waited anxiously to see if the inhabitant was going to answer.
What would he do if there was no answer? Try to find someone else? Just go back to his room and accept his fate?
The door opened. Stinger now stood before him, eyeing him up.
"Why are you up?" Stinger questioned.
"I can't sleep. My mind won't shut up." Naga replied. "Can I come in?"
"I guess." Stinger stepped back and allowed Naga inside.
The door closed behind him. Stinger sat down on his bed and continued to look Naga over.
"Why did you come here?" Stinger asked.
"I was hoping you might be able to help me get these thoughts to stop." Naga explained.
"How do you expect me to do that?"
"Just help me figure out something."
Stinger sighed. "Fine... come sit then."
He patted the spot next to him. After a moment, Naga moved to join him. They sat in silence for a while. Naga wasn't sure what to say first. It was clear Stinger wasn't exactly pleased to be doing this right now. He didn't want to make him regret this choice even more.
"You going to say something?" Stinger broke the silence.
Naga glanced over at Stinger and then brought his gaze back to the floor. "I... when we went to that planet. They have a lot of identities. Not just male and female."
"What about it?"
"I... have been wondering if maybe I can be something other than male."
There was silence from Stinger for too long of a time. Naga finally convinced himself to look over at him. Stinger seemed lost in thought. At least it wasn't that he was taking the news badly. That was a start.
"You think you might consider yourself something other than male?" Stinger said, looking over at Naga.
Naga nodded. "I can't stop thinking about it. Ever since leaving my home, there's always been this weird feeling. I think maybe... maybe it has something to do with this."
"Then... if you aren't a male, what are you?"
"I don't know."
"What do you feel when you think about your gender then?"
Naga thought for a while. What did he feel like? How did one feel their gender? Was it like an emotion? He couldn't feel that very well.
"I... don't know. I can't say I feel much about a gender." Naga said. That was the best he could come up with.
"I see. Well, maybe tomorrow you should look up other cultures and stuff and see maybe how they do this stuff? Maybe one of those will stick out to you?" Stinger suggested. "I don't know what else to do to help you with this."
"Will you help me look at them?" Naga requested. "I don't know where I would look."
"I guess I can try. I don't know that I know where to look either." Stinger replied. "Are you good now?"
"For now. Maybe that'll stop my thoughts for a bit."
"You going back to your room then?"
"Probably. Sorry for disturbing you." Naga apologized.
"It's fine." Stinger shrugged it off.
Naga awkwardly made his way out of the room. He went back to his and laid down. He let out a sigh and tried to sleep once more.
Please just let him sleep for now...
...
When morning came, Naga eventually was able to drag Stinger to the library and they began searching for what they could find. Neither had much of a clue for what to look for and they didn't really want to involve anyone else.
"There's a lot here from Earth." Naga stated as he pushed a book toward Stinger. "Look."
Stinger glanced over the book. "Yeah. There are a lot. Do you think any of them might be something like what you are?"
"I don't know."
"Look them over and see."
Naga nodded and searched over the list in front of him. He read over the terms multiple times, trying to figure out if any of them felt like they matched him. Did any stand out to him?
Stinger sat there silently and watched him. Naga felt a little awkward at the audience, but tried not to think about it too much. He had asked him to be here. Why was he embarrassed about his presence now?
Naga pushed the bool back over to Stinger and pointed at one of the entries. "I think maybe this sounds like me."
Stinger looked. "Nonbinary?"
"It sounds similar. I feel a gender but it's not male or female." Naga said.
"If you want to call yourself that, I don't see why you can't."
"Should I... tell everyone?"
"Only if you want to. I don't think it's a dire situation to come out to anyone with this information."
"I... yeah. I think I need more time to think about it. Make sure it feels like it is me." Naga said.
Stinger nodded to him. "Very well. Are we good then?"
"I think so. Thanks for the help. Sorry for bothering you with all of this. I got nervous to tell Balance about it." Naga said.
"It's fine. It wasn't that bad." Stinger shrugged. "Best of luck with whatever this is."
"Thanks."