Mild disbelief.

“I don’t exactly do it to validate someone’s self-confidence,” Dago said looking at Zed with a curious expression.

In that way, he couldn’t bring himself to be dishonest. There were several ways for him to lie and bypass the truth in other ventures, but feigning attraction to someone was simply something he couldn’t muster. Not to say that he wasn’t attracted to Zed, but if he honestly thought that hitting on Zed wouldn’t get anywhere, which he did, he wouldn’t do it simply because Zed wanted a self-esteem boost. That wasn’t fair to Dago, above all.

“That’s not what I mean, I mean… well,” Zed said, suddenly turning about as red as a tomato.

Huh, thought Dago. Apparently he wasn’t entirely correct when he thought hitting on Zed wouldn’t go anywhere. He let Zed suffer in silence for a moment. He looked at Dago with a pained expression.

“It’s because I’m not sexy or hot, isn’t it?” Zed said hopelessly.

“Oh please, I just thought it’d be a waste of my time,” Dago said with an eye roll.

“Well, I’m sorry, you’re kind of intimidating!” Zed squeaked, crossing his arms. He was trying to appear more confident than he was.

Dago took a moment to consider how to approach this. Zed was not-saying, but implying that he was actually attracted and wanted to be hit on. Interesting development, he thought. Dago was so silent for such a long time, that Zed dropped his arms to his side.

“Are you sure about that?” Dago asked slowly. Zed nodded emphatically, only have sure what he was agreeing to.

Dago leaned forward and stared at Zed in the face. Zed had managed to keep himself from flinching, but he snapped his eyes shut. Dago could tell he was being honest, but was nervous.

“Fine, your room or my place?” Dago asked.