"Sure," she agrees, looking at him with concern. She's not entirely sure what's going on or why he's apparently shut down, but she can offer some extra comfort by... uh. Holding his hand? That's comforting, right?

Doing that while sitting down is tricky, but maybe he'll cooperate with it so they don't have to stop.

When she sits down, he curls up next to her and rests his head on her knee.

He can have more hairpets. So many. Pet, pet, pet, such a soft pettable dragon.

Yes. He is so pettable and so soft.

He is! And this princess will take advantage.

She's a little bit concerned for him, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that he hasn't had much human contact outside of raping maidens. She'll just. Keep on petting him, yep, that seems like the thing to do. Pet pet pet.

He nestles next to her on the hillside and doesn't say anything, unless you count an occasional quiet sigh.

Pet, pet, pet.

...

This is nice and all, but she kind of wants there to be more snuggles. Petting him is pleasant, she definitely likes petting him while his head's in her lap, but she misses the snuggly hug from earlier. She'd been envisioning that, but without the hassle of having to stand up. This is not that without the hassle of having to stand up, this is a completely different thing. A nice thing, but not the thing she wanted. She considers how to get from point A to point B. It's not an obvious solution, she doesn't have a lot of cuddling experience. Or, uh. Any cuddling experience, actually.

She hovers in indecision for a few moments, then decides that she's being stupid.

"Hold on," she murmurs, brushing his hair out of his face again. Can she just - turn and scootch forward so he can rest his head on her shoulder instead? Does this earn her snuggles?

A successful maneuver! Now she has a snuggled-up dragon.

Excellent! This is precisely what she wanted. Now she can just snuggle him while petting his hair.

Yep. That's a thing she can do. He seems to... like it? Maybe? He seems very emotionally affected by it in an at least partly positive way.

She's... just going to keep doing that. She guesses. Nice comforting human contact of the consensual variety, so nice and snuggly. She's a little worried for him, but he definitely doesn't seem like he wants to stop? He just seems overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed is a good word for it.

Yep. That's. That's sure the thing that's happening.

She's just going to try her level best to be as reassuring and comforting as possible in his time of, uh, adjustment. To snuggles. Snuggle, snuggle, pet, pet. Such a snuggly princess.

Snuggle. So much snuggle.

Mm. Even if her snuggling partner is maybe having an existential crisis over there, this is very nice. And it's been kind of a long day - she got kidnapped by a dragon, she did a lot of walking, she gleefully explored a lovely garden... it's somewhat tempting to nap. If he doesn't stir or disentangle himself, she just might.

Her snuggling partner has no objection to this plan.

Well, then the hairpets slow and soon fall still, her breathing deepens, and the princess slips into slumber.

He snuggles the sleeping princess. Snuggle. Snuggle snuggle. Sn—

—why is he crying. why this.

She was asleep enough to stay asleep through quiet snuggling; she is not asleep enough to stay asleep through quiet crying.

"Mmnh?" she mumbles, blearily.

He hugs her and hides his face against her shoulder.

... Oh dear. She's sleepy and disoriented, but not so much that she doesn't notice. Her arms were already loosely draped around him. They can be less loosely draped, now, in favor of holding him. Hairpets can resume.

She considers a question in the vein of 'Are you okay,' or telling him that it's okay, or something, but decides that it's not a good idea to demand eloquence right after a nap. Instead, she gently kisses his hair.

He cuddles up and tries to calm down. It doesn't make any sense to be crying.

Saveth doesn't really know what to do about a dragon crying on her, but she's going to try her best to handle it anyway. She runs through what sorts of things were nice whenever she was crying, and then starts humming a lullaby one of of her nursemaids sang to her when she had trouble sleeping.

...yep that dragon sure is crying.

Fuck.

Well. It doesn't seem like this is a bad cry, and she doesn't think he wants her to stop. So she's just going to, um. Keep doing this for the foreseeable future. She's going to snuggle him, petting his hair and humming half remembered lullabies all the while.