"It is very serious! You are not in your backwater set of colonies anymore, James, you are in England! We are civilized here! No displays of emotion or strong connections to people if they can at all be avoided! If they cannot, then all who witnessed this mishap must be!"

Nope. Too cute. Help. He's laughing too much.

"Emotional outbursts are to be scheduled in advance with the proper paperwork, and signed and approved by His Majesty, King George," sniffs Yvette, trying not to smile. "Like any respectable country."

"Oh, I'm sorry, should I stop, then?"

"Mhm. Laughter is to be expressed with a slight smile, and perhaps a sensible chuckle, if you have not overdone it in the past with emotional outbursts and burned through your chuckle allotment for the month already."

"Oh, there's an allotment! Of course there is, how did I fail to think of that."

Snort.

"I don't know. It just seems sensible to me."

"You will have to teach me your British ways, I'll never think of them on my own."

Snort. "I—"

She pauses midway through that thought, and trails off, looking pensive.

"... I don't think that'd be the first set of things I'd try to teach you about."

"Oh?"

"Um." She pauses, then wriggles out of her burrito and sits up. This is not a conversation she wants to have while snuggling him.

"... Do you, um. Care. About humans?"

He opens his mouth to answer but then closes it and thinks. She deserves an honest, well-thought-out answer, and he... hasn't really thought about, before. So he thinks.

It doesn't take long; he's a vampire. He opens his eyes again and says, "I think I do." And it's true. "I didn't use to, but... I couldn't turn you. Not without your permission. Your permission is important, and you're human and..."

"And... you don't want to upset me and I care about humans, or I'm displaying a perspective you haven't thought of before?"

"You were the straw that broke the camel's back, I think. It was something I had thought of a few times before but never for too long."

"Okay," she says, softly. She falls silent. She doesn't know what to say.

He... doesn't, either. He can't change his past, and he can't lie to her.

"I... should probably go home. I have some things to sort through, and I don't think it'd help anything to say them at you. It sounds like you already know the things I'd have to say? And I don't want to make this an exercise in making you feel awful."

He nods slowly. "Okay. Do you want me to walk with you or would you prefer to go alone?"

"Um." She pauses to consider.

"... I don't know. I don't know what to think of you."

"I mostly mean as a safety measure, since you are female and there exist predators. I could just not be visible but still be around?"

She raises her eyebrows.

"You realize I walk further, twice a day, six times a week for my job, right?"

"This late?" he asks, gesturing at the dark sky outside with his hiked thumb.

"Yes, James. My work shifts are ten hours long."

"Oh."

She sighs. "Sure, fine, walk me home."