"... That's actually not as bad as it could be," she muses. "It's not completely impossible to come to a solution where nobody's hurt without their permission."

"Suppose not," he agrees. "Bit difficult, though."

"A bit. Better than impossible, though."

Shrug. "Yeah."

"I - I still -" She waves a hand, weakly, at Sekar. I still love you. "I'm just. Yep, that's a thing I hadn't considered and just faceplanted into."

He hugs her.

Hug.

"I'm - helping with the situation, right, by being in love with you, I'm not being some idiot girl that's gotten a bit too caught up? Objectively speaking? I suppose you're not the one to ask, but."

"—I don't know what you mean by 'helping'."

"Giving you an alternative to torturing people, or being a reason to want to not, or - something that brings the number of people that get hurt down a little."

"I don't - that's not what being in love is for," he says. "At least I really hope not."

"Well - no. Of course not. I just - it - would shut up some of the parts of me that are screaming that there's something wrong with me for loving you anyway."

...he sighs. He hugs her again.

Pensive hug.

Yeah. That.

Snuggle. "Should probably put the meddling on hold for a while, then," she murmurs. "So I can get my head sorted out."

Pet pet. "All right."

She leans into him.

"... Is there? Something wrong with me?"

"I'm not really the one to ask, am I? I mean, I'm not about to tell you my lifestyle isn't fucked up, but... until you, I would've said it was obvious that I couldn't be the person I am and expect anybody to ever love me. And I don't think it's a bad thing that I turned out to be wrong about that."

Eselle huffs a halfhearted laugh. "Yeah, fair enough. I don't think it was bad for someone to turn out to love you, either. On general principle. I just - I want it to be a good thing that I fell in love with you? Not unhealthy or a bit too twisted or. I don't know. Some other nasty adjectives."

"It's not your fault that I'm the way I am and it's not your job to get me to stop. If the only way you can tolerate being in love with me is if it makes me a better person, then - then I was right after all, wasn't I?"

"I - that's - that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"It's not a matter of, of magically making you a better person. I - just -" Words fail her and she scrunches inward for cuddling.

He hugs her and pets her hair.

"I wasn't trying to make this a confrontation," she mumbles into his shoulder.