"So this is like that. I'm not okay with how you have and torture sex slaves, and I want to find you alternatives, but that's. Not connected to how I feel about you. I like how you smile at me like I'm the most - precious, beautiful thing in the world, you're delighted every time I do something silly and ridiculous, you brighten whenever I smile. I like how you're straightforward, honest, and more than willing to just - talk things through. I like the chemistry we have, it's so fun to talk to you. Like I'm - the word I want to use is dancing." Hair pet. "I'd find loving you intolerable if it made the lives of people worse, certainly, but I don't think it does. I just - you'd be doing this even if I weren't in the picture. It doesn't, actually, have anything to do with me. I can get all angsty and hate myself and deny myself a thing that I really want on empty principle, but I'm. I need more than empty principle? I'm a - direct and tangible results kind of girl."

Snuggle. "Yes, that's one of the things I like about you."

She smiles at him fondly, then leans down to kiss his forehead.

"Thank you. So, yeah. I'm maybe a bit fucked up, but who cares, so's everyone."

"And by any measure that says you're fucked up for this, I must be much worse!"

... She giggles.

"Yeah, a bit." Kiss.

He leans up to kiss her and then nestles his head in her lap again. So cozy.

So very cozy!

"I'm still going to want to find you ethical alternatives, though. I - don't like it when people suffer."

"I don't mind ethical alternatives as long as it's not - not a matter of 'do this or I can't love you'."

She winces. Yep - that would hurt, wouldn't it.

"It's not. I'm sorry I implied that it was." Pet, pet, pet.

Snuggle. "Thank you."

Snuggle.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

What a good lap she has. So cozy and cuddlesome.

She does her best! He can have so many hair pets. So many.

Good!!

"You're very cute," she observes fondly, after a while of this.

"Thank you!"

She leans down to kiss his forehead, smiling at him.

"Are you willing to use your Imperial omnipotence to get me a book? So we can stay like this until we go pick up my brother."

A flower grows from the floor and deposits a book in her hand and then crumbles away.

"Thank you," she says, with another fond smile. After a bit of gentle readjustment, she manages to arrange herself so she can read and occasionally pet him. Without propping the book up on his face, even.

It's very cozy. Perhaps he will nap.

(The book is a surprisingly poignant romance. Not much sex or violence, lots of complicated feelings.)

When she realizes the genre she leans down to kiss him.

"You're a sweetheart."

He giggles. "I just picked one I happened to remember liking, I didn't put a lot of thought into it."

"Aw. I was all set to be delighted with your thoughtfulness. If you didn't put a lot of thought into it, how will I be delighted now?"

"I guess you'll just have to be disappointed."

"So disappointed. My omnipotent Emperor got a book for me with his magic powers, and he didn't meet the required quota of thoughtfulness! Disappointment! Despair! Devastation!"

Nose kiss. "Poor me."