"Lots of them?"

"Depending where we go, yeah. I know the city pretty well, though, so if you want I'll keep to places where it's just a few and not lead you through any markets or anything."

"Yes please."

"All right."

"You're so helpful."

"I like you, I want to help you."

"Huh. I don't know exactly," he says. "It's not the sort of thing I think about in terms of reasons. I just like you because... you're you. I guess some of it is how you reminded me of me, with the situation you're in, and some of it is that you're just - cute, nice to talk to."

"Can you elaborate on all of that? I'm not trying to fish for compliments, I just literally do not know how to be around people and I want to - borrow your comparative expertise."

"Yeah. Well - the kinds of things that will get me to like someone and the kinds of things that will get people in general to like someone aren't always closely related. I think most people aren't going to see themselves in somebody who was raised by terrible people and lied to and scared of a lot of things, but people do sometimes like people they see themselves in, if they're seeing a part of themselves they like or feel sympathetic about. Vlad liked you because you're shy and he's also shy."

"Would he not like me anymore if I stopped being shy?"

"That's usually not how it works - once somebody starts to like someone, they only tend to stop if they have a reason to stop. So he might not like you anymore if you stopped being shy and started being obnoxious or something instead, but if you just stopped being shy, well, he already likes you and that's not enough to make him stop all by itself."

"Okay. What makes me nice to talk to?"

"Mmm... hard to define. And it's more the kind of thing where even if I could pin down what it is for me, some of it wouldn't translate to other people. The parts that would - you're sensible, you're polite, you think things through. Sometimes you're funny."

Rapunzel nods thoughtfully.

"That's about all I can think of, off the top of my head. But now that I know you want to know, maybe I'll pay more attention."

"Thank you."

He smiles.

"Well... it depends on what they think of it. But they're probably going to find out anyway, if I stick around. I'm a moderately well-known thief. My guess is that if you stick up for me they'll let it slide. Although I might have to promise not to do it anymore. Will you be annoyed if I promise not to do it anymore without particularly knowing if I will or not?"

"Why would you do that?"

"Well, if it's between making a promise I don't mean and getting arrested, I'd definitely rather make the promise."

"Well - I mean - you could also just stop stealing things."

"I might really stop stealing things for a while. But I don't even know how long I'll be staying here or where I'll be going next, and I'm not going to consider a promise I made to avoid getting arrested very important the next time I'm eyeing somebody's teacups."

"That makes sense."