Sorry, your screams from my quarters will cause almost as much trouble as they would have back in Tirion... I might at this point be able to get away with 'I'm your King and survived Angband and will do what I want', but when I'm not actually doing anyone it seems a silly battle to pick...

It's okay, I'm awake. He is back to holding very still. Any month now I will be all out of pox to dream through.

He tries to cuddle him but it is not very effectual because he is shaking.

- I should probably go back to my room.

If you'd like.

I was assuming you'd have a golem wake me if I hollered - I should have just actually told mine to do it if I raised my voice, so you wouldn't have to -

I think you probably overestimate the difference between 'how I feel normally' and 'how I feel when I'm afraid the scenario might end or get suddenly worse very soon'.

Maybe.

Most of my aversion to you touching me is that finally letting my guard down that much would be an entertaining place for Thauron to show his hand, I only had a few actual physical panic responses and I untrained all of them with deliberate practice and if you didn't turn into Thauron you could have me just fine, I wouldn't be very fun but you would not be causing psychological damage and I wouldn't be higher-than-background levels of panicked and suicidal...

Wow, yay, I'll clear my schedule.

As a clarification. I'd have phrased it differently if I wanted to give it a try. Which I might, eventually, but I'll probably bother Findekáno when I do, he's likelier to go along with it.

Sigh. Okay.

Which part of that provoked the sigh?

Whole thing. It is a sighing sort of thing. I don't have arguments or anything but I sure can inhale and exhale.

Okay. Good night.

You want me to stay or go?

I want Kib to do whatever makes him happiest.

Okay, Kib is doing what doesn't require him to get out from under these blankets. I can tell a golem to shake me if I yell but I'm now meant to be of the belief that it makes no difference?

Makes a difference to me whether you want to be here. Doesn't make much difference whether you're in fact here, except to the degree I can expect the two to correlate, which they'll do less if I make a sad face and ask you to stay. Or a strained one and ask you to go.

I mean, it doesn't make a difference to you if you have to wake me up or Charp does it.

No, that's fine. Aggressively quieting you isn't very intimate anyway.

Okay. Love you.

Love you, he says, just to see if that makes Kib's face melt into a stranger's, and even when it doesn't he does not sleep the rest of the night.

Unclear if Kib even registers the difference; he's already breathing slower.

In addition to spending a truly unfortunate amount of her life dying of the pox, Aly sometimes made what sounds like really delightful love to her husband.

Lucky carefree happy Aly.