"I—okay." Snuggle. "Okay, thank you, James."

He nods into her hair.

"Do you mind if I think out loud in regards to turning at you? I don't want to scare you or make you think about unpleasant things, but it... helps to think out loud at someone, and I. Don't really have anyone else."

"I don't mind," he says gently.

"Okay." Snuggle. "So the part that makes me most unwilling to turn is killing people, but I mentioned that already. Uh—other parts that bother me... I find the mate mind control very disturbing, but it's less scary to, uh, match you? If I'm already in love with you when I turn, it wouldn't be much of a downside. The scary part of that is the potential for the unknown, of being stuck on some random person I don't know, and that's demonstrably not going to be happening in this case. Sterility..." she trails off. "That one bothers me. More for the, the implied loss of potential future choices than a desire to eventually have children."

He nods into her hair again. "I had never really considered the possibility before, so I did not know to miss it."

"Mm. If I turn, it will be because I already love you, and because I expect to not kill people. If I love you, then I don't expect to want to bear someone else's child, and you're already sterile. I suppose those two problems solve each other, in a strange sort of way. If we ever want children we could adopt? ... If we could possibly hide the existence of vampires from a human child, anyway, which. I suppose would be difficult."

He nods. "Once we trust them to keep secrets we could tell them and turn them when they grow up."

"Yeah. Or something. The details can be sorted out later depending on what we want. If we even want it, I'm not impatient to have children? Especially if we have forever."

He nods again and—

—doesn't kiss her hair, they're not there yet. Probably.

She doesn't notice his dilemma.

"You said newborn vampires are hard to control? I'd rather not be hard to control near people I might kill. If I turn you could take me to... Antarctica seems a bit much, but maybe Greenland? Some big place where there isn't a lot of people."

"It... probably won't be necessary to go that far. But if you wish, yes, I can do that."

"Oh? What seems like a reasonable place to take me instead? You're my vampiric expert here."

"I think a clear five-mile radius should be sufficient. I can," and he swallows dryly, "tear off your arms if you get too out of control, and then your instincts will turn against me rather than towards food and I will be able to stop you."

"... noted. Let's. Let's not force you into the position where you need to tear your mate's arms off, okay, dear?"

"Okay."

"If it comes to that we can make my brother do it," she says, sagely. "As penance for not telling you important information. But I think I'd really prefer isolation over backing my loved ones into a corner to rip my arms off."

"Okay."

She wriggles an arm out of her blanket cocoon and pats him gently on the cheek.

"Thank you, though. I appreciate the offer."

Eeeeeee he closes his eyes happily and makes a... yep, that's a purring sound. An honest-to-god purr.

"Oh, you purr. Vampires can purr! That's adorable, I am delighted, that's going in the pluses column."

"—oh, yeah. And growl."

"Not an adorable plus, but not a negative. It can go into the neutral column."

James thinks about it for a bit and then smirks. She's his mate, so...

He growls, quietly, it's almost indistinguishable from a purr except for how it's more—raw, animalistic. Sexy, even.

She goes very still and blinks up at him. If he's paying attention, that looks like a faint blush to her cheeks.

"... Nnnnot a neutral," she says, very quietly, after a pause. She shivers a little. It... is not a bad kind of shiver. "Nevermind, I take it back, I apologize for my hasty categorization."