"Now there are the drawbacks. The near-irresistibility of human blood—the smell is also very good, and even just hearing or seeing a heartbeat is very tempting—all of that is coupled with a feeling of thirst that never goes away, only gets weaker or stronger, and is strong enough to count as torture to humans. The process of turning takes three days of increasing agony, and it is not uncommon for newborns to beg for death during it. For the first year after turning you are stronger and faster than a mature vampire, but it is also much more difficult to control—your brother was actually very, very good at control for a newborn. And vampires are sterile.

"I think that is all."

"Ah. Thank you," she says, a little faintly.

He rubs his hands together between their knees again and the scraping sound can be heard again.

"Um—what's...? Is that you?"

He nods then shows his hands rubbing together and making that sound.

She looks at him, clearly confused.

"Why...?"

"Because I want you to become a vampire for entirely selfish reasons but I don't want to force you or try to coerce you but now the idea of letting you grow old and die or worse is unbearable. So I'm fidgeting."

"Oh. That... makes sense. Uh. Is there a way I could help with that? In a way that isn't 'turn me now,' I mean, I don't. I would like some time to. Digest all of that."

He shakes his head. "Take all the time you need. Do you have any questions I could answer?"

"Mostly I don't have the ability to form coherent questions or opinions right now, it's." She winces, and looks away. "It's been a day, for me."

"I'm sorry," he tells his shoes. "Do you want me to walk you home so you can have time to think? Would you prefer I just leave you—alone?" He can't help the crack in his voice at the end.

"I'm not going to ask you to go away forever barring some really extreme circumstances that I don't expect you could pull off without, I don't know, eating my father or something," she clarifies, immediately.

"I would never."

"Then there you go, I will not send you away forever."

He nods. And resumes looking extremely miserable.

"I—you're in love with me regardless of anything I do or don't do, right, I will not fan the flames of your magical mind control by being at all affectionate towards you, you're just already at that 'I would die for you' baseline?"

"Right."

"Would it be a bad idea for any reason to cuddle you?"

"I'm cold and my body is unyielding to human-level strength and durability."

"But you won't have trouble not eating me. Okay. Do you have a fluffy blanket of some kind that I can wrap myself in so that I may comfortably cuddle you?"

"I—yes. Should I get them?"

"Yes, please."

He disappears and returns less than a second later, holding blankets.

She takes them, carefully wraps herself up in blankets, then toes off her heels and says, "Onto a couch, I'm not doing this while standing up."

He lies on a couch, his face going from confusion to utter delight over the course of this action.