"You don't have to manage my emotions. I'm probably just being overly cautious. If you'd prefer to walk alone, that's what you should do."

"I'm not—I just—" Her voice cracks and she stops and tries again. "I don't care, you do, all I want is to go home and hug my father and then curl up and cry."

"Oh." He stands up and walks to the door to open it. "I... am sorry this did not go as well as it could have," he says, looking at her. "Me being around you is probably not going to help you think, and I don't want to make you more uncomfortable than you already are."

"Apology accepted," she murmurs, busying herself with putting her shoes back on so she doesn't have to look at him.

She takes a deep, shuddering breath that sounds like the prelude to a sob, then closes her eyes and rubs the bridge of her nose. "I'm—home. I'm going to go home. I am going to go home, before I start yelling at you for reasons I am going to disagree with later."

"...you can yell at me. God knows I deserve it."

"You kind of do!" she agrees, at a... higher volume than she intended. And she wants to leave it at that and tries to shut her mouth but it—doesn't—work—

Instead what falls out is:

"You've killed! Thousands! Of people! Thousands! I am incredibly disturbed that the only reason I fucking matter to you is because your brain has been twisted into a pretzel by magic vampire mind control! This is not a stable basis for a relationship, however much you bizarrely trust the mind control's ability to aim! Because I don't trust it a damn inch! I don't know you! You were just going to, what, seduce me, sleep with me, and then leave? Casually break my fucking heart into a billion tiny pieces because it seemed like the thing to do, even as I bend over backwards to tiptoe around yours? Even though, objectively speaking, you probably don't fucking deserve it? How many hearts have you broken, personally or impersonally, of people that did not deserve it, and got it anyway?

"This entire mess is your fault! At every level! I can blame my brother for not pulling psychic social wizardry to prevent this from ever occurring, but really, we both know it is actually your fault that my introduction to you and your world of magic mindreading murderers was so atrocious! You invite me on a date where you planned to lie to me, and you don't even bother to lie to me well? You wave away impossible things without bothering to lay the groundwork to make the lies plausible? You think I'll just believe your bullshit, or accept your bullshit, and not walk out on you for treating me that way? How dare you. Who do you think you're dealing with? You are lucky that I do not want to go, 'Gosh, that mind control sure sounds like it's your problem and not mine, bye,' because that is the only thing that has saved you from eternal vampiric heartbreak!

"The fact that I seem to just casually be the center of your universe and hold your heart in my hands is not a comfort, it is terrifying! I am not qualified! No one is qualified! This is disturbing, I am unsettled by how you keep just—not having any preferences that don't revolve around me! This is not how I would like any potential relationship of mine to be conducted! Overcome your damn mind control and get a fucking hobby, I am not standing for this insanity! I have no idea who you are! I am uncomfortable trying to get to know you because you keep, keep trying to tell me to not do things because you are overprotective, and hang on my every word like it's gospel! Like I'm not allowed to think, not allowed to go outside without you, and not allowed to talk because it might hurt you! And some of that's me, because I don't think saying people deserve anything is a good metric to conduct ourselves by, but some of that's also you, and I want it to stop! Right this instant, because I'm brilliant and I don't want your coddling, and I'm insulted if you think I need it! I—"

Her voice breaks and she is interrupted by a sob. She scrubs a hand at her eye and looks away. "—I'm sorry, I didn't. I'm so tired, this is my one day off and it has gone like this, and there are vampires and terrible magic that I don't understand at all and I was snuggling a murderer and my brother's killed people and I can't, can't just say any of this to my dad because then he's at risk too, and, and."

And now she is crying.

He didn't know vampires could be so completely, utterly frozen. He thought all the nifty mind boosts would guarantee that eventually something would give, but no, all that space in his head is only barely enough to contain the looping thoughts that keep stuttering after each other. She's right, every single thing she has said is right, he doesn't—doesn't deserve—

—stop.

Right this instant, she said.

So he stops. He can't offer her comfort, he can't hug her, he can't go kill whoever made her feel this way because that's him. He made her feel this way.

...he could kill himself. That's a person he could kill. He's been near volcanoes, he knows that he could just—drop down into one and—

—stop.

Right this instant, she said.

So he stops. He can't kill himself, that would be absurd, not only would Yvette feel guilty as fuck he actually, really doesn't want to die. It wouldn't solve anything, it would just be overdramatic and she just said she doesn't need his coddling. She is a strong, brilliant, caring, amazing, independent woman, and she doesn't need him, does she, he could just leave—

—stop.

Right this instant, she said.

So he stops.

Again.

And again.

And again and again.

And again and again and again.

And so on.

"—Fuck, I'm sorry," she sniffles, between sobs. "I think I broke you. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, to get that vicious, I could have sorted this all out, into, into something a bit more fair, if I'd had—had any space away from you to do it. But I hadn't been letting myself while near you because it's, it's that, and, and." Yep, back to crying.

"Don't be sorry," he says. "I needed to hear that. You're—you're right, I—give me a second, please."

Okay, that shook him out of his thing. He can now think.

What had he been thinking? She's his mate. That says things, it says more things than how likely she is to find his growling hot. What would he think, vampirism aside, if someone wanted to, to protect him from walking outside on his own? What would he think about all of this, and what kind of person would he mate on?

She's strong. She's brilliant. She's capable and good and a full person in herself and he needs to meet her halfway.

He needs to grow the fuck up. So he does.

He takes a deep breath, just for the psychological benefit of it, and opens his eyes. This all took 1.37 seconds.

"I expect I would have stopped eating people eventually, just from meeting other people and interacting with them as I've been doing lately. It was overdetermined before I met you, really, it was just a matter of me stopping to think about several things that had been adding up. I know it's scant comfort but it's what I can offer.

"You are right about everything else. I have apologized many times today, but let me do it once more. I'm sorry. I'm truly, genuinely sorry for everything I have done to you today. It may be a cliche excuse, but I did not think. I failed to think about myself, and about you, and about what I was doing. It's a character flaw, I do more often than I think, and with more speed, and I'm good at recovering from falls but I do fall. I do trust the mind control magic, yes, and even it is telling me that I fucked up. I did not treat you as the sort of person I would fall in love with; the sort of person I would fall in love with would absolutely not put up with my bullshit and would absolutely call me out on it, and that person is an incredibly competent, intelligent, independent person who will make their own decisions and I should not be acting like it is my duty to protect that person from themself or control what they do or think."

Sniffle.

"Y-yeah. You shouldn't be. I still feel I could have made my points in a less, less that kind of way, though." She sniffles again. "But I—I'm glad you're okay. I think?" Sniffle. "You seem okay? I don't know how to read you, you're a vampire..."

He smiles. "I'm as okay as I could be. I don't have any yelling bottled up, at the moment."

"Well, good." Sniffle. "... maybe hug me and tell me you don't hate me? I feel really bad for yelling now."

He's there in an instant and wrapping his arms around her. It's like being hugged by Michelangelo's David, he's as durable and hard as stone (and about as fit as, if not more fit than, the statue), but he's oh-so-careful, and from this position one might get a more intuitive sense of how a vampire could snap a human like a twig. "I could never hate you, Yvette Lowell. You are exactly the person I want and need in my life, regardless of mind control, and I will love you forever."

At first she's not quite sure how to hug an unyielding statue person, but then she relaxes into his arms and leans into him.

"Okay," she mumbles into his shoulder. "I'm just. I'm just going to take you at your word about that, because if I don't I'm going to end up thinking myself into knots."

"If there is anything in this world you can be sure of is that I will love you until the day I die, should such a day ever come."

He is... surprisingly snuggly for a statue. Probably the layers of clothing. But also, he's very much room temperature.

"I was talking more about the part where I am 'the person you want and need in your life,' not the part about how you'll love me until the day you die," she clarifies, a little wryly.

Room temperature under fabric is actually pretty nice, for a face that has just been crying.

"You know as well as yelling at you worked out, I never want to do it again," she informs him.

"I'll do my best not to deserve any more yelling, then."

Snort.

"Nope, nuh uh. You maybe needed some of that, but you did not need it in such a, a... claws out format. If this is supposed to be a relationship of mutual respect and care, I don't want to ever turn that level of... that... at you again. And I'm sorry I did."

He nods. "Perhaps. And I definitely forgive you."

“Thanks,” she murmurs, leaning against him.

“You’re pretty good at this whole ‘vampiric subject of mind control pointed at a human’ thing. When you know that’s what’s going on, I mean. ...If you tone down the overprotectiveness a little.”

"It has been toned down, don't worry, I already hit myself internally several times over this."

She hiccups a little giggle.

"Some protectiveness is fine! I acknowledge that I'm fragile and breakable and squishy in comparison. Just. Yeah."

"Right, you are not a little porcelain doll who will shatter into a million pieces when someone looks at you askance."

"Yes. And most humans don't live very dangerous lives, and I get the impression there aren't many vampires, since exsanguinated animal attack victims aren't all that common."

"I think they mostly just go missing, the Volturi would not be happy by a vampire that left a trail."