"I love you. --Let's get lunch."

"Going to kidnap some children, are you?"

"Only with their consent."

"So what'd he say?" Marlo says when Ron gets back. 

(Raine's holding his hand again, tight enough that her knuckles have gone pale.) 

"We might get lunch."

Asher is completely failing to process any information that isn't about Raine.

"Good." 

Ron starts the car, doesn't talk, looks pensive.

Asher is clinging to Raine as if she is the subject in an experiment about whether it is possible to fix trauma through nothing but hugs.

Her face is pressed into his shoulder and her eyes are closed. (She's definitely awake. People who are asleep don't cling that tight.) 

"I love you. I'm going to keep you safe."

"I know you will. I love you too." 

Asher does not stop holding her until they get to Ron's, and then he picks her up and carries her to his bedroom so he can hold her some more.

She folds herself up in his arms and keeps her eyes closed. 

Once they're in bed she relaxes. Holds herself more naturally. 

Asher is still holding onto her tight.

"You're so beautiful."

"I love you." Her voice is small. "I missed you so much." 

"I missed you. I was so miserable all the time without you."

She makes a quiet distressed sound and presses her face into his shoulder. "I'm here now." 

"I couldn't concentrate on dancing at all. I'm way out of shape now." (This claim is implausible.) "I was just so worried about you all the time."

Another distressed sound; more nuzzling. "'m okay, I'm here now," and she's very determinedly not crying again. 

"I don't want to make you sad, I just-- the plan I proposed is not actually a sacrifice."

She nods and does not seem less sad. 

"— I," and her voice is very small, "slept with someone else after you left — I'm sorry —"

"Marlo told me." Hugs. "I don't mind you sleeping with other people if it makes you happy-- I, uh, kind of mind you sleeping with Harry? But I wasn't mad at you at all, I was worried."

"I'm sorry," she says again, "I —" and when she tells it this time it comes out tangled and halfway-incoherent, and the only things she's actually sure she says clearly are he was clean Christine said he was clean and never actually said no and I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

"I love you," he says gently. "I'm not mad. --Wait, did you not use condoms?"