"He's trying but failing because he can't get beyond intimacy three with anyone no matter how many people he's had sex with."

"...has he at least stopped having sex with people he doesn't actually want to be doing that with." 

"Yes. You told him to stop making a terrible decision and he stopped. It's a good sign, that's why I want you as his anchor."

He presses the base of his palms against his eyes. "That's good, at least. I will yell at him about that.... later. When he has actually asked me to anchor and I have accordingly said yes. Thank you for telling me, and also for everything else." 

"You're also dating Lev."

"That's true. I am. I'm going to talk to him about it tonight, which is one of the reasons I'm holding off on saying yes, but I'd be pretty surprised if Lev told me not to so I'm acting as though he won't. — if he does I will still tell Marlo to make better choices." 

"I am concerned about your ability to handle two relationships both of which are likely to be emotionally draining. --It's not a no."

"...Lev needs me," he says, like that's all there is to say. "And apparently Marlo does too." 

"If you become an anchor I'm going to treat you as a pilot," he says. "Anchors normally have another job, at least part-time; pilots only have another job if they think it will help their mental health. Pilots' scavenger requests are almost always fulfilled. And various other privileges, which I hope you will use responsibly."

He nods, and then again, sharper. 

"If you have sex with Marlo that he wants to have and have a nasty breakup with him, he might bliss. If you notice yourself wanting to break up with him, it's important to do it while you still like and trust each other."

He feels like he should be taking notes; his fingers twitch for a pencil that isn't there. "Okay. If I want to break up with him do that, and don't tell myself I can fix everything if I just hold on longer. I can remember that." 

"Well, it's difficult, because sometimes you're going to want to break up with him because his anima got smashed, and if you spent time together and tried to rebuild your relationship it would work, and we want you to do that. --And that's why anchor is a job."

He nods. He should — write up some kind of guidelines for himself, because feelings are confusing and they're not going to get any less so when the anima gets involved — he should talk to Lev — he should talk to Marlo — there are a lot of things he should do. There are a lot of things in general. "I — can see that." 

"You'll be trained. And you'll have Lev. He quite literally wrote the book about it."

"I'm going to be trained and I'm going to have Lev and unlike with scavenging I'm not going to be panicking the entire time. — if I'm panicking the entire time I'm going to stop doing it." 

"If you're panicking all the time and you don't stop doing it, I will stop you."

That's — actually really helpful. If he is making stupid choices Chris will tell him so. 

"Thank you." He's incredibly sincere. 

"You're welcome."

He glances down at his empty plate. "I should get going." 

"Yes. Back to work for everyone."

Back to work for everyone. 

He takes another shift in the kitchen washing dishes, because having something repetitive and helpful to do is good for him, and then goes to his room and curls up in a very small ball in his bed and tries to sleep. 

After dinner he checks the window, only three times this time, and goes to Lev's room again. 

"Hello!"

"Hey." 

He flops on Lev and buries his face in Lev's shoulder.