"I don't want to leave you. I don't want you to stop looking after me. I want - all of my children, and I want them to be safe, and in a place that isn't hurting them or turning them into horrible people, and - I want whatever we are to be what's good for us, and not - what looks right to people from other places we don't understand, or however they expect slavery to look? I just - I liked it, before, when I felt like I belonged to you but you weren't going to - treat me the way people treat slaves where I come from, weren't going to hurt me, weren't going to make me do things I had good reasons not to do, weren't going to - expect me to go around acting like I was - less than everyone else - "

"That's what matters. That's the only thing that matters. If you liked it, and I liked it, then nothing they think is important."

Nodnod.

"I don't know if your court can feed all of the kids for the rest of the night."

"I don't know either."

"We don't have to go to - Kansas, for that, we could also just keep getting food here, but that means staying here - "

"The part about the kids probably being better off around other kids made sense to me."

"Yeah. Kids who don't go around casually threatening people with torture, even."

"And it's not very important to me that everyone else knows you belong to me. As long as you know."

Nod.

"Wouldn't have to be forever. They think they have immortality on the way. Could just be - a while, and then we could go back and visit Greece or wherever."

"I think - I think I'm scared that Kansas will try to train you to hate me. The way the human king -"

"Yeah."

He holds her and doesn't say anything.

"I'm scared it'll be - lots of people with opinions. And it might be hard to figure out what we would want without all of that."

"My court had - lots of opinions, in a way, and I wasn't scared of this. But they didn't - I don't know - no one thought you were foolish for choosing me."

"I think this was part of why I didn't like your court. - the having opinions part. But - at least they weren't doing anything to stop us."

"Wanted to ask - if you hit her you'll get in trouble, what trouble, with who? - but I didn't because I didn't want it to sound like I was trying to think how to hit you - I don't want to -

- and does that happen if you hit a child for lying, because that I probably would do -"

Nod. 

"I guess we should ask. - maybe Cassie and not the one who looks like you."

Nod. 

"Love you."

"I didn't know that was a thing humans do but I like it and I wanna keep it. Just gotta figure out - how."

Nodnod.

"Maybe we can just - wait up here for a bit. Before we ask more questions about Kansas."

"That sounds good."

Oh good. Probably if they apply enough snuggles everything will seem less terrible.

The two of him come downstairs a little while later. "How's everyone?"

"Contemplating moving to Kansas. My evil twin thinks it'll be boring, which is fair - not that I told him that - but I think that Cecelia's kids could do with some normalcy."