"I do know. You wouldn't." 

"Never. Never ever. And you don't have to-- put up with my stuff-- I love you, I want to take care of you and let you be happy, it's the most important thing in the world--"

"Lev, I'm not putting up with anything, except possibly burned pancakes which are totally worth it. I love you." 

"You can put up with all kinds of burned things! Also I throw up on roller coasters and you might ever have to talk to my parents, just so you know."

"Is there something I can do to... help, I don't know anything about helping people who have been abused--"

"You're offering me a place to stay where I won't have to worry about being found. You are helping. — if you want to help more you can cuddle me." 

Well, he's already doing that.

"I want to help you until there's nothing else I can do to help you more. Because you're really important."

She nods. 

What do you say, when someone has just declared that protecting you is the most important thing in the world? 

Lev kisses her.

"You're so good."

"You're so good." 

"We can talk about it. If you want. Or we can talk about what you want to do today. --I just want you to smile at me a lot."

That gets a smile! 

"We can talk about it, I'm never sure when or how much to share so I kind of default to not and that's probably not great for me." 

"Well. I want to know everything about you."

"Everything is a lot of things. — I think it'd be easier to answer questions, probably?" 

"Are there things I should be-- sensitive of? That might remind you of it?"

"Most of the things that set me off are, like — politics stuff? She had a lot of 'oh, women could never hurt each other, no man will ever love you like a woman can, bi women are attracted to women because women are great and men because we make bad decisions,' and long story short I stay miles away from lesbian tumblr now. Uh. She put nutella in everything and now I can't eat hazelnuts." 

"Uh. I don't... really do politics... but I do basically think women are better. Sorry. I can like. Not bring it up."

"...not bringing it up is probably fine. I love you." 

"I mean everyone would be a girl if they could."

"I'm...... pretty sure they would not? I specifically spent a good deal of my adolescence wishing to be something else?" 

"...I am worried that if I talk about this it would make you sad."

She considers this. 

"...if it's making me sad I will tell you and we can stop? Right now I'm just confused." 

"Women are prettier and they have softer skin and they smell nicer and they get to wear better clothes. They can have multiple orgasms. They can carry babies and give birth to them and feed them from their own bodies. On average-- like, there are exceptions, obviously, but most of the time-- they're kinder and more in touch with their feelings and they have more empathy. They are less violent and they take fewer risks and get in fewer accidents. And they usually aren't as-- gross, sexually, as men like me are, and it would be better to be like that. And if they were gross like me then they would get to be slutty girls and-- that's just a really good thing to get to be. Most men would want to be really slutty girls, if they could. Mostly really slutty lesbians."

"Girls are pretty and guys are also pretty. Guys are taller and you get to put your head on their chest and it's a good feeling. Men don't have to worry about getting pregnant, ever. Men are allowed to take more risks and do more things and they don't  have to worry as much about stepping on toes, and nobody tells a boy to stop sitting that way, someone might try to look at your underwear. Girls are just as capable of being hurtful and cruel as any boy, the girls I knew were crueller, and what's more they were cruel on purpose and not just because they didn't think about it. 

Also I didn't want to be a boy I wanted to be a selkie, except for the times when I wanted to be an amorphous cloud of fireflies." 

"I always just wanted to be a girl."