- she does not really know what to think about that. This mostly feels to her like part of her is thinking very loudly or brightly or earnestly that it should not think anything in response to that, and a bunch of other parts are rapidly quietly flitting between stuff like 'gosh I wonder what Connor is into, also should I be worried about this' or 'I dunno I could also be into lots of awful stuff and just not thinking about it' or 'it's cute and good how Connor tries really hard not to think about sex stuff when we're doing telepathy even though that's probably hard and stuff' or 'are there really reasons not to poke this now that Christianity is fake' or just a lot of oddly calm even wordless screaming. She is kind of unsure whether he can hear all of that stuff, she can barely keep it all straight, but probably he's hearing it at least as well as she is. Maybe she should stop the telepathy if she's gonna do the screaming thing, it's really bad enough that she has to deal with it without making other people deal with it.

- snuggle? (She thinks he's cute and good!) It seems really unlikely that she's into awful stuff not that he means that in a way where he'd be judgmental if she were but just, like, she's had a slave for six months now and it took her that long to decide he could share a bed with her and she wants him to like everything and how much awfulness does that even leave room for? She could be into pee? Animals? Ooops he was trying not to - this is honestly very difficult - but they can't turn it off and use their words there is absolutely no way he is gonna generate any words here. The wordless screaming seems like kiiiiind of a reason not to poke this. He personally tries not to poke any of his wordless screaming.

Oh gosh are there people who are into nOT THINKING ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW. The wordless screaming isn't really about sex? At least it's probably not about sex. She doesn't really think about sex in ways that are remotely connected to reality enough to notice whether that's a thing that happens. Mostly the wordless screaming happens whenever things are awkward. Or terrifying. Or remind her of how pathetic she is. She thinks this is probably the awkward thing though. Honestly everything she's ever thought about is probably objectively very tame but see if she thinks about it for more than half a second it gets interrupted by screaming because the screaming has to save her from the awkwardness and inevitable embarrassment and discovery of her patheticness because eventually maybe the patheticness will be attached to something actually pathetic and then he will realize that she actually is pathetic, and this is kind of dumb but it's still very scary to think about it because it is so absolutely definitely pathetic and terrible even though that doesn't make a lot of sense.

(Snuggle. Yes he is very cute and good.)

Whenever she mentions worrying he will think she's pathetic he reflexively wants to remind her that he's her slave which is dumb because that actually doesn't - like, you could in fact be a slave and think someone's pathetic but it's still always the thing he thinks of, for some reason, like - it feels like someone isn't actually yours if you're scared of them judging you? This probably doesn't make any sense. There's probably actually just no way to be sure no one will think you're pathetic. Even though he'd be really surprised if he thought she was pathetic. Because she's not.

In theory you would probably expect the mindreading to help. Maybe if he goes long enough without thinking she's dumb her brain will gradually adjust down the possibility that he is eventually going to decide that she's super pathetic. Possibly. Possibly this is maladaptive or something but on the other hand this is partly a problem because of the mindreading in the first place because it's probably way easier to pretend not to be pathetic  if someone isn't literally listening to your thoughts?

She's super not pathetic. He was scared of, like, learning that she really did think he was stupid and had just been politely not bringing it up since they had that big fight about it. He's not sure what else would even bother him. If she didn't actually like kissing him that would bother him, actually. Or if she was wishing he would go away, or - okay maybe there's a long list of stuff that'd bother him but it's about him, not about her. She can be made of as many confusing awful pieces as she wants as long as they're not tiredness of him. Or even if they are, obviously. She could hand him off to this court in a lot of debt and never see him again if she wanted - that's terrifying but she should know that she could in case she just hasn't thought of it -

No no no this calls for more snuggles. She is not going to leave him here at this court. Of course not. They just had a whole conversation thing last time about how she thinks the amount that she really really wants him to not leave her ever is kind of pathetic and ridiculous. She feels kind of warm inside some of the rest of that because - she is not really at all sure that most of her pieces aren't terrible or awful, but she is pretty sure that she isn't confused about liking him and not wanting him to go away, so that's something?

She likes him! She's not confused about that! Eeeeeeeeeee it just seems so so unlikely that she is full of terrible awful pieces. - he could guess what terrible awful stuff she's into to show it doesn't bother him - no that's a really bad idea - dog's name is dog -

Heee. He is very very cute. 

Sheeee is very cute and should stop the telepathy maybe sorry.

Yeah she can do that. No more telepathy. "Can there still be snuggles, or - "

"Course. Course. 'm sorry."

Snuggles. "S'cool. You're cute. I guess I have probably communicated this by now."

"Yeah. You have."

Kiss. Then there can be snuggles and sleep.

In the morning they can jump off more trees maybe?

Yes. Good plan.

This is fun!

"Hope we're not, like, forgetting anything we're supposed to be doing. Keep feeling the urge to - oh man what time is it."

He glances at the sky. "...two? Ish?"

"Oh, good, it might not be over yet. We didn't - little Connor's still at the funeral. Probably wondering where we are."

" - oh. Yeah. We should ask the fairies for some paper and leave him a note explaining. And then he can - go back to the hotel alone? He'll be okay."

"I'm not sure he can? He can't drive. Also doesn't have the key, but - I guess I could leave it for him, is there a reason that wouldn't work - "

"Oh. Uh. ...he could come out to the fairy ring but then they're gonna need more food and it's gonna make them nervous, more demands. I think they'd probably do it but -"

"That seems like not a good idea, yeah. He could probably go home with someone else, he's with a bunch of family there, just - it'll be a mess but he won't, like, die or anything. We should still leave him a note to explain and let him know to go with someone else."

"Can you all's well at your family while you're fast?"

"...I have no idea. I'm not a hundred percent sure I could even tell if it had landed. Or that it would work for deflecting accusations of being a terrible - well, they don't actually know I'm looking after him, I guess they'll probably blame Azalea."