"Sorry."

"No, no, please don't be, that's - fine, I want to say good except I'm worried that that's just me being selfish and it would be objectively better if you were less invested in this because I'm, like, kind of a mess, but - "

"Don't want to - get in the way of you discerning whether we should marry by making you think about how I'll feel if we don't."

She hugs herself.

" - I do, like, need to talk about more things with you. How we'd raise children and where we'd raise children and how we'd provide for them and - more stuff about Osirian and Chelish beliefs about marriage and promises and household organization and gender roles and sex and probably some other things, but -

" - but the thing I keep coming back to is, like - Fazil doesn't think it's important to have feelings for someone you're marrying, aside from thinking they'll be a good wife for practical reasons, and - it shouldn't matter, right, not very much, I got by before with nobody particularly caring about me, it's so unimportant that it's almost painful to admit to having any feelings about it, but - maybe it is really pathetic, might as well know that I'm pathetic before you go making any promises, but in any case I am scared of nobody ever loving me, so - "

"I think I'm confused - and I shouldn't be confused because that was important to you and I should know what to say, but - 

- uh, assuming that it's in fact very important that you marry someone who love you, what does that - what do I - uh -"

" - sorry. Uh. I'm trying to say that I was really unsure what you meant about - loving me, and stuff, and whether it had to do with, I dunno, feelings - and - I guess I'm not really that worried about that anymore. As of, like, ten seconds ago."

" - oh. Yeah. I have - a lot of feelings. I'm trying to not - not seduce people, that's really what it comes down to, you want honorably pursuing people and seducing them to look really really different so that no one who's seducing people can hide behind that being a normal way to behave when figuring out whether to marry -"

" - oh.

"We don't really, like - I mean we have different categories but the ones that don't involve any feelings are the less serious ones."

"Oh. I guess that - makes sense. I - think a lot of the time love grows in a marriage because you work on it but also I do not really expect to need to work on it because I love you a lot."

"That makes sense. 

"I - think I probably love you but I'm kind of bad at feeling things, so, only mostly sure of that."

"That's okay. That's - yeah."

"Okay.

"Do you - are you okay with hugs, or - "

"If you want -"

" - I want. But, like - kinda only if you also want. Don't wanna, like - it's important not to do stuff that makes you feel worried, or bad, or uncomfortable, or - "

"I, uh, really really really want to hug you and don't know at what point people have a hard time stopping and - don't care very much honestly, as long as you're happy -"

"I have never tripped in the middle of hugging someone and accidentally had sex with them."

" - okay."

Hug.

....hugging people is nice. Actually. Especially if the person is Hagan.

Hugging her is wonderful. He tries to get his words untangled so he can explain that it's not that she'd have sex by accident it's that if she wanted him to he definitely wouldn't stop her and he understands this is a deficiency of character and stuff. He ends up just saying "Korva" a lot.

Well that's very nice. Does not give her any incentive at all to stop hugging him. She's going to keep doing that. And not do anything else.

"You're very good."

"Mmmmmm."

Snuggle. 

"M'sorry I'm such a mess. And probably very bad at keeping watch, I really hope there aren't any goblins around here. Or wolves."

"Think we're okay. Still not sure what you mean such a mess. You ...want someone to love you? Not very messy."

"I'm not very certain what all of the things I want are. It would be much more convenient if I could - I dunno, only have wants that fit into nice labeled boxes. 

"But I like this. This is nice."

Snuggle. "Anything you want. - if it's a bad idea I will try to say so but I might fail."