"...Is that why you were weird this morning, and the kiss, and everything?"

"...well it would be terrible to die and go 'I could have kissed Martin and I didn't and now I'm never going to get to.'"

Sigh. "You're an idiot. I love you for it, but you're an idiot." He is going to lean over the table and kiss Lev on the forehead now. "I'm really, really glad you didn't die. ...I'd ask you to not do that again but I'm getting the impression that it might be a bit of a losing battle, what with the magic literally making you more curious. At least tell me, next time."

"..........I will promise to tell you when I do stupid things if you promise not to try to accompany me when I do stupid things."

"Yeah, okay, I'll take it. I'm not happy about it, but you really don't look happy about it either, so I guess that's only fair. Compromise, and all that. I won't accompany you, or try to stop you, as long as you just... let me know what you're doing. 

...You can go back to talking about Jane Prentiss, if you want? Or about--how that went, with Elias, if you'd rather?"

"......no, you can try to stop me. Why wouldn't you be allowed to try to stop me?"

"--Because if I'm allowed to stop you then you won't tell me? I would definitely rather stop you than join you, if I think something's that dangerous, I'm not suicidal, so I figured that was what you were worried about?"

"No, I want you to be safe."

"Right, well, I can't quit either, so if you're right about our lifespans, good luck with that. But I won't join you, if that's really all you're worried about. And this way I can stop you if you're doing something really stupid."

"Well, there's working-for-the-Magnus-Institute unsafe and then there's talking-to-entities unsafe. --I realize I'm being an enormous hypocrite."

“Kinda are. It’s okay, though, there’s—a lot going on. I’d be more surprised if you were never a bit of a hypocrite.” Handsqueeze?

"But you see I love you and don't want you to get hurt, and I am more indifferent to the question in my own case."

“And that’s not exactly great, seeing as how I love you and don’t want you to get hurt either, but. You didn’t die this morning, at least. And hopefully things’ll work out better going forward, now that we’ve talked about it?”

"Yeah. --I want you to be able to talk me out of things."

“Yeah. I didn’t— I should say thank you for that. It... means a lot to me, to be honest. So, uh. Thank you.”

"You have low standards!"

“You’ve mentioned! I really am working on it. ...Really do think that liking it when people argue with you is more of a you-specific thing, though.”

"Elias says that the Beholding likes it when I'm curious and I'm more likely to get in trouble if I avoid things."

“...Do we trust Elias? I guess we don’t have any better sources of information.”

"He apologized for not telling me about the mind control. Said that it would be more dangerous for me if he told me things instead of letting me find out on my own."

“Okay. That’s definitely good, I think. Did he say anything else, about—anything?”

"Well, I was fucking right, the Magnus Institute is not a real research institute."

“Oh. Well, I guess that explains why we were both... hired...”

"Ugh. Don't remind me."

“Sorry. You were right, at least.”