"I haven't told. Nor do I plan to."

"I know, but, you know. Though I guess in my case it doesn't matter much, I don't have a family to speak of or anyone villains could threaten me with."

"I have a family, but they're all on another planet. I suppose that technically if you date me then the villains could threaten each of us to get at the other."

"Given that we'd both be capes, that'd be... well, par for the course, really."

"It's such a stupid way to get people to do what you want - threatening their loved ones is, I mean."

"Well I suppose it probably works for some people. But it's sort of a sure-fire way of becoming a revenge target."

"Yes."

"But regardless, some people do threaten loved ones, and carry it out, so maybe not ideal to out myself. If we do date, we'll probably have to choose either my cape identity or civilian identity."

He shrugs. "Reasonable."

"Say, how does a date typically go in Aluvanna?"

"It, uh, varies."

"No, I'm sorry, it's just - my mind jumped to 'well, in my family, it would probably involve being harassed by my brothers', and, well. They're not available right now."

"Yeah. We need to figure out a way to get you back. Open a portal or—something. Was it just a regular—giant snake?"

"I didn't see it very clearly. What with the attacking. It didn't look obviously wrong, but something could've been done to it."

"This is really frustrating."

"Just a bit, yes. I mostly try not to think about it."

"Yeah, sounds like a reasonable plan, I guess. Can I distract you?"

"Yes please."

"...the thing I thought to distract you is maybe not the best idea at the moment, I should probably pick another one. Um. Have you read Earth books yet?"

"Yes! I love Earth books. What's not the best idea at the moment?"

"Oh, well, mainly that you have a cute face and I would quite enjoy kissing it probably."

"Oh."

"That's an unencouraging answer and an encouraging face, I'm not sure which one you mean."

"I mean to encourage you."