"Okay," he says, and sends:

Leareth is really quite handsome. Levris is not sure if he knows how handsome he is but he's so handsome. (Sexual thoughts have been tucked off into a corner where they won't show up, but there is clearly a Sex Thing here.) And he's smart, and powerful, and wealthy, and evil, and-- there's something very exciting about being with someone who probably murders lots of other people and can do whatever he wants to you, but in fact wants to hold you and listen to you talk about Mindhealing and tell you you're smart and who does not want to murder you even a little bit. (This is also a little bit a sex thing but mostly not.) It's a wildly unrealistic romantic daydream of the sort he associates with Bard songs more than with actual reality.

Leareth has been kind of out of it since they got lifebonded so Levris is not really sure what his... personality... is? Presumably it is something compatible enough that they got lifebonded, and he can talk about Mindhealing which is the most interesting subject in the world. But even setting aside the personality thing the idea of being lifebonded to Leareth is... very appealing.

Wow. That's - very flattering, and also touching in some way and setting off emotions in him, and it's also just a lot. A little overwhelming. 

Several responses pile up and the words that come up aren't any of them, and also aren't really the answer to a question Levris asked at all. "I am trying to fight the gods."

Leareth has no idea why he said that right now! Obviously Levris has to know eventually because it's sort of important for making sense of his entire life, and also Nayoki's research is related and she really wants Levris, although he sort of suspects Levris might be more useful leading his own project... Getting ahead of himself, though. 

This sentence fills Levris with an enormous quantity of affection. "Why are you trying to fight the gods?"

Awww. "I disagree with a number of their policy decisions. Would you like a list?" 

"Yes! I imagine I am much more sympathetic to some possible lists than to others."

Nod. "Mainly they hate progress and change. They kept murdering me about it - for context, the way my immortality works is that my body can die but I will come back, I am not sure if I said that." 

"Makes sense," Levris says. "And... hating progress is bad because it means that people understand fewer things?"

"Understand fewer things, build fewer things, have fewer capabilities, have lower crop yields and buildings that collapse sooner... And then people die, for stupid reasons, when it need not be inevitable at all - and the gods do not seem to care at all." 

...Levris kisses him. 

That is UNEXPECTED and STARTLING and Leareth goes very still. It's not that it's unpleasant - it's the opposite - he just doesn't know what to do. 

"Ack-- sorry, I--"

Leareth takes a deep breath. "No, I am sorry. I should have - I meant to say earlier but did not manage it. I...have not really had a relationship of this kind in a very long time? I apologize, I will probably not be good at it." 

"...that was the first time I'd kissed anybody."

"Oh." Leareth smiles. "I did not notice you lacking kissing skill!" 

"Well, how are you supposed to know, you probably haven't kissed anyone in five thousand years."

"Not quite that long, I think, but - I do not have any clear memories of kissing anyone, at this point. I suppose if we are both figuring it out together, then neither of us will mind, and no one else needs to know." He blinks. "That was very nice, actually, we could do it again?" 

"Maybe I should wait until the next time you say something you deserve to be kissed for."

Fine, he can do that and be patient. "Where were we– right, gods and my list of complaints. The Star-Eyed Goddess enslaved an entire ethnic group's descendants for all time, and requires them to do dangerous work where they often die; it is very necessary work too, to be fair, but nonetheless I think people ought to be able to agree to it themselves, not be bound to it because their ancestors two thousand years ago made a pact in exchange for not literally dying." 

"I think mostly people think that's fine because they're gods and they're supposed to act like that?"

"You could say that for any of the things gods do!" Sigh. "And, in fact, people do say it. 'The gods work in mysterious ways'. The core of my objection here is - well, They demonstrably are not addressing all of the horrible problems in the world. The Companions are a god-miracle, for example, yet Valdemar still has people starving in it - including in Haven, to my understanding - and bandits, and a vast number of people in situations of poverty that are impossible to climb out of. I suppose it would be one thing if the gods were simply not powerful or clever enough to make the world paradise, but - they actively interfere with anyone who tries! They murdered me for trying to implement democracy, once!" 

And now there is kissing. 

Leareth does not freeze in surprise this time! He kisses Levris back. 

"Being murdered for implementing democracy is very cute."

"...That is not a term I would ever have thought to apply to it, but, I suppose I will take it. I think that I was also murdered once for attempting to spread the use of a magical printing press, although it is hard to know because I also invented some other things and wrote some books in that lifetime."  

Does Leareth know that he needs to be kissed?

"Best lifebond!"