What does he want. There are lots of perfectly plausible answers to that, all of which trip her up on the puzzling fact that there's no reason he couldn't have any of them if they were in fact what he wanted. Is he...waiting for her to offer them? But why - 

She considers saying something but it'd be so horribly humiliating to be wrong that she can't even think it through to decide what she'd say.

"Is there something on my nose?"

"- What? Oh. No. Sorry." Leareth sits back slightly. "I was thinking that - I ought apologize if hugging you the other day seemed baffling out of character for me. Nayoki told me to." 

"I...don't see why you ought to apologize for that?"

"Because to feel safe you need to be able to predict your surroundings, and so I imagine being confused feels very threatening to you? And I did not mean to cause that feeling." 

- nod. "I'm not confused about whether you'll kill me. I guess I am sometimes confused about things that are less important than that, but - confusion over which of lots of things none of which are bad is going on isn't really enough to feel unsafe, I think, or if it is, that's - my error, because I'm not used to - it being the case that none of the things that might be going on are bad -"

Nod. "Well, I ought still explain - to the extent I can, I am also confused so I an unsure it will help. The other Leareth thinks I should - trust you like he does his wife - Nayoki thinks I am very lonely..." He takes a deep breath. "I...have no idea what it would even mean to - to love you. But I think maybe that is what my alt meant." 

"...is this...a sex thing or not, either way is fine, just, I'm trying to tell whether I should read it that way or not -"

"...Honestly I have no idea if the other me has sex with the other you? One assumes so. It is not currently on my mind." 

"They have a kid together." - shrug. "Okay. This is - about some other thing. Do you know of - examples of this thing. Other than the other you and his wife."

"...I am not sure. Nayoki thinks that part of the problem, is that it has been a very long time since it made sense for me to - depend on someone." Shrug. "I may have had it before, but I do not perfectly retain all memories of my very long life, and if so I do not remember it." 

"I know lots of people who were in love but it seems to mostly be - deliberately for the thrill of it exercising poor judgment about someone else's trustworthiness? Which I don't think is the thing you mean. Also it's a sex thing."

"Nayoki said that if I ever do fall in love, it will probably not be at all the way most people do it." Leareth's lips twitch. "She said I ought perhaps question some hertasi or kyree about their romantic norms, since clearly I do not do this the way humans do." 

" - do they do something more sensible?"

"I have no idea, since I have not yet checked! Probably not, on priors. And I do not especially care about doing something that is sensible for a population broadly, I care about doing something that works for me - a very unusual person, supposedly." Pause. "...And, I suppose, for you. In this case." 

"I think most things work for me? Some, uh, more the way Cheliax worked for me and some more the way that being here works for me, but -" Shrug. "Obviously I like impressing you and feeling valued by you. I'm not very complicated on that front."

"- Are you not? I - cannot say that I find you trivial to figure out." Leareth smiles again, slight and brief. "Even when I read your mind, which I have not done so often lately." 

"Probably if I revealed all my secrets I'd be less interesting, and then where would I be. But - I'm not totally unlike women on your planet, I like it when people are invested in my continued existence and also nice to me."

"Do women care about that more than men, I cannot say I have noticed... I suppose you mean - romantically, as opposed to in the context of employing people." Leareth sighs. "I am invested in your continued existence. I was already, and then my alt said that I ought to trust you, and now I am confused and curious and I do not intend to let anything happen to you until I have figured out what he meant. Anyway. ...Have I been nice to you, so far?" 

"...yes, definitely? You entertained my being scared of you and pretending to escape. You let me keep magic items I made of material I stole from you. You let me go to Valdemar to decide whether I wanted to - work more for you. You - hugged me - you apologized for hugging me -"

"Was hugging you nice? I did it because I wanted to...well, because Nayoki thought that was what I was wanting to do..." 

"I think hugging people is a nice thing to do? Or, you can contrive circumstances that make it not, but they're very contrived, and those weren't that. And - I like that you do things because you want to. I mostly find it kind of contemptible when people want to do things and don't do them."

"...Hmm. Why? I think I often withhold on things I have an urge to do, because doing them now will not be good for my long-term goals - I am not sure if that is the kind of thing you mean..." 

"No, that's not it, though if you're never going to be able to do them then you'd want to stop wanting them, right, rather than want them pointlessly. But sometimes people are like - I want that, but I'm too embarrassed, or I'm too cowardly, or I can't have it, and I think that's - why would you want something, if you're not even going to go get it."

"...You can want something before you have a plan of how to get it? That is - in some sense what wanting things is even for." Shrug. "I...am again having the feeling that we mean different things by the same words, here. But - I do not think I am ever likely to decide I cannot want something because I am too embarrassed, or cowardly, or whatever else."