Shut UP shoulder Zerin Viego told you to not interfere.

"I believe we can arrange ourselves to make it work." He sends a thin tendril of Black Mist in the direction of his on plate and carefully drags it to this side of the table.

Avedra gives a happy hum and arranges herself to make it easier for him to eat around her.

... This does involve her being more or less on his lap, but. It's fine! Probably. It's probably fine.

It's. It's definitely fine, yep. Definitely. He's just a quiet person by nature and that's why he's not gonna say anything. Or squirm even a little bit. He'll hold himself poised and composed and eat, too.

With a little bit of nervousness and hesitation, she tries a bite.

"... this is really good," she mumbles, already beginning to sniffle.

He can... pet her? That helps, right? Hopefully?

It seems to! By how she tucks herself into him for more sniffling.

"Everything is so nice!!!" she says, at a more reasonable volume than before. "It's not fair!!!"

"To whom?" He is hopelessly lost.

"Oh I just mean in general and am sort of, um, dramatically exclaiming my emotional state in an illogical fashion instead of actually literally thinking everything is too nice and should st—you probably know this already I'm rambling sorry." Nestle nestle, sniffle.

Heeeeeee doesn't need to talk he can just keep petting, that works.

Yep, she finds being pet very soothing! After she's been sufficiently soothed, she ventures out to have another bite of delicious food. This will become something of a pattern, actually. Venture out a little for food, return to nestling back in his arms for comfort and reassurance. She clearly likes being in his arms very much.

And this means he doesn't need to spend any processing power on being able to generate words, and he so very desperately needs all of his spare processing power right now.

She does still notice something's going on with him, though it does take her a couple of cycles of trying (too delicious) food and then getting soothing snuggles and pets.

"... Are you okay?" she asks softly, all self-conscious concern. "Is this um, too much, or...?"

"I—" Shoulder Zerin starts yelling at him in his head to not tell her some polite lie, that will go very poorly. "—confess I have not really touched someone... this much... in a thousand years."

"Oh. Should we stop? Even though hearing that absolutely makes me want to cuddle you more, I um, get being overwhelmed."

"—no, no, it's—I'm not overwhelmed. It's not, uh. Negative."

Wow congratulations on this masterful display of wordcraft.

She furrows her brow, clearly confused. Then, almost audibly, the puzzle pieces click into place. She abruptly realizes that she's a person he's romantically interested in, on his lap, and that has implications.

Avedra blinks several times, blushing her dark purple blush. Then she seems to make a decision of some kind, and shyly nestles closer to him.

"O-oh," she mumbles, small smile playing on her lips.

...okay! Communication has been achieved! He is... not sure... if this is a good thing overall, but. Success? Hooray?

Words. What are words.

"You're doing it on purpose, now," he accuses, though his voice is light and... not entirely disapproving. A bit. Not entirely.

Her little smile widens.

"Do you want me to stop?"

This time, the question is blatantly flirting. Along with how her fingers are playing with his hair. That's also blatantly flirting.

...well now that the cat's out of the bag he suddenly finds himself with much less ability to not squirm. Wonderful how much his brain was predicating his self-control on his image of self-composure.

"No," he says anyway, and at least he manages not to stutter like a teenager, come on, he's a thousand years old, get a grip, old man.

Avedra gives a pleased hum and continues playing with his hair.

".... You know, I was very disappointed by how you found a shirt for our date."

He doesn't choke on his food, because he is not made of biology, but he nevertheless grabs a glass of the wine to occupy his mouth with something while he panics.

"I... thought to dress up," is what he coughs up after a few seconds.

“It looks good on you!!” she assures, immediately. “Just, um, also. …. Oh, I’m so bad at this, I’m sorry.”

"Just also I look attractive?" he suggests, and he doesn't blush because he doesn't run on biology and doesn't need to have blushing effects if he doesn't want them and he doesn't want them. It is... not very like him to say things like these, but honestly whatever he'll just do things and hopefully it'll be fine.

“Yes! That. You are, um. Attractive.”

The last word is a bit mumbled, because surprise! Avedra is still shy. No less sincere for it, though.

"I'm sure we can find a solution to the shirt problem eventually," he says magnanimously.