He'll slouch down and into her a little.  "Yeah.  We're good.  Um, do you mind if I...?"  He pats her lower back, then reaches a little bit behind her.  If she permits it, he'll have his arm wrapped snugly around her waist.

"Not at all."

She's very aware of how hot he is but this is not actually recreational so she's trying to be cool about it.

Everyone's hot here!  This is a real problem for espers who aspire to be Professional.  His arm wraps around her, and his hand lands just above her hipbone.  Then he squeezes her into his side.  "So, uh."  Fuck what do you talk about this is a colleague, gotta keep it - aha. 

He drops his voice into a lower register, his mouth inches closer to her ear.  Even an esper won't be able to eavesdrop.  "Is it, uh.  Usual for power demonstrations to go like Misha's did?  It seemed...a little..."  He trails off, trying to think to think of a professional way to say 'batshit crazy'.

"Mmm...no..He's...strange. His power does seem unusual itself but.." She' also murmuring very quietly.

"I almost bailed on the mission, right then.  It was pretty...man, I don't know.  It might have been neat to play with his power a little bit before the mission...but not like that?  But we're super compatible, so...it'd be a shame to not give him a chance."  And for the sake of the civs, too.

"It's not a good idea to bail on a mission like that..but I understand the temptation. You can ask not to be assigned to work with people in future, though he's foreign so it hopefully won't come up anyway..." small sigh "It's good to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially foreigners, I'm not sure how much of his...difficulty explaining himself is down to the language barrier."

"Yeah.  I mean.  It's just - really concerning.  And the undisclosed backlash, I don't - there are people who need them, obviously.  It's just...a lot, adding up.  Especially with the thing with gathering up the victims."  It would be really nice if I could just trust him.

"Yeah I don't want to pressure people into disclosing their backlash, there's a lot of perfectly sensible reasons why somebody might not want to but it does make it harder to work with them..."

There's aspects of her backlash at high levels that she doesn't exactly discuss in detail though that's because it's a risk to her and mostly not to anyone else.

"Mmmmmh."  Long sigh.  As he speaks, he absentmindedly squirms closer to Graviton.  He's not exactly climbing into her lap, but it wouldn't be difficult to get there.  "Well, I'll think about it.  I uh, I appreciate you being my - sounding board.  Make it a little easier."

It's too soon to say I'll never work with someone with an undisclosed backlash again, but if something like this happens twice in a month, I'll reconsider.

"We should probably try to get him to talk more...do you want me to sit in your lap?" She could put him in hers but that direction would be more awkward.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

"Uh, yeah, that's - probably a good idea.  More, um, skin contact.  We'll have to figure out how we'll, uh, sandwich later.  But.  For now."  He awkwardly pats his thigh, and pulls back a little from Graviton.

Awkward boys are cute but she's a little worried he's pushing himself too far, "You sure? Snuggling like we were is almost as good for skin contact and you seem nervous?"

"I mean, I'm just - not used to this much - touchiness?  Six months ago, if you'd asked me if a gorgeous woman would be asking to sit in my lap I'd've laughed until I passed out.  And I won't be getting used to it if I don't.  And I sort of need to, to be an esper.  So."

"Well if you're sure. You can ask me to back off any time. This is more for your benefit than mine anyway."

She slides into his lap sideways and slings both arms around his neck, "How's this?"

Hesitantly, slowly, he also wraps his arms around her.  His thumb brushes against the bottom edge of her top, then flattens against the small of her back.  He's currently in a three-way war between "GIRL", "GIRL(subtype: scary)" and "Guiding".  Currently, Girl and Guiding are in the lead.  "It's, uh, it's good.  It's very good."  Boy is it ever a lot, though.  A lot of good.

"it is good. It's kind of a lot though, isn't it? I'm still not inured to that either, I don't know if I ever will be..."

She gets it too!!!  "Yeah.  It's - not overwhelming, usually, but.  Sometimes it is.  And even when it isn't, it's always, just - a sensation, hey!  This is good!  It's here!  It's not going away!"

"it is very a sensation."

That gets a laugh out of him.  "Yeah.  It is."  He relaxes, a little.  And pets his coworker down her spine.

"We should maybe go check on Misha...in a few minutes..." This is very cosy.

"Yeah, probably."  He doesn't really want to stop.  Or get up.

Misha is fine in the same manner as a dog with a bone generally self-reports as "fine." Just carrying on a very loud conversation with someone.

"Yes, thanks, yes, tell me when you have news, da? Okay, is good, alright," he can be heard saying as he approaches the break tent. Stomp, stomp, stomp. Pause. "Can you get it before we go back in?" Stomp, stomp in the other direction, then more chatter. "No, I don't know. Shirtless wants do guiding. Shirtless?—ah, Ow-mento. Like... injured mint candies. Him! Yes, I ask." Stomp, stomp, stomp into the tent.

"'Ey, Aumento! How long you expect fondle Graviton takes this time? Hour?"

You know what, this is the kind of razzing he'd expect from the Dwarves.  Or possibly on the mat.  This he can handle.  "Jealous, Misha?  You want some of this as well?"  He hides his mouth behind Graviton's shoulder and murmurs to her, esper-quiet, "Play along."

Oh, hey, he’s making fun now. This is a new development! “I’m just hoping you can last with her in your lap. I asked support for some things before next trip out and if you finish too soon we have to go back in without. So think of grandma or algebra or something, yeah?”