Couch by the fireplace, eyes closed, trying to fall asleep but not there yet.

He sits down. "Hey. Uh, you're not kicked out of your room or anything."

Cam opens his eyes. "No? I could get another one. Or steal yours, I think rent is current on it. Musical rooms."

"I'm not mad at you. I'm sorry I didn't explain things more clearly, I didn't mean for you to think I was."

"I didn't think you were mad per se."

"Mirelóte did some translating." Snuggle. "I feel scared, I feel helpless, I am not used to feeling that way and don't know how to go about changing facts about my head so I don't feel that way, so it feels easier to wish I hadn't made the decisions that put me in that position but those aren't - really the problem. I - are you going to go report him to whatever authority claims jurisdiction, should it come up -"

Wingwrap. Headshake.

"Thank you. So, uh, that doesn't make the feeling scared and helpless go away, it's sort of tied to - the difference between feeling like I have something as a matter of course and feeling like I have it because I've performed my way into a special exception, but I think I can probably get there eventually. And that's much preferable to never having told you."

"Will it help if I list material differences, or...?"

"That would help a lot, yes."

Cam belatedly pulls out his wand and casts the conversational privacy spell. "Your mom has not summoned the creep to make him stand in a five foot circle till she gets rid of him or dies. You consciously and at more than twice the girl's age took a risk, which doesn't mean you couldn't decide you wanted to prosecute him if you were so inclined but means it implies a markedly different risk profile for people who didn't take that risk and don't know how he conducts himself. Insofar as he has the ability to appear in assorted locations that may be inadequately secured against his magical powers, that is a security problem we are currently pausing his whole world to fix in the general case rather than a feature of his being dead which feature is addressed by an existing imperfect but usually okay justice system."

"If people'd rather handle things like this with a vigilante summons than have to testify to Ganymede I'm - not unreservedly okay with that but I'd talk to them before calling the cops on them. I agree that letting him free would have been a bad solution."

"You usually get good or at least informative results from talking to people; it makes sense for you to have it as a first resort.

"I don't know if it makes any difference that it didn't even occur to me to compare the situations at the time I said I was going to go send the tips in, you presented yours as - sort of distinct in character and I mostly don't think about it unless the creep comes up in conversation, I probably should've."

"I didn't think you had. I don't think of them as equivalent. I didn't realize how much it'd bother me to hear you say that until you said it and I just thought - oh no oh no oh no what about when - I guess it had been on my mind because I was trying to imagine what the girl might want -"

Squeeze.

Squeeze. "Anyway to me that conversation was twenty minutes ago but I take it it's been bothering you for longer than that."

"...three, four hours? Long enough for Miranda to ask what was bothering me and look very disconcerted when I wouldn't tell her and run and get Mirelótë who took it as you apparently saw."

"Came upstairs to be very patient at the thing. I can see how she worked her miracles on the Valar. I - it'll help me if in the future if when you make a decision like that you - nod at - some of the costs of doing so and indicate you've thought about them, but other than that I don't think you did anything wrong and I really don't want you to be all sad on a couch down here wondering if I regret falling in love."

...nod. Snuggle. "I love you."

"I love you."

"- I was sort of premature in announcing plans, I did check various things like the presence of a preexisting police report before I sent any emails and if I'd been being careful I would've mentioned that my intentions were potentially conditional and so on, would that have helped -"

"Significantly." Snuggle. "But usually I would have assumed you'd do those things, I'm clearly quicker to worries on this topic than most."

Nod, squeeze.

"A very long time ago... well, for those of us who are not yet twenty, it was like a year back - I said 'we don't have to do the right thing every time' and you made such a face and said 'yes we do' and it is one of the things I like very much about you, not compromising on that."