"I cannot immediately imagine any situations in which the problem is 'you are making me sad' full stop. Isn't that one of the blind spots the Valar have to sanify their way out of?"

"It is, isn't it? But I'd really rather not work through my feelings in a way that leaves you abandoned and sad, so it's relevant -"

"What would you have done if instead of Mirelótë you had encountered, I dunno, Minor, suppose Miranda had gotten Minor to go tell you that you were making me sad."

"Uh, been annoyed with the time dilation for not giving me more processing time, pulled it together, maybe taken a  calming potion, come downstairs and apologized?"

"My suspicion is that this would not have been as effective at addressing the underlying problem."

"Probably not. But it would have been better than you being sad. I strongly dislike people being sad for reasons that are my fault."

"I don't want to just be cheered up regardless of what's going on and whether things are okay like I'm some kind of exotic dial that points to a point on the spectrum between 'happy' and 'sad'!"

"Things are okay. If you had called the GCP once we got Hazel running then things would not be okay but I didn't really think you would, I just wasn't on firm enough ground with why you wouldn't."

"If you say so."

Squeeze. "I love you."

"I love you too."