She giggles.

"Oh well. I guess it would be unhealthy of me to just rely on you to swoop out of nowhere and save me. Even conversationally."

Giggle. "Yeah, no kidding."

"Putting aside healthy relationship dynamics and self reliance and the like, swooping in general sounds exhausting. Swooping out of nowhere regularly sounds moreso. It'd be terrible to ask that of you!"

"And, I mean, I wouldn't rely on me to swoop out of nowhere and save anybody."

"No? Well, fair enough, it seems like a lot of responsibility."

"I'm—"

He struggles with words for a moment.

"...I think I've somehow managed to trick you into thinking I'm a good person and I don't know how I did it and I sort of wish I hadn't."

"... I think I'm going to need more clarification as to what you mean? I - tend not to think people go into neat good or bad slots, even the dragon prick was probably nice to someone. Somewhere. Just - not me."

"I'm - you - I rescued you mostly by accident," he says. "I murdered my father for an empire I didn't even want and destroyed it in the process. And - you keep seeming to think of me as - the sort of person who does this sort of thing," with a vague gesture at the room, "and I am not, I'm not a rescuer, I am more often what people need rescuing from. I - I like you. I don't want to hurt you. I haven't been anything but honest with you. But - I feel like you're seeing me as someone I'm not."

"Okay. Um - fair enough. Aside from the... time you, um. Murdered your father for an empire you didn't want, what other things have you done that people need rescuing from?"

He seems to be having some trouble answering this one.

That doesn't seem like an 'I don't have an answer,' that seems like an 'I am having trouble saying the answer.'

"... Would writing it down help, maybe?" she offers. "Or. Does your translation do writing?"

"—it does, yeah. I."

He rubs his face with his hands.

She waits, concerned.

"...ugh."

He gets up. He paces. He goes to the window and looks out at the city.

"I used to torture girls to death because it was hot and I could."

"Oh."

Her mouth opens, but no sound comes out, and even if that were working she has no idea what to say. She's really not sure there's anything that can be said to - to that, really. She closes her mouth, suppresses the growing urge to hyperventilate and flee the room, and pretends for a few minutes that she's her mother. (And doesn't that hurt, her mother's dead, but she can't think about that right now she's busy -)

"W-what were the circumstances of -" No, that's wrong, you're looking for excuses, stop it, what's your real question, what is your first priority? "... Am I in any danger? From - from you?"

"I can see why you wouldn't take my word for it, but - no, I don't think you are. I don't want - I like you. I like this - thing we have - had - with the," he gestures vaguely, "crying on each other, eating breakfast together, that. I like it. I like the way you laugh. I want to see you happy. And, I mean, that's clearly not a guarantee, I'm demonstrably capable of destroying the things I care about for stupid reasons, but..." He trails off with an unhappy shrug, staring out the window.

"Wanting to try is better than - than not," she points out, softly. "Thanks for not, um. Throwing a fit at me not handling this with grace and." She waves a hand. "... I think my track record with men speaks for itself."

...snort.

"Okay, next. Next set of questions - are you, were those instances a, a one off or did you get into the habit, would you continue it if given the chance?"

"I blew up my entire life pretty thoroughly, I don't know what I'm going to do, at all, about anything. I don't think I'm that attached to torturing girls..."

She considers.

"... It sounds like you might need a better - set of things to do? Ones that make you happy in the long term, instead of in the short term and then feeling complicated feelings later. I don't know, did you find torturing girls as fulfilling as, um. Having breakfast together?"

...he smiles slightly.

"It's... a different kind of thing, really. I think I could've been pretty happy the other way but - having breakfast together is something I want in my life more than torturing girls."

"Okay," she agrees. "So, um. ... Have any hobbies?"