"You're so sweet to me."

"You're - cute and pretty and you make me so happy - I think I've been a little in love with you ever since you flung petals over me." Snuggle.

"Aww."

He giggles and hugs her. "It was just so cute!"

"Really?"

"Yes!!"

"It was just flower petals!"

"It was... silly and whimsical and audacious and pretty."

"Less audacious than if I'd known who you were."

"If you need to calculate your escape routes before you do it, it's audacious."

"Okay, granted."

Snuggle.

Snuggle. "This is--not the life I would have chosen, but so far the tradeoffs are entirely worth it."

...snuggle.

Snuggle. "It's--not actually the fact that I have your marks on my wrists, that's embarrassing but as far as I can tell you don't actually intend to curtail my behavior based on that."

"Mm?"

"...Even if you set me free, I feel like if I tried to follow my original life plan it wouldn't end well. I--was going to get married and have kids, at some point. And if you wanted kids I feel like you would have murdered slightly fewer pregnant women, and I can't imagine trying to marry someone else going well for my prospective spouse."

—he can't help a giggle at 'murdered slightly fewer pregnant women'.

Snort.

"You're, uh, not wrong, about me wanting kids. I - don't think I have any business being a parent. And when I imagine what I'd feel like, growing up with an immortal all-powerful Emperor for a father..." He shakes his head. "I'm not gonna do that to my kid. And if they didn't turn out like me I'd have a whole different set of problems."

"Yeah. I'll probably be an aunt someday, I can settle for that." Sigh.

He pets her hair pensively.

"Sorry. I--it is worth it."

"Seems a little silly for you to be apologizing to me for," handwave, "this."

"True."