Snuggle. Pet pet pet.

"I have a brother and a sister," she explains. "It had to be one of us, and--my sister has a scholarship to study music, she's brilliant, I couldn't let her give that up. And my brother--he's stronger than he is smart or handsome, he'd end up being used for hard labor. I couldn't let that happen to him."

He nods.

"I know the man I outbid for you," he mentions. "I'm not sure if you want to know - what your alternative was."

"Oh, now you've got me morbidly curious, go on."

"He has a type. Pretty girls with red hair. He buys them up and - I'd almost say 'decorates with them' - dresses them in pretty clothes that show their slave-marks and just sort of has them around his house. And rapes them, obviously, and has them beaten if they annoy him, but he pays the best healers so they'll stay pretty afterward. I imagine their main complaints are mostly the rape and the beatings, but the thing that struck me the first time I went to one of his parties was how boring their lives must be - some of them dance or sing or play instruments, but the ones without a suitably decorative skill just have to stand around looking attractive whenever he's not using them."

"From the way you asked if I wanted to know I was expecting worse!"

"There's no household in the empire that's a worse place to be a pleasure-slave than mine. But I didn't buy you for that. I bought you because I don't want you getting hurt the way you would out there, and because you asked me to even if you didn't exactly know what you were asking for, and - because I don't want anyone else to own you."

Snuggle. "That's really sweet! In a slightly creepy way!"

...he laughs. He pets her hair.

"I really really do appreciate it though," she says. "I mean, there is still a part of my brain that's gibbering in terror over the bit where you're the Emperor, but it doesn't have much in the way of credibility with the rest of me."

"Aww," he says. "Seems like a waste, you being terrified where I can't even see it."

"Sorry." Snuggle.

Snuggle. More hairpets. Maybe a nuzzle or two.

"You know, I don't even know your name."

"It's Lyrame."

"Pretty."

Snuggle. "I know. I'm the pretty one."

"You're lovely."

...he's thinking about her crying on him again.

She catches the look on his face and ducks her head and blushes.

...aww. He kisses her on the cheek.

She beams at him.

"...I really want to fuck you right now."

"...Oh."

She swallows.

She starts unbuttoning her blouse. Her hands are trembling slightly.

...he catches one of her hands and squeezes it gently. "I don't - that wasn't an order."

"Oh."

She hugs him again. A little more tightly this time.

"I--thank you."

He wraps his arms around her and kisses her forehead.