"What good is it being the all-powerful emperor of the world if I can't lounge around naked when I feel like it?"

"Fair enough." She reaches a hand out to gently hold his hand. "Lunch, then? And then drop me somewhere where I can begin my dastardly plan to meddle in your empire?"

He smiles, and kisses her hand, and lets it go, and conjures lunch.

Lunch! With some adoring looks! Adoring looks that studiously avoid eating too much of the eye candy. They don't entirely refrain, but she'd like to do something besides fuck him all day.

Smiiile.

"So is the plan to introduce me to some people you think I'd find particularly helpful for meddling, or point me in a direction, wave fondly, and pick me up later?"

"You might do better without direct introductions."

"Really? Even if you then left?"

"People get weird about me, and they get much weirder when I show up in person, even if I go away afterward. My administrative staff is mostly people who are way less like that than usual, but - still not none."

"Ah. All right. So I just - introduce myself, say you said I could do whatever I want, say that I'm very curious about how the government works and would appreciate if they could have someone show me the ropes?"

"Yeah."

"And I should probably not be cheerful and perky about the Emperor planning to keep me forever."

"Probably not," he agrees. "Most of the people I keep aren't nearly so happy about it."

"I -"

Pause.

Blink.

"..... Wait, do you still have them? I - thought -" She's not sure what she thought, actually, so that sentence just kind of dies pathetically and she's left with it half-finished in her throat.

...he blinks. "What were you imagining had happened to them?" he wonders, bewildered.

"I was maybe not thinking too much about it because it was unpleasant and hard to conceptualize when I liked you so much and I was busy handling all of the immediate problems," she mumbles, to her lap.

...aw. He reaches out as though to hug her, and then changes his mind and drops his hand.

"Well. I make sure to keep some around, because not doing that is the kind of thing that leads to making regrettable impulse decisions."

"Ah. How - how many?"

"...is it going to do you any good to know that?"

"It - might help with understanding of scale a bit, I want to know if regrettable impulse decisions can be prevented by just... making it clear that I don't mind being interrupted and carried off sometimes? But I am also admittedly one person."

"You're one person and I don't want to - hurt you."

"Is - specifically, is hurting someone necessary? Or are they things that are just so extreme most people are hurt by them?"

"Mm... no," he says. "Sometimes what I need is to not care, and I can't do that with you and wouldn't want to if I could."

"Not care as in not have to worry about what would and wouldn't hurt someone?" she clarifies. "Or just - not care about the person you're torturing."

"Mm. First thing."