Ah. That is a very gentle rejection, he thinks. To state that he has her, that she will protect him, that he is her hope - it's all tied to the role he is playing for her, for the service he is providing. And why not? That is what they started this relationship as. He's the one getting messy, taking advantage, trying to steer this elsewhere ... and he is not his seventeen-year-old self who might have sailed on anyway, determined to manipulate by guile what he can't gain by genuine affection.

He shivers as her hands find his face, shivering more as they drop. In return, he lifts one hand to hers, bracing it there. He closes those bright gray eyes of his. "Then I am glad," he murmurs. "To be whatever you need." Truly, he is. Kicking himself a bit for letting himself get so riled up, but truly willing. A slight pause. "You - need not think that I have any expectations of you. I know full well how --" his mouth twists a little, "-- slight I am." Hideous, he means.