[Some part of him, a part that spend ten years terribly alone, considers leaving right now. Just getting up and walking out and pretending all of this never happened hard enough to make it true. But this is-- it's Magnus. He's still not perfectly used to having people he wants to put in real effort for, or even feels obligated to such things. But Magnus cares about him. Magnus does, actually give a shit.

So it's kind of his job to give a shit back, right?]

I mean, I guess. Look, it's not-- I'm not Lup or like, you, okay, I don't do that whole love forever with sonatas and fancy outfits. He's just...

[He's just some guy, he wants to say, but he kind of feels like that's becoming less and less true.]

He just is, okay? He's not like, hurting me or anything. Like, hell, sometimes he might actually be too sweet? It's kind of a whole thing.