[ Allowing it is easy when she happens to seek out that warmth, with the same flutter in her stomach as the first time. She hasn't had another heat since, but her body still remembers - and maybe her heart remembers, too.

She takes his hand and squeezes. ] Maybe eight, maybe nine. I've had twenty-five years' worth of time to atone, or change my sneaky ways, and instead I just...leaned in.

[ Her gaze drops to their hands, following the path of her thumb caressing down his thumb, one knuckle at a time. She glances up at him from under pale eyelashes, quickly. ] Are you sure, Zevlor? You're a virtuous - well, I mean, you have more virtues than me, for sure, and I... [ A soft breath. ] I've been hungry for something soft, and for hope, for longer than this journey, for longer than the tadpole and the illithids and the Absolute shit. If you tell me to cling, I might never let go.