[It's true. The wanting to belong, wanting to know someone else feels this way, that it's not wrong, not... abnormal. Honestly, he should learn to shield better, and quickly, because those wanting feelings aren't abating any time soon.]

[Especially when there are reassurances. And his arms fold tighter around himself. Protecting something intangible. A physical wall instead of a mental one.] It... it's not something you see that much of. When you're the only five human beings in the galaxy.

[When you're the only one who's been through a situation like that. The only one who had trouble being real and present sometimes. Easy to feel isolated. Like there's just something fundamentally wrong with you.]

... I'm not afraid of work. I'll do it. [There's a "but" in there. There always is.] But here? I don't know if I have time.