[He sucks in a breath, shaking his head in adamant denial.
Who would give you that idea, intimus? And why?]
No. Not that. Responsibility doesn't include offering yourself up to him to abuse.
[Whether it was his intention or not, the results are the same.]
Even if you'd personally caused his every grief, rather than simply being the [unintended,] catalyst for them.
[Perhaps here his own overactive sense of responsibility might come as a benefit here: He knows whereof he speaks, on the hard boundaries of the duty owed to another.]
You do not owe him that. Whatever his expectations, [because hadn't that nearly gotten L killed before, accepting a second Witch Bond?] you don't exist to fulfill them. You are for yourself and those you'd willingly share with. No one else.
[The iron edge of command to the words plays strangely with the anguish underlying them.]
no subject
Who would give you that idea, intimus? And why?]
No. Not that. Responsibility doesn't include offering yourself up to him to abuse.
[Whether it was his intention or not, the results are the same.]
Even if you'd personally caused his every grief, rather than simply being the [unintended,] catalyst for them.
[Perhaps here his own overactive sense of responsibility might come as a benefit here: He knows whereof he speaks, on the hard boundaries of the duty owed to another.]
You do not owe him that. Whatever his expectations, [because hadn't that nearly gotten L killed before, accepting a second Witch Bond?] you don't exist to fulfill them. You are for yourself and those you'd willingly share with. No one else.
[The iron edge of command to the words plays strangely with the anguish underlying them.]