I do. [If I still had my magic, if I'd ever been much of a healer myself, we wouldn't need to.] I--wouldn't know what to do, [in more than one sense,] if something happened to you.

I'll stay by your side throughout, if you'll have me there. [Some instinct makes him reach across the table, bumping fingers against L's coffee cup with a wince before holding his hand out to his Bonded. Touch may be good for both of them right now...but he does not wish to force it. The last thing he wishes to do is force it, after what Mello had done.]

That's as well, then. [A pause stretches out as he, too, turns his attention to the world around them, sounds and scents and the feel of the morning breeze running fingers through his fur. There's a moment of disconnection in his head: Things shouldn't be so peaceful, so ordinary, when his Bonded has been so hideously violated and left hurting and ashamed.

Yet the world goes on, neither knowing nor caring of their individual struggles, and there's a certain solace in that.]

I've half a mind, [he picks up, voice quiet and a little distant,] to put you under guard.