he doesn’t respond for a long moment, studying her. Then, rather carefully, he moves and leaves a kiss against her forehead. The words will slip away after hat and she’ll be left with nothing for several minutes, she can still think, he does not eat those, just the ability to convert those thoughts into speech.

He doesn’t know if she’ll understand but he would rather not speak. If worst comes to worst, he’ll explain himself via writing but not speaking, never speaking.

Using words like that makes him feel sick to his stomach.