You can't expect it, I don't think. I don't think it happens when you expect it, if the little I've seen of that sort of affection is anything to go by.

[It's a little bit of a case of the blind leading the blind here, honestly.]

I have wanted it for...

[He takes a breath.]

I have wanted it for so long, but I knew it would not happen. Mages do not get someone who cares the way Nate does about me. Wardens do not. Abominations do not. Mass murderers do not, and I am all four. That people care at all about me is more than I could hope for.

It doesn't matter, in the end, how many people you've shared your bed and company with. You don't have to change the assumptions of the public at large. Just with one person. One person who you care about, who cares about you. Who can accept you for who you are and what you've done.

Let the warnings be damned. You are worth every bit of caring you want.