“Something I wanted,” he argues, voice catching. Something he wanted that had hurt him, and then hurt Rama by proxy. Whatever argument he wanted to deliver dies quickly; Ram felt awful, and no amount of logic would change that.

He exhales softly and looks down at the cooling plate and cup on his lap. He’d beaten himself up about this too - he needs to be able to care for him. It’s easy for Crozier to forget that Rama watched him nearly die.

“You won’t let me down,” he agrees, adamant. Rama could never. “If…we need to refrain entirely…”

Not just from lying together, but all else - it’s agony just to even think about it.