"Maybe. But you're the important part to me." There will be no argument here. This is not, to Ilya, up for discussion. "I know that I'll have someone by my side as I figure out why things fell into place for me to be here, and that's more than I've had in a long time."

He smiles, running a hand up Dolemeck's side. He was on the thin side, true, but not in an unhealthy way. Ilya had seen all the degrees of unhealthy skinniness, from the alcoholics who didn't eat to the undernourished miners to those dying of radiation poisoning, and he knew the difference. He might nag Dolemeck to eat a little more, but only if it meant doing that together. Any excuse was a good one, after all.

"Honestly? That... well, don't be mad? But there's still sort of, well, something big that I'm afraid to tell you. I don't want to lose you. I've lost a lot of people - everyone, even my town and at the rate that things are shifting, maybe the entire island. And yet I don't ever want to lie to you because you've never lied to me and you've opened up, so it's stupid that I'm not being that open back." A pause, and he sighs. "My own thoughts give me a headache sometimes."