It is all too easy to do this. All things considered, hugging the Knight has felt jarringly ordinary. Good grief, but they're leaning on him - Lemm adjusts his hold, learning on the fly - how they fit, how this works. He's getting better at it. Less stiff, at least.

"Easy," he hears himself say, a little softer than he means to. He didn't expect them to come apart like that. "It's only stuff. Not even valuable stuff, at that. Don't make this dramatic, Knight."

As much as he sounds like he's trying to persuade them into retreating, he isn't actually letting go. If anything he just holds a little tighter. (Safe. He can't solve their problems, he knows he is terribly small in the face of them, but he is here and he is bigger than them right now and he will make them safe.) He tucks his face in and sighs against their shoulder; unwittingly, one hand begins rubbing their back lightly back and forth.

Words are only fine when they work, and the thing is that the Knight has become something he can't name out loud.