Teige sat bolt upright quite suddenly.

"C'mere t'me now, is this all coming up because I said 'love ya' earlier tonight?" he wanted to know. "I meant it t'be sure, but not with such--such weight, you know? It was more that, well, we've hardly had time for each other lately, and I just thought I'd say--" he terminated the thought, scratching the fur at his throat with an uncomfortable expression, and instead said, "--but look, if you want to keep things strictly casual for now, that's grand. As long as we're on the same page, ent it fine?"

"Well, see, that's the thing," Vlad interjected, grimacing somewhat. He paused, muttering, "Uh, how do I put this."

Teige let him mull it over for a second, looking suddenly a lot more ill to be sitting up.

"Okay," Vlad said, "in Aetherian, it's enrutdh, but I don't know the English term. Maybe there wasn't one back when I was living on Earth, I don't know. Non-romantic? Or...an-romantic? Something like that."

"Oh," Teige mumbled, seeming to comprehend. He sank back against the wall and slid down a bit. "A-romantic, maybe."

"Maybe?" Vlad echoed thoughtfully.

Teige had sagged to almost lying back down, the round glows of his eyes narrowed in queasiness or disappointment or something else. "I know the term 'asexual,' so it stands to reason, I s'pose," he said. "That you, then?"