Asher leans up on his elbows, shaking his head.

"No, Nathaniel, I would never use you..." he reaches out, tentative and unsure, brushing his fingertips against Nathaniel's side as he sits up.

He sighs, covering his face with one hand, trying to think of how to explain this, of how, for his entire life, being taken has always been punishment, always been when he had done something wrong. Just saying that, of course, would be far too simple.