“I belong to myself, Captain. I let you have me.”

“Well... yeah. I mean, I like who I am most of the time but like... what I am is just. Confusing. I mean. I’m a lot of things, most of those things on their own have names and definitions. But combined its all just... weird. I just gotta. Work on accepting that I am what I am. I’d just be nice to peak at my code and make sense of it all.”

“A touch better than you, I assume.” He teased gently but poured him a large glass of brandy all the same, coming up behind him to surrender the drink and place his hands on either shoulder, applying light pressure to start. “Talk, Jim, you’ll relax more.” 

His face lit up with micro-reactions to Jim’s words, brows popping up, lips squirming into a reserved frown. His shoulders tensed and he popped up two inches taller by going on the balls of his feet. “Is that so? Why don’t you tell me about it?” He was clearly doing his best not to yell and his head shook preemptively over Jim’s explanation, hands on his hips, ready to admonish him. 

            “--this is- this is- spainful.” He appears to have ceased respiration entirely, face contorted with laughter and cheeks damp. “You’re sponcerned.”

            “Spop it, spop it now--”

            “Spillogical.”