He remembered-didn't remember-just acted. It all wrapped up in a single uncertainty in his mind, and that drew him back. Not any doubt or reason. The confusion in his own head was getting too ... too loud to properly be here. And being distracted during a kiss - that just didn't feel right. (Just how wrong in the head was he? The thought flitted through his mind and was gone.)

But he didn't pull back far.

Instead, his fingers - of the right hand - crossed the short distance to her face, and he ran his thumb over the arch of her cheek, then down the curve of it. Then ever so lightly along her lower lip.

So beautiful. So radiant. It was almost like a light radiating from the bright green eyes. Light that-- light that he wanted to protect at any cost, and yet he knew it would dim. It was what their place here--

His breath caught slightly, though he ... still didn't let go. He merely suddenly realize just how much of a danger he'd put them in.

(But if he hadn't come to her in the first place, wouldn't she have been in more danger for lack of proper training?)

(But if he hadn't come, what would they be?)

But he had come. And kept coming, and he was here, and-- He sighed softly, and his voice was quiet and gentle. "This - this can turn very dangerous." his fingers combed some of the wet, silken strands away from her face. "You don't have to put yourself to the risk... anymore." It was necessary to say it. Even if he wasn't sure if she would still know just how perilous it was.