"I don't bruise easily," X murmured. He hadn't even known what a bruise was before meeting his husband, and learning how humans from Earth could bruise off of something as simple as a stubbed toe terrified him. Sure enough, when he inspected his arm, there was absolutely nothing there, and the smarting pain had already subsided. He was fine.

"I don't know," he answered thoughtfully. His stance drifted further and further off-centre as he spoke. "If it threatened you, I'd trust you to know how to handle it, because you're here now when you don't have to be. If it threatened me, I'd... become you, I suppose. I could ask Devin for help, or any number of other people here." He smiled, and it was a smile less like his usual gentle ones and more like the tired, lightly sharp smile of someone who struggled a lot more than they let on. "I've been threatened by a god before," he said. "I'm not as soft as I look."