As far as I know it was a process for you and Shrike to explore this, so...

Um. You understand me, you know what it's like to have another side of you that you struggle to accept. You're kind and supportive and strong, and you have come to support me many times. I realized that I wanted somebody like that beside me. I suppose I came to realize that through seeing how you and Shrike were there for each other, that I wanted this to, um, take a different dimension for us, too?

But we can take our time with it. We can feel it out.