"Hey me." He parrots just to be a shit. Because it's expected, because it's a pattern he knows how to follow, something he can say and do to buy himself time until he can put the mangled pieces of his mind back together. It doesn't take as long as he used to now that he and North are...something. Look don't put a label on it, alright? They defy definition in all it's forms.

Always have, always will.

His breath comes easy and slow, a calming tactic he'd learned before everything went to hell. Reaching out to snag North's hand is easy. Rolling off into innuendo? Easier still. "Not yet. Wouldn't mind if you changed that for me."