Someone like him.
He wonders what she means by that, if she has deduced something about him that he had not meant to show her. There is nothing all that interesting about him, he doesn’t think. Nothing about him that makes him any more prone to adventures than anyone else.
Perhaps she is just being kind.
Letting them both believe he’s something that he’s not.
The only reason his life is not boring is because of some encroaching darkness he has had to learn how to try and control. It makes him uneasy and he hopes his discomfort doesn’t show on his face lest she think that she is somehow responsible for it.
“I don’t think I’m that interesting,” he murmurs with a strained, self-conscious smile.
But every ounce of his discomfort dissolves as she mentions her shapeshifting. His expression brightens and he lifts his head, golden eyes ablaze as he studies her. Had he known that she could shapeshift? He tries to dig back in his memories but finds himself distracted by the thought that something bad might have happened to her.
He reaches out to tentatively bump her shoulder again, still grinning gently.
“Can I see?” he asks, “will you show me your favorite shape?”
It makes him nervous to ask it. Like it’s some sort of test. Like he’s worried that she won’t trust him enough to show him. That maybe she thinks she’ll run into trouble with him, too.