[ The exorcist's thin fingers close on Natsume's, something in the curl of them cages the boy's hand within his own; a little firmly, a little roughly. But, his expression is gentle - that smile that curves his mouth is as unknowable as ever, and he meets the boy's eyes, leaning forward, as if to tell him a secret. Matoba's feelings towards Natsume are as consumptive and as possessive as any he has ever had for another creature - he wants to cage him, to keep him, to turn him into the prodigal exorcist that he knows he can be. But, equally, he wants to have him in other ways, intimate ways, to show him the most fundamental way of knowing another human being; inside and out, he wants Natsume spread out on the sheets beneath him, arching his back, wants to hear broken moans and whispered confessions - wants the boy to dig his nails into his back, wants to push, and pull and hold him down, tie him up, make him scream until he's hoarse. ]

I want more than that.

[ Oh, his words scrape only the surface.

There's a pause from the exorcist then, and he leans closer, to divulge the second half of his two-part secret. ]

And, Natsume-kun, you could never ask too much. Only, perhaps, if you asked me to let you go.

[ He strokes the boy's hand, and gives him an incongruously pleasant smile, as if he where telling him some anecdote from his morning meeting with the clan exorcists. ]