Perhaps I flatter you in assuming that you might have felt some measure of guilt in sidetracking the conversation, or maybe I am merely fooling myself into believing that aught you do could ever be uninvolved in an overarching scheme.

[As if he has room to talk, really. He feels ridiculous being held like this, and yet...he feels loved. Cared for, like his worth is not intrinsically tied to his capabilities and servitude to his people, but who he is to Hythlodaeus. Which has always been the case, but it certainly can be a difficult task to believe otherwise when for eons your toils have robbed you of such individualism.

As he watches the water, he goes to give Hythlodaeus a hand—after all he doesn't need to go into the bath in his house robe—yet he hesitates. Remembering the scar that adorns his body now, and he's not entirely certain what to make of it. What Hythlodaeus thinks of it...

So, instead, he continues on with the conversation, his hands resting on the front of his robe in a manner that does not suggest the comfort he'd like the gesture to be read as, but instead looks a little tense and awkward.]

I can only assume you wish to better understand Dirk to attempt to communicate with him better, ergo you will be better able to assuage my burdens, yes?