Hythlodaeus shifts easily to follow Hades's direction, his arms only tightening, one shifting to let his fingers ruffle lightly the puffed out hair the back of Hades's neck, different in color and even texture and yet he will not call it strange.

Ever has he been fond of Hades's changing forms, after all, and even if this one must have had its price, it is still Hades's.

His lips curl up slightly, even as his eyes remain closed.

"I will not leave you. Even before coming here, I would have sought you out; either way, I will hold on. For your heart's sake, and mine." And Pahja's, he suspects, even if he suspects she has more people to wish close, too. "Whatever is yet to face, we face together."

He chose to make sure that Hades at least could live, in the only way he knew how, then. But looking back, and he has spent the days considering, perhaps it may have been wiser to seek out knowledge, as there had been some to find.

So he is going to try harder now. Fight harder, so Hades will not have to hurt so again. Ever again.