Re: cepheus/alastair.
Then you have to ask yourself, really ask yourself, is this worth it? It is going to be hard and there more then likely will be times where you wish to throttle him and quite possibly yourself but do you think it'll be worth it and do you think you can change his mind? It could be that he has never had a relationship before and does know the benefits of it. It could be that he's afraid to let himself experience such a thing because it'll cement something inside of him that he's not yet ready to admit to.
Or he could just be a giant arse in which case we'll kill him, bury the body and no one will ever know any different.