Garan shook his head. "No, Nate. I meant I wouldn't give you a reason to need to," he explained. But Garan still quite enjoyed the fact that Nate willingly would fight for him.
Still snuggled against Nate's chest, Garan brushed his hair out of his eyes. "They are, and you're exceptionally manly, Sitrach," he side sincerely. Nate always needed that sort of reinforcement, it seemed. Anything that might remotely make him seem effeminate was quite likely to bother him.
Garan didn't totally understand it, but it was Nate.