Alderic suddenly had an highly emotional woman hanging off his front and no idea how to deal with it. His expression warped rapidly from smile to nervous grimace, still resembling a smile superficially but conveying mostly dismay. Arms half-raised, his hands hovered in the air as though he didn't know whether to pat her awkwardly or try to pull her off. Neither actually managed to occur, so he stood there with his hands at chest height looking like he was trying to surrender.
Mortified and self-conscious, he could feel the eyes of his brother Templars boring into the pair of them, but even if he could have seen them from the angle at which he stood he wouldn't have been able to read the expressions hidden under their helms. What would people think? Should he care what they thought? Bethen and he were friends, nothing more, and it hardly mattered that Templars rarely received this kind of contact. She was understandably emotional, and if she needed... this, she should have a right to it.
It wasn't like he'd never been hugged before. Just not for... a while.
The Templar tried to rouse his sluggish tongue, to head off a pregnant pause before his reticence could upset Bethen. "I- ah..." was all he could manage at first, blinking down at the mage dumbly. He remembered suddenly that he had arms, and that he could move them. Earnest but utterly clumsy, he patted Bethen a couple of times on the mid-back where it seemed like the gesture would be safe and inoffensive. He tried to make his smile reappear.
"It's important," he managed, as if he needed to explain his previous declaration. "I'm sure the others will agree."