The steady, barely there lean into him didn't go unnoticed, and Loki hadn't backed away either. If it was helping or offering anything then he'd be staying there, rubbing her shoulders faintly, both while in thought and to try and help the settling.
"I understand." To a certain degree he did, he really did. There wasn't a day or night that went by when he didn't get to remember some flash of history in which Loki, a Loki, had done something horrible. His nightmares felt real, and that other part of him was always mocking. He would never stop hating that Loki--that him, who he was, and who he could be.
Killing didn't go away, there was no special cleaner or sticker or life rehabilitation for it. Blood stained after all. "But, Elsa, you can't hate yourself. You...you're.." There was being hated by everyone and then hating yourself. That, Loki could also understand. But Elsa wasn't hated by everyone, she was a wonderful person, and if she could stop hating herself, needlessly, she could flourish.
"You deserve to be kind to yourself and give yourself understanding. You deserve so much, but above all else, you deserve your own compassion. You're an amazing person and you refuse to see it. I don't know why, and I don't understand why you're so unforgivinigly cruel, but, I really wish you were kinder to my friend."
Maybe, she just needed another perspective. Maybe Elsa was left with nothing but her own thoughts, and without an argumentative rebuttal, it was all she'd known.