initiate:

A Drop in the Ocean – Saerafina
A tasertricks fanfic recommendation.

He couldn’t say which was the stronger emotion inside him: intense
anger at how she so effortlessly provoked him yet never rose to his bait, or an
inappropriate attraction. He had spent his life learning how to unravel the
secrets of others, finding new ways of unsettling them, frightening them and
making them bow to whatever he demanded of them.

He couldn’t do that with her. Somehow, she saw through it,
or simply ignored it, and she continued to feel, so strongly the same
suffocating warmth came over him once again.

It felt as though slowly, she was trying to rob him of his
hatred, rob him of his loneliness and pain. It was ridiculous. It was
untenable.

She was reminding him why he wanted to live.