"Oh, sure. I don't mind playing bodyguard for a while."

He scratches at the scales under his eye as he comes into escorting range. She obviously... would prefer that he look at anything that is not her, which they are in agreement on here. Side by side is the polite option.

"When these came in, they looked like extra gross scaly pimples. I told Avan I was going fishing, but I just sulked by the river feeling lousy about my face all day and then said I couldn't catch anything."

He talks faster as he keeps going, he wants to get it over with. This is probably not what Rosie meant when she was urging him to confess his feelings last month but it is a pretty similar trial of courage for him. He's already openly insecure about enough things without people knowing about even more of them.