Ned lets himself be rearranged, heavy-limbed but beginning to catch his breath, finally. He's glad that Daneel stays close to him, kisses him back, muzzy and dazed and ardent. When he feels capable of speaking again he swallows, says softly, "Thank you."

The way he says it makes it clear, he hopes, that he doesn't just mean for the sex. He means for everything. For sitting with him by the fire. For doing research trying to figure out how to make him happier. For all the things - little and enormous - that Daneel has done for him. He is thanking Daneel for existing, for changing his mind about so many things, for expanding his horizons.

"Love you," he murmurs, and it's different, saying it now as opposed to in the heat of the moment, as it were. But he means it every bit as much.