"That's not particularly rare among most sentient species, unfortunately," Atton said. "You ever have anyone looking at you like that before?"

Dammit, Sparkle looked all pathetic, and Atton was not exactly mr. Comforting or Physically Demonstrative, here, but the kid sounded like he really needed a hug.

So Atton was going to reach out and, like, try to give him a short half-hug kind of thing, tossing his arm over Sparkle's shoulders.