Yes. He sees me in you, but you aren't me. And he sees himself in you, but you aren't him. But I think, more often than not, he's glad when you take after me more than you do him.
[Which is not always apparent, perhaps, on the surface. But Vlad is, after all, a difficult man to crack, and his true intentions are often challenging to read even among the people who know him best.]
He'll never say as much, of course. And when he shows his affection, he always wants to show it through protectiveness. But you don't need his protection anymore, not the way you used to. So he harbors his feelings without knowing a different way to show them.
at this precise moment in the thread he is probably haggling with a baba over the price of carrots
[Which is not always apparent, perhaps, on the surface. But Vlad is, after all, a difficult man to crack, and his true intentions are often challenging to read even among the people who know him best.]
He'll never say as much, of course. And when he shows his affection, he always wants to show it through protectiveness. But you don't need his protection anymore, not the way you used to. So he harbors his feelings without knowing a different way to show them.