"I see," Vladimir said calmly and a bit guardedly, not too sure what to say at first. Past experience had made him somewhat wary of digging into lovers/partners or boy/girlfriend's pasts too soon.
Such conversations often lead to verbal forays about their past relationships and eventually to hinting at either how wonderful Vladimir was, or how he was distant and didn't pay enough attention to them, or that his work gets in the way, etc.
Either way, it often got uncomfortable, and Vladimir knew that it was partly his own fault because he was very aware that he did tend to keep people at arm's length just because of who he was.
Taking another mochi, Vladimir then reminded himself, as he slowly ate and savoured the lightly sweet treat, that Konpeto was different, he knew all about Vlad's darker side and he was not put off by it. Vladimir did not have to hide who he really was like he had had to in those other relationships. Things were different now.
"Old stuff like old relationship stuff or do you mean childhood stuff?" he asked, deciding to straight out ask, meet his fears straight on as it were.