If Niko were to have drawn a personal Maslow's hierarchy of needs chart, having a kind, handsome man reassure him that there's nothing wrong with him and that he wasn't going to instantly abandon him the moment he wasn't perfect likely could have filled in most of it.

"That's gonna be hard, but you know what? I trust you," Niko says, taking a deep breath and diving into this deep end.

He pauses for a moment, then asks, completely earnest: "Am I allowed to be needy for a second here?"