Astarion doesn't shrug him off, but only because he's frozen like an animal in a trap, too startled to even struggle.

"I..."

He feels lost. Why do people insist on putting labels on things? He was perfectly content with being a casual fuck who Jacob held in inexplicably high esteem. That would have been fine. But now it isn't? Apparently?

"I didn't give it much thought," he says lamely.