It's fine if he can't decide whether to see her as his master or his crush, or as his master or a kid... but this new casual wavering between treating her like a kid and his crush in the same breath is a tad disturbing to me (although it could just be an author's grossly misplaced spanking fetish, I suppose...?).
(I mean objectively his romantic decisions have marked him as a creep for ages, but between various reincarnations and half-remembered memories, their ages are basically, like, whatever, at this point, as long as I'm not treating it too seriously—so it's only how old they act, or how old they act like the other is, that's liable to concern me at this point.)
But yeah, like others, I dearly miss the earnest-puppy version of the guy. This new psychopath edition is just not cutting it. ~w~;;