[Oh, look at you, you're such a precious fluffball... He's going to give you so many pets and his boyfriend's dogs are going to hate him when he comes home...]

Ah, yes it's...

[...How does he... put this...]

Well, when we were talking you seemed confused as to why I'd express concern about you.

[Okay, that's a starting point. Good, he can work with that.]

I know I can be rather... difficult to deal with sometimes, and I can be very insincere and flippant. It's... Well, to be perfectly honest, it's something that I've been trying to work on.

[His tone is surprisingly even, though his posture's still tense even as he's petting the cat.]

...I expressed concern about you because I am concerned about you. It wasn't fake. All of this is a bit much, and I can imagine returning to it is a massive pain. You've made it very clear that you hate this and would much rather be off the network, after all.

So I really do want to make sure you're doing okay, at least right now.

[Okay, so it's a bit stunted and eye contact is definitely not a thing, but he's doing his best. It's not exactly what he wants to say either, but it's a good starting place, he thinks.]