Once upon a time, I told a friend of mine that he —

[But then he stops, letting the thought die off as it gradually occurs to him that there's something disingenuous about what he's offering here, in return. It's a story that fits the criteria, to be sure — telling Hiei how he ought to handle the question of Yukina certainly qualifies as thinking he knows what's best for someone else — but it's not the one that was on his mind when he'd said it, and that's what gives him pause.

More tentatively, he chooses his words carefully, and tries it over again.]

No. Pardon — let me try that again.

Once upon a time...I made the assumption that if there were one constant that must be universally true, it was that the thing that all living creatures value most highly is just that: their own life.

I...wanted to grant that person a gift. The most valuable gift I could offer. So I sought to trade my life to objectively better theirs.

...I assumed anyone would value their own life, most. But I was doing what I wanted for them — not necessarily what they might have wanted, overall.