I get why people are talking a lot about Nikki yelling "I want you to love me enough to give it to me!" but in my opinion it's not the line in that scene that tells us the most about Nikki or his relationship with Lestat.
To me, the standout line is "I want to know you in this changed form!" It hits on so many levels!
Firstly, that's just what love is? Like, today will change me and so I'll be a different person tomorrow. And again next week. And again next month. And again next year. And love (or a part of it, anyways) is someone changing and you choosing to say "I want to stay and know this new you." Which is admittedly a lot easier when the changes happening are the changes caused by every day life and not, you know. Your lover being kidnapped and turned into a vampire and hiding that from you.
Which, speaking of the specific circumstances! A couple other things I want to note about this line.
Nikki is already clearly mentally unwell, and Lestat's (albeit well intentioned) gaslighting cannot be helping. And yet Nikki, who *knows* that Lestat is lying to him ("our favorite game -- you lie, and I believe you") still wants to know Lestat. Still trusts Lestat.
Beyond that, Nikki doesn't originally seem to think that whatever has happened to Lestat is something that Lestat could give to him, seeming to think it's some kind of "witchery."
We know that, in show cannon, Lestat was present when the witches in Auvergne were burned at the stake. This implies that Nikki, who is younger than Lestat but not by nine years, was also present when the witches were killed. In the context of Nikki thinking that Lestat has been victimized by witchery and still asking to know him "in this changed form," having seen so called witches violently killed?
Again, I see why people are focusing on the give it to me line, but I think Nikki saying he wants to know Lestat still says so much more about how much Nikki loves Lestat.
