Athos supposes that after what he said - and immediately after saying it he'd decided that it was really just, such a stupid thing to say, because he's tried to protect people before and if nothing else history has shown him to some exponential power that he's only good at it when they aren't people he's invested in personally - he should have expected a reaction like that. Something softer, since that's what people do, right? People are soft with the ones who they care about.
They're also softer with people who are broken, or people they think can't handle things properly, which isn't exactly the same thing but comes close enough, and it's interesting sometimes to consider that we treat those we love the most the same as we treat innocents and the mentally incapable. Gentleness isn't a response often given to the strong, to the point where it tends to take them the most off-guard of them all.
He thinks too much. He almost preferred the almost-violence of what they were doing before, if only because it afforded less of a chance, not that he couldn't still rise to the occasion.
"I didn't-" mean it like that. Not specifically, anyway, even if he can't particularly argue he's entirely opposed to the idea. There's been quite an odd sort of reaction between them for a while now, one that at some point he just decided to stop attempting to figure out, because people have never really been his strong suit and the ones like her, the ones who have learned to shift and become what they feel like for however long or short a time they wish to, well they're all the more difficult to pin down. He doesn't enjoy the almost inevitable comparison to Anne that some of Juliett's traits draw, but he's not unaware of them. They're not all bad - he did, does, love Anne in the first place, albeit in a very different way than he does Juliett. Still, they're unfair comparisons to begin with.
He's not actually sure he likes having this decision. He wants to, right now he definitely wants to, but. It's worrying on some level. But what's the alternative? Hearing dead lovers haunt them in their thoughts? That tends to go poorly even for well-adjusted people, and if he was thinking too much before, he definitely is now, expression not worried precisely but far less certain than usual.
So in light of that expression it's probably not that surprising that he finally breaks eye contact, looks somewhere over her shoulder instead and gives more or less a non-answer. It's okay, it annoys him too. "Probably a good idea. Not any more than tonight, anyway."
they are a lot of things but 'sweet' isn't typically one of the first adjectives that comes to mind
They're also softer with people who are broken, or people they think can't handle things properly, which isn't exactly the same thing but comes close enough, and it's interesting sometimes to consider that we treat those we love the most the same as we treat innocents and the mentally incapable. Gentleness isn't a response often given to the strong, to the point where it tends to take them the most off-guard of them all.
He thinks too much. He almost preferred the almost-violence of what they were doing before, if only because it afforded less of a chance, not that he couldn't still rise to the occasion.
"I didn't-" mean it like that. Not specifically, anyway, even if he can't particularly argue he's entirely opposed to the idea. There's been quite an odd sort of reaction between them for a while now, one that at some point he just decided to stop attempting to figure out, because people have never really been his strong suit and the ones like her, the ones who have learned to shift and become what they feel like for however long or short a time they wish to, well they're all the more difficult to pin down. He doesn't enjoy the almost inevitable comparison to Anne that some of Juliett's traits draw, but he's not unaware of them. They're not all bad - he did, does, love Anne in the first place, albeit in a very different way than he does Juliett. Still, they're unfair comparisons to begin with.
He's not actually sure he likes having this decision. He wants to, right now he definitely wants to, but. It's worrying on some level. But what's the alternative? Hearing dead lovers haunt them in their thoughts? That tends to go poorly even for well-adjusted people, and if he was thinking too much before, he definitely is now, expression not worried precisely but far less certain than usual.
So in light of that expression it's probably not that surprising that he finally breaks eye contact, looks somewhere over her shoulder instead and gives more or less a non-answer. It's okay, it annoys him too. "Probably a good idea. Not any more than tonight, anyway."