[ He’d actually… forgotten about that argument entirely, in fact. And now he feels like an idiot as he lifts a hand to rub it over his face in agitation.

Five years had given him a lot of perspective on a lot of things. But mostly how large an idiot he’d been in his youth. Not that he couldn’t be still, but. He wasn’t typically trying to be these days. ]

We did, didn’t we? I’d completely forgotten. My apologies, Hilda, I was out of line back then. I never should have said what I did. You were right to be angry.

[ And he… he’d been jealous. Of a life and a family he’d never known. Never would. Hilda’s life was the mirror image of the one he should have had, but his side of the reflection had been shattered the day he was born. Maybe even before.

He casts her a sheepish look, true regret in his eyes as he stops and turns to meet her gaze. ]

I can’t say I didn’t mean it, because at the time, I very much did. I was angry. But I never should have taken that out on you, for things far beyond your control.

[ That’s what had been done to him all his life, after all. And he’d turned around and done the same to her. See? Idiot. ]