[He yanks the bandage more tightly around his arm.]
I would have done it for anyone.
[And maybe it's silly that he's still stubbornly sticking with that lie, but he does really believe that it would make things harder if he admitted to the deception, as opposed to using it to try to manipulate this other-Royce into believing he's trustworthy. That's the biggest, most obvious reason. The other reason is that it's the principle of the thing - he hadn't really lost his memory, no, but he could have, and Royce doesn't actually have any proof that he didn't.
And then there's the third, deeper reason: he misses when Royce was like this. He doesn't miss him being distrusting of him specifically, of course, and ultimately he'd much rather have his Royce - but he misses the snap and spark he'd had, before the worst of the MN poisoning got to him. He'd rather bicker and challenge him than sit in stony silence.]
no subject
[He yanks the bandage more tightly around his arm.]
I would have done it for anyone.
[And maybe it's silly that he's still stubbornly sticking with that lie, but he does really believe that it would make things harder if he admitted to the deception, as opposed to using it to try to manipulate this other-Royce into believing he's trustworthy. That's the biggest, most obvious reason. The other reason is that it's the principle of the thing - he hadn't really lost his memory, no, but he could have, and Royce doesn't actually have any proof that he didn't.
And then there's the third, deeper reason: he misses when Royce was like this. He doesn't miss him being distrusting of him specifically, of course, and ultimately he'd much rather have his Royce - but he misses the snap and spark he'd had, before the worst of the MN poisoning got to him. He'd rather bicker and challenge him than sit in stony silence.]