[She's afraid of him. She's good at hiding it, but those first few seconds, when she's gripping so hard to her armchair, he sees it.
Well, he thinks, why wouldn't she be? He still doesn't know the details of what happened between Jack and Angel, but he knows enough from Armin's hints that it was bad and it was almost certainly all Jack's fault. And he knows, because he knows Jack, that whatever it was, it was something that Jack would have justified in his head as completely necessary at the time.
(The difference between him and Jack, he thinks--besides all the years and power and wealth and blood or the lack thereof on their hands--is that Jack still thinks he's the hero, in a dirty angel sort of way, and Steven knows that someone like them is only ever really the villain of the story.)
He puts his own book down on a nearby table.]
I do like to read.
[Unlike your father, he doesn't say--although it's true. Jack's many thing, but he doesn't have the attention span for long doses of the printed word. He doesn't mind being read to, at least.
It bothers him, this Handsome elephant in the room with them, and maybe that's why he says, in a quiet voice,]
I'm not going to hurt you. Though I understand I've given you no reason to believe that.
[Not given how he's fallen in with her father, he hasn't.]
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Well, he thinks, why wouldn't she be? He still doesn't know the details of what happened between Jack and Angel, but he knows enough from Armin's hints that it was bad and it was almost certainly all Jack's fault. And he knows, because he knows Jack, that whatever it was, it was something that Jack would have justified in his head as completely necessary at the time.
(The difference between him and Jack, he thinks--besides all the years and power and wealth and blood or the lack thereof on their hands--is that Jack still thinks he's the hero, in a dirty angel sort of way, and Steven knows that someone like them is only ever really the villain of the story.)
He puts his own book down on a nearby table.]
I do like to read.
[Unlike your father, he doesn't say--although it's true. Jack's many thing, but he doesn't have the attention span for long doses of the printed word. He doesn't mind being read to, at least.
It bothers him, this Handsome elephant in the room with them, and maybe that's why he says, in a quiet voice,]
I'm not going to hurt you. Though I understand I've given you no reason to believe that.
[Not given how he's fallen in with her father, he hasn't.]