Five seconds is quite a long time to stare and have nothing to say. In anyone else, it might have caused comment - and, since it's Claude, the comment would almost certainly have involved teasing.

But, as it happens, Dimitri's mental illnesses function as a smokescreen for him today. He's been questionably responsive plenty of times; Claude doesn't read too much into this long pause, either. He simply grins at Dimitri at what he registers as the man's acknowledgment of his disguise's effectiveness.

"Careful? Of course." He winks. "Aren't I always?"