Was he all right? After all, hadn’t he drawn first blood in deciding to use that weakness? He’d wanted the chance to put the teen in his place. Make him walk in his shoes. And hadn’t that backfired so easily with the mutter of two words?
Yet… that concern gave him his own victory, in a way. It meant that his reaction, however violent and savage, had gotten through to the gentleman detective somehow. It still stood, however, that such a topic shouldn’t have been touched upon in that manner—but who was he to judge?
The Osakan had almost wanted to spit down at the foreign detective, like he had in their prior meeting. But that would be an invitation to continue tempering the white heat encompassing his whole body that was only barely beginning to simmer—or was that his own consciousness? Either way, he’d chosen silence for quite some time, quite unlike him. Eventually, though, his innate restlessness urged him to withdraw that choice otherwise.
“… … … Yeah.” Voice quiet in clear denial. “All’s right.” Wrong, in a way. “Jus’… leave me.” All he needed.
Hakuba hesitated, but stood his ground. He couldn’t back down and leave, it didn’t sit right with him, but he also didn’t think that any attempts to comfort would be welcome. So still he stayed, mouth pulled into a faint frown.
Never before had he seen Hattori quite like this. Upset, yes. Insecure, certainly. But whatever this was didn’t suit him. Didn’t seem right.Indeed, something had gotten through.
“I… know this probably doesn’t mean much, but I’m sorry. I only meant to illustrate a point, but I… went too far. My apologies, Hattori-san.”