"... Not anymore. No." Once upon a time he used to. He could remember days when Inigo would come crying to him about one thing or another. Anything from a scraped knee to finding a baby bird fallen from a nest... or a bad dream. As they had gotten older, Inigo has stopped crying and used a smile to hide his hurts. But Gerome had used a mask for the same thing, so could he really judge?

... Yes. Yes he could. Did it make him a hypocrite? Of course. But people like Inigo would wither away keeping all their hurts inside.

"He was more open as a child. Growing up changed that." Gerome said, giving voice to his thoughts after he realised sitting in silence was probably not the best idea to further a conversation. And he did want to converse with this male. Maybe he could find out what was bothering him so much... Was it this Yuki thing? Was that the sadness and pain he had seen behind Inigo's eyes earlier?