"...I don't need anyone to listen. It's fine," he says quietly, softly. "Lightning--she already knows about me. It doesn't really matter, anyway. I'm fine with it."

He speaks lighter at the end, aiming for reassuring. It's awkward, he knows, and he doesn't know how to make any of this better. Wishes that he could, but--he didn't want to change his mind. Who would he be if he did? And that was the thing, for the longest time: Not knowing who he was.

A coward, maybe.