Her tone and expression threw him for a moment and he wondered if he had gone too far, if maybe his dreams and instincts had been wrong and they weren't really as close as he thought they were. He had been ready to drop that pout and step forward to apologize before--

No.

The woman in his dream was strong, both physically and emotionally, yet he had been the one who saw past that mask of unwavering strength. If she really was hurt, she wouldn't show it.

And so the worried look morphed into a smirk as he leaned forward to twirl a strand of hair around his finger.

"It'd hardly be fair if I was the only one doing the work~!"