It isn’t that Hob doesn’t want to hold them, so much as he’s not sure what’s going to make things worse right now, or if they still want him too. It’s hard enough believing he deserves to be close to Rue when he hasn’t managed to make them cry somehow.

And then they do explain, and he finds it barely helps. It does give much needed context but at the same time it’s overwhelming and confusing in its own way. And it’s upsetting on several different levels.

“That’s… a lot to take in,” he admits, still unsure where to start only for a different set of reasons. His ears flatten back even more.

Especially when he doesn’t want to believe it was the truth. But he also doesn’t want to doubt Rue.

“I cannot imagine what would have lead me to break my word,” he finally says, doing his best to stay collected because honestly it probably wouldn’t help if they were both crying, right?

“Nor can I expect you to accept an apology for something I can’t begin to explain,” as much as he wants to apologise anyway.

“But if I truly did as you say, I can assure you that you’ve done nothing wrong.”

All of this feels deeply unfair, but that’s not Rue’s fault.