Well, I don't really need your permission to try and figure you out, Lumine. I would rather have it because I respect you but I can find things out on my own, too. I didn't get where I am by being stupid.

( There's a soft place in him where Lumine is concerned, though, and he wants her to know him even if she doesn't want it. It's his need to be liked, he thinks, and all the things they'd built up together to make them friendly rivals instead of enemies had been meaningful for him. )