"Then you'll have to try harder, won't you?" César's apparently already adjusted to sexy banter again.

But the hand being taken stops his brain for a moment, and he has to marvel at the soft gesture before he catches himself. "A-Ah. Right. Yes, it wasn't. And Rex always rose to anger at a moment's notice, his initial thoughts always going to the worst possibility." César closes his eyes and drops his head back down fully onto the pillow. "But he's sixteen, and I was working for someone evil. So he had to expect the worst. But in the end... Rex finally saw me. It was like he was really looking at me for the first time."