[Nikolas hardly knows what he's supposed to be hoping to hear in this moment. This all happened very suddenly! It doesn't seem possible that Winter will simply return the sentiment and fall into his arms; the adult Nikolas knows better. But the teenage boy in Nikolas is still disappointed by a reaction that sounds like a rejection . . . is it? Is it or isn't it? Holy Mother's tits, why at this age does he still need to worry about such a thing? Why does it send his heart into wild palpitations?!

He stares back, wide-eyed expression frozen simply because he doesn't know what to do with it.]

Are you! Are you now. Well. Well. I don't know that I can approve of that sentiment, Winter, it seems . . . it seems so terribly ill-advised, finding honor in a thing like that. In one such as myself! You know how I am.