[ of all of the questions he regularly anticipates this is not one of them. he swallows thickly, trying to keep his expression neutral, but it's difficult, and it briefly flickers to something pained, because this past week has been especially hard on them for that exact reason. ]

It pains me a whole lot. In some cases it's almost unbearable, but going forward I'm going to do my best to do right by both myself and King, because keeping ourselves and each other safe will help ease the pain...