Xavier did not let the silence breathe for long.
"So?" he pressed again, leaning over the table with the kind of grin that made it obvious he had no intention of letting Trafalgar escape. "You can't stop in the middle of that and pretend the rest doesn't exist."
Trafalgar rested his hand against the warm side of his teacup and weighed the answer for a brief instant.
There was one thing he knew for certain.
He cared.
Maybe not in the way Xavier wanted to twist it. Maybe not yet. But pretending otherwise would have been stupid.
"I care about her," Trafalgar said.
That was enough for Xavier. His whole face lit up immediately.
"There, you hear that?" he said, turning toward Bartholomew as if some great prophecy had just been confirmed. "Barth, congratulations. You're getting a brother-in-law, and not just anyone. Trafalgar."
Trafalgar gave him a flat stare and continued before that could spiral further.
