Stephen felt the barb of that statement dig into his skin like an arrowhead. He might even have flinched a bit, but he hid it behind raising his hand to daub at the bead of blood on his nose. It was a motion that wasn’t bound to go very far, not when the other man was apparently not going to let him off the hook this time.

The route of approach, however, came as a bit of a blindside to him. It was enough to make him turn to the other in surprise, the smear of blood on his hand and undoubtedly with wide eyes. “I -” He swallowed his tongue, still not sure how to rebut that. “I don’t expect any of them to understand. Or to care. So I let them.”

_{“You deserve better than this.” Maybe that was selfish pride and a bit of vanity talking. Ky never had been or would ever be selfless. To let himself bleed for anyone – just so they could go another day ignorant of what was around them. No, he didn’t feel anyone, let alone humans needed protection when it was quite clear they wouldn’t either appreciate or even care for it.}

_{“Especially when you bleed for the protection of those,” his arms folded across his chest with a grunt, “Lessers.” It was a name Ky used for a majority of Humans and just about anyone he didn’t like. To him, it was a way to distinguish those who didn’t have much worth against those that did, and most of the time he kept his mouth shut on the matter.} 

_{However, this wasn’t one of those times. He was going to attempt to voice his true thoughts on the matter. Even though he knew it would come back to bite him in the long run. “You let them walk all over you and for what? Nothing more than letting them continue their arrogance.”}