You know that's not what I'm talking about, Erwin.

[ it sounds like he wants to bite back, to tell Erwin in no uncertain terms that he's not fucking around, but it just doesn't quite hit. he's good at keeping emotion out of his voice, but there's a threshold for these things, and we're well past it at this point.

is this really the kind of conversation they can just have over tea? it may not matter—he seems to have forgotten all about it. ]

And I know you haven't already forgotten why I want you to stay, so can we maybe just skip past this bullshit?

[ he doesn't expect to get a real answer either way. ]