[He asks too much. Sometimes he thinks all he does is ask too much. Oscar still talks around the answer, like what lies at its heart is too much to name - or maybe he's afraid that to speak it is to invite it. Paul remembers, a long time ago now, Oscar explaining the resonance of emotion with their own Grimm Beasts.

He pays attention. He doesn't look away from Oscar's wounds, or the unspoken implication behind the whole unfolding story. It's there between the lines, if he keeps his ear sharp, and lets himself take it in as it is.]

I'm not going to hurt anyone else.

[He weaves apology and comfort into one strand through the words, sinking back slightly into his heels as he swallows. The flames around him might seem dimmer, or that might be a trick of their fey, deceptive light.]

Even if I could fight Teacher [he could, he knows he could, like this, he knows he knows he knows -] it wouldn't change anything. Other people would get hurt. Gideon would be one of them - Kaworu, Midoriya, you - Falco and Johnny - Lazarus - Anna - the whole city could be ash by the time we were done, and he'd wash up on the shore, and it would be for nothing.

I know that wouldn't bring her home. This isn't that kind of fight.

Sometimes I think it never was.