"Well, then, that makes two of us." It occurred to him, as they stood there that way, that this may be the first time he's seen Illyana as he is, not as she pretends to be. He understood the masks she wore, to protect herself from her friends, from her duties, from the things she'd had to do and the things she'd had done to her.

"And...I don't think...whatever I am does either." His voice was smaller, quiet. "Lord knows my mum didn't."