The sudden paling of her companion caused Ilia to abandon her art project completely for the time being. Claude looked almost like he was in pain from what she had said.

"Yeah..." Ilia's tone became guarded and she set down her sandwich. "Is that a problem?"

She had hoped to avoid this kind of situation with Claude, but it looked like there was no helping it. Ilia was growing frustrated again. Why did everyone seem to blanch when she was actually making good progress here? Was it really all that bad?

"Claude, what is really bothering you about this?"