He cursed inwardly when he saw her expression. She wasn't the one he wanted to lash out at right now. She didn't deserve it, but somehow his words had come anyway. Her words had an irritating way of stinging as well, though he kept that particular pain well hidden behind his ever-present smile.

So blunt. So like Ran. What could he say to that? The obvious 'yes,' just didn't seem to fit.

"What d'ya want me to say?" He was pretty sure 'sorry' would be a good start, but he didn't allow his mind to travel down that path. She just... wouldn't understand anyway. It'd been easy before, when there was no time to worry about explanations or reasons, just a simple goodbye.

Did she want answers? He was fresh out of those at the moment. And if she wanted to take a piece out of his hide, well, Abarai had already beaten her to the punch. Quite literally. His thin fingers brushed the new bandages around his neck.