Oh God, why now?. Declan perked visibly on the other side of the chair, clearly listening and hearing, but he hunched almost as quick, lowering his face into one hand. The other, hidden behind the chair, was all but crushing himself with a fist, struggling to put that problem down quickly.

He absolutely could not be thinking with his dick in any way at the moment. He needed to make his decisions objectively. Or at least goddamn try.

"I...I remember." He did. Clearly. The rejection had, so far as he'd seen it, cleared things up and make it obvious they weren't even kind of on the same page. And his recent very crystalline rejection by Aoba clinched the rest.

Or so he thought.

The Titan bit his bottom lip so hard his eyes watered, face still careful not to turn and look the other way. Nevermind what he wanted.

"What...what changed your mind? I thought...Just earlier we were talking about things and..." Now he had to look, thought his eyes stayed up on the other man's face as he turned in the seat. His own eyes were full of confusion and a little hurt. This was really too much sometimes, no matter how patient and understanding he was.

"We just sorted out that my interests were unacceptable. Aoba..." No, they're both Aoba. Be considerate. "...You...don't want a man interested in you. It isn't proper where you're from. I'm willing to accept that, but coming to me now is just cruel," Declan stated, trying to sound stern but really only sounding defeated, even to himself. Between his own aches emotionally and now physically, and the see-saw mentality of his friend, he just didn't know what to think anymore.

Mixed signals was a gross understatement.

"...You said you want the same things...I don't know what to believe anymore."