That was a surprise. A real one, as there was no snappy comeback. Or really anything but a single, slow blink. Lord El-Melloi II hoped that Roman wouldn't take it as an insult, it wasn't one, it was just...not words that he ever expected to hear. That was all.

"Okay," he said. Okay to all of it. "I..I just wanted to put all of that out there first."

It wasn't quite a plausible deniability, but the genuineness of those words were immediately undercut by Lord El-Melloi II's reaction to comments on his bachelorhood. "You sound like Reines," he said with real contempt in the four simple words. "Also, it wouldn't fix anything. Then whoever that poor partner was would just get shit, and that's unfair too."