[He feels that shift as much as he sees it, narrowing his eyes just slightly at being called out; while he genuinely appreciates that Ian cares, this means Lance has to quickly decide if he's going to lie, deflect, or allow some level of the truth through.

The first two options might work, but Lance is also aware Ian will probably see through them, which is the good and bad thing about letting people actually get to know you. Ugh. So, after a clear moment of debate, he offers a small shrug.]

I mean, the optimism is real. I'm just also ignoring like, literally everything else.

[So it's not fake optimism for the purpose of being reassuring, it's just fake that he's not also very stressed out alongside it.]

Your turn: how much do you need the reassurance, compared to how much you're pretending you don't by deflecting?