[Obviously the issue isn't sorted out, and isn't talked about as much as Lance would like, but he's had enough alcohol and is tired enough that he decides to allow the total shift into a lighter topic for now. Maybe tomorrow, or in the next few days, he'll gently nudge at the issue again.

For now he scrunches his nose at the comment, although it's hard to even bother pretending to be annoyed.]

I can't tell if that's an insult or a compliment, but I'm going to take it as the latter.

[But just slightly more seriously--]

And to be fair to me, it was only less time with Gaby because I wanted to see how far she'd go, and the easiest way to do that involved pushing back.

[As opposed to playing nice, which he'd tried in Hadriel and had only gotten him even more trouble.]