[Chris grips his fingers tight for a moment to end their fiddling, then folds his arms in front of him, not tight but just...to stop from any other tells that might come up.

Though, there's a flicker of a smile as Chris' eyes flicker over to the edge of the roof, then back to Jacob.]

I think we've established I've a poor track record for keeping from you...or keeping you from me. I don't...really want to.

[He pulls from the static a politician's careful neutrality, something practiced and solid to contain the mess. He wasn't good at this. He hadn't had Kallian long enough to fight with him and the times he'd fought with Ra'ah...they never resolved it, just moved on, just pretended the original problem was nothing they needed to worry about at the time. Ra'ah let him run and be right even when he wasn't and Chris never tried to be better.]

I wasn't as kind as I could have been-I just...I told you once I'm no catch to be had. This is part of it. I'm sharp and sometimes mean I- [His throat closes around words he knows the shape of, but they're too heavy to cough up, so he switches to easier ones.]

I'm meant to be better at this. Communicating, easing conflict, finding the better path...but I'm really not. I get lucky, but I'm better with fists than words and those fists rarely ever serve.

Especially not when I care too much. [He smiles, but there's no humor to it and he looks away again.] I've never actually had to intervene between two people who matter so much to me. I certainly could have managed better.

[He'd given Jon space, but what if that hadn't been what he needed? Had he felt abandoned? He'd chased after Jacob while his own anger was still hot when he probably should have given him space instead.]

That's a long way to go for me to get to 'I'm sorry.'