Maybe...but it shouldn't. Right? The quiet of their steps, of the click of the cane, is enough time for his own guilt and self recrimination to stir. Shouldn't he be able to handle this alone? Don't most people? If everyone needed pain to sort their heads, it wouldn't be something he needed to skirt around in the darkness, so why was his head broken? What had he done wrong?

The thought goes quiet in favor of listening and he keeps his peace as Grayson explains, especially when part of it pulls at what he was thinking already. A need few understand...and yet this man did, incongruous to the fact that Chris could trace back the start of this long line of near-breaking to when he arrived, Grayson understood more than nearly anyone else he'd talked to about it.

And the near-reflection of his thoughts continue and Chris' hands curl a little tighter in his jacket pockets. He's not sure quite yet how to respond to that. Any of that, but he knows where he can start.

"What you are...was always only secondary to me. I have friends and lovers here I'd not be allowed to have back home, that is a boon of this place I don't take for granted, who you are...is something I had a week to watch change...and you're still adapting as any good predator and person would. I admire that. You'd not be the first vampire to cause me fear and pain that I've given another try to knowing. I still hold to the thought having enemies here is unwise when avoidable. Besides...enemies is not quite how I'd label you besides."

He certainly wasn't in the habit of taking walks in the dark with enemies.