Whatever Aideen was intending when she said what she did, however hard it was to say and however shakily she managed to get it out - it was enough to pull Lucas out of his thoughts and back into the situation proper. No more fixating on worst-case scenarios, no more remembering those feelings he'd never managed to voice before they were torn away. He was here now, stuck under the earth with one from the other side - and they were offering help.<br/><br/>"If you're... Are you serious, Aid?" The old nickname had been lost to this conflict, Lucas vaguely remembered that she had hated it even beforehand, but now it was an old familiarity and one he couldn't help using - just once, at least. "I can't tell you that you shouldn't, because at this point we're going to be wiped out unless we find something new." This prospect was incredibly important, not just to Lucas personally but for the people left to fight for. And there were always less and less of those people every day. He meant to tell her not to offer help unless she was certain. He meant even to tell her that he wouldn't blame her for not helping him. He managed that second part, "I understand if you change your mind," but it was a lie. The truth was that he<span style="font-style: italic">wanted</span>to understand her situation,<span style="font-style: italic">wanted</span>to sympathize, but he just couldn't. He'd lost too much to ever see it from her perspective, even though he knew that he should and really did wish to for the sake of being fair to her. Lucas told himself that this lie was okay because it would make her feel better, and because he wanted it to be true.<br/><br/>"If you really want to help, I'll need to convince the others to trust you. That'll be hard, but... I trust you, with this I mean. If you wanted to trick me, you've had years to try it before now." Lucas offered a reassuring smile, not that he was sure she could see it, just because it seemed appropriate to the situation. Anyway he was being honest about that, Aideen had always been pretty direct and clear about her intentions. Of course this still could have been a trick, but he really didn't believe it was. Convincing the others of that... Well that would be a LOT harder, and more complicated. The last person he'd tried just to keep from killing her had then tried to shoot him too!<br/><br/>"Anyway, and I swear I would say this if you weren't offering help, not all demons are creeps. I mean I never felt like you were one." Lucas' tone was, slowly, growing more like it used to be before all of this. When they were friends, Aideen the straight-lace student and he the slacker who was always trying to get her to loosen up. They had still been friends because he was never *pushing* her out of her comfort zone, just suggesting she let things get a little easier for herself, and a little more fun. "Hell I wished you were just a little more of a creep, time to time. Could've been good for you to come out of your shell." He laughed. It was small, but genuine.