Gyre goes very quiet when Luka describes this experience, trying to reconcile it against the world he's grown up in. Why would people lie about a thing like that? Is it bad for Luka to have a child? Why would the princess then have to explain that that was a wrong assumption to make? Who is so curious about another person's life that they'd pry in that deep?

He purses his lips against his skin as he winds through these questions and more, only looking up when their fingers are laced so neatly together. He absentmindedly rubs a thumb along his hand, sighing softly.

"Sometimes. But that's okay. How can I know myself if I'm never alone, you know?" he murmurs, trying to explain a thing that feels perfectly normal to him. Besides. "Besides, I've felt just as lonely in an overfull barracks, but with no privacy to try to understand it. It's worse, to feel that way and be surrounded by people."