The threat of friendship ending is enough for his mouth to fall open, seemingly wounded for the first time since the conversation began. Call him anything else and it rolls off easily, but break a newly formed friendship? Why?

"I didn't say liar," he mumbles, just that it was hard to believe. It's as close as he's likely to get to an apology without dragging his feet even further.

"And anyway, I thought we were bonding!"

Getting into shouting matches and arguments just meant they were close enough to speak their minds! He'd gotten into them all the time with Jiang Cheng, and Lan Zhan, though he'd never shout in return unless he really gave it his all in pestering him. And even worse, Shepard hadn't even asked what either of the things he'd mentioned were. Just how much did she know?

"I didn't mean- it's not- I mean... Okay, start over then because I wanna know how it works and you went way too fast. First. What's an engine? Do you have a book about this? What stars did you visit? What are they like, up close?"