So the downside of the whole texting thing - for Sparkle, at least - was that Atton couldn't tell how he was feeling about this whole thing from a huge distance. Okay, the kid was clearly dancing around the whole situation, but other than that?

'Not what I'm asking', he typed.

Then he erased it.

Then he typed it again.

Then he erased it again.

Weren't you the one giving me the whole spiel about repressing a few months back?

Moderately better.