The formality of his name dripping like ice from her lips stabbed him as if it was an icicle. Cold and deadly. He knew that tone, remembered it all too well. In their school days it had rarely been turned on him, there had been moments, but more often than not Percy had remained unscathed. Apparently that was not the case this time.

As she stubbornly pushed another button, Percy was left wondering just what injustice she felt toward him. She was the one who had fallen in love with another, the one who had left him kneeling before her ring in hand, she was the one who had turned him down. That past was likely buried beneath happy memories of her children and her life as it was now. Percy, however, had spent too much time trying to shake the dust from his shoulders, the memories from his mind. He had kept quiet because he had felt that was what she had wanted and now she was standing there fuming as if he were Hector Flich having tried to steal her cat in the third year. He had done absolutely nothing but try to respect what he felt was her desire.

The ghost of a smile slid through his mind as she glared at him, stepping back. It was the absolute worst time for a reaction such as that and luckily he knew how to school his features, to keep them carefully blank as he so often did. It was just… the insolence of the action reminded him so much of their school days. The people they had been back then. Then she had been a vibrant smiling girl, so full of life, of spirit. Then he’d been full of hope, a dreamer. Reality had brought the world down upon his shoulders that fateful afternoon, he’d changed from that. He’d become withdraw, solitary, quiet. He knew he would never amount to much, never be a catch for a young lady. He hadn’t been then and now he’d even added crippled to the table. His hand shifted his cane self consciously reminding him of the old wound. There was absolutely nothing he could bring to anyone these days, while Maggie - he was sure - had received everything she could possibly want from life.

But it was the Maggie he remembered in those words, the desire to have the last word, to win, to be right and in that moment he could feel the tension relax. This was Maggie. His Maggie. He could never deny her anything, not even when it had torn him apart to the very depths of his soul. “Only out of respect for you.” He explained, calmer now, the memories like a balm to his pain. It was not friendly, but rather quiet, pacifying, resigned.