[Alas for Lorenz, Claude has always been far too observant for his own - or anyone else's - good. He sees Lorenz faltering, hears the waver in his voice, and...man, Lorenz really has been miserable, hasn't he? It had been obvious before, of course, but seeing how fragile and unconvincing his facade is, when Lorenz puts such importance on pride and appearances...that communicates it more thoroughly than anything else possibly could. Maybe even more so than any actual words Lorenz could use, if he cared to.

That settles it. Claude had kind of wanted to hug Lorenz anyway - he's missed him, perhaps more than he'd realized until he'd actually seen him again and the elephant in the room between them had been addressed - but he thinks Lorenz might actually need one. So, with a smile and a shake of his head, he steps forward and pulls the lanky idiot into an embrace.

...emphasis on the lanky, actually. Without that fancy armor in the way, and when Claude's actually got his arms around Lorenz, the slightly surprising ease with which he'd pulled in a guy taller than he is gets some context. He'd swear Lorenz didn't used to be this skinny...just how bad did the guy have it?]

C'mon, you can unbend enough to just admit you missed me. I mean, if you think you're actually fooling anyone right now, much less me, then I might have to be offended.