Tzirret shook his head slowly and wiped his fingers to the bridge of his nose until it no longer held grasp and fell into his lap. "No," he said after a moment. He had a hint of demand in his voice.

At this point, Tzirret caught himself in his blubbering and wiped his eyes on one arm. With his next breath, he raised his reddened eyes to Ma'tanza with a small measure of defiance. "Ma'tanza, Tzirret wanted to agree to go out fighting so that he would not be treated as an incapable child by his packmates, not by you." Tzirret was trying his best to keep his voice level, but he was nervous enough speaking with confrontation that his voice was still shaking, "[i]Ma'tanza[/i] treats this one with respect despite his anxiety." Tzirret's mouth hinged open and closed while he tried to find more words, "He just wanted the same from his pack." Tzirret sighed and raised his hands facing one another, "But...if Ma'tanza is still..." Tzirret closed his eyes and restrained the volume of his voice, "...worried..." He opened his eyes again and looked at Ma'tanza's face with a pleading expression, "...if Ma'tanza is worried enough to be this upset, then this one can ask to stay out of the battle. He is sorry that he was not more considerate." Tzirret waved one hand across himself and looked down again. "He won't try to do something stupid like this any more."

Sabine glanced to Peiter when he took her hand. She at first assumed that he wanted to move away from the argument, but he simply looked worried. Sabine reciprocated his grasp and looked back in the room. Sabine curled her lips and had to restrain herself from stepping in at this point. She wanted to take part of the blame for driving Tzirret to make some of his decisions, but he did not want to risk inflaming Ma'tanza by trying to rescue Tzirret. He still had to have his apology accepted first.