Potemkin recognizes the avoidance, which one part of him is pulled to respect, but the rest doesn't sit still with that. He has seen Ky when at his most vulnerable (due to the nightmares of Between), and knows that he's not as limitless as he pretends to be. And Potemkin does have his pride, so he doesn't want Ky to expect that he can get him to do whatever he says just like that. He's a tested military agent and a grown man, not a puppy dog.

Potemkin's method of fighting that impression is by following it exactly. He would not call it pouting, but his lips hitch slightly.

"I can handle more than this," he resists weakly. He'll need to call on a lot more stubbornness than that to match Ky. Where did all of it go?