"It's, um, just a habit I've picked up." Steve can take comfort in the implication that it's not dealing with him that's necessitated this mimicry. "I just worry sometimes that my friends are a little too eager to run into danger..."

"I am very grateful," the store owner says carefully. "This is not the first time they have come to people on this street. But you should not try to fight them again. I do not think they will be so... so unguarded the next time they see you. It should not be your responsibility to face our problems. Or your burden to suffer for them."

That at least stops Bryn frowning at Steve: she turns that look on the other man, objecting, "Problems like this are everybody's responsibility. If they can do something about it, I mean. But I still think there ought to be a better way."