"I'm not sure that saying nothing is really going to make things any better. Obviously you would need to word what you do say, if anything, very carefully. If he's afraid of you and what you might do... then trying to explain things could help him see that this affects you just as much as it affects him." It might be hoping for too much, but Vlad thought that maybe he could reach Brian if he went about it the right way. If he was a good man, then the sympathy card might work.
He wasn't entirely pleased with himself, but at least Max wasn't going to go out and kill anyone else. Luckily this was New York, and all-night pancake places weren't as impossible to find as some might have thought. "I do. I passed one of those twenty-four hour diner places on my way here. The pancakes are on me." He turned towards the alley's entrance, deciding that leaving the boy here was probably the best course of action.