"I see," he said eventually, the two words quiet and drawn out. Li had experienced few relationships of this inclination over the span of his life, all of them unconventional and arguably not even correctly classified as relationships. This was foreign territory. While he heard his fair share of drunken rants describing clingy wives and demanding women at the bars he occasionally frequented, it wasn't something he could relate to. This was true for a great number of things, including Carolina's admittance.
Still, he could sense the attachment behind it, especially after the sequence of events that played out yesterday. Li had never agreed with her argument, but he hadn't countered either and acquiesced nonetheless, allowing her to follow him back into combat. If she wanted to go against herself and risk danger, then so be it. Even now, he hadn't changed his mind. Their reputation had no bearing on his priorities (she had no knowledge of the Guard anyway).
Emotion, though, that was a liability. "Rather than your affiliation to me, should I be concerned of your attachment?"