"Ow," he covered the area she pinched and scoffed. He knew she was just trying to make a point that she was still his mother and so he had nothing more to say about her overly celebrative costuming. Folding his hands behind his back, he smirked, his cheek blotched with red from the pinch.
"I didn't expect you to actually show up," he admitted. In all seriousness he had truly not believed her to take the offer and he knew that the inevitable stowaway in his hidden rooms or sitting in the back of the pub would make a fuss about it. If he didn't have one of the better hideouts very few would trust him enough to stay. They all knew he was connected to the Duke of Spades and all assumed he wanted his place back beside his mother- which was only half true. Darian loved his mother, truly, but his heart told him that he did the right thing by traveling the path he did.