Alecto scoffed. “I’m not a child, you know. It’s not like I can’t—“ she stopped. She’d been about to say that it wasn’t like she couldn’t take care of herself, but really, she didn’t actually think she could; if anything happened to Amycus, she would have to rely on Bella or Cissa, because she didn’t have anyone else, and she needed to be taken care of. Like a child. The revelation snapped something inside her, and it was like she’d finally woken up. Usually this sort of change happens in one’s late teens or early twenties, about the time they decide to become independent of their parents. Alecto never made that decision, nor was she really given the chance to, as about that time in her life, she had just been chased out of England with her brother, so it took her much longer than usual to get to where she now was. And she didn’t want to be weak, but she knew she was.
“It’s not like I can’t learn easily,” she inserted instead, much less defensive than she had just been a minute ago. “I’ll be fine, Bella,” she finished in a bit of a snooty tone. She didn’t mean to be a brat, she just wanted them to know that she thought their…concerns were unjustified (even if they really were justified and she just didn’t want to admit it).