Pike could understand the strained smile. The grin he gave her was larger and more genuine than other people here received, except maybe Dawn or Buffy. They were the only two that could get more than a lip twitch of greeting from him, and somewhere along the way Claire had been added to that list. He didn't really think much of it, mostly because he was kind of oblivious to it. That was the problem with walling yourself off like some kind of emotional Fort Knox. Sometimes things snuck up on you. Not that he minded. It was kind of nice, which was a hell of a lot more than he deserved.
Claire was his friend. He hadn't really said the word yet, or admitted it to himself, but he wasn't entirely stupid. He'd killed a guy for getting handsy with her, that wasn't something you did for just some stranger. So when she'd talked about those games, he'd have very likely shown up even if she hadn't hinted that she wanted company. It wouldn't surprise him if playing these games turned out to be more difficult for her than playing herself. This was her brother, and judging from the way she referred to the other guy, at least a friend, and from the sounds of it, she was at least partially unaware of what happens in these two.
Badness was almost inevitable, and he wasn't going to let a friend go through that alone. To be honest, part of him wanted to grab the games and break them both, but two things stopped him. One, that it was her brother, she deserved to know. Two, that she could easily go buy new copies and then he'd just look like a melodramatic asshole. So as much as he kind of wanted to keep her from whatever it was she was about to learn, he couldn't. So he'd just be there instead.
There was also a little part of him that knew, if it got too bad, he could just take the controller away. But that was a last resort. "No problem," he replied, moving inside as he did. He glanced around until he found the spot she was playing at, and when she told him to make himself comfortable, he gave her a nod and then sat down on the floor, far enough away that he wasn't crowding her, but close enough that if he had to, he could still pluck the controller from her hands. "Thanks," he added, once he'd chosen a spot.