[ Ah. There's a flicker of self-conscious surprise in his face - this, for once, completely unfeigned, completely unplanned and uncalculated. Rather than his usual process (feign an "unanticipated" emotion, then grimace in embarrassment and look away, then theatrically slide his previous ironic expression back into place, piece by piece, like it's being built from the ground up), the surprise gets frozen, his face going expressionless for a full heartbeat before instantly transforming back to its previous irony. It's a subtle difference, easy to miss. That's the full extent of the difference between being actually being caught off-guard and pretending to be caught off-guard. ]
no subject
Well, dear girl. Someone has to, right?