[ There's a brief, startled look at the physical contact. Not quite a flinch, but clear enough from the very slight way By braces that he's more accustomed to slaps than comradely grips. No surprise, of course, with a personality like that.

(Or maybe it's a little sadder. Runaway kids get kicked. Kids run away because they got kicked. And he doesn't flinch like that when he's got his armor fully on.)

It's a quick recovery. A smile, full of wry bravado. ]

I do know some men who get that feeling during swordplay, or out on the training ground. Do you ever feel it there? That sense of rightness?