[The difference is hard to identify, but maybe he picks up on a little thread of it. Though their situations aren't the same, there are some shared aspects, at least; not having the luxury of choice, being new to the idea of picking and choosing how to present oneself. Having a self to present at all.
He looks at her for a quiet moment, though it's in the same way that he looks at everything - closer to through rather than at directly. Eventually, he'll thumb through a few pieces of both soft and sturdy leathers and fan them out so each can be seen. There's a brown close to rust, and another that's a tawnier shade, like a spring deer. There's a black that looks a step or two away from grey, and one that's so dark that it seems to have a nearly blue cast in the light when it moves.]
Which between these do you like the look of better, then?
[She may have said she has no preference, for one reason or another - but there's something important, he thinks, in having even the smallest bit of agency and choice in even the most seemingly trivial of matters.]
no subject
He looks at her for a quiet moment, though it's in the same way that he looks at everything - closer to through rather than at directly. Eventually, he'll thumb through a few pieces of both soft and sturdy leathers and fan them out so each can be seen. There's a brown close to rust, and another that's a tawnier shade, like a spring deer. There's a black that looks a step or two away from grey, and one that's so dark that it seems to have a nearly blue cast in the light when it moves.]
Which between these do you like the look of better, then?
[She may have said she has no preference, for one reason or another - but there's something important, he thinks, in having even the smallest bit of agency and choice in even the most seemingly trivial of matters.]