[Well. Kratos does know what hope can do. And he really can't say that Devin hadn't made himself perfectly clear, if in a sideways fashion. Which means that Zelos was correct, a fact Kratos plans to never tell him.]

Understanding and interest aren't the same things.

[Absently he presses a hand to his chest, and is almost startled when he feels Anna's locket under palm. It's habit, but he'd already gotten used to not feeling the locket there -- since he'd given it to Lloyd. He exhales and pulls it free of his shirt to look at the picture inside, his face, for once, showing almost naked emotion: a wistfully raw kind of resignation.]

But I'm not capable of viewing anyone that way. Not anymore. The person I told you I had to kill -- the person I love -- was my wife. I'm not ready to put down that burden. Perhaps I never will be.

[How can he pretend, even for a moment, that he deserves to forget her for fleeting physical happiness?]