"You wouldn't know anything about that," he teases fondly, because Maeve certainly isn't the type to shut up and sit down, and Steve respects her for that. He respects her for all sorts of reasons, but he admires her strong spirit, and how she always sticks up for herself and other people who need it.

Steve knows that he was never outright terrible in the way that too many men can be, but he wasn't exactly great, either. No, he would never have forced himself on anyone or lifted a hand in anger, but he used girls. He disregarded their feelings selfishly, thinking only of himself, and there is no real way for him to ever atone to the women he hurt with his childish bullshit.

All he can do is be better, and he thinks that he's doing that. He's open to learning and growing and being in a place like Darrow, and at the side of a woman like Maeve, is helping him to do that. He wants to keep learning from her all the time, and he does in the smallest of ways, because without her context clues, he isn't sure that he could have told her what an allegory even is.

"I hope our kids get your brains," he says without thinking, and then immediately snaps his mouth shut as his eyes widen. He has no idea where that even came from, or why he said it out loud, and his cheek flush pink as he lifts his hand from her neck to scrub it over his face. "I mean, uh-- hypothetically. I-- don't know why I said that."