[He can feel that smugness, and in this she blatantly reminds him of Jadzia - always two steps ahead in the teasing, always smiling smugly when he stumbled into something, always someone he pursued anyway. He's not even pursuing Cathaway and she's doing this to him. It's entirely unfair.]

Excused,

[he mutters, not quite sullenly, but it's still muttered.]

You know, you don't have to feel something all the time to know that it's there. There's still an awareness. Like if I knew that someone was waiting for me to come home, I wouldn't have to feel that waiting. It's a natural awareness all species I've known posses, though some of us are capable of covering it up with denial and guilt-induced misdirection.