It's difficult to balance doing what he hopes is all that he can to look after her and keeping a distance deep and wide enough between them that she won't start to get genuinely curious about the stranger beneath the mask - and apparently he's doing pretty poorly at it. Like so many other things in his life, never trying simply hadn't been an option, but the harder he does try, the worse he seems to get.

When she sits up and flaps his gloves at him, he recoils again, just a fraction, as if he isn't the only armed and armored member of their makeshift party. This time, she really does look ready to hit him, and he probably deserves that (definitely does, for lying to her both now and back then). He should just sit silently and take the lashing, however it comes- Let her start to dislike him again, hate him if she has to, and then everything will be back to status quo by the time they're home in the village, again.

Only - she doesn't do anything like that. She just... Deflates, and implores him. And that's somehow so much worse, in the long run, because he knows he still can't just tell her the truth, in turn. "It's not... That."

You. Though the way he refuses pointedly to look her direction (even as she grabs at his hand, again, catching just the one finger and rendering it unusually difficult to pull away). "Just keep them."