Some very dark portion of him spikes painfully with envy - someone speaking so fondly of a relationship like that. But it's smothered. Now is not the time. And someone simply sharing their thoughts doesn't deserve the weight of old cares.

"The world frequently doesn't care about what we do and don't deserve, from what I've seen. It makes its own decisions."

Like throwing collectors of strays your way when you never expected, never thought you wanted, them.

"We'd best hurry to escape this maze then."