He opens his mouth to answer Gregor's first question, then shuts it again before his cigarette can go tumbling from his lips. It precariously dangles there, until he takes it in hand and lets Gregor keep asking away.

Good thing, too, because the second question is unintentionally funny. "You really have been gone a long time," he says, smiling. "Law's here now. Only, he's about the same age as me. Won't let me call him a boy anymore. I'll introduce you sometime. He's over at the lab working on... something. I can't keep up. Some kind of medicine he was trying to isolate from the mushrooms Pudding has been growing. Some experiment that couldn't wait or it'd all go bad, I guess. I'm sure he'll come by later."

It's still awfully bittersweet to think that Law is here, when he should have had so many more years of life. But as things are, they've finally found themselves together again, able to explore and have adventures side by side, and that's all either of them really wanted in the end, isn't it?