[ They're similar. Fingers closed protectively around hearts soft enough to be hurt, tight-lipped, and for their own deeply-personal reasons, are learning the value of trying to say the things that are important in the borrowed time left to them. He-

-exhales, a little relieved. ]

Good. It can't be easy, being the only one. Having that uncertainty... not knowing if you'll have what you need to get by.

[ Since he was young, he's had this habit of saying things others considered weird or strange or beyond his years. It's made him more reserved as a result, but these are weird circumstances. ]

Sorry. Where I'm from, there are worlds full of people who-- they're not exactly like you, but similar enough.

[ He looks back out over the lake, a gauzy mirror dotted with softly glowing lights. ]

We all have to be at our best. It's why...
I want you to count me in. Not lightly. But you didn't ask lightly, either. Did you?