Doesn't sound like a bad thing to have around. You know -- if you need a boost now and then.

[Hey, he wouldn't mind having something like it. Remember the good shit when all you could think of was the bad. Remember all the guys back home... those assholes.]

[But he can see why that... would also be a bad thing. If you got hung up on them, relied on them too much... Yeah. Still. It'd be nice. And he wants to say she still might get lucky. This guy might still turn up, and give her what she wants.]

[... it wouldn't help though. It wouldn't actually make this Keiji come back. And it would undermine what she's already gone through. Already worked through. So he doesn't. He just pats her arm with scarred fingers again.]

Damn.

Even when he's not here... bastard makes a good point.

[He does his best to keep the words steady and light, but there's a catch around the edges that threatens to undo them.]