[He keeps his silence as Gaston thinks, looking at the long, bony fingers holding the rifle, to his own small, fleshy hands.

He's...actually surprised at the self-awareness, and he looks up at Gaston's face in shock. But then... He smiles. And it's not the cornered animal smile that he forced so often in those last few weeks, but the genuine, boyish smile of the chubby little kid Gaston scooped out of the mud all those years ago. The smile of the boy who first fell in love with him.]

I... I did. I'm...actually a little glad that I was brought into this nightmare. Even more glad that it's over, of course, but... The people I met, the...family, that I made. I'll never forget everything I learned from them.

...Just like I'll never forget you, Gaston.