[ What he doesn't say, but what she might figure out for herself with enough time, is that he was sort of forced to make friends out of necessity — allies, maybe, at first, people who found themselves stuck in the exact same situation, and it had sort of been an unspoken agreement he'd reached with some of them, trying to do the most to make a bad set of circumstances more bearable. What he doesn't say, but what she might find out soon enough, is that these friends are people he's also shared those varying degrees of intimacy with, because attitudes about that sort of thing here are more casual than he was comfortable with at first.

What he doesn't say, but what will become very apparent after enough time, is that he and Poe only had to draw on a connection that already existed to make the choice to share something deeper — and that he'd done the same thing with her, a long time ago, but she doesn't even remember it now, so maybe there's no point in mentioning it. ]

Yeah, he's — he got into a fight with the guards, when he first showed up. Got himself punched in the face and knocked out all over again.

[ And he shakes his head in answer to her unspoken inquiry, when she mimes the existence of the marks that have been inked into them both. ] No. He's in the Up, sometimes, but we've got a space down here we've been working in together. An old garage. It, uh —

[ Damn it, he's going to just have to come out and say it; he doesn't want to keep this from her. ] It belonged to you, when you were here before.