[Well. Yeah, okay, it's not an excuse but there's nothing really in his face that says he can judge her. He's listening and when she pauses his hand moves to tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear. It's probably more openly affectionate than expected, but sometimes people do well with gestures instead of words.

Mostly because what do you even say to that? "I'm sorry" doesn't sound...like...real.]

...a symbolic death is sometimes more real than an actual death anyway. [Just to start that.] Learning that a person you loved and cared about isn't the person that you thought they were is probably one of the worst things to deal with because...you know. You still want to love and care about them, but you can't really be sure if you're loving the real thing or not.

Maybe a lie like that doesn't really hurt anybody because what's the difference if that person's gone anyway?