"Thank you. For the advice, and for everything. It's really weird to talk about any of this, but it feels a little better. Not perfect, but like I'm not so alone anymore. I've, well, I've felt like I was alone for a long time."

Thank God he's Russian and doesn't do physical displays of affection, or he almost feels like he would hug her. Which would just be weird for everyone involved - aaaand she probably just heard that. Instinctively, he bit down on his lip. The habit had been there long before his mutation had; it was just a thing in his family.