You were right, Ghastly thought, very loudly, as he was assuming Hopeless was still within mindshot of them. It was a resigned, but appreciative sort of thought. With that handled he turned his mind back to Erskine, and pretended he didn't see Erskine brushing the wetness from his eyes.

He almost didn't let Erskine go. It was easier than he'd thought it would be, hugging him, and some part of Ghastly didn't want to lose that. But he did let Erskine draw back after a moment, though he left his hands on Erskine's shoulders and studied, really simply looked at Erskine, trying to erase that death-cloaked memory of his face in favor of something better.

What a sight they must make.

"He'll have to remind you of it for me, too," Ghastly said finally, opting for something lighter. At least for the moment. It would take far longer than they had for things to truly be all right. But he didn't hate Erskine, and both of them had that solidly, and everything else would follow, wouldn't it? "Erskine, I--"

But he found he didn't know what to say. What could he say, here? Hopeless had said starting would be the difficult part, but he'd neglected to mention that the rest of it would also probably be incredibly awkward.