"Well now we're here to remind each of that fact." And maybe now, they both could stop feeling so damned lonely.

Matt hadn't upset him so much as this was just twenty years of repressed emotion bubbling to the surface because even the most socially adjusted Spartan could be overwhelmed by his emotions and poor coping skills.

Kurt had to close his eyes and breathe in deeply because what Matt was promising was the thing he'd been striving to do for the better part of two decades. Every Spartan-III who'd died, he took it to be a personal failing. "Thank you." He managed to say around the lump in his throat. "That's all I want."