[Actually the fox incident has started to come back. He's just going to keep denying that one, it's easier.]

I've always known we were friends. [That much is true, it's just that he wanted to push away from everyone who said they knew him, in the beginning. He didn't want them to tell him how much he'd changed (and wonder what changes a person like that, what deadens hope and turns the blue of his eyes darker shades). He'd known they were friends from the way she looked at him and, more, from the way she kept trying - still there even when he was keeping away.] Bonding with someone over watching grown men spit blood on the ice's something you never lose.