"Robbie. You're absolutely allowed to freak. I kinda dropped a lot on you in one go. I could have gone about things in a better way." And he's had plenty of time to think about things since then. About how he should have handled things differently.

Still, he smiles when Robbie admits to talking to Rich. "I can't say I'm surprised. If things had been the other way around...well, I'd probably have done the same thing." Sure, they both had other friends in the Legion, but nobody was the same sort of level as Rich for either one of them. "I'm not upset about it." He pauses. "I'm not upset about you asking him. I'm pretty upset that he screwed things up the way he did, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't him, either." Another reason to be glad that entire dimension is dust.

Vance settles back. "I won't say I wasn't hurt by the texting. I'm pretty sure you could read me well enough to know that would be a lie. But the whole thing was difficult and...honestly, I kinda hated it. The avoiding thing more than anything else."