Steel looked at Lee, his body relaxing after a second. "Thank you...for being my friend. Or whatever you are." It felt weird to say the word friend at all, but he had to thank Lee for something. There were a lot of things he could say. A thank you for more food. For information about himself and his past. But somehow saying friend sounded like exactly the right thing to say. He watched the other man walk away, not looking away until long after he was out of sight.

After that, he curled up on the floor with his head resting between his knees and his hands laced behind his neck. It only took a minute of being alone for his doubts to come back. Doubts that Lee was really a friend and that the lake was a real place. Wasn't it too good to be true? Maybe it was just this place that made him distrusting, but all of his training told him to distrust when his heart wanted to trust without question. The only solution Steel could think of was dream again and try to unravel the mystery of the lake, so he closed his eyes and let himself sleep.